ARGENTINA

Argeeeeentinaaaaa, the land of beautiful mountains, nature, steak, leather, tango dancing and well, just about everything great! This South American country's capital is Buenos Aires...wow, I sound like I'm trying to sell you guys Argentina, sorry! Too much excitement for this place. Patagonia is one of my favorite backgrounds on my computer, so to be doing a post on the country Patagonia is shared with (it is also shared with Chile), is exciting! 

Anywho, Spanish is the main spoken language (obviously) and there are almost 41 million people living in this country. With Argentina being at the very end of South America, it neighbours with Chile, Antarctica, Uruguay (where I will be living in a year from now) and Paraguay. 

1. Buenos Aires
2. El Calafate & The Perito Moreno Glacier
3. Iguazu Falls (one of the new Seven Natural Wonders of the World)
4. Valdez Peninsula
5. Bariloche & The Seven Lakes Region
6. Quebrada de Humahuaca
7. Valle de la Luna & Talampaya
8. El Chaltén
9. Ushuaia & Beagle Canal
10. Antarctica

According to www.argentinastravel.com, these are the top 10 places to go when visiting Argentina. Buenos Aires is considered to be one of the world's largest cities and South America deems Argentina to have the best quality of life. Hmmm, sounds like a pretty good deal to me, it's kind of hard not to think that instantly when you see those awesome photos. Buenos Aires boasts European styled architecture, fantastic culture and a mass amount of theatres. Vivaa la noche, viva la vida loca en Buenos Aires!

The website TimeOut.com helped with me with the top 20 things to do when in Buenos Aires, I cringed a little at number 2 on the list though:  
1. Become a Boca fan
2. Eat intestines and even more glands
3. Frolic in a love hotel
4. Tour the eye of the Tigre 
5. Witness the social coming of Christ
6. Get lost among the dead
7. Dine in style
8. Mind your toes at a milonga
9. Snack on coffee and medialuna
10. Drink until the early hours (but that's everywhere else in the world too...)
11. Have a picnic and go bird watching
12. Visit Malba: Colección Costantini
13. D is for dulce de leche (YUMMM)
14. Pay homage to Evita
15. Go relic hunting in San Telmo (I do this in Sims 3 World Adventures...I'm guilty, I'm guilty, ok?)
16. Pick up classic souvenirs
17. See a polo match in Palermo (Olivia Palermo is my favorite style icon! No connection, I know)
18. TANGO
19. Groove to South America's best DJs
20. Turn fashion conscious at Palermo Viejo (hmm, maybe this is where Olivia Palermo really got it from...)

Now, let's talk about Patagonia...yay! This place is beyond beautiful, at least from the pictures I have seen because I have not been there yet. I am hoping though that in the next year I can say I have visited. Skiing, trekking, glacier trekking, fishing and whale watching are just some of the activities to do there...sounds like the perfect combination!

Now, I'm not necessarily a big fan of snow and cold but I would conquer the coldness to do these things in Patagonia. I'll definitely be putting on my big girl pants on when the time comes to visit Patagonia.

Patagonia and Buenos Aires are considered to be the most expensive part of Argentina, but you could most definitely find cheap accommodation throughout Buenos Aires and near Patagonia. If you know the travel guides/books and website Lonely Planet, you already know the excellent travel advice they give. I got some fantastic information from their Argentina page, including an upcoming festival in May: Día de Virgen de Luján on May 8th- a day where believers set foot on a 65 km pilgrimage to Luján to honor the Virgin Mary. Are any of you wanderlusters going to this festival or have ever taken part in this festival? The best time to visit is in their spring months, which is September to November, Buenos Aires that is. The best time to visit Patagonia for the non-cold lovers, like myself, is during their summer months, December through February. Sheesh, if only they knew what December-April was like in Eastern Europe!

Have yourself a lovely Easter Monday (for those who celebrate) or otherwise a lovely start of the week and of course, travel on wanderlusters!

The next post will be on: Democratic Republic of the Congo in Western Africa.

P.S. I came across this today, pretty interesting/cool. Who would've thunk it?! http://www.cracktwo.com/2011/04/25-abandoned-soviet-monuments-that-look.html

A NEW PROJECT

I'm thinking of starting a fun, new posting project.

