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.

Eleuthera

I have been extremely lucky because ever since I was about four years old I have been traveling to the Bahamas. My grandparents actually moved down there about 20 years ago. My grandfather was a pilot for the United States Air Force, and back around 1992 he and his family took a trip to the Bahamas; the specific island they went to was Eleuthera. While they were there, they stumbled across a large plot of land with an abandoned resort on it. My grandparents decided to restore the resort and they opened an on-site restaurant as well; they named it The Cove Eleuthera. Unfortunately, about six years ago my grandparents decided to sell The Cove because they were getting too old to handle all the upkeep it required, but they still have a house on the island where they live for part of the year.

Eleuthera is a beautiful island. It's not a huge tourist island compared to other islands in the Bahamas, so it's home to a lot of Bahamians. There is a lot of historical background on the island as well. It's low-key and just very relaxing.

I have a lot of favorites when it comes to Eleuthera. First, is the food! Some of their native dishes are the best foods I have ever tasted. When my grandparents owned the resort and restaurant, they had all local chefs so it was really authentic Bahamian cuisine. The dish Eleuthera is most well known for is conch, which is the meat that comes out of conch sells. They use it in salads and even fry it into burgers and other dishes.


Another favorite of mine in Eluethera is the water. The body of water that surrounds Eleuthera is unlike any color I've ever seen; it's almost transparent and the color is so vibrant. One of the many cool things about the island is that the dark blue, rough Atlantic Ocean borders one side, and the calm, sea green Caribbean borders the other. There's a bridge towards the center of the island called the Glass Window Bridge where you can stand on it, and on one side see the Atlantic and on the other side see the Caribbean. The contrast is unbelievable, and it's such a cool site. Another perk to the water is that it's home to some of the best snorkeling. I have to admit, when I was little I was always afraid of snorkeling, but as I got older I really developed an appreciation for it.

Well, I can continue rambling on for much longer about Eleuthera, so I'm going to wrap it up there. It's by far one of my favorite places, and I am so incredibly lucky to have had the opportunity to grow up there.

Introduction

Hi Everybody!

My name's Alicia and I'm a Communication Arts major at the University of New Hampshire.

I wanted to start out by letting you all know a little bit about what my blog will be about. Ever since I was little I have enjoyed traveling. I have had the privilege of traveling to some amazing places and in my blog I'll talk about some of my favorites. I would love to be able to say that I'm a well seasoned traveler, and even though I'm on my way to becoming one, I am far from it. There are many more places that I hope to travel to some day, and some of my blog posts will also be about these places.

To sum it all up, my blog will be about the places I have been, and it will also be about places that I hope to travel to some day. I hope that you all will find them as interesting as I do!

"The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page."- St. Augustine