And... back!

Today we returned from Italy to the States -- K and me to Philly, S to Minneapolis. Great trip to read about, huh?

Yeah, sorry loyal readers -- found less time and opportunity for updates than I'd thought. But, don't you worry, I filled the time well with adventures, gorgeous sights, and -- yes -- mishaps galore. I plan to backtrack and write everything up over the next few days. In the meantime, a few teaser photos.

A pickup truck in Rome.

This one is for Kel!

I was a little disappointed with Rome when I found a pickup truck the first night.

It looked ridiculously enormous next to the others. As it should. :-)

Three Lapsed Catholics at the Vatican Museum

You cant take us anywhere. ;-) Photos from the Vatican Museum.

Me, aiming to look demure with my covered shoulders.

Grade: 10. That backside was sculpted with care.

Feeling sexy.

Who wants to see art photos on a travel blog anyway, right?! But, of course, the Sistine Chapel (which you have to go through 30 minutes of walking through other galleries to see) was beautiful, and there were many other beautiful works of art there as well.

A busy but great first day: Ancient Rome

Okay. Redo.

I have made the executive decision to pretend that all of yesterdays travel mishaps did not count toward the trip day count. (I have also made the executive decision to try to avoid contractions because I cannot figure out how to use an apostrophe on this frickin Italian keyboard!) So, though we still have no luggage (we were told it is officially in Rome, but no idea when it will arrive -- hopefully soon since we already leave for Florence tomorrow morning!), we have had a day of thorough tourism.

Hmmm, my parenthetics run a little long.

Anyway, today we got up early, with our first official stop being the ancient city -- the Colosseum, the forum, and Palentine hill. I am currently exhausted but will post a few pictures. Backstories to come.
This photo (with S for scale) shows the enormity of the ancient temple which once lay where these ruins are today.

Us in the Roman Colesseum.

wandering Athens

I still haven't done any official sightseeing in Athens yet, but after my attempt to check out the National Archeological Museum yesterday failed, I decided to just wander on foot. I made it to Strefi Hill, where there's a gorgeous panoramic view of the city. Very satisfying. :-)

Best of Morocco

I've finally gone through and organized all of my Morocco photos... check them out and share your thoughts!

• Marrakesh photos (5/26-5/30)
• LREC Marrakesh events (5/28,30)
  
• Ourika Valley hike and Jbel Toubkal Massif trekking (5/29,31)
  
• Fez photos (6/1-6/3)
  
• Casablanca photos (6/3)

Summary of above: Best of Morroco

New day, new adventures

I slept well (starting around 8pm and skipped dinner, but it was worth it), and the conference starts tomorrow, so I had all day today to explore and get thoroughly lost in the city and old medina (means "town" in Arabic) all day. And it was exhilarating.

So much to see! I bought an Eyewitness Guide to Morocco in preparation for my trip. Though many swear by the Lonely Planet guides (which my traveling buddy Ves has anyway), my guide has done me well (reconfirmed at end of trip as well). It's not so great for finding hotels and restaurants, as well as many "big picture" details (like where to find walking tours, etc.), but the history sections at the beginning of the guide were incredibly informative, and the pictures and descriptions of the sites are great. Especially important since in Morocco, if there's a non-Arabic description of anything, it's only in French. My Arabic is good enough to pronounce words I see and exchange niceties, and my French is probably just worse than that, so having the guide to give a good description was important in showing myself around town.

I took many pictures of everything I saw... too much to describe individually, though I did what I could on the photos themselves. (Thanks to Ves... I stole many of his pictures too, when his were better). I extracted a pseudo-"best of" and posted them here:
Today was packed full of adventures and mishaps which will no doubt richen my experience. :-) I'm attempting to write a journal of some of these experiences, but doubt I'll have time to keep it up. In the meantime,

• I'm also getting some weird reactions when I say I'm American (like unprompted "don't worry, America and Morocco are good friends"), so I'm now saying my name is Katie and I'm from near London when asked. ;-) So much for doing as the Romans do.
  

Exploring Dubai (done right)

So I'm completing this a good week after my return from UAE -- the end of the trip was busy, busy, and life has been 10x crazier since returning to Baltimore and my research.

After a drive-by tour (at 2am after 20 hr of travel) from Dubai to Abu Dhabi the night I got into the country (I remember nothing), and some glances New Year's Eve and Day, I finally got my official tour of Dubai on my second-to-last day in the UAE.

