"The land of opportunity.."

As I was studying some of the American culture I came across a lot of very interesting topics. Some topics really fascinated me! But I have to admit that I didn’t really know a lot about the American history before. Some terms had been totally new to me such as Appalachia, the Forty-Niners or the Louisiana Purchase and the Trail of Tears. As America is one of the biggest and most influential countries in the world I think it is necessary to know about its cultural background. 

A lot of the events happened in the 19^th century, such as the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 or the California gold rush in 1848. It fascinated me that so many people travelled to the US just because they wanted to get rich. I wonder if such an immigration wave would break out nowadays too. Probably not.
What really caught me was the speech of Martin Luther King. Of course his name wasn’t new to me but I have never listened to his whole speech before. I just knew his famous words “I have a dream..”. King mentioned some really important points in his speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial, who was a very important man in American history too. It is almost inconceivable that it took such a long time until the blacks got the same civil rights as the white population. Although the black people technically became citizens in 1868. It took another 100 years until the end of segregation. In 1963 Martin Luther King fought for the rights of the black population and 45 years later America got his first black president. What a great turn in America’s history :)

Talking about the president, I have also learned about the Capitol and the process how bills become laws. This was quite interesting as well. I think it is not that different from Austria’s system. Well, I am not quite sure as politics has never been one of my favorite topics :D 

Anyway, I really enjoyed learning something about the American culture and I think it is never bad to know the backgrounds and the beginnings of a foreign country. Especially if it is the culture of a world power.. 

the stereotypical image of the USA :D

a trip to bella italia

 

This is definately my motto!!! :)

According to this sentence it was time to for me to travel again! :) This time I traveled to Italy in September 2013. My friend, Annina, and I were planning this trip right after returning home from Australia/Thailand. We couldn’t wait for our next trip to come :D For this reason we worked very hard the whole summer to earn some money which we wanted to spend right afterwards on another journey :) 

So the 31^st of August was our last working day. On the 2^nd of September our trip started. Our first destination was Rimini. We wanted to visit some friends down there as we have worked there in summer 2011. Two friends from Tyrol, who worked with us in Rimini in 2011, came with us. We spent 4 awesome days in Rimini and met all our former workmates. It was great fun! Nothing has changed. After 4 days Annina’s and my trip went on. Our next destination was Rome!! We bought a special ticket for the train where we had been able to travel on 8 different days, but on 1 travel day you are allowed to change the train as often as you want. It cost about 200€ and was valued for 1 month. We had to write down the date of each travel day.

Finally we arrived in Rome! :) I always wanted to see Rome that’s why I was really looking forward to this day. Rome really lived up to all my expectations. It is a wonderful city. As we only had 5 days in Rome we literally did hardcore-sightseeing! We got up very early in the morning and spent the whole day walking from one sight to the other. But it was really worth it. We got to see the famous Coliseum, the Spanish Steps as well as the Trevi Fountain and the Vatican.

The next city we visited was Florence. Florence is a beautiful city with lots of young people. We had a little bit of bad luck in Florence as it was raining on one day.
From Florence we took the train straight to Pisa to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. And it was really a LEANING tower. As Pisa is a very little city and the only thing you can see there is the tower we just spent one day in this very touristy place. 

But the best place hasn’t come yet! It was our next destination. Cinque Terre! Apart from the beautiful 5 little villages which are built directly by the sea with its colorful houses we met amazing people in Cinque Terre. Most of them from countries far away like Australia, New Zealand and the US. There were about 25 people in one of the small little villages in Cinque Terre called Riomaggiore. I actually met more Australians on my trip through Italy than in Australia. Well, at least I met some Australians in the end ;)

After just 3 amazing days in Cinque Terre we took the next train to Milan, the city known for its fashion. SURPRISE SURPRISE, we went shopping there! 

Our final destination was Verona, the city of Romeo & Juliet. We saw the famous balcony as well as the bronze statue of Juliet. 

