If you’ve ever flown from the United States to Germany you probably took a “red eye” flight, tired from your day at home, but equally excited to touch ground and get those feet on European soil. Well, this was how I’d spend the better part of my last weekend, starting Saturday night. I first flew to Amsterdam, where I had a few hour layover, and then on to Hanover, in northern Germany. From Hanover I got in my rental car and drive about an hour to my final destination, where I had to promptly get ready to start the work week abroad. Before having to turn myself over to work, though, I was determined to do something exciting before the end of the weekend.

Imagine sitting at home chatting with your significant other about your next travel destination. With a warm cup of coffee in hand, you both talk of exotic popular places that could be your next stop–maybe Hawaii, Aruba or even that European spot you want to experience for a first or even a repeated time. I get it, I’ve been there.  What you probably haven’t found yourself saying is “Gee honey, I really think the get-away we’d enjoy most would be to Chattanooga, TN.” But just yesterday, I told my wife that I wish she could join me on my next trip to TN, because it has way more to offer than I had anticipated. But Chattanooga?

Thanks to my daughter’s athletic talent we get to travel a lot to see her play. This time it took us to Milwaukee, WI. The weather was a gorgeous 70-some degrees and sunny pretty much all weekend and her team kicked butt. What did we do other than watch soccer games you might ask?

Where is Moran, MI you may ask? Well it is in the UP! A place that I admittedly have not explored much even though it is a part of my home state! It was only a 4 day trip but it definitely hit the perfect ratio of relaxation, exploration, and laughs…many many laughs!

Friday we went to the Big Beach. At this point in the trip our daughter was really getting into the boogie boarding and we thought let’s give her some big waves at the Big Beach. Unfortunately, she came back after just a few minutes as one of the waves had pummeled her. A few minutes later someone came on a portable loudspeaker telling the beach-goers that the waves are breaking hard at the shore and it was unsafe to board. Whoops! That was a bit of a bummer but we hung out on the beach for a while anyway and watched the crazies that chose to ignore the warnings.

Wednesday was day three on Maui for us and something very rare happened that day. Both my wife and I cooked a meal together. Our daughter was quick to take a picture of this obviously noteworthy moment. Unfortunately I had to go to the dr due to an infected hang nail and sat out of the going to the beach with my family this day but I did make a turn around for evening festivities. I just needed a little treat to make me feel better. If you’ve been to Hawai’i maybe you guessed that the treat I’m talking about is called “shave ice.” I will say that there was day’s of arguing with my wife whether the correct term was “shaved ice” or “shave ice” but in the end I was atypically right with “shave ice.” Sometimes grammar loses.

We arrived Sunday evening to some rain and really only had time to pick up some take out and head to the condo we rented in North Kihei. Monday morning was our first full day. With the 5 hour time difference we were waking up naturally at about 4am which lent itself nicely to watching the sun rise over Haleakala from our balcony.

Our first morning was nearly a picture perfect Caribbean day. After waking up we went directly to the balcony to see the view. Since our hotel was situated on a corner, every room had an ocean view. Some rooms faced the hotel beach area while ours faced the bay and also gave us a nice view of the capital, Bridgetown. Eager to get some color we brought books and sun tan lotion down to the beach. We sat, laid, lounged and swam a bit with a few tasty rum drinks here and there. For the most part it was a wonderfully lazy day. The most exciting part of the day was in almost losing my Maui Jim sunglasses. Being an expensive gift, I only really wear them on vacation thinking that will make me less likely to lose them – ha!  We searched for them, catching glimpses now and again in between the waves, for about a half an hour. At the point that I was about to give up we heard another tourist say “What an unlikely find!” We quickly ran to him as he was trying on what he might have thought were to be his new sunglasses. He was right about one thing, though. They were an unlikely find indeed. Very glad he was there and that I hadn’t given up yet!

Clearly it has been quite some time since my last post. I appreciate more and more each day the years of travel I was able to pull off in my 20s before settling down to a more grounded and stable existence in my home country, which I, by the way, also treasure. I miss traveling sometimes but also love not having to do the hard work of constantly moving and adjusting to different culture norms all the time. Ok, back to the post at hand. I recently had the pleasure of traveling to Panama City, Panama with my family. If you’re familiar with the weather in this region you might be wondering why we decided to go there during the rainy season. Our primary purpose was not a vacation but rather to take our son for his second round of stem cell treatments to help treat his cerebral palsy. His first round was back in 2009 in China. Although the China trip was very successful we wanted a closer and slightly less time consuming option which turned out to be in Panama.

Day 4 was a special day. Our group rented out the resort’s private island: Palomino Island. I’ve never been on an island with so many fun activities available. Not only could you rent kayaks and jet skis but you could also play ping pong, basketball, volleyball, paddle ball, chess, bean toss, and mini golf. I might even be missing some activities since there were so many! We also had free drinks all day and lunch. Ahhhh…..that was the life I tell ya! I got my butt whooped as usual playing Dad in ping pong. Then Naomi and I decided to try out the jet skis. Before this occasion I had only ever been on the back of one so I was excited to try out driving one. It was a blast at 30 mph. Unfortunately Naomi got a much slower jet ski but didn’t seem to mind too much as I drove circles around her.

