TravelStream™ news feed for member mdfarjr on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/mdfarjr en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Thu, 12 Mar 2009 09:32:46 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mdfarjr/2/1236864060/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mdfarjr/2/1236864060/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mdfarjr/2/1236864060/tpod.html Thu, 12 Mar 2009 09:32:46 -0400 The Land of Smiles

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Kathmandu, Nepal

Well I made it to Siem Reap from Phnom Penh. The bus ride there was rather long and boring, and the last 2 hours the a/c cut out making it almost unbearable. The Cambodian countryside was incredibly boring, just flat and treeless. We made one stop at a small sidestop and as soon as we exited the bus I was bombarded with beggars and little kids trying to sell me fruit and bracelets. It was very annoying. I did find some fried tarantulas and had a taste, just tasted like fried spider.

Anyway, Siem Reap is by far the most developed city in Cambodia, which makes a lot of sense considering it posseses one of the biggest tourist attractions in Asia: Angkor Wat. A massive Hindu then Buddhist temple that was built around 1200 AD, then abandoned and forgotten about until explorers in the 1700s stumbled upon it in the midst of the jungle. The temple was very impressive, and it's just part of an ancient city that used to be the capital of the Angkor empire until the Siamese empire defeated it. There are many other various temples scattered about, including one that was still in the jungle and overgrown with trees. That one was my favorite.

Apart from the Angkor temples, Siam Reap had a small movie theater that played some english movies, one about Pol Pot, one about landmines in Cambodia, and a 3d movie about snakes. I saw all three during my 5 day stay in Siem Reap. The pol pot one wasnt very good, the landmine one was cool, and the snake one was very interesting.

After Siem Reap I caught a flight and made it to Kathmandu in Nepal. My first impression of Kathmandu wasn't very good. The infrastructure here is terrible, no traffic laws, the pollution is horrible, and the general state of the buildings (including my hotel) is pretty bad. Plus there is only electricity for 8 hours every day. However I have since warmed up to the country. It is a bit expensive here, but what can you expect from a big city. Today I traveled about and saw a few of the major Hindu temples and Buddhist Stupas, one stupa was over 2500 years old. It was all very very impressive. I'm even more excited for tomorrow when I take a trip into the countryside to see the sun set over the Himalayan mountains (I won't be able to see everest).

This entry is rather short because this keyboard in this internet cafe is terrible, but I'm coming home this weekend and will probably see everyone soon, so I can tell you more about Kathmandu then.

Goodbye and see you soon!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mdfarjr/2/1236255660/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mdfarjr/2/1236255660/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mdfarjr/2/1236255660/tpod.html Thu, 05 Mar 2009 07:59:52 -0500 The Land of Smiles

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Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Well I made it to Cambodia. After leaving Nong Kai, I made a quick sprint through Laos and found myself in the capitol of Cambodia, Phnom Penh. I don't know what exactly it was about Laos, but it just didn't do anything for me. Vientiane is a very sleepy city, there really isn''t much going on there at all. Everything shuts down by 11, its as if there is a virtual curfew on the city. Then I went to Viang Vien, which possiibly could have been fun if I had a travel buddy, but alone it was totally bizarre. It seemed as if it were the Cancun of the East, and its always spring break there. Just loads and loads of college-age people in every guesthouse, getting smashed every night. Also, every restaurant there has a television, and all day long in every restaurant they play Friends. Yes the tv series Friends, in every restaurant, at all hours of the day. So it just wasn't my place. I scooted back to Vientiane the next morning, booked a flight to Phnom Penh, and the next day I boarded a plane to Cambodia.

Phnom Penh is the craziest most hectic and least developed city I have ever visited. However, from talking to other travelers, it seems to be at par with some of the other crazy hectic cities in Asia. Phnom Penh has a tragic history to it. Prior to the Vietnam war it used to be called the Paris of the East, but due to American carpet bombing of its western border with Vietnam, coupled with a civil war during the early 70s, the population of Phnom Penh tripled from 1970 to 1975, resulting in a population of 5 million people at the end of the Cambodian civil war. Unfortunately, the winner of that war was the ultra-communist Khmer Rouge, led by the madman Pol Pot. On April 17th 1975 the Khmer Rouge took control of Phnom Penh and ordered the city to be evacuated. Two days later the only people remaining in the cities was the leaders of the Khmer Rouge, the 5 million refugees and citizens of the city were forced out into the surrounding areas. Pol Pot's first agenda was to hunt down and kill anybody associated with the previous Cambodian government. Pol Pot's ultimate dream was to completely erase the old Khmer society and start afresh with a new, agrarian based one. During the 5 years he was in power, he numerous intellectuals, teachers, bankers, lawyers, and peasants all rounded up and sent to be 're-educated' which basically meant tortured until they confessed to their crimes against the revolution, and then executed. It is estimated that up to 3 million people were killed during the Cambodian genocide, and atrocities did not stop until Vietnam invaded Cambodia and overthrew the Khmer Rouge in 1980. During the genocide, the rest of the world turned a blind eye, who would want to get back involved with a war in Asia with the phenomenal failure of the Vietnam War still fresh in everybody's mind?

