Places on my list

Last time in English class we were ask to write at least two travel related blog posts over Christmas-break and it was suggested we should get creative and maybe blog about places we haven't been to yet and would like to visit. So this is what I' doing now, a list of places I really want to visit, of course it's just a small selection of them because the world is big and I love to travel but these are the top ones on my list:

Los Angeles and the rest of California

This is a trip I have been procrastinating for so long now.. The reason is that L.A. is somewhat intimidating and by that I mean transport. This city consists out of many towns who were merged together into the greater Los Angeles area. Also public transport is not developed very well and you definitely need a car if you go there. I wanna do the typical tourist things there, like Hollywood, the Getty Center, Venice beach, Griffith observatory and so on. Later on I also want to visit other places in California such as San Diego which is said to be the nicest city in the U.S. And drive up the coast-line to San Francisco.

Los Angeles

San Diego

Tehran

While what we mostly get about the Iranian Capital in the media is negative I believe there is more to it. I have been watching some documentaries about Tehran and this city somehow fascinates me. Not only I'm fascinated by Oriental culture and architecture Tehran also seems to be a modern vibrant City that is much more peaceful than it is presented to us in the West. I really wanna go there someday because it looks beautiful and exciting.

Tehran

Athens

I only have been to Athens once for some hours to see Syntagma Square and the Acropolis (I blogged about it in a previous post). Greece is one of my favorite countries to go in Europe. I like going to southern Europe in general and while western countries like Spain are just as beautiful, especially the south with the Arabic influenced architecture, the south east is what I like most. Athens is the biggest city in the Balkans that offers a lot of culture and history, seeing as Greece is such an important country historically. I'm actually just about to book a flight there.

Athens

Panama-City

I've heard a lots of great things about Panama from people who were there and the capital with it's impressive skyline is something I really wanna see someday.

Panama- City

                               

Vlorë and Tiranë

I know Albania is usually not the place that comes to most people's minds when they think of a vacation but if we are honest most people don't know much about this country. But maybe this is going to change in some years. The country advertises itself as “a new Mediterranean love” and Europe's last hidden treasure. And especially the South has great touristic potential. What many people don't know is that the Albanian riviera is actually pretty nice. While the beaches in the North such as Durrës are overcrowded and not that good the ones in the south like in Vlorë and Dhërmi offer you white sand and bright blue water. Tirana on the other hand is just my personal interest because I'm learning the language am interested in the Balkans.

Beach in Vlorë

Tirana

Dubai

A place I also wanna see anytime soon to see this almost unrealistic splendid world

Dubai

Communication problems in the suburbs of Dublin

During our junior year my class and I went on a language trip to Ireland. We stayed there for two weeks,

Dun Laoghaire

which were 10 days in Dublin and the rest going to Galway a town on the west coast where we got to see some of the beautiful nature the Emerald Island has to offer, such as the Cliffs of Moher for example. We were all placed as a pair of two in host families in the Dublinian (in lack of a better adjective) suburb of Dun Laoghaire.

While Dun Laoghaire is a nice little town only 15 minutes away from Dublin by train it was a little bit boring, since all it had to offer was a small mall and a McDonald's which most of us went to to meet up. It didn't really matter though since our teachers made sure we were entertained most of the time. Before noon we had English classes at the local language school which I personally didn't find very helpful since we only learned stuff we had already done in school years before. After school our Austrian teacher would take us to Dublin for some sightseeing or hiking or the beach.

What I found most challenging about our stay there was the Irish English. I don't know if this applies for the rest of the town or if our host family was originally from Dublin but they sported a thick dialect that was almost unintelligible to me. While in America or England I never had problems, communication with them was kind of hard. There are some phrases of the things stuck in my memory because our host mother had to repeat them at least three times until I finally got it. For instance she always said “hosh” instead of “hot” and her question if we were going back out sounded something like “ ah yoush going back awt?”. While for the first few days you felt like a complete failure at English for having her repeat everything three times you get used to it and start figuring out what they were talking about. And this is what I would have liked to work on in that language school there. Dialect and differences to British and American English and also learn something about the Irish language Gaelic. Although we touched on the topic Gaelic language in one of our lessons I think the only thing we learned was “Pog mo thoin” which is kiss my ass and can be found on various t-shirts that they sell to tourists in Dublin. Dublin itself was a nice city, it reminded me a little of Graz just a little bigger. The only strange thing we saw there was that many people “walked” their children on a leash which was a bit disturbing but yeah.

