Nate's Travels

Guest Entry: What Happened to the Von Trapp Family After They Went Over the Hills That Were Alive…

2007-05-09T11:45:00.000-07:00

(This is Kevin writing). I arrived in Brussels and met Nathan with hugs and smiles. He didn’t look different which was nice. Getting through passport control was a breeze; the longest part of getting to Nathan after having left the plane was the walk from the plane to passport control. The entry agent took a look at the passport and waved me through. There was no Customs to clear!

Nathan and I proceeded to the train station and took a train to Luxembourg City. The day was beautiful…sunshiny and breezy, temperatures comfortable. Nathan was an expert navigator of the train system and it took about 3 hours to get to arrive in Lux City. The view from the right was nice but I wouldn’t say spectacular. The train way was mostly through city like conditions (but we had really poor seats and it was hard to see outside).

I learned an unfortunate lesson – you have to pay to use the bathroom in train stations. Nathan had warned me and I walked into one that was attended by a grandmotherly lady to whom I paid 0.40 Euros (about $0.55) and used a dirty smelly stall – I don’t know what the money pays for. When I came out I thought I’d be nice and leave her the other 0.10 Euros as a tip. She acted confused and thought I was paying and demanded another 0.30 Euros – I tried to explain that I already paid and was just being nice but she only spoke French and I didn’t know enough to explain my way out of it. So, I ended up paying her more and I tried to act as frustrated about it as I could. The lesson I learned is that you should try to use the bathroom in your hotel, on trains (where it’s free!) and in restaurants you’re eating at (although even McDonald’s charges 0.40 Euros when you go in and gives you a coupon to use in your next visit to McDonald’s, when you come out) talk about a Big Mac attack! I really don’t understand this charging for the bathroom business in Europe.

He had luckily reserved a Best Western hotel that was directly across from the central train station in Lux City and so we were quickly ensconced in our room where I could freshen up. We then went out to explore the city, in my attempt to stay awake to acclimate to Central European time.

Lux City is a beautiful city – Nathan has some pictures from when he first arrived. As we walked through the city we came upon a kind of street festival and happened to meet one of the Miami/Lux staff that recognized him. She turned out to be the student activites coordinator for students and was very nice.

We tried the local French Fries (which all I could say were just French fries). He showed me the “valley” that divides Lux City and into which there is the older city. Old beautiful European architecture filled the valley (and the rest of the city). We then took the train and saw the US Embassy where he’d occasionally go for meetings as well as the main office building in which he normally worked (not in the embassy itself).

The next morning we left for Germany since I had told Nathan one place I wanted to visit was Burg Eltz, which according to travel maven Rick Steves is the nicest castle in all of Europe to visit. Nathan had arranged for us to stay in what turned out to be a very nice local hotel in the town of Karden along the Mosel River.

The train ride to Karden was really magical. Again, the day was beautiful with sunshine and blue skies. The train traveled through the farmland of Germany, which was green with growth and new planting. As we entered the Mosel region, you could tell it was a valley. This hills rose up gradually and before you know it there was this valley with an occasional gingerbread housed town, the train line, the river, and on the other side usually another ginger-bread town.

The valley was framed by very nigh hills – not really high enough for me to call mountains (yet!). What was striking and incredible was how steep they were and yet they were filled with vineyards, terraced along the steep hillsides. They were truly awesome because they were so steep in some cases as to challenge my imagination as to how someone could plant and tend these vines.

All in all, the ride was idyllic – the river was calm and glassy with only an occasionally barge disturbing the water. The train stopped in each little town, which, again, was filled with multi-colored gingerbread houses whose windows spilled flowers out of carefully tended window boxes. People were out walking and hiking in the gorgeous weather.

Finally, we arrived in Karden and the hotel (Schloss-Hotel Petry) was about 20 steps across from the train station. It was a really nice small establishment and I worried about the possibility of people speaking English because of how small the town was. But, the woman at the front desk easily switched from German to English and checked us in.

After we were situated, we came back out and walked around the town just to get our bearings. It was around 11:00 Sunday morning so we didn’t expect the town to be busy and it wasn’t. The vineyard hills backed directly up to the town. We returned to the hotel and asked about the way to Burg Eltz. She explained there were two ways: one was to hike up and over the hill behind the hotel – about 30 minutes she estimated to the castle and the other was to take a train to the next town of Moselkern from which it was about an hour’s walk to the castle. Since she didn’t offer it, it didn’t appear there was a taxi or a bus to the castle. After having walked a bit of the ways up the street towards the hill, I told Nathan that given the way I sweat and guessing that a half hour hike to them was probably an hour and a half for us, I opted that we go to Moselkern.

Again, the train ride to Moselkern was idyllic even though it lasted less than 10 minutes. Departing from the train, we tried to find a sign that pointed the way to Burg Eltz and it took some doing but we eventually found a tiny marker pointing the way.

Now, realizing that this was a castle, I expected us to eventually walk upwards. The first part of the walk took us through the town and we saw some beautiful sleepy Germanic homes on the way. Eventually, we reached the edge of a forested section and the paved road turned into a walking path – very well maintained. As the walk continued we came upon an inn that I remembered seeing in one of the Rick Steves’ books and I new it was the inn on the way to Burg Eltz, so I new we were going the right way.

From the inn, we entered a true forest and continued on the path. Eventually it began to go up and at very comfortable easy incline. It followed a small stream and it really was a beautiful walk – tiring but beautiful. At one point, the path continued upward through a huge “hall” of giant old pine trees – so old that what remained from the ground probably 40 feet up was their trunks before you saw their branches. As sunlight streamed downward, it was an image out of a Maxfield Parrish painting. Except for an occasional person hiking in front of us or coming down from the castle, we were pretty much alone and it was serene, sunlit forest walk.

Eventually, after about 45 minutes, we came to a bend in the path around which rose up on a crag Burg Eltz and it was an impressive, imposing sight…complete with a bazillion steps that we would have to climb to actually get up from the path to the entrance road to the castle. I complained to Nathan about my aching feet and hips (he has no sympathy for aging skeletons). But, up the steps we went. He got the tour tickets and we were toured through 11 of the 100 rooms in the castle. It really was worth the walk to see such a massive structure and how well built it was inside. I was amazed that people could actually live in one of these things but when you see how well appointed it is inside, the doubt is removed.

But, it was more walking up and down stairs in the castle and we did take a break to eat …there was a bit of Disney-esque conversion of the out buildings into concession stands.

After we finished, I figured since we’d come up the long way and since it was only a half hour walk back to Karden, and since this should be the easy part of the trip since we’d be hiking down, I convinced Nathan that we go back the half hour way the hotel receptionist had alternatively suggested. Since we’d be going down most of the way I figured it would be quicker. This was my first mistake – thinking we understood what she meant by “uphill” and “downhill”.