Phnom Penh is a scarred city that is still trying to rebuild itself, but it has a long rough journey ahead of it. While here I visited the killing fields, where thousands of people were executed and buried in mass graves. I also visited the site of the S-21 prison, now called the Toul Sleng Museum. It used to be a primary/high school but after Pol Pot took over he had it converted into a prison/torture facility. Over 20,000 people entered the prison from 1975 to 1980, and there were only 9 known survivors.

But its not all gloom and doom in Phnom Penh. I also visited the Russian markets, a very cool place that sells tons of little trinkets and souvenirs. I also went out to a nearby shooting range and took my turn firing an AK-47. I'm pretty sure I didn't hit the target once.

All in all Phnom Penh is a pretty interesting, hectic city with a gruesome history. There are virtually no traffic laws here, taking a ride on a tuk-tuk through the city is one crazy experience. The mosquitos here are absolutely ruthless, and its over 90 degrees outside when I wake up at 8 am.

Tomorrow I leave for Siem Reap, home to the Angkor Wat, one of the most magnificent structures ever constructed in history.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mdfarjr/2/1234613520/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mdfarjr/2/1234613520/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mdfarjr/2/1234613520/tpod.html Sun, 22 Feb 2009 01:22:20 -0500 The Land of Smiles

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Nong Khai, Thailand

In case it isn't apparent, I have definitely fallen victim to Nong Kai's way of life. Why do today what you can put off till tomorrow? I've been here for two weeks and this is the first time I've gotten around to writing an update.

Nong Kai is a small city in Thailand that borders Laos. It's the site of the Friendship Bridge, one of the few bridges that cross the Mekong River, where you can easy take a weekend trip into Laos' capital of Vientiane (I haven't yet). It's a small, laid back, easy city where I tend to find myself having used up an entire day (after teaching of course) lying in a hammock, reading a book, and chowing on fresh pineapple.

Nong Kai has an amazing selection of street food vendors that can cook up virtually any Thai dish that you want, all for about $1. There is an assortment of fried rice/noodle/meat/vegetable dishes that you can get that will satisfy even the most pickiest of eaters. Its hard to decide what to eat with all the different selections.

As far as teaching goes, I teach for three hours Monday through Friday. I teach three different groups of kids for one hour each. Group A is the youngest, grades 1-3, and we spend most of hour time teaching them the alphabet, playing memory games, and playing alphabet bingo. Group B is the middle group, grades 4 and 5, and the biggest pain. They are very bright, but get bored easily, and once we lose them in a class, its very very hard to get them back. Group C is the oldest group, and the best behaved. They're a very calm bunch of 6, 7, and 8th graders. However, in that class is a group of boys who are so far behind everyone else that it can be very difficult to teach the other kids anything, because you could spend an entire class period with this one group of boys. They don't disturb the other kids in class though, so its nice that they're not a distraction.

The Thai education system in generally is completely out of whack. There is no general plan among any teachers, and most teachers really don't care about their students at all. Kids are taught not to ask questions, and to answer any questions that are asked with the right answer, no matter how they come across it. That means that the kids cheat like little demons. If you ask a kid a question, and they don't know the answer, they turn right to their neighbors and start asking for the answer in Thai, and no matter how hard you try to stop them from doing it, they keep on asking. And the neighbors have no problem telling them the answer either, no matter what they say. They think that I just want to hear the right answer, and as hard as I try to keep them from cheating, its really me against the whole Thai education system.

Right now I'm teaching with two other girls, one named Natalie from San Francisco (who happened to have graduated from Cornell a few years ago) and Clara from Sweden. Clara is replacing Leonda from Holland who is leaving this weekend.

That's all for now, but I'm probably gonna come back and update this post a few more times, because there is a lot more that I can say about Nong Kai and what I'm doing here, I just can't think of it all right now.

So a couple of things I forgot to mention in the first post.

Nong Kai, like most places in third world countries, is overrun by a massive population of stray dogs. During the day you see them wondering around, looking for food, chilling out in the shade, etc. But at night the dogs all gang up in packs and can be a real pain in the behind. At night when I ride home on my bike it is not uncommon for a random pack of dogs to spot me and start chasing after me and my bike, barking, growling, and snarling the whole way. I've never been bit, nor do I know anyone who has, but its still rather unnerving to have a pack of wild dogs chasing you and running within lunging distance of your ankles. The dogs are just male dogs who are merely being territorial, so once you ride out of their territory you're fine.

