Wednesday 7 November 2007
2007 Thus Far: A Recap - Part 4, Cross-USA Road Trip
7 days driving with Alissa from Cincinnati to San Jose. Plenty of adventures along the way.
Sunday 4 November 2007
2007 Thus Far: A Recap - Part 2, Prague
My second trip with Aish HaTorah this year from late May through mid-June brought me to Israel for a few weeks, with a three day jaunt in Prague on the way. We spent the first day trying to walk off our jet lag as we some of the main historic/tourist sites: The Royal Castle and its cathedral and gardens, the Royal Plaza for the changing of the guard ceremony, the Charles River with its bridge famous for its array of statues of important Christian figures. We passed by, but unfortunately didn't have time to go in, the Museum of Medieval Torture Instruments and well as the Sex Machines Museum. Later in the day, we stopped in Old Town Square, with Prague's famous astronomical clock. After dinner at the local Chabad house, we retreated for the night.
On the second day, we took a trip about an hour outside of Prague to Terezin (German: Terezinstadt). Terezin was built in the 19th century as a military fortress during the Austro-Prussian wars, but later grew into a garrison-town and was later used as a political prison, where Archduke Ferdinand's assassin was held. When the Germans took Czechoslovakia in WWII, it was used a Nazi barracks, and later as a labor and concentration camp for Jews in the region. We drove back into Prague and made an unpleasant discovery that the bus driver who had been driving us around for the past two days was in fact, a supporter of Hitler. We had a free evening, and more energy that the previous night, so suffice it to say, we all returned to the hotel at some early hour of the morning thoroughly debauched.
On our third and last day in Prague, our tour guide, Eva, as well as Rabbi Lieber, who were just with us for the Prague portion of the trip, showed us around the old Jewish quarter of Prague, with history, buildings and cemeteries dating back to the 14th century. We saw the grave of the Maharal and heard the story of the Golem and saw his resting place, in the attic above one of Prague's oldest synagogue. After that, we packed up and shipped off for Jerusalem.
On the second day, we took a trip about an hour outside of Prague to Terezin (German: Terezinstadt). Terezin was built in the 19th century as a military fortress during the Austro-Prussian wars, but later grew into a garrison-town and was later used as a political prison, where Archduke Ferdinand's assassin was held. When the Germans took Czechoslovakia in WWII, it was used a Nazi barracks, and later as a labor and concentration camp for Jews in the region. We drove back into Prague and made an unpleasant discovery that the bus driver who had been driving us around for the past two days was in fact, a supporter of Hitler. We had a free evening, and more energy that the previous night, so suffice it to say, we all returned to the hotel at some early hour of the morning thoroughly debauched.
On our third and last day in Prague, our tour guide, Eva, as well as Rabbi Lieber, who were just with us for the Prague portion of the trip, showed us around the old Jewish quarter of Prague, with history, buildings and cemeteries dating back to the 14th century. We saw the grave of the Maharal and heard the story of the Golem and saw his resting place, in the attic above one of Prague's oldest synagogue. After that, we packed up and shipped off for Jerusalem.
Thursday 25 October 2007
2007 Thus Far: A Recap - Part 1, Chile
This trip was the beginning of a whole chain of adventure for me this year. I saw some flyers around campus late last year advertising for a "dirt cheap" trip to Chile, but I didn't think too much of it until a friend of mine recommended the trip to me. "Wait, two weeks in Chile for a few hundred bucks? Hell yeah, I'm there!" I met Tzvi, the rabbi in charge of the local Aish chapter who was organizing the trip and he gave me a flavor of what would be involved. A few hours of discussion a day on interesting-sounding topics, travel, Chilean beer, waterfalls, hiking and mountains, all for cheap. He and I became fast friends on the trip.
So, January rolled around and a bus-load of us left Boston for South America.
12 or so hours later, the sun came up and I got my first glimpse at the Andes...
We arrived in Santiago to find that the room myself and my current roommate were allocated was attached directly to the main dining hall of the hostel we were staying in, making walking to the shower in a towel during lunchtime only a bit awkward.
We spent the first few days in the city doing standard tourist things, took a driving tour of some parts of the city, which is much larger than I thought, with a population of 3 million, if memory serves. We went to a number of bars, enjoying our legal drinking privileges, found that there is an obscene number of stray dogs in Santiago. We took a gondola ride up a small ridge of mountains at the edge of the city and saw all the new architecture as the city is under enormous amounts of construction.
