Five States, Five Students

They say you cannot truly love someone until you first learn how to love yourself. Perhaps before I can love the world completely, I have to learn to really love the part of it I already think I know. So here's to loving my country. After all, there is beauty in everything. ;)

I visited West Virginia once when I was younger for a soccer tournament. However, my brother's tournaments have somewhat blended into one. Needless to say, I remember nothing. This time around I visited the state with a good friend from home, Jared, two friends from school, Mo and Brian, and Mo's friend from home, Molly. Though the five of us made up a strange group, we seemed to be fine together on the eight hour drive down to Milton, WV where Mo's family lives. We also realized, once we got into our trip's adventures, that the group we were in was without a doubt the least random thing we were going to encounter.


On our very first day in West Virginia we drove to Point Pleasant at the suggestion of one of Mo's step-siblings. There we met the legend that was Mothman in museum, statue, and artwork form. If you are not familiar with the myth that is mothman, then allow me to explain. According to the small town of Point Pleasant, there was a creature in the area coming to citizens with visions of disaster and destruction. Hundreds of people claimed to have seen the beast right up until the day when the Silver Bridge collapsed. The legend says that mothman, the same creature that had terrified and haunted many a citizen, had come to warn the Point Pleasanters about the bridge disaster.


Before you think I know a lot about the subject, realize that most of the town is dedicated to this legend. The small, quirky museum that we visited gave us some idea of its importance in society along with showing us a surprisingly well put together documentary on the events concerning mothman. We also watched the actual movie, The Mothman Prophecies. It was legitimate. Richard Gere was the main character.


Mothman happened to lead us to Hillbilly Hotdogs as well. This "restaurant" is made up of multiple school buses that are decorated in everything from child's toys to signatures written in permanent marker. It was an absolute riot. The hotdogs had creative names and massive 15 pound hamburgers were actually created in this hotdog lover's Mecca. I hadn't eaten a hotdog for who knows how many years when I ordered a hotdog with a name referring in some way to thunder. It was spicy and lathered in toppings. I still don't know exactly what I ate. It was a fabulous discovery.


Also in West Virginia we visited the old Moore Mansion. The mansion is said to be haunted, with the old foundations of some of the largest slave quarters in the history of the Confederation hiding behind it. It was a bit eerie to see a building of such magnitude sitting atop a hill with trees growing in and around it. It just reminded me how much of a person can live on once they are gone....


That same day we headed over to the farm owned by Mo's father and were shown the immense collection of guns that Mo's step-brother has. Not only did we see them, but we were able to shoot them. Me shoot a gun? Oh yes, me as well. Not that I was any good at it. The only time I hit any of the clay targets was when it was sitting stationary, say... 15 feet away from me. It was certainly an experience nonetheless, and knowing that my best shots were done with the little shotgun owned by Mo's 7 year old nephew, just reminded me again that I was below the Mason-Dixon line.


Once we felt substantially immersed in Southern (which is funny considering all of us go to school in Maryland, and few of us have been below Virginia) culture, we drove west towards Kentucky. We spent an entire day exploring Carter Caves via the "Cascade Cave Tour" and a bit of our own independent adventuring. After a positively disgusting meal at Lee's Famous Recipe Chicken (a chain we called to see what they served thanks to our GPS not adding the "Chicken" part of the title) we went to our camp site to enjoy a fire and some music. We were warm and content chatting by the fire when we decided we should get some sleep. Molly and the boys were out almost immediately, but Mo and I had a harder time getting to sleep. This was mainly due to the fact that my dear friend Mo was experiencing some anxiety about a skunk she swore was directly outside the tent near her head. I could not stop giggling over her first time camper tensity, and she couldn't stop asking what this or that sound was. In her defense, campers to our right decided to pack up and leave around 2am despite the fact that they were making excessive noise and flashing multiple lights. Eventually we fell asleep after jokes about aliens and police, skunks and bears had exhausted us into a slumber.


