Spain07
Ryan Bader Joined: January 15th 2007
Logged in: December 22nd 2011
Logged in: December 22nd 2011
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Travel Blog Posts
Forbidden City
A weekend trip to Beijing from the ever so tiny city of Dalian (only 6 million or so). We only had a few days, so we took full advantage of the night train sleeper both ways just after class on the way and just before class on the way back. The night train isn't bad, left Dalian at 850pm and arrived in Beijing around 7am. The train is like royalty compared to the fantastically dirty and smelly trans siberian third class, so we opted for the soft sleeper. A little pricey, but worth especially because I wasn't feeling well in the stomach area for a while. We arrived that morning and grabbed a cab to Leo Courtyard Hostel. Very nice, great location, and the staff turned out to be great as well. The cab driver dropped ... read more
The Unknown Soldier
I returned to Warsaw from a trip to the Baltic's and found that the Polish President Lech Kaczynski has passed away in a tragic play crash. Poland has been in mourning for sometime, for not only the president, but the 95 other important people on the plane. Military, bank, representatives from many regions, living relations of the Massacre at Katyn, among many others passed away. Weather or not his party or believes were appreciated or of interest to the individual, Poland as a whole as been extremely united over this unfortunate event. Below you will find a few articles that I found to be of interest. http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/04/poland_in_mourning.html http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/04/10/poland.president.plane.crash/index.html?hpt=T1 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/13/opinion/13iht-edcohen.html Photos by: Lukasz Garbera and Jennifer Kessler... read more
Auschwitz II
I could have written some of this myself, however the official Holocaust website can say it better. "The Auschwitz concentration camp complex was the largest of its kind established by the Nazi regime. It included three main camps, all of which deployed incarcerated prisoners at forced labor. One of them also functioned for an extended period as a killing center. The camps were located approximately 37 miles west of Krakow, near the prewar German-Polish border in Upper Silesia, an area that Nazi Germany annexed in 1939 after invading and conquering Poland. The SS authorities established three main camps near the Polish city of Oswiecim: Auschwitz I in May 1940; Auschwitz II (also called Auschwitz-Birkenau) in early 1942; and Auschwitz III (also called Auschwitz-Monowitz) in October 1942. The Auschwitz concentration camp complex was subordinate to the Inspectorate ... read more
Jewish Ghetto
Second step of the MBA is in Warsaw, Poland. We found a place directly in the center of the old town and the downtown, train station area. 111a Marszałkowska or Marshal Street. Great location near to metro Świętokrzyska, one stop or 10 minute walk to Centrum. Our time in Warsaw was destroyed by a very hectic schedule of nine classes very randomly placed all over the place. We would have a 8am to 8pm day then the following day 8am - 10am and 4pm - 8pm... it was annoying and took up much of our time. A couple weeks before we left, I had the realization that I didn't really know anything about where to go out. We had some visitors and almost didn't know where to take them. Warsaw is a cool city, not much ... read more
Spice Market
• 12-21-09 Olympus to Istanbul The next day we send goodbye to our Bayrams tree house friends and started the way back to Antalya for our flight to Istanbul. We stayed at Bauhaus, so we needed to take the bus from the airport to Taksim and then a taxi to the hostel. We were instantly greeted very well and were able to tell this hostel was a good one. Torrick, Tony, and Volcano were all interesting and helpful people. We were recommended some places to eat, we chose one that was close and had a three-course meal and drinks for about $20 a piece. It was kind of nice to splurge on a huge great meal. The night wasn’t very eventful, but we did take a walk to Mosque’s and on the way back the same ... read more
YaY for Turkey!
• 12-17-09 Arrival in Antalya Ok, first big trip in a while. Just over two weeks, one in Turkey and then nine days in Egypt. We took the ride from the pension from the airport and basically went to sleep. Sabah Pension was an absolute great experience and I highly recommend it. They had home cooked meals for good prices, the family that runs it was very nice, the rooms were good for the price, and the watchdog was a little rough looking, but also nice. We arrived in Antalya late so we didn’t get to really do anything other then take a quick walk to the water. The old town seemed very safe, there were police on scooters just riding around. The next morning we woke up pretty early, so we can go to Termessos. ... read more
Jewish Memorial
Another weekend trip! This time we went with Berlin in honor of the 20th year of the fall of the wall discount. We stayed near Alexander platz in the Wombats hostel. Second experience with them (Vienna previously) and second great experience with them, highly recommend. First things first, food! There is an Italian place just down the street that had great pizza and was covered with old punk bands, punk Italian guys, and once again delicious pizza. The sun was gone by this time, so we basically focused on getting a beverage at the bar at the hostel (first drink free). Everyone knows the purpose of that free drink is to get you to pay for a couple more, so we played a little asshole and pregamed for a bit. We left the hostel in search ... read more
Heineken
Second time in Amsterdam! Not really one to go and smoke the green or eat the magic mushrooms, nevertheless it was a cheap ticket and everybody else was going. I left the hostel reservations up to someone else and we ended up being far away, but whatever a weekend is plenty for me. We basically did the touristy things. Bikes were rented, Heineken was brewed, red lights were viewed, and of course the local delicacies were tasted… food that is. The only bummer of the trip was when I lost a contact and then a bird dropped a little surprise on my head. Overall cool trip, but I would go with the last time there. ... read more
Dom
The start of another Europe trip was on October 1st 2009, for my first semester of my MBA in Germany (Poland, China, USA for the other semesters). We all know about the fun flights that take too long, however I feel they get shorter when the time actually doesn’t get any shorter. This just makes me think that my plan for the Tran Siberian railway is going to be the longest train ride ever and give a new respect for the airplane. Oh well plans, trains, and automobiles. My arrival in Cologne was fine; I had the plan of meeting up with a couple of my friends that are already in Germany, however they weren’t there. So, I had to carry my stuff to an internet shop and get a taxi to Guy’s place. I had ... read more
Savannah
I took a little trip up to Savannah GA for a good old St. Patty's day celebration. I will go ahead and say this was a beer/ liquor/ wallet damaging weekend that was a good time. I guess the only really bad thing about this trip was the temperature, it was cold the entire time. I was barely prepared with green long sleeved clothes, so i had to settle for wearing green long socks, suspenders, and whatever other item I picked up along the way. We arrived at a the nice hotel in old town, with one bed... we had 4 people per room. We got some good cuddling in over this weekend. I quickly put down a half bottle of Jameson and Meredith gave me my most valuable item of the weekend, a shot ... read more
Maroon 
