breakthesky.net » Travel

Off to Europe

Manda — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:52:09 +0000

I’m flying out to Europe tonight, which is where I will be spending the next three weeks. I will be staying with family friends in southern Germany, as well as going on various mini-trips to nearby countries and major cities to do lots of sightseeing. Obviously, I am very, very excited! I’ll have intermittent Internet access while I’m away, so I’ll be able to be contacted via email and I’m hoping to be able to post to my blog semi-frequently like I did when I went to the East Coast.

I’ll be returning home the third week of August, where I will have a very short turnaround from my return from Europe to my departure to China for study abroad (not to mention my birthday to celebrate!). Nothing like wrapping up my summer vacation with a bang!

Rundown of New York City

Manda — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 02:53:03 +0000

There is so much to write about from my two day, one night trip to New York City that I don’t even know where to begin. The sights I saw? The food I ate? The stuff I bought? The insane amounts of walking throughout the city? (Don’t get me wrong, NYC and I are on pretty good terms. But I don’t remember the last time I’ve ever walked so much in such a short amount of time. No taxis for my family and I; it was all about walking or the subway.)

I went to the Empire State Building on my first day, which was so not worth the wait. It was a two and a half hour wait for a ten minute view of the city on the observation deck. I’ll always think of the Empire State Building as some form of mind game/mental torturing place because the line was just endless. It would snake all around separate rooms on a floor of the building, and just when you thought you’d made it to the elevator, you’d be taken up to another floor to repeat the process all over again. The observation deck was on the 86th floor and you had to take the elevator up to the 80th floor and had to wait in line again – for a mere six floors! And then there was a line to get from the 86th floor back down to the ground, which was absolutely awful because by that time I was losing my marbles and had to get out of that building. I ended up taking the stairs from the 86th to the 80th and then booking it out of the building as fast as I could. I don’t think I’ll be going up the Empire State Building again anytime soon.

I spent a good portion of my second day in NYC in Brooklyn. I had lunch at Grimaldi’s, which is billed as the best pizza in New York. I’m no expert on New York pizza, but my God, that pizza was amazing – totally worth the hour long wait in line (the line went around the block!). Topped off with delicious vanilla chocolate chunk ice cream at the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory and a walk back to Manhattan via the Brooklyn Bridge, I think my time spent in Brooklyn was the best part of my NYC trip.

The craziest part of my trip was the bus ride back to Delaware. Somewhere along the New Jersey Turnpike the bus totally broke down, so the driver had to pull the bus over. Twenty minutes later, the bus was in semi-working condition, which meant that it chugged along the turnpike at approximately 40mph – definitely not safe when the speed limit is 65mph and most drivers drive way faster than that. We pulled over at the next service station and waited until another bus came to pick us up, but there weren’t enough seats for everyone that was stranded. There was a lot of time to kill between buses. If you’re looking for a fun way to spend your night, I don’t recommend chilling in the truck parking area of a service station in New Jersey.

When I finally got on a bus, I got a seat in the very back in front of the bus toilet. The door handle to the bathroom was broken off so no one could get in, but one guy really had to go and couldn’t wait. He broke down the bathroom door and I had to hold the door semi-shut for him so that he could have some privacy. A small line for the bathroom formed, in which I got practice in a potential future career as a bathroom door holder. The last guy, however, managed to push the door shut so he got locked in the bathroom and he spent a good ten minutes trying to jiggle the door of the (broken) handle before he finally kicked the door down. I half expected the door to go flying down the aisle of the bus!

All in all, a very eventful trip to NYC.

Eastward Bound

Manda — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 18:38:28 +0000

I’m headed to the East Coast for my annual trip to visit friends and family. I’ll be hitting up Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland and New York City. I am very excited to see my family and friends, particularly as the ones I’m going to visit are those that I only get to see once a year.

I’ll be away for a little under two weeks, but I should have at least some Internet access as I’ll be staying with friends and I’ll have my laptop with me. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to blog, however intermittently. As usual, at the very least I’ll have my iPhone with me. I expect to actually get service and 3G coverage this time, unlike my trip to South Dakota, so maybe I’ll wind up blogging from my phone.

This basically marks the beginning of about a month and a half period where I’ll be traveling and without regular access to the Internet, so my apologies for these rather boring “I’m going away and will be without steady Internet access until this date” entries. But I’ll do my best to keep you all posted on my adventures!

