Eurotrip ensues...

Yes, my titles get better with each entry. Sorry for the delay; this will be a mega-post of my last few days in Prague as well as a recap of the past week that I've spent in Berlin!

Friday, we moved to a hostel across the river to stay in a different area of town. It was closer to the city center, but far enough south to be away from the massive amounts of tourists. We decided we'd had enough Czech food (meat and potatoes) and found a delicious recommended Indian restaurant nearby.

Saturday, we met a couple from couchsurfers (Czech international relations student and French film graduate) who took us to a tiny little bar with 3 old dudes playing some blues-y chill rock and singing in Czech. The bar and band definitely had character, although we had no idea what they were saying the whole time..

Sunday, we found a market that was slightly disappointing, but we did snag some tasty strawberries. We climbed the Powder Tower and got a great 360 view of the city; we could see the Prague Castle off in the distance and the myriad other old towers and steeples and churches sprinkled throughout the city.



Monday, we took a day trip to Kutna Hora, a ~90 min train ride. We mainly went for the Sedlec Ossuary, which was insane. It's estimated that the bones of 40,000 people make up the interior. The chandelier I'm standing under supposedly contains every bone from the human body.



Additional bonuses included the Cathedral of St. Barbara, which was another gorgeous gothic building, and the Cathedral of the Assumption of Virgin Mary (or something). Both had huge murals and framed paintings on the walls as well as weird religious artifacts and figurines. We got a late start that day (+ train delays), so unfortunately, we missed the medieval silver mine shaft tour.

Luckily, the Icelandic volcanic ash in the air hasn't ruined any of our plans; we got to Prague just before it happened and Tuesday, we hopped on a train to Berlin. The ride was about 5.5 hours and full of great scenery. We followed a river lined sporadically with colorful houses and rolling hills for a good bit of the way.

Berlin is a nice change from Prague. It doesn't have the gorgeous old architecture everywhere, but also doesn't have hundreds of tourists & souvenir shops crowding every street. Berlin is a very friendly, lively place, and I feel pretty safe here, even on the metros.

Wednesday, we walked around for awhile, then met another guy from couchsurfing, Julien, who showed us around his area of town and took us to a really cool, artsy bar. Thursday, we checked out the Altes Museum on the Museums Island, but got museumed out and didn't make it to the other ones.

Friday, we went down to the Reichstaggebaude (Parliament building), but the entry line was massive, so we snapped some pics and headed to the Brandenburg Gate, one of the gates separating the east and west after the Berlin Wall was built. Next we visited the Jewish Memorial, which was really cool and had a great museum under it; fairly small, but full of information and personal anecdotes. (Eric's head is hidden in the memorial somewhere..)



We saw one of the few remaining sections of the Berlin Wall next to where the Topography of Horror Museum was supposed to be, but alas, it was conveniently closed for the time we're in Berlin. Nearby, there were a ton of informational panels on walls lining the street about the history leading up to and following the tearing down of the Berlin Wall. The US Checkpoint Charlie was pretty cool to see, although just a replica. On the way back to the hostel, we found a neat little area off of the road full of art, including huge metal structures.



That night, Julien took us to a metal show. The venue was close to another section of the Wall, but a much cooler one where artists had drawn murals. After the show, the venue turned into a club full of typical American pop/hip-hop hits, so we attempted to dance for awhile, then called it a night.

Saturday, we slept in, ate some Indian food, then checked out an AWESOME open-air market. Unfortunately, we were too full to enjoy the food stands, but we got some fresh juice and homemade sausage for later. Deciding we couldn't pass up the homemade pasta and fresh pesto, we asked Julien if we could cook for him (and use his kitchen!), since our hostel doesn't have one. We met up with him later for dinner, and him and Eric played guitar for each other for awhile (how cute). Julien plays classical though, so that was entertaining.

Yesterday, we took the train up to Oranienburg, where the Sachsenhausen concentration camp was. It was one of the smaller camps, and it was still massive.. Depressing, but it had really great displays throughout the camp; interactive and very informative. It even had a cinema where we watched a 30-min movie about the camp.

As a side note, it is too easy being an English speaker. Almost all the displays at the camp were in German and English, and the movie was offered in 4 languages. We thought we'd have a little trouble in Prague, since it was the farthest east of the places we went, but no. Almost every restaurant & sign had an English translation and many people spoke it at least functionally. Granted it is a touristy city, so they also had other languages like French & German, but if there were only 2 languages, the other was always English. It's been the same in Berlin, but more people here speak English fluently.

