Responsible Travel

Pop quiz: Who has ever traveled with one of the following two people?

The first, is the "once on vacation, I take advantage of everything/everyone person." This is the type of person who may or may not be an otherwise responsible individual in every day life.... Point is, they go to some country not their own and suddenly think it's okay to litter, tramp on priceless archaeological ruins, and/or become some obnoxious shell of themselves. Yep, this is the guy/gal who gives all travelers a bad name; shortening the life of foreign attractions, and giving a sometimes unforgiveable impression of our culture to other cultures abroad. Thanks for nothing.

The second person is the "site conquering, spastic, list person." Yep, you all know this type. This is the person who the second they arrive in a foreign country is operating off of some invisible list, which apparently gives high marks for crossing off as many sites/destinations as possible (in turn, not actually experiencing any of them). This person is the type who having stood for mere seconds in front of the awe-inspiring site before them is trying to rally the group to head off to the next place on their list. Talk about frustrating. The worst part about this type, is they're also the ones that return from a trip and talk about their "amazing experiences" despite the fact that they didn't take a chance to soak any of them up, learn a thing about the cultures in front of them, or take a deep breath before trying to jam another site in before closing time. As an aside, this is also the person that claims to have been to about 40 countries until you find out that 38 of them are just airports on layovers. Same mentality I suppose.

So, I have a few public service announcements to these two travelers:
1. Eating at a McDonald's in another country does not constitue a foreign cuisine.
2. Staying at a Holiday Inn and taking tours in which you never step foot off an air-conditioned bus, does not constitute traveling anywhere, let alone experiencing culture.
3. Embrace different.
4. If you can't in your own country: Throw garbage on the ground, touch pictures in a museum, climb all over priceless artifacts, don't do it abroad either.
5. Checklists are only good for buying groceries. Read more...

Where in the world is.......

Have you let you mind wonder and thought about where in the world you would go if you could go anywhere? and I don't mean places like the playboy mansion (for all you dirty boys out there), i mean actual travel destinations. now to make this a true fantasy vacation some things cannot be a concern:

1. money is no option, no matter how extravagant the trip is.
2. your boss will gladly give you ample time off and smile while giving you the news.
3. a magic elf comes and packs all your bags. (is this just my fantasy?)

after much consideration, my dream trip would be to go on a private jet around the world. abercrombie and kent, has this trip which is 25 days long and stops at nine wonders of the world. this tour is so good, they have literally created two more wonders in the world. plus, it has all the right fantasy criteria: expensive....yes, very. exclusive...of course. possible.... not unless i marry a ailing billionaire.

the brilliance of this trip is you are able to see some of the world's most amazing places all in one trip. and lets be honest with ourselves, it is on a private jet people!

so my question to all of you...what is your dream vacation look like? do you want to spend a week getting private massages on a private beach, have a romantic rendezvous with your honey in the streets of paris, travel to peru and witness the majesty of machu picchu or maybe just eat your way through italy? let me know what your dream VK looks like. Read more...

A Table for Two...

Someone posed a question the other day as to the most romantic place/city in the world. It got me thinking about my own travels. Now, for the record, I have never actually been out of the country with a girlfriend. So, the hypothetical Chris thinks the following....

Let's start with a short-list of places that aren't on the list:
1. The Prague train station. Seriously, is there a place in all of Europe you'd rather not be? I'd say the likelihood of seeing: A. A rat; B. A sketchy transaction; or C. Something transpire that will in short order put your life in danger, are all quite likely. In fact, if one were to ever bring a date/spouse/or crush into that station with hopes of anything romantic, you'd be quickly left on one of those unsanitary benches to debate what went wrong.
2. The gate/warehouse at the Rafah crossing point in Palestine: For all of you adventure seekers out there: If you'd like to impress someone with glorious new sites and experiences, let it not be here (unless you like sitting on foreign concrete with water dripping on your head).
3. Khao San Road, Thailand: Fake purses: Check. Tiger beer: Check, check. General mayhem: Check, check, check. Romantic evening on a patio of a local eatery: Abort.
4. A falafel stand in Luxor, Egypt: For any of you wondering what this romatic evening may look like, I'll give you a peak:
"I'd like two falafel's please. Can I also have one of those tables with a candle?"
Falafel man: "Those tables are plastic, and the legs are broken."
"Oh, in that case, can I get the tinfoil shaped into a little swan?"
Falafel man: "What's swan"
"Ahh, forget it"
(Your date gets run over by another mobile falafel stand making a bee-line for the crowd of people)
"Those are nice tire treads on your calf, honey"

Now for the romantic out there, here's a shortlist of some well-known and not so well-known places to take your significant other:
1. Koh Phi Phi Island, Thailand. Stay at the Phi Phi Natural Resort on the Northern-most part at Laem Tong. Ask for a bungalow near their private beach. Trust me on this one.
2. Venice at night. Any restaurant near the water. Enough said.
3. Petra, Jordan. Aside from the ancient city, stay in present-day Petra. When night falls and the musician's come out, soak the night away on the street with some Arabian tea and feta salad by candlelight.
4. Crepes at dusk on the back side of the Basilique Sacré-Coeur, Paris.
5. Quadra Island, British Columbia. Haven't heard of it? Find it, and take your significant other there with a backpack, canoe, and a tent. You'll never find silence quite like it.
6. Hypostyle Hall, Karnak Temple in Luxor (at night). Bring a sandwich and hang out at the base of the far columns.
7. Casita restaurant, Tokyo, Japan.