We spent about a week and a half in Santaigo. Before the Sabbath, we left the hostel and temporarily moved into a Jewish day school that was vacant for summer break. Being that it was in the Jewish neighborhood, we were able to walk to the local synagogue for services, meals and discussions during Shabbos. The big man on our trip was Ernesto Vascherstein (he was QUITE big!). He was our kosher caterer who travelled with us each day when we left the city to make sure we kept the meat on our bones. When all of the group would have chicken with potatoes and corn, I, as the vegetarian, had the delight of feasting on potatoes and corn with potatoes and corn. Alas, I survived without problem in the end.
We took a number of day trips outside the city while we were there. A few times we went on short hikes in the foot hills outside the city, as the region is quite beautiful.
We also took a day trip to the coast to one of Chile's main port cities, Valparaiso. We saw a bit of the city and took a boat trip in a loop around the harbor and our Spanish-speaking guide gave us a history of Chile, the city, and the port itself.
All of the firefighting units in Chile's capital are completely volunteer-based. We paid an interesting visit to Santiago's only all-Jewish fire fighting squad. This was immediately followed by a trip to an open field where we got to act like children running through sprinklers, except we were college students playing with over-powered fire hoses, with enough umph to knock a person to his or her knees at close range.
On our last day in Santiago, before we headed south, the three rabbis who were helping to run the trip, Tzvi, Chananel, and Shimon set up an afternoon event in one of the local parks. For anyone my age who had ever gone away to a Jewish summer camp appreciated full well the nostalgia when they revealed we were in the midst of a color war! It was full of classic, silly games, such as a three legged relay, soccer, skits, and to cap it all off, flip-cup (an American drinking game; we never did THAT one in camp!).
The following day, we set off on a 800 km overnight bus ride south to the beautiful town of Pucon. Pucon is far inland, in the foothills of the Andes, with the whole town over shadowed by snow-capped peaks in the distance. By day, Pucon provided most of the adrenaline for our two weeks in Chile.
When we first arrived, exhausted from not sleeping well on a never-ending bus ride, our loving rabbis thought it would be best, instead of having a shower to wake us up, to use icy river water. We dropped our bags and piled into a number of vans to take a thrilling and scenic white water rafting excursion in a nearby river. The next day, we took a short hike to a tranquil waterfall and pool in the middle of what seemed like paradise. We also went that afternoon to Lake Caburga, a massive lake surrounded on all sides by lush mountains which, quite literally, bloom right out of the shores of the lake.
Pucon day three saw us on the longest hike of our trip, over cow paths and grazing fields on a mountainside, into the valley between two mountains to the base of a 100 m waterfall. I couldn't get enough of it, but some of the more 'urbanized' members of our travel group were less than thrilled. On the return trip I found myself, at the head of the pack, face to face with a fat bull in the path that looked like it had no intentions of moving. Fortunately, it eventually got out of my way after a few minutes. That night was equally exciting. We had arranged for our bus driver to stay on extra late that night to take those who wanted to a set of natural hot springs in the area. We stayed out until about 2 a.m. soaking in the large rock pools. Few times in my life had I seen more stars.
The fourth day in Pucon we returned to the river in which we had rafted down few days before, this time, to zip over it, instead of splash in it. Those who were up for it (I was first in line) got the opportunity to do a full zip-line course over the river and through the trees on the opposite side. The full course consisted of about a dozen zips, at least 2 of which must have been easily over 100 m in length. The first and last zip sent us right over the churning water below. On my way back over the river, I decided to try my luck and grabbed hold of the rope, leaned back, saw the water upside down below me and was able to touch my toes above the zip cable. It was worth every frightful second.
