Travelin' the Globe

so it's the end of the year

2009-06-27T13:53:00.009+02:00

and i haven't updated for ages! i will easily blame this on the internet problem i've have since april. what i mean is, i have a limited amount of internet i can use each month, and uploading pictures uses up a lot of that amount, so i just haven't been using the internet like i normally do.

so here, finally, are some photographs:

With some Linzertorte from Linz

At the fish and hunting museum in München

Drinking up some Augustinerbräu in München

Fiaker ride in Salzburg

From the mini mountain at Schloss Hellbrunn looking out at the Festung

From the Museum of Modern Art in Salzburg with the Festung

At Mondsee

Other gnomes in Hallstatt!

At the lake in Hallstatt

From the top of the bell tower at the Nieuwe Kirk in Delft, The Netherlands

At Keukenhof with all the tulips

More flowers at Keukenhof

On a giant clog in Amsterdam

At a canal in Amsterdam

In Dubrovnik with the city wall and sea behind him

On top of the fort outside of the Dubrovnik city walls

On the city walls in Dubrovnik

The view from the hostel

At the beach in Split

i'll add my columns later!

school begins again

2009-03-02T23:07:00.004+01:00

It's good to get back to a routine. School started today, though I had only one class. After this week I should have three on Monday, so the day won't be as empty. But tomorrow I have no real class, so I'm going to have to find some other way to entertain myself. The class I did have today was European history, which I am looking forward to attending.

I will begin a fencing class on Wednesday, and I am sure I will write about it in my next column. I spent a long time today reading about fencing in English and in German so that I can hopefully understand everything better, because it will be taught in German, and I assume with most of the commands in the native French.

This past weekend I went on one last adventure for my holiday break, with a trip to Linz and two nearby towns. I visited a couple of museums in Linz, toured the Mauthausen concentration camp, hung out with some friends and their families, and then went snowboarding on a real mountain. My friend Kathi and her mom took me to Hochficht, which is near both the Czech and German borders of Austria. They are close enough that you can breathe their air, but you can't touch either because of some forestry regulations that won't let the ski place expand into either country. The experience was fantastic, but I really want to go snowboarding again so that I can say that I've been snowboarding in the Alps. My visit to the KZ (the German abbreviation for concentration camp) was much more chilling than my visit to Sachsenhausen, north of Berlin. The camp is much more complete because the Nazis didn't bomb it upon leaving like they did in Sachsenhausen, so you can see complete crematoriums and the gas chamber. I also toured the camp with someone whose family has always lived in the town of Mauthausen, so he had personal stories to share about the camp.

Here's my latest column:

Column 21: My break is winding down, yours?

february break

2009-02-21T13:57:00.007+01:00

February break is getting a little long here. I traveled the globe for two weeks and then returned to Salzburg, where winter is fully active. It won't stop snowing, which is getting quite bothersome, especially since I don't have a bus pass.

So I've stayed inside a lot, sleeping, watching movies and browsing the Internet. Life's pretty boring after my adventure.

But as for my adventure...

I was in London for the great snow storm, which caused the city to shut down, more or less. This was quite bothersome for me. But alas, I was able to do a couple of things I wouldn't have done otherwise, like go to Paddington Station and see Paddington Bear and have innumerable hours available to work on my essay that was due the next day.

When I finally made it to Dublin, I was worn out and not at all impressed. I don't have much to say about the city, other than Guiness tastes better there. And the hamburger I had for lunch was quite fantastic. The hostel wasn't too shabby either, so I was able to get some good sleep.

But the tides turned against me and the one to two inches of snow canceled my flight back to Salzburg. So I spent the night in the Dublin airport, which I wouldn't recommend to anyone. But with my expensive Lufthansa flight to Athens the next morning at 6:45, I was able to finally make it to Athens. We didn't leave Dublin until 8:30, after being de-iced and tugged from our berth. We were one of the last three planes to leave the airport for the day.

Athens was much better. The weather was glorious. It was sunny. It was t-shirt weather. There weren't very many tourists. The food was outstanding. I got to sleep in a nice bed. The Acropolis was unbelievable.