That night we had cocktails and dinner outside on a beautiful terrace. Another wonderful vacation day had by all.

For our first full day with the parents we decided to rent a car and venture to the capital city of Old San Juan. The drive was only about an hour and it sure was worth it. Old San Juan is pretty small and we walked through just about the entire city in one afternoon.The highlights? The fortress that still stands around much of the ocean front was very scenic. The cute little houses and cobblestone streets also brought a level of charm that is surely hard to find. At a local restaurant we had our first taste of Mofongo, a Puerto Rican dish that stuffs various meats and/or seafood into mashed plantain. After a leisurely stroll through the city we had some exceptional cocktail at El Toro Salao, a Spanish-Puerto Rican fusion of a bar restaurant. I had a Summer Thyme – nothing beats fresh herbs in a cocktail. Nothing!

On day 2 we were ready to explore. We got up early had breakfast with cafe con leche, of course, and then headed to the lobby to meet up for our tour to the El Yunque Rainforest. As soon as we got on the bus and heard our very lively tour guide speaking English with a strong yet totally understandable Puerto Rican accent, I know it was going to be a good time. This was the kind of tour guide that is clearly entertaining enough to himself that entertaining us is a mere bonus. He told us his name but quickly told us to just call him Tooouer Guyyyyde. Typing doesn’t really do the accent justice but I think you can catch my drift. I really enjoyed his Spanglish in many sentences. It was like he didn’t even realize that he was switching between the two languages. It occurred to me that I’ve never been to a country with such impressive bilingualism. Whenever we got out of the bus he said “Vengan guys!” with which he meant “Come on guys!”

We took our time getting out of bed the first morning and were stunned at the beautiful view out our terrace (see banner picture above). After facebooking our view to make all of our friends jealous, we leisurely headed down to a buffet breakfast. Still tired from the previous work week and our travel day which turned out to be a little longer than expected, we decided our first day in Puerto Rico should be one of pure relaxation. So after taking a few pictures of the surroundings of the El Conquistador Resort we booked a couples massage!! Wow, we both agreed that the two masseuses that worked on us did the absolute best job of releasing our chronic back pain. They were amazing and I wanted to take them home with us so that I don’t have to deal with so much back pain. We definitely took advantage of the foot soaking after the massage which was accompanied by white wine and candied fruit. There we met a nice couple from Atlanta with whom we exchanged exciting travel stories and even some professional tips as the guy was a chef by trade and has been in the restaurant business for 20 some years (opposed to us in our first year!) After that we headed back to the concierge to book a tour to the El Yunque Rainforest the following day.

After a crazy work week and an extra day of work on Saturday, I was not at all looking forward to packing late at night and then getting up at 5:30am to head to the airport BUT when you are headed to Puerto Rico during the most insanely cold and snowy winter of the past decade, it seems like a small sacrifice to make. Getting up at 5:30am is somewhat hard for a non morning person (ein Morgenmuffel as they’d say in German) like myself but then again it is almost better than 7 or 8 am because at 5:30am I don’t really feel like I’ve been fully asleep yet – ha!

After a bit of crazy busy time in 2012, my fiance and I finally managed to get away on a real vacation. Not the kind where you actually have work to do but take a few extra days or hours to see some sites and visit cool places, but the kind where the sole purpose of the trip really is to relax and be away from work – YAY! Since we were looking for some sun in the middle of a Midwestern winter, we decided to head to the Dominican Republic. The flights were just about the right price so that we could cover the costs with the vouchers we received last summer after being bumped off a flight to Austin, TX. Both our leaving and return flights routed us through Atlanta so we took advantage by spending our first night in Atlanta with some close friends. We had a wonderful Spanish tapas dinner in Decatur and lots of relax time and good laughs. The next morning we were off to the sunny skies and beautiful beaches of Punta Cana.

Wow, my last post, of Japan, seems like forever ago. I am happy to say that I finally managed another trip with the justification of going to a work-related conference. No, it was actually a pretty good conference. It had been a long time since I had been to the City of Brotherly Love and this trip, albeit short, ended up being my most thorough Philadelphia trip to date.

