All About Travel: Backpacking, Study Abroad, Road

Amorgos: Greece, Off-the-Beaten-Path

Jesse.J — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 17:18:11 +0000

I love traveling, but I absolutely hate feeling like an ignorant tourist. That’s why Amorgos, a small, Greek island in the Aegean Sea, is the perfect getaway for swamped, recession-fearing Americans who really want to get away from it all. This travel blogger refers to the island as “her big fat Greek secret”. According to this post, handsome men abound, cheap wine flows, and hotels are $40 a night per person. Here’s what you should do when you get there!

Where: Amorgos is the most eastern of the Cyclades Islands, southeast of the mainland of Greece.

How to get there: Fly to Athens, then take the nine-hour ferry ride from Piraeus (port of Athens) to Amorgos (Katapola or Aegiali). The ferry costs about $95 Cdn for a round-trip economy ticket. For Greek Island ferry information go to www.greekferries.gr and www.bluestarferries.com

When to go: High season is June to September.

Festivals: The Kapetanios Festival is held 40 days before Greek Orthodox Easter Sunday.

Where to stay: Rooms, apartments, studios and hotels in Amorgos range from about $40 to $200 per night. Hotel Minoa and Hotel Landeris are centrally located in Katapola. Aegialis Hotel at Aegiali offers panoramic views across the port.

Where to eat: Traditional tavernas and café bars offer local specialties, with prices from $10 to $40 for dinner, including wine. Ones to try include Vintzensos and Kapetan Dimos in Katapola and Tavern Nikos in The Pagali Hotel in the mountain village of Langadha.

VIA CANADA

For backpackers, beach enthusiasts, and the already attached.

justinquincy — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 22:18:09 +0000

The Bahamas conjures up images of blue water and sun for most. For me, the hustle and bustle of downtown Nassau, the main tourist destination in the Bahamanian countryside, is nothing more than another tourist trap and shady street vendors. In fact, after a stay at a local Nassau resort near the tail end of our trip, one hotel taxi director asked us to give him our fishing poles. There’s one thing about being in a developing nation (I’ve been to several), but there’s another thing about shame. Generally speaking, Nassau is the place where you go to get room service and to not worry about any particular stains you may get on the sheets. I wouldn’t even recommend it for the family that their pretty advertisements target so well — your kid will only squeeze whatever luxury you extract from the resort as quickly as your travel toothpaste disappears.

That said, Nassau’s Wyndham is primo, apart from its Club 22, which caters to middle-aged white women hoping for a one night justle that cures their jungle fever. Sure, troves of young, hot Bahamians pay the unnecessary $10 cover charge to cozy up to these white “diamonds”. So, it might be worth the cover to check out the coverting that ensues. While the live band is pretty good, it’s music selection is wanting.

But, the real beauty of my Bahamanian New Year’s Adventure was the island of Eleuthera. Once the island to be at for celebrities and the rich (Princess Diana’s famous swimsuit photo can call Eleuthera home), many of the fancy resorts of the heyday have gone but the beauty remains. The beaches are the main attraction and it’s really a place for those looking for solitude with a significant other. It’s good for families or the recently married (read: while the Bahamas’ laws are conservative, it’s travel bureau nearly encourages nudity). Note of caution for homosexuals: homosexuality is still illegal in the Bahamas and while it’s not routinely cracked down upon, it’s still a concern. I guess its laws pillage as much as anything, taking homo money but giving no homo love.

Enough about the beaches, though. Eletheura has a character to it that is tangible beyond its beauty. One evening our group of lovers and friends mosied our way to one of the few restaurants in the entire village of Governor’s Harbour. It was late and no one else was out. And, while we arrived to a trove of dogs, called by the locals “hotcakes”, we were treated as family. The owner cooked up some fresh, and truly delicious Grouper for our tastebuds, some of the best of the trip. (One of Nassau’s few good draws was it’s Fish Fry, occurring on the weekend with pan-fried Snapper) She even cooked fresh vegetables for us as well. Just as much a testament of the character was the New Year’s Eve celebration called Junkanoo — the locals invited us to play instruments in the celebration and our spriits-filled selves obliged.

A few simple takeaways, then: 1.) If you love the Olive Garden, the Gap, and Baby R’ Us: you’re gonna love Nassau’s resorts. 2.) If you’re into non-profits, home birthing (see Max Bernstein), and veggies only, you’ll love Eleuthera.

But, ultimately Eleuthera has something for everyone except those whose fit #1. I’d advise visiting and enjoying a nice Cuban cigar, (or Backwoods, like we did while fishing).

Travel Crew Prepares for Indochina

Taylor — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 04:19:18 +0000

Taylor here from the Ology Travel Crew.