And then we got to Santorini, where most places were closed, because it was February. We managed to entertain ourselves well enough, go to sleep before 10 and be followed by stray dogs at least once a day. The bakery there was probably our favorite place, but the beach at Kamari was also quite fantastic. We were all set to get off the island, when we found out our ferry had been canceled. Fortunately for us, there was already a ferry at Santorini, waiting to go back to Athens. YAY! So we bought new tickets for this ferry and departed around 7 p.m. The ride was supposed to be 10.5 hours. It lasted 12. Sleeping on the ferry isn't as bad as sleeping in the airport.

We went shopping on our last day in Athens, and then headed to the airport. The bus ride was excruciatingly long, but we finally arrived, only to find out that our departure time had been changed, and we weren't notified. And then it was postponed, so we left Athens about an hour after our original time. But we left.

So here are the links for a couple of columns, along with some photos from the trip.

Column 16: Taking a bit of Bowling Green to East Europe

Column 17: Almost done with finals and London's calling

Column 18: Snow and being an American create problems in Dublin, London

Column 19: When traveling, Murphy's Law is the only thing that will hold true

Column 20: Two weeks into her month long break, Alison discovers it is possible to become bored in another country

The British Museum

The Natural History Museum

At the Prime Meridian in Greenwich

At the Tower of London after the snow

The gardens at the Museum of Modern Art in Dublin

The Temple of Hephaistos

The Parthenon

The Temple of Olympian Zeus

Hadrian's Library

Roman Agora

Kamari Beach

Sunset in Fira

The Red Beach

Giants rocks of lava at the Red Beach

Keramiekos Cemetery

the final stretch

2009-01-23T15:15:00.004+01:00

I have one more week of classes here, and then I'm off to travel the globe. I'm starting in London, then going to Dublin. Journey number two starts in Athens with some days spent in Santorini. After that, I'm not sure what's happening, but I know I'll be going to Linz and Mauthausen with some Austrian friends of mine, and we should also go on a snowboarding trip.

Today my art class had an excursion to Schloss Leopoldskron, the palace that is the back of The Sound of Music house. It was really nice to see inside because the palace is private property, and there are no tours given.

Here are some photos:

From the fence at Schloss Leopoldskron

We had a special guest last week from the U.S. Flat Stanley came to visit and we went snowshoeing

Another Sound of Music moment, the Felsenreitschule in the Festspiel Haus

Overlooking Graz

An ice sculpture in Graz

The Bicaz dam in Romania

Stefan the Greatest's tower in Piatra-Neamt, Romania

Last, but not least, is the link to column 15: A Romanian Christmas and an Austrian New Year

a bit more on christmas

2008-12-17T00:58:00.005+01:00

This past weekend I day tripped to Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. It was quite charming in the evening, especially because of the Christmas markets. I also saw the market at the Rathaus (the local government building) in Vienna. This market is huge and incredibly decorated.

The Rathaus decorated for Advent with the market in the foreground.

Cedric in front of the president's house in Bratislava.

Cedric with some Slovakian money. This currency will be exchanged with the Euro on the first of January.

The little bit of snow we had last week in Salzburg.

Snow on the Festung.

And the latest column: Noisy (former) Yugoslavians and odd expressions

Advent-time in Austria

2008-12-11T00:26:00.005+01:00

So I thought I'd make an update since I can't sleep thanks to the super-loud Serbian dance party happening two floors below me. Since Venice, I've been to Berlin, had Thanksgiving, bought the Cardiac Move single and went to a soccer game. Fortunately, Cedric survived a near-death experience at Thanksgiving.

Here are some photos:

Salzburg Red Bulls soccer game

At Media Markt buying the Cardiac Move single

Kathi was still hungry after our gigantic Thanksgiving dinner, so she contemplated eating Cedric.

With some pumpkin pie

At Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp in Oranienburg, north of Berlin

At the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

On top of the Reichstag

And here are some links to my latest columns:

Column 11: Venice: Glass, museums and not as costly as you'd think
Column 12: Burgers, fries and World War II history in Berlin
Column 13: Remembering the past, living in the present

more oktober columns and pictures and some from november, too!