From Hiroshima we took the fastest Shinkansen to to Japan’s former capital–Kyoto. We had free time the first night we arrived and I thought I would finally take the opportunity to look for some shoes. Having heard that it is hard to find large shoe sizes here I mistakenly thought it would be easier to find small sizes. No such luck! But we did find some T-Shirts with cool sayings written in Japanese Kanji. I’ve never payed upwards of $40 for a plain T, but I figured I may never return to Japan so what the heck!?!? We ventured out on a bus that night and then ran out of money paying for the fabulously overpriced T-shirts. So we did what we had come accustomed to doing in Japan–we searched for a 7-Eleven where we could take out money without extra charges. Unfortunately we came to find out that we were in the only place in the entire city where there wasn’t a 7-Eleven within a 10 minute walk. I think we must’ve walked for almost an hour before we found one. We were tired and hungry so we did the only logical thing to do. We decided to buy “Chu hi” a wine-cooler like beverage that you can buy in just about any convenience store. Then we got back on the bus to get closer to home before seeking out a restaurant for dinner. We got lost for a few minutes on the way back since the bus dropped us off in a different spot that we got on but at least we were able to make it back to the hotel. At that point we had no energy to go back out and ended up eating a very good yet expensive hotel meal.

Shinkansen! That’s what the Japanese call their fast trains. They also have special names denoting how fast they go. The fastest”bullet train” is called nazomi but we took a slower one for our trip to Hiroshima. From Toyota it took about 2.5 hours because the slower train’s max speed was “only” around 240 km/hr and made several stops in the smaller cities. I was pretty happy about this down time as I was finally able to update this blog for you! After arriving we went on a hunt for the city’s specialty–Okonomiyaki.

The second stop of our Japan-in-10 days-trip was Toyota. What better place to see daily life in a smaller city than the automobile capital of Japan. On our way to Toyota we stopped at a beautiful hotel to eat lunch. The lunch was delicious and the description of it was even better (see picture below). As soon as we arrived in Toyota we did a fairly extensive tour of the plant which was certainly cleaner and more efficient than the US plants I’ve seen. Afterwards we hit the Toyota museum as well. I was disappointed that they didn’t have a Celica (my car) but the Japanese were very appreciative when they heard that I own a Toyota Celica and a Suzuki motorcycle. During my short stay in Japan thus far I’ve noticed that the cost of living is very high but it is interesting to note that the Japanese cars here are still cheaper than the ones in the US. Hmmmm…

After an unfortunately long hiatus I have finally had the opportunity to travel again. This time I was lucky to be able to accompany my girlfriend on a business exchange to Japan. I long thought I would never make it to this distant island of a country but I am so glad the opportunity presented itself because I am really enjoying this beautiful and clean country as well as it’s polite and super friendly culture. And I’ll be honest–I don’t mind the sushi either!

Between living in Austria and moving to Bowling Green I got to have a weekend away with a special person. I had never been to Boston so I was really looking forward to exploring this new city. Unfortunately my allergies had been acting up ever since I got home from Europe and they chose this weekend to turn into pink eye. The weekend therefore went a bit different than planned as I needed to go to a clinic to get medication for my eyes that were nearly swollen shut. BUT I have to say that there were still many good times had. The piers were beautiful and the lobster equally delicious. The park in the middle of Boston was also a very welcoming space with lots of greenery, flowers and a big pond in the middle that had a large section where the public could swim during the day. I went out shopping one day and bought two pairs of jeans. We ate at a wonderful Italian place and a great fish place and I got to meet Naomi’s friend Michelle and her daughter. Every place is better when you can share it with other people! Well Boston it was short lived but i’ll be back and I won’t be there to visit the local clinic again!  (I hope!)

The one day excursion to Quedlinburg and Thale was unfortunately our last and as our luck would have it, it rained AGAIN. Luckily not the whole day though. We had a nice morning and early afternoon in Quedlinburg touring the city and having a lazy lunch. That night we went to Thale and took a chairlift up to see the famous Rosstrappe (hoof print in English). The Rosstrappe itself was less than exciting to me but the view from that spot was pretty spectacular. We ate at a restaurant up top as well and of course we had to have another flaming liquor before returning back to the bus to listen US women’s soccer team kick some butt!!!

After 2 years I was finally able to see my “German son” again. I call him that because he lived with me for a  year between 2008 and 2009 while taking part in the Congress Bundestag Youth Exchange or CBYX Program. I had taken part in this program in Germany back in 2005- 2006 and wanted to be a part of providing that opportunity for someone else. Now back to the trip. The seminar in Leipzig afforded me the chance to visit Thomas in Koblenz, where he is currently living and studying. I was also excited about meeting his parents for the first time in person. We all spent an entire day together at the Bundesgarten (BUGA), which is a festival of flowers that is held in a different city each year in Germany. We saw so many beautiful flowers and arrangements. It was also a spectacularly sunny yet breezy day. His parents were very generous with me — I felt taken care of that day!

Our first official excursion of the conference was to Dresden and Meißen, Germany. I had been to Dresden before but this cold, rainy, windy summer day made the city seem foreign to me. We had a brief city tour for about as long as we all could take it. The wind rendered my “travel” umbrella broken and useless which led to me buying a new expensive cheap “travel” umbrella that may or may not make it through its next trip. Having said that we still saw some neat sites and had a lovely dinner including a flaming liquor!