Nearly 3 weeks long was our great trip around Italy and we got to know many fantastic people from all over the world. 

Another great journey definately will come soon… :)

VERNAZZA, one of the 5 villages in Cinque Terre

LETS TRAVEL!

 

I really love travelling and exploring new countries! I think it's because my Aunt always told me about her adventures abroad when I was younger. By now she was in every continent and I would say in nearly every country in the world! That's my aim too!! :)
The travel bug first caught me when I had to do a practical training for school. It was in 2010 and I decided to spend 3 months in Lanzarote, Spain. Lanzarote is one of the Canary Islands. After the 3 months I couldn't wait to go abroad again. And I did. And I am not talking about a holiday abroad. I am talking about months abroad. You are not able to get to know a country by spending 2 weeks in an all-inclusive hotel. You need to visit different cities and meet local people.

One of the most impressive travel adventures I had was in Thailand. It is just so different to Europe and also to Australia! I went there in March 2013 after I had spent 6 months in Australia. A friend of mine who has been in Australia as well for more than 6 months travelled with me to Thailand. It actually was a very spontaneous decision. When we were in Cairns we went into a travel agency to get some information about Thailand. As soon as we left the agency our flight was booked. Two weeks later we found ourselves sitting in a plane from Brisbane to Bangkok. We haven’t really planned anything before we arrived in Bangkok so we just took the first cab and went to the most famous road in Bangkok, Khao San Road. There we went from hostel to hostel to find the cheapest one (because after 6 months in Australia we were kind of broke). On our first day in Thailand we rambled through Khao San Road and ate some of the famous Thai food which is very cheap if you buy it directly on the street! So the first important thing we learned was, that you don’t need to spend a lot more than 1€ to get a good meal! :D Our plan for the next 4 weeks was to spend as little money as possible but to see and experience as much incredible places and things as possible! According to our new plan we found ourselves in some kind of travel agency in Bangkok where we booked our next trips. As we found out later that was probably not the best decision, but we wanted to make the most out of our 4 weeks in Thailand. So after 2 days in Bangkok we have planned our next few weeks. Our first stop was to the north of Thailand, Chiang Mai. We had about 5 days there and went on a trekking tour. We spent 3 days in the “woods” of Thailand, sleeping in Thai villages and hiking..hiking..hiking. It was not really what we had expected but we had a lot of fun with our group. We were a really multicultural group with people from Sweden, England, Germany and Austria.
But the best thing on our whole Thailand trip was the day in the “elephant school” in Chiang Mai. We were allowed to ride elephants and learned some commands to lead them. In the end we took a bath with them in the river and showered them :D Unforgettable moments!
After Chiang Mai we went to Ayutthaya by night bus. What we learned about this night in the bus was that we definitely will put on warmer clothes the next time! It was freezing cold! When we arrived at 6 in the morning we were nearly dying! We spent about 2 days in Ayutthaya just to visit the famous ruins and temples. We hired a bike and rode from temple to temple with a temperature of about 45degrees!!! After a while I felt really sick because of the heat and so we had to stop.
We were really looking forward to our time on the beaches of Thailand :))
We visited Krabi, Kho Phi Phi (where Leonardo Di Caprio has shooted his film “The Beach”), Kho Samui, Kho Lanta and Kho Phangan.
We did a snorkeling/diving trip on Kho Lanta where I finally was able to get to see a turtle :)) (I went diving at the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and couldn’t see one :( ).
On Kho Phangan we went to the famous Full Moon Party. There we put day-glo color all over our body. It was a really good night!

Those 4 weeks in Thailand were really amazing and Thailand is definitely one of the places to see before you die!
My next trip was just 5 months later :) I went to Italy, with the same friend, who has become my travelbuddy since we have been to Lanzarote together.
More to my Italy-trip in the next post..

Kho Phi Phi

can you imagine a life without sensory perception?!