Another thing about Nong Kai is that the people here are amazingly friendly!!! It is truly unlike any other place I have ever been. Thailand is not known as 'The Land of Smiles' without good reason. Every time I go out on my bike for whatever reason I always pass by people who shout out 'Hellooo! How are you?' with a big friendly smile on their face. People are always more than willing to help you if you're lost, and even go out of their way and guide you to your destination.

Last weekend I went with three other volunteers (Dorine, Arjan, and Leonda, all from Amsterdam) to a historical park about 1.5 hours away from Nong Kai. First we had to take a 'bus' which was really just a glorified pickup truck to a nearby village called Bhan Phu. The bus ride was about an hour and fifteen minutes long and it costed 45 baht (about $1.30). Then once we got to the village we were supposed to take a tuk-tuk to the historical park. As soon as the bus pulled into the terminal a tuk-tuk driver jumped in and started insisting that we take his tuk-tuk to wherever we were going. So we told him we were going to the park, which was about fifteen minutes away, and that it would cost us 100 baht each, so 400 baht. We just paid 45 baht each for a 1.25 hour bus ride and now he wants 100 baht each for a 15 minute ride. So I bargained him down to 30 baht each, which was still a rip off but we just wanted to get to the park. So we all get in the tuk-tuk and he takes us to the park entrance where we pay 100 baht each for admission. Now, from the park entrance to the main area there's a 1.5 km road that winds up a big hill. So the tuk-tuk driver starts driving up the hill and we go about 500 meters before the tuk-tuk just gives out. He tells us that there's too much weight and that two people have to get out, so Dorine and I get out and start walking and the driver drives off. Now, we were under the impression that he was gonna turn around and come back and get us after he drops off Arjan and Leonda. He didn't. So we walked the final km uphill and then when we got there the tuk-tuk driver tried to tell us we each had to pay him 45 baht each. After he just made us walk. So we just paid him 30 and left.

The park itself was interesting, lots of big rocks and some old cave paintings. Getting back home was going to be another challenge though. We ended up hitching a ride with a Thai family that had a pick-up truck. So we clamoured into the back of the pick-up truck and started heading back to Bhan Phu. First though they wanted to stop at a temple and say a few prayers, so while they were praying we walked around the monastery. The monastery had massive sculpture/statues in it. The first one I saw was a giant tree with females sprouting from it, much like they were fruit. All the other statues were some of the most gruesome depictions of hell I have ever seen. I won't go into much detail, but there was a lot of blood and carnage.

So then we made it back to Bhan Phu and started looking for the bus stop. A random Thai person stopped us on the street and asked us if we were lost and we said we were looking for the bus stop and he showed us where it was. Thai friendliness is just incredible. We made it to the bus stop and then some tuk-tuk drivers who were just hanging out nearby helped us flag down the right bus and made sure that it was going to Nong Kai. All in all it was a very Thai experience.

Finally, this past week I started taking Thai boxing lessons every day with Dorine and Arjan. Our teacher is a Thai Boxing master named Ajin. He is the ultimate example of Thai friendlyness, he is willing to do anything to make sure you're ok. The training is pretty intense, but its nice to know that I'm getting in shape again, and it makes me want to start swimming again when I get home. My elbows and feet are all scraped up from hitting the pads over and over again, but its worth it. We don't fight anyone when we're training, we mainly just punch pads and Ajin corrects us. An example of his personality: on Monday I was extremely tired and made an incredibly stupid mistake and lost my wallet. I wasn't exactly sure where I had lost it, so on Tuesday I asked Ajin if he had seen it and he hadn't but he felt so bad that I had lost it and that I could have potentially lost it at his house that he worried about it for the rest of the day and even lost sleep over it that night. He didn't think I was accusing him of anything, he was just soo sad about my misfortune.

Thats all for now, but I'll be back.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mdfarjr/2/1233399480/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mdfarjr/2/1233399480/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mdfarjr/2/1233399480/tpod.html Tue, 03 Feb 2009 04:15:06 -0500 The Land of Smiles

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Bangkok, Thailand

So I finally arrived in Bangkok!! It took 2.5 hours for my plane to get de-iced in Philly, so I ended up missing my connection flight to Tokyo in Chicago. Stayed the night in Chicago and then the plane we got on the next day to go to Tokyo ended up having engine trouble so then THAT flight was delayed 2 hours. Luckily, because 70 passengers on that flight were connecting to Bangkok in Tokyo, United Airlines held the plane for us in Tokyo and we took off, eventually arriving in Bangkok at 1 am, Bangkok time. I took a taxi to the hostel, checked in, and went to bed.