Today, we rented bikes for a few hours and rode in the huge park down by the Reichstag. We even got a peek at some animals inside the zoo while riding by. It's pretty amazing how many people ride bikes here. Nothing like Japan, but still a lot: kids, business people in suits, super old people. There are a few bike lanes, but they're not everywhere, so I was impressed with their bravery.

Tomorrow, we hop on a plane for Barcelona! I'm so excited. Looking forward to markets and good food!! Paella and tapas and sangria, which Randy has promised will not be beaten anywhere. Now, to brush up on my Spanish a bit and practice sounding like I have a lisp..

One ends, another begins...

After splitting from the group, I had plenty of time to myself for reflection... From Auckland, I had a 10.5 hour flight to Hong Kong, where I had a 2 hour layover, then a 13.5 hour flight to London. Due to a late arrival, I practically had to run for the next 2 hours to catch the chunnel to Paris. I was literally escorted to the train by 5 different people and was the last passenger to board. I felt like my brother for a minute. ;)

The next morning, we had some DELICIOUS crepes at a creperie next to the Centre Pompidou, then walked around for the rest of the day. Sunday, we took a train to a town called Angers about 1.5 hours southwest of Paris to see a symphony that Yoel Levi was conducting (Dvorak & Ravel). Monday, we spent a few hours in the Louvre looking at Greek and Roman statues, huge French paintings, and other artifacts we came across while journeying through the museum. That place is huge, but we walked briskly and covered a lot of ground. That night, we met up with Simone & Charlotte - two of Eric's friends who spent some time in Savannah 10 years ago - and some of their friends for dinner.

Tuesday, we caught a flight to Prague. This city is so gorgeous, with gothic architecture, towers, castles, a central river, bridges, and super cheap! Meals are usually ~$6 US and beers ~2. We've checked out a medieval torture device museum, a classical organ concert, and the Prague Castle (the largest castle complex in the world). Thursday night, we listened to a jazz trio and ate a nice dinner while riding down the Vltava River.

the bittersweet end.

I actually had some work to do last weekend (and little motivation to spend it in the barren desert), so I decided to stay in Brisbane. I did take a day trip to the beach at Gold Coast with a few characters, which was awesome! Beautiful and relaxing.

Also, GUESS WHO WENT TO THE KOALA SANCTUARY AND SAW A MILLION KOALAS?!!?! that's right, this girl. I had been dreaming about the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, which has ~300 koalas, so as you can imagine, I had a blast! They had some exhibits of only babies, which were my favorite. We also saw a platypus & some wombats. I bonded with a sheep (perhaps with hay as a bribe), pet an emu, and fed some more kangaroos and wallabies.

I survived a final and a group paper & presentation, and I am [almost] officially done with GA Tech classes forever! What a great feeling that is.

Well, departure from the group was sentimental and slightly painful. The layover in New Zealand was such a tease. I watched the sunset through the airport windows, where a serene lake sat in front of mountain silhouettes stretching on for miles. It makes you want to live on a farm amidst the scenic rolling hills and never go back to the real world... Aerin and Jessie decided to take this route, for a month at least. They are WWOOFing, where you work on a farm for a few days while the hosts feed and house you. Oh, how I miss New Zealand already. That place is unparalleled.

All in all, it was an incredible trip that I feel so fortunate to have gotten to take. I cannot fathom a better study abroad; amazing scenery, awesome laid-back cultures, exhilarating side trips, and great new friends to experience it all with.

Winding down...

Our stay on Heron Island was short, but oh, so sweet. Upon arriving, we got our snorkel gear for the week and had a DELICIOUS meal prepared by our hired caterer before being informed that the authorities were evacuating the island. Cyclone Ului had changed its course and appeared to be heading for us. We tried to enjoy as much of the island as we could in our short time there. That night, we went out to the dock and watched for turtle and ray shadows in the water underneath us for awhile. Later, we took a long walk in search of baby turtles heading from land to sea (with no luck) and circumvented the island in about 30 minutes.