I started to think about this topic when I watched a movie called "Perfect Sense". This movie is about losing the 4 major sensory perceptions (I know there are 5 sensory perceptions, but the movie just mentions 4 as it would be hard to show what it's like to lose your sense of touch?! ). It all starts with an epidemic which begins to spread throughout the globe! Humans lose their senses one at a time. Each loss is preceded by an outburst of an intense feeling or urge. 
Like in nearly every movie, there is a romantic story too. Michael and Susan have just met before the epidemic broke out. Faced with the same problems caused by slowly losing all their senses they are falling in love with each other. 
The first sense they lose is the sense of taste which is preceded by a great sorrow. People suddenly start to cry. As Michael's profession is cooking, it has a huge effect on his work. Can you imagine going into a restaurant, eating an incredible meal but don't taste anything?! People would probably stop spending money on expensive meals in restaurants. That's why Michael and his collegues start to focus on preparing the meals as pretty as possible because "what looks good tastes good".
The next loss is the sense of smell preceded by a sudden feeling of panic. The sense of smell is probably the one you can rather live without. Of course you would miss the scent of flowers, food, etc but you also don't have to smell things like your dog's wet fur. 
However, the next loss is the sense of hearing. This loss is preceded by an outbreak of extreme anger and rage. Michael starts to shout at Susan and insults her so that they stop seeing each other.
Suddenly people experience a feeling of joyful euphoria which precedes the last loss, the loss of vision. Of course there is a happy end, and they come back together :)

What I really liked about this movie was, for instance, when they lost their sense of hearing, there were minutes of complete silence in the movie. You could see that people were talking but you couldn't hear anything. The director tried to show how it is to live without your sense of hearing. As we all know there are people who are born without this sense and who have to live their whole life without ever being able to listen to music, to hear their own voice or the voice of anyone else. At the end when they lost their sense of vision the screen goes black and a voice is explaining what is happening at the moment. Michael and Susan are coming back together and are kissing after just losing their last sense, the sense of vision.

Although the movie itself was not that good, I found it quite interesting to see how people deal with the loss of their sensory perceptions. Moreover, it really set me thinking. How life would be after just losing one of these 4 senses?!
So be thankful for every sense you have!! Maybe just try to live blindfolded for one day..

Snowy Christmas versus sunny Christmas

One cannot deny that the pre-Christmas period is the very best about Christmas! :) 
Even though there is still no snow around, the special Christmas-feeling has already caught everyone of us.

As Christmas comes closer, I am not able to get around the fact that one year ago I was on the other side of the world, celebrating Christmas with a foreign family under the sun's rays and a temperature of about 40°C. 
Although experiencing a sunny Christmas in Australia was really exciting as well as a lot of fun (as we were swimming in the pool and drinking Mojitos while listening to Christmas songs with lyrics talking about snow) I have to admit, that nothing on earth can compete with the feeling of waking up on Christmas day seeing cars, streets, trees and houses covered with snow! :) To be honest I have not expected that I would miss winter, snow or cold temperatures as I have always prefered summer and hot temperatures. 

Australians use to celebrate Christmas in the morning of the 25th of December. After Santa was here my host family and I had a big barbacue in the garden of the grandmother's house. We jumped into the pool, played some games and in the end we watched a Christmas movie. 
Despite the fact that there is never any snow in Australia (except a few places in the very South) also Australians are watching the good old Christmas movies where there is always lots of snow when Santa arrives. But still there are people in Australia who have never seen snow before! Can you imagine that? 
Admittedly it was still quite hard for me to get into the "Christmas feeling".  Not only have I been away from my family the whole Christmas period, but also have I had problems of getting the real Christmas feeling because of the temperature. You don't think it's Christmas when the sun is shining and your body is soaked in sweat. 

Summing up I can say that celebrating Christmas in another culture was a great experience that I will never forget. Nevertheless, Christmas at home with your family and a landscape covered in snow is MUCH BETTER!! ;) Since the day I am back from my journey I was looking forward to this time of the year. 
Just one more wish.. LET IT SNOW! :)