My Trip To the Black Hills, South Dakota

Manda — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 15:00:28 +0000

I’m not sure what I expected when my family decided to spend Fourth of July weekend in the Black Hills, South Dakota. I think I expected it to be pretty boring, with little entertainment and much anxiety for the weekend to end on my part. Luckily, I was completely wrong. I had a blast with my family and family friends; we saw tons of what the Black Hills had to offer; and I don’t remember the last time I laughed quite so much.

Here’s a quick rundown of my trip:

Mt. Rushmore is surprisingly small. Like, underwhelmingly small. But it’s still a pretty cool monument.
If you are even five minutes late to your tour of Jewel Cave and have the misfortune of encountering an insolent employee who finds pure, unadulterated joy in making people miserable, you’re not going to be able to go on your tour.
As corny as chuckwagon dinners are, once you start getting into the whole cowboy thing they’re actually kind of fun.
The Badlands are absolutely beautiful.
The Cosmos is quite possibly the coolest thing ever.

And for those of you who are interested in more details and photos of my trip, read on…

The Badlands

We stopped by the Badlands on our way into Rapid City. After hundreds of miles of prairie, I was more than ready for a change of scenery. The Badlands was just that and more. It was absolutely breathtaking; the color display on some of the rock was beautiful. All in all, I definitely recommend visiting the Badlands if you get the chance.

Mt. Rushmore

I was expecting Mt. Rushmore to be this huge, gigantic monument, but… it wasn’t. When I first saw Mt. Rushmore, the first thing I said was, “Is that it?” Don’t get me wrong, it is a pretty cool monument. But it’s just not as huge as everyone makes it out to be. Not to mention that apparently, the monument was originally going to be more extensive, with Washington wearing a broadcloth and Lincoln in a fitted collar, but time and money and WWII got in the way.

Jewel Cave

As I alluded to earlier, my party and I were barely five minutes late for our tour of Jewel Cave, thanks to the rain and a traffic incident in one of the towns we drove through on the way there. The guy we talked to at the tour desk was a total and complete jerk to us. Okay, we were late; I get the fact that we don’t get to go on the tour. But the fact that he had a huge grin on his face when he refused us from the tour entrance and got such obvious joy from acting like a prick really got under my skin.

Verdict on Jewel Cave? I’m sure it’s beautiful, even though I didn’t get to see it. But that one employee made what little experience I had there absolutely horrid.

Custer National Park

Custer National Park was pretty nice. Lots of scenery. To be honest, the only reason why we went to Custer National Park was…

Chuckwagon Dinner

The chuckwagon dinner at the Bluebell Lodge! It was pretty hokey; we all had to wear cowboy hats and bandanas. Still, once you got into it (and everyone did), it was really fun. The potato salad and the cornbread they served as part of the dinner was to die for! Not to mention the fact that I’ve never seen bison so close – I could have reached out from the wagon and pet them, if I wanted to.

The Cosmos

The Cosmos is so freakin’ cool. There’s something not quite right with the gravity or force or whatever that’s there, so everything is off-balance and a little bit off. You can’t stand up straight because of it, and everything is askew and tilted and things are not quite as they seem. It’s so, so cool and definitely a must-see if you’re in the Black Hills area!

Overall, I couldn’t have asked for a better Fourth of July vacation. Now, I have about a week to rest at home and prepare for my next trip…

Westward Bound

Manda — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 20:02:53 +0000

I’m headed for Minnesota and South Dakota for my Fourth of July weekend! I’ll be meeting up with close family friends in Minnesota before we all journey together to South Dakota to spend the Fourth in the stone presence of some of the nation’s almighty presidents, aka Mt. Rushmore.

I won’t be taking my laptop with me (because if I did, would I really be on vacation?), but I’ll have my iPhone with me. I might blog (not likely) or tweet (more likely) while I’m away, but if not, I’ll see you all in about a week!

Plane Tickets Make Travel a Reality

Manda — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 21:53:54 +0000

Plane Ticket Booking Confirmation
Destination: China
Departure: August 2010

It’s official. I really am going to China for a year. Not that I was ever planning on backing out of my abroad plans, but issuing plane tickets make travel ideas a reality.

Among all of the planning and other logistical things I have been dealing with in preparation for my year abroad, plane tickets are the one thing that I’ve put off dealing with, for various reasons. I’ve already made preparations for things like my passport, visa and accommodation. But now that I have booked – and paid for – my plane tickets, my year abroad is starting to sink in as reality, rather than some elusive, far-fetched dream.

I’m counting down the days until my departure date in August. (I’m still in disbelief that August is a mere two months away!!) And if anyone has any must-see places in China, please let me know!

