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You are here: Home / Archives for tourism

Photo:Paris – The Eiffel Tower

February 22, 2012 By Jillian

The Eiffel Tower is situated in Paris. It is also known as, quite popularly, the Iron lady. This tower is the tallest building in Paris. This tower has a height of 324m (1,063 feet). The Eiffel Tower is made of wrought iron and is one of the most recognizable monuments in the entire world. It has become the global face of Paris and France and a major tourist attraction for people around the world. It is the most visited monument among the paid monuments of the world.

Every year, tens of thousands of tourists come to Paris just to see the Eiffel tower. The Eiffel tower is a beautiful building from a photographer’s perspective and its positioning in the center of the city makes for a very picturesque setting. In this photograph we can see a distant view of the Eiffel Tower, with the tower in the backdrop of some fountains, which has made this photo very interesting and beautiful.

IF YOU GO: If you do get a chance to visit this beautiful example of human creativity and excellent architecture then you must try to experience the thrill of standing at the top of the Eiffel Tower and looking below from such an intimidating height.   Plenty of apartments in Paris have views of the famous monument, you might want to choose based on view!

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Flickr user agaw.dilim via a creative commons license.

Filed Under: photos Tagged With: eiffel tower, paris, tourism

Beijing!

November 3, 2010 By Jillian

It’s official, we’ve made it around the world; or at least in my opinion. Beijing is just about as far east as we could go overland from Istanbul. Although Xi’an was technically the end of the silk road, Beijing was always the end in my head, so when we arrived I was elated.

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There’s so much to do in Beijing, more than we had the time or desire for, but you have to start somewhere. Arriving into the station at 4am, we caught the raising of the flag in Tienanmen Square at dawn. IMGP9109Quite literally we were the only westerner’s there, but the Chinese tourists were going crazy with excitement when the color guard showed up, waving their flags and shoving their camera’s into the air. We were tempted to wave an American flag in that crowd…just to see what the response might have been. Didn’t have one with us though, and with the show over at 6:30am we were left with nothing to do for a few hours. This didn’t bother the crowd of Chinese tour groups, they promptly walked across the square to stand in line for two hours to view the preserved body of Chairman Mao.

IMGP9145Not interesting in standing in line for two hours to see the Chairman, we walked down to the Temple of Heaven, an ancient site for imperial worship and low and behold we found the place abuzz with activity. The park was full of Chinese participating in Tai Chi classes, music classes, aerobics classes, dance classes, playing cards, bands and even a few practicing martial arts with swords and sticks. It might have been 7am?

We stumbled into a group tango lesson practicing to a tango version of happy birthday- in English, and a few harmonica players, one who was practicing Yankee Doodle and My Darlin’ Clemantine over and over again. Our experience in the park was one of numerous moments that left us thinking “what?” IMGP9206Standing in the shadow of the one of the holiest sites for the Chinese Royal family, watching dance classes, listening to traditional Chinese music and an old man attempt ‘scarf’ dancing to the enjoyment of his friends, was a travel memory I’ll never forget.

Besides sightseeing we did do some rather “Chinese” things that hadn’t yet been attempted on our trip. Although moto-bikes and cars are more common than they used to be, the bicycle is still a main mode of transportation; and often with passengers hanging on the back as well. A true Chinese experience, we got the opportunity to try it our first night in Beijing. I rode on the back rack of our couchsurfing host’s bike to dinner. Jostling around in the back on her rickety second hand Chinese bike I thought I was going to die, fall off, or at best end up with a broken bone or two. My legs were too long to straddle the bike properly but sitting side-saddle left the bike precariously unbalanced, so I resorted to straddling the rack and awkwardly lifting my legs at weird angles to keep them off the ground. IMGP6121 It was a work-out just trying to stay balanced, keep my legs up off the ground and close enough to the bike not to knock into something all while riding down a pot holed alley. Our couchsurfing host knew the road however, and as we bounced along the worst injuries I got were bruises to my butt and pride. Dinner was delicious and tucked into a small Sichuan restaurant in a huotong, or alley, surrounded by a mix of young Chinese and expats. Although I was just happy to have made it to Beijing, don’t expect me to willingly ride on the back of a bicycle again. I’m going to leave that one to the Chinese.

Filed Under: Asia & Oceania, China, Headline Tagged With: China, cities, politics, tourism

Aswan: Welcome to Egypt

May 31, 2010 By Danny

When we arrived in Aswan we had spent the prior night sleeping on the deck of the ferry and both nights before that sleeping in the desert. We did manage to change our undies but having a shower in the middle of the Sahara was out of the question. We smelled, our skin was dry and cracked, and we wanted nothing other than ice cream, Doritos, running water, and maybe some air conditioning. I know that sounds pathetic, but truly we needed a “break”.

We found all of this and a good bit more as well. Ahh, welcome to Egypt.

Once our basic needs were seen to (which took a solid 24 hours to accomplish) we began to play tourist again. Any trip to Aswan will instantly inundate you with the loss of ancient Nubia. Nubia is the region that stretches from upper Egypt all the way to Khartoum. When the Aswan High Dam was built, creating Lake Nasser, much of the area was flooded and it took a rather substantial international effort to literally lift and remove the archaeological wonders of Nubia, like temples and tombs, to higher ground. The most amazing part to me was that this all took place in the middle of the Cold War with assistance coming from both halves of that equation.

One of those saved temples was the Temple of Isis, which easily dwarfed any site we had visited in The Sudan right off the bat. We decided to go to the sound and light show at Philie (the temple’s other name) and although the ‘show’ was extremely cheesy we enjoyed seeing the grandeur of the temple. All through The Sudan, sites were basically left as they had been found a couple hundred years ago with walls missing and collapsed columns, seeing this temple completely restored and covered in lights was really impressive. It was also nice to learn why we experienced blackouts in the cities of northern Sudan around 8pm from time to time.

