Chods
Gadiel Rachelson Joined: August 15th 2005
Logged in: July 31st 2011
Logged in: July 31st 2011
I have a great love for travel, for photography of serene places and pure cultural moments, and I love good food.
I currently live in San Francisco, work at a private high school as an Admissions Associate, and spend lots of time playing team sports: soccer, baseball, basketball, ultimate frisbee, volleyball, kickball, and tennis.
Travel Blog Posts
Nyhavn
Copenhagen Copenhagen became the next leg of the journey based on a hunch that it would be enjoyable, and it truly was. I've never been to Scandinavia, but I've always heard good things: a great friend of mine had studied in Copenhagen for a few months and enjoyed it so much that he's planning to move back to ascertain a 2 year Graduate Degree. Another small motivation to visit the area was a beautiful picture of Norway that I found in a calendar which I then had put up in my bedroom. So, I decided to make it to Copenhagen, and extremely old city with plenty to see and do. The Nyhavn is the "New Harbor" of Copenhagen, formally a seedy harbor in town for sailers and hookers. Now it's quite the opposite, just beautifully ... read more
Kilkenny Greens
We crammed 6 people and like 12 bags into a Euro-style minivan, an Opel Zafira, and starting driving south from Dublin. My dad Howie had to quickly learn how to drive on the left side of the road and in a stick shift car, no easy task. I may have pooped myself a few times along the way, because a lot of the country roads were tiny. Along the road south, we stopped in Kilkenny (great name) to explore the small-towniness of it and to see the Castle Greens. The next two days were spent exploring Cork in the south of Ireland. I swear, the people down here were some of the nicest people I've ever met. In Cork, we spoke for hours with a string-instrument-maker who's made a guitar on commission for James Taylor, and ... read more
Amazing Night Shot of O'Connell Bridge
Dia Diut! My vacation this year began in Dublin, where I was met by a pretty cool city, with loads of bars, lots of beer, decent food, and mediocre weather. I met my family at the cozy hotel, and went straight out for the city tour. We saw the Spire (a crazy 120m high needle), the beautiful bridges over the River Liffey, and checked out Temple Bar area which is the shitty touristy Irish-pub area of town. Most of the restaurants there had Eastern European girls out front trying to draw people in to eat there... "verrry niice trrraditional Irrrrish rrrestaurant. Please to come in and eats. I liike." Not fer me. We wandered the cobble-stoned streets of Dublin 2 hours (while sightseeing a bit) and found ourselves a hip little restaurant bar where the locals ... read more
Tele-Cabine up to the Berneuse Mountain
Last chance for a true travelblog, as I'm returning to the States soon. So it seems like an entry highlighting my 2 months in Switzerland is in order. It has been amazing to spend time in a quiet, cozy, tight-knit mountain village. It's a place a little separated from the rest of the world, where your main focus is about what is right in front of you, the people, the nature, and you. No politics, no marketing infiltration, no tv, and no pollution, yah. Fresh Air and Sunshine galore. The sports here are awesome, my job involved running rec activities twice daily: ropes course, whitewater rafting, lots of soccer, hockey, ice skating, BMX and mountain bikes, hot damn. It's gonna be hard returning to a hardworking, indoor lifestyle, because the sporting life feels good my friends. ... read more
Babar?
Above the clouds away from the core of the Earth, sits the peak of Mont Blanc. Tallest mountain peak in all of Europe, it sits at 3842 meters above the numberless height of the sea. The entire Leysin American School staff was treated to a day in Chamonix, France (super famous ski resort) and the mountains above it. It was mind boggling to go up there with the new staff I'd just met and sit above the clouds on the peaks of the Swiss/French Alps. I even felt like I was unfairly allowed to see such an amazing sight with my own eyes, without having to work to acheive such natural beauty, but hey, gondolas have paved the way, and so be it.... read more
Swiss Cows
Basel, Switzerland ... A day and a half later, after 20 hours of car, bus, plane, train, and tram, I landed in Switzerland, awaiting fun football matches, cobblestone city centres, and foreign languages. My dear friend Dafnah was kind enough to put me up for the week, in her apartment in Basel. There I slept, cooked, kicked back after long days, and low-keyed it and listened to chill music with her. Fortunately, her English is awesome, so my "Schlecht Deutsch" remained that way. When I got out of the house to see the city and the river, it was great, although the weather was a little drab at first. But the beautiful old-town feel of Basel is warm and welcoming. There are great alleyways and streets with cool shops and stands everywhere. But more than anything, ... read more
That Monumental Lincoln
Washington, DC American capital, chocolate city, marshmallow center, insensitive governance, brick, Embassy central, the grid, too many suits, metro, sweatin' humidity, Natties, Redskins DC. DC. DC.. DC... DC ......Dark City. Dense Center.. Drug Culture. Driving Circles.. Detailed Corruption. Doles & Clintons.. Drunk Collegiates. Doctored Constitution.. Dick Cheney.......... New York City Big Apple, "City that never sleeps", bums, Wall Street Jews, hipsters, subway trash, tall buildings that hurt your neck, hi-style sexuality, $8 beers, taxiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii... read more
A plant in the desert...
What is travelling, and what is not? Just because I don't pack my clothes into a bag and find a new bed each night, does that mean that I am not a traveller? I choose to oppose that framework, and to say that even the static person can still be the traveller, there still are thousands of personally untouched terrain to tread. There still are thousands of unshook hands to shake in this town. OK, maybe I'm wrong. That's why I decided to get OUT of this town when I finished my winter quarter finals last week. 2 maths and 1 stats = suicide. It's a scientific fact!! Goodbye rainy northern california (don't get me wrong, I know she will blossom into a beautiful mistress), hello southern california. I'm not talking hollywood stars, and breast enhancement, ... read more