We started out from the castle and saw the sign pointing towards Karden and marked on down the hill until we came to kind of clearing that had another sign pointing the continued way towards Karden. We took one false start for about 5 minutes of walking, came back, and took another only to encounter a sign that said to proceeding was forbidden this part of the site was protected. We came back to the Karden sign, scratched our heads and then Nathan noticed a small trail leading almost straight up from where were at, up the hill. I figured this was probably just a small jaunt to get us to the top of the hill, at which we’d look down, see the village of Karden and merrily skip down to our hotel room. Mistake number two!

We started up the hill on a really narrow path – but a man-made path nonetheless. We kept walking…and walking…and walking… and walking… always upwards and I mean at about a 20% grade! I was sweating like a pig and started my whining. It was nearing the time to call the whambulance! Finally, the path widened and leveled out. We turned to our left and saw a gorgeous view of Burg Eltz from our vantage.

But, this vantage was just a deception along this death march. As we continued, the trail started its steep climb again, this time in to a more densely forested hillside. As I groaned my way onward, I began to think about those poor Von Trapp children and how they must have felt on their parent-forced trek from Germany through the Alps. I could just imaging Maria’s patience beginning to snap and her envisioning a few new “favorite things” to quell the children’s protest.

But, onward we marched, now wondering if we were going the right way because we hadn’t seen a sign for awhile. About that time, however, Nathan spied some other intrepid soles ahead of us going the same way and so we decided to trail them. That strategy paid off…eventually we saw a sign for Karden. As we continued to follow the group, we came to a clearing that revealed another of the castles outbuildings. We also discovered another sign and our confidence grew that we were on the right path.

Eventually, we reached the decisive top of the mountain (yes, now a mountain). It opened into a broad flat meadow of some planted grassy farm field. And, at this point, the path became a paved road. I breathed a sigh of relief because this was a sign we were near civilization and we had to be close to Karden.

Again, seeing the group ahead of us continuing, so did we. The road seemed endless and at this point, the comparison to a death march was not really so much fiction. Eventually, though we came upon a road that intersected this one, had a real road name, saw cars, and knew we must be near. Mistake number three!

Following the signs toward Karden, and the group ahead of us, we continued. Eventually the group ahead of us slowed and lolligaged around so Nathan and I overtook them. The path turned off the road and entered a meadow – but there were still signs posted so we knew we were going the right way. Eventually the path opened up into the valley below and we saw Karden…a mile or so…directly below us. I mean, directly below us.

The path, it seems, now narrowed to a single person foot path that was all but a sheer drop down the hillside. It zigzagged back and forth across the hillside. Steep, rocky, narrow, and downward, we did indeed reach a paved road that led directly into town. Of course this was after having come to a fork in the path which had a sign pointing to the part we had just walked down from noting that part of the path shouldn’t be used!

An hour and a half later, when we got back to the hotel, the receptionist greeted us with a smile handing us the key to our room…no doubt relishing the disheveled, sweaty mess in front of her. After telling her we had decided to walk the “short” way over the mountain back, she sweetly remarked, “Now you know what it is like for us when we harvest the vineyards!”

I could just see Maria slapping Leisle for that tart remark!

Spain Pictures Are Up!

2007-04-23T00:16:00.001-07:00

Lake Vinuela
Originally uploaded by Nate Brunk.

I added about 300 pictures from my travels to Spain! I'll be posting a blog update later tonight, my time!

=Nate

Berlin and Interlaken (Yet another MEGAPOST!)

2007-03-25T10:48:00.000-07:00

Soooooo I'm finally getting around to it. I apologize that you're being agonizingly kept on the edge of your uncomfortable office chair waiting for me to post one of these, but I'm busy!!! I've got a book to read, two papers to write, and work to do for the internship before I go to Spain! But enough about me, here's more about my time in Berlin and Interlaken so you can continue to live vicariously through me!

Berlin:
We left for Berlin after school on Friday (3/9) and caught the train (the 9 hour train) to Berlin at 2:30. The train ride was pretty uneventful, but it was an extremely busy set of trains. We were using Eurail and didn't have time to get a reservation during the week so we ended up standing/sitting in between cars for probably a few hours of the trip there. Anyway, we got to our hostel (really nice; Meninger... a chain in Germany) and decided to check out the city a little bit. To give you perspective, Berlin is three times the size of Paris so we didn't get to see much at night. We actually ended up meeting a kid who lived in Florida for a while, then moved back to Germany.... anyway, some of his friends and him were going to a club near our hostel, so we tagged along. They had a friend that was DJing, ended up being a horrible DJ and a crappy club, but at least we met some cool people and tried a little German beer (Becks was still the best we had, honestly).

The next morning we got up and met the girls that we were traveling with downtown for a walking tour put on by the "NEW" company. I'll sing their praises again; they're a tips based company that gives amazing tours. It was GREAT. We started off at the Brandenburg gates and saw the place where the Reichstag (where the German parliamentary body, the Bundestag sits). Next we headed to the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe (pretty hardcore name), which was an amazing memorial. It's constructed of 2700 concrete blocks laid out in a way that they get progressively taller as you go towards the center (and they ARE big when you're walking next to them). The memorial is a kind of maze, people suddenly appear then disappear in it very quickly; this is one of the interpreted meanings of the memorial, though the architecht has never said what it actually represents. After that memorial we went to the location of Hitler's underground bunker (now the site of some nasty ex-communist apartments). Nothing is actually left of the bunker to see, it was completely demolished and filled in; not terribly exciting to see a patch of grass, but Hitler wasn't a terribly exciting guy. After that we went to the IRS of Germany, aptly housed in one of the old buildings of WWII (one of the few that wasn't bombed because it was the Airforce building... pilots were superstitious). The building had an interesting history with regards to East/West Berlin. It was one of the places some of the biggest riots took place and where one of the most awful massacres of East Berliners took place. The building has a mural of the ideal world of Socialism... it's absolutely rediculous. That same mural is offset by a giant picture set in glass in the middle of the square in front of the building of rioting workers. The mural=idealistic socialsm, the picture=socialism in practice.