The next day was slightly windier, but it still felt like we were leaving paradise for no reason.. I pondered the complexities of the universe in solitude in my last moments on the island:



I think all of us feel privileged to have seen Heron Island, even if only for a day. Matters were not made better by our professors repeatedly referring to what we "would have done on the island" in class lectures at our hotel the following week.

With a newly free weekend, we decided to make the most of it and go somewhere, so we took a day trip to Moreton Island on Sunday, the closest island to Brisbane and the 3rd largest sand beach in the world! (Fraser Island is the largest and fairly close, but supposedly crowded) We took a couple-hour ferry ride to the island, where they set us up with snorkeling gear. We snorkeled around 10 shipwrecks right off the beach and saw a surprising amount of life. We even saw a turtle!

After that, they took us to a lake, a lighthouse with a great view on the other side of the island, and sandboarding on some sand dunes in the middle. It was misting all day, so the boarding was only slightly successful, but still fun. It was a fairly large island, seemingly devoid of people.. I wish we could've stayed for another day with sun, but alas, we had to return.

Wednesday, we took a field trip to Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo a couple of hours north. It was an awesome zoo. We saw an adorable otter feeding; I saw about a million koalas; we pet and fed kangaroos and wallabies for an hour; I PET koalas; we saw a wildlife show where birds flew around the auditorium and they fed a scary crocodile; I HELD A KOALA AND IT WAS AMAZING. My life is complete.



Thursday night, 9 of us headed north for Cairns, where we embarked on a journey to the Great Barrier Reef! We did a liveaboard, in which we dove, ate, and slept on a boat for 3 days. We went to the East and West Timor Reefs a couple hours away. It was diving overload, but awesome. We were allowed to do 10 dives over the course of the weekend, including 2 night dives, and we could snorkel whenever. Due to this ridiculous cough and sinus action that I cannot seem to get rid of, I had a rough time the first day and couldn't do the night dive. It was much better the next day though, and I did the rest of the dives, including the night dive, which was kind of creepy. We did wake an adorable turtle from his slumber and followed him for awhile. Unfortunately, we didn't see any bioluminescence due to the weather, but it was still cool.



Oh, they offered an advanced diving course for $50 (usually $4-500), so Aerin and I did it. It was very relaxed (aka sketchy), so it only took a little bit of our time. :)

Cairns was a surprisingly neat city. They had a sweet massive public pool by the ocean/marshy coast, a ton of stores open late, and bars. Unfortunately, this little girl was too exhausted for anything besides food and bed.

Today we took our last field trip to Lamington National Park, a rainforest about 2 hours away. The tree cover was so dense, it would be pouring for a couple minutes and you would only know it by the sounds of the drops hitting the trees way above. It was a nice 17.4 km loop trail taking us by a nice view of the farmland valley below. There was also a cool "tree top walk," a small bridge suspended 15 meters above ground.



I was planning on going to the outback this weekend, but honestly, there is just nothing there. I'd rather take a 1-2 day trip to the Sunshine Coast or something. We shall see.

Just a week left, then I'm off to Europe. I can't believe the trip is almost over! What an adventure it has been...

And so begins our odyssey...

SO! This morning, we got news that Cyclone Ului was heading for Heron Island, much to everyone's disappointment. Dr. Garton looked pretty stressed and worked very hard to figure out our options. We had a meeting later in the day, in which he informed us that the forecasts are looking better and we're gonna go ahead with our original plan. Might face a little wind and rain, but hopefully the cyclone will miss us or dissipate slightly in the next few days... Thus, we are hopping on a bus at 1 am (yep), arriving in Gladstone around 8 to hop on a ferry at 9 am headed for Heron Island with 3 meter swells, WOOHOO!

It was quite a scare, but I'm super excited we're going, even if the weather isn't ideal. This is the first group that gets to go to Heron Island, and I think it'll be a great experience regardless. Plus, we get catered food all week.

Sidenote: I'm pretty sure I've coughed up a lung and a half by now. I thought it was the air in Sydney, but it's persisted through Brisbane. Perhaps the fresh island air on Heron Island will cure me.