We all woke up the next morning, with the exception of Jared who lucked out with the below zero sleeping bag, shivering so much that our freezing toes moved in and out of the blankets. Somehow the temperature had dropped significantly, so upon waking up we forced Jared to start a fire while we put on as many layers as possible. After bundling up, we ate a warm breakfast and headed back out towards the caves.


Our second day in the caves was amazing. Personally, I enjoyed the cave we needed to spelunk through the most. We were all wading in water up to our shins, or for those of us who were shorter, up to our knees. There was a constant sound of water trickling in the dark, and our flashlights only worked so much so that we could be sure there wasn't something directly in front of us or to either side. Spiders and bats hung around the ceiling of the cave, and the water was so cold I thought my blood would freeze. I loved it. We ended up going through the cave twice, ignoring the fact that our sneakers would be soaked for the rest of the day.


The rest of our time in Kentucky was dedicated to hiking and caving until night fell. We returned back to West Virginia ready to see a bit of Ohio and to experiment with Geocaching, both of which were things I had never done.We tried geocaching in WV as well as in Ohio. Oh, by the way, geocaching is when you place certain coordinates (found online) into a GPS, and then you search the area you are led to for a container. Said container will have a bunch of small trinkets that have been left by other travelers along with a notebook saying who's been where. We were most successful in Ohio, and to celebrate we ate at a little diner type restaurant called Monty's in Chesapeake. It was the first time success tasted like an Italian sub not made in New Jersey or New York.


Our trip took us through Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio. Eight hours in a massive suburban, both ways, and random journeys to places like Hillbilly Hotdogs and the home of Mothman, we saw parts of the country most people never even hear about. I guess I feel a little more acquainted with my own country, but now more than ever I feel guilty for having waited to see it for so long. It's time I took advantage of what I have the freedom to see.

 To try geocaching check out the website so that you can plug in some coordinates into your GPS http://www.geocaching.com/

And here's the website for Carter Caves. I highly recommend it if you enjoy caving. http://parks.ky.gov/findparks/resortparks/cc/

Costa Rica: The Beginning of my Spanish Obsession

In high school I suffered through a year of Spanish with a teacher who, just a month before the start of the school year, recovered from a stroke. It wasn't her fault for her inability to write well or to concentrate on teaching the class, I blame this solely on the stroke. However, her constant absences and shut-up-and-watch-a-movie-in-Spanish teaching techniques did not encourage me to further my Spanish education. I decided to stick it out as long as was needed for the language requirement. I even added latin to my schedule in an attempt to find another language interest (latin is good for law and medicine and such, yes, I know I'm a nerd). 
The next year I ended up with a fabulous teacher from Murcia, Spain, which was extremely fortunate because the previous year had left me way behind. I complained about doing poorly at home, so my parents bribed me with a trip to Costa Rica if I brought my grades up. Of course I started staying after school to work with her, and in not too long I was ahead of most of my class. My parents were probably pissed because they never actually thought I would be able to get my grade up so much, but I wasn't about to let them back down on their promise. That is how I studied my way into the trip that started my relationship with Spanish, my love affair if you will. 

Costa Rica was the only trip in which I stayed in just hotels. It is a very comfortable way to travel, and even though I am a huge fan of challenges and unexpected complications, we definitely found our fair share of interesting experiences in our hotels. Our little rental car helped us out in that department for sure. 

