Travel Advice in China: Guangxi Province (Part1)

Part 1: Guilin and Yangshuo

Guilin is the easiest place to get a train to in Guangxi province.  Many Chinese people go there on vacation, and it’s a nice city, but I wouldn’t recommend doing more than using it as a transportation hub; you can see the same things much more up close in Yangshuo.

From the bus station in Guilin, you can take a forty-five minute bus to Yangshuo.  Yangshuo is a small town on the banks of the Li River, surrounded by karst mountains.  It’s pretty touristy; there are western restaurants and souvenir stands in town.  However, that was a nice break after several months in China: I really enjoyed the grilled cheese and such.  You can easily find a hostel there for about 25 RMB.   I stayed at Monkey Jane’s, but she was fixing to sell it, so don’t know what it’s like now.  There were plenty of them, though.  You can hang out by the river, swim, shop in the market, eat western food until you’re stuffed, and Yangshuo is a great place just to sit and relax. The scenery was worth  the touristiness of the town itself.  

You can rent a bicycle for the day cheaply (15-20 RMB).  You can bike around town, or you can bike out to the Dragon Bridge.  It’s quite a ways over rough roads; it wasn’t really hard but I was pretty sore at the end of the day; I hadn’t ridden a bike in years. Someone at your hostel can give you directions or a basic map, or there might be something in the guide book.  However, I didn’t have to worry about how to get there.  As soon as I got out in the country, there was a Chinese woman in a pink button-up shirt and a straw hat who was waiting with her bike.  She saw me and greeted me, then hopped on the bicycle and took off.  I was going to same way, so I followed a ways behind.  When we came to any kind of cross road or split in the path, she would wait until she knew I was in view, and made sure I saw which one she took.  The path wound through fields and farms and along the river.  It was an amazing view of the countryside and peasant life, and went alongside the river a good bit of the time.  Finally, I arrived at the Dragon Bridge, in a small village; the bridge is very old, but I don’t remember the exact dates right now.  It was a nice scene with the old bridge and all the village boys swimming under it, but the real point is the scenery along the way. The bridge doesn’t look like a dragon or anything; it’s just a bridge, albeit a very old one.  Just so you aren’t disappointed. :)  

Once you get to the Dragon Bridge, there are three ways to get back:  you can bike back by the highway, which is a little faster since you’re on pavement; you can bike back the way you came; or, you can do what I did—hire a bamboo boat and boatman to take you back, not all the way to Yangshuo usually, but at least to where the pavement starts.  It’s not super cheap; I paid 100 RMB (about $14).  However, the boats can hold two, so if you have someone to split it with it’s not bad at all.  They will put the bike on the back. This is why the lady in the pink shirt was going there, to get a cut by arranging these things for visitors.  It was one of the highlights of my travels in China—floating down the river, near sunset, through colorful farms and mountains.

Another thing you should do in Yangshuo is go out to Moon Hill.  You can bike out there, but it’s about 8 km or so and you would have to find a way to secure your bike once you got there; there is also a bus, which I took.  Moon Hill is a mountain with a hole that goes all the way through it, shaped like a half moon.  You can hike up to the crescent, and have an amazing vista of the countryside.  If you’re adventurous, it’s also possible to climb up to the very top. 

Adult Birthdays...Meh

I celebrated my twenty-eighth birthday in the usual adult style—working 9 to 5.  To make it even more enjoyable, it was my hump day, even though it was Thursday, as I as scheduled to work that Saturday (although I really can’t complain about that, as I do the scheduling…) And what a lovely day it was—one of those days when we were short staffed, I was in charge, and everybody had a problem.  Our favorite (where’s the sarcasm font when you need it?) customer came in an threw a full-on, cursing, insulting tantrum, which is rather unbecoming in a sixty-year-old man, and it was gloomy and gray, which made it uncomfortably cold in the air conditioning. I went to Zumba after work, and then home to fix dinner—Mom had promised me barbecued chicken and broccoli salad for my birthday, but she had self-defense training (“Butt-kicking class,” as she and her friends refer to it), so I got to cook my own birthday dinner.  I made pasta with my two favorite sauces, though—Yay for comfort food.  (Edit: I finally got my barbecue chicken and broccoli salad on August 14th!)

