People frolicking in front of the walls of Budva, Montenegro

History

History has probably gotten a bad rap. Mentally it gets associated with memorizing dates and the names of dead people. It is the school subject of things that no one cares about any more. As much as math is hated, it at least comes up regularly in daily life. History is somehow more avoidable. This is especially true without travel. If you live in a small town, what does it matter to your daily life if something happened 500 years ago half a world away?

So yeah, I associate history with school and classes and tests. Sitting in a windowless fluorescent lit room staring at an overhead projector to copy down numbers and names. I can’t really blame them for doing it like that. The aim is to get kids to pass a test. I don’t think it’s right though. History IS important for people to become engaged in the world.

Story

For me getting into history is about finding a story amongst the facts. It is the step beyond the raw numbers and facts and getting a feel of the why. It is understanding the reasons behind things and what it felt like to do them. The story aspect of history is where travel comes into play really heavily. If you can walk around and see things they become more real and give to the story of a place.

Reading about Venice and the crusades is one thing. Memorizing that in year blah blah Venice was the stepping off point for tons of troops to go fight in the Holy Land. Ok, fine. Movies help to engage as well, but often get it wrong for entertainment reasons. The boring bits are cut out and other details glossed over. Things like Venice building up a set of cities one day’s sail apart along the coast. These were the supply depots and stopping off points in what is now Croatia.

Now, this is more a story. To walk through fortified port towns that are paved with Venetian marble. To see several different cities in a week that share similar architecture and yet have their character. Ok, yeah I was on vacation not on my way to war, but it was cool to think about 1000 years ago these men seeing very similar shores and cities.

Stories inspire travel

So back to the original question about whether knowing history of a place helps me want to go there. Sometimes the story aspects of it do. The point of saying stories instead of just history is that often the stories can be of modern origin. I really want to do the Trans Siberian railway like Katie did, but not because of the history of Russia stretching out, but because it just sounds cool.

More often than not I fall into the history as I travel, as opposed to seeking it out. I picked this Croatian cruise because it sounded like something that not too many people have done and let me enjoy a week in the warm. The whole connection with the crusaders and Venetian architecture came while I was on the trip. So I was able to get into the stories and history while I was there, but didn’t know much about it before.

I’m more than happy to seek out the stories and connections of a place once I have decided to go there, but it is not often the driving force in my travel decision making. The thoughts go a bit more like “I’ve heard of X, lets go there. Oh cool, there are some cool stories about it.”

Destinations in the East

As much as I have traveled in Europe, I have been only in the edge of the East: Czech Republic, Hungary and Croatia. I really want to go back to Hungary. The one time I was there was so long ago and pre-digital camera era. I don’t really know so much more about it historically, but I still want to go. I’ve been to Prague a number of times and always enjoy it, but I think the next time I head back that way I will make a tour of the spa towns out in the countryside. The spa towns that all have both German and Czech names because at one point some German culture ruled here. I don’t know when or why, but I can see the connections in the names and architecture

The Croatia cruise was awesome. It was designed to be a relaxing drink- and sun-filled week. It was not a history tour, but I found some of that there. I definitely want to go back and see more stuff. I’ve been to Venice recently and would like to compare the cities more.

These are the places I have been, and yet the rest of the East definitely is on the list to go to. Not as much because of history, but because of the cool places to see and the stories that are there to discover.

All of my answers for the challenge can be found under the category Challenges.

History vs Story – Indie Travel Challenge is a feed post from Grounded Traveler.

North Station, Valencia, Spain

The question is why? What is it about train travel that captivates the imagination of travelers? What about it makes the word “romantic” so apt?

Trains represent a journey

Trains mean a journey. They signify one. The train trip itself FEELS like a journey. As much as I would welcome teleportation, I still believe in that world, trains will retain their romantic notions because of that sense of travel. There is a feeling of travel while sitting in a train that is unique.

The scenery flows past in a way that is not present in an airplane. And when you are driving yourself, you have to pay attention, so you can’t gaze whimsically at the landscape. Even as a passenger, it feels different in a car than in a train.

They offer a social atmosphere

Trains are a communal travel experience. This is a group of people all going in the same direction. We are in this journey together for a certain amount of time. You instantly have something in common with a fellow passenger. Are you going all the way to Berlin? No, just to Dresden, then? Did you get on at Freiburg too? Really, from Switzerland?