Bangkok is a massive, chaotic city. Its pretty dirty and just huge. I met two people in the hostel I was staying at and we went to the Chantuket markets together. The Chantuket markets are the largest markets in Thailand, and they're massive. It's only open on the weekends, and you can walk for hours through all the different street stalls selling everything imaginable. The two people I met were Karen from Britain and Jason from Boston, both very friendly and welcoming. We stopped and ate at one of the open restaurants and the food was very good: bamboo salad, sticky rice, rice noodles, deep fried chicken hips, and pig liver. The salad was very good, it had a nice salty-sweet balance to it, while the chicken hips tasted like... chicken. The pig liver had an interesting, intense flavor to it. Not bad, but intense. It has an inital assault on your tongue that can be intimidating (though less intimidating than the fact that its pig liver), but it mellows out after the first few bites. As for the flavor itself, it is very difficult to describe, and I'm tired.

Tonight I catch an overnight train to Nong Kai, where I will be staying for one month. I'm getting a sleeper cabinet, and it will be nice to catch some zz's.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mdfarjr/1/1225715640/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mdfarjr/1/1225715640/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mdfarjr/1/1225715640/tpod.html Sat, 08 Nov 2008 08:39:42 -0500 To Europe!

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Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Well I made it out to Sarajevo in Bosnia, and I must say that so far it is my most favorite city in Europe.

It's my 2nd Olympic city that I've visited (they hosted the 1984 Winter Olympic Games) and my first city visited that doesn't have a McDonalds (hooray!).

Some recent Sarajevo history (from what I understand of it. You can ask different people and get different stories, but this just seems to be a general picture of what happened)...

In 1984, Bosnia was a part of the country of Yugoslavia, a communist nation that also contained Slovenia, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (not to be confused with the neighboring Greek province of Macedonia), Montenegro, Kosovo, Serbia, and Albania. Pretty much all the slavic countries. Sarajevo was a moderm cosmopolitan city back then, and it was chosen to host the 1984 Olympic Games. Yugoslavia spent considerable time, effort, and money to make those games (in the words of the then chairman of the International Olympic Committee) "the greatest, most organized olympic games ever." Everyone was pretty proud of themselves, especially Sarajevans. Then the U.S.S.R. collapsed, and some tensions arose in Yugoslavia as Serbia began to get a little too aggressive and power hungry. A couple crazy Serbs came to power (Slobodan Milosovic) and Serb nationalize began to rise to frighteningly high levels. So a couple of the Yugoslavian countries decided to break away. Serbia was like 'no,' and war broke out. What kind of sucked for everyone except Serbia was that the Yugoslavian Peoples Army consisted of 80% Serbian troops. Slovenia had a devastating ten day war in which Serb troops didn't even cross the border into Slovenia. Croatia had it a bit rougher, their war lasted a couple years but they were able to shorten it by secretly holding meetings with Serbian leaders and making a plan to help Serbia attack Bosnia in exchange for a small piece of Bosnian territory. Despite the fact that Serbia had most of the JPA, Croatia and Slovenia both had their own armies to fend off the Serbs. Bosnia on the other hand, didn't have an army. The war began in 1992, and almost immediately the Serbs were able to take control of most of the country. However, they were unable to invade Sarajevo, and so they surrounded the city with tanks, snipers, landmines, and artillery guns. Thus began the longest siege in modern warfare, which lasted for about 43 months. During that time, an average of 329 shells rained down on Sarajevo per day, electricity was shut off, there were frequent water and food shortages that sometimes lasted for weeks, 11,000 people died, and the entire city was basically destroyed. The Bosnians, were however, able to keep the Serb troops out of the city, and after a particularly deadly shelling of a Sarajevan food market, NATO got involved and began bombing Serbian troops. About a month later a cease-fire was made.

Slowly, Sarajevo is recovering. Most of the buildings still have bullet holes in them, and I did see one Sarajevo Rose (shell fragments imbedded in the asphalt that are painted red), but the people in Sarajevo are pretty amazing. They lived through some of the most terrible conditions that people can live through, and it has created a sort of bond among the citizens of the city. Despite the hard economic conditions that Bosnia now faces, the people of Sarajevo know that it can be, and was, much, much worse. Children can play in the streets without worrying about sniper fire, don't have to risk your life waiting in long bread and water lines for basic neccessities. People in Sarajevo are happy just being able to spend time with their friends and family. The siege really created an atmosphere of brotherhood in Sarajevo.

Also, most of the small shops selling souvenirs and such have products that were hand made in Bosnia. They weren't manufactured in a factory in China. There was one street where every time you walked by you could here the clink-clink of metal workers hammering away making coffee pots and elaborately designed metal plates. And everything is extremely inexpensive in Bosnia, which is a nice relief.