Where are your favorite overseas romantic or non-romantic places? Respond to the post and let us know! Read more...

reasons not to see the museum of torture

our last day in prague was phenomenal. we visited the schloss (no, this does not refer to a part of the male anatomy) rather it is the german word for castle. we meandered through the city, making a 40 minute stop for coffee.....getting the check in czech is not easy. And finally ended up stopping at the museum of torture. this 'museum', is to say the least, disturbing and specifically designed for tourists. The three floor building houses replicas of some of the most widely used torture devises used in europe, with corresponding drawings and written descriptions in about 12 languages.

i wanted to vomit, dan on the other hand took pictures :)

not to say the museum is all bad.... you leave with certain hope that at least humanity has somewhat progressed since the middle ages. however, i don't think it is possible to leave without a certain feeling of revulsion of the thought of what people are capable of doing to one another.

anyway...back to the schloss. so we climbed up to the palace, which is still a working palace for the government, so much of it is not available to tourists. the church from the 13th century is, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful in europe. it was breathtaking. it was only off-putting by the Japanese tour group in front of us and the german tour occurring behind us. tours can be a fantastic way to learn about the history of a location, but it is hard to feel the sanctuary of a church with chatty people in all directions. not to mention, japanese tourists really enjoying taking pictures. i kept seeing flashes every time i turned around!

after the church dan and I sat in the courtyard on a bench for a while, to simply digest the day. It was beautiful to sit in the shadow of this famous church as the sun went down behind us. moments like this one always seem to give me reverence for how wonderful europe is. there is no place in the world like it. i felt lucky to be able to share such a powerful moment with daniel. sorry.... reminiscing is making me somewhat cheesy.

on our way down, we took some goofy pictures and just had a great time. dan jumped up on the rampart wall ...I was convinced, with all his grace, he was going to fall over the other side. good thing he did not, because the fall was considerable and when my friends sarah's bf fell off a wall, well..... it did nothing good for their relationship! we also met a really funny guy from iceland. he was wearing a t-shirt in 40 degree weather and looked like he could bench a volkswagen bus.

that night we had our last dinner in europe (except the one in the munich airport, which frankly does not count). it was the perfect end to our trip. Read more...

one fine day in prague

dan and i woke up early after our first extaordinarily uneventful night in prague. because our train did not get into the station until 10:45 pm the night before we ended up staying in a hotel WAY outside the city. After gettting completely ripped off for a taxi to our hotel, we made our way out onto the streets to have a look at the city. note: residential prague is not all that exciting. we never did find a place to go have a drink, so we eneded up buying a bottle of wine and drinking about half a glass in our room.

however, yesteday we did make the most of the city. we are still located on the outskirts which means our daily walk into the the old part of Prague is about 30 minutes, it is not so bad going in (as it is all down-hill) but coming back is another story. After a day of walking around and taking in the sites, we decided to take a tour in conjunction with a boat tour down the vltava. my original thought was it would be terribly romantic, a lovely dinner down the river complete with drinks.

however,it did not exactly work that way. first there were too many people on the tour, so there was not enough room on the bus. So we were moved to a regular van in the back seat for our initial tour of the city. the problem with this scenario was that you could not see anything which the guide was talking about! after about 20 minutes of this, i fell asleep on dan's shoulder. finally we get to the boat and embarked down the river. we missed all of the really beautiful parts right in the beginning becuase the guide was making us pay for the tour. Our romantic meal was a bit spoiled by the fact that our wacky vidal sasoon haired guide came to sit with us. He reminded me of prince charming from shrek.....he was quite taken with himself and his flowing blond locks. Dan had a complete laughing break down watching him eat a banana. the entire situtation was ridiculous.

so, to paint the scene, we are in a fairly small boat no longer than 24 feet long to 12 feet wide. we dock and this old man with an accordion gets on. he sits directly across from us and starts playing. immediately, we lose all ability to hear each other and all we can hear is the accordion. so we made a brief appearance on top of the ship, where it was about 30 degrees until I could not take the cold and we went back down. the rest of the boat ride consisted of us moving up and down until we could no longer stand it. i was so ready for the boat to dock at the end, i considered jumping off and swimming to shore!

all in all prague was wonderful and we have another day in front of us. funny stories like this one make the memories hilarious to remember. Read more...

