gertruderocks

My aunt and cousins used to live in Grand Forks, so I used to go here all the time as a child… It’s really a beautiful city and I could actually see myself living there some day and raising kids. There’s a river that runs through the middle of the city, with lots of bike paths and the people are generally very, very nice.

While I wouldn’t make a special trip to see only the Corn Palace, I think that if you are making a roadtrip through S.D., setting aside 30-45 minutes to check this place out is a very good idea. Makes for great photos!

I love the fact that Sodankylä means “War Village”! This is one of the coolest names of a place, as far as I’m concerned. I was there once, for maybe 30-40 minutes, on my way down from a ski lodge in Finnish Lapland… That was years ago, but when I hear of the place, I still smile:) I would love to go back there in the summer or fall and check the place out…

Oh My God! I just remembered this place – this was one of the most incredible aquariums I’ve ever been to! There is nothing on the news about the aquarium in New Orleans! I loved this place! The alligators were so cute! Everything was so impressive… I know that right now, the people of New Orleans is what matters the most, but I pray that the animals and marine life of New Orleans and the acquarium survive…

As far as I’m concerned there are only two things that Indianapolis has going for it:

1. the airport (so you can get the hell out)

2. Trader Joe’s

Indianapolis is a city-planner’s nightmare: you’ve got a fairly nice-looking downtown area that is active during the day, but completely empties out at night, when all the business people go home to their safe little neighborhoods on the outskirts of Indy. A block in any direction from the downtown area will bring you into slums: the homes of the people who work in the restaurants, clean the toilets of the downtown businesses… Very sad. If more businesspeople were to live in the downtown area, their tax dollars could be used to improve the well-being of the slums – improve schools and infrastructure… Oh, and is it any surprise, that the majority of the folks living in the economically deprived areas of Indy are non-white?

I went to Vegas in May for a friend’s wedding… Otherwise, I would have never wanted to go there. Everyting is very, very fake and I got the feeling that everyone was trying to get me to drink and gamble all of my money away… There were no museums for me to see (nothing that I considered worthwhile) and the shows were very pricey ($75-300 for a show), so I didn’t see any.

That being said, I will say that if one must go there, please try to budget to stay in a nicer hotel… We stayed at the MGM Grand, which was very pricey, but when we looked at some of the hotels off the strip, I was horrified to see how crappy they looked… So, if you must go to Vegas, budget to stay in a nice place… Also, try to have at least one nice meal out per day – there are a lot of really nice restaurants there, but they are all very pricey.

I was there about a month ago with a friend from Finland. We went everywhere in the city and even took a swamp tour where we got to hold and meet alligators (babies, not adults). I definitely want to go back and have more fun, but I’m afraid that that’s not going to be possible for a very, very long time… I think we were incredibly lucky to experience the city before the storms.

The last time I was here I had so much fun partying, that after a week of going out every single night dancing and drinking, I was starting to get a little sick, so I hopped on a train and went down to Slovenia to recuperate. I definitely want to return to Berlin (the sooner the better!), but I think I’ll try to take it a little easier the next time:)

Austria is a quiet country… I spent ten days there in the summer of 2004, traveling around and it was a very relaxing trip. Vienna is a very different place from Berlin, where on most nights you can find yourself staying out in a club or a bar until 4am drinking and partying… I didn’t see any place where you could do that in Vienna… Just a lot of beautiful museums and cute little cafes…and the rest of the country is very green and picturesque. Not a place to party, but a place to chill…

If you are in Finland and have a little extra time, I recommend checking out Turku in addition to Helsinki. It is possible to take ferries to Turku from Stockholm, so that’s always an option… Turku is about 3 hours by train from Helsinki. It’s got a 400 year old castle that is now a museum and a 400 year old cathedral in the downtown area that is absolutely beautiful. I spent a year there studying as an undergrad and I have a lot of fond memories of the place.