After my year abroad in Austria I decided to attend a conference in Germany about foreign language testing practices and standards. Admittedly I really wanted to get home already but since I was selected to participate in this 3 week conference at no cost outside of some meals and transportation to and from, I figured I could handle getting home just a little later.

My host mom in Leipzig was about the same age as my 86 year old grandmother and this woman is still living it up I gotta say. She told Sylvia (another participant from the conference who was also being hosted by super-grandma) and I that she couldn’t understand people who get old and feel lonely because she still has a circle of friends of over 30 people that she’s known for 30-40 years. Although struggling with a slight hearing problem she was otherwise impressively sharp and active.

One whole school year has now gone by and I must bid my home in Salzburg adieu. There were many moments that I felt like the year wasn’t going by fast enough but now that it’s done it seems like it did go by fast after all. I can’t say that I miss living in a shoebox but I had adapted. What used to be a nerve racking 15 minute walk to the doener stand at the train station across the street from my dorm is now no longer possible and therefore my doener cravings will not be fulfilled.

Since our school program’s trip of the semester this year was Berlin I made my third appearance in this very large, diverse and historically very interesting city. We went on a long weekend during the public holiday of Christi Himmelfahrt (also known as Ascension Day). My religious beliefs are questionable but I sure wish we had this holiday in the US! Anyways, we went to many museums as well as spending nearly 4 hours on a river tour. I definitely could’ve gotten off after 2 but I’m sure it helped my tan to stay the extra 2. It also have me a chance to have a a ginormous glass of beer. As far as musuems go we went to the Alte Nationalgallerie (Old National Gallerie), the Pergamon Museum and the New Museum. I took thousands of pictures of course.

As much as I wanted to go from the moment I heard about this excursion through the university, I truly didn’t think I could make it happen with my crazy end of the school year exam preparations.  But at the last minute it all worked out. The trip consisted of a nice loop starting in Salzburg and going south to Werfen to see the ice caves and castle, then to Piesendorf for a great hostel in the mountain-filled countryside experience, and last but not least to Halstatt (in the Salzkammergut region) to see the world’s first salt mine and this beautiful lakeside city with a long and interesting history before heading back to Salzburg.

For my birthday I decided to take my first full day off of schoolwork in…I don’t even know how long. Quite possibly since the semester started?  I didn’t sit around and watch TV though. Oh no. I went hiking with my friends Josh and Brandis. Brandis traveled all the way here from Milan, Italy where she is studying so I had to make sure to show her a good time. Seeing as how I didn’t quite make it the last time I tried to climb a mountain, I thought this time I would just try to descend one. 6 hours later I realized that that isn’t necessarily any easier for me. My poor friends listened to me whine and complain for the last 2 hours or so of the approximately 8 hour adventure. So I’ve decided I just shouldn’t ever go on a hike that takes more than 5 hours. Yup that’s my new plan! I think…but don’t quote me on it!

Our last night was a dinner show. This time the opera singers were quite impressive — particularly the soprano. The show was very interactive and many people in our group, including me, were invited up on stage as a part of the performance. I danced with the host while he continued to sing opera a millimeter away from my face. Then the tenor cut in and the host gave me a butt push that actually did hurt. One of the guys in our group has a video of the whole thing — you’d think I was acting — my dad’s ham in me certainly came out that night. On the bus one of the women in our group recited a little poem about all the funny things that had happened in our two weeks. It was a good laugh for sure. When we got back to the hotel we all hugged, kissed and said our good byes. You spend every day of your life with these people for two weeks and then suddenly it’s as if it never happened. Will I ever see these people again? I don’t know but I’m glad that I met them and was able to share some once in a lifetime experiences with them. Bonding at it’s finest.

The next day we headed to the island of Capri (with the emphasis on the first syllable). The perimeter of this small island is only about 10 miles. We of course went around with a local guide to see some of the views and all kinds of tropical fauna. Afterwards we grabbed “Caprese” salads and paninis and got on a boat that went around the whole island. It was either that or visit the Blue Grotta and see nothing else. We stopped near a few caves — the Green  Grotta for instance. We also passed through the lovers arch (too bad I was loverless at that moment). I really would’ve liked to have seen the Blue Grotta but time just didn’t allow. Regardless I was able to take many a great picture on the boat ride as well as enjoy the cool wind on a sunny day.

Our final day on the tour was on the Amalfi Coast. As luck would have it the rain came back and the views were a bit hazy.  I still got some great shots but I had to imagine how it would have been on a clearer day. After taking some above the coast shots from just off the highway, we went into the city of Positano. It was really neat to see an old city literally built on the  lushly covered mountains and limestone cliffs of a jutting coast line. This city also had some wonderful flowers blooming. The pictures came out especially nice as they were accumulating water droplets from the days’ on and off showers.