Aswan overall was a complete breath of fresh air for us. There were modern comforts, a beautiful Nile view from our hotel room. A pool to swim in on our roof instead of the river itself. Wifi, Doritos, ice cream, running water, and souvenirs for sale all made us feel quite happy to be back in civilization a but also quite disappointed to be through with The Sudan, most likely for good.

IF YOU GO: Plenty of cheap accommodation along the waterfront as most people visit Aswan as part of a cruise from Luxor. Street food is cheaper than eating in the restaurants along the river but if you want a beer you have no choice. The Nubian Museum and Isis Temple are the two main attractions in town but many go to Aswan to be whisked away further south to see the gigantic Abu Simbel very near to the Sudanese border. These trips often leave as early as 3am and as we’d seen Abu Simbel from our ferry as we crossed into Egypt we opted for some sleep instead.

Filed Under: Africa, Egypt, Headline, Middle East Tagged With: ruins, temples, tourism

So much more than a place to rest

March 18, 2010 By Jillian

We’ve seen so many things in the last year: nearly twenty-five countries, the ruins of civilizations, four oceans, new continents and perhaps thousands of new people. We prepared for this trip by saving money, researching the practical financial, health and emotional considerations, but one thing we hardly touched was our itinerary. We hardly knew what to expect and while we had an idea of our initial direction, many of you may remember the answer we gave last year when asked where we would go…everywhere. While our route hasn’t surprised us very much, there has been one thing that we hadn’t relied on, the kindness and incredible hospitality we’ve received. The best experiences of the last year are by far those with other people, generally people we don’t know that well that extend an invitation for a drink, dinner or a place to rest.

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Both Danny and I have written a lot about our couchsurfing experiences, and often these are the memories we hold- not the museum, ruins or places we’ve been. It’s true that travel is about people, for had it not been for a swiss couple in Honduras we never would have done La Moskitia. Had it not been for the other four on our salar de uyuni trip I would have thought the whole thing rather boring. Had it not been for the man we met hiking in Argentina and his invitation to stay with his family, the garden route would have been another beautiful coast not a place we’ll always fondly remember. In fact, had we not struck up various small talk conversations on buses, tours and even boats over the last year we would have missed out on getting to know some pretty incredible people who have given us memories that we’ll never forget. They’ve given us a home, a place to rest, a welcome into their lives, often not knowing much about us beyond our names and faces. Without knowing it these people have provided us so much more than a comfortable place to rest our heads, or good conversation. They’ve given us the comfort of being with a family again, the feeling of hanging out with old friends, and the sense of normalcy.

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No amount of preparation and planning can prepare a traveler for what its like to be away from home for a year. It might sound weird to those at home, but we miss the everyday routine and normalcy of home. It’s a strange bout of homesickness when you start to miss getting up for work everyday, but trust me after a year it starts to happen.

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So if you’re one of those people, and I believe many of you are, who we’ve met along the way, and who stay in touch through our blog: thank you, gracias, merci, danke for everything. For adding a bit of normalcy to our lives, for unknowingly relieving our homesickness and for making us feel welcome. There is no way we can express our appreciation for what you’ve done except to pass it forward and to say we couldn’t have done it without you.

Filed Under: Africa, Headline, Tanzania Tagged With: cultures, holiday, hospitality, people, tourism, travel

How do you measure a year?

March 17, 2010 By Jillian

525,600 minutes. How do you measure a year in a life?

Some people said we were crazy. Some people said we were awesome. Some people said we’d be back within 3 months, some people said we’d never return. “It’s my dream to do that” some people said, while others shook their head unable to understand. We just didn’t know what to think, and when we stepped into Mexico last year we were about as prepared as we could have been for a journey that’s impossible to prepare for…

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525,600 minutes. How do we describe a year on the road?

There’s the bad: countless nights in nondescript hotel rooms, countless hours in transit on an overcrowded, smelly, sweaty bus, countless times we’ve said no to a hotel tout or aggressive street vendor and the numerous times we have to ask a question to get the “real” answer. And there’s the good: countless heartwarming conversations with locals who welcome us into their homes, invite us for a drink or intercede on our behalf to make sure we get the real price. Countless times we’ve received a genuine smile and hello, been told to enjoy a country, been given a phone number should we need anything or been directed to the right location despite our awful map or poor command of the language. How can we sum up these experiences and tell you what a year on the road is like? It’s incredible, it’s awful, it’s amazing, it’s hard. It’s everything we thought it would be and nothing at all like we expected. We’ve learned that the world is a great big place, and to quote many travelers we meet, the world is “same, same, but different.”

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So after a year how do we feel?  Are we tired, happy, ready to come home or looking forward to pressing on?

We’re all those emotions and more. Ask us at any moment and you can get any one of a thousand answers. Most importantly though, we’re thankful. Thankful each morning that we’re able to travel and spend such a long time getting to know the rest of the world. Thankful that we’ve made it this far and appreciative of all the experiences- the good, the bad and the ugly, that this trip has given us. Thankful of the people we’ve met and the places we’ve been. Our mantra is the day we wake up and stop appreciating the world around us is the day we decide to go home. Today is not that day and I’m not sure when that day will be. Whenever it is though, we have no regrets. We’re happy that we took this chance, happy that we’ve done this trip, happy with the experiences we’ve had.

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525,600 minutes. How can you measure a year in a life?

Filed Under: Africa, Featured, Headline, Tanzania Tagged With: holiday, tourism, travel

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