After I post about some of my trips in the past. I think I will start posting about random countries in the world. Just basic facts, travel opinions and suggestions for these countries. Small, big, rich, poor, first world, third world, hot, cold, popular, unheard of. I want to travel to a majority of the world's countries one day so why not get some background knowledge on them and inform my wanderlusters as well?

Of course, when I travel to these countries, I will do a short recap of the informative post then the post about my visit, experience and reviews while being there. Me thinks the first country should be, hmm...Seychelles? Have you heard of Seychelles before? I actually met a lovely new friend of mine who is from there. To be honest, I have never heard of it before she told me she was from there. It's one of those small islands you wouldn't think of just randomly going to. So, Seychelles will be the first country of the new project. Now to do some research...and find some travel inspired pictures.

Travel on wanderlusters!

CZECH RADIO VISIT

Tomorrow morning, instead of having a mid-term like the rest of my friends, I get to go to Czech Radio for interviews, a tour of the studio and information on a Czech radio station. I'm hoping to make a profile story of the editor-in-chief or at least one of the  main figures at the station. Anytime we go on a field trip to some journalism or communications-focused place I get really excited because I know that one day I will be working in a similar place so I get a little taste of what to expect.

I've always wanted to intern or even work part-time at a radio station during college just to get some wider sense of experience in the journalism field. So, if tomorrow goes well and I like the station, maybe I'll send in my CV to see if I could get a job or at least an internship. 

After my radio visit and mid-term, I will post another one of those random posts about something that interests me, not related to traveling! Until, then it's back to work and night of studying and coffee. 

Ciao and travel on wanderlusters!

Oh, Roma!

Ciao bellas and bellos!

It's my last day in Rome so I have a little down time to write to all you wanderlusters before heading to the Pantheon, Vatican and St. Peter's Basilica. However, I'll give you the FULL run down of my trip tomorrow or Tuesday morning before running to get my uni books.

Yesterday, we started a little later than expected but we made it to the Trevi Fountain, with a delicious gelato in hand and then to the Spanish Steps. It's truly breath-taking seeing places like those for the first time in person especially after seeing them in countless movies, on other people's Facebooks' and on sites like Pinterest. I was so overwhelming happy when I was standing there, jaw dropped, just staring at these beautiful places. It really reminds you how lucky you are to be able to travel and just live, not many people in this world are lucky enough to travel or get this, even brave enough to travel! Made me take a moment and thank everyone in my life who made my dreams, my passions come true. Granted I am only in Rome but just alone in the past year I have traveled more and MOVED to a foreign country and that would not have been made possible without the love and support of friends and family back in the United States, and of course the places and people that hired me to work for them which made the financial part of my trips possible.

Anywho, back to real time, as I said before, seeing the Trevi Fountain and making a wish then sitting/walking on the Spanish Steps were two things that I could check off my travel bucket list and it was so fulfilling to have done that!

I've met some lovely, lovely and interesting people during my week in Rome and I am so grateful to have had this experience. In coming days, I will post more pictures of my trip and reviews and things to do. Now on to the Pantheon, Vatican and St. Peter's...then it's time to get some shut-eye and catch a flight back home to Prague!

Travel on wanderlusters! 

Africa/Asia/India 2013!

Excited to announce I might be starting some projects in either Ghana, Mozambique, India or Nepal throughout 2013!

The Ghana project is a journalism internship and the other countries ask for volunteer work projects. I am so excited, I have wanted to do something like this my whole life. What's next is seeing if I have any friends who will join me, then to figure when I would go and for how long. I am thinking anywhere between 2 and 3 weeks to 6 weeks.

I will keep all of you wanderlusters informed! Now it's time for some tea, Revenge season 2 and packing. I have to go to the airport in 6 hours so it's an all-nighter for me.

Travel on wanderlusters!

This Morning

I am day-dreaming of Australia! Don't get me wrong, I don't want to wish away my college years but I am so excited to move to Australia, more specifically, Melbourne and start my travel journalism career there.