Our travel day to Sorrento was a rough one. With rest stops only it took about 10 hours to get there. Of course this happened to coincide with my worst  health day of the trip. What was 3 weeks of strep is now going on a week of a sinus infection. I’m running out of drugs again so I am hoping my body will get in the game soon. Despite this rough trip I managed to read another book for pleasure — one that my dad brought with him and read a few days earlier. I have to pause to reflect on how I manage to travel and site see an average of 10 hours/day and still have made time to read 3 books and several other school assignments while being sick. Either I’m having one of my amazing moments or this is the exact reason I can’t seem to return to good health. My ego prefers the former. And now back to the travel stuff. I am writing this blog on the bus just as we are arriving in Sorrento. It’s a bit hazy today but  much improved from Taormina’s weather. Some of the coastal views we just saw here from the bus were spectacular. I hope my shooting through the window will capture its beauty.

In Taormina our beautiful weather streak took a serious turn for the worse. Taormina, supposedly one of the most picturesque parts of Sicily, was barely  visible through the fog. Did i mention it was raining the whole time too? This didn’t stop us from our tours though. First we went to an Ancient Greek amphitheater which was clearly different from the Roman amphitheaters in that the spectator seats were built into the hills instead of being built up on flat ground with roman arches. On day two we got in the bus for an hour and a half to see some craters at about 6000 ft high on Mt. Etna. Our hotel in Taormina had a beautiful view of the coast — at least I think it did. After two days in the hotel I only saw a bit of the coastline the morning that we left. I guess we had to accept a few bad luck days.

Our next overnight stop was Agrigento on the south western coast of Sicily. But first we made a stop in Marsala on the way to see how sea salt is captured and dried. I bought some mixed with sage as an edible souvenir. In Agrigento we did a tour with a local guide through the ancient greek city of Agrigento (formerly Agrigakas). Being the non history buff that I am I had no idea there was so much Ancient Greek history in Sicily. I have been enlightened! Some of the pictures I have of this area rival what I got when I visited Athens years ago. Interestingly enough this areas also was displaying a modern Polish sculptor. Many of the statues I found quite interesting with the exception of one that was put right in front of one of the Greek temples. Who does that?!?!

After arriving in Palermo via faerie we went straight to the hotel to unload and have breakfast. Then we headed on our tour of the city. We started in my person favorite cathedral — the Monreale Cathedral, also known as La Basilica Cattedrale di Santa Maria Nuova (please see previous Palermo post for pictures!). I even bought a mosaic from a local store to have a souvenir of my favorite cathedral!! We also visited another similarly styled chapel called Palatine Chapel (Capella Palatina). Much of the rest of the tour was from the bus but we saw many of  the most important buildings. I was excited this day and took an extraordinarily large amount of pictures. We saw a few churches, one in the Norman Palace, which we barely managed to get in a visit before they closed the church to tourists for an Easter mass. The other, Palermo Cathedral,  was holding a mass when we walked in. Many of the tourists were taking pictures but I just didn’t have it in me to do so during a mass.

The next stop from Assisi was Pompei but it was quite a bus ride to get there. My new antibiotics were making my stomach do somersaults and I wondered if I was going to be able to keep down breakfast. I was given a granola bar and candied ginger by some very nice people in the group. I slept for about a third of the trip, did homework for another third and, well, consciously prayed to not throw up the other third. Thankfully I was able to keep the food down and, although a bit tired, made it through the two hour guide through Pompei that followed the bus ride. Pompei was one of my favorite stops on my tour back in 2000 but I admittedly wasn’t quite as impressed this time. I think maybe more of the stuff was removed and brought into the museum but my terrible memory does not allow me to say for certain if that is true. I did still enjoy it and with 72 degree weather in April (as it has been nearly the whole trip thus far) one really can’t complain! I enjoyed a cafe latte before the bus departed for Napoli, where our overnight faerie to Palermo awaited us. Hopefully my stomach can handle some overnight cruising…

From Venice we stopped at La Basilica di Sant’apollinare in Classe along the way to Assisi, where we were to stay overnight. I believe my first tour of Europe ten years ago also visited this city but my memory was very vague. We visited the Assisi Cathedral (Cattedrale di Assisi) where everyone was shhhhhhhed to death and then headed back for a hotel dinner. I was a bit late for dinner having had to see the doctor for a persisting illness that I’ve had for 3.5 weeks now. It of course started raining on my way to the pharmacy. Not sure if this doctor really knew what was wrong with me but I do know that he prescribed me multiple extremely strong medications so I will hope for the best. He also informed me I have a piece of wax in my ear that is about 2 inches long. I guess I should do something about that when I get back to Austria.

Our first night in Venice was to be a fairly laid back night and it was for the most part.  We went out to have a Venician dinner. On our way the tour guide showed us a few quick sites to work up our appetites. I couldn’t get over how close the buildings were built together but there are after all no vehicles in Venice with the exception of one island. Some of the allies were no wider than two people wide. It was definitely something to see. The food quality at the restaurant was a bit under the quality of most of the dinners we’d had but it was certainly edible. We were served prosciutto with melon for an appetizer and tiramisu for desert just as we have for nearly every dinner and I have to admit that I’m getting a bit sick of them. The up side for many was that the unlimited drinks were included in the excursion price and most of the group certainly took advantage. Unfortunately I was and still am on antibiotics so this vacation is pretty much alcohol free for me.