I have spent the past couple of days getting ready for my trip to Indochina. It was kinda of a pain because I had to deal with obnoxious bureaucratic procedures at the Vietnamese and American Embassies here in Singapore, but I managed.

Here is the tentative plan:

Laos

Random fact: Lao is known for being the most bombed city in the world.

Schedule:

Two days in Vientianne
One day in Vang Vieng
Two days in Luang Prabang

Cambodia

Exploring Siem Reap and Phnom Penh for about 5 days

Vietnam

Exploring Southern Vietnam for about 5 days

I will hopefully have some time to post stories, but if not, I will post when I return.

Travel Tips: Planning a trip to Indochina really highlights the importance of doing things early. Visa processing and other Passport-related issues can take a long time, especially if there is a problem. Make sure you know which countries require a visa before you go, and research the prices and processing time. If you have to rush the order, it will cost you!

…underground X-MAS

Jesse.J — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 22:22:36 +0000

Christmas in France

Jesse.J — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 22:21:59 +0000

‘Tis the season…to get a lot of time off work or school and explore the holidays in another culture. Since it is a personal favorite, and I recall many a holiday season spent eating mousse mushrooms from La buche de Noel in French class, I bring you (compliments of about.com) CHRISTMAS IN FRANCE! Joyeux Noel!

“In France, Christmas is a time for family and for generosity, marked by family reunions, gifts and candy for children, gifts for the poor, Midnight Mass, and le Réveillon.

The celebration of Christmas in France varies by region. Most provinces celebrate Christmas on the 25th of December, which is a bank holiday. However, in eastern and northern France, the Christmas season begins on 6 December, la fête de Saint Nicolas, and in some provinces la fête des Rois* is one the most important holidays of the Christmas season. In Lyon, 8 December is la Fête de lumières, when Lyonnais pay hommage to the virgin Mary by putting candles in their windows which light up the village.

*In most countries, Epiphany (la fête des Rois) is the 6th of January, whereas in some places in France it is celebrated the first Sunday after 1st January.

French Christmas Traditions

French children put their shoes in front of the fireplace, in the hopes that Père Noël (aka Papa Noël) will fill them with gifts. Candy, fruit, nuts, and small toys will also be hung on the tree overnight. There’s also Père Fouettard who gives out spankings to bad children (sort of the equivalent of Santa Claus giving coal to the naughty).

In 1962, a law was passed decreeing that all letters written to Santa would responded to with a postcard. When a class writes a letter, each student gets a response.

Le Réveillon

Although fewer and fewer French attend la Messe de Minuit on Christmas Eve, it is still an important part of Christmas for many families. It is followed by a huge feast, called le Réveillon (from the verb réveiller, to wake up or revive). Le Réveillon is a symbolic awakening to the meaning of Christ’s birth and is the culinary high point of the season, which may be enjoyed at home or in a restaurant or café that is open all night. Each region in France has its own traditional Christmas menu, with dishes like turkey, capon, goose, chicken, and boudin blanc (similar to white pudding).

Throughout the French Christmas season, there are special traditional desserts:

La bûche de Noël (Yule log) - A log-shaped cake made of chocolate and chestnuts. Representative of the special wood log burned from Christmas Eve to New Year’s Day in the Périgord, which is a holdover from a pagan Gaul celebration.
Le pain calendeau (in southern France) - Christmas loaf, part of which is given to a poor person.
La Galette des Rois (on Epiphany) - round cake which is cut into pieces and distributed by a child, known as le petit roi or l’enfant soleil, hiding under the table. Whoever finds la fève - the charm hidden inside - is King or Queen and can choose a partner.”

Stories from Athens

Taylor — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 19:00:51 +0000

Post Trans-Iberian, Pre-Trans-Siberian. Check out our stories…

The plane landed at the Athens airport around 3:30 am. It was awful.

We tried laying down for a bit in chairs at the airport, then decided it wasn’t comfortable or worth it, so we took a bus into the city intending to head to our hostel and at least drop our bags off. We ended up getting sidetracked into a 24-hour McDonald’s in a big square in Athens. It was around 4:30 and the place was hopping… there was a long line for food, with tons of customers. And the wonders didn’t cease - when we went to the basement to get to the bathroom, there was a massive (but not in use at the time) dance floor. Don’t ask, I don’t have a good answer.

We chilled at McDonald’s for a little while, ate some food, then took a taxi over to our hostel, where we dropped off our bags and tried to figure out what to do. By this point it was around 6am, and we realized that we weren’t far from the Acropolis, so we headed over there, hoping to beat the crowds and the heat and see it early in the time that we didn’t have available beds at our hostel. It was an awesome decision. Although we were all dying of exhaustion, as soon as we entered the Acropolis we sprinted ahead of the tour groups straight to the Parthenon, so we had about 20 minutes there basically alone before the crowds descended.

