Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

For this post, I'm going to switch things up a bit and talk about a place I traveled to, but did not like. The unfortunate victim of my criticism is going to be Myrtle Beach in South Carolina. I traveled to Myrtle Beach about four years ago on a vacation with my family. My brother, who played AAU baseball, had a tournament in Myrtle Beach one summer, so we made an eight day trip out of it; eight days of my life I will unfortunately never be able to regain.

Let me start with the hotels. The strip of the beach we stayed on had hotels that seemed nice because they were right on the water, but the hotels were piled on top of each other like an overcrowded city. We could literally stand on our balcony and look into the pool of the neighboring hotel. Needless to say, it seemed like there were a lot of people crammed into a very little space, with very little privacy. 

The pools themselves were a whole other story. Again, it seemed like there were way too many people for the capacity that the pool was really built for. Several of the days we were there, diapers were seen floating in the shallow ends of some of the pools. To top everything off, everyone seemed to be walking around either half naked or heavily inebriated. For some people that type of atmosphere works, but I could definitely have gone without it; especially since I was on a family vacation. Initially my family and I thought that maybe it was just the hotel we were staying at, but we knew several other families from the baseball team, who were staying in neighboring hotels, and their situation was just as bad; in some cases worse.

Now I'll talk about the food. When staying in Myrtle Beach you basically have three choices for meals: all you can eat buffets, fried seafood, or fast food. Don't get me wrong, I love all you can eat fried clams just as much as the next person, but I wouldn't willingly eat it every night for a week straight. Fortunately, one night we were able to travel to another part of the beach, and eat at another type of restaurant. It was nice to be able to eat something not deep fried or covered in grease.  

The one redeeming quality about Myrtle Beach was the ocean. The waves were huge and the sand was clean. There were several piers that were a lot of fun to go on as well. Again, you had to look past a few half naked and inebriated people, but it wasn't nearly as bad as the pools. 

In Myrtle Beach's defense, we heard that the northern part of the beach was a lot nicer than the southern part, which was the part we stayed in. If I were to ever return to Myrtle Beach I would make sure to stay in the northern part.

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

  

          

Frye Island, Maine

Frye Island at 2 years old

Hi everybody. For this post, I'm going to talk about one of my favorite places to travel to. Frye Island, Maine. Most people are not going to know about Frye Island, but in my opinion, it is certainly a hidden treasure. It's an island on Sebago Lake in Maine. It's seasonal, only open every year from May to September, but many people have purchased summer homes on the island. Frye Island is also home to renters who go up for short periods of time to rents homes. I have been going to Frye Island my entire life, and it is actually where my parents met when they were just kids vacationing with their families. We own a house on the island and share it with my two uncles and their families. It's my favorite place to travel to, and I would recommend it to anybody wanting to get away for a relaxing vacation.

Map of Sebago Lake

Frye Island is accessible by a drive-on ferry. Once on the ferry, it takes less than five minutes to make it to the island. There are only dirt roads on the island because none are paved. The island itself is only about two miles wide and three miles long. The homes on the island are either waterfront or inland. The waterfront homes are very sought after because they often have their own beaches, and some owners even build docks so that they can leave their boats right in front of their home rather than in one of the island's marinas.

Sunset at Cocktail Beach

The "thing to do" on Frye Island is go to the beach, whether it be for skiing, boating, jet-skiing, or just lounging. They are all accessible and clean. I have two favorite beaches on the island. The first is known as Cocktail Beach. It's a small beach that has a mock-lighthouse. Also because of its location, it is where people go to get the best view for sunsets.

Long Beach from right side looking at the left. 

My next favorite beach on Frye Island is known as Long Beach. It is the longest beach on the island comprised of two different sides. The two sides are are separated by an entrance to the Long Beach Marina in the middle. The difference between the two sides is that one side is allowed to be accessed by jet-skis and boats, and the other is a swim-only side.

Frye Island, Maine

Other than beaches, the island is also home to a golf course, a baseball field, several tennis courts, a playground, a pool, and a recreational center. It is also common to see deer, and some summers there have even been moose on the island. Frye Island is definitely one of my favorite places to go and get away to. Even after being to beaches in places like Florida and the Bahamas, there is something that always keeps me wanting to go back to Frye Island.

Italy

For this post, I'm going to talk about Italy. I haven't been to Italy yet, but it is definitely on the list of places I'd like to go someday. I know several people who have traveled to Italy, and each one of them loved it. There are many reasons I'm drawn to Italy; the architecture, the history, the food, the wine, and the romance are just a few.

Trevi Fountain

Let's start with Rome. Rome is the capital of Italy, and it is one of the places I would love to travel to while there. It is an ancient city that, in my opinion, is home to some of the most beautiful buildings and statues in the world. Rome is home to the Spanish Steps, the Sistine Chapel, and more, but there are two places in particular that I would like to visit the most.  The first is the Trevi Fountain. The Trevi Fountain has been around since the 18th century. It is known for attracting tourists from all over the world who come to throw a coin into the water for good luck. It might seem silly to   some, but throwing a coin into the Trevi Fountain   is something I would love to do someday.

The Colosseum

The next place I'd travel to in Rome would be the Colosseum. The Colosseum is an amphitheater that is arguably one of Rome's most renowned attractions. For me, the incredible architecture and rich history that it hold are both reasons that I would visit the Colosseum. 

The Canal Grande

Another place in Italy I'd like to travel to someday is Venice. Here I would, of course, love to go on a gondola ride along some of Venice's famous and beautiful canals. The Canal Grande is perhaps one of the most famous in Venice.  It is know as "the most beautiful street in the city." I think that it would definitely be an amazing and once in a lifetime experience. 

The last stop for me in Italy would be Florence. Florence is known for it's architecture and art. Florence is home to Michelangelo's famous statue of David and so many artistic creations from Botticelli, Raphael, da Vinci, and more. The history and beauty of Florence seems like it would be breathtaking and definitely worth the visit.     

Florence, Italy

Cedarville, Ohio

Over spring break, just a couple of weeks ago, I traveled to Cedarville in Ohio. This isn't my most exotic destination, but I thought that it might be interesting to write about because it's a place I recently traveled to. Now if you're like most people you're probably thinking, "where on earth is Cedarville, Ohio?" Well to answer your question, it's about three and a half hours south-west of Cleveland, and a little less than an hour east of Dayton.

Cedarville, Ohio

Admittedly, Cedarville isn't thought to be home to many tourist attractions, but it's home to Cedarville University which is where my one of my best friends and my boyfriend attend school. I traveled there to spend the week with them. While there, I visited a lot more attractions than I thought I would, and it turned out to be a really nice trip!
Cedarville itself is a quaint, little town. It was home to many coffee shops and family-owned businesses. It is also home to something called the Indian Mound Reserve. This was a park. It had trails that went through the forest, it had streams, and a huge waterfall.
During my trip, I also visited Yellow Springs, Ohio. This town is only about 15 minutes away from Cedarville, and is known for being home to the actor and comedian Dave Chappelle . Yellow Springs was also home to many quaint shops and restaurants, but on a larger scale than Cedarville. My favorite stop in this town was a record shop that was full, wall-to-wall, of records and musical posters. One thing I noticed about Yellow Springs is that every shop I went into, the people were all so hospitable and nice.

Cedar Lake on Cedarville University Campus
Note: Picture not taken by me.

Overall, my trip to Ohio was very enjoyable. It was nice to get away and experience an area that had a very close-knit, hometown feeling.

Budapest

View from my hotel window.

A couple of years ago I had the opportunity to visit Budapest in Hungary with my school. We went to Budapest on our way home from Ukraine and stayed there for two days. I really wish we had more time because it was a beautiful city!

The architecture was amazing, and we were lucky to have perfect weather while we were there. The city at night was especially beautiful.

Wall of Names at Holocaust Museum

While we were there, we did several things. The first was visit the city's Holocaust Museum. I had never previously been to a Holocaust museum. It was sad and a tough experience, but the museum was beautiful and had a fully restored synagogue.

Open Air Market

While in Budapest, we also visited an open air market place. It was huge and had so many interesting things like food, clothes, and matroshka dolls (Russian nesting dolls).

View of Budapest from Danube River

On our last night in Budapest, our entire group attended a dinner cruise that was on the Danube River. This was one of my favorite activities. Again, the weather was perfect. Seeing the sunset on the river was amazing, and we also went by so many breathtaking buildings.

Hero's Square

We finished our last night by walking through the town and visiting a sights called Hero's Square. Hero's Square is home to a statue called the Millennium Memorial. We were able to climb on the statue and stand under the huge horses.

Parliament Building from Danube River

My trip to Budapest was so much fun. I learned a lot and got to see very beautiful sight, buildings, and statues. I can't wait for another opportunity to be able to go back and visit other European countries.

Ukraine

Two years ago, my senior year of high school, I went on a trip to Uzhgorod, Ukraine and Budapest, Hungary with some people from my school. It was my first time ever being overseas. It was a service trip, and while we were there we planned on helping out in orphanages and in some gypsy camps. The Ukraine portion of the trip was where we worked and did our services and the Budapest part of the trip was meant for us to be able to relax and enjoy the vacation.

I’ll talk about my stay in Ukraine in this post and I’ll talk about Budapest in a later post.

Train Station in Hungary

Traveling to Ukraine was the most difficult part of the trip.  We all left from Boston and it took a total of 30 hours to get to our destination.  This was including layovers, plane rides, and waiting for trains.  We flew into Germany for our first connecting flight then took another flight from Germany to Hungary.  Once we were in Hungary we had to wait three hours for our train that would bring us into Ukraine.  It was so hard to sleep on the trip and by the time we got to Uzhgorod in Ukraine we were all exhausted.

Damboki Orphanage

One of the days we were there, we went to an orphanage called the Damboki Orphanage.  It was an orphanage home to kids who most people would not want to adopt because they were considered socially unacceptable.  They all had some kind of mental disorder from anything to Down syndrome to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. While we were there we played soccer and other games with the kids.  We weren’t able to understand the kids because they spoke either Russian or Ukrainian, but that’s where our translators came in handy. Going to the orphanage was really hard and eye-opening. The living conditions were small and dirty, and we could tell that the kids weren’t very clean either.  We also noticed that all of the little girls had really short hair, and later our translators told us that it was to protect them from things like lice that often went around.  The kids loved having us there, and it felt great to be able to make them so happy in their hard living conditions.

In addition to going to the orphanage, we also had some orphans from a different orphanage who followed us around for the week. They were all girls from ages 5 to 12. We played games with them, and even though it was hard to understand them, by the end of the week we were all very close with them. It was hard having to say bye at the end of the week.

Uzhgorod is home to a lot of gypsy camps and villages, and while we were there we visited two.  This was another very eye-opening experience.  They all lived in aluminum huts with tarps, and most of the people didn’t even have shoes.  Most of the children ran around in either their underwear or torn clothing.  It was very hard to see, and my heart really went out for them.  A dance team we were with performed, and then they even performed some things that they prepared for us. The people from the camp loved watching us and also loved performing for us.  It was very hard to have to leave them and go back to our hotel where we had beds and running water.  Visiting the camp definitely made me grateful for what I have, and I try to never take anything for granted.     

My trip to Ukraine was very draining both physically and emotionally, but I’m very thankful I had the opportunity to go.      

Australia

So let me start out by saying that I have not been to Australia, but it is definitely number one on the list of places I'd like to go. My desire to go to Australia started when I was about 10 years old. My grandparents had just gotten back from a trip there, and after hearing all about it from them I knew that it was a place that I wanted to travel to.Whenever there's a travel show on about Australia, I am eager to watch it. It is a country I would love visiting.

I am a huge fan of beaches, and Australia is home to some of the most spectacular beaches in the world. One particular beach in Australia I have seen pictures and footage of is called Whitehaven Beach. This is a beach I'd enjoy visiting if I ever get the chance to go to Australia. I can definitely see myself sitting in the sand with a good book and my IPod there.

Being a fan of snorkeling, another place I'd have to go to in Australia would be the Great Barrier Reef. The Great Barrier Reef is the largest coral reef in the world, and it is home to many different kinds of fish and organisms. It is arguably the best snorkeling and scuba diving in the world. I can't even begin to imagine how amazing it would be to snorkel there and I really hope that someday I can!

Not only is Australia home to beautiful beaches and oceans, it's also home to beautiful mountainous areas too. One specific place on the inland of Australia I'd love to go to is called Uluru. Uluru is a large sandstone rock formation. It's huge and there are many Australian myths and legends that are associated with it. I've heard from several people that Australia has the most beautiful sunsets in the world, and this is definitely the place I'd love to see one.