2008-11-13T23:33:00.008+01:00

Since my last update, Cedric and I made a second trip to Vienna for a Cardiac move concert, visited his gnome relatives in Mirabell Gardens and went to Venice, Italy, where Cedric had a small stay in prison. Check out the photos and read the columns to hear about all of those adventures and more!

In Piazzo San Marco

At one of Venice's many canals

The second night's sunset

In prison in the doge's palace in Venice

The sunset from Murano our first night in Venice

The Cardiac Move kitchen

Gnome buddies!

Column six: Oktoberfest: the first of many adventures

Column seven: Cupcakes, Oktoberfest and other Austrian fun

Column eight: Slow down you crazy child, Vienna is waiting

Column nine: Getting the sniffles in Austria

Column 10: Train rides, rock shows and elections abroad

photos!

2008-10-27T21:45:00.004+01:00

So here are some pictures of my recent adventures with Cedric. I'm not sure why they are in reverse order, but nevertheless, here they are.

At Schloss Schoenbrunn in Wien, our final destination on our trip.

At Schloss Belvedere, where the Klimt paintings are.

At the restaurant Centimeter, where we ordered a sword full of meat. Fantastic.

At Neuschwanstein on a beautiful, fall day.

At the Alpensee near the grounds of Neuschwanstein.

On the highest point of the Untersberg.

After getting off the gondola, way above the clouds.
On the Monchsberg, in front of the Dom.

columns and pictures

2008-10-02T12:01:00.003+02:00

Finally, I'm getting some pictures and columns up on the blog. The Internet wasn't working the greatest last night, but it's better today!

This first picture is of Cedric on the train when we finally got seats. We are on our way to Salzburg for the first time.

Here we are at Oktoberfest in the Hacker-Festzelt tent.

This is at our second journey to Oktoberfest on Sunday, 28. September. Behind Cedric are the masses of people.

On Monday Cedric and I went for a walk down Hellbrunn Allee and found Frohnburg, the palace that was used for the front of the von Trapp house in "The Sound of Music."

Here is Cedric at Mirabell, with the Festung and gardens behind him. This was after our first big bike ride.

We continued our journey across the river and stopped for another photo.

And here are some column links:

Column three: Packing the essentials; books and snowpants

Column four: Final auf wiedersehens have been said, Austria here I come

Column five: Six days to Europe and a computer meltdown

the columns continue for austria

2008-09-04T07:46:00.002+02:00

After a couple weeks off, school began again, which meant it was time for me to starting writing about Austria. The first few columns are about my preparations for studying abroad. My column on Sept. 26 will be the first one live from Austria. As for Cedric's well-being, he is anxiously waiting for me to leave, so his life's purpose can continue to be fulfilled. His bags are packed, his shoes are tied and he's ready to have his passport stamped.

Column one: Prepping for a semester (well, year) abroad

Column two: Overcoming Euro culture shock

the rest of the new york city columns (10 and 11)

2008-09-04T07:28:00.006+02:00

Column 10: Ways to see NYC on a budget

Column 11: Leaving the hustle and bustle

At IKEA in Red Hook, Brooklyn, at the new park at the Navy piers

At Trinity Church in the Financial District

On Liberty Island with the Financial District in the background

Visiting the Statue of Liberty

At the Top of the Rock looking south

column nine

2008-07-24T05:22:00.006+02:00

Here's column nine: The amazing adventures of the side show.

And some pictures:

Going to see Wicked:
Dancing on the Big keyboard at F.A.O. Schwartz:

Hanging out in Bryant Park before the summer classic movie starts:

At Coney Island:

a never-ending amount of free activities

2008-07-18T04:38:00.002+02:00

Free activities could really keep someone busy all of the time. I get an email every day that contains a listing of all things free. It's intense. Over the last two weeks, I've attended a fair share of free activities, but considering the number that is on each daily list, I really haven't been to a lot.