However, my coworkers made up for it the next day. India (whose birthday was three days after mine) and I had a joint celebrations; we all brought food for a potluck snack-fest; I brought more of my favorite pasta, Latasha brought chips and plates, Karen brought chicken nuggets and vegetarian crescent roll pizza, India managed to make edible brownies despite her fame as a non-cooker, and Jo brought her trademark pigs-in-a-blanket and a crock pot full of Rotel dip, enough to feed all of us until we couldn’t move as well as several Kroger employees.  They also gave us a few little gifts; my favorite was lip gloss in the shape of a miniature Mountain Dew can. 

Ever since I graduated college, I’ve felt about twenty-six.  I’m not sure why twenty-six, of all ages; I guess I felt like I was still young, but didn’t feel the urge to be a wild twenty-one-year-old out partying.  Most of my friends that I spent a lot of time with during the period from the time I was twenty-two until, well, the last few months really, were quite a bit older than me; most of them, in fact, were married with children.  However, now twenty-six has come and gone, and I still feel about the same.  I still want to be a carefree twenty-something with plenty of time, but thirty is looming in the near future, and the biological clock ticks pretty loudly sometimes; I wonder how many times I can push the snooze button.    

I’ve loved my twenties; I’ve enjoyed being single and free and able to easily pick up and move to whichever far-flung place I found work to do.  Sometimes it just seems like these years have gone too fast.  There’s a song that my Pandora station plays frequently, with lyrics that go, “We are young, let’s set the world on fire!”  I feel kind of sad when I hear it, although I like it—I feel like I’m no longer part of the youth scene; setting things on fire sounds irresponsible. :)

Travel Advice in China: Xi'an (and Hua Shan)

Xi’an is a city of about 8 million, and there’s quite a bit to do there.  The most popular thing is the Terra Cotta Warriors, which are a short distance by bus from Xi’an.  It’s really easy to get out to the Terra Cotta Warriors:  if you standing in the door of the train station facing out, go left.  There are several parking lots in front of the train station; the one furthest to the left is where you can get the bus.  You won’t miss it; they are well-marked in English, and many of the buses are even have big decals of the warriors on the side.  If you have extra time (I didn’t), the bus also stops at a couple of other tourist sights on the way out.

Xi’an also has its old city walls around it, and you can walk on top of them at several points.  There are several sights within the city; you can find them all in any good guide book or tourist map.  One sight they will tell you is the Muslim mosque, which is interesting; right next to the gate to the Mosque is the street market.  There are several covered alleys with hundreds of booths; nearby are many shops.  This was a great place to buy all sorts of interesting souvenirs and decorative things for you apartment.  Unfortunately, I was there the very first day of my seven-week trip, so I couldn’t buy too much because I didn’t want to carry it all.

I particularly enjoyed the Gao Courtyard House, also known as the Ancient Folk House, on  Baiyuan Men in the Muslim quarter.  It was only five yuan to go in when I was there, and  there was an older Chinese man who spoke excellent English who was my personal guide--he walked me around the whole place and explained why they ‘d built  it  arranged according to the rules of feng shui, and what each room was used for, and the family who lived there.  After the tour, there is a tea shop at the back where you can try six different kinds of green tea for only five yuan.  

Baiyuan Men is right in the middle of the area most frequented by travelers, so I was surprised at how many Chinese people weren’t used to foreigners and stared just as much as in Jingzhou.  I had four different people stop me and ask if I would take a picture with them.  I was beginning to wonder of I was the tourist or the attraction. 

Be sure you see the Bell Tower and the Drum Tower at night--they light them up. Besides, it’s a good area for restaurants and such.  Oh, and go to the park by the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, in the southern part of the city.  Get there early and find a spot to sit or stand near the fountains; at about 8:00 PM they have a fun light show with fountains shooting water into the air and colored lights, all in time to music. Here's more information. 

The hostel I stayed at in Xi’an was one of the best I’ve ever stayed at anywhere.  It was the Shuyuan International Youth Party Hostel, and it was just inside the south gate of the city.   It was an old courtyard-style home at one time.  When I started planning my travels in China, I thought the hostels would probably be a lot rougher and not as nice as the ones I stayed at in Europe.  I found just the opposite--the best hostels I’ve ever stayed at  were in China.  