Our hotel in Brisbane is awesome. They didn't have any three person rooms, so our triplet (me, Aerin, & Sheri) had to split. :( I made the sacrifice and volunteered to take the single room. ;) I now see why they didn't have any 3-bed rooms. Everyone gets their own queen-sized bed! My pad is pretty sweet, although not nearly as massive as the double rooms. At least I'm free to sing along to the Carpenters in peace... :D We have flat screen tvs, a nice desk, and internet in our rooms (YAY!). Oh, and a working AC unit, unlike the Travelodge in Sydney. The only bad thing is that we don't have microwaves, just an electronic kettle. I've been eating a lot of cup-o-noodles and sammiches. The breakfast is delightful though. Pancake machine, fresh fruit (watermelon, cantalope, honeydew, prunes), dried fruit (apples, apricots), and even a fruit squisher (?) to make fresh orange juice.

Saturday, we checked out the St. Patty's Day parade, complete with bagpipes! We also visited a couple festivals, then all took some naps for the night ahead... We got Jay a cake for his bday, then did an awesome pub crawl. Almost the entire group (~30 kids) was there, although a few dropped off after every pub. About 6 of us made it till the end with the birthday boy and decided to cap our night with a trip to the casino. I still have yet to play some blackjack; maybe when we get back from Heron Island.

Off to do some work before my long night/morning on the bus...

On the road again...

Thursday, March 4 through Friday, March 12, 2010

Last week was pretty rough between finishing up the final paper for my environmental politics class, writing my first paper for biomedicine and culture, and completing the e-learning portion for the PADI course. Luckily, the weather was slightly chilly and wet pretty much all week, so I didn’t spend too much time staring out the window longingly.

Tuesday was a nice break; the ecology class took a field trip to the Long Reef Reserve, where our groups were assigned different areas to record numbers of individuals of different species. Afterwards, we got to explore the biodiversity in the area. We saw crabs, tons of differently colored sea urchins, coral, a funky, sea-slug-like mollusk that looked like Shrek (below), a huge squid leg that did not like being poked and stole Drew’s pen. We attempted to retrieve the pen for a good 15 minutes before it was time to go. College kids are easily amused.



Already severely sleep-deprived, I decided to go out Thursday night to dance with my friends and have some fun after a fairly uneventful week. Perhaps not the best idea since I had to get up at 6am the next morning for 3 open water dives and my PADI test, but I survived. After 2 Fridays of 1 pool session and 3 open-water dives and about 6 hours of e-learning, we are officially certified! It’s something I’ve been meaning to do for long time, so I’m glad it worked out so well and didn’t take too much of our precious time in Sydney. Exhausted yet again from diving, lugging around heavy gear and tanks, and an ever-increasing sleep deprivation, I had a $3 wheat microbrew across the street, watched The Prestige with a few friends, then promptly passed out.

I really wanted to go caving in the Jenolan Caves as per Dr. Garton’s recommendation, so I organized a day trip to the Blue Mountains for Saturday. Allison, Tomas, Steven, Katherine, and I all got up around 7 to grab the rental car and hit the road. It was fun to pile in a car and go exploring once again.. reminded me of NZ! The plughole cave tour was fun, although a lot like TAG caves that I have back home: crawling, squeezing, climbing. It was a good introductory cave for the rest of the crew though, and I got a sweet t-shirt.



After caving, we took a brief walk around the cave area and saw an ADORABLE echidna! (one of the 3 species of monotremes – egg-laying mammals), as we learned in the NZ biology course) We were literally a foot away from him for a good 5 minutes as he pecked his long nose in the ground for food, then waddled away to peck in some different areas. Too cute.



A cave guide told us of a nearby field where we could see kangaroos, so of course, we took a short detour for our first kangaroo siting. We saw around 30 kangaroos in a huge field; some were hanging out by the playground eating some grass. I probably got about 20 feet away from another grazing group, before they did their funky alternating arms and legs hobble away from me.



We took a stop in the Wentworth Falls area to watch the sun setting over the gorgeous Blue Mountains. We did a short hike until it was dark, then headed home.

Sunday, a few of us headed to The Rocks (the area near the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge) for the weekend market. There are tons of markets here, at least a large one in every part of the city and lots of smaller ones sprinkled throughout.

Monday, we took a field trip to the Quarantine (‘Q’) Station near Manly Beach, which they opened up just for our group. The tour guides took us around the complex and showed us what it would have been like to be an immigrant until just a couple decades ago. Afterwards, our professors were nice enough to cancel our other classes and let us hang at the beach. To get to Manly Beach, you have to walk about 25 minutes to The Rocks area, then catch a ~35 min ferry to the beach, so it’s quite an ordeal. Unfortunately, it was cloudy the entire time until we stepped foot on the return ferry (go figure), but Aerin, Sheri, and I definitely fit in some lovely beach naps.