Overall staying in Ireland was a fun challenge for my English as well as a great experience and although there are place more interesting for me personally I'm glad I got a chance to visit

The Dutch Caribbean

Sunset at the Marriott beach resort

When hearing Caribbean most people might think of Islands like the Dominican Republic or Trinidad, small wonder since they are the most touristic ones and surely worth a visit. But touristic often comes with mass tourism which might ruins you picture of lying on an unspoiled beach in paradise. You might want to give the not so popular Islands a shot when you are visiting the next time, and let me tell you you don't have to go to over the top exclusive places like Mystique or St. Barths for the real Caribbean experience. Last year I visited Curacao a part of the so-called ABC Islands which consists of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao and make the most Southern part of the Dutch Caribbean. Until October 2010 these three Islands were administered as Dutch territory within the former Netherlands Antilles, but since then it's a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. They accept Dollars but you are better off if you pay in the local currency “Antilles gilders” because they charge you way more for dollars

So since this Island lies a little off the beaten track near the Venezuelan coast it's often forgotten but there lots advantages it has to offer, some of them being:

• It's outside the Hurricane-belt so you don't have to worry about the weather.
• It's easy to reach from Europe, Air Berlin has flights there every Tuesday and KLM also flies out frequently
• It's less crowded than other Islands, most tourists come from the Netherlands or the US
• It has it's own special Vegetation, a lot of parts of the Island are desert-like
  
  

  

  
  

  The biggest ethnic groups of the country are Afro-Caribbean people and Dutch due to it's connection to the Netherlands. Official languages is are Dutch, Papiamentu and English. Papiamentu is a Creole language and I found it to be very interesting since it's a mix of Dutch, Portuguese and Spanish. The people there are the nicest and will help you however they can. Like we once got lost by car and as we stopped to study the map a man stopped by and asked if we needed any help. We told him where we wanted to go and he drove all the way with us to show us. People will start having random conversions with you while you are waiting for your coffee at the coffee-shop which is a great way to get to know the culture and the service is excellent anyway. In my post about Rome I have been ranting about the worst hotel I've ever been, well the best so far was actually the Marriott Resort in Curacao which is the perfect choice for your stay there. It lies just 10 car-minutes away from the Capital, so it's not too secluded but still offers one of the nicest private beaches on the Island. I can only recommend.

Here I have summed up the tops things to do and see in Curacao:

1. Blue-bay beach: This was without a doubt the most amazing beach. It lies within a gated community, but you can get in with an ID and a 7$ fee for the lounge chairs. This is just exactly how you imagine a beach in the Caribbean. White sand, crystal clear turquoise water and a lounge chair in the shadows of the palm trees.

   

   Blue-bay beach
2. Willemstad: The Islands Capital looks a lot like Amsterdam just more colorful. It consists of the two parts Otrabanda and Punda which are divided by the natural harbor and connected via the Queen Emma bridge for pedestrians and the Queen Juliana bridge for cars.
   While Otrabanda offers you a range of art exhibitions and shops, Punda houses the market and those colorful houses that remind you of Amsterdam.
   
   

    

   Punda

   

   Art in Otrabanda

   
   

   

   Willemstadt by night

   
   
3. Diner at the market: Willemstad is famous for it's floating market, a place where mongers, mainly from Venezuela sale their goods such as fish directly from their boats. There is also a big market hall where locals prepare traditional specialties on charcoal grills, a good possibility to get a delicious and authentic meal for reasonable prices.
   
   
   
4. Curacao Sea-Aquarium: Good to go there with kids. Watch a walrus pull of a show, see the Dolphins doing ticks with their trainers or even pet a shark.
   
   
   
5. Fishalicious: A small restaurant in Punda run by Dutch people. They offer the best seafood in town. It's a little pricey but worth it! One of the best restaurants I have been so far. Try their fish-soup

   

   Fishalicious Seafood and more

   
   
6. Grote knip: The grote knip also called Playa Abou in Papiamentu which means “beach in the valley” lies in the North-west of the Island. The beach itself is not that great and even a little dirty. But the water there was the nicest and most turquoise. It's also good for snorkeling because there is a coral reef nearby.

   

   Grote Knip

   
   
7. Curacao Liquor distillery: Yes the blue liquor gets it's name from this Island. The factory lies a little outside Willemstad and you can visit it to see how the liquor is produced, what it consists of and also learn it's history. Really fun!

   

   From fruit to liquor

Of course there are many more things to do and see in Curacao but these were my favorites. So all in one if you are looking for for an authentic Caribbean experience with nice people and delicious food as well as a relaxing vacation Curacao is the way to go. Oh and you shouldnt be afraid of this little guy, Iguanas are found all over the Island and some of them are not very shy ;)

The Trail of tears

We are currently talking about American culture and history in English class and each one of us was assigned to prepare a topic and present it in class. I got a dark part of American history, the so called Trail of Tears and thought I would share this part of history with you.

Trail of tears refers to the Native American's journey to the West of Mississippi river as well as the act of the Native tribe's removal from the South East to today's Oklahoma in general. First policies to remove Indians from their land were developed in 1803 after the purchase of Louisiana (now they had the space to just send the Indians west) under President Jefferson as the white settlers desired their prosperous land to raise cotton on it. They also believed that Indians should be civilized, which meant converting them to Christianity and turning them into farmers.The Natives tried to assimilate themselves into the white people's culture to show them they were no savages in hopes that they would let them keep their land but 

in 1830 the Congress passed the “Indian Removal Act”

The new law allowed President Jackson to negotiate treaties with Native tribes under which they had to give up their land east of Mississippi river in exchange for land in the West.

Jackson tried to sell this as an act of grace the the public saying that this would allow to live Indians safe from white harassment and to govern themselves in peace. However in 1830 17.000 Cherokee people where forcibly removed from their homeland and approximately 6000 died on their way to Oklahoma.

The following years many other tribes got their own “Trail of tears” which made the term also a general reference for forced removals of Natives and ethnic cleansing all over the country

Greek food

So I decided to write about food in this post and share one of my favorite recipes with you.

My favorite cuisine has always been Greek. I love the spices they use and especially their casseroles like Moussaka and Pastizio. Last weekend I was craving Greek food and decided to try preparing some on my own. Since Moussaka was way to complicated and time consuming I went for the maybe most famous Greek dish; Souvlaki. First of all: No Souvlaki does NOT have to be served on a skewer. You grill it on one yes, and you can also serve it on one, but other than a lot of people here think it can also be served on a plate or in pita-bread and still be souvlaki, I like it best served in pita-bread with tomatoes, olives and feta. Preparing this dish is easy but you should plan ahead because it takes about two hours for the meat to suck in the marinade before you can grill it, so it's not really fast-food. Here is a recipe I found on the intrnet and always use:

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup red wine
• 2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
• 1 tbsp. dried mint
• 1 tbsp. dried oregano
• 4 cloves of garlic, smashed and minced finely
• 1 bay leaf, crumbled into tiny pieces
• 1 lb. pork shoulder, trimmed of fat and cut into 1 ¼ inch cubes
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Lemon (for serving)
  

Preparation:

In a large non-reactive bowl, whisk the marinade ingredients together. Add the pork cubes, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours.
If using wooden skewers, soak these in a shallow pan filled with water while the meat marinates.
Heat the grill to medium high. Thread the meat on to the skewers (about 6-7 pieces per skewer). Season the pork with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Grill over medium high heat for about 10 minutes, turning occasionally until they are cooked through. Squeeze some fresh lemon juice on the skewers before serving or remove the meat from the skewers and serve it in a pita along with tomatoes, feta, olives and french fries.