Pleasure, Happiness, and Travel

 "....Americans have an inability to relax into sheer pleasure.Ours is an entertainment seeking-nation, but not necessarily a pleasure-seeking one....This is the cause of that great sad American stereotype- the overstressed executive who goes on vacation, but who cannot relax...But is it such a bad thing to live like this for just a little while? Just for a few months of one's life, is it so awful to...nap in a garden, in a patch of sunlight, in the middle of the day, right next to your favorite fountain? And then to do it again the next day?"


The above quote is from Elizabeth Gilbert in her book Eat, Pray, Love, which got me through the second half of my travels.  In her deeply emotional and personal writing, Gilbert made a lot of statements that I identified with and a few of which I shared above. I do very fervently believe that "Americans have an inability to relax into sheer pleasure."  Despite my embarking on a month of travel "for pleasure," I admit that at times it was hard to completely forget my responsibilities and wonder exactly what I was going to do when I got home.  I can't think of anything worse than lying on one of the world's most beuatiful beaches in Costa Rica when "the worries" start to set in, and suddenly I can't appreciate my current pleasures because my mind feels so dependent on having every future detailed in my life figured out.

And then I realized that maybe it didn't have to be that way.

We didn't know where we were sleeping that night, and I was freezing cold, but I was also in Germany, with two of my best friends and a steaming cup of hot chocolate.  How could I not choose to be happy?

My two main pleasure reading books for my trip were Eat, Pray, Love and The Power of Now.  I couldn't have chosen more appropriate books

"Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it. You must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it." -Elizabeth Gilbert in Eat, Pray, Love

"Be present as the watcher of your mind -- of your thoughts and emotions as well as your reactions in various situations. Be at least as interested in your reactions as in the situation or person that causes you to react. Notice also how often your attention is in the past or future. Don't judge or analyze what you observe. Watch the thought, feel the emotion, observe the reaction. Don't make a personal problem out of them. You will then feel something more powerful than any of those things that you observe: the still, observing presence itself behind the content of your mind, the silent watcher."  -Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now

Elizabeth Gilbert and Eckhart Tolle have their fair share of critics.  A NPR feature reported a man who considered Eat, Pray, Love "chick-lit crap," which I could understand because Gilbert is very forthright (and hormonal) with her emotions in her writing, which could drive a man insane.  My friend who began reading The Power of Now after I had finished it couldn't get past the first chapter because his theories and observations were "too out there," which I could understand.  Some of Tolle's points seemed a little hokey to me too.  At the same time, both authors had their good points.  I think Tolle is absolutely right that too many people aren't really alive in the sense that they are too caught up in the past or future, and are thus unable to live in the now.  I am more than guilty of that.  Gilbert has a similar revelation when she is studying yoga and meditation in India, and at one point makes the declaration that happiness is earned and requires work to maintain.

Perhaps I am speaking to a minority, and I am one of few who has this problem of living in the past and future, and not realizing that one needs to work to find happiness.  If you've already figured all of that out, congratulations, and keep it up.  If you haven't, then I hope that these points are as enlightening to you as they were to me when I first realized them.

Namaste.

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Wrapping Up a Month of Travel

What's my age again?

A huge leafy green salad.   That is the one thing my body is craving when I touch down onto US soil in Houston after my 9 hour flight out of Amsterdam Schipol.  The nutella-peanut butter sandwich and stroopwafle had definitely worn off, so a Wendy's chicken salad leaves me contented, and thus, my one month of traveling is coming to an end.  I can hardly believe that the full month has come to an end.  Part of me is itching to hop aboard another international flight, and part of me is ready to quit living out of my backpack, wondering how long I'll have to keep re-using my clothes before I can wash them again.

Overall, this trip has been rewarding in every possible way.  As always, I managed to travel relatively lightly, since the only souvenirs I collect are postcards, chocolate bar wrappers, and Coke bottle wrappers.  I must confess though that my pack has gained a few more kilos due to the licorice, stroopwafels and cookies my friends sent with me.  As another sad yet unsurprising fact, my favorite clothes that were destroyed, in this case, a pair of jeans I've been wearing for the past 3 years, and 5 pairs of socks that got moldy and ant-infested in humid Costa Rica.  Still, I managed to see and do an amazing amount of things during my travels including:


- kicking back in Americus, Georgia


- partying up in Atlanta


- experiencing an "authentic" Costa Rican holiday in Limón


- lounging the beautiful beaches of Puerto Viejo and Puerto Jimenez 


- hiking the rainforests of Corcovado and seeing all the wildlife


- relaxing and taking in the beauty of Bahía Drake


- seeing good friends in Wageningen


- walking the infamous streets of Amsterdam


- falling in love with Bavaria on the Romantic Road


...and all the while being reunited with old friends and making new ones in every destination.


In the mean time, you can read about and support my next (planned) big adventure to Pokhara, Nepal by clicking here!

