So, after almost half a year of silence and biding my time I've been able to recuperate my losses, mainly by not having any fun whatsoever and saving up all my money to get back the broken equipment. The only thing I wasn't able to finance was a new tripod, so the old, rusty Slik 780DX Pro will have to do at least for the rest of this year. Still haven't been able to find the time to work beside my studies but at least I finally got my B.A. (1,2) in Media Studies and Anglistics and now I'm working in the 3rd M.A. semester. Hopefully I'll have some time aside the production of the new Words of Farewell album and 2 other trips as well as my bodybuilding and studies to work a little to finance maybe a trip to the US or something next year.

Either way, Tuesday I'll be gone for two weeks with ~emats visiting some spots in the northern regions of Spain and most likely Portugal again. Seeing how the weather treats us we may as well head a little further south hoping the rain won't follow us for the prospects don't look as good as they did last year when we went south to the Iberian Peninsula. I hope to get a couple of interesting shots though, mostly coastal of course. Gladly *JanPusdrowski was so nice to lend me his lens hood for the Sigma 10-20 so the spray won't be as much of an issue as the last 3 trips I've been on with out it.

Can't wait to head out with ~emats again, simply enjoying the landscape, eat canned food all the time, drive around from spot to spot with awesome music coming from the speakers and just being on the road doing stuff. Please, wish us good luck and good light; I hope to bring everyone some pictures to enjoy when I get back.

~Alex