pecheur
Matthew Phelps Joined: January 16th 2006
Logged in: May 4th 2006
Logged in: May 4th 2006
This summer I will be going to volunteer in Ghana for 2 months and then take 2 or 3 weeks to travel around the surrounding countries for a while. After that I'll finish up my last year at Purdue then hit the road again!
travels:
Travel Blog Posts
Communist Captial
Tirana June 11th Tirana is not my favorite city in terms of things to do and places to see for the quick traveler . That being said, it reminds me much of my 'hometown' of Cairo Egypt, with the pseudo-third world feel. This city is not one of outstanding beauty and great historical monuments, although there is much history to the region. We stayed at a little hostel/hotel near the center of the city, and it was by far one of the worst places we've stayed at so far, as well as one of the most expensive at 20€/person per night. For that we got two really, really lumpy uncomfortable beds and a shower situated directly over the toilet (which leaked the dirty bowl water from the base!) making it quite hard to shower. But I ... read more
The welcome sign to Albania
Albania at last! June 10 *Sorry i dont have more photos, i'm kicking myself that i didnt take more, but i just wanst feeling very well (aka very hung-over!) I love this country!! For some reason I've always wanted to come to this place, its one of those places that you hear quite a bit, either in the news or from other people, yet you never hear it as an actual place to go. I also hear it in the context of its people, ethnic Albanians. I guess this probably has much to do with the problems in Kosovo and all. But to me, the country, the geographical place of Albania was a complete mystery. And so it seems it was a mystery to the outside world as well for a long time, alienated by both ... read more
Monestary
This part was written by my traveling buddy Claire, i wish she wrote more cause shes does a much better job then me! June 8th; Sofia-Skopje-Ohrid I am dosing off as the dreary weather in Sofia welcomes Matt and I to the Balkans. We start our trip off in Sofia - everything is great so far - we have our tickets to Skopje in advance and a taxi is waiting for us downstairs. 15 minutes later I realize that we are actually driving towards the airport not the bus station. We have 15 minutes until the bus leaves by the time we finally arrive to the bus station and I am nearing a point of unbearable exhaustion because of the “horse” pill from Turkey that Matt gave me for my cold. It’s hitting strong. We make ... read more
the lake
June 9th - Orhid Today was an elusive search for sunshine. This town and the surroundings are beautiful, but I just love sun. I thought that by June it would be well unto summer weather, but I guess I should have done a bit more research as it was chilly an rainy almost the whole time there. We didn’t have any definite plans, but just wondered throughout the town checking out all the nooks and crannies. After a disappointing lunch in the newer part of town we headed down to the lake front to walk along over the monasteries on the northern-western(maybe?) point. We had some excitement when the sun popped out for a good 15 minutes (that’s when most the pictures were taken) but some angry looking rain clouds and a cold wind soon showed ... read more
cathedral
June 4th 2005- Left the group in Istanbul, for some reason I was getting a little nostalgic even though the entire trip all I could think about was how to get the hell away from most of them. I hate goodbyes, and living the type of life I did, its been full of them. I especially hate them when people try and turn them into some emotional ‘ill never see you again’ type crap. I go to school with all these people so I be seeing them again come 2 months. But even those crappy goodbyes couldn’t dampen my lightened spirit this morning. I awoke with that fresh aura of new opportunity. I am about to set off on my adventure, possible the biggest adventure of my lifetime, though I sincerely hope greater excitement lay in ... read more
Classic shot
Second Day Cairo, or Al Qahirah in Arabic, boggles the mind and the senses. The first impression simply overloads the brain; too much is happening in too many places too fast to make any sense of it. The insane traffic bound by no rules mixing with masses of apparently suicidal pedestrians, both dogging the donkey carts wondering the streets seemingly ignorant of the 20th century heap of humanity and technology surrounding them. Then as your eyes slowly adjust to the cacophony that surrounds them you begins to hear to the music of Cairo, a symphony composed of a thousand car horns, the vibe of a million pedestrian lost in their individual conversations, competing with hundreds of taxi radios blaring the latest Amr Diab or local Qu’ran reading while their drivers yell out their window, all beautifully ... read more
Graduation 2003
Well, since this is my first travellog/blog I'm not exactly sure how it goes. But I’ve always wanted to write something about my time spent in Egypt. I just got home from my last trip there for, probably, a long time. I lived there from 2000-2003, went to the American High school in Ma'adi, a beautiful, relatively sheltered "suburb" just south of Cairo. I really love to travel and reading the blogs on this site i realise how much there is out there for me to still see! here's a map of countries I visited Visited Countries Map I used to think of my self as well travel- but once again, the blogs here have showed me what it REALLY means to be well travel! But anways on to my first blog: *Ok i dont know ... read more