Hua Shan

Now, my thing is hiking, particularly hiking in mountains.  If you like hiking or beautiful scenery, I recommend Hua Shan.  It is a mountain about a three-hour bus ride from Xi’an.  It is one of the sacred mountains of Taoism, and it is one of the steepest mountains in China—the south face is a sheer 2000 foot drop.  You can take a cable car up to the north peak—I recommend that, because the hike up to there is very difficult and even dangerous in places, but if you are a super athlete who’s not afraid of heights, suit yourself.  From the north peak, you can hike four or five hours up to the other three peaks; there are hotels/hostels on the south and east peaks.  Be prepared for a LOT of stairs.  And then more stairs.  And more.  And then one little part more like a  ladder. But, the scenery is worth it.  Spend the night at the top, and then get up at 4:30 or so in the morning (don’t worry, you won’t miss it…the Chinese people in the dorm room will turn on the lights and begin talking loudly in plenty of time).  Take a jacket, even if you go in the summer, because that early it’s pretty cold and windy up there.  Some of the hotels rent out parkas.  Follow the trail up to the highest point of the peak you’re on, and watch the sunrise.  It was a spectacular sight.  Then you can hike around between the peaks if you want and then back to the north peak to go down. You can go back to this post I wrote about the trip if you want to hear the whole story. 

Travel Advice in China: Anhui Province

Anhui Province: Huangshan (Yellow Mountain) and the Villages

The Yellow Mountain, Huangshan, is one of the most famous places in China for the Chinese people.  You’ll see it constantly in their traditional art, on money (can’t remember which bill right now), etc.  It is a unique landscape.  I stayed in the town of Tunxi (there are several great hostels there), and from there I could get a bus (about an hour) to the base of the mountain.   Tunxi has a train station and a bus station, so it’s not hard to reach.  

The thing most people do is go up the mountain on one day, spend the night at one of the hostels near the summit, get up really really early the next morning and watch the sunrise, and then hike down.  The hostel in Tunxi should be willing to store your bag for you while you’re gone; I just took my day bag with a change of clothes in it with me.  Unfortunately, when I was there, it was too foggy the next morning to see the sunrise.  I hope to get the chance to go again while I’m in China.

There is a cable car up part of the way that makes the hike much more manageable if you’re not super athletic (I took it).  The hardest part of the hike is the ascent without the cable car; once you get past the cable car area the hiking is not very strenuous; the trails are well-maintained and mostly paved.   

Also in Anhui province, and also easily reachable as a day trip from Tunxi, there are two ancient villages which are really beautiful to visit.  Xidi and Hongcun Ancient Villages were listed as World Heritage Sites by UNESCO in 2000.  Xidi was begun between 960-1127, so it is over 900 years old.  Most of the buildings were built in the Ming and Qing dynasties, and the whole town is considered a museum of the residences from that time period.  Hongcun is about six miles away, and the town is built in the shape of an ox (only the Chinese would think of this). Read the Travel China Guide article about it for a little more info. 

I went to the village of Xidi. There are buses fairly frequently from the  main bus station--the bus station is not near the train station, but you can take a taxi to it for about  7-8 Yuan. The desk person at your hotel should be able to point you in the right direction.  The bus ride out was beautiful: rolling hills through the countryside on a perfect summer day (okay, a little hot).  It took about an hour from Tunxi.  All the buildings in the village were whitewashed, with slate tile roofs.  Inside (you can go into the temples and a few designated houses), they were full of elaborately carved wooden partitions.  There was a traditional arch near the entrance of the town, and there was a trail to go up to a gazebo on the hillside where you can relax and take pictures of the town from above.  It’s small; you can easily explore it all in one day.  I definitely recommend going and seeing some of the most picturesque little villages in rural China.

