Eastern Europe: Home of Weird Accents and Pointy Buildings

I have a little bit of stalking problem (in fact, if you are reading this, I have probably Googled you at least once), and I may or may not be following my middle school English teacher's wife on Instagram who happens to be a photographer and recently went to Eastern Europe and grammed the whole thing. So, using her posts as inspiration, I am writing this next post (which happens to be the last real post!) on Eastern Europe, which has always really interested me.

One thing I would want to do in Eastern Europe is visit Prague in the Czech Republic. I would love to get to one day see this city's famous Gothic architecture, especially Old Town Square, Prague Castle, and St. Vitus Cathedral ('cause I have a weird thing for churches). I would also like to try some Czech food, even though I'm not entirely sure what it is. Originally, I was guessing somewhere along the lines of like dogs or something weird like that, but as I'm looking it up, it seems to mostly be beer, pastries, and meats with a lot of weird accents that I can't figure out how to type on this keyboard.

Inside St. Vitus Cathedral. Do you get my fancy church obsession now?
Image Courtesy of: In Mozart's Footsteps

Another place in Eastern Europe I would love to visit is Budapest. Budapest, like Prague, has a lot of really old and simply amazing architecture. I would want to visit Fisherman's Bastion and pretty much any church in Budapest. Also, I would want to take a walk along the Danube River, which runs right through Budapest, because, I mean, who doesn't love walks along rivers?! Finally, I would want to visit Miniversum, which is basically a mini village that I just found out existed. By "mini," I don't mean that it has a small population or occupies little land area, I mean like a little toy village that you would probably find in your grandma's living room or something but which sounds strangely interesting to me.

The Danube River running through Budapest. That pointy little
red building thing is Hungarian Parliament Building and makes
our capital building look like a shack.
Image Courtesy of: Wikipedia

Budapest and Prague seem like really great places, but they also tend to be very typical tourist attractions, and I think by visiting solely tourist attractions, you don't get a taste for culture and actual society in a place. I would want to spend some time visiting some less typical places in Eastern Europe to try to understand the lifestyle there better. Maybe I would spend some time in rural Austria (think Sound of Music sort of deal) or Ostroleka, some Polish town I found on Wikipedia. I would definitely want to travel by train throughout Eastern Europe to try to take in as much of the landscape as possible and maybe even meet a few Polish/Slovakian/Czech/Hungarian/whatever people while doing so.

The Grossarltal mountains in rural Austria.
Image Courtesy of: The Guardian

Eastern Europe seems like an amazing place with fascinating architecture, history, and attractions. Before I die, I definitely want to be able to experience all that this region has to offer, even that found outside the big cities.

Morocco: Better Than A Taco

Earlier this year, I did a post on Ethiopia, which is one of my top dream vacation spots of all time. I've realized, though, that that was really the only post on Africa I've done on this entire blog! And that ain't right, cuz Africa's pretty cool. So I figured that I owe Africa another post, and since I've already written about a jungle-y sort of country, I though I'd write about a sandy one: Morocco.

Since Morocco is a sandy-ish African country, I think I ought to visit some sand dunes; what trip to a sandy African country is complete without sand dunes? I would love to go all movie cliché and get a camel to ride out there while I watch the sun set, too. That would be cool. Believe it or not, even though the desert is thought to be some sort of barren, lifeless nothingness, there is actually a fair deal of wildlife out there that really isn't found much elsewhere, including but not limited to: ostriches, chameleons, hyenas, gazelles, and jackals (who doesn't love a good jackal, am I right?).

A camel caravan crossing the sand dunes of the Sahara in Morocco.
Image Courtesy of: Guide4Tourist

One place in Morocco that I have heard is absolutely gorgeous is a little mountain town called Chefchaouen. Kind of a weird name, but it's supposed to be pretty cool. First of all, it is situated in the Rif Mountains, which are very foggy and green and cool-looking in all the pictures I have looked at. Secondly, the entire city (well, almost) is blue! How cool is that?!

I've officially found where I'm gonna live as a retired old lady.
Image Courtesy of: Gallivant Girl

Another thing in Morocco that I would love to do is stay in a riad. A riad is basically just a traditional Moroccan home that has been converted to a hotel, kind of like a Moroccan bed and breakfast. Riads are generally cheaper than normal hotels, and any one who knows me really well knows that I love to save money (it's a genetic thing), so this is a major plus. Besides the lower prices, riads allow you to get a better sense of Moroccon architecture than just staying in a Hyatt or something. What's not to love?!

The courtyard of Riad Chouia Chouia in Marrakech.
Image Courtesy of: Hotels and Ryads

Finally, while in Morocco, I would love to visit the city of Fes. Like Chefchaouen, Fes has gorgeous architecture, but gorgeous in a much different way. It's got the more typical Moroccan type of architecture, with the fractals and stuff. I am absolutely obsessed with Moroccan styles, so I would be more than content just walking around and checking out the buildings and tiles and mosques and stuff. Fes is also well-known for its leather tanneries. Usually, I'm not a big leather person, but these look pretty cool.

The beautiful fountain of Fes.
Image Courtesy of: Trip Advisor

Morocco is a fascinating country with a ton of history, beautiful architecture, and life. I would love, love, love one day to visit this amazing place.

Copenhagen: My Dream City

If you dropped me in the middle of the ocean, gave me a boat, and told me to pick a country to go live in (without regards for a language barrier or anything), I would pick Denmark. In fact, if it weren't for these things called school, parents, and money, I would be makin' my way over to Copenhagen right now.