We departed our Hotel Albani at about 8 am and headed for Florence. In my last tour in Italy it was one of my favorite cities so I was excited to come back. The bus ride was about 3.5 hours with one stop, most of which I spent doing homework. When we arrived we were taken to exactly the same gold and leather store as my tour 10 years ago. It was a very interesting case of deja vu. I remember buying a leather belt for my father last time as well as leather pants (that I never wear). This time I thought maybe I would make a more classy investment. I found a leather motorcycle style jacket. It was fine tailored leather that was brush painted tan. I tried it on, despite my better judgment, and of course loved how it looked in me. I knew it would be expensive but I didn’t realize that it would, like dinner the night before, be completely unaffordable for me. But luckily for me Mom and Dad came to the rescue. We negotiated, like we do, it to be an early Christmas present (note: my birthday next month was already accounted for when I wanted an expensive lens for my digital camera last Christmas) and I happily left the store with a beautiful Italian leather jacket.

This entry marks the beginning of a two week trip through Italy compliments of my lovely parents Jim and Mary Ellen. After arriving in Rome at about 2pm I was transferred to the hotel where I met my parents and took a quick nap before the tour group’s first meeting. We introduced ourselves and headed off to a welcome dinner at Mino’s. Although I had already become acquainted with Italian dining in previous trips to Italy I remember being particularly impressed with the number of courses we were served at this place. I kept thinking we were done until I looked down at the pieces of silverware I had left. By the time I was served the main course I could only eat a few bites because I was so full. Little did I know this was going to become par for the course for my Italian dining experiences for most of the trip.

Here is the 2 week trip that I will be going on with my parents. We will start and end in Rome. It’s going to be a lot of traveling but i’m excited. Look out for a post from each city! Andiamo!

After years of missing out on one of Europe’s finest I finally managed to get to Paris. The beginning of spring brought some wonderful weather when I arrived and I can honestly say that those first few days were some of the best days of my life. Some prior experiences and many preconceived notions of how the Parisians treat Americans had me worried but I was pleasantly surprised at how nice everyone was. I stayed in a trendy area that was definitely as cosmopolitan as the city itself but touristy it was not. I had some of the tastiest dinners those first few days. I really did fall in love with Paris.  I took it easy on day one since it was a travel day but on day 2 I saw Notre Dame de Paris and the Eiffel Tower. It was sunny and 65 and I was loving life.

As a kid I knew that my great-grandfather was from Sicily and although he died when I was very young I do remember him saying something to me in Italian (or most probably in Sicilian). And no – I don’t remember what he said because I didn’t know a lick of Italian I just remember it being Italian and not understanding. I definitely internalized the fact that great-grandpa must not speak a lot of English. Recently I decided to expand my knowledge and got in touch with a sicilian relative and planned a trip during my in-between-semesters break to Palermo and Partinico – the city that my great-grandfather came from and where most of the family still lives.

This school year was different from any other I’ve had in that the entire month of February was off between the winter and summer semesters. I had been told that many European countries have similar setups but I must admit that this is the first time I’ve experienced it myself.  I wouldn’t be exaggerating in estimating that I spent half the month doing work that should have been done last semester and even some that should have been assigned during the semester so that it would be possible to finish it during the semester and not have to do it in the break but I digress.  Despite this reality I decided to go on “vacation” anyways. And after my first week of the next semester I am STILL trying to finish things from last semester.

Being the ambitious grad student that I am, I don’t get out much, but I did finally manage to get to Budapest on a very long 5-day weekend at the beginning of December.  Originally I had planned on going with two of my fellow grad students Toni and Jordan but after a ticket debacle, in which the train tickets were accidentally sent to my address in the US instead of my address in Austria.  After trying nearly everything to not have to buy all new (and much more expensive) train tickets, the solution ended up being that Jordan generously gave up his tickets so that Toni and I could still go without having to pay too much more than originally planned.

With this entry I would like to begin a series of entries that will be dedicated to the next year of my life, which will be spent in Salzburg, Austria (and hopefully a few other choice european destinations as time allows). I cannot believe it has taken me a month to get an entry up but to put things into perspective – it took about the same amount of time to get my internet working and to get health insurance again. So the first weeks have been difficult: deciding on (and FINDING) classes, locating the nearest stores of weekly importance, purchasing a means of transportation, suddenly reading large sections of foreign books weekly, and trying to decipher what the hell Austrians are trying to say to me in – wait that wasn’t German was it?