I should start by mentioning that the weather, while great for an East Coaster, brought nothing but complaints from the residents. 65 degrees instead of 75, and edging on rainy. Still beautiful, but could be more so. Anyway, I'll include a mix of my photos and some from my bf's mother's previous visit.

The drive in: I truly believe that the skyline will be gorgeous in about 3 years, but right now it's pretty overridden by construction.
Dubai Internet City: No photos here, but you can find information here and here. 800-some companies, and were I to move here, my best hope for finding a suitable job, probably.

Burj Dubai: mentioned in previous post. With my bf's mother's connections we got an exclusive tour through the sales office to see what the mini-city will offer in the future. To the right you can see current progress in its construction -- about 100 of planned ~160 floors built. It was interesting to learn about how it had been designed specifically to direct wind to support rather than threaten it, etc. It's more than a tower though -- there's an entire gorgeous though overwhelming mini-city that is slowly being constructed immediately around it.

Emirates Towers: (link) We continued our tour, heading to the Emirates Towers. Two triangular towers, one a hotel and the other and office building, and both amongst the world's tallest. Between the towers was an exclusive shopping mall -- it's annual huge 20-60% off sale dampened a bit by the $1000 price tags on a cute pair of shoes, etc -- and a huge lobby where we had coffee, both western-style and traditional Arab style.


Bur Dubai: The central area of the city. A lot of neat old shops and traditional style buildings, the Dubai museum, and what's referred to in a dramatic understatement as "the Creek".


Jumeira: Jumeira is the jaw-dropping area of Dubai that everyone hears about: the unbelievable resorts, the (completed set of) Palm Islands, and of course the Burj Al-Arab.

We started our tour having a late lunch at Madinat Jumeira resort, followed by a ride on the resort water boats (abras) which carry you to your destination (again, only meant for guests). We then walked through the "souk" or market -- I expected something traditional, but here of course everything was very upscale and beautiful. A lot of wares from India and Pakistan.

From Madinat Jumeira, we had a lovely view of the Burj Al-Arab, the world's first seven-star hotel, where we had some expensive coffee and dessert.

Views from inside Burj Al-Arab

Royal Mirage: more beautiful buildings filled with more beautiful people. :-)

Palm Islands: Three sets will be built, but so far only one set of islands has been completed: The Palm Jumeira (building construction still in progress). We saw them at night, and construction pictures aren't so pretty to show, but here's a sight from the sky... (real and envisioned)


All right folks, that's enough for now... I'll try to post my closing thoughts sometime before I leave the country again. ;-)

Exploring Abu Dhabi

Day 5 in the UAE -- I leave the morning of Day 7. So soon!

Days 2-3 were spent (mostly) traveling to Dubai for a New Year's Eve celebration (Paul Oakenfold DJing at the World Trade Center), which didn't turn out nearly as interesting as I'd hoped, and moreover didn't turn out to let me see much of the city. Evening 3 and Day 4 were spent exploring Abu Dhabi, and in about an hour I will go with my boyfriend and his mother for a much more thorough exploration of Dubai.

Abu Dhabi's economy is 90% oil-based, and it's fairly obvious that they don't quite give a rat's ass about tourism yet. :-) Yesterday we went to the main tourism "highlights" of the city -- an old fort which is the oldest building in Abu Dhabi (1793) and the "Heritage Village" which features a reproduction old Bedouin village and is supposed to describe what the area was really like before the oil and skyscraper train hit them. Either would have been far more interesting if there had been pamphlets or information posted somewhere --heck, in any language -- telling us what we were actually looking at, but the few workers we could find were worse than useless.

• Qasr al-Hosn (the Old Fort): Oldest building in Abu Dhabi meets the modern city.
  
  
• Heritage Village: "Excuse me sir, can you tell me if there is a camel to ride somewhere [as advertised] in this Bedouin village?" "Uh, no m'am." "Are there animals at all?" "Uh. no, sorry." 10 meters later, there is an uncaged camel along with caged donkey, caged horse, and caged dog (yes, dog), and 30 meters on the other side, there are cages full of goats, sheep, and a water buffalo. Thanks, guy.
  