Travel Advice in China: Shanghai

Prepare to spend a lot of money-- prices are high in Shanghai.  However, it’s fun place to visit. Take a walk along the Bund; on one side of you, there are 18th century European buildings; on the other is the river with the Pudong skyline on the other side.  I got some good pictures of the skyline from there.  One Saturday night, it seemed like half the city was down  there walking around. The Pudong area of Shanghai has some of the highest skyscrapers in the world, and there are three you can go up in: the Shanghai World Financial Center, the Oriental Pearl Tower, and the Jin Mao Tower.  The World Financial Center looks like a giant needle with a square eye cut out; you can go up to about the 100th floor.  I’m not sure of the cost, but probably between 100-200 Yuan. I went up the Jin Mao Tower, which is right next to the Financial Center.  I chose this one because from it you could get good views of the other two, which are more architecturally interesting.  In it, you can go up to the 88th floor (there is an observation deck with windows all around).  It cost 88 Yuan in 2010.  Just try not to do it at the same time as a group of 200 middle-schoolers from Wuhan like I did.  Oh, and what I did was go up close to sunset.  That way, I got to see the city by day, waited around up there while the sun set, and then got to see the city lights by night as well.  Might as well make the most of it!  I’m not sure how much the Oriental Pearl costs to go in; it’s the one that looks like a purple and silver tinker toy spaceship.  

There are plenty of other things you can do in Shanghai: shopping, museums, cute little neighborhoods that look European.  You’ll find them in any guide book or such.  Nanjing Road is worth a visit for the shopping and crowd scene; it’s right in the middle of everything, so you can’t really avoid it anyways. The other thing I really enjoyed was the food: I was working in Jingzhou, a smaller town in Hubei province.  The only good American food in Jingzhou was Pizza Hut, and there was very little other foreign food.  In Shanghai, there were Italian restaurants, French restaurants, Dairy Queen, Dunkin’ Donuts, Papa John’s, etc.  I really enjoyed having that kind of variety again! And, they had Mountain Dew! 

There is a neighborhood called Xujiahui which I particularly enjoyed; if nobody was speaking Chinese, you would think you were somewhere in Europe.  One subway stop up from Xujiahui, at the Hengsheng stop on the red line, is a district with tons of restaurants of all sorts.  

I stayed at the Captain Youth Hostel on Fuzhou Road, right off the Bund, when I was there.  It was fine, although the front desk staff weren’t terribly friendly.  It was nice to be only a few steps from the Bund and the river walk, but it was a pretty good walk  to the nearest subway stop.  However, in route to the subway, you do pass a Dunkin’ Donuts...Anyhow, next to the hostel, on Fuzhou Road, there was a really good Italian restaurant, if you’re looking for that type of thing.  Also on Fuzhou Road, five to seven blocks from  People’s Square, there are some  English-language bookstores.   If you go on google maps and zoom in, they are marked on the map.  

Oh, and it seems a lot of the guide books recommended a place call Qibao.  I don’t recommend it.  It’s ‘ye olde Chinese village’, and it’s a tourist trap in the worst way.  All the “quaint old shops” sell cheap sunglasses and popsicles and Hello Kitty key chains, and swarms of old people shuffle through jabbing you with the edges of their umbrellas.  This is really only for people who only go to Shanghai and have no chance to ever see anything else in China; you can see much much better ‘villages’ elsewhere.

Travel Advice in China: Beijing

I was talking to someone recently about places I'd traveled when I lived in China in 2010, and she wanted some advice on where to go and what to do there; and since I often have some down-time at work, I decided to write a list of places I went, and a little bit of advice about each; as usual, I got a little carried away.  Anyhow, over the next few weeks I'll be posting my rambling about several places I enjoyed; since it's the most popular, I'll start with Beijing:

Of course, everyone tries to go to Beijing.  There’s plenty of the most famous Chinese sights there: the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, the hutong neighborhoods, etc.  If you’re at the Summer Palace on a hot summer day, they have green pea popsicles for sale.  It sounds awful, but they don’t really taste like peas; they’re very refreshing, actually.  There’s often a really long line to get into the Forbidden City, but once I got inside, the courtyards were so big that it didn’t feel too crowded.  I’d still probably try to go on a weekday, though, to avoid the worst crowds.  It really is ridiculously huge, so don’t feel bad if you skip some parts.  One tip about Beijing: the maps only show the major roads.  It’s easy to look at the map and think, “Oh, it’s only four blocks! It shouldn’t take too long to walk!” Yeah, um…that’s four major roads, with four or five smaller roads in between, so it’s really 20 blocks instead of four…  