Aunt Sara asked me what the election feeling is like over here. Every single European that I've met and have had the time to talk to about politics has been an avid Obama supporter. The attitude throughout Europe seems to be that its a no contest decision to vote Obama into office. If McCain had won the election I think everyone in Europe would have just smacked their foreheads and wondered if its possible to create a vaccine for the current stupid-virus thats ravaging the American population. Also, up until I came to Zadar, I didn't really have access to any consistent
news sources except for American internet sites. But I started watching
some Croatian news networks and then CNN International. Every single
night they ran a news story on Obama. I'm not sure if I ever saw
anything being reported on McCain. I must admit, I was surprised at how much the international community was paying attention to the election. All the newspapers all had headlines and front page stories on the American election almost every day. It's as big a news story here as it is at home. Just goes to show the incredible influence that the American government has on virtually everthing.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mdfarjr/1/1225394400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mdfarjr/1/1225394400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mdfarjr/1/1225394400/tpod.html Thu, 30 Oct 2008 15:54:40 -0400 To Europe!

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Split, Croatia

Well I made it to Zadar, spent a few days there, and now I'm in Split.

Zadar was a really beautiful city that's located right on the coast of the Adriatic. It's a small city, and it hasn't had as much of a Western influence as Italy and Switzerland has. Although it definitely has some. It's the off-season there now, so there were almost no tourists.

One thing that was slightly bothersome about Zadar is that the locals all seemed very unfriendly. I don't know if it was because they had just finished a tourist season and were sick of tourists or what. I had loads of problems at the bus station. I was staying with Sime, who is staying at his brother's house while his own house is being built in a small town outside of Zadar called Zemunik-Gornji. Now there are two parts to Zemunik, Zemunik-Donji and Zemunik-Gornji. Gornji is the smaller of the two, it's literally just one street. Anyway, the town was about 10 miles from Zadar, and you had to take a bus to get there. When I first got to the bus station at 7:30 am (after getting very little sleep on the ferry), I had to wait until 1 pm for the first bus to Gornji. The next night, I spent the day in Zadar and then at 5 pm I went to the station to catch the bus (the information lady the day before had told me that during the week buses ran all day to Zemunik-Gornji) and found out the next bus to Gornji was at 8 pm because I had missed the 5 o'clock bus. So I sat around and waited for that bus, and when I finally got on the bus the driver didn't even stop at Gornji! He went straight on to the next stop! So I started the three mile walk back to Gornji, but then after about a mile Sime came and picked me up.

Then the next day, determined to catch the 5 o'clock bus to Gornji, I arrived at the station at 4:30. Oops! No 5 o'clock bus today, there's only a 3 o'clock bus, so instead I took the 5:45 bus to Donji and got another ride from Sime.

The next day, determined to win, I went to the bus station at 11 and asked for all the bus times for that day to Zemunik-Gornji. They told me there was one at 2:20 and one at 8:05. So I bought a ticket for the 2:20 bus, spent a half day in Zadar, and then caught that bus to Gonji. Later that day I was walking around with Sime and we saw a bus roll up at around 3:30 and stop at the Gornji bus station.

So, aside from a busing system that I don't understand, Zadar is a really beautiful city. It's very clean and safe, and the waters surrounding it are crystal clear. Zemunik-Gornji is also relaxing place. It's very small and mostly made up of farmland (figs, olives, cherries, and watermelon). All throughout the Croatian countryside there are bombed out houses remniscent of the war that ravaged the country just 15 years ago. The house that I stayed at was only recently re-built, and you can still see the ruined remains of the previous house in the yard.

Anyway, I'm in Split now, the 2nd largest Croatian city, and also located on the Dalmatian coast. Split, so far, has been an incredibly beautiful city. I've only been here for half a day and I can already say it's one of the coolest cities I've traveled to (if not the coolest). The hostel is located in the city center, so I don't have to worry about any buses. There are ancient ruins throughout the entire city, and all the modern buildings seem to incorporate the ancient walls into their building designs. There is also an ancient palace right in the center of the city, built by a Roman emperor, that you can walk through and there are modern shops located in. Tourism is a huge industry here, but so far it seems that the city has been able to retain a good sense of its Croatian identity, more so than other cities I've visited.

So I have about two weeks left before I come back home, and I'm having trouble deciding where to go. I have a few options. I plan on going to Dubrovnik after Split, and after that Albania. But after that, I can't decide whether I should go to Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Macedonia, or Thessalonika in Greece. All I know is that I have to be in Athens by the 12th so I can fly home at 5 am on the 13th. yay.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mdfarjr/1/1225189620/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mdfarjr/1/1225189620/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mdfarjr/1/1225189620/tpod.html Tue, 28 Oct 2008 06:48:28 -0400 To Europe!

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Zadar, Croatia

Well it's been awhile since I've had the time to write up an entry.

I made my way down to Napoli, where the city government is completely corrupted by the mafia. It's really a shame because the city has such potential to be one of the best in Italy, but instead the buildings are all collapsing, there is little respect for law, and there is trash everywhere. It was by far the dirtiest city I have ever traveled to. The city is still recovering from the Municipal Waste Management strike that occurred earlier this year, in which the city workers who take care of the trash went on strike and refused to clear away any garbage. The strike lasted for months and no garbage was cleared, resulting in an incredibly dirty city. When the strike finally ended, the city had to call in the Italian army to help bulldoze away all the trash in the streets. That happened months ago, and there are still piles of trash all around the city.