oktoberfest...second time is a charm

blogging in germany is harder than one might think. the f-ing german computers hate me. anyway....back to the real news! so after our first feeble attempt to experience oktoberfest, we decided to go back and this time is was so much better! as i have said before, i think a lot of things are fate and our random seating in the tent was one of them. these three woman sat down next to us and immediately began to speak to us in flawless english. not only that, but the younger girl just returned from a home-stay program in the united states....and where was she in the united states you ask? ontario, california. about 10 minutes from where dan and it went to college! she was telling us how much she loved montclair plaza (the main shopping mall in the area) it was crazy!

needless to say, we shared some radishes and beer. yes, radishes. a random thing to eat, but evidently part of the bavarian tradition. after that fun encounter, we headed off on some rides and then back to the lowenbrau tent where we sat on the second story overlooking oktoberfest, it was beautiful. dan was considerably intoxicated by that time which made the entire scene much more fun.

one interesting part about oktoberfest is all the traditional aspects which the majority of germans follow. for instance they have these cookies which are made from gingerbread and have sayings written on the front of them in icing. you wear the cookies around your neck.....well the girls wear the cookies around their neck. they say things like .....oktoberfest, i love you, kisses, etc. we referred to them as love cookies, although we have no idea what they are really called. dan bought me one which says ``ich habe dich sooo lieb``....we think this means, i have so much love for you, but in reality we are not all that sure.

so all in all...oktoberfest was rad. Read more...

neuschwanstein castle

yesterday was simply amazing. i truly believe fate plays some type of roll in everything. perhaps reilly was supposed to eat my passport so i could not go to peru and instead i end up seeing
beautiful bavaria. we got up to go on a tour to neuschwanstein castle and when we got there, they
told us it was closed. however, dan somehow managed to charm his way onto the tour and by default
i got to go too. it was brilliant! the castle itself looks like it belongs in a fairytale. the
hike to the casle was almost better, directly through the german alps with scenic views of the
valley to one side and waterfalls to the other. our guide, valerie, was this hilarious british
woman and the best part was that she loved dan. he (of course) made some wise crack early on which
she thought was funny and he became her instant favorite. it was great because she gave us a lot
more historical information about the castle and king ludwig.

although i have greatly enjoyed munich, it made me really excited to get out of the big city and
see some of the smaller towns with less people. the weather has been fantastic, i feel as if i am
in southern california......but with more germans :) Read more...

Oktoberfest Take 1

message from jessica:

so i think i might be getting old. our flght to europe was not as easy as i remember and lack of
sleep combined with german beer made the entire situation that much worse. after getting one
night sleep and a fair amount of coffee, i was feeling prepared to brave oktoberfest. i knew i
was in for an interesting time after seeing 50 year old men in lederhosen stumbling out of the
gates singing in german at the top of their lungs.

walking into the largest beer tent at the festival, schottenhammel, i could not have imagined so
many people in one collapsable tent. with over 500 tables surrounding a band in the middle, the
place was packed without a vacant seat to be found. those more rowdy attendees where literally
dancing on their seats or tables swinging giant steins of beer. speaking of the steins........the
waitresses carry about 15-20 steins at one time! and believe me, they do not take kindly to dumb
tourists walking aimlessly in their way.

after a short and kinda frustrating attempt to find seating, we ended up leaving and just heading
to a bar down the street. i am certainly not brave enough to ask a group of rowdy germans to
kindly move over and make room for the american tourists.

as for today, we are headed to neuschwanstein castle approximately, 2 hours outside munich. i will
fill you all in later about it. hope you are all well. cheers!

a message from daniel thomas.....

The highlight of my evening was a food and beer tour that took us to the oktoberfest museum where
we learned the history of the festival and sampled the different kinds of German beer. Working for
Yard House I was obviously intrigued at how beer is such a part of Bavarian culture. People
respect the tradition of beer here and, although there were several people who drank too much at
oktobefest, everyone was so happy. All I could keep thinking was how a festival like this in the
states would probably result in rioting and fighting. Here eveyone has too much reverance and
people are happy drunks! Anyhow, we ended the tour at the beer pub where hefeweizen was born and
my enthusiasm was shown in how fast by beer(s) seemed to disappear. We met a couple from New
Zealand and spent the rest of the night drinking and sharing stories with them. We found out that
they were going on a 'Ghost Tour' of the city to its supposedly haunted places. We decided to join
them. It was not scary. It went something like this: 'This used to be an evil torture chamber.
It's not here anymore but it was on this spot.' You know that when a tour is free and every German
walking by is mocking your guide it detracts from the horrific ambiance. After several jokes in
Jessica's ear about how scary the 'Puma` store she was trying not to ruin everyone´s
terrifying moment but couldnt stop laughing. So we did what any responsible American would do and
decided to sneak away from the tour with our new Kiwi friends and drink more beers. All in all...
a great evening. Read more...