The other great reason for going to Beijing is that it’s a convenient departure point for trips to the Great Wall.  There are several sections that are accessible; the most common to visit are Badaling, Mutianyu, and Jinshanling. Badaling is the closest to Beijing, if you don’t have much time.  However, it is also the most touristy and crowded.  I went to Jinshanling, which is a four-hour bus ride from Beijing.  However, it’s worth the drive—it’s much less crowded, and there are unrestored parts of the wall so you can see original parts.  This section of the wall  was completed in 1570.  You can buy a ticket for a charter bus out at any hostel in Beijing; many of them even come with a free sausage biscuit from McDonald’s on the way.  The wall at that point is out in the hills, with the wall running along the ridges; you can see for a long ways without any sign of civilization.  There is a cable car, slightly expensive, that will take you most of the way up the hill.  It was worth it to me, because it gave me more time on the wall rather than spending a significant part of my time hiking up the hill.  They give you a few hours to explore on the wall, and then the bus takes you back to your hostel in Beijing.

The Traveler that Went Back in Time (ITC Week 25)

If you could travel anywhere in the world, in any era, where would you go? Where is that place that has always fascinated you and you’ve always asked yourself how it would have looked like ages ago?
 

As if there wasn’t enough to explore in this world as it is right now, let’s throw in time travel—don’t just settle for Florida, lay on the beaches of Atlantis.  Already seen the pyramids?  Go take a look at the Colossus of Rhodes.  Have dinner in the city of Maccu Picchu, buy souvenirs in the marketplace in Athens and watch to see if Aristotle walks by, stroll through an Angkor Wat teeming with monks.  Or go the other direction: take a shuttle up to the mining operations on the moon; celebrate as Tokyo reaches a population of fifty million; take a road trip on the TransAfrica interstate system. 

With not only space but all of time thrown in, where would I go first?  Of course, as a Christian, first-century Palestine would be high on my list; I’d like to witness the miracles of Jesus, and sing praises with the church in Antioch.  The tabernacle in the desert God instructed Moses to build, the tower of Babel going up, the construction of the arc, and the flowers in the Garden would all be wonderful sights.

Outside of Biblical places and events, I became an English major because of Beowulf; I’d like to see what life was like in the ‘Dark Ages’.  The treasure of Hutton Soo must have been spectacular before it was buried.  I doubt castle life was as romantic as we make it out to be, but I’d still like to explore one that doesn’t have a gift shop. 

My next stop would probably be tea with Jane, or maybe Charlotte: would regency fashion look good on me?  Could I attract the attention of a rich gentleman?  I think I’d enjoy teaching in a Belgian boarding school and trips to Bath, at least for a while. Too bad Mr. Darcy is fictional. 

I’d love to know my ancestors; time travel would give me the chance to watch the seasons change with my Native American ancestors, and learn how to live off the land—I’d finally find out what tribe Lizzie was from in Illinois.  I could step off the Anne to join the Plymouth colony with Edward Bumpass, or build a home in Jamestown with the Clayes.  I could ask Mexico’s mother where she got that name, and try to convince the Castlemans not to sell Lot #5 in the brand-new settlement of Nashville; it would be worth a lot of money if they’d keep it in the family and pass it down to me!  I’d go give Priscilla Mobley a hand with the cooking as she raised seven boys alone, and find the Dortch’s village in England. 

After I’ve finished exploring several thousand years of recorded history, visiting fictional places would be the next great frontier.  I guess Hogwarts would be overrun with gawkers if we could do that, though. 

From the Desk to Vietnam (ITC Week 21)

 For week 21 of the Indie Travel Challenge, we’d like you to tell us what your travel dreaming tools of choice are. Do you still pull pages from magazines? Do you keep a spreadsheet on your computer, organized by country? Do you have a smartphone app or a website you love?