There Is Something To Be Said for a Relaxing Vacation

Manda — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 23:25:03 +0000

I can’t even begin to describe how phenomenal my time in DC was this past week.

I made new friends at the conference and got closer to the ones I already had. I explored new areas of DC. I watched the Hawks win the Stanley Cup with one of my friends (YAY HAWKS!). I stayed in the most luxurious hotel I’ve ever been in (it was paid for, score!). I caught up with old friends. I got the best of every single possible moment I could in the short time I was there and I’m absolutely thrilled that I did. I know that my fun adventures there this past week will tide me over until I return again to the District in August 2011.

The best part of the whole trip? One afternoon, a friend and I had some time to kill so we went up to the rooftop and lounged by the pool to soak up some sun. I can’t remember the last time I had an afternoon to simply relax and not have a care in the world. Even though I (predictably) was the one who burned and my friend (also predictably) was the one who darkened his tan, it quite possibly was my favorite time from my trip. Just laying in those comfortable lounge chairs, closing my eyes and feeling the warmth of the sun’s rays on my skin… absolute bliss.

Now, I’m back home and I have a million and one things to catch up on. I’ve got a mountain of homework to do since I didn’t take my laptop with me (I don’t regret that one bit; it made my trip that much more relaxing). I’ve got to sort out arrangements to book my ticket to China because the clock is very rapidly ticking away for that. Most importantly, my mom is undergoing surgery tomorrow and the whole family is getting increasingly anxious about that.

The one thing that will get me through the chaos of everyday life until I leave for my next trip is the air of contentment and relaxation I’m still managing to maintain from my vacation. I’m not sure how long it’ll last (I’m amazed it’s lasted more than 24 hours after my return home) but I’m going to enjoy it while I can!

Business Trip with Fun on the Side

Manda — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 15:17:38 +0000

Today I’m leaving for a quick trip to D.C., where I will be attending a fairly short conference. I’ve managed to extend my stay a little so that I can work in some time to relax and hang out with friends before and after the conference, too. All in all, I’m excited for this fairly short but much needed vacation! Work, pleasure and travel… what more could a girl ask for?

I’ve never really attended a conference before, so I had quite the exciting time packing my business casual outfits. Most of the items in my wardrobe fall in the business casual category, so selecting outfits was a lot harder than I imagined it would be. I managed in the end, though, with some nice dresses and skirts. My one worry is about the weather in D.C.; the forecast looks fairly gloomy and rainy all week and I’m really hoping that will change so it’ll be nice and sunny.

Anyway, this is all a roundabout way of saying that I’ll be a little scarce for the rest of the week. I won’t have my laptop with me, but I’ll have my iPhone so I’ll still be in contact. I might find some time to post an entry or tweet a little thanks to the WordPress and Tweetie iPhone apps, but if not, I’ll be back in the swing of things next week!

Travel Countdowns of the Summer

Manda — Tue, 25 May 2010 16:28:16 +0000

This summer is going to be the summer of me roadtripping and flying about from city to city, country to country. I’m very excited and have compiled the following countdowns to my respective departure dates:

D.C.: 8 days
Minnesota and South Dakota: 36 days
Pennsylvania and Delaware: 51 days
Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Czech Republic: 62 days
Shanghai (WORLD EXPO!): 90 days
Beijing: 99 days

I have been looking forward for all this travel for months. It’s been a while since I’ve done any extensive travel besides flying back and forth between home and school for breaks, so I am very excited for all of these upcoming trips!

© Manda for breakthesky.net, 2010. | Permalink | 12 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: china, europe, roadtrip, washington dc

Chivalry is Dead

Manda — Fri, 07 May 2010 13:26:56 +0000

Amount of suitcases I had at the airport yesterday: 3

Amount the suitcases weighed: 20 (carry-on), 65 and 70 pounds, respectively

Amount of strength my body possesses: Approximately zero

Amount of times I visibly struggled in unloading/loading these suitcases from my taxi, the check-in counter, the baggage claim and finally my car: 8

Amount of times people stared at me (most likely in amusement I presume) as I struggled: 4

Amount of times anyone offered to help whilst staring at me: 0

Good God, it’s not like I want some man to come rushing to my rescue or be a damsel in distress 24/7 just to get some assistance, but is it really too much to ask for some assistance from the people that are obviously staring (so, they know there is a problem cause I’m visibly struggling) at me as I wrestle with gigantic suitcases that collectively are heavier than I weigh?