There is no time pressure, because the train will get there when it gets there.You don’t have anywhere to go. Well you do, but you are in fact going there already, so the urge to go faster sort of dissipates.

The best trains for a social experience are the ones with cabins. A few people in a journey for a few hours in a isolation from the outside world. Conversations start up and change as people come and go. Even in the big open trains with 4 seats around a table, that provides a good way to talk to people. Failing that, the bistro car with a beer is a good place to relax as well. Even if you have to bring your own, you can eat plenty on a journey.

Ok, airplanes are communal too, but not in a good way. You are crammed in and can’t really move. It is a shared torture rather than a communal journey. The seats are tiny and you are encouraged not to move. Even in order to talk to the person next to you you have to turn your head. There is never a conversation with more than 2 due to space and the in-flight entertainment sucks you in. It is really not an atmosphere to relax and socialize in. Especially not for me with the fear.

Cars are not as crammed, but it is often about going faster to get where you are going. No bathroom breaks and the social aspects are drowned out by the stereo.

Gin, Tonic and Chocolate. Who could ask for a more social snack.

There is a sense of mystery around them

A black and white movie scene where the heroine is about to leave on the train and sees her lover through the crowds. Several great fight scenes in Indiana Jones are on trains. The Mummy as well. Some of the sense of mystery is centered around the time when trains where in their heyday, but literature and movies help heighten that sense. Travel itself was mysterious. Trains represented this travel and gained a cloak of mystery. You never know who you will meet. What far off places you will find?

Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express is one of her best known books and uses the mystery of the train to great effect.

First view of the Spanish countryside on an overnight train

Engaged Isolation

There is an isolation to trains. You are in your bubble of the train watching the landscape go by during the day or sucking down beers at night waiting for the station announced to be yours. And yet you are still engaged with the world. You know the world outside is there and tangible. Trains go through interesting places and are more connected to the landscape than either a car or airplane. Planes show you vistas you can’t experience in real life. Highways nowadays are ribbons of asphalt as isolated and excluded from the landscape as possible with trees and fences. A train stops at stations and reenters reality briefly before plunging out across the fanciful landscape again.

Experiences?

Night trains are my best stories.

• In Florence with friends we ate at a cool little restaurant before I had to head out home. We mis-read the Italian and instead of bruschetta with tomatoes we ended up with liver. We made a big joke out of it. Then I left my friends and got on a train. Happens that in my cabin where a pair of sisters that recognized me from the restaurant because they were sitting next to us.
• I did a 24 hour night train from Paris to Madrid a number of years ago. Met a Russian guy and his American girlfriend. We happened across a Columbian and a guy from Peru. The 5 of us stood in the area between the trains until 3am talking about travel.
• Numerous occasions to have really great conversations with people in the seat across from me. Businessmen, musicians, students and engineers. Each has their stories.
• I rode the train to Croatia and back. On the way there, I met an Australian businessman who was part Croatian. He talked about his vacation there every year and told me about his life. Coming home I met a young couple who had been studying in Germany on my night train.
• The best conversation I can remember came on a train from Munich back to Freiburg years ago as a student. I have no clue how the conversation started, but this phrase came up a couple of times. Airplanes move too fast, the soul can’t travel that fast.

Taieri Gorge Train going slowly

The Soul Can’t Travel That Fast

It was told to me by a German man, who attributed it to native Americans. Although I have heard it several times, it always seems to be a German giving credit to the Native Americans. Maybe this is the great wisdom about trains. They allow the soul to travel along at a speed it is comfortable with, room to breath and time to contemplate the journey.

Maybe jetlag is just the soul trying to catch up.

All of my answers for the challenge can be found under the category Challenges.

Romance of Train Travel – Indie Travel Challenge is a feed post from Grounded Traveler.

A photo that…takes my breath away

On my way to New Zealand, I did a full day layover in Hong Kong. This machine was in the ferry terminal and seemed to sell cigarettes yet actively advocate reducing smoking with “Less is cool” across the top. Although I don’t smoke, I really don’t feel like breathing around those that do.

 A photo that…makes me laugh or smile

I have no clue what I was grinning at. I remember it was really freaking cold up there at the Edinburgh castle. We had decided not to do the castle tour and find a cafe instead. I still wanted a picture of myself, so I turned the camera on myself and grinned. It still makes me smile looking at it.