The last day in Pucon was by far the most adventurous of the entire trip. For those of us that were willing to pay, and had the inclination to, chartered any one of the many adventure companies in the town to take us to the top of Villarica. Villarica is an active volcano in the Andes, about an hour's drive from the center of town. They gave us all the gear we needed, as it was hot and sunny in town, but the mountain was covered in snow and freezing at the top. Armed with an ice ax and hiking pole, our group of 12 or so climbed the volcano's 5000 vertical feet in just under 8 hours. The view from the top was incredible. The peak consisted of an enormous crater with sulfur gas pouring out, powerful winds, and a narrow ridge around the edge that we took a partial lap around. The winds were so strong, I wasn't sure if I was going to get blown into the pit of lava to one side, or off the edge of the world to the other. I wish they had warned us previously to bring something to cover our nose and mouth with, as inhaling the gas whenever it blew your way reduced someone to choking out on their knees. After we came off the peak, we still had one item left in our gear packs. We strapped a butterfly-shaped piece of canvas to our leg's and backside's, wandered over to a large snow bowl, and sat down and sledded on our butts all the way down the mountain. An incredible time I won't soon forget.
After all was said and done in that incredible little area, we spent another night on the bus and rode north, back to Santiago. We spent our final Shabbos in Chile, went to Tzvi's friend's traditional wedding, did some closing ceremonies for our journey and pushed onward to make our way back home.
So, January rolled around and a bus-load of us left Boston for South America.
12 or so hours later, the sun came up and I got my first glimpse at the Andes...
We arrived in Santiago to find that the room myself and my current roommate were allocated was attached directly to the main dining hall of the hostel we were staying in, making walking to the shower in a towel during lunchtime only a bit awkward.
We spent the first few days in the city doing standard tourist things, took a driving tour of some parts of the city, which is much larger than I thought, with a population of 3 million, if memory serves. We went to a number of bars, enjoying our legal drinking privileges, found that there is an obscene number of stray dogs in Santiago. We took a gondola ride up a small ridge of mountains at the edge of the city and saw all the new architecture as the city is under enormous amounts of construction.
We spent about a week and a half in Santaigo. Before the Sabbath, we left the hostel and temporarily moved into a Jewish day school that was vacant for summer break. Being that it was in the Jewish neighborhood, we were able to walk to the local synagogue for services, meals and discussions during Shabbos. The big man on our trip was Ernesto Vascherstein (he was QUITE big!). He was our kosher caterer who travelled with us each day when we left the city to make sure we kept the meat on our bones. When all of the group would have chicken with potatoes and corn, I, as the vegetarian, had the delight of feasting on potatoes and corn with potatoes and corn. Alas, I survived without problem in the end.
We took a number of day trips outside the city while we were there. A few times we went on short hikes in the foot hills outside the city, as the region is quite beautiful.
We also took a day trip to the coast to one of Chile's main port cities, Valparaiso. We saw a bit of the city and took a boat trip in a loop around the harbor and our Spanish-speaking guide gave us a history of Chile, the city, and the port itself.
All of the firefighting units in Chile's capital are completely volunteer-based. We paid an interesting visit to Santiago's only all-Jewish fire fighting squad. This was immediately followed by a trip to an open field where we got to act like children running through sprinklers, except we were college students playing with over-powered fire hoses, with enough umph to knock a person to his or her knees at close range.
On our last day in Santiago, before we headed south, the three rabbis who were helping to run the trip, Tzvi, Chananel, and Shimon set up an afternoon event in one of the local parks. For anyone my age who had ever gone away to a Jewish summer camp appreciated full well the nostalgia when they revealed we were in the midst of a color war! It was full of classic, silly games, such as a three legged relay, soccer, skits, and to cap it all off, flip-cup (an American drinking game; we never did THAT one in camp!).
The following day, we set off on a 800 km overnight bus ride south to the beautiful town of Pucon. Pucon is far inland, in the foothills of the Andes, with the whole town over shadowed by snow-capped peaks in the distance. By day, Pucon provided most of the adrenaline for our two weeks in Chile.
When we first arrived, exhausted from not sleeping well on a never-ending bus ride, our loving rabbis thought it would be best, instead of having a shower to wake us up, to use icy river water. We dropped our bags and piled into a number of vans to take a thrilling and scenic white water rafting excursion in a nearby river. The next day, we took a short hike to a tranquil waterfall and pool in the middle of what seemed like paradise. We also went that afternoon to Lake Caburga, a massive lake surrounded on all sides by lush mountains which, quite literally, bloom right out of the shores of the lake.
