Happy Birthday, AlionLive Blogs and -Facebook!

Today we celebrate a "little Birthday". No, not the big one. This will happen on May 10 and will really celebrated in a very special way this year. How? No, I don't want to tell that now. But it will be BIG!

So a small birthday because exactly one year ago the AlionLive Blogs and Facebook page saw the dim light of the world, and were immediately loudly ignored by interested people ;). Meanwhile, however, things are getting forward, and that makes me happy. I actually thought that I would have a hard time to find anything newsworthy about that one year. But after I looked at what has happened since January 26th 2014, it is not so little. First, the raw data:

• 19 new videos with a total running time of exactly 8 hours, 51 minutes and 37 seconds have been uploaded. This includes the completion of a large Madeira series, and the almost 50% completion of the latest one. Also some public jestering was performed and the most successful short series about a bike tour in Germany was both filmeded and uploaded.

• From the statistics side 6334 video views were counted, and people wasted.... errrm... had a good time watching a total of 19 days and 14 hours of most magnificent quality entertainment. From our overwhelming (currently) 74 subscribers, 32 came to us. That means we have almost doubled the subscribers within a year.

• AlionLive also got two small offshoot, namely the gaming channel AlionLiveLP and the tutorial channel Multiversity of Alion.

• Well, and otherwise I got to know some nice people who liked the one or the other video. Of course there were also scattered trolls and haters, but as a veteran of the Internet I am used to grief and have therefore some routine in handling asshats ;).

Overall, I see the past year of AlionLive quite positive. It goes up slowly and steadily, and all signs point to success. With a smirk I read an older post yesterday when preparing this post, in which I still seriously and very open thought about ditching AlionLive due to lack of publicity. I smirked because I would not even dream of something like that today. Firstly, I know now that things take time, and secondly IT WORKS!

So by now I think about many interesting extensions of AlionLive and a few of the ideas are already tested for feasibility and usefulness. I can't and don't want to tell too much here, but 2015 a lot will happen. Only a few points:

• Website (Once I have the caught up with the other pages)
• Wiki (All facts well sorted)
• Database (for the AlionLlive Wiki, but also for other nifty things)
• Hiking GPS App (Windows Phone, maybe Android)
• More KMLs in the KML section
• Irregular Vlogs where I just kinda talk about stuff
• ... and lots of little things that I do not remember right now ;)

Well, and now I don't know what else to write. Cheers on the next year! And we also go to Madeira again ;) Oh yeah, almost forgot: THANK YOU, for whatever reason you watch AlionLive. You are cool <3

Fancy a one-hour bus ride in Madeira? Here you go!

Well, what's left to say about the latest "Spring in Madeira" video, that was not already said? The plot is fairly simple: A one-hour bus ride from the Ponta de São Lourenço to Funchal. This time the route is a little different than on the ride in 2012, and we even drive right through the airport... NO, not through the building. That would be bad ;) The weather is also alot better this, time and so the Sun blinded plentyful sometimes. The somewhat breathtaking driving of the bus driver made me a few times almost falling off the seat. It is not very easy to sit stable, if you can't hold on to something with both hands, because you hold a camera. One time, a rude person placed himself between the window and the camera and had a long conversation with the bus driver. Therefore I had to cut a part of the ride. There are people, who have the empathy of a concrete post ;). Everything is accompanied by works of the alionsonny project from 2004 to 2014. Detailed links to free and purchasable albums can be found in the video description, or just visit alionsonny.com. Yes, and that's actually all about this video. In the next part we go hiking again in Ribeiro Frio to the Balcoes. This time without a rain apocalypse.

Oh yes, one more thing. If you do not already know it: New videos will be uploaded from now on only, if the previous video has gotten at least 50 views. This is a little experiment and also i do not want videos to "get left behind", just because I upload too fast. So don't be surprised, if there's nothing new for some time.

And now have fun riding the bus!

Spring in Madeira - Day 8-1 - Ponta de São Lourenço

Also for day 8 I decided to split the video into two parts. The most obvious reason for this is that about half shows a hike on the Ponta de São Lourenço and the other half a bus ride. But more on that later. In addition, the whole in one block would have become a little too long.

The Plot
Late in the morning we went on a one-hour bus ride to the eastern tip of Madeira, the Ponta de São Lourenço. Once there, we decided to strengthen ourselves with a hearty meal of bread with cheese and sausage. The numerous crowd of local reptiles showed a clear interest in both, cheese and sausage. So seven minutes of the video footage shows a lizard show. Then we went, in perfect weather, on the spectacular hike to the Cais do Sardinha and back. Unlike my hike in the same area in 2012, I had this time my hiking boots (instead of sandals) with me, and the weather was, as I said, much better. I did not find this hike to be so challenging this time. People with latent fear of heights should maybe not watch this video ;). For all lovers of exceptional natural sites and beautiful views, this video is highly recommended.