After that building, we walked to the part of the wall that is still standing. It's hard to imagine the "no passing zone" around it to keep East Berliners in, but it still stands as a sobering reminder of what messed up people will do to control their populations. After the wall we walked to Checkpoint Charlie (the third checkpoint) where you'd have to go to cross between the sides of the wall, and eventually one of the first checkpoints that were overrun. After that we went to one of the big squares in Berlin, home of the bookburning memorial. The memorial is actually under the square, visible via a 3'x3' window in the ground. The memorial is nothing but giant white bookcases that supposedly have enough space to hold all of the books that were burned in the square (I'm inclined to say they numbered in the 20,000's). We saw the campus for the University of Berlin... not very big, but supposedly a very prestigious school. We visited another memorial; the Memorial against tyrany and oppression, after the bookburning memorial. It's a beautiful memorial; a mother holding her dying son cast in bronze at the center of a roman-style building. There is no artificial light, only a hole in the ceiling that allows sun and the elements through. It's very sombering, but a really neat piece. Following that we ended the tour on Museum Island (because there are lots of museums... and it's an island). We saw a church that looks very baroque (probably should fix it :P) yet was actually built in 1903 because the German Kaiser didn't feel there were enough "old" buildings in Berlin. We got a view of the berlin TV tower too, interesting structure.

After the tour we headed to an open air market where I found some of the coolest art I've seen in a while; If I had more money/a house of my own, I'd go back and decorate it with some of the pieces I saw there... it was neat! We split up after that to go change/eat on our own (Taylor and I did burger king... cheap and good), then met back up at 8 for a p/club crawl. It was a great time, very crazy, especially since we were being filmed by German TV, but we all had a blast. The next morning Taylor and I were beat from the day before so we decided to start our trip home. We made it to Koblentz then missed a connection, ended up having to wait for about an hour and ended up getting home about 2 hours later. Blah. Oh well, that's the way it works with trains. So we ended up back in Lux city at 7:00pm or something like that, had dinner and that was it! Berlin was a great city to visit, a lot of fun in the people and nightlife, but it's just so BIG! I would have liked to see more, but being so far away made it really difficult. I had a blast though!

Interlaken:

SWITZERLANDDDDD! We headed to Interlaken after school, again, though it would have been a good idea to skip Friday classes to have had more time in Switzerland. By far, it was the most beautiful place I've been; the alps were gorgeous, the towns were great for walking around, and the people were pretty friendly. We arrived at about 10pm and checked into our Hostel, Balmers Herberge (recommended by Ian at Starbucks), which ended up being a really sweet place (except their pillows sucked). We walked around the town that night, just tried to get a feel for the place. It was a pretty quiet town, but full of mountain air. It exuded relaxing feelings :). We hit the hostel bar up that night, it ended up being semi-clubby, which we were trying to get away from for the weekend, so we went to bed early (the Interlaken beer is NOT good either, so that didn't help!).

The next morning we got up early, had breakfast, and decided to go hiking. I initially had wanted to do a 500ft bungy jump, but was disappointed to find they don't open it until the spring :(. I rented some hiking boots and we went to Grindlewald to take the gondola to First ("Feerst") to start our climb. We climbed through some paths they have marked in the snow on the mountain up to Faulhorn (alt. 2795m above sea level). It was an incredibly tiring climb. It took us about 1.5 hours to hike up and about 45 minutes to hike down. We didn't get sleds, but apparently the thing to do is hike up and sled down... looked like a lot of fun. One good thing about the hike up was the restaurant at the top of the mountain! It wasn't high-class, but it was fun. We had gulash made by the most Mountain-Man looking man I've seen next to my bro-in-law (haha, sorry Sean). It was very much welcomed after we'd hiked like madmen getting up that mountain! Once we got down it was about 5pm. We decided to chill for the rest of the night in Interlaken. Unfortunately, Interlaken doesn't have much to do besides extreme sports during the day, and almost no nightlife. It was alright though, we were really tired after our hike, so we got some onion rings at Hooters (yes, it's reached Switzerland.. haha), had some GREAT wheat beer (Erdinger), and headed back to our hostel. We were going to rent a scooter in the morning, but decided against that once we got up. Eventually we decided just to head back to Luxembourg to get some schoolwork done for the next week. It ended up being a good decision, and one heck of a relaxing weekend. I miss Switzerland deeply though, it was such a beautiful country... I hope I get to go back sometime during the summer to do that bungy jump!

WOOO HOOO, WE'RE CURRENT. I'm sorry this has been such a long post, and that you've been kept in the dark about my adventures. Hope you're all doing well! Make sure to check out the pictures if you haven't at THIS SITE ! See you all soon, only 41 days of school left!

=Nate

Dublin and Edinburgh

2007-03-18T11:16:00.000-07:00

Okay, Tonight I plan on Updating YOU, the reader through Dublin and Edinburgh (MINIMUM!). Hopefully I can get through Berlin and Interlaken too, so I'm up to date before I go to Spain! Ready? Lets go...

Dublin:

I got to Dublin on Monday afternoon of my week-long break, perfect flight, even though I almost missed it (stupid busses in London.. ugh!). The weather in Dublin was grey and rainy the day I got there, not exactly the way I wanted it to be, but I got a bus pass and headed into town. I stayed in the Temple Bar part of Dublin (one of the biggest centers of city life for pubs and good, Irish times). The hostel was great and let me check in early to throw my stuff down. After that, I went and met up with an Irish guy I'd met earlier in my travels who promised to hook me up with a tour if I came to Dublin... best money I never spent. We toured through Trinity college (beautiful), the Georgian (After the architechtural style) neighborhoods, back through the park to Oscar Wilde's statue (that's the guy on the rock in my pictures), and ended up at the art museum (honestly, the most breathtaking painting I've seen in Europe was here... Carrivaggio's "Taking of Christ"). It was a great FREE tour, and this guy, John, knew his history, so it was really informative. I checked out Dublin Castle on my own later that afternoon. That night I ate at the "Kick Ass Cafe," a completely overpriced and un-Irish place, but worth saying I've eaten there :). That night, made my rounds to a few of Temple Bar's famous pubs, had a few Jamesons, a few Guinnesses and headed home.

The next morning, I got up at about 9am and headed downtown to do my "Hop-on/Hop-off" tour of Dublin (included in my 3 day bus pass... heckuva deal). Through the tour I visited a few of Dublin's big attractions and got a lot of information about the history of the city (really cool considering I'm 50% Irish). My favorite stop of the day, however, was the Guinness Storehouse, home of "The Guinness Story," the 9000 year lease that Arthur Guinness has on the property, and the world-famous "Gravity Bar," which provides you with your included pint (best I've ever had) as well as a 360-degree view of Dublin (great for pictures). Honest to goodness, it was the best 10Euro I've ever spent. The tour was really informative, had a decent amount of Irish history in it, and I had the best pint of Guinness ever! :) Okay, enough about that... I know my mom is thinking "I sent him to Europe for WHAT?!" I had lunch (Irish Stew and a Pint of Guinness) at the original "Brazen Head" pub, which might not mean anything to you unless you're from Columbus/Dublin, Ohio, where the sister pub is (and I happen to love!). I took a picture there to take to the great people in Dublin, OH. Incidentally it's Dublin's oldest pub, constructed in the 1600's too... cool! I also went to the Modern Art Museum (one of the real disappointments of Dublin), which had some neat pieces, but it was half-closed, and not the best museum. That night I went and saw the british comedy "Hot Fuzz" (from the makers of Shaun of the Dead)... one of the funniest comedies I've ever seen, then headed back to my hostel.