El Tucano- La Ciudad Quesada 
This small hotel was located in the North West near the Arenal Volcano. It was beautiful and excluded from what felt like the rest of the world. We spent the first day of jet lag relaxing in the mineral pools heated by the volcano itself and walking through jungle trails right outside the hotel's land. During our time there we decided to take a quick, but fantastic trip to Monteverde. 
We drove for hours on the most dangerous roads known in existence until we reached a cute cabin-like hotel somewhere in the mountains. We spent the night in the Fonda Vela Lodge, and woke up early to go to the Aventura Zip lines. We were expecting to find a high tech zip line like the extremely safe steel contraption we saw near Arenal. Instead we were rushed into pitiful looking harnesses and safety gear only to have the rules and instructions explained to us in terrifyingly unclear English. The fact that the head zip line man was an absolutely gorgeous Costa Rican, didn't change the fact that we were going to speed across wire that was simply wrapped around random trees in the jungle. Not to mention, the only stopping method was using your own gloved hand to slow you down before hitting the tree at the opposite end of your line. It was all very sketchy, and my construction savvy dad seemed extremely unsettled by the lines. 
I was absolutely thrilled, and it was by far one of the coolest things I have ever done in my life. The last line was something like 750 feet long, and was stretched out over a large opening in the jungle. We weren't allowed to do the final line alone, so couples and friends went together. There was an odd number of guests, so I was the left over. I was the last to go, and I had to bring along the beautiful Costa Rican who had explained everything in the first place. After a few flirtatious remarks, he left me to enjoy the view and have my breath taken away by the indescribable experience I was going through. 
Monteverde was possibly my favorite part of the entire trip, and my biggest recommendation to anyone going to Costa Rica is to go on a zip line in the jungle. It is so freaking awesome! 

GUANACASTE 
The hotel we stayed at in Guanacaste was the kind that set you up with all sorts of day adventures and plans. While there, we went on an ATV tour during which we met some local villagers, we went scuba diving in the bay (thanks to the certification I've had since I was 14), we went snorkeling and held octopi, we went sailing, and we went to a secluded beach for a picnic. When we weren't on day trips we spent time at the hotel in the pool or playing ping pong, or what have you. This hotel allowed me to separate from my parents and meet people from all over the US and Costa Rica. I made friends with the entertainment staff at the hotel, and I spent a lot of my time back stage (or on it) during the nightly shows that were held. Esteban, one of the dancers spent a lot of time with me playing pool volleyball, playing pool, or just hanging out. It was all very Dirty Dancing with the discoteca and the dancing shows I was a guinea pig for, but in a very 16 year old kind of way. I denied the piña coladas, so no funny business happened or anything. It was definitely one of those unexpected experiences that I will never forget. Everyone should stay in a fancy, pool-bar hotel at least once in their lives. I enjoyed it =) 

JACO 
Jaco is a very popular surfing town on the west coast. Aside from lots of hippy shopping, amazing empanadas, and great beaches, Jaco gave me the best, and only, surfing lesson I've ever had. 
My dad had already taught me to surf, but with few other plans, we didn't see why a surf lesson wouldn't be fun. The 2002 Costa Rican surf champion was my coach. I caught some really powerful waves (compared to my east coast home waves), and was positively dead by the end of the day. My coach was totally awesome however, and I'm really glad I went for it. At the very least, you will meet some stellar people if you take a lesson. 

SAN JOSE 
San Jose was my least favorite part of the trip. It is a large and dirty city, that is only really acceptable because of the history to be found there. The museums are very interesting, and the small street markets are very cool to stroll down in the afternoon. I also made some nice discoveries in music and book shops. Did I mention that they serve rice and beans at McDonalds in Costa Rica? Just throwing it out there. That's one of those things San Jose taught me. 

All in all, Costa Rica was an amazing trip. We went on fabulous hikes through rain forests, cloud forests, and jungles surrounding volcanos. I surfed, ate amazing food, got lost, almost died, and met people who have permanently given me a biased love for those who speak Spanish. Hey, you go to Costa Rica and come back without being in love! I dare you.

I Walked on Rainbows Through the City

New York City and I have a love hate relationship. On one hand I am fascinated by the multitudes of culture rich inhabitants, and on the other hand I am overwhelmed by the fast pace and undeniable smell. 

I just recently made the trip up with my old friend Dan and our mutual friend from Spain, Miguel. Miguel stayed with Dan for a good part of the summer, during most of which I was in Hawaii. He had been to New York three years ago, but since it was the last day I would get to see him before he left, we figured a trip for the three of us into the city would be entertaining at the very least.