After a brief stop in Santiago I took off for my final south american travel destination – Bariloche, Argentina.  Since this was originally one of the places I was considering moving to when I decided to do a year in South America, I had to see what I missed out on by choosing Santiago over this lovely argentinean resort town.  This place is a nature lovers heaven with the winter highlight being skiing and snowboarding. I regret to inform that I abandoned my typical photographer’s duties on this trip as I was afraid of biting it on my snowboard and breaking my precious camera.  But I will attempt to describe what I saw and experienced through my writing. The white snow covered mountains were complimented nicely by patches of trees here and there. Atop the mountains you have a view of and irregularly shaped lake of deep blue color. I remember getting to the top and having to take a few minutes in my butt looking out at the view in complete awe. Wow what a beautiful place!

When choosing a night bus from Puno to Arequipa Wendy and I were careful not to make the same mistake twice….or so we thought. We chose first class this time and wore considerably more clothing to shield us from the nights’ chill.  When we saw our seats we were painfully reminded of life’s relativity. It turns out that first class in this bus was just about the equivalent to the economy class on the last bus – go figure!

Upon returning to Cusco from our Machu Picchu trip, we promptly packed up our things and headed on yet another night bus to Puno. We had the choice between first class and economy (please note the difference between the two was only about $3.50). Figuring that we didn´t NEED first class, we stupidly, chose economy. I wish I had checked the temperature in Puno before reserving this bus but after so much traveling many details managed to fall through the cracks, such as this one. I was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt with my nice warm fleece but it wasn´t nearly enough. The company gave us a paper thin fleece blanket but a couple hours into the trip I woke up freezing my &%$ off. Sitting next to the window was also a pretty bad call. I pulled back the window curtain at one point and saw that the windows were covered in frost. It was like Michigan in the winter in this bus minus proper clothing and heating. When we finally showed up at 6:30 in the morning we checked into our hotel and slept for another 4-5 hours. The hotel was cold too but at least had ample blankets. I must say that I´ve never been somewhere this cold that didn´t have heating. We checked the internet the next day and found that the overnight temperature traveling from Cusco to Puno was about minus 26 degrees!!!

The flight from Lima to Cusco was not at all bad but upon disembarking the plane and entering the airport I felt a little funny.  Despite taking altitude medication (thanks Wendy!) and sucking on coca candy, I was still feeling the 10,912 ft of elevation in Cusco. Luckily it didn´t seem to last much longer than the taxi drive to our hostal – Teatro Inca.  This was one of the more expensive places we stayed at about $35/night for a double room (2 beds), but I actually quite enjoyed it.  It was a little chilly at night as there was no heat but the heavy blankets seemed to compensate. I especially enjoyed the friendly service and the 24/7 coca tea and internet availability. The hostal also arranged our Machu Picchu tour, which was overall very good in spite of a few hick ups here and there.

After our tour of the Sacred Valley we hopped on a train to head to Aguas Calientes (the closest city to Machu Picchu). I met a nice Argentinian family on the train and briefly enjoyed the nice view we had of the Urabamba River before it got too dark to see. Upon arriving at our Hostal we did have a slight misunderstanding about the plans for the following day as we were told that someone would stand in line for us in the morning to get into Huana Picchu so we didn´t have to get up too early.  After a bit of discussion all was cleared up, or at least, so I thought.

The first thing I saw when I got to Lima were clouds, clouds and more clouds. I know it´s winter and all but Lima´s winter is right up there, or should I say down there, with good ´ole Detroit. I arrived in the morning and decided to go to the hostal and then into the city center for a bit before meeting Wendy at the airport. Not being entirely sure about the mark up on taxi costs in Lima, I got completely ripped off on the ride to the hostal. I did, however, have more luck once I reached the hostal. The nice lady at the reception gave me several maps and verbal directions into the city and told me where I could change those pesky chilean pesos that I´m still carrying around.

After meeting up with Wendy in Lima we took off the next day for Iquitos to get our first taste of The Amazon. Having no real plan going in we asked around about tours and accomodations. The city was pretty full and many places were already fully booked.  We were eventually referred to a travel agency across the street from a local americanized diner and a friendly young gentleman came to the diner to explain to us what our tour would consist of. After finishing our drinks we followed him back to the office to look at some pictures and discuss the details. It quickly became apparent that this was an inexpensive yet equally rugged type of tour.  Obviously there were things to be seen on this tour but i´m not sure either of us were really looking forward to roughing it in cabins with poor ventilation and beds with mosquito nets BUT time was a tickin´ so we decided to go for it.

After a few days in Vilcabamba the truth is that I really did not want to leave but having to make it all the way to Lima in a matter of a few days to meet Wendy procluded me from extending my time.  So I first took a bus back to Loja and then boarded an overnight bus to Piura (a coastal city in Peru near the border of Ecuador and Peru). This bus was indeed quite a bit more comfortable than the one I took previously from Guayaquil to Loja.  I slept fairly well until I was awoken at about 3:30 in the morning to go through customs/immigration in order to enter Peru. Of course I got back on the bus after about 45 minutes to go back to bed as quickly as possible.