The NEXT morning, I decided to pay for a tour to southern Dublin's coast and the Powersgate Gardens. Again, the tour was absolutely worth the money. I saw a lot of the coast and the Gardens were amazing--compared to Versailles, I liked them a lot more. It was like a miniature version, but much better kept, and the weather was such that some of the gardens were in bloom already. It was a really peaceful experience to walk around them. After the tour was over, I headed back to the hostel and packed up my stuff, it ended up that I wouldn't be able to catch the bus early enough in the morning, and I didn't want to pay for a cab, so I stayed overnight at the Airport (yes, it was plenty safe), I was just bummed since I paid for an extra night in my hostel. However, when you're at the mercy of public transport, that's life! The next morning at 6:30a.m., my flight left for Edinburgh, Scotland.

That was Dublin in a nutshell. I wish I had gone a few more places in Ireland, but I think I hit all the big stuff in Dublin, and felt really good about it as a city. The saying for Ireland is: There are no strangers, only friends you haven't met. I felt this to be true everywhere; Dublin was a warm, welcoming city with a lot of history... I loved it.

Edinburgh:

I arrived WAY too early into Edinburgh, and on only 2 hours of sleep from the night before.. blah! I got to the city center at about 8:30am when the only thing open was Starbucks (not even the ticket counter for the busses)! I went in, had some chai, and came back to the bus ticket place, got a day pass, and went to my hostel (arriving at about 10am). They were SUPER nice and let me check in early. I got there, took a shower, then went back out to the bus stop to go back into town. I toured around the town, checked out things like the Scott monument, the Royal Mile, The castle (from the outside... too pricey to go in!), saw Edinburgh Univeristy, etc. I had lunch in a killer baked potato place (apparently, they're all the rage in Edinburgh), run by a vegan. I had pineappe/onion/sour cream filling in mine... it was absolutely off the chain good! After that, I stopped in at a hole-in-the-wall pub and had a hand pulled ale... not bad, but not the best thing I've ever had (especially over here). After my mini-tour, I headed back to my hostel to rest a bit until my friends, who had gone to a different part of Ireland, arrived. They texted me later that afternoon and we met up, largely repeating my mini-tour, then grabbing dinner and going out to see a band play.

The next morning I got up and met them in the center of the city (they stayed in a different hostel). My hostel was a bit far from the city center (25 minutes by bus, blah) but was situated on a bay, and had a lot of amenities, which were nice to have. Anyway, that day we decided to skip the city and do our own nature-based tour, climbing up the cliff/mountains surrounding Edinburgh. They're actually really accessable to people even if you're not a superb climber. The girls kept up pretty well in their designer boots :P. We reached the top after about an hour or so, then took some time to take in the surroundings. It was a beautiful view, and a great place to "commune with nature." Coming down ended up being the most fun part... We headed down a different way than we came up, the way WITHOUT the path. Stupid, stupid idea. It didn't look that steep until we got to one part of it. I was in the front with Danny, and there was a point that was prettyyyyy freaky. I'm not going to lie, I had a 10-15 foot slide on the wet rocks that was pretty scary, ripped my hands up a bit too. After being approached by the rangers to make sure we were okay, however, we all got down safely. It took us about an hour and half to actually get down, but we were happy we all made it safe! That night we celebrated our safety and Mike's birthday at THE TRON bar, cheap and a lot of fun!

The next day we took it pretty easy, toured around a bit more, let the girls do some shopping, and got our stuff out of the hostels. We never made it on the Underground tour that dad wanted me to do, but Edinburgh still ended up being a great city to visit for a short amount of time. We jumped on the train and headed to the airport in the afternoon then flew back to Frankfurt-Hahn airport, getting into Luxembourg at around 1:30 in the morning. Ughhh. We had to pay 85Euro (split 4 ways) to get back to Differdange that early in the morning, an absolute rip-off, but... c'est la vie. The next day was spent recovering and relaxing before school on Monday.

Yeeeee hooooo. That's Edinburgh and Dublin, the rest of my Carnival break! Next up, Berlin, Germany! Stay tuned to read all about it!

=Nate

Finally... London... More coming

2007-03-14T15:54:00.001-07:00

Phew! Finally a chance to update! I know it’s been about 3 weeks since I have, but bear with me and I’ll get through at least London, Dublin, and Edinburgh (my week-long break) and post about Berlin a little later. Sweet—here we go…

London:

Though I was staying by myself for the whole week, I traveled with a few people and met up with them in London. We got into the UK around 11:30pm their time (one hour behind Luxembourg). The problem was we were at London Stansted airport in Essex, about an hour and a half by bus from London! That meant I actually got to London proper about 1am on Saturday (2/24) at which time I had to take a cab to my hostel because night buses are so ridiculously slow that it would have taken me 4 hours to go 10 miles. The cabbie took me for pretty much everything I was worth, but gave me an interesting night tour—even if it did cost 60 quid (that’s about $120… yeah).
The next day I got up and met up with my friends at Buckingham palace, a truly awesome sight on the royal mile. I got there just in time to see the changing of the guard (which only happens every other day in the winter), a really neat ceremony complete with bands, horse guards, infantry… it’s intense. After that we headed to the theatre to see if they had some cheap Wicked tickets (the girls in the group really wanted to go), but no dice. We decided to head to Piccadilly Circus (not a real circus… don’t get too excited) to see the “Times Square of London.” Piccadilly was definitely the place that hippies hung out; there was a guy filming a documentary about uhm… male genetalia?... weirdo… as well as a hippy drum circle where they danced and howled at the sun. Yeah. Howled. After Piccadilly we walked around the city some more, rode the Tube (London Subway) and ended up at the queen’s park outside of Buckingham, actually a really interesting place for ornithologists, I think. I saw more different kinds of birds than I ever have, save the zoo. We walked through the horse guards’ barracks/staging area just as the sun was setting over London, making our way to Trafalgar Square. Trafalgar was in an uproar, they had a giant Chinese New Year celebration on Sunday they were setting up for, but we walked through the square and checked it out; it’s so busy! That night we tried to eat as cheap as possible and ended up going to a fish and chips/British roast restaurant in Greenwich (“Gren-itch”) where my friends were staying. We tried to go out to a club/bar after that, but it ended up being uptight and not liking our sneakers enough to let us in, plus they had a 5 quid cover ($10), so it was a no-go. I headed back to my hostel to sleep for Sunday.
Sunday (2/25) I got up and met my friends at The London Monument (monument to the Great Fire) where we started a 4½-hour walking tour. The tour was awesome; it’s a tips-based tour company that gives “free” tours for students, great company, we ended up using them in Berlin too. On the tour we saw: The Monument, Tower Bridge, London Bridge, Charles Dickens’ old hang out, The National Bank, The Temple of Mithras, St. Paul’s Cathedral (from the outside, I never got a chance to go in), The Tate Modern, The recreation of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, The Church of the Knight’s Templar, The Austrailian House (Used as the set of Gringott’s Goblin Bank in Harry Potter), Big Ben, The Houses of Parliament, finally ending at Westminster Abbey. PHEW! It was a long tour, but completely worth the time. Our guide was amazing, she really knew the history of London to a T! Since we ended at Westminster, we decided to go to an Evensong service (musical service in the evening… go figure). It was a beautiful service in an amazing church. We didn’t really get to tour around the church, you have to pay 10 quid for that, but we got to experience services there, which I think was far more interesting. That night we walked back to Trafalgar Square and found a restaurant that served “Toad in the ‘Ole,” which, I felt I had to try since it was in the Disney classic, Bedknobs and Broomsticks. It’s plate with a Yorkshire pudding on it (think of it like a buttery bread bowl or something like that), with mashed potatoes, vegetables, gravy and topped off with a spiral of sausage… it was one of the best meals I’ve had in Europe! Topped off with a hand-pulled ale it was a dinner to die for.
That was London in a nutshell; the next morning I got up and headed back to the Airport, almost missing my plane (buses didn’t leave on time… ugh!) on my way to Dublin, Ireland!

London, Dublin, and Edinburgh Photos

2007-02-27T11:32:00.000-08:00

Westminster Abbey,
originally uploaded by Nate Brunk.

While I have yet to post on my adventures of last week, you can check out about 200 of the new photos by clicking on the one to the left!

=Nate

Le Tour Eiffel at Night

2007-02-11T07:33:00.000-08:00

Le Tour Eiffel at Night,
originally uploaded by Nate Brunk.

Click on the picture to see the rest of the pictures from Paris and Vianden!

=Nate

Vianden and Paris, the MEGAPOST!

2007-02-05T23:31:00.000-08:00

Helloooooo Everyone!

This is going to be an extremely long post, so bear with me!

Two weekends ago (the last weekend in January), after our Bruges trip, Taylor and I decided to remain back in Differdange for the weekend. It ended up being a good time; I had to get some shopping done for my new Embassy job ☺, then we went and saw “Casino Royale” in English at the big movie theater in Lux City. The movie theater is the high point of western (read American) civilization in that there is a billiards club, a few bars, and a Subway attached. Taylor and I hit up Subway for food… it was a nice “slice of home.” The movie was good, but the theater experience was a little weird… They don’t open the theater until 20 minutes before your movie. Then, if you want snacks, you go through a self-serve line to get your own popcorn/drinks/candy, pay for them and exit the concessions corral. After that, you wait helplessly in front of the door until a team of 5 people comes and unlocks the theater about 10 minutes before showtime… weird. I’m used to all the advertisements and trivia… Europeans just sit and talk before the movie. The film ended up being great; by far my favorite “Bond” movie… anyway…

Saturday (1/28 for those of you keeping track) we took a train from Differdange to Etelbruck then hopped a bus to Vianden, the home of Luxembourg’s biggest castle. The castle is built on a high hill overlooking the town of Vianden below. We accidentally got off the bus too early and ended up walking what we estimate was about 2 miles up a steep slope to get to the castle… inside it was pretty nice; it had just snowed so we got some really great views (I’ll post the pictures when I get another free second). The castle was filled with all kinds of archaeological finds and information about Medieval Luxembourg… pretty cool. We ate lunch in Vianden then headed home… all in all a good day. That ended up being our big trip for the weekend. We just hung out Sunday; walked around Lux City then came home.

Last week was a pretty intense week… I started my “Student Envoy-ship” at the Embassy. I’m working for the Management Officer and learning all about how an embassy is run from a practical point of view (Management oversees everything behind-the-scenes to keep it running smoothly). I have my own office… Probably bigger than dad’s cube and mom’s cube put together now ☺ (so what that it’s also the mail room). Now my schedule is even crazier, but I still feel I can manage when I set some time aside to plan my week better. Now I’ve got 18 hours of class, 10 hours of internship, and 6 extra hours of commute a week… yippee.

This past weekend (2/2-2/4) Taylor and I went to Paris to check out “The City of Lights.” The train there was slow—It took us about four and a half hours to get to Paris from Luxembourg City. We arrived around 20:30 and found our way through the Metro (I was surprised how easy it is to navigate) to our hotel. We stayed in a place that was 17€/night. We expected it to be a complete dump, but it wasn’t bad. We had two beds in a small room, our own bathroom, a small T.V. and supposedly we also had free internet (we don’t bring our computers). We also had breakfast included… yee-haw! We got checked in and went on a city walk at night (a sweet way to get acquainted wherever you are).

The next morning we got up at 7:00 to go to the Louvre, bright and early. We were the third people in line, tickets in hand… we felt like we knew what we were doing. We headed straight for the Mona Lisa… saw it… meh (I’ve seen better drawings by my nieces :P). We made our way around the museum for about two and a half hours… not enough to see EVERYTHING, but we saw the “have to see’s.” Next, we headed for Notre Dame… it was absolutely beautiful. The church was holding mass inside, so we snuck around (unlike everyone else who was being loud and obnoxious), took some pictures, and left. We at lunch at the Quasimodo café down the street – one heckuva Croque Madam (ham and cheese grilled sandwich with a fried egg on top!). Le Centre Pompidu was next, the big musee d’art modern, pretty interesting stuff. There were a lot of works by Matisse, Picaso, and a special exhibit by Yves Kline (weird art… for sure). While interesting, Taylor and I were a bit art-ed out for the day. We left and headed for Sacre Coeur… a Byzantine church; it’s very beautiful, full of art, but a long steep climb to get to it!