• Formal Garden: One of many "garden" parks in the city, where my boyfriend's mother used to take him when he was a boy. Fantastic for small children I think -- everything from the normal slides and swingsets to huge moonwalk-type inflatable rides and games, and all this for 1 dirham (27 cent US) admission price in the middle of the city.
  
• Other things we didn't get to see much but are nice: The Emirates Palace hotel (most expensive hotel ever built, built specifically to be a meeting place for leaders of the Gulf Countries and foreign dignitaries) and the Corniche walkay along the northern edge of the island.
  

All in all Abu Dhabi is a nice little city though. Not a lot to see, but clean and compact, and being surrounded by water makes it more lovely. I wish it wasn't quite so commercial -- both Abu Dhabi and Dubai bombard you with advertisements literally every 20 feet on the roadways, but other than that, okay.

Dubai I haven't been too impressed with so far, though seeing it thoroughly today may change that. The prime development of the city is along one (Sheik Zayed) road, which means it's fairly one-dimensional, prone to high traffic, and completely unwalkable. The development rate is ridiculous --for every skyscraping hotel, you literally see 2-3 more being built. On the other hand, once that building is complete and there is less construction about, the skyline will be impressive and beautiful, if overwhelming. Right now there are only pieces here and there that stand out, the Burj Al-Arab hotel (I haven't seen it up close yet) and Emirates Towers included. On the sillier end -- Mall of the Emirates (the largest mall in the Middle East, complete with an indoor Ski Slope -- yes, really) and Burj Dubai, one of several buildings in the world claiming it will be the world's tallest, with actual plans not being released so no one will scoop them but rumors of 162 habitable floors -- 100 built so far.

More to get to later

• Signs in Abu Dhabi: "Buy one of our luxury apartments, and we'll throw in a free Jaguar". Que ridiculo. ;-)
• Posters everywhere of UAE's founder and late ruler, along with the current. Respect is nice, but this borderlines uncomfortable for me.
• More about division of the natives
• UAE's 90% ownership of Crabtree Valley Mall, my hometown mall a mile from where I grew up.
• Food
• Stray cats. They run around everywhere in both Abu Dhabi and Dhabi... kind of crazy when you see it.
  

Native Americans making a comeback... in Germany?

As I wandered Saarbrucken this weekend, I was struck by what seems to be a (recent?) trend here: Native American performances and paraphenilia. Street performers, Lakota tribe dream catchers, little collectible teepees...

Anyway, seemed a little left field. The music and traditions are beautiful, I just never expected to see them pop up in Saarbrucken!

Beginning a new journey, and recalling the last

Today's flights were my third trip across the Atlantic this year, and those who know me probably know that a fourth trip awaits in December. My trip to Prague from January to May was pretty well documented in this blog (as were the subsequent intra-Europe trips to London, Saarbrucken, and Paris). I don't believe I mentioned my trip to Spain in August at all, so now is as good a time as any...

This August I spent 10 days with my boyfriend's family in the village he's from but never officially lived, and where his mother grew up. (details: Liendo is a small village on the northern Spanish coast west of Bilbao -- see related link). I'll include a few quick shots below -- why not? -- but too much to write up. Basically, the area was gorgeous,


I enjoyed meeting his father and Spanish side of the family, and had a lot of time going out (til at least 5am most nights, and often later) with his friends!

The biggest surprise: after 3 years in high school and a few semesters in college, it turns out that I really do know how to speak a little bit of Spanish! I had some serious doubts going into it, and was a little worried about feeling out of place and left out of conversations when I didn't understand. Once I relaxed and stopped worry about the inevitable mistakes though, I did pretty well! His friends were all impressed with me. And good thing too, because I definitely overestimated the English proficiency of everyone we'd meet there.

Finally compiled: The Best of Prague

I've been home almost a month now, and have finally compiled the best of my photos from Prague. A few pictures don't do the sites justice still, but several are breathtaking. I consider myself unbelievably lucky to have considered these streets my home for four months. I hope you enjoy them!

http://www.clsp.jhu.edu/~erin/photos/prague

All about London

As usual, I'm way behind -- I'm sure I'll be writing about things I did and forgot to mention months after I return from Prague. :-)

Anyway, London... (trip taken April 20-23, photos here)


I was fortunate to be able to meet up with two friends and have another fantastic weekend with beautiful weather. :-) Happily I was also able to save money on hotels in the process! And a good thing too, because... good lord, London is expensive! Seriously, NYC didn't even compare. I just kept pretending that I was paying dollars instead of pounds for my own mental health (when in reality one pound is ~ $1.78.... wow, has that changed a lot...). My bank account caught on to the trick though.