A photo that…makes me dream

One of my first day’s in Germany I was walking around Dortmund and found this guy. I had seen cities that commissioned statues of animals to be painted by local artists and sponsored by local businesses. Dortmund apparently picked the flying rhino. It is a rare breed, only seen in the sleepy eyes of a dreamer. For when rhinos can fly, they are safe from poachers and pigs are soon to follow.

A photo that…makes me think

Kalampaka, Greece was my favorite part of the mainland half of my Greek vacation. This town huddles under the rock spires of Meteora. Though many tourist likely just speed through on their tour bus, the town had some neat sites. Like a Byzantine era church that was halfway up the hill. No not that church, our church is on another hill. I think this must have been a long term problem for the sign to be so rusty.

A photo that…makes my mouth water

Mmmm donuts. We found this in a mall in Valencia, Spain. Ali, Val, Jaime and I were taking refuge from the rain in a mall across from the museum island and looking for paella for lunch. This wonderfully named place swam into view. No, we didn’t eat there, but it looks so much like Dunkin Donots from the US. Mmmm maple glazed goodness, mouth watering.

A photo that…tells a story

Once upon a time, before I become a blogger, I journeyed to Ferrara, Italy to visit some friends on my way to vacation in Croatia. It just happened that the busker festival was in town at the same time. So I watched buskers in the evenings. These two guys played sax and danced ahd a whole routine of skits. They were also under the window of my hotel. So I watched the whole skit in different pieces, where the one guy distracts the other to pantomime taking the guitar case of money away.

A photo that…I am most proud of (aka my worthy of National Geographic shot)

Seriously, this is one of my favorite pictures from Santorini. The color is perfect with the various blues of the ocean, the mountains and the characteristic blue dome. There is enough of each feature for it to be clear where it is. And yet the wide expanse of sky and water show the great open field. Add the near miss on my self portrait, squinty eyed of course, and the wonky angle and it just turns so cool.

Tagging Along

Thanks to my wife, Ali, for tagging me. I’ll pass the tag along to a few more.

• Jannell at Travel Junkie World Tours
• Ashley at No Onions Extra Pickles (she tagged me for the ABCs list)
• Laurel at Monkeys and Mountains
• Sabrina at Country Skipper

My Goofy 7 Super Shots is a feed post from Grounded Traveler.

Alone at Carnevale

This empty Heineken was found perched on a pillar in Venice. We were there during Carnevale this year and I can just imagine the number of drinkers amongst the night time revelry.

Just Hanging Out

I went out one sunny winter Saturday to get some pictures with my nice camera. I found this guy just hanging out on the way to the tram stop. Rothaus is a local beer from up in the forest.

Do you find junk interesting?

Beer Junk Art is a feed post from Grounded Traveler.

The prompt asks for ways to travel in Europe budget friendly. Here are some of my thoughts, most come from my student time when the budget and not the vacation time was the big limiter to travel.

Athens

Study Abroad

Seriously, if you are still a student and can get a study abroad program through your school, do it. It gives you a ready group of people to travel with, the schools usually get great deals on housing and university cities always have cheap eats somewhere in town.

Pick a program that gives you weekends off to take the insane long night trains to see awesome things. A couple of months in the summer doing classes in the week and trips on the weekends can get you such a wide view of the continent for cheap, especially if you count the credits that often transfer back. Most people I know that really got into travel, did it through study abroad. And this is one aspect where the popularity of Europe works for it, there are plenty of mature relationships between the universities.

Language School

I have written about it several times, so not much more here. But language schools, similar to study abroad, can offer a lot at a smaller price often helping to arrange housing. This can be a good way to start a backpacking trip to get acclimatized or as a week of no motion in the middle of a longer trip.

• Learning While Traveling
• Traveling Slow with Language Schools

Paris

Ok, so you are here..

Save on Transport : Book trains a week ahead of time. In a lot of countries, you can get good deals if you book ahead of time. The most expensive ticket is going to be the one you buy from the machine an hour before the train goes.

Avoid Switzerland : As beautiful as it is, if you are trying to save money Switzerland is not your place. It is the most expensive place in the center of Europe. If you decide to do Switzerland (and it is truly beautiful), just realize that it is pricy. That said, there are ways to do it for cheaper. The Matterhorn has an Italian side. A lot of German speaking Switzerland can be done as day trips from Germany.

Don’t avoid something you want to do just because of the price : This is your trip and your life. See what you want to see. If it means eating a few PB&J‘s instead of steaks or pasta in the hostel AGAIN to see cool stuff do it. Although a budget is important, don’t skip things because of money. You can always make more money, memories are more difficult.