When I talk about trips I’ve taken or places I’ve traveled, one of the common responses I get is, “I wouldn’t even know where to begin to do something like that.”  How do I get from a blank piece of free time to getting hit by a motorcycle in Vietnam? 

To begin with, I love maps; I always have.  When I was a child, we had a dusty red set of encyclopedias, already years out of date.  The last volume was my favorite—an atlas with hundreds of maps of different parts of the world.  Now and then, I would pull it out and flip through, reading the names of distant cities and seas and mountain ranges. 

Maps still fascinate me.  I like to navigate on road trips, and I like to keep a map updated of where I’ve been.  Google maps is one of my most frequent distractions when I have down time at work.   Most of my trips start there; I start with my city, and zoom out: what’s to the north? The south?  What’s along the way between me and another major city? What loop could I go in that would include the most places I’d like to see?  If I go this direction this time, and that direction another time, what will I find? 

Once I have an idea of the general possibilities, my next step is usually lonelyplanet.com.  A bit clichéd, maybe, but useful, especially if I’m not already familiar with a country or region.  Lonely planet gives a list of “top picks”; while some of these are unavoidably touristy, it gives me a good idea of what’s on offer.  Then, it’s back to google: first stop, google images to see the place, then google search to find out about its importance and history and all, and finally back to google maps to plot it on a custom map I’ve created for the trip.  Repeat process, until I’ve plotted everything I would like to see or do on the map.  Then it’s time for lonely planet again, as well as train schedules, flight websites like Kayak and Vayama, bus schedules, etc.  What route is feasible, both time-wise and monetarily?  Once I figure out what would be entailed in getting to each destination, I can choose a route that will include as many as possible without backtracking too much.

Once I’ve got a general route, then I can find out about hostels on hostelworld.com or hostels.com.  I don’t usually plan a strict itinerary; in fact, the longer I travel, the less detailed my plans get.  I make a list of things I’d like to do in a city, but once I arrive I decide the specifics based on the weather, my mood, and what other discoveries I make along the way.  Here are the websites I use the most, if you want to research a trip of your own:

General Travel Information 

•  Lonely Planet
•  Google Maps
•  Trip Advisor
•  Wikitravel
•  Travel China Guide

Flights

•  Kayak
•  Vayama
•  Air Asia
•  (Within Europe) Ryanair

Trains

•  Rail Europe
• Travel China Guide: China Trains
• Indian Rail
  

Where to Stay 
(These are hostels websites, but they also show inexpensive hotels, bed and breakfasts, etc.) 

•  Hostels.com
•  Hostel World

Travel Articles, Podcasts, and Stories

•  Amateur Traveler  My very favorite travel podcast (also available on iTunes), but there’s a lot of good stuff on the website, too.
• Rick Steve's Radio Show  (also available under podcasts on iTunes)
• Rick Steve's Europe  Advice and planning for a beginner traveler to Europe 
•  Matador Online travel magazine
•  BootsnAll Travel articles, geared towards long-term independent backpackers 
• Vagablogging The blog of one of my favorite travel writers, Rolf Potts

Misc. 

•  Time and Date  Good for figuring out, until you get used to the time zones, if it’s too late at night to call home.
•  XE Currency Converter  Useful until you get used to a different currency.

Autostrada del Sole (ITC Week 19)

Indie Travel Challenge Week 19: Road Trips

 For week 19, we’d like you to design the perfect road trip. Who’s with you in the car? What kind of car are you driving? What snacks are in the cooler? What music is playing? And, most importantly, where are you?

When I read this prompt, the first thing that popped into my head was  sunlight pouring in the windows, catching a glimpse of Orvieto, an ancient town built on top of a cliff, out the window as I head south towards Rome on the Autostrada del Sole.  Giorgia’s Girasole (Sunflower) is next on the playlist, and I’ve brought along a bottle of A.C.E. fruit juice. It’s hot outside, but the air conditioner is thankfully working at the minute. 

 Even the name Autostrada del Sole, the Highway of the Sun, Interstate 1, seems an invitation to find out where it goes.  It’s the backbone of Italy’s interstate system, running like a spine from Milan to Naples.  In between, it passes through most of the major cities of central Italy, including Bologna, Florence, and Rome. 