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Bavaria, Germany - recap

Sadly, I am no longer in beautiful Bavaria, but I was fortunate enough to spend last weekend with two of my favorite people in southern Germany doing the route my parents took me on 20 years ago when I was a toddler.

"Sprechen Sie deutsch?"
"Nein...definitely nein."

There's no better way to be humbled than to realize that you can't even walk into a store and complete a simple transaction because you don't speak or understand a lick of the language. In this case, the German references from Rammstein and The Producers did me no help.  Our roadtrip down to Germany began as expected with a few fiascos.  Kirsten and I have encountered so many travel disasters (everything from losing each other in Italy to taking out my car's brake light and bumper in Canada) that we have matching St. Christopher charms to attempt to bring us better luck.  Possibly because I forgot my St. Christopher on this trip, we took off from the Netherlands 4 hours later than expected due to the Avis Rent-a-Car business changing locations without notifying clients on their website.  After finally picking up our cute little Opel car in Arnhem, we (or Adam) drove nearly 9 hours straight down to the town of Füssen on the German border, where we then encountered our next dilemma of trying to find our hostel without a map or hint of directions whatsoever.  Luckily, it all worked out and we had a place to sleep that night that was not in the car.  

Beautiful lake in Schwangau, nearby Füssen.

Füssen is a cute German town located 5K (3.1 miles) from the Austrian border.  At 808 meters above sea level, it is the highest town of Bavaria, and the famous Hohenschwengau and Neuschwenstein castles are a 5 minute drive away.  Bright and early the next morning, we trudged through the snow and chilly weather to spend the entire day exploring the famed castles and their surroundings.  Schloss Hohenschwengau (literally: Castle of the High Swan County) was built by King Maximilian II of Bavaria on top of the remains of fortress Schwanstein.  The royal family, including sons Ludwig and Otto, spent their summers here.

After King Maximilian's death in 1864, Ludwig took over the throne at age 18, at first occupying his father's room in Hohenschwangau before construction of his own castle Neuschwanstein began in 1869.  Schloss Neuschwanstein (literally: New Swan Palace) was commissioned as a retreat for King Ludwig and as a homage to his friend, composer Richard Wagner.  The castle is now an popular icon for Bavaria, having served as inspiration for Disney's Sleeping Beauty Castle, and it currently hosts about 1.3 million visitors annually.  Interestingly, the large castle is one of many architectural wonders of the world that is not yet completed.  It was near completion in 1886 when King Ludwig was declared insane by the State Commission.  Ludwig was taken to castle burg and found dead in Lake Starnberg.  The exact circumstances remain a mystery, but there is speculation that the accusation of insanity was in response to Ludwig's extravagant spending on his castle. 

Neuschwanstein from the ground. Its sheer size reminded me Duloc from Shrek.

After short 30 minute guided tours of the interiors of both castles, we grabbed traditional German grub of shnitzel, knödel and pig knuckle from a nearby restaurant before hiking around the snow-covered trails surrounding the castles. 

Adam's huge pig knuckle meal.

Most of the trails were blocked off with warnings of there being too much ice and snow for hikers, but...well, since when have the three of us been sticklers for following rules?  We followed the trail up to the famed Marienbrücke (Mary's Bridge) which crosses a large gorge with gorgeous cliffs on each side and running waterfalls in the valley below.  It provides a breathtaking view of Neuschwanstein Castle, but it definitely is not for those with a fear of heights.

A view of Neuschwanstein from Marienbrücke.

Gorgeous waterfalls below Marienbrücke.

As stunning as the view from Marienbrücke was, we were still determined to find the spot where all of the famous "postcard" photos of Neuschwanstein were taken, so we kept on hiking.  We walked close to four miles that day.  About an hour later, we were up on a cliff where we got the following snapshots, just as the sun was beginning to set:

Bingo!

Kirsten and I

After a day of castles, we began our nearly two-day trek of driving the Romantic Road (Romantische Straße) north from its southern-most point of Füssen to its last stop in Würzburg.  The Romantic Road was once a trade route during medieval days and is now a popular tourist route.  Many of the towns on the route are ideal for sight-seeing, shopping, cultural festivals and active sporting holidays of cycling and hiking.  During the winter, unfortunately, most of the towns shut down due to the cold weather and lack of tourists, which was nice in that we didn't have to battle crowds or traffic, and we got to see the Romantic Road in a winter wonderland.  Still, I am positive that a spring or fall visit would also be beneficial to take full advantage of what the Road has to offer. 

We drove through all 28 listed cities on our map, only stopping in a few select towns.

Wieskirche (Wies Church) in Steingaden.  This UNESCO World Heritage Site is a rococo church designed by Dominikus Zimmermann in the 1740s.

Harburg Castle-according to Wikipedia, this was the castle of Michael Jackson's dreams and he tried to buy it (and failed).