Even though it was touristy and spendy, I loved climbing the Tower at Pisa.

Travel Slowly

This seems to be becoming one of my mantra’s. Take your time and see things. Find a place to spend a week in an apartment, cook your own meals from the market and do day trips to see everything within reach before moving on. This will most likely end up cheaper than one day here and the next day over there. It does mean you see less of the width of the place, but more of the depth.

I see the big tour buses and get exhausted just thinking about being on them.  It’s less the crowd (although not my favorite thing either), but more the speed. How do I know I remember seeing anything specific after seeing so much.

Either you will like the travel and be ok to go back to see somewhere else or you won’t like travel and be ok not having seen other places.

All of my answers for the challenge can be found under the category Challenges.

Freezing cold in front of the Loch Ness

Planning for Europe – Indie Travel Challenge is a feed post from Grounded Traveler.

Bologna is my top choice for Indie Italy

Coming to Germany I wanted to learn another language so I started on Italian. After six months I really got into it and one of my first vacations was a week language school trip to Bologna. I feel in love with the city and have since gone back several times. It has a very old university so the town has both a historic demeanor and tons to students to keep it young and happening. Although I haven’t made it south of Pisa, Bologna is still my favorite Italian city by far.

You know, pasta with meat-sauce? Called Bolognese Sauce all over Europe? Yup, that is from Bologna. The city is also well known for tortellini of all shapes and sizes. This makes it a cool smallish (walkable) student town with great food. Although you certainly can find upscale things, heading into the student quarter or just asking around can net you cheap eats too. Or do a round of apertivos drinking and sampling as you go.

Do a language class for a week or two “instead” of the vacation lying at the beach. You see more in depth and learn something at the same time.

Ferrara

Ferrara was a surprising visit for me. I had never heard of it before I booked my train ticket. I was there visiting a friend I had met playing games online on my way to Croatia. The cool part of this was that we were there during the yearly Busker Fest. This was awesome. Even without the musicians, Ferrara is a great little “unknown” city in Italy. It has a castle and a cathedral and is also a university town.

I got to hang out with a group of Italian gamers for two days. Practice my Italian and realize I can definitely follow along. It warm enough in the day to see how Italians deal (rest in the shade and drink minty green things apparently). The evenings saw lots of buskers doing their thing in the streets, I saw a man with a digital recording thing play a symphony on a single carrot. Below my hotel window were these two guys that played saxophones and danced and had a comedy routine that was hilarious.

Seek out the festivals and be willing to stay ina place off plan to enjoy them. This busker festival had huge crowds, but it was so worth it.

Avoiding the crowds

My favorite places are those without a lot of people, but there are a lot of places in Italy that draw crowds. Start with movies set there and the romantic notions they inspire. In the summer add the tour buses of students and adults alike trying to find the Italian lifestyle in 2 weeks or less. Finish off with thousands of postcards highlighting specific sites and you get a recipe for crowds of people in small corners of a city ignoring the rest. Despite the crowds these places are still worth seeing: the tower at Pisa for example.

My tip on this is to take your postcard pic, do your tourist thing and then get out of that area. Or just get a slightly different perspective and laugh at the hundreds of people holding their hands up in the air near the leaning tower. Most people will go to Pisa and just go straight to the tower field and ignore the rest of the town. This is a shame, Pisa was a pretty cool place to wander. We got away from the field and their souvenir markets and found good cheap food as well.

As another comment in this vein, take a look at nearby sights that are not the main one. We spent a week enjoying stuff near Cinque Terre and only a day in the 5 towns themselves. This was a great trip and as so many people crowd into the “main sights” the nearby ones are less crowded.

 
All of my answers for the challenge can be found under the category Challenges.

Do Italy Slowly – Indie Travel Challenge is a feed post from Grounded Traveler.

Why Islands for Travel?

Isolation? – Sometimes.
Diversity? – Definitely.
Confinement? – Huh?

Diversity of New Zealand in Fiordland park

Islands are by nature isolated. If they were not isolated, they would be peninsulas or, umm, hills. Not to say that they are always out in the middle of nowhere.

Islands are diverse. Even a small one often has beaches, cliffs, forests and mountains. New Zealand is a great example of the diversity of islands. They are so diverse as to become the site of filming for fantasy epics.

Confinement, seriously. I like to wander. I like to see what is around. And yet on an island you can explore the entire thing without necessarily being so far from your hotel. All of the things to see on the island are by definition ON the island. Unless you start doing daytrips with ferries, islands offer the ability to really see every inch of a place if you are so inclined.