In the next part you see the bus ride from the Ponta de São Lourenço back to Funchal. And if anyone complains about unnecessary bus ride videos: Just look at the views of these videos on Youtube ;)

AlionLive - Spring in Madeira - Day 7 - Finally we go on!

Yes, there was a long pause since day 6 and I'm kinda sorry, and the reasons are not important ;) Welcome back, myself! I have even waited with this blog entry until the two parts of the day 7 were done, so I can show you something real here in the blog, and not just one part. That would be inappropriate after the long wait.

Plot
On the 7th day of the Lord and the Lady (Malina) rested. Somehow we needed a quiet day again and we had anyway long ago (already in 2011) planned to visit the fort "Fortaleza de São João Baptista do Pico" and the artist quarter in the Zona Velha (Old Town) more in detail. It proved to be clever to split the video material into two parts because it had a total of almost hour of playtime, which has proven to be unwanted by the audience. Most viewers seem to like their videos around half an hour in length, or even better 20 minutes. In addition, the thematic separation yielded itself. The first part shows the ascent to and the visiting of the fortress, the second shows the visit to the artist quarter. Both topics each took about 50% of the video material, so it was all just reasonable. Now in detail about the two parts:


The Fortress (Die Festung)
We initially had no idea if a visit to the fortress was possible at all. The ascent to the selfsame was more complicated than expected. We hiked around the fortress mountain on the west side ... where unfortunately is no entrance to the fortress. So we hiked on the northwestern slope up to find, shortly before the fortress, a nice cafe (highly recommended) where we refreshed ourselves with an exquisite Poncha. Then we walked around the fortress wall, first in the wrong direction (west) and found that there was no direct access from the sea side. So we walked all around the fortress and at the southeast corner, well hidden in the upper old town, there was the entrance. We visited the fortress really detailed. I do not want to reveal more here ;).

ART! (KUNST!)
After our adventure in the fortress we went quickly south east, downhill, on our way to the lower old town, called Zona Velha. There is the art district that is famous for, that there the front doors of the houses art painted by artists. These doors we filmed extensively and truly Malina's photography supported my video work in an excellent way. I was frankly quite surprised about the ammount of material during editing. We visited an art gallery, and here we also filmed and photographed alot. Then "we collected a few forgotten doors" and then decided to end that day in the bar "Tapas do Anibal" with a high quality Poncha at an unbeatable low price. After that we visited, since we were allready drinking, a bar near the church of "Santa Maria", the "Barreirinha Bar Café". Also, this is recommended, despite its slightly high prices, because for the quality of the drinks the prices are more than fair. Ok, and so this day also came to an end.

Day 8
Yes, of course I'll let you know what will happen on day 8: It is also a "two-parts day". Part one shows a wonderful and, one can safely say spectacular, hike with first class weather, on the eastern tip of the island. Viewers of the 2012 series "Return 2 Madeira" may remember: Back then the weather was not so good and I hiked in sandals ... The second part will please the friends of the bus ride videos, of which there are more than I thought. My second most popular video is a bus ride video. And between this and Day 8 Part 2 there is a commonality: It's the same route. only this time we ride back in the evening to Funchal while the video from 2012 shows a midday drive from Funchal to the "Ponta de São Lourenço". Ok, now that was but enough text. It goes on!

Spring in Madeira Day 6 - Santana, Queimadas, Pico das Pedras!

The tourism side of Santana ;)

 Also on this blog I must apologize for the slight delay. Not only that nearly a month passed between the last and the current video. This blog entry also comes five days after uploading the video. I can not stress enough how much of an advantage it is to like the AlionLive Facebook page or follow me on Twitter. The reason for the current delay is simple: Two albums are currently rapidly approaching completion and there is plenty to do. It is therefore to be feared that in the near future the AlionLive project will not make much progress for some time. But this will also end one day again ;).

Yeah, exactly!

For the video: Well rested from our quiet day in Funchal we wanted to do something bigger and decided to take an early morning bus to Santana at the north coast. From there we hiked towards Queimadas. This place is familiar to me from many, many of my Facebook friends photos and was high on the list of places to be visited. We did not expect the rather long and somewhat unspectacular ascent to Queimadas. It has also been reported by many, that there would be no motorable road to Queimadas, which turned out to be absolute nonsense. So notice: No matter what they tell you on the internet: You can drive by car to Queimadas and the road is very well developed. However, we completed the 800-900 meter ascent on foot of course. Once there, we were somewhat exhausted. After a rest with good cheese bread and Coral Tonica were fit again soon.

Yay! Now I have also some photos of Queimadas! :)

We had to abandon the original plan, to hike on to the Caldeirao Verde and Caldeirao do Inferno, due to the advanced time of day. So we decided to hike further to the Pico das Pedras. After a short rest in a cozy cafe on the Pico das Pedras we hiked towards Faial.