One of the biggest reasons I want to go to Copenhagen is because it is straight up adorable. Most of the time, when I go to a city, my favorite thing to do isn't a big tourist attraction, but just to walk and look (and eat) around the city, and Copenhagen would be a great place to do so. It is home to the cutest colorful houses lined up on the Nyhavn canal and tiny little coffee shops with the weirdest names you ever did hear. Plus, Copenhagen has those really narrow European streets, which just make me really happy for some reason.

The cute buildings on the Nyhavn.
Image courtesy of: Condé Nast Traveller

Copenhagen streets
Image Courtesy of: Kevin McGrath

Another thing I would want to in Copenhagen is visit Tivoli Gardens, which is the world's second oldest amusement park and looks amazing. It has roller coasters and spinny rides and all that jazz you usually find at amusement parks, but minus the rednecks and incessant urge to bathe in hand sanitizer and add a classy old-school feel and some cool gardens.

Rides at Tivoli (I want to try those boat things!)
Image courtesy of: Wikipedia

*If you really hate politics, you might want to scroll past this next paragraph, because I am going to major rant (in a good way) on politics.*

Denmark knows what's up when it comes to politics. And so does all of Scandinavia, for that matter. They have free education (including college and graduate school), great welfare systems, and the lowest gender inequality indices in the world. In addition, Denmark also has 52-week paternal and maternal leave, more paid vacation days than any other country in the world, free health care, and free care for the elderly. They also have this thing where you get paid money just for having kids, so Danish kids don't have to end up like the 1 in 5 American kids that face hunger. As much as crap as Americans like to give the Scandinavian model, all of the Scandinavian countries rank in the top 5 happiest countries in the world (with Denmark as #1).

One thing I do have to say about Denmark is that it has a pretty weird language. According to my geography textbook, English is more closely related to Danish than to Spanish, but I'm not buying it. "Independent" in Spanish is "independiente"; in Danish, it's "uafhægig." What the hell type of word is that? I had to spend five minutes just figuring out how to type "æ"! If I am ever going to live in Denmark, I'm probably going to have to learn their language, but honestly, who even came up with this stuff?! Here is a list of more weird Danish words, for your enjoyment:

• breakfast - morgenmad
• pool - svømmevassin
• medicine - lægemiddel
• production facility of storage shelves of boxes for notebooks for the calculations of multiplication tables - multiplikationsudregningstabelshæfteopbevaringreolsproduktionsfacilitet

Copenhagen is a great city in a great country with great politics and a super weird language. I would love nothing more than to get to live in such a place one day!

Away to Taipei!

This summer, as I mentioned in my about page, I went to a nerd camp in Baltimore and made a bunch of friends from all over the world, and one of the really good friends that I made lived in Taipei. Taipei is one of the biggest cities in the world, bigger than L.A. even, but when Kavya (my friend) first told me she lived in Taipei, I thought she was referring to some little Czechoslovakian village or something. To be clear, Taipei is not a little Czechoslovakian village. It is on the island of Taiwan, which is kind of its own and country and kind of not, and also, at the same time, kind of part of China and kind of not (I'm still a little fuzzy on that part). Anyways, Kavya started telling me about Taipei, and I thought it sounded really cool, so ever since then, it's been on my "Dream Vacations" list.

For any other people out there who maybe are little bit confuzzed about
the location of Taipei.
Image Courtesy of: Hackpad

Taipei 101 is the third tallest building in the world, and (get this!) it is in Taipei and has 101 stories. So far, the tallest building I have ever been in is the Empire State Building, which is 417 feet shorter than Taipei 101. The Empire State Building was pretty dang cool; it had an awesome view and gave me that tingly-kind-of-nauseous-but-not-really feeling in my stomach just looking down from on top of it. I can only imagine what standing on Taipei 101 would be like! To make it all even better, Taipei 101 is home to a six-story mall and two observation decks with 360º panoramic views!

No... It doesn't stand out at all!
Image Courtesy of: ArchiTravel

Inside Taipei 101 Mall
Image Courtesy of: Distro Home

One thing Taipei is pretty well-known for is their night markets. Night markets are common fixtures in Taiwan where you can go to buy food, clothes, and cool but totally useless crap you don't really need (e.g. a solar-powered dancing cat toy). To be honest, just looking at pictures of the night markets, they look a little bit tacky and touristy and crowded, but I might as well go for a little while I'm there, just to see what the hype's all about. (Did I say that right?) Plus, I'll never turn down a chance to buy food! Taipei is also famous for having awesome street food (a whole separate thing from the night markets), so I'd want to try a taste of that while I'm there, as well.

Shilin Night Market, the biggest night market in Taipei.
Hopefully some of those signs say "horse," "well," "child," or "woman,"
because those are the only words I can read in Chinese!
Image Courtesy of: Taipei Hostel

Finally, every year, Taipei holds an amazing festival called the Lantern Festival to celebrate the Chinese New Year. Gorgeous lanterns are hung up around the Taipei Expo Park, and there are usually fireworks, too. (And who doesn't love fireworks?!) In the last few years, the Lantern Festival has added some high tech touches; they have made some really elaborate and colorful dragon lanterns and a pretty dope Snoopy one, too. I would LOVE to go to Taipei during the Chinese New Year (usually around late January/February) to be able to go to the Lantern Festival.

Sky lanterns being released at the Taiwan Lantern Festival.
I'm not too sure how safe it is to send a bunch of firey candles
into the sky, but YOGTTTLFO (You Only Go To The Taiwan
Lantern Festival Once).
Image Courtesy of: Taiwan.net