Tag: return trip

Getting Lost – Venice, Italy

When I was just starting off in my teaching career, I had saved up enough money to fly over to Europe to spend fifty days traveling around the various countries. I was working on a shoestring budget and spent a lot of time in various hostels, eating meals of bread and cheese to make sure that we were able to enjoy ourselves the best our budget would allow. There were many cities on that trip that I really enjoyed and I always told myself that when I could afford them more, I would come back to see them again.

Venice, Italy was one of these places. Some of the others disappeared from my mind as I continued to travel around the world, but Venice never did. It has always been one of my favorite places to have visited, and I tell people all the time that if they ever get a chance to make it out there, they should.

There is not another place in the world like it. The city has taken over this tiny island on the eastern edge of Italy. Because of all the water and canals, no motored vehicles are allowed to make their way across the cobblestone streets. This means that the roads are free for people to walk up and down at their leisure, and it also makes Venice the best walking town in the world.

One of my favorite memories from the last trip was wandering around Venice for a day. It is the perfect place to get lost in. You can’t get so lost that you will never be able to find your way out because you are on an island, and you cannot leave it. At the same time you can get lost enough where you find yourself strolling down back alleys and seeing sights that you would never suspect seeing. You will always be able to make it back to some place where you know where you are, such as San Marco Piazza, or the Rialto Bridge, and from there, you can catch a water bus back to a place close to where you are staying. It makes for a fun and cheap day of exploring one of the best cities in the world.

I am glad that I have been able to make my way back here, so I can explore more of this city. Coming back before the tourist season, in March, has been another treat. The crowds I had to fight sometimes, the last time I was here, are nowhere to be seen which allows me the freedom to get completely lost in the medieval maze and sometime feel like the whole city is here for me and me alone. It is great to know that the memories I made the last time I was out here did not steer me wrong, and it is still a great place to visit. I hope you get the chance to do it yourself some time, so you can share the corners of this city that you have discovered on your own day of wandering the city.

The Same Town Second Time Around

It was only a year ago that I was in Chiang Mai and I even find myself at the same hotel we were at last time, the Shangri-la. During my last visit, we stayed here because we wanted to pamper ourselves a little bit, and even though that is part of the goal this time around, it was not the main reason we decided to stay here. Hotels are having great deals right now because they are competing for what little tourist dollars are out there considering the only people who can visit right now are the ones that are already in the country. For a country who has 40% of its economy based on tourism, this means that there are a lot of great places that are empty right now.

It is nice to stay in such a beautiful hotel, but we are not spending every minute here to get the most out of what we are paying per night. We still spent a day at the pool because it is a great pool and it is a wonderful way to unwind after a tough quarter at school. But we did not spend the whole time at the hotel. We have gotten out a couple of times and enjoyed more of what this city has to offer. It is crazy what you notice when you go back to a place you have just recently been to.

Small little things you see make you laugh because you are no longer looking at all of the sights. We saw this advertisement in the airport and at first glance it looks normal, but after a second glance, it is obvious that it was not written by a native speaker. First off, I know that there are a lot of Swiss people who live in Thailand, but I wonder what language that they believe they speak there because they have included it as a language on this poster.

Secondly, I am not quite sure what they mean by “Female Native Speakers”. Does this mean that they should be females, and if that is the case, I would hope that they rethink the picture that they used to accompany this picture. Or they are native speakers that know how to speak the females, in which case the guy in this picture starts to look even creepier.

There is also some really good street art going on in certain parts of Chiang Mai. I didn’t really pay attention to it the first time I was out here, but I have been surprised by the little corner I turn around and find these masterpieces waiting to show themselves to me. This has to be one of my favorites, a Bansky inspired piece that really speaks to the culture and people of Thailand that no other piece could.

I have travelled to a lot of different countries and places all over the world, and it has always been a great experience. Sometimes I enjoy the trip more than other times, but I always learn something new from going to these places. But rarely do I get to make my way back to certain places and really absorb the culture there. Many places I have been to top my list of places I would like to go back to someday because they hold a special place in my memory, but rarely do I make it back there. It is even worse that those select places where I do make my way back to, it takes me many years before I am able to get back there. I guess one of the advantages of the current situation is that I get to make it back to places in Thailand and really absorb the culture here. If it wasn’t for that, Thailand would have ended up being a hub for me, a place that I could jump off to so I could see other places in southeast Asia. I am glad for the chance to really experience the place I am living in now and get to know it better. It was one of the reasons that I decided to go into international teaching in the first place, and even though at the time I first made that decision, Thailand did not top my list of places that I hoped to know more about, I am glad to have landed here during this tumultuous time in world history.

When it gets back to that time to travel the world again, make sure you take advantage of it. Until then, take the time to really get to know the corner of the world you find yourself in. It may surprise you how rich it is in history and culture, and it will help you appreciate it more.