When I lived in Italy, I traveled every mile of it at some time or another, most of those in a large and crowded van (the rickety old gray Bible School van on our way to a convegno in Velletri, just outside of Rome; crammed in the back of the di Marco’s van with the Naples crowd as I bummed a ride down to explore Naples after another trip to Velletri) or else riding along with the Shorts to Florence, or again Velletri.  I guess those trips to the women’s retreat and family retreats held at Velletri really added up the highway miles. 

However, the thing all of these trips had in common was that I was in route somewhere, and I had a time I needed to be there.  And while the sights along the way are nice even in passing, it would make a beautiful road trip if I had the time to wander: a side trip to the independent country of  San Marino, parking and taking the tram up into Orvieto to see the famous old church,  fields of sunflowers with the Tower of Pisa floating on the horizon behind them, eating the original ragu (meat sauce) in Bologna, meandering off side roads to explore the small towns perched on top of hills in rural Tuscany, parking at Piazza Michelangelo for the postcard-picture view of Florence, passing miles of empire-era aqueduct just south of Rome, and finally taking my life in my hands driving into the chaos of Naples, with Vesuvius looming over the city.  Dozens of other side trips would be possible, if the time and money held out. 

Sadly, it’s been three years since I left Italy; nearly as long as I lived there.  I still feel homesick sometimes to walk across Piazza del Duomo in Milan.  I thought when I left that I’d find a way to visit frequently, but as always, life hasn’t worked out that way.  Life instead took me even further the opposite direction, to China.  My Italian is getting rusty as there’s rarely anyone to talk to around here. You would think that after living for three years in Italy, I’d have seen it all, but I only scratched the surface.  I could spend three more years and still not make it everywhere I’d like to go: I’ve never seen Juliet’s balcony or the ancient amphitheater in Verona, taken a cable car up over the Alps into France from the mountains near Aosta, visited the Borghese Gallery in Rome (I could spend three years just in Rome), or gone to the little republic of San Marino, and the whole mainland of Italy south of Naples is unknown territory for me.  I’ve been to Catania and Mt. Etna in Sicily, but making the loop around Sicily would be another road trip of a lifetime in itself. 

Plastic Islands (ITC Week 16)

That island of plastic debris swirling in the mid-Pacific scares me.  Food waste, wood, paper—all that will disintegrate, but plastic…that stuff’s going to be around a while.  The number of plastic bottles I use myself is a bit overwhelming, and I’m just one person.  Unfortunately, the green tea I like only comes in 16.9 oz bottles; I wish they had jugs of it so that I could just refill a bottle instead of using so many. 

When I’m traveling, I try to keep one water bottle for as long as possible, refilling it when I get the chance. This was easy in Europe; there was always a museum or large store with water fountains right across the road.  In Rome, and many other places in Italy, there are public fountains on the sidewalk.  It’s been a lot more challenging in Asia, as tap water is often not potable. When I’m at home, I try to buy tea and juice in the two liter size and drink out of a glass, but on the road it seem inevitable to end up using three or four bottles a day.  I don’t remember hostels having water tanks available; I wish they would—I’d chip in bit to fill my bottle. 

At least it seems that recycling facilities are becoming more common, although nowhere near fast enough, in my opinion.  Any other travelers have any suggestions on how to use fewer water bottles, or how to environmentally friendly while traveling? 

Ravenclaw!

Okay, I'm being a dork, I know.  I'm twenty-seven, and I just got around to reading all the Harry Potter books, and watching all the movies (only ten years or so late!).  Anyways, I'm not in a very productive mood today, so I was goofing around online, and I found a site that confirmed what I'd already thought: if I went to Hogwarts, I'd have been in Ravenclaw.  I knew that's where I'd want to be ever since I read the description of their common room... :)

The sorting hat says that I belong in Ravenclaw!
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Said Ravenclaw, "We'll teach those whose intelligence is surest."

Ravenclaw students tend to be clever, witty, intelligent, and knowledgeable.
Notable residents include Cho Chang and Padma Patil (objects of Harry and Ron's affections), and Luna Lovegood (daughter of The Quibbler magazine's editor).

Take the most scientific Harry Potter Quiz ever created.
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