Tuesday after class, a few of us went to the Sydney Fish Market in Darling Harbour for lunch, and it was glorious. I cannot believe it took me so long to go there. I am definitely kicking myself for it now. I shared a dozen raw oysters with Jay and seared tuna with Allison. Then I grabbed some fresh tuna and salmon sashimi, half of which I brought back for dinner. YUMMM!

Later that night, we saw Avatar at the IMAX theater in Darling Harbour, which is apparently the largest in the world. It was amazing.

Cloudy skies killed any chance of paying a last visit to Bondi on Wednesday, so we checked out the Royal Botanic Gardens instead. They didn't have anything on the Botanic garden in Christchurch, or even Wellington's, but it had a nice view along the coast of the opera house and sydney harbour bridge.

Thursday, the entire group took a trip to the Blue Mountains for a field trip. We hiked a ~5 hour trail where we saw the three sisters and a lot of nice waterfalls. We also saw a lyre bird! The bird is known for its amazing ability to mimic other birds calls as well as mechanical sounds, such as a camera shutter and a chainsaw. Pretty awesome.



Oh! And we went out for a nice dinner for our last night in Sydney. We ate outside with a beautiful night view of Darling Harbour. After some searching, we found a restaurant that served kangaroo, which was our goal for the night. There were 5 medium-rare strips atop mashed potatoes and covered in red wine jus. It was pretty tasty, although I think I'll stick to lamb! I still need to try crocodile and emu..

Today after checking out, I went back to the fish market for some more deliciousness. I got more oysters and sashimi. :)

We’re about to hop on a bus for the airport now. We’ll spend a few nights in Brisbane, before heading to Heron Island.

I can’t believe my time is Sydney is drawing to an end already. I have fallen in love with this city. We shall see what Brisbane holds...

First week in Sydney

I’m kind of behind, so this entry will just be from last, last Thursday, February 25, till Wednesday, March 3.

Wait, sidenote. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOMMYYYYY!!!!!! I’m sad I missed your 50th, but it sounds like you had a wonderful birthday. I hope you remember that you are still young and vibrantly beautiful! :)

Thursday, we had an ecology field trip to the Waverley Cemetery between Bondi and Coogee beaches. We took a nice coastal walk to the cemetery, where we collected data from gravestones. We were relieved for the rest of the day, so we headed to Bondi Beach where I frolicked in the water, then enjoyed a scrumptious happy-hour meal and sangria at Mocean, yet again.

That night, Aerin and I had a nice date at the Sydney Opera House to see La Traviata, and it was AMAZING! This city is incredibly nice to their poor students; there are student tickets for everything. Not only did we score $270 tickets for $55, they were awesome seats right in the middle, fairly close to the stage, but not so close that we had to strain our neck to see the translations. The story was overwhelming (I tend to get emotional), but beautiful, the sets were amazing, and the singers had incredible voices, especially Violetta, the lead female role. I hit the sack fairly early, since I had to get up around 6 the next morning.



I organized a crash PADI dive course for 5 of us to get certified before heading off to Heron Island. So Friday, we had a pool session and our first open-water dive at the reef off the coast. No, we had not had any formal training yet! I don’t know how the instructors managed to teach us that day, but we had fun! We took a nap after returning, with intentions of going out after dinner. Exhausted from diving, we decided a night in sounded more appealing.



Saturday, the gay and lesbian mardi gras parade took place. Apparently, it’s the largest gay and lesbian event in the world. Our hotel was the staging area for some of the parade and sat amidst all the partying. We got to see the entire parade hanging out right in front of the hotel. Needless to say, this city was pretty ridiculous for a weekend. I’ll spare you the pictures from that one… I think I’ve seen enough scantily clad men and women to last me a lifetime.

Sunday was a fairly lazy day. After sleeping in, Aerin and I managed to score 2 raffle tickets to see Wicked from the front row! The musical was hilarious and entertaining throughout. (Did I mention that Fiero was dreamy?!)

Monday, we took a field trip to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and Museum in Newtown. It housed a lot of really old medical devices (scary what used to be the norm!) and a display of about 25 pacemakers, showing the progression to the present-day form.

All in all, a great first week of fun with great weather!