From the Galapagos Islands I flew to Guayaquil (a bit further south in Ecuador).  After spending a day in the bus terminal I took a night bus to Loja and promptly hopped on another bus to Vilcabamba.  Although completely exhausted after all the busing and lack of sleep, I perked right up to the green mountainous landscape surrounding all sides of this beautiful little town.

Although not quite feeling like I had enough time for Quito, I continued on my adventure and headed to The Galapagos Islands.  I must admit that I was a bit worried, not having had time to plan any accomadations or tours ahead of time but I figured I´d show up and see what kind of deal I could get.  Luckily enough I ended on first-class yacht that holds about 16 people and I´m certain I paid less than the passengers that booked it in advance.  The cruise was one extra day in The Galapagos and I made the compromise in my schedule by pushing my return flight out one day so that I could make the most of my time there.  I arrived on a wednesday and was to join the other people on the cruise the following day.  Of course I did what I do when I have a day to spare – figured out the town, ate and went to the internet cafe to update my blog with the previous destination.

I arrived in Quito on Fathers Day and not surprisingly had very little to do.  Having read a bit about Quito during my layover in Santiago I knew that the city was pretty darn cheap.  But as a foreigner, I have to admit, that every single taxi driver tried to rip me off. I got out of one cab when the  driver refused to give me a fair price and on my way to the airport upon leaving Quito I pretended I didn’t have the extra 40% “stupid foreigners fee” and left this taxi driver awfully upset with me.   In any case, let me back up and talk a little bit about my experience in Quito.

To kick off my seven week trip I got on a plane from Santiago to the ever mysterious Easter Island. Although owned by Chile, it`s 2300 miles from Chile’s coastline making it one of the most remote islands on earth! Upon arriving at the airport I received a lay and at first thought to myself – well of course i´d get a lay, i´m on an island after all, but then I realized it was a REAL lay made of fresh flowers and stems. My day was immediately brightened after a just so-so flight.

UPDATE: Due to a bit of travel exhaustion the following stops unfortunately had to be eliminated from the itinerary below: La Paz, Bolivia; Santa Cruz, Bolivia; Sucre, Bolivia, Potosi, Bolivia; Uyuni, Bolivia; San Pedro de Atacama, Chile; La Serena, Chile. The trip in Arequipa was, however, extended by several days.

While I generally limit myself to actual trips, today’s blog will be a bit of an exception. I’m currently planning (better late than never!) a trip through a large part of South America. I leave one week from today and still have plenty of planning to do but I wanted to write a sneak peak of sorts to evoke jealousy from my fellow traveling buddies. Hehe! So here it is my friends. If I make it through it alive it will be my longest trip EVER at 50 days or just over 7 weeks.

Well folks, this past weekend I just had to take advantage of another saturday holiday here in Chile and after much effort to find a way to make the best of the mountain bike I bought, I finally found a group and a lovely excursion to 7 Tazas for 3 days covering aproximately 120 kilometers.  I will forewarn that the recent earthquake definitely has changed the landscape of this area a bit since it’s so close to where the epicenter was, but all in all it was still breath-takingly beautiful.

Waking up on day 2 was not easy and taking a shower outdoors was even less enjoyable but getting the sand out of every crevice of my body was quite necessary. Having such a late start I decided to not to a tour and instead asked the locals what I should do. I was told there was a beautiful green valley called Cartape about 7-10 km from the city. Excited, I rented a bike, bought some snacks and headed out with a homemade map the guy at the bike rental store gave me.

My roomie/friend Christina and I decided about a month ago that we needed to do so more traveling before our time here in South America runs out!  Unfortunately Christina elected not to go due to spontaneous health concerns so I got on the 1600km domestic flight from Santiago to San Pedro de Atacama alone.  It felt like being in the states – traveling that far in one direction and still ending up in the same country!

          The first night was a bit rough since my room shared a wall with what must have been a really popular night club. I tried to drown the music out with my iPod, which would’ve worked if it were just the noise that was keeping me awake.  It turns out the vibration from the excessive volume was just as troublesome as the volume itself. Oh well – what can you do?!?

So after 8 months in Chile I finally found someone who shares my love of the outdoors and who invites me to join him on a trek in the Andes. Woohoo I say! But truthfully I had no idea what I was getting into. I only have just taken up backpaking/hiking these past few years but I thought rather nonchalantly “Wouldn’t it be cool to get to the top of a mountain?!!” I mean most of us agree that it would but clearly I had no regard for how difficult it might be to get there. Well, I’ve backpacked about 14 miles in a weekend once, how bad could this 1.5 day trip REALLY be? HA HA HA the mountain laughs at me!

One of the best parts about living in Santiago is how close it is to the Andes mountains and the quaint little towns and regions that surround them.  Cajon del Maipo is a very popular mountainous get-away and is just south of Santiago.  This past weekend my good friend and roommate Christina and I set out to Cajon del Maipo to a small villa called Baños Morales for some thermal bath action surrounded by mountains.