http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Loora/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Loora en-us Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:01:28 +0000 Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:01:28 +0000 Okay don't worry this one will be more upbeat than the last. Our hostel in Krakow was designed similarly to Cloister although it was touching two other buildings. It had an arch running through the middle of the building and on one side was the reception and the other side had the rooms. It was called the Lemon Hostel and the floors were named things like Anana Pineapple and Kiwi s http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Poland/Lesser-Poland/Krakow/blog-262875.html Last Friday was the beginning of the second of the big trips my school here organizesto Krakow Poland I'll be honest when I first came to Central Europe Poland was not on my list of places to visit. I thought of it as left over from the Soviet era gray cloudy and filled with yet another language I don't understand. But then the Polish exchange students gave a presentation about their c http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Poland/Lesser-Poland/Krakow/blog-262620.html Two points first This should be quite random so prepare yourself. And I'm still recovering from my monthlong coldlike illness. Essentially I'm sick of being sick and no orange juice does not help. Okay those two things being said let me begin.Since I've been here I've been to three real places where I felt like I learned more indepth stuff about Czech life. The first was a shelter http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Czech-Republic/South-Moravian-Region/Brno/blog-260003.html Three weeks ago I talked to two good friends who are also abroad in Europe one in England and one in Spain. We wanted to meet up somewhere but where Berlin Amsterdam Krakow Italy Franceeither flights were expensive one of us had plans to go there or one of us had already been there. Hey guys what about Copenhagen Cool it's kind of in the middle for all of us and although not th http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Denmark/Region-Hovedstaden/Copenhagen/blog-255073.html for 4 hours at least. So I went on a 3day trip with a huge group of international students to Budapest last weekend. Friday we dragged ourselves out of bed at an ungodly hour and headed down the road in a doubledecker bus fit for 90 people but there were 60 of us. We were on the road for about 5 hours and we went through Slovakia and its capital Bratislava. So eventually we made it to t http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Hungary/Central-Hungary/Budapest/blog-252928.html You really don't analyze yourself until you live somewhere where you feel different from everyone else. I experienced this in Africa with the color of my skin and especially my language and I've got it here now with the language again. The main difference is in Africa people automatically started talking to me in English or at least assumed I knew none of the local languages but here peopl http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Czech-Republic/blog-249850.html Firstly there will be no puns on Czech Republic. As much as I love puns the Czechcheck ones are wayoverused.Hello again everyone I realize I've left many of you hanging thinking I stopped blogging in The Gambia because I was eaten by a croc which we did see but I didn't tell you about or something. Actually I just ran out of time to put everything down I wanted to. I assure you t http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Czech-Republic/South-Moravian-Region/Brno/blog-245964.html My title is one of Gambians' favorite sayings. It's true for themthey're very friendly. Wherever I'm walking to it's guaranteed that at least 4 adults say Hahlo or How ah you as I walk past. It's too much at first but now I'm used to it. Some days it gets annoying but it actually is nice to connect with people especially the ones I walk past everyday. On the other hand random guy http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Gambia/Western-Division/Serrekunda/blog-131735.html So I've been in The Gambia for a month now which I think is unbelievable. Where have I gone so farThe first place we went was Bijilo Forest Park which is on the other side of Serrekunda from where we live. It's pretty neat because monkeys live there and don't mind the tourists. The forest is thick there which showed us how this area looked before all of the recent developmentdeforestation. http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Gambia/Western-Division/blog-126611.html Well I have way too much to say in one entry so I'll try to start from the beginning. Basically it took us a really long time to get here and we got very little sleep. When we got to Dakar Senegal it was nighttime. We stepped out of the plane. It was humid and it smelled like smoke. The ground was packed sand. Immediately I knew I was in Africa even though I didn't really believe it. http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Gambia/Western-Division/Serrekunda/blog-126319.html Hey everyoneHere's my first post before I go to Africa kind of as a test run to make sure it's workingSo I'm going to study abroad at the University of the Gambia along with 5 others from my college in its capital Banjul and I have no idea what to expect. The country is about 90 Muslim and as the country is in Africa people will mostly be Black and I'll be in the minority at least two http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Pennsylvania/blog-120734.html