But we'll forget that for now.

List of favorite London moments (not nec in order)

1. Seeing the Producers at Covent Gardens in the London West End
2. Catching up with Jeff Goodman and reminiscing about good old high school days :-)
3. Jeff's whirlwind tour of London's sites
   
4. Getting to wander London with my boyfriend's sister Sara -- first time we've really hung out alone, and as I expected we had a great time!
   
5. Getting to ask my dumb tourist questions in English instead being limited to large arm gestures and repeated pleas of "Yes? Please? English?" in whatever language was appropriate at the time :-)

Paris was more beautiful than London, but London just felt more approachable and definitely more familiar. Plus, the London subway map didn't give me a headache.

London Underground

Paris Metro

Paris was a beautiful place to visit, but I think I could actually see myself living in London.

If I could afford it. :-)

back to Easter

I spent Easter weekend in Liberec with my friend Eliska and her family. The city was nice (often cold and rainy, but not this time), her family was great, and I enjoyed Czech Easter traditions like spending a day decorating eggs.

And yes, I let myself be pomlázka'd. :-)

When I wrote in my blog earlier about my discovery of the pomlazka tradition, I wasn't surprised to raise the ire of some of the Czechs who read my blog. So to mysterious Czech readers Jana and Mirek, and others who didn't comment on the blog, I wanted to respond and elaborate a bit. I hope you'll take it in the light, discussion-provoking manner in which it's intended!

I should be clearer; especially after having experienced the holiday and tradition, I realize that the whipping is for the most part in good fun. It was nice having neighbors stopping by the house and chatting (even if it was to spank us and get some painted eggs, candy, and alcohol!), and when not a lot of boys stopped by I could tell my host family was a bit disappointed. It's nice to hold on to traditions, and absolutely no one who stopped by was mean or disrespectful in any way.


That said, the tradition will always trouble me a bit, and here's why. I don't believe that many Czech men are aggressive and ready to pounce, but some could be, and here's a holiday where hitting women literally is condoned. Several boys who stopped by insisted that the soft end of the pomlaska was for young girls and we had to get the hard end which stung more, and a Czech guy I talked to said he knew guys who bought very hard whips special bc they thought it was more fun when it hurt.

Even more than that though, there's something a little disturbing to me about teaching this to children. Playful as it may be, there's something slightly degrading about being spanked, and I believe it must set in children's heads early on that boys (even the younger ones) dominate girls (even the older ones). So we'll leave it at that. I won't ask the Czechs to change their traditions, but were I to settle in Prague permanently, I wouldn't teach them to my children either. To each his own.

But back to Liberec and my Czech Easter -- everything was beautiful, everyone was wonderful, and I couldn't have asked for a better holiday!!! :-)

Here come the tourists... in their underwear

Charles Bridge in February

Charles Bridge in April

Okay, not really, obviously. That would make them a bit easier to bear though I think! (and maybe you need to be a regular blog reader to get that joke anyway :-))

To all of you not currently in Prague, you're missing out (and you're lucky). The weather here is beautiful, which makes walking through the beautiful streets, courtyards, and bridges amazing.

However, all of Europe and elsewhere seems to have figured out the secret, and they've flooded the streets! What's more, the various shop, craft, and restaurant owners have decided to take advantage of the recent population shift (Dear Czechs: welcome to capitalism), and they've decided that their normal shops and restaurants aren't enough -- instead they've choked Staromestske Namesti (the Old Town Square), Malostranske Namesti (where I work), Andel, and who knows where else with little house-like shop structures.

And yes, I do realize the irony in my annoyance that the Old Town Square old marketplace has actually become, god-forbid, a market. ;-) Still, it's bad enough tripping over tourists without also tripping over porta-potties and huge artificial trees with Easter eggs on them! Easter was just last week of course, but the celebration has been going on almost a month now!

And yes, I'll describe my Easter experiences soon... busy, busy, busy.

Paris pictures finally up

I went to Paris almost a month ago, but finally posted the pictures on my website. Check them out here.