After that (and feeling pretty worn out) we headed to the Eiffel Tower. We waited in line (the first time all day) and got tickets to the second floor. It was beautiful out, and we had gotten there at evening time. I got a few sweet pictures of the sunset over Paris… it was clear, and just cool. We left the tower and went back to our hotel for a while to rest. After a two hour break, we went out on the Champs Elisees. We tried to get into Buddha Bar (supposed to be really trendy)… and were denied. I felt terribly underdressed to go out in Paris… everything was very Haute Coture, for sure. We found a cocktail bar around the corner from the Arc de Triomphe side of the arch and had a few there; then went to a big club just to check it out. It’s my firm opinion that Europeans just don’t know how to dance… so disappointing. We may have not been the best dressed, but we were definitely breaking it down.

The night ended in disaster, however… we got out of the club at 2:30 (that’s AM) to find the Metro was closed! We didn’t have the address of our hotel, and didn’t really know how to get there except through the metro. We walked the whole way from the Champs to our stop on the metro (we estimated about 6-8 mi.)… it took us 1hr45. Ughhhhhh. We were so tired. We got up the next morning at 9:30 to head to Versailles. Mistake.

Versailles was big. Too big for us to walk the entirety after taking main-city Paris by storm on Saturday. We waited in line to get into the palace (free admission Sunday!) for 1h40… ugh. Inside was pretty neat, though there is a TON of construction going on, so things like the hall of mirrors didn’t seem as impressive as I imagined they would be. The building was full of beautiful art and intricate frescos though; all extremely aweseome.

We left Versailles and headed back to the train station; got some food and waited for our train. We took the TGV (Train a Grande Vitesse) back home; only 3 hours… not too shabby. We caught the Differdange train at 9:50 and got to hear about many other people’s weekends… sounds like they had a good time too. A bunch of people went out to watch the Superbowl (Stupid Colts…), which started at 00:30 here… too late for me! I passed out in bed and got up about 8 hours later today to get to school… blah.

Alright—finally, I’ve updated! Sorry this was such a long post. I’m trying to update once a week, but it’s getting pretty difficult with being so busy. At any rate, home is feeling farther away now. The infatuation with Europe has faded a bit. I’m not really home-sick per se, but I definitely wish I could share this experience first-hand with more of ya’ll! Hope everyone is doing well!

xnatex

Still alive...

2007-02-02T04:38:00.000-08:00

Hey ya'll,

Sorry I haven't posted much... This has been a really really reallllllllyyyy busy week. I started my internship in Lux City, had 2 papers due, over 200 pages of reading.. ugh. Anyway, the plan for this weekend is Paris! I'm pretty excited to say the least... the Louvre, Palis de Versailles... good times. I'll provide a much bigger update when I get back, I promise!

xnatex

Fries, Beer, waffles and CHOCOLATE!!!!

2007-01-22T07:15:00.000-08:00

The Canal in Bruge,
originally uploaded by Nate Brunk.

So this weekend we headed to Bruges, Belgium... What an amazing little town! Full of tourism (and tourists acting like tourists), the town had plenty to do and to see. We arrived by train on Friday night (only about a 3 hour ride from Luxembourg City) and started to hike around to try to find our hostel. We ended up staying in a place called Snuffel Backpacker hostel... it's an awesome place with tons of people there. The common room was a bar... a bit smoky, but a neat place to socialize. Taylor and I ended up talking to people from France and Holland (in French, incidentally... well, slightly drunken French...). They were studying to be train conductors, and had the weekend off for holiday.
Anyway--that night, we took a night walk of Bruges, an incredibly beautiful city when the weather is nice and the lights are on... Awesome! We stopped before we went back to get some fries (did you know they were invented here?!) with triplicate... Mm. We think its a combo of mayonnaise, mustard, and ketchup, but we're not REALLY sure.
The next morning, we got up at 7:45, got showered and dressed and went to breakfast at a fast-foodish joint. It was actually more like a Belgian bakery, but had premade liege style waffles for us... mmmm. I had mine with strawberry sauce. It might be the best sweet pastry I've ever tasted. After that, we climbed the big bell tower you can see in the pictures. 366 steps later, we were at the top. It had started raining, the wind was blowing.. ahh! It was pretty nasty up there, but we got some decent pictures. We next headed down and went to the Chapel of the Sacred blood. This place holds a relic that supposedly contains Christ's blood. Needless to say, it was a place of impressive beauty, but we didn't feel the need to stick around for the Veneration. We paid our respects and left after taking some pictures.
Next, we headed to another Cathedral that holds Michaelangelo's "Madonna and Child." It was incredibly beautiful, true to life, and housed in a magnificent building. Pictures are on my FLICKR page.
After that we got a littttttttllleee hungry... where did we go? FRIES!!!! We had fries and hot dogs (on baguettes?) from the cart again.. mmmm. After our lunch, we headed to a brewery (De Halve Maan... the half moon) to get a tour. The tour was pretty cheap and a lot of fun! We learned that Brugge Zot is the only Brug-ish beer still brewed in Bruges today, some history about beer, and more history about Belgian beer (did you know they make some of it with Coriander? It adds an amazing taste!). The tour concluded with a full glass of their beer... much better from the tap than the bottle... and it was good!
After that, the girls were tired of museum hopping/sight seeing and felt the need to shop. They headed off and Taylor and I went to a Flemmish Art Museum... I didn't know such beautiful art came from Belgium.. it was absolutely incredible! After that, we met back up with the girls, and went to the Dumon Chocolatier (Suggested by Rick Steves)... I think he picked the best one! Their chocolate was sooooo creamy and sooooo rich! I only had a few little pieces, but it was great!
Next, we went to "The Chocolate Story" a museum of Chocolate history... interesting, but not worth the money... too touristy. The highlight was the demonstration for making filled chocolates at the end with free samples! That night we grabbed dinner at a tapas bar, after Taylor and I used our 9 euro beer card to try 5 beers at our hostel... yea, enough said. haha! We went out to a local night club that night, but no one was dancing, so we left early...
We slept in the next morning, had some gooooood breakfast at a really nice restaurant (for only about $9), and then headed back to Lux city. We got back here in differdange about 5pm... so not too late! Needless to say, we were pooped, but we had a great time overall!
Hope everyone's doing well, having a good time here but missing you all!

xnatex

The Valley in Lux City

2007-01-18T11:15:00.000-08:00

The Valley in Lux City,
originally uploaded by Nate Brunk.

Hey ya'll, here's the first of the pictures! I'm constantly working on uploading them, and doubt i'll have the chance to upload more tonight... then we're heading to Bruges, Belgium tomorrow... I'll get to it though, I promise!

The rest of the photos are at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nathanbrunk/

xnatex

Wine and Dine (at Quick Burger?)

2007-01-14T01:24:00.000-08:00

Bonjour!