Pucon day three saw us on the longest hike of our trip, over cow paths and grazing fields on a mountainside, into the valley between two mountains to the base of a 100 m waterfall. I couldn't get enough of it, but some of the more 'urbanized' members of our travel group were less than thrilled. On the return trip I found myself, at the head of the pack, face to face with a fat bull in the path that looked like it had no intentions of moving. Fortunately, it eventually got out of my way after a few minutes. That night was equally exciting. We had arranged for our bus driver to stay on extra late that night to take those who wanted to a set of natural hot springs in the area. We stayed out until about 2 a.m. soaking in the large rock pools. Few times in my life had I seen more stars.
The fourth day in Pucon we returned to the river in which we had rafted down few days before, this time, to zip over it, instead of splash in it. Those who were up for it (I was first in line) got the opportunity to do a full zip-line course over the river and through the trees on the opposite side. The full course consisted of about a dozen zips, at least 2 of which must have been easily over 100 m in length. The first and last zip sent us right over the churning water below. On my way back over the river, I decided to try my luck and grabbed hold of the rope, leaned back, saw the water upside down below me and was able to touch my toes above the zip cable. It was worth every frightful second.
The last day in Pucon was by far the most adventurous of the entire trip. For those of us that were willing to pay, and had the inclination to, chartered any one of the many adventure companies in the town to take us to the top of Villarica. Villarica is an active volcano in the Andes, about an hour's drive from the center of town. They gave us all the gear we needed, as it was hot and sunny in town, but the mountain was covered in snow and freezing at the top. Armed with an ice ax and hiking pole, our group of 12 or so climbed the volcano's 5000 vertical feet in just under 8 hours. The view from the top was incredible. The peak consisted of an enormous crater with sulfur gas pouring out, powerful winds, and a narrow ridge around the edge that we took a partial lap around. The winds were so strong, I wasn't sure if I was going to get blown into the pit of lava to one side, or off the edge of the world to the other. I wish they had warned us previously to bring something to cover our nose and mouth with, as inhaling the gas whenever it blew your way reduced someone to choking out on their knees. After we came off the peak, we still had one item left in our gear packs. We strapped a butterfly-shaped piece of canvas to our leg's and backside's, wandered over to a large snow bowl, and sat down and sledded on our butts all the way down the mountain. An incredible time I won't soon forget.
After all was said and done in that incredible little area, we spent another night on the bus and rode north, back to Santiago. We spent our final Shabbos in Chile, went to Tzvi's friend's traditional wedding, did some closing ceremonies for our journey and pushed onward to make our way back home.
Welcome to my life
Well, here I am. I don't know what this blog will become, public or private, stories of my travel adventures or musings of my day-to-day existence I don't yet know. This is what I do know: I am currently a 20 year old American guy living in London. I am a third-year mechanical engineering student at Tufts University outside of Boston spending the year abroad studying at University College London. I am peaceful, rational, an environmentalist, a vegetarian, Jewish, an explorer, an adventurer, and left-handed. I have a growing urge to sell everything I own and spend years wandering the planet to grow, transform, and learn from the different people and places I encounter. I know this feeling is stemmed largely from the fact that since the very beginning of 2007 I have traveled to more places on this earth than I ever had previously in my life, and could not be more grateful for the insight I have started to gain from my travels. I've never before kept a regular journal or diary, and only time will tell what this one becomes... The short-short-short super abridged version of my 2007 thus far goes like this:
January 1-14: Chile. Travelled with Aish HaTorah to experience the small-but-present Jewish community in the capital, Santiago. Spent time exploring the city, meeting locals and working on my Spanish. Also, spent about 5 days in Pucon, a small but vibrant resort town about 500 miles (800 km) south of Santiago, in the Andes.
January-May: Boston, USA. I spent a few months doing things considered "normal". Also known as the second half of my sophomore year of university.
May 14 - June 3 : Czech Republic, Israel. Aish provided me with a second incredible opportunity to travel and learn abroad. We spent 3 days in Prague, toured the old Jewish quarter of the city and learned of the history there, but also checked out the city's (in)famous nightlife. From there, we flew to Jerusalem. We spent about 2 weeks in the city, walking each day to the Old City and spending a few hours in different classes at the Aish world center Yeshiva. The last few days in the country were spent up north in the Golan Heights, near Syria, hiking and adventuring.