The main reason for me going to Napoli was so that I could visit the ancient city of Pompeii, which was buried in a volcanic eruption from nearby Mt. Vesuvious in 79 AD. If I had to do it again, I would stay in the nearby city of Sorrento, where the crime rate is much lower and the city itself much cleaner and nicer.

There were a couple of nice things about Napoli though. For one, there were almost no tourists. It was nice to be able to walk down the streets and see any massive groups of tourists crowding the way. Also, the food in Napoli was much cheaper than anywhere else I've been in Italy. A sandwich that would normally cost maybe 4 or 5 euro in Florence or Rome was only 1 to 2 euro in Naples.

The city of Pompeii was pretty cool. It's full of ancient houses that have been excavated over the past 250 years. The first excavations of Pompeii occurred in 1748, and they still have only uncovered about 40% of the actual city. Walking through the streets is very cool, you get to see the layout of this ancient Roman city, and many of the walls and floors of the houses were preserved so you can still see the ancient frescos and mosaics that covered the walls and floors of the wealthy Romans.

After Napoli I made my way back to Florence where I met up with some of the friends I made in Rome. This time, instead of staying at the Soggiorna Primavera, I stayed at the PLUS hostel in Florence. Initially I was awestruck at the amazing facilities found at the new hostel. It was the cheapest hostel I've stayed in yet (something around 16 euros a night for a four bed dorm room) and they had a pool, sauna, restaurant, bar, dance floor, and almost every room had a balcony. The pool was pretty amazing too, it was lit by these dim lights that changed color and illuminated the water with reds, greens, blues, and violets. It was very 'hip'.

After a few hours though I began to feel like I wasn't really having the true backpacker's experience in the hostel. Almost everyone there was either Australian, American, or Canadian, and no one really seemed interested in going out and experiencing the various things that Florence has to offer. Why leave the hostel when there's a pool, sauna, laundry, computers, bar, etc. Luckily, I only stayed two nights before leaving and heading out to Ancona.

I arrived in Ancona during the day and met up with a cool couchsurfer named Valentina. She helped me to first buy my ferry ticket to Zadar, and then to go around and show me the small port city of Ancona. It was a nice, clean, and quiet city right on the Italian Adriatic coast, and the streets where all narrow and paved with cobblestone. I didn't have much time though, because before I knew it I was on the ferry (which is more like a mini-cruise boat) and on my way to Zadar.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mdfarjr/1/1224589800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mdfarjr/1/1224589800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mdfarjr/1/1224589800/tpod.html Tue, 21 Oct 2008 08:48:21 -0400 To Europe!

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Rome, Lazio, Italy

So its been awhile since I've had some good internets and time to make an entry. I'm sorry. I have not been kidnapped.

Florence was an amazingly fantastic city. The Duomo was amazing of course. It's a massive church in the center of Florence, covered in a white and green marble facade, with a massive dome and a massive tower accompanying it. The inside of the church was alright, very plain, except for the painting on the dome. It was a pretty impressive painting with the very top being painted in such a way that it creates a 3d illusion of men climbing straight down from the top of the dome. The bottom of the painting had a gruesome depiction of hell.

For 6 euro you can make a climb to the top of the dome. I went up and there was a beautiful 360° view of Florence, really worth the money. The climb up was very interesting too, you had to go through narrow passages and climb loads of stairwells, and it was very crowded because there were a lot of tourists.

I also went to two museums in Florence, The Uffizio and The Academia. Both had incredibly large collections of Renaissance art (obviously) and both were very cool. The Academia housed the original Statue of David, sculpted by Michelangelo. It was definitely the best piece of renaissance art that I saw, perfect in its depiction of human anatomy.

In Florence, I met up with my friend Carolyn, who is studying there for a semester. We made the journey to Piazza Michelangelo, a large Piazza that is located up on the hill on the outskirts of the city. It had a spectacular view of the entire city, definitely worth the hike up there. Although there were a decent amount of tourists, if you just make a small walk to a nearby church (I forget the name of it) there aren't as many tourists and the view is still great.

In Florence, I stayed at the Soggiorno Primavera, a very nice hostel located near the train station. I liked everything about the hostel except for the mosquitos in my room. There were a few, and I got lots of bites on my hands and neck. But the bathrooms were nice and clean, and the bedsheets were clean as well.

I booked a four bed dorm room, and for the first two nights no one else came and I had the room to myself. On the third night, I came home and there were four people sleeping in the room. The hostel owner had squeezed in another bed, and four people from Emerson College who were doing some traveling were staying in the room with me. They were studying abroad in the Netherlands and had ten travel days, so they went to Croatia and Italy. They were nice people, and we hung out the next night.