Sooooo, we've been extremely busy, and I haven't much time to check e-mail, etc, but when I can, I am trying! Linda... I'll email you the thing asap, I dont have the zipcode here on me right now...

Anyway, we've done some more cool things on our orientation trips... we've had the opportunity to go to the Moselle region of Luxembourg (on the border between France, literally separated by the Moselle river. The moselle region is known for it's amazing wine production (mostly white wines... apparently the soil isn't sandy enough for red grapes). We first visited La Musee du Vin to see exactly how wine was made historically by smaller winemakers. We tasted a wine at the finish of the tour, it was pretty tasteless for wine, but meh.. whatevs. Next we headed to the Domaine Vinsmoselle winery. It's a coop winery for the growers around, they jointly purchased the equipment to create some of Luxembourg's best wine and champaigne equivalent (did you know it cannot be called Champaigne if it's not from Champaigne, France? In Lux, it's called Cremant). We tried three different types of white wine and le Cremant... they were all excellent (and suprisingly cheap... so we got a bottle for our host mom).

That night we hopped the train to Lux City and tried to find a restaurant that Taylor read about in his travel book. After less time searching for it than the bar the previous night, we did find that it was pretty ritzy for our group (plus we had 12 people!) Sooo, we resorted to Quick Burger... the european equivalent to McDonalds. Not the best food ever, but we feel we gained cultural insight (yeah, right...) :P

Yesterday we had an amazing day of visits. We first went to Merche, Luxembourg to visit a high school (not in session), where the headmaster gave us a great lecture about Medieval Europe/Luxembourg. After that, the school served us lunch and we had another lecture by a historian about the Battle of the Buldge... it's incredible to hear about how appreciative Luxembourgers are about the Americans that helped in WWII... they understand the meaning of liberation, truly, and are appreciative of our efforts elsewhere in the world since they have firsthand experience.

After Merche, we went to Clervaux to see the photo exhibit "Family of Man." Now--I appreciate art as much as the next guy, but don't find myself generally interested in it a lot. This exhibit was incredible, however. It was pictures of all facets of humanity, portrayed in such powerful ways... it was really neat. After that, we went to the Abbey at Clervaux to go to a vespers service.. it was incredible to say the very very least. Truly awe inspiring.

Ah! I must go! See ya later!
xnatex

Je Suis en Europe!

2007-01-12T00:18:00.000-08:00

Ah! Finally, Le Internet!

Moyen!

Well, we arrived safely (much more so than on Air China Flights) on wednesday morning in Brussels, Belgium. After getting all of our things, we headed for the bus where MUDEC staff greeted us. After a three-hour long bus ride, we finally made it to Differdange (lovingly known here as "The Diff"). We hooked up with our host family's son, Johnny (not to be confused with their dog Johnny), who packed our luggage in a tiny van and took it ahead of us to our house. We walked to the house, literally a 2 minute walk from the chateau (yay for rolling out of bed!)! We checked out our rooms--they're really nice! We each have our own room on the 3rd (2nd here) story of Claire's (host mom's) house, then share a newly renovated bathroom--it's really nice!

We came back to MUDEC on Thursday to begin our orientation: first a lecture from Dr. Stiller (the dean), then introductory sessions about living with a host family, and student activities here at MUDEC. After that, we headed to Bastonge, Belgium (the site of the Battle of the Buldge) to check out the memorial and the battlegrounds. The guide told us the weather was much like it was over the course of the fight there--windy, cold, and wet. I can't imagine fighting in that terrible environment... and to think that it was the site of so many deaths/casualties....

Last night we headed to a few bars in differdange (gotta have some local flavor :P), then went to Luxembourg city to find a random bar that Brad THOUGHT he knew about... no dice. We probably hiked 4 miles and couldn't find anything except a lot of people who gave us wrong directions in German. Sooooo, we hit up a little pub on our way back to le gare (train station). I had my favorite Belgian beer (Chimay... mmmm). Though it's not ever on draught, it's a hell of a lot cheaper here than in the states! (3.50 Euro versus 8 dollars). Then we caught the train back to Diff and headed home...

Today, we're headed to Moselle, to a wine museum, winery, etc. I like the european attitude toward alcohol already, it seems like even though it's available, very few people come to bars to get drunk... way different than the United States...

Alright, I have to head to orientation stuff right now.. catch ya'll later!

Au Revoir,
Nate!

The Countdown to Europe!

2007-01-08T22:54:00.000-08:00

Ahhhhh... travel time is here again.. In less than 12 hours, I'll have started my journey towards Differdange, Luxembourg, my new home for the next four months! I'm super excited, and way more at ease about traveling a long distance after having traveled to China. I've been watching Rick Steve's DVD's, reading information, and basically just getting mentally prepped. I say mentally since I just finished the majority of my packing about an hour ago :P

I'm really stoked that so many people have access to this site; It'll be sweet to share my experiences... these are your souvineers :P Stick around, come back every week or so and I'll do my best to update regularly!

I would like to note that I'm not going to have internet access at the chateau in Differdange for a few days, so if ya'll don't hear from me, assume the best. Au revoir mes amis... ALLONS-Y A EUROPE!

xnatex

Pictures!

2006-06-01T22:43:00.000-07:00

Alright, I decided to go the way of the net.. pictures are at http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v475/natebrunk/

Only some are up, more to come...
xnatex

Pictures :(

2006-05-25T07:18:00.000-07:00

Keep your fingers crossed everyone. My iPod (which has about 400 photos from this trip) has failed me. I'm having deja vu of my powerbook and now it's going kerplunk. Hopefully I can recover the data the same way I was able from the computer... we'll see... but keep prayers flowin and fingers crossed! (If not, all you get to see is shanghai and tibet :P)

xnatex

Tibet! Almost home...

2006-05-25T01:39:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone!