The Parthenon was truly breathtaking. I tend to be pretty skeptical of a lot of touristy crap and sightseeing, generally finding a lot of sites (especially stuff like “it’s the second biggest cathedral in Spain!” etc.) pretty underwhelming and not worth the hype/entrance fee. The Parthenon, however, will join the Pyramids and the Great Wall as sites which really leave a lasting impression, and would be hard pressed to disappoint. The view of the city is spectacular, and the Parthenon towers over you… even with a lot of construction work going on, the experience was pretty memorable.

One of the more memorable moments came when I saw a few older fat white men in polo shirts, shorts, baseball caps and sunglasses walk up the steps of the Parthenon. They were splitting images of tourists, so we assumed that we needed to figure out where the entrance was so we could go in too. Indeed near the back (front?) of the Parthenon there was a break in the rope barrier, so we walked in and started walking up the steps. At this point, this woman from outside who clearly works there starts screaming at us in Greek, and doesn’t stop. Obviously, we weren’t supposed to go there…. She kept screaming at us unintelligibly as we hurriedly and apologetically made our way back the way we came and to the outside of the rope barrier. As we walked over to Adam he asked “Dude, what the heck was she yelling at you?” to which I replied “I don’t know man, she was speaking Greek, probably saying ‘Get out of the Parthenon’ ” Whoops. Oh well, not that many tourists can say they actually walked up the Parthenon stairs!

The next day was spent hitting the other ancient sites, like the Theater of Dionysus and Temple of Zeus, all very old/cool.

Before I went to Athens, I lot of people said it was great to see the old sites, but otherwise not that impressive. I tend to agree. I was amazed by many of the sites, but they were old and worn down. The city itself is not that exciting, but the food is pretty good. If you are traveling on a budget, you can always find a cheap and delicious gyro.

Port in Porto, Portugal

Taylor — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 07:00:38 +0000

Trust me, it is the cool thing to do.

When you go to Portugal, why not take a trip up to Porto to experience the great Port.

If you don’t like port (like me), it is still a great experience. You will get to try lots of expensive, diverse ports for a small fee, if not for free. It is also a great way to learn more about the production and the history of the industry.

For those that are port fans, you can purchase some great port, and even tour the vineyards. Most of them are not in the same location as the factory or store. However, you can sign up for a river tour, which is a great place to view all the different vineyards. The tour packages usually end with a tour of the vineyard.

Check out Porto Tours for more information. Also, it would be wise to do some research about the other tours.

Stories from the Road - Jerez, Tarifa, and Granada

Taylor — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 07:00:32 +0000

Stories from Jerez, Tarifa and Granada. These were three of the cities we visited while on the Trans-Iberian road trip !

Jerez was supposed to be a day trip on the way to Cadiz, but when we got into Cadiz for the first time we couldn´t find a hostel, we went 0 for 10, so we went back to Jerez and spend the night there.

For the day trip, we walked around the city, and took a tour of a Sherry vineyard. It was an interesting learning experience, but since I don’t like Sherry, the tasting was not too special.

Tarifa is a very pretty town, it´s the southernmost point of Europe from which you can see Morocco across the water. We enjoyed it a lot, and got some beach time out of it. The beaches are nice, and there are lots of water sports. Windsurfing is very popular, and most places offer lessons. If you are there for a few days and want to learn, it might be fun to sign up for a class. If you just want to tour around, there are lots of ferrys that run from Tarifa to Morocco everyday.

Granada was awesome. Really lively town, and very cool to see so much Muslim influence around. Doner Kebob restaurants (which have probably constituted 1 out of every 4 of our meals) were a dime a dozen, and delicious, and there was a cool market with lots of shops and hookah bars. We went out on the town and while we were at this bar called Dolce Vita, we met a group of awesome girls from Oklahoma and hung out with them for the rest of the night. The highlight of the night came as we were walking out of Dolce Vita and found an orange tree. A few people climbed up and picked a couple of oranges. At the sight of this, this angry young drunk guy came over and started yelling at us. He was speaking very fast and my Spanish isn´t what it used to be, but I´m pretty sure what he said consisted of: “Hey, American, you can´t just climb a tree and pick oranges here” (directed at Erin) followed by “Maybe in Peru that´s how it works, but not in Granada” (huh?). The guy then proceeded to grab the oranges out of my grubby Peruvian hands and throw them over a large fence, where they would be inaccessible to us. Very funny.