We hadn't made too many plans, meaning we hadn't made any plans aside from where we were going to eat, and this just added to the complete hilarity of the day. We started off with a nice, long train ride filled with endless reminiscing of our last meeting in Murcia, Spain. Immediately afterwards we left Pennsylvania Station to meet the unknown.... or the somewhat unknown. Dan was sure about one thing. He wanted food.

So, after a good hour of walking the boys picked up some eats, and we continued on to Broadway. We thought about getting student rush tickets to see "A Chorus Line", but because my student ID was stolen in Hawaii and the guy at the box office didn't believe my claim over the student ID number I gave him (my actual number), we could not afford regular price tickets. Instead we walked on.

Our "plan" B included cruising through Times Square, Central Park, various random streets, and a short visit to the American Museum of Natural History. I was actually really pleased with improvised plan B because I am a huge fan of the museum. We visited the mammals of Africa and North America, but because I have to observe and read everything in a museum, we only had so much time for other exhibits. To choose our last stop in the building we played rock, paper, scissors. Miguel had chosen Sea Life and I chose "advanced mammals", but Dan won rock, paper, scissors. What did he choose? Small mammals of course.

There were about 10 small mammals, mostly from North America, and they were basically the last of what we saw in the museum. Miguel and I snuck quick peeks at the larger mammals of North America before we were ushered out of the museum by Dan in order to wander the city a little more.

I can't remember a time when I walked through NYC more than I did that day. We ended up on the complete opposite side (in my eyes) of the city in order to have dinner at an excellent Ethiopian restaurant called Meskerem in between 9th and 10th ave on 47th St. After a dinner in which we ate using only our hands and the crepe-like bread provided, we started towards Penn Station. On the way we met some more Spaniards from Toledo and Madrid by singing the alcohol song (a teenage anthem sung to the óle chant). Their conversation was very amusing, but I was definitely pleased to be sitting on a new double decker, Euro style train, on my way home. When I sat down I realized that I had been walking ALL day by the side of two guys with legs infinitely longer than mine, while wearing my Rainbow flip flops. How I had survived was beyond me. Another lengthy conversation with Miguel appeased my achy feet however, and all potentially negative thoughts were forgotten..... until this morning when my feet didn't want to support me down the stairs to breakfast.

The day was long, but thanks to the cultural confusion brought upon us by bringing a full-blooded Spaniard into a bustling city, it was great fun. The mispronunciations, journeys into parts of the city I would never otherwise visit, and the lovely talks with wonderful friends made me love NYC.... at least for the day. It was definitely an experience.

My advice?

1. If you absolutely must wear sandals, wear Rainbows because they are the only ones I can guarantee will survive the wear and tear of a big city. (Don't expect money back if they do miraculously combust on an endless walk. Just saying, for legal purposes of course...)
2. If you can't stuff all of your money and your phone into your tight jean pockets, bring a bag that zips up. It is way harder to loose your stuff during the shuffle if it is zipped up to save you from yourself. Some people also complain about being robbed, but I don't like harping on that subject.
3. Go into random shops and eat cuisine you have never tried. There are too many options in New York to do the same thing every time.
4. It's okay to talk to the people handing out flyers to comedy shows and concerts. They have a sucky job, you might as well make it a little more interesting for them... unless they are sketchy. I am personally bad at ignoring them, so you should probably use your own judgement here.
5. Don't let the people you are with convince you that it's lame to take the metro. It is there for a reason. My feet would have thanked me.

Lesson learned; any place, even a sometimes obnoxiously loud and busy city, can be extremely fun if you make it that way. Cheesy as it may be, it's true. Suck it up and have fun. I did. It was a great experience, for sure. =)

Castles, Fish, and Fairy Tales; Denmark in a Nutshell

I'm going to start with Denmark because it was really the first time I was able to appreciate an out of country experience. Sure, I had been to Canada, but I had only really gotten to see the Niagra Falls and more soccer games than I was willing to pay attention to. Denmark was the first time I went to a country and went through all the tourist motions.