On the Pico das Pedras

Actually, we were making good time, but then we walked around a mountain on the wrong side, which dissuaded us far from the path. Only by a lucky chance, we caught the last bus to Funchal.

Breathtaking vista on Faial, Porto da Cruz, the eagle Rock and more

The soundtrack consists once again from pre-release versions of songs that are destined for the soon to be released album "Madeira" by Cimelium. By the way: Only 2 songs to go, then the album is complete :). Among the featured songs appropriately also is the latest addition "Queimadas". The soundtrack in detail:

00:00 Santana
05:00 Poiso
09:36 Queimadas
14:38 Santo da Serra
19:33 Câmara de Lobos
24:19 Rabacal
29:23 Parque do Lido 6:30 am

And now have fun with the video!

AlionLive - Spring in Madeira - Chillax in Funchal

The video was actually uploaded two days ago, but personal issues caused the delay of this blog. On the fifth day of the trip we needed, due to the chaotic ends of the previous two days, really a day off and spent it in Funchal. Here we were anything but idle and therefore in this video there's a lot to see. We started at the Parque de Santa Catarina, where the spring time in Madeira was clearly visible, because of the overwhelming variety of beautiful flowers.

Flowers at the Parque de Santa Catarina

But there was not much shade and the sun burnt down with full force. So a shadier place was really a better choice. This we found at the Jardim Municipal. There also everything was in full bloom. We saw a sausage tree and so we learned where the sausages come from ;).

Unripe green saussauges on an saussage tree ;)

 In front of the Ritz, just across the Avenida Arriaga from the Jardim Municipal, played a very good band whose sounds I of course do not withhold from you in the video.

Great sounds in front of the Ritz

After a pleasant cooling stay we decided to explore the old town of Funchal further. After a short time we arrived the Madeira winery Blandy, where we stayed only briefly, because the tasting costs money and the prices for this were so high that we decided to skip the wine tasting ;).

Very expensive wine tasting here :D

Now we were really ready for for an icecold Coral Tonica and also we wanted to provide us with fresh fruits. Both, and also more than enough cooling shade, we found at the world famous market hall of Funchal, the Mercado dos Lavradores.

Overwhelming variety of fruits, vegetables and everything at the Mercado dos Lavradores

After extensive fruit purchasing and procurement of a cooled sixpack of Coral Tonica we discovered a multimedia information board, with which we had some fun. But then we got toknow that the market hall was closing soon. The day was still young and we had now recovered well. Therefore we were not in the mood to just end the day yet and made ​​our way towards Lido. Here we visited a cocktail bar that we remembered from 2011 for excellent cocktails at a low price.

No longer recommended

 But the prices were raised quite a lot and the Poncha, which we were served, consisted of 1/3 ice cubes. Ice cubes in a Poncha are in my opinion at all wrong. So we did no further experiments and went on our way into the direction of Camara de Lobos. On the way there we had a very cute encounter.

CUTE ALERT !!!

Our plan now was to hike to the Doca do Cavacas, through the tunnel and to the Praia Formosa, because we remembered from 2011, that you get an excellent Poncha at the beach bar there. We unfortunately found out that the tunnel was closed for renovations. So I completed my only and late "speech" to the audience, and we went, as it was quite late and dark, on the way back to Funchal. On the way we then saw a very welcoming restaurant that had a large sign with the words "Poncha Bar"

FINALLY: A real Poncha!

Strengthened by an excellent Poncha, we now made ​​our way back to the apartment house and ended the day. So, and now you want for sure to watch the video). Here it is! Have fun!

Spring in Madeira - Day 4 - A short Levada hike

This video is probably one of the shortest of the series. The reason for this was that we went very late to Camacha and the Paradise Valley and somehow I also didn't film very much on that day. Our hike took us along the Levada dos Tornos, which we then left to head north towards the Parque Ecologico do Funchal. On our way, we had an extensive rest at the Abrigo do Pastor, I already visited on day 10 of my trip in 2012. However, I did not notice back then that the Abrigo do Pastor has an impressive restaurant with an unique ambience. After that it was rather late and we did our best to catch the last bus at the Parque Ecologico do Funchal. That did not work at all and so we hiked in complete darkness in the direction of Monte. We were lucky, because on the route a very nice person stopped his car and offered us to drive us to the nearest bus stop, from which a bus was still going. You see again: The people of Madeira are just fantastic. But the footage of this video shows only the part until shortly after our stay at the Abrigo do Pastor. This is due to the rapidly falling darkness and the fact that we were in a hurry to catch that bus.

The soundtrack this time is entirely from the album "Mesopotamia" by the Cimelium project. The soundtrack in detail:

This album is available on iTunes, Amazon, Emusic, Routenote and Spotify. This link takes you to a page, where you find all the links to the album in the shops. And now have fun with this pretty short video, which still offers some beautiful views. The next video will be much longer.