From the driver…

We had a pretty long drive to Valencia, which is really cool, except for the goddamn traffic lights. Literally every large Spanish city we have driven in has found a new way of making my life miserable behind the wheel of Berthão. In Madrid, it was tiny streets and really busy traffic circles. These wouldn´t have been too bad, except there would always be four lanes going into a traffic circle, then two lanes inside the traffic circle, and three or four lanes again exiting, making the entire process a clusterfuck. In Sevilla, it was an abundance of one way streets, and the fact that it was impossible to ever make a left turn because there were never any damn left turn lanes. Argh. Valencia seemed like it was going to be great, until I started hitting traffic lights. For some reason, the Spanish think it´s a good idea to put traffic lights on your side of an intersection rather than across the intersection where you can clearly see it. Once I´m pulled up to a light, I can´t see it, because it´s above me.

In Valencia, they have decided to address this problem in the following way: there are two sets of lights at every intersection, one directly above my head and one across the intersection. When the light above my head turns red, the light across the intersection starts flashing yellow. When making a left or right turn, a flashing yellow means go, but cautiously. In this case, however, the flashing yellow apparently means “watch out, there´s a red light above your head”. I think this message would be appropriately conveyed by a RED LIGHT. Additionally, when a light goes from green to red here, it´s yellow for like half a second. It took me I think 4 red lights run in a row last night to figure this out. Driving is a serious adventure….

Lisbon, Portugal

Taylor — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 08:13:23 +0000

Lisbon - A Touch of Background….

For history buffs, this is a great place to visit. The following is a summary from the ol’ ‘pedia about some of the many events that occurred:

Lisbon was under Roman rule from 205 BC; Julius Caesar made it a municipium called Felicitas Julia, adding to the name Olissipo. Ruled by a series of Germanic tribes from the 5th century, it was captured by Moors in the 8th century. In 1147, the Crusaders under Afonso Henriques reconquered the city for the Christians and since then it has been a major political, economic and cultural center of Portugal. Unlike most capital cities, Lisbon’s status as the capital of Portugal has never been granted or confirmed officially—by statute or in written form. Its position as the capital has formed through constitutional convention, making its position as de facto capital a part of the Constitution of Portugal.

Currently, Lisbon is an important city for politics and economics. It is the location of two European Union committees, and is considered to be the second most important financial center in the Iberian peninsula.

If you find yourself in the area, check it out. From there will have easy access other great cities in Portugal.

Stories from our Lisbon, Portual stop during the Trans-Iberian road trip…

We got a late start in Salamanca (we rolled out of bed around noon after our intense evening), had lunch, and headed onwards to Porto in what will hopefully be the longest leg of our trip, clocking in at around 7 hours. The drive into Porto was wonderful - for the last hour or so, all we could see were vineyards along the sides of mountains that lined the Douro River - this is where the world´s Port wine is made. Porto itself is quite pretty - some say it reminds them a lot of Prague in terms of the feel of the streets and the architecture. Lots of small cobblestone streets leading into more open plazas, and then a very pretty waterfront area along the river where we sat for a while and had a drink while taking in the scenery. For a Saturday night, however, there didn´t seem to be too much going on. It´s possible that we missed the craziest areas of town, but nothing was too busy tonight (save a rock band playing a live show in the middle of a small street), certainly nothing compared to the activity we saw in Spain. Maybe the Portuguese are a little less crazy than their neighbors to the east.

The next day, we had a chance to see a little more of Porto, sample some of its fine Port, and then hopped back into Berthão (our car) and headed to Lisbon by way of Coimbra, and spend the next night or two in Lisbon.

All in all, having a great time. The Euro is the devil, however. Whereas Berthão and I developed a bit of a love/hate relationship, there existed no such ambiguity in my feelings towards the currency that rapidly drains our wallets and, albeit more slowly, our souls. The cheapest meals we can ever find are around $7… if we go to a proper restaurant (which we have only done once so far) we have to expect to pay $15-16 each, which is completely unsustainable twice a day. This trip around the world ain´t gonna come cheap.

Travel Advice - Europe’s Little Trick

Taylor — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 07:56:55 +0000

Travel Tip: Never eat or drink something you did not order!

Europe has a little tourist trick that always gets us Americans. They put food (bread, olives, etc) on the table, we eat them, and then they charge us. It is super annoying. In some cases, you might order bread (say, for 3 Euros), eat all the slices, and realize when you get the bill that they charge you per slice.

When I was traveling around Europe, I was pretty good about clarifying costs and quantities. A couple of times, however, I did get nailed with charges for things that I thought were free. It is pretty hard to argue with them, since after all, you did consume the product. To avoid any dispute, just make sure to ask if it is free!