2010 travels

Bonne Année! Here are some photos of Chamonix over the holidays.

Holiday Lights in Chamonix

Holiday Lights in Chamonix

Here are a few more photos from around Chamonix:

Slalom Race

Slalom Course and Chamonix at Night

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Slalom Race

At last, an update from Chamonix. Sorry for not posting sooner, but I’ve been busy settling into life here and figuring out my plans for the winter. I’m on Winter Break from French, so I finally have time to take photos and update this blog.

It looks like I am going to spending a good portion of the winter living in Chamonix studying French and skiing. I’m still planning on traveling to Asia and New Zealand, but right now I am enjoying being in once place for a little while.…

Sorry about the lack of updates, I’ve been spending the last week settling in here. After a thirteen hour train ride from Venice, I arrived, exhausted, in Chamonix, France last Saturday. It’s hard to believe that a thirteen hour train ride could be worse than I imagined it would be, but somehow it was. It turns out Italian train stations are really not the place you want a several hour layover in the middle of the night.…

I awoke this morning to find Venice covered in water. Being a city of islands and canals has a few drawbacks, one of which is occasional flooding (not just when it rains, but also when the tides rise). Still residents seem to have adjusted to the flooding and make-shift bridges quickly sprung up, shop owners went about mopping out water, and enterprising businesses sold rain boots.

Flooding in Piazza San Marco

By noon most of the water had drained away, and I was able to spend the afternoon visiting some more the more famous areas of Venice– Piazza San Marco and the Bridge of Sighs (which was a little less impressive than usual since it’s under construction).…

I arrived yesterday morning in Italy after an easy ferry ride from Croatia. I took the train from Ancona up to Venice and have have been spending the past two days exploring Venice.

Like Amsterdam, Venice is a city of canals. Venice consists of 117 islands connected by bridges and canals to form one city.

Venice Canal

This means, while beautiful, Venice is hard to navigate. Narrow, old streets weave around canals and buildings with seemingly no order.…

Trains are a great way to see Europe- no worrying about overweight baggage fees, no hassles trying to find a parking spot- but they aren’t always cheap. A little advanced planning can sometimes help bring down the cost of train tickets.

Each country in Europe has it’s own rail system, but it is possible to buy a Eurail pass that is valid across multiple countries and may save you some money.…

One of the greatest things about backpacking is the freedom– no set schedule, the ability walk basically into a train station and get on any train, going anywhere.

I find I don’t always take full advantage of this freedom. I tend to plan ahead, often mapping out my route months in advance. However, opportunities pop up and it feels silly not to take them just because I planned to be in another city or country that day.…

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From View of Dubrovnik

No post about Dubrovnik would be complete without talking about what happened here from 1991-1992. The early 1990s saw the breakdown of Yugoslavia and the formation of several new nations, including Croatia. During that time the Balkan area was plunged into war and turmoil. Dubrovnik was heavily shelled. Almost 70% of the buildings in the old town were stuck by shells; the shelling and fires caused massive amounts of damage. The world watched as this historic, picturesque city was destroyed.…

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Dubrovnik at night