Last Monday my roommate and I went to Bryant Park for an old movie. HBO shows old movies and everyone brings picnics and eats on the grass. We saw "The Man Who Came to Dinner." It was pretty funny and hanging out in the park was lots of fun. On Thursday afternoon I went back to this park for the Broadway in the Park series. For five Thursdays, four or five Broadway musicals head to the park for an hour-long performance. Each show gets two or three songs. I saw Chicago, [title of show] and an upcoming musical about Russia. This week is In the Heights among others. I'll be heading over during my lunch break. It's about a 13 minute walk from work if I cut through Grand Central Terminal and walk really fast. I did get there today for the show, and I saw the tail end of Avenue Q, all of Mamma Mia!, which was superb, Phantom of the Opera (and the Phantom asked us to sing along with him for Music of the Night), Pure Country, and In the Heights. The Heights cast was missing some of their leads, so the understudy sang one of the parts, and this mean that none of the songs that the creator and lead character sings could be sung. Poor Usnavi.

This past Tuesday I went to Central Park after work for the final Concert in the Park. The NY Philharmonic was fabulous. The people sitting around us were quite hilarious at times. Just picture a lady wearing a fanny pack swaying to Tchaikovsky, some super-possessive, Italian-speaking blanket hoarders (they wouldn't let anyone step on their blanket, yelled at them if they did, and tried to block all pathways surrounding their blanket), and a group of 20-something-year-old guys galloping to William Tell Overture.

This weekend will bring more free things, with a trip to Coney Island for some beach-going and some music and a trip to MoMA. It's going to be a marathon weekend, I'm assuming. We'll see how it goes.

columns seven and eight

2008-07-18T04:20:00.003+02:00

I apologize for being so tardy with my postings. I'm going to get these up and then write a post about all of the free things I've done in the last two weeks.

So check out column seven titled Brooklyn offers new expectations.

And here's column eight: Coming to the final stretch.

more pictures of cedric

2008-06-27T05:43:00.004+02:00

Now Cedric is visiting Central Park. He enjoyed relaxing in the sun in the Great Lawn after a long day of walking. We'd walked from 125th down to 112th, with detours to the Hudson River and Grant's tomb, a church, Columbia and Pink Berry (a frozen yogurt chain that is like Coldstone and Marbleslab; you select fruits, cereals or candies to be added to your yogurt), and I finally decided it was time to get on a bus and head town to the 79th Street entrance to Central Park. The center of Central Park provides a really great view of the skyscrapers that line 42nd Street between Grand Central Terminal (the station is the post office) and Times Square.

The next day brought another trip to Central Park; this time beginning with a walk around the Jackie Onassis Kennedy Reservoir. The skyline I mentioned earlier can be seen from here, too.

This week also included a new purchase from the Apple Store. The one on Fifth Avenue never closes. And it was designed to be a knock-off of the pyramid entrance to the Louvre. Instead of a pyramid, there's a glass square with an apple suspended inside, with an imitation circular glass stairway with a circular glass elevator in the center of the stairs, also like the Louvre. This also means that the entire store is underground.

pictures of cedric

2008-06-27T05:27:00.004+02:00

Here are some of the latest photos of Cedric and our excursions. This blog allows only five pictures per post, so I'll have a handful of photo posts today.

This first photo is of Cedric at the Bowling Green Fence that surrounds Bowling Green park in the Financial District. We made our pilgrimage here with my roommate. I find it quite humorous that the Bowling Green subway stop has orange tiles and that this park frequently has falcons. What a wonderful coincidence.

The next weekend I headed to Coney Island with my office mate and one of her roommates. Upon arrival we stopped at Nathan's Famous to have our required hot dogs. My coney dog was good, but nothing special. The chili dogs from The Hot Dog Shoppe in Warren are still my favorite hot dogs (but I did have a rather decent hot dog from a vendor last Friday). Nathan's Famous is home of the annual hot dog eating contest.

While there we also walked to the beach, which Cedric enjoyed. It was much more relaxing than our Wonder Wheel ride. Cedric didn't ride on the Cyclone rollercoaster. That was a little too adventuresome for him, so he waited in the bag check.