So after spending some good time in Florence, I made my way to Roma.

Rome turned out to be one of the best cities that I've been to so far. I only spent three nights there, but they were jam packed with sight seeing. When I got there, I checked into my hostel (Hostel del Artists) which was very near the Termini, the main train station and the central hub of Rome (All roads lead to Rome, and in Rome all roads lead to Termini).

So the first thing I did was take a trip out to see the Pantheon. It was impressive from the outside, but I couldn't go inside because there was a mass going on and I had to wait until 6. So I decided to take a walk, and I found this little area full of the ancient remains of four Roman temples. The temples were probably about 20 feet below the modern day ground level of Rome, pretty cool to think of how much the city has grown in the last 2000 years. The temple area was off limits to tourists because it was the home of a kitten commune for hippy kitties. They had a pretty nice place to stay, full of fallen columns to walk on and lots of rocks and things to play on. There were lots of little areas where you couldn't see from up on the street, and I bet thats where they had their secret catnip gardens.

So then I walked to this enormous monument for Vittorio Emanuele II, the first king of a united Italy. It was by far the largest monument I have ever seen, but I didn't spend much time there because I wanted to get back to the Pantheon. The inside of the Pantheon is pretty cool. The dome is magnificent. The building itself is over 2000 years old, and architects still don't have a clear idea of how they constructed the dome.

So I went back to the hostel and met my first roommate, a South Korean named Jung (or Mr. Jung as he introduces himself). Jung was a very strange character. He was very very friendly and loved to take pictures of everything he saw and then have someone else take a picture of him in front of everything he saw. And everytime someone took a picture of him, he would pose in this pretty hilarious fashion, giving a very good "I'm so cool" look. So Jung and I walked and saw the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. They were very cool and beautiful and loaded with tourists. The next day we went and did ancient Rome together, seeing the Roman Forums, Palatine Hill, and then the Colloseum. It was very cool and old.

When we went back to the hostel we found that some more people had joined our room. Natalie and her boyfriend (I cannot remember his name, it's very french) who were from Quebec, and Horacio from Chile. We all chatted and then went to the rooftop terrace to sit around and talk. Then Natalie's boyfriend went down to the room for a minute and came back saying that someone else had come. It turned out to be a man from Austria named Rainer. So up on the rooftop terrace sat Natalie, her boyfriend, Horacio, Jung, Rainer, and I, all from room 503. Natalie's boyfriend began calling us the 503 Crew and it was pretty funny.

Horacio is 30 years old and he was in the midst of a year long trip around the world. He had quit his job as an engineer and sold his car to take this trip, going from Europe to India to Southeast Asia to Australia and then back home. He was already four months into his journey, and things were going pretty smoothly. What's cool is that he might be in Thailand the same time I'm in Thailand, so maybe we'll meet up. He had done a lot of his journey with couchsurfing, so he had to leave the next morning to meet up with his couchsurfing host.

So the next morning, all of us minus Horacio got up and went to the Vatican. We went to the Sistine Chapel first, and got in without waiting in any line which was nice. Then we went through the complex maze of rooms in the museum to get to the Sistine Chapel. The museum had the most art I have ever seen in such a small amount of space. The walls and ceilings are line with thousands of pieces that date back hundreds of years, all with religious meaning to them. Just the amount of artwork, as well as the ornateness of all the rooms and such was pretty amazing. Finally we found ourselves in the Sistine Chapel where you can't make noise and you can't take pictures. The security was extremely strict and would yell at anyone who broke the rules.

In the back of the chapel there are two exits. One is for the
tourists, and one is for the guided tours. The tourist one is on the
left, and the guided tours one is on the right. The tourist one (from what I
understand) goes outside and then you have to wait in line to get into St.
Peter's Basillica. The right door goes right into the Basillica. So we snuck
into the right one and skipped the line, which was a good idea because the line
was HUGE. It wasn't even a ticket line, it was a security checkpoint line, and we had already gone through security when we went into the Sistine Chapel and they had confiscated all my bombs and knives and my 9.

So the Basillica of St. Peter was by far the largest church I have ever been in, and was just unbelievable in the amount of sheer wealth that the place displays. Massive marble columns and statues were everywhere, and there was a huge altar with four spiraling pillars in the center of St. Peter's grave. It was both awe inspiring and nauseating at the same time. Everything was so amazing and beautiful and so unneccessary.

So we went through the Basillica, and then Rainer had to leave to catch his flight back to Austria where he works for the Austrian government in there refugee division. So Natalie, her boyfriend, Jung and I went and got some food and then met up with Horacio again at the Pantheon. We then made our way back to the hostel and hung out on the rooftop terrace and went to bed.

Today, I got up, said my goodbyes, and left for Napoli, and city that is under the control of the mafia and just two weeks ago was experiencing riots in some parts of the city. It was great meeting those people from the hostel. Natalie, her boyfriend, and Horacio were planning on going to Florence for a week, and because I have time I plan on going back to Florence to hopefully meet up with them again!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mdfarjr/1/1223821920/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mdfarjr/1/1223821920/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mdfarjr/1/1223821920/tpod.html Tue, 14 Oct 2008 10:53:45 -0400 To Europe!

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Riccione, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Sadly, I no longer have free internet connection, so from now on entries will only appear when I have some extra time and euros. I spent a couple of days in Bologna, which was a nice city. I was hosted by Tamara, and spent much of the time either waltzing through the streets of Bologna, or playing with Tamara's baby kittens.

Bologna was an interesting city. I climbed the tallest tower in the city, a total of 498 steps, which gave a wonderful panoramic view of this city who's streets are laid out like a spider web. On the first morning of my stay I wandered into the Piazza del Nettuno, to see the famous Fountain of Neptune, and there were student protests going on. I'm not exactly sure what the issue was, but it had something to do with recent changes that the government was making to the education system.

While in Bologna I went to two museums, the Civic Museum of Archeology and the Civic Museum of Medieval History. The Medieval history one was ten times better, it was much more organized and easy to travel from exhibit to exhibit. In the archeology museum I couldn't tell which way to go, there didn't seem to be any sort of specified path, yet the exhibits were divided up into different time periods (and I like to go chronologically).

After Bologna, I went to a small town called Riccione, which is the sister-town to Rimini, the Cancun of Italy. Fortunately, it was the off-season, when the population drops down to its normal 20,000 (in the summer it swells to 250,000). In Riccione, I stayed with Phil and Sara, a really really nice couple. Phil has been all over the world, and was a very nice and laid back guy.

We went to San Marino, which is another super touristy area, filled with over-priced food and shopping ventures. It was up on this huge hill, and there was an awesome view of the Italian landscape.

After San Marino, we went to a truffle festival! (the fungus, not the dessert). It's one of the most expensive foods, and at the festival you could get free samples of truffle spreads, truffle cheese, and truffle salami. They were absolutely delicious. We had a lot of fun chatting and getting to know eachother.

Unfortunately, I only stayed with them one night, because I had a train to catch to my next destination. Florence!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mdfarjr/1/1223575080/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mdfarjr/1/1223575080/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mdfarjr/1/1223575080/tpod.html Thu, 09 Oct 2008 17:57:59 -0400 To Europe!

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Genoa, Italian Riviera, Italy

So for two nights I stayed in Genoa and couchsurfed with Franco, a very kind accountant (and ladies, he's single!). Genoa is an amazingly beautiful city, its spread out along the coast of the Mediterranean Ocean, and has the largest aquarium in Europe. The landscape around Genoa is very hilly, and the city extends from the coast up to the tops of the first set of hills overlooking the ocean. It's a port city, and you can see large barges anchored off the coast, along with massive cruise ships parked in the center port that is in the heart of the city.

The streets are your typical Italian size: narrow. Unlike Torino, which, due to its close proximity to France, has French style streets (wide), Genoa has your typical ancient, narrow, wind-ey streets. Fortunately, the tourist office offers a very accurate and helpful map of the center of Genoa. I would show it to you when I get back, but I lost it. However, not after I was done exploring the amazing Genoa center.

Genova is famous for being the birthplace of Pesto, and last night Franco made me a delicious dinner that included some excellant pesto. We talked a lot about the economic situation in the states (who isn't?), and his mother even called him to ask if they should be worrying about some of their stocks (they're invested in some big italian banks).
People here are just as worried as people at home.

The aquarium was spectacular, they had a 3d movie about sharks. Strangely enough (for an aquarium) they had multiple exhibits dedicated to land animals. They even had a 'hummingbird' forest that I went into. The birds were all perched the entire time I was in there, and they just made a lot of noise.

After the aquarium, I went back to Franco's apartment, which is located in the nicest neighborhood in Genova called Nervi. His apartment is a 2 min. walk from this boardwalk-like structure that's really more of a stonewalk. The Genovan coast is very cliffy and rocky, and the walkway goes along the cliffs some ways before heading down to a stone beach. There I went swimming in the ocean. The water was excellent, way warmer than Skaneateles, and I felt so buoyant. It was very refreshing. When I walked out a woman came up and asked me if the water was cold (Ha fredo? Ha fredo?) I said no so she got changed right there and then went in for a dip. As I walked home, the stone wall to my right radiated out the heat it had been absorbing all day from the sun and it felt very nice.

I had a great time in Genoa, it was a gorgeous port city. Now I'm to head inward to Bologna, a city famous for having the first university in Europe (in 1088) and for having excellent food (tortellini).

P.S. It has come to my attention that my father is distributing fake photos of me on my journeys. I have only sent back one true photo, and here it is:
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