I was offered a trip to stay in Denmark for two weeks because my aunt of no blood relation lives in Lejre, a small town not too far from Copenhagen. She is actually the high school exchange student of my mom's sister, but point being, I had a connection in the country.

Her house is an old nunnery with beautiful antiques in every corner. The kitchen alone has old stone floors, a brick oven, and age stained white walls that reminded me of a little mission in South America. Her house isn't the only historical marvel in Lejre. There is also a living history museum where Danish men, women, and children dress like villagers from the stone, iron, and bronze ages. These people talk to you about how life was like back in the day, and along with their tall tales you can see huge bulls and sacrificial bogs.

We also made a short trip to Saeby in the north. Thanks to that trip I can now say I have stood in two oceans at once at the northernmost point of Denmark (Skagen). I can also say that I have mastered the card game Egyptian Rat Screw, because aside from hanging out on the beach all day, there is not much to do that far north.

The highlights of the entire vacation were definitely Roskilde and Copenhagen, two of the largest cities in the country. We visited many museums in Roskilde, and Copenhagen was, and remains, one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen. The buildings are all ornate, and the water near the packed houses gives a beautiful view. You can't forget the historical significance of Hans Christian Anderson's house being located there, and Tivoli, a whimsical amusement park designed after his fairy tales, is a permanent reminder of his popularity.

The sights to see in Copenhagen and around the country are endless, what with things like the little mermaid statue, Hamlet's castle (Kronborg Slot), and all of the cities by the water. Everything is surprisingly beautiful and unique.

I do have a few things of advice for those planning on visiting the country though:

1. If you like to travel for food, Denmark probably should not be high on your list. Much of the food consists of open faced fish sandwiches and somewhat bland meat. Don't get me wrong, the bread, cheeses, and desserts are delicious, but I'm not the biggest fan of herring myself.
2. If you are looking to get lost in a place where no one speaks english, Denmark is not that place. Almost everyone speaks english because it is usually required through out a child's education. This can actually be extremely convenient but just like everywhere else, the Danes appreciate if you try. Maybe pick up the important words like hello and thanks. (They're the easiest to say)
3. Danish people are some of the nicest people in the world. Don't be shy and you will make some long lasting friends.
4. Remember that "slut" means sale in Danish. Don't worry when you see it in all of the shop windows. =)
5. If you're a history buff be sure to check out Bulbjerg, a German bunker from WWII, the Viking Museum in Roskilde, Fredensborg Palace, Hamlet's Castle, Lejre's Living History museum, and any small town. 

Oh boy, now I am itching to go back. Who ever thought I would fall in love with such a small, peaceful country?

The How and Why of My Obsession

The creation of this blog was inspired by a combination of suggestions to write a book about my experiences, and the necessity for me to write down things that have happened to me in order to remember them. Since I have no plans to write a book any time soon, I figured a blog will have to suffice.

So, I guess I should explain why travel became my obsession, right? Well, unfortunately I can't do that, except by saying that there is nothing else that makes me quite as happy as a good adventure. I grew up traveling back and forth from coast to coast because of my scattered family, so I have technically travelled across the US more times than I am even aware of. I first crossed a border in middle school when I was dragged along to Canada for one of my older brother's soccer tournaments. Since then I have never underestimated the power of Canada or any other new place because if it wasn't for that trip, I may not have become a member of travelocity, orbitz, or expedia. 

Post Canada I ventured further to Denmark, Sweden, Costa Rica, Spain, England, Hawaii, and some other American destinations. My more or less solid plans for the future include more of London, Hawaii and Spain, new adventures to Ireland, Perú, Tanzania, and any other trip that comes to mind during a midnight dream of wanderlust.

What this all comes down to is my firm belief that anyone can travel, and no matter what, every experience, even the seemingly unfortunate ones, are what make life beyond mundane and simply breathtaking. So, let's go make some mistakes, speak poorly in other languages (without being obnoxious Americans of course), get lost in huge airports, and love every second of it. At least it will be an experience.