Australia just seems so perfect and I could definitely imagine settling there, but then again I may just think that because I haven't grown up there and so a place that is new and exotic would seem perfect in my opinion. We shall see :)

Two days until Roma! I have one, small backpack to fit a week's worth of clothes into...can I do it? Hopefully. I will post an essentials packing list Sunday evening or Monday morning before my plane sets off to the land of pizza, gelato, Vespa-riding boys and beautiful architecture. Also, my friend and I are making a to-do list in terms of places we have to see and a fun to-do list filled with crazy things/pranks to do to shake up the daily lives of Italian passerby-ers. I love me some silly shenanigans in public, makes life a little more interesting...

Travel on wanderlusters!

P.S. Happy Australia...well post-Australia...Day to all the wonderful Australian wanderlusters out there!

I'm Home!

After 8 hours from Washington D.C. to Paris, running aimlessly lost throughout the Paris airport only to find out my flight was delayed to almost 2 hours on a flight...with a crying baby the whole time...from Paris to Prague, I finally got home!

I love that I can happily call Prague my home even though I grew up in America. Prague is such a unique place that no matter how long you've been there, whether its a month or 4 months (like me) that when you go away and come back you get this immense feeling of "home". I was so happy to be back. So happy that I wasn't even that mad that they lost both pieces of my luggage.

Coming back home to snow after a month of fairly decent weather was a quite a surprise, not sure if I missed the cold here but I definitely missed everything else. Treated myself to delicious European coffee, poppy-seed and plum strudel, vanilla hot chocolate, a traditional Czech dinner of goulash and potato dumplings with some dark Czech beer and friends all in a matter of 48 hours.

I STILL don't have my luggage but I think I am still too jet-lagged to care. The worst part is the traveling from America to the Czech Republic. It always involves too little sleep, uncomfortable seats, running and sweating, stress and mini heart attacks when the plane goes through turbulence. At least that trip won't be happening again until mid-June, until then it's a semester full of new people, my fabulous friends, tons of great coffee and desserts, traveling to new places and good times.

My good friend from high-school is here in Prague for the next 5 days so I get to take him to all the tourist places and be all touristy with the pictures in the snow. I'll post some new snow-covered Prague pictures in the next few days...until then it's sleeping in and tons of hot tea to make a cold stay away!

Travel on wanderlusters! Are you happy to be home after a long vacation or recent travel?

Mountain Woman

Coming at you live from the mountains of the Shenandoah Valley where I have been skiing...or trying to ski...all evening but am now snuggled up on the couch with my 5 year old sister watching Disney Channel before a fire-place. Ah, the life.

My friend just sent me this cool list of "20 great things to do in Rome" from www.Timeout.com...I know what I'll be doing the 28th of January to the 4th of February.

Here's the list:
1. Greet the Old Masters of the Capitoline
2. Connect with your inner gladiator at the Colosseum
3. Stroll through the gardens of the Villa Borghese
4. Join an audience with the Pope at the Vatican
5. Throw a coin into the Trevi Fountain
6. Perfect your geometry at the Pantheon
7. Scope out delightful ice-cream at San Crispino
8. Photograph the city's best piazzas
9. Scale new heights to see spectular views
10. Glam up for a night at the Opera
11. Follow the legend of the wolf
12. Tease your tastebuds at Il Pigneto
13. Grab a slice of authentic pizza
14. Have a glass of white Frascati
15. Discover geek chic at a book bar
16. Browse in the boutiques
17. Amble around antique markets
18. Catch glimpses of Napoleon
19. Indulge in sweet treats
20. Stay up late for a drink

Do you wanderlusters ever find fun little lists like this before a trip and check everything off? This is the first time and I think I'll start doing it everywhere I go in 2013....maybe I will make my own lists after a travel and post it on here for you all!

I'm too excited for Roma; when I was younger I watched the Lizzie McGuire Movie...please tell me someone out there knows what I am talking about...and when they went to Rome I instantly decided I would go one day. That one day is now only a few short weeks away!

Well, I'm off for a relaxing yet tiring weekend in the mountains, catch you all before the big NYC trip. Travel on wanderlusters!