This is our seat at the Metropolitan Opera concert. To the right of Cedric's left ear is one of the video screens. We couldn't see the stage from our seats.

Also last weekend we made a stop at Columbia University. The university's library is the building with columns that is behind Cedric.

columns five and six

2008-06-26T05:27:00.003+02:00

With a stretch of busy days, I never got the chance to post the link to the fifth column, so I'm including five and six in the same post.

Column five is about some new experiences I had, which include a hospital visit and a trip to Coney Island. You can find column five here: New experiences in New York City.

Column six is about spending time with some people I hadn't expected to see here. The link to column six is Sharing moments with familiar faces.

I have lots of pictures to post, too, so those are next.

the fourth column

2008-06-12T04:29:00.006+02:00

So the fourth column ran in today's BG News. Check it out at:
Getting to Know the Subways

Also, some pictures of Cedric's most recent escapades...

At United Nations

At the Museum of Modern Art with "The Starry Night"

Still at MoMA, but with Jackson Pollock's

And, low and behold, at the Bowling Green City Park with the Bowling Green Fence (there used to be falcons there, too)

the third column

2008-06-05T04:23:00.001+02:00

Here it is...

Winning the Lottery

pictures!

2008-06-01T06:03:00.007+02:00

Cedric at the Usher Concert at Bryant Park for Good Morning America on May 30

The room...the desk
The sitting area and non-functionable patio door and window that opens two inches

The kitchen

the second bg news column

2008-06-01T04:33:00.002+02:00

In the Big City

my first days in brooklyn

2008-05-27T05:06:00.005+02:00

I moved in yesterday and everything here surpassed all of my expectations. My room is quite fantastic. It's not the size of a closet and there is more room than I need for the belongings I brought with me. The street is quiet (it's quieter than BG here - there aren't any trains, horns (the use of horns is outlawed here; there's a $125 fine) or loud people), the grocery stores are close, my bank is close, it's a half hour walk to the Brooklyn tower of the Brooklyn Bridge, and the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, which is a boardwalk with views of Manhattan, is 10 minutes away.

I spent today making a trial run of getting to work. It was about 40 minutes without any traffic. Then I walked five long blocks and 25 short blocks to get to my desired location in Central Park. I spent most of those 25 blocks on Fifth Avenue. I saw stores for many of the big names like Louis Vuitton, Henri Bendel and Bergdorf Goodman, along with many places I've never heard of. I had a picnic on a blanket in Central Park, the weather was gorgeous and it was all I ever wanted it to be.

Cedric came on all of those excursions, but he didn't make any appearances. He did come out yesterday at the Brooklyn Bridge. He went on a tour with me to learn about the bridge. It was really informative.

We're doing well. I've met three of my neighbors and we've decided to have a powwow tomorrow night to discuss our first days. But I need to get ready for work now. Tomorrow is my first day.

P.S. I promise room pictures!

on our way

eating Brooklyn pizza

on the promenade

on the Brooklyn Bridge

first bg news travel column

2008-05-23T05:23:00.003+02:00

Here's the link to column No. 1:
The Sendoff

And it's down to crunch time. I've got somewhere around 36 hours until departure, and I still need to sleep twice, go to work and go to a birthday party. I also need to do some packing. It'll be a blast.

the beginning

2008-05-18T22:52:00.005+02:00

This blog will showcase the trials, tribulations and adventures of Alison and her gnome, Cedric. Cedric's sole purpose is to travel the globe, and with me, he'll be able to. On Saturday, he and I leave for New York City. We'll be spending 11 weeks in the city, interning at American Spa and learning lots of new things. He and I will also travel to Europe in the fall for a year of studies at the University of Salzburg.

We will use this blog to not only chronicle our trips, but to also keep our readers informed about our everyday activities. In addition to reading this blog, keep an eye on The BG News. There will be a weekly column about life in New York City beginning this Wednesday and lasting throughout the summer. The columns will begin again when the school year starts at BGSU.

And now a couple pictures of Cedric before leaving Bowling Green: