The world and state maps were going to be together in one entry, but that turned into the Longest Blog Entry Ever, so I’ve divided it up into 2 separate entries. First the Visited Countries.
create your own visited countries map
America – Well this is a no brainer. I’ll go into more detail in the states entry.
I went on my first international trip on a choral tour after my freshman year of high school. Incidentally, the choral trip was also the reason I started working at Taco Bell at the tender age of 14. My parents made me pay for half of the trip myself. At Taco Bell wages (minimum wage at the time was $3.35), this took a while. While I think traveling and exposure to other cultures is a good thing at any age, I will admit a trip like this might be a little wasted on the young. What do I really remember?
• Netherlands – I remember going to a diamond. . . is factory the right word? It wasn’t a regular jewelry shop, but a major appraisal and cutting center. Very sparkly stones. We also saw, but did not tour, Anne Frank’s house. And I bought my own pair of highly decorated wooden shoes. They were the smallest size I could get because, the larger the shoe, the more it cost. Instead of a hotel, we stayed with host families in the Netherlands for a day or two. We brought our offerings of crappy American pop culture tchotchkes. Unfortunately, I was a little rumbly in my tummy when we arrived, so one of the first impressions my host family got of me was when I stepped out of their bathroom. They were all standing in the hallway waiting for me, and the look on their faces when they caught wind of the situation was terribly embarrassing. Remember, I was 14. Bodily functions of any kind were mortifying.
• Germany – We visited mad king Ludwig II’s Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria. No pictures allowed – bummer. I also remember getting fresh fruit at an outdoor market and waiting around to see the cuckoo clock tower cuckoo. There was a reception after one of our singing gigs at a church. I remember trying desperately to like the beer I was given, because I was 14 and being given beer. At church. There was a carnival one night in one of the towns we stayed at. I remember going on one of those rides where you sit in a little car and you whip around frantically, hurtling toward a wall, then stopping short, and whirling away in the opposite direction. But the walls on this ride had scantily clad women painted on them. Nothing like being tossed around in a sea of ginormous nipples at such a tender age. We visited Dachau on this trip. While most of the buildings were destroyed down to their foundations, I remember the museum’s solemn exhibits. While there, we went in the Catholic Mortal Agony of Christ chapel and, with no audience, we sang “All My Trials” and “Battle Hymn of the Republic”, me starting to cry about halfway through. I distinctly remember being uncomfortable when the decision was made to sing “America, the Beautiful” last. I didn’t want to do it. It somehow didn’t seem right in this sacred place to end what were effectively our prayers with a patriotic number. It would have been different if it were a cemetery for American war dead, but it was not.
• Austria – We only stayed in Austria a day or two. We stayed at a quaint little hotel in the country with cows on the hills, the clang of cow bells on the wind (”Guess what! I got a fever, and the only prescription… is more cowbell!”). It was like the hills were alive. . . with the sound of music.
• Switzerland – Up to the top-ish of the Matterhorn we went. You can’t actually go to the tip-top, but you can get pretty high up there. Cold! I bought a music box while in town.
• Italy – Spent a day in Venice. It was really hot, so I wore a sundress. I didn’t know I couldn’t go into St. Mark’s cathedral with bare shoulders. By the time I bought a scarf from a vendor on the street, the rest of my group had started the tour and I was left behind. I remember being distinctly disappointed by the pizza I ate in Italy.
Canada – In high school, I went a week-long canoe trip to Quetico Park in Ontario. Beautiful country and a great time, but I had trouble carrying the dang canoe. It wasn’t really the weight that was the problem; I was able to haul a backpack of similar weight just fine. But I could not balance the canoe over my head. Every time I tried to carry it, it would tip forward or back to the ground. My most vivid memory was of the bear coming to our camp our last morning in the wild. We were very fortunate that it happened on the last day, because s/he ate all the rest of our food. I was able to bring home one of the heavy plastic containers that had had sugar in it. It was just torn apart, and still wet with bear drool when I showed it to my parents.
UK – Junior year of college, I went to England for 3 weeks on a theatre trip during January term. J-term was great all around, but the travel trip was best. We saw about 14 plays during the trip and had to write a report on each, and it was a full credit class. We visited the site of the new Globe Theatre, still under construction at the time, and Shakespeare’s reconstructed cottage in Stratford-upon-Avon. I remember thinking about the history of England. We were at some old palace or building and I was reading a placard about something that had happened in 1400-something, and I started reciting “In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue”. At that moment, it really hit me that here was a country with History with a capital “H”. Three non-theatre memories: Near the end of the trip I went out clubbing with the rest of the group to the Equinox. It was a lot of fun for a while, but I was a bit put off by the smelly Italian guy who thought it was very sexy to wear a leather jacket with no shirt to a hot, sweaty club and grind against unwilling ladies. I got into a heated argument with some crack-pot at Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park, just as you are supposed to do. While in England, I also bought a Cuban cigar and smoked it one evening down in the hotel bar. It was so strong I got a buzz, but back up in my room, I got sick. Ah, the robust flavor!
Ah, the honeymoon! Obviously, this trip was relatively recent and I remember a lot so I’ll just hit the highlights.
• Australia – Sydney was nice, but our travel agent put us in the CBD (Central Business District) which shut down at 5:00 pm. Would have been much better staying in Darling Harbour or the Rocks. Went to a really weird show at the Sydney Opera House called Runners Up, by Legs On The Wall, about the Australian obsession with competition. It was that (cheap and in the studio theatre) or the $300 tickets to see an opera about the Dingoes Ate My Baby incident. I was kind of intrigued by the opera’s concept, but didn’t want to shell out so much cash, especially in the first 2 days of our trip. Went up to Queensland to see the Australia Zoo. Didn’t see the Croc Hunter, but we did find his house, we think. I loved the round-a-bouts; Steve, not so much. The highlight of the trip was our stay at Silky Oaks Lodge in Cairns. This was the one part of our trip where we really splurged on the accommodations. It was very expensive, but oh so worth it. If we ever make it back to Australia, I will forgo the rest of the excursions in order to afford another stay at Silky Oaks. Took a hike in the Daintree Rainforest, a twilight river “cruise” in a little motor boat in a crocodile-filled area, and snorkeled on the Great Barrier Reef. I even threw caution to the wind (I’m not a strong swimmer) and paid the extra $20 to go out of the main tour area and snorkel with a marine biologist and about 10 other people. Finally saw a platypus our last day there. We flew from Cairns back to Sydney early that morning and had an 8 hour layover before our flight to New Zealand, so we hopped on the train and went to the aquarium.
• New Zealand – Flew from Sydney to Wellington on the southern tip of the North Island. Had a strange encounter with an airport employee about my buckwheat back pillow when we got there. She was afraid I was going to go all Johnny Appleseed and spread buckwheat seeds through the country. When we reenact this event now, Steve gives her a German accent as she tries to confiscate my “veat bag”. Went to Te Papa (national museum of New Zealand). Lots of interactive exhibits and cool Maori artifacts. Drove up to Rotorua through Napier (skip Napier if you’re not really into art deco architecture). Loved the geo-thermal sites in Rotorua and went to a Maori version of a luau. Up to Auckland for the end of the trip. If you ever go there, visit the War Memorial Museum. The exhibits take you through each of the wars New Zealanders have participated in. Very cool immersive exhibits – in the World War I area, you are walking through trenches. There are oral histories incorporated throughout. After the exhibits, you step out into an atrium where the names of all the New Zealand war dead are engraved on the walls. It was extremely moving.
Next up: The States!