June-August: Boston, USA. More semi-normalcy. I rented an apartment from a friend of mine near Tufts who was spending the summer hiking the Appalachian Trail. I spent a few months working for one of my professors designing a wind tunnel for the mechanical engineering department, while trying to save up a bit of money for my upcoming trip to London.
July 6 - 15: USA. One of my two sisters was living temporarily in Cincinnati and had a new job to start in a few weeks in San Jose. I flew out to Ohio, helped her pack her life into her car, and we took off and drove to the other side of the continent, having plenty of good times along the way before flying back to Boston. We passed through: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, California.
August 23 - 28: Rangley Lakes Region, Maine, USA. I spent five days leading a canoing trip in northern Maine with my fearless co-leader, Aliza as an orientation program for this year's incoming freshman. Incredible adventure and learning experience for myself and my freshmen. Windy thunder storms in the middle of a lake in aluminum canoes are scary and dangerous. Lunar eclipses so bright you can read by the moonlight on a rocky beach on a tiny island make it all worth it, though.
September 1 - 14: Home, USA. I spent time relaxing at home with my parents, seeing old friends and family, preparing myself to head out again, in a big way.
Sept 15 - present (October 25, 2007): Moved to London for 9 months. I've been taking my engineering classes for a few weeks now, and things are starting to become routine as I adjust to life here. I'm meeting plenty of locals and foreigners alike. Things are wonderful.
Tomorrow, October 26. I am taking my first trip far outside London. I am spending the weekend in Dublin, Ireland with my friend Scotty and two of his friends he knows from back in America.
I'm planning on making a longer entry on each of the above-mentioned travels before the details leave my memory. That's it so far; welcome to my life.
- Dan
January 1-14: Chile. Travelled with Aish HaTorah to experience the small-but-present Jewish community in the capital, Santiago. Spent time exploring the city, meeting locals and working on my Spanish. Also, spent about 5 days in Pucon, a small but vibrant resort town about 500 miles (800 km) south of Santiago, in the Andes.
January-May: Boston, USA. I spent a few months doing things considered "normal". Also known as the second half of my sophomore year of university.
May 14 - June 3 : Czech Republic, Israel. Aish provided me with a second incredible opportunity to travel and learn abroad. We spent 3 days in Prague, toured the old Jewish quarter of the city and learned of the history there, but also checked out the city's (in)famous nightlife. From there, we flew to Jerusalem. We spent about 2 weeks in the city, walking each day to the Old City and spending a few hours in different classes at the Aish world center Yeshiva. The last few days in the country were spent up north in the Golan Heights, near Syria, hiking and adventuring.
June-August: Boston, USA. More semi-normalcy. I rented an apartment from a friend of mine near Tufts who was spending the summer hiking the Appalachian Trail. I spent a few months working for one of my professors designing a wind tunnel for the mechanical engineering department, while trying to save up a bit of money for my upcoming trip to London.
July 6 - 15: USA. One of my two sisters was living temporarily in Cincinnati and had a new job to start in a few weeks in San Jose. I flew out to Ohio, helped her pack her life into her car, and we took off and drove to the other side of the continent, having plenty of good times along the way before flying back to Boston. We passed through: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, California.
August 23 - 28: Rangley Lakes Region, Maine, USA. I spent five days leading a canoing trip in northern Maine with my fearless co-leader, Aliza as an orientation program for this year's incoming freshman. Incredible adventure and learning experience for myself and my freshmen. Windy thunder storms in the middle of a lake in aluminum canoes are scary and dangerous. Lunar eclipses so bright you can read by the moonlight on a rocky beach on a tiny island make it all worth it, though.
September 1 - 14: Home, USA. I spent time relaxing at home with my parents, seeing old friends and family, preparing myself to head out again, in a big way.
Sept 15 - present (October 25, 2007): Moved to London for 9 months. I've been taking my engineering classes for a few weeks now, and things are starting to become routine as I adjust to life here. I'm meeting plenty of locals and foreigners alike. Things are wonderful.
Tomorrow, October 26. I am taking my first trip far outside London. I am spending the weekend in Dublin, Ireland with my friend Scotty and two of his friends he knows from back in America.
I'm planning on making a longer entry on each of the above-mentioned travels before the details leave my memory. That's it so far; welcome to my life.
- Dan
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