Hope this blog finds you as well as it does me! Tibet is/was out of this world! Thank you Uncle Jake and Aunt Karen! I can't believe how beautiful this place is... It's so unaffected by the outside world while at the same time slowly becoming modernized. It's been a nice break to not constantly be breathing in hardcore pollution though... the mountain air has been great. I've noticed a few things because of the altitude, but nothing too significant.
Yesterday we went to the Potala palace... the place where the Dali Lama would live, walked around that, the Tibetan museum, and one of the big bazarrs around the big temple in the center of Lhasa. We also visited the Summer Palace for the Dali Lama and got to see the part constructed by the 14th (most current). Very serene indeed.
Today we visited a monestary--it was very interesting (though Bhuddism is extremely difficult to understand...) and the temple I mentioned earlier. Both are full of extravagant statues, relics, and paintings that are just incredible. I don't think my pictures will do them justice.
A big sidenote--the food here is incredible! It's a mix between Chinese and Indian. Dad, you'd love it. Yak is now a favorite meat, and I've had lamb in some very interesting ways. The highlight of my cuisine today, however, was the Chicken curry and naan...mmmmmmmm.
Alright, enough about the food... just some closing thoughts.
TIBET IS INCREDIBLE. From the views to the people and the history, it's just an amazing place. I feel so blessed to have been able to visit! I can't wait to show ya'll pictures when I get back. Only a few more days then back to the home of the free and the brave. I'm happy to be headed home too... 16 days in a culture where communication is almost impossible is rough! (Thank God I can speak a little french for Lux!) Hope you're all well, talk to you soon enough!

xnatex

Shanghai Nights, 7 Years in Tibet

2006-05-21T22:07:00.000-07:00

Hey Ya'll,
Sitting here in the hotel business center in Shanghai! This is one kickin' city. Of the three we've been to so far, this is by far the most developed in the western sense. We've been able to see the work of different governments to build "concessions" or quarters here. There is a British quarter, French Quarter, Russian Quarter, etc. The Americans were offered a part of Shanghai to build in, but they never did it in time. Eventually it became part of the British Quarter... as ze French say, "Stupid Americans" (or as the chinese say, Stupid Maiguo) :). The city has an incredible number of skyscrapers though: some of the coolest I've seen to date in the world. I took tons of pictures, so you'll get to see them all.
Today we went to a think tank here in the city, and later we'll be meeting with people from the American Consulate. The meeting this morning was informative, and we were again offered a lot of differing perspectives on China's development. I'm sure the meeting this afternoon will be interesting to again see the American side of things.
Overall, the trip has been going very well. Today is the first time it's rained, but it's considerably cooler (thank God). I've been trying to get my stomach right again... it's been off now for about 4 days (I can't wait to get reaclimated to American food). It seems like I'm faring better than some of the people on the trip though--people really aren't using good common sense. Drinking too much, walking with open toed shoes (the streets are ungodly dirty here)... we've had about 5 or 6 people go to the hospital since we've been in China (but none have been sent home). The worst that happened to me was the banged up shin when I slipped on part of the city wall in Xi'an... no biggie, but I've got a nice little egg on my shin still. Oh well... battle wounds from China :).
Hope you're all doing well, can't wait to be surrounded by Americans in just under a week (At least we say excuse me!). Before that, however, Tibet here I come...
xnatex

Hello Xi'an, Bye Bye Beijing

2006-05-17T05:50:00.000-07:00

ALRIGHT! Finally a chance to update! We have been a busy little delegation on diplomacy here in China. The flight over was miserable to say the least. 13.5 hours on the plane to Shanghai and then another 2 to get to Beijing... I was pooped! We got into the hotel, which was extremely nice, at around 12am on Sunday (our time). We had a light Western dinner (they made us crustless sandwiches) and went to bed. I'll put more in the DVD about the hotel, but it was definitely a 3-4 star. Extremely nice.
The next day we had our first group meeting, got to know some other people and had an introductory cultural briefing by one of the people in the tour company that scheduled everything for us over here. After that, we ate lunch at the Yueshanfang restaurant (pretty good, but not the best... the fish and chicken with their heads still on freaked us all out a bit), and went to the Imperial Summer Palace. The palace was extremely crowded, but served as a great starting point for learning about Chinese history. We saw some amazing art and learned tons about the palace itself. I'll include plenty of pictures and commentary on the DVD too.
Monday we started nice and early. First on the day's schedule was a talk by a Wall Street Journal editor who told us a little about the press rights here in China. She let us in on some great information that showed how limiting the Government can be, but how they're opening up (just like the markets and the government). After we talked to her, some guys from the American embassy came and told us all about Foreign Service life. Sounds like it might be fun down the road...?
Following their visit, we took off for the China University of Foreign Affairs. We had a lecture from one of the professors about the foreign policy of China that was extremely interesting. It helped to give us a solid basic understanding of the way things work here. After that we got to meet some students, talk to them about college life (Mom and Dad you'll die... it's only 16000 Yuan a year here... I'll let you convert it). They were great! Very excited to hear about the US and very excited about speaking some english with us. I got their emails, so we're going to try to keep in touch!
Yesterday, we headed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs right off the bat. We were honored to be received by the Prime Minister himself, who gave us an informative briefing on some of the issues China is facing today, and where they see themselves in the world. It was great, and I got to shake his hand!!!! We left the ministry after that, and went to the one and only GREAT WALL! I hiked up a rediculously steep side of the wall with my friends. It was incredibly breathtaking.. I hope my pictures do it some justice. After spending a few hours there, we went back and chilled at the hotel.
Today we visited Tian'amen square and the forbidden city. I took beaucoup de photos. It was amazing! After that, we got on a plane and flew here to Xi'an. We just had dinner at an amazing dumpling restaurant. They had EVERY type of dumpling you could possibly want (Dad, you'd be in heaven). Right now, we're about to go out, so I'll be sure to post more later! We're checking out the Terra Cotta warriors tomorrow! Hope you're all well, thanks so much for sending me here!!!!

xnatex
(P.s. I can't read comments here on the site, so if you're posting them, I can't get 'em... Chinese security)

Alost On De Plane

2006-05-12T12:31:00.000-07:00

Shoooooot. I hurt all over. LA was a great time hangin' with Karen and Uncle Ed. We basically did a food tour of southern Cali, or so it seemed. Needless to say it ended crappily. I got food poisoning last night, yacked in Karen's car, yacked all night long (and didnt sleep) at the hotel. I still feel miserable today, but at least I can keep some food/water down.

China is almost here! I'm actually sitting at the gate right now. Most of the kids I've met so far from the program are pretty cool, a few idiots, but I suppose you'll find those everywhere. Now I have to get in gear and try to make it on an airplane for 18 hours without dying. Fun! Anyway, I'll post again in Beijing! Say me a prayer for my crappy stomach/body.

Pre-China

2006-05-04T07:50:00.000-07:00

Well, I've got about 4 days left beore I head to LA, 6 before I'm on a plane headed for China, halfway around the world from Columbus, Ohio. It'd be less than honest for me to say I'm not a little worried (you know, communism will do that to a person), but I'm definitely looking forward to seeing the government through the eyes of their people. I'm going to do my best, like I tried to in my Latin American Studies class this year to see how their particular system works for them, not how it works for me.
Hopefully this trip will be eye-opening, if nothing else, I'm getting an insider's look at the (Second) biggest superpower in the world.
Ve shall see. Check back for more later (though I'm not positive I'll be able to update while I'm in China, I'll post pictures here for sure).
xnatex