Islands in the Sea

The standard island is one that is surrounded by water. Greece is definitely the most island’y of trips I have done recently. I did a week island hopping on a sailboat. As I mentioned above, I really like boats and they usually come with islands nearby.

Hong Kong is an island, but it hardly feels like it amidst the city. New Zealand is so big that the confinement aspect of islands that I enjoy is lost somewhat. Though in the way that kiwi culture has developed into its own feeling, that spirit of isolation makes up for it.

Check out Ali’s look at the Gili Islands in Indonesia too. Quite isolated and confined to relax on the beach.

Islands in the Sky

Also in Greece, land of watery islands, I found some islands in the sky. Meteora was the highlight of the mainland half of my Greece trip. The town of Kalampaka is 4 hours from Athens on the bus. Above it looms spikes of rocks with monasteries on top. When it gets foggy around the spires, they might as well be in the ocean.

Definitely isolated. By nature of being islands of rock above the sky counts as diverse to me. Confinement is there too. Without leaving your spire, you are confined to a small area. So definitely islands to me.

All of my answers for the challenge can be found under the category Challenges.

Islands in the Sea and Sky – Indie Travel Challenge is a feed post from Grounded Traveler.

If you’ve traveled in Asia, what’s your favorite destination? Share a story of one of your best experiences in Asia, or tell us about a place you love.

My first and so far only experience in Asia was Hong Kong. It wasn’t even a full day, more of a really long layover from morning to evening on my way to New Zealand.  I spent roughly 8 hours in the city itself.  But even at hyper speed, I enjoyed my time. More about my day is here and there will be more detailed posts coming.

I got to eat Dim Sum with some really great travel friends from Twitter.

Got to ride a restored Chinese Junk in the harbor.

Rode the longest outdoor escalators.

I even had Starbucks on my second “trip” to Asia, which amounted to 5 hours in the dead of night in the Hong Kong Airport on the way back.

All of my answers for the challenge can be found under the category Challenges.

Traveling to Asia – Indie Travel Challenge is a feed post from Grounded Traveler.

Scottish Highlands, Jan 2010

Winter is for Hibernating

Although I have done my share of winter travels, I think of the season as mostly a time for hibernation.  Time to spend inside warm and snuggled on a couch. It is a great time to catch up on movies and TV (and blog reading). Snow is pretty, but even prettier through a great big window while holding a mug of warmth.

I probably started this during university time. After the Christmas break, school starts up again and is a time of just getting stuff done. Football season is over and spring break is months away. You bundle up to run to class, so it is nice to just find a warm place to hang out and catch up on reading and assignments.

If I had a dream winter destination, it would be…

…definitely sunny and warm. Not hot, but warm, and above all sunny. My least favorite part of winter is the lack of sun. Although Freiburg is the sunniest end of Germany, winters are gray and cloudy more often than not. And the clear days, when they come, are colder. I like the sunlight and it makes me want to hibernate without it.

I am a spring and fall type traveler. Summer ends up usually expensive, hot and crowded. Winter in general is cold and gray. I like watching people when I travel. In the winter, the weather tends to drive people inside and is not conducive to strolling around to be watched. I am definitely not an outdoor adventure person. Give me a bustling plaza and a cafe with shade and I’m happy.

That said, I do like the Christmas season of festivals and markets. And Fasching time in Germany can be a blast.

That said, I definitely have done the cold weather travels..

On the left I am freezing my ass off on the St Andrews coast in Scotland on New Year’s Eve. On the right I am freezing my nose off in Prague, but totally happy to have met Ali just a few hours before.

But despite the insane long flight I like a warm Christmas better, like this sunset in Queenstown, New Zealand just this pas Christmas.

All of my answers for the challenge can be found under the category Challenges.

Winter Is For Hibernation – Indie Travel Challenge is a feed post from Grounded Traveler.

At the corner of Queen Street and Victoria Street, so right down from the Spike.

Ok, the 30 foot Santa is odd enough, but the really creepy part are the reindeer. The antlers are on wrong and they look in pain. Seriously, it’s on a bookstore. Look up how antlers are supposed to be!! Straight on the head. The reindeer are already cut in half missing an ear to be on the building. It took some effort to mount them like that, I imagine.

Creepy Santa And His Deformed Reindeer, Auckland is a feed post from Grounded Traveler.