Probably our favorite stop (besides Schwangau for its castles) was Rothenburg.  We spent the night just outside of the city at a Best Western and were fortunate enough to arrive in time to take the Night Watch tour that evening.  Rothenburg ob der Tauber is medieval walled city with iconic Town Hall and St. Jakob's Lutheran Church. 

Town Hall in Rothenburg

Rothenburg's "drive thru church." St. Jakob's needed to be expanded, so they cleverly built over the nearby street.

Holy Blood Altar within St. Jakob's Church with a removable Judas at the center, rather than Christ.

As we learned from our tour, Rothenburg was a dirty middle ages town whose main source of entertainment was the occasional public execution after a 3 hour mandatory church service.  Currently, it is a largely tourism-based town that is well preserved due to its strict building codes, including the requirement that all businesses must have metal signs, including McDonalds when a local branch was shortly open in Rothenburg.

Medieval entrance to Rothenburg.

Typical German fare: Pork schnitzel, pomme frites and dunkel (dark beer).

The next day (Sunday), we left Rothenburg and finished driving the Romantic Road, arriving back in the Netherlands later that evening.   My final European meals consisted of nothing but my absolute favorites: döner kebab with a Bock bier for dinner, and a Nutella-peanut butter sandwich with a stroopwafle for breakfast.  And thus ended my second tour of Europe.

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Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Before I dive into the post, I need to say a little something on the hurricane disaster relief efforts in Haiti.  If you've got the money or time to spare, please donate. 

Yesterday the three musketeers hit up Amsterdam, because regardless to what you might have thought, my home base is an hour train ride away from European sin city.  The city was covered with snow, and many of the canals had even froze over.  I'm sure this is a view of the city rarely seen by tourists.

I AMsterdam. Clever, huh?

Sinking frozen boat fail.

We went to Amsterdam with the sole intent of viewing the Van Gogh Museum, Rijks Museum, and (of course) the Red Light District.  I seriously contemplated being an art history major--I devoured the prerequisite course I took in college, and my entire Spanish art history class in Granada (taught all in Spanish too!).  Knowing about the history of art makes viewing the actual pieces a much more memorable experience.  The Prado in Madrid, for example, blew me away after my Spanish art history class intensive.  Even though I knew very little about Dutch art history, it was still very cool to see Remembrandt and Vermeer in the Rijks Museum.  Sadly, Vermeer's famous The Girl with the Pearl Earring was not on display for our visit.

Rembrandt's famous painting Night Watch at the Rijks Musuem.

The Van Gogh Museum ended up being, for me, even more mindblowing, because for as much as I'd always admired Van Gogh's work, I had never known that he was a self-taught artist.  Learning this made me admire Van Gogh even more than before.  Even though this is his home museum, it should be noted that his famous works such as Starry Night are not located at the Amsterdam museum.  Another surprise within the Van Gogh Museum was a guest exhibit on the Belgian painter Alfred Stevens, yet another artist who has won a place in my love for art.

Reflections, by Alfred Stevens

 Now for the juicy part:  the Red Light District.  After wandering around a bit, we finally found this notorious district of Amsterdam, and I'll admit that it's much smaller than I expected.  Still, it was abound with sex shops, sex theaters, coffeeshops reeking of pot, and scantily clad women seductively dancing behind glowing red doors.  There were not many out on the night we were there, so I can only imagine what it's like when the weather is warmer and the crowds are booming.

Amsterdam by day

I also seemed to have been unaware of why it's called the red light district.  Some discussion on its origins are on Wikipedia:  "In the 19th century, the term "red light" was associated with the red lanterns carried by railway workers (which the latter left outside brothels when they entered. The workers could quickly locate the lanterns for any needed train movement.) Another suggestion for origin were the red paper lanterns (a color associated with sensuality) hung outside brothels in ancient China for identification. The color red has been associated with prostitution for milennia."

 Today, we trained two hours out to the Roermond Designer Outlet area and checked out another ice sculpture festival, this time themed around classic stories. See some favorites below (more on Flickr!).  I also had my first Dutch herring, and as fishy as I smelled for the rest of the day, I look forward to having another soon.  Did you know that raw herring is a Dutch delicacy?  You can order of raw slices (served with potent raw onions), and you eat it from below by pinching the tail and holding the fish above your mouth.  It's quite delicious...cheers!

Notre Dame and the Hunchback

Gulliver's Travels

My favorite--Captain Hook and the Croc!

Pretty nighttime scene outside of Roerdome.

Me in a traditional wooden Dutch clog (100x the size necessary)

Kirsten, Adam and I taking shots of jäger in the ice ba.  Everything including the bar, stools, and shot glasses was made of ice.

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Wageningen, Netherlands

Made it to Nude 23-A in Wageningen, the Netherlands, bright and early Friday morning. I unfortunately was stuck with a middle seat and a ton of energy throughout the 9-hour ride, thus being unable to sleep and staying up over 24 hours, but I watched a bunch of movies, including one of my childhood favorites The Green Mile.

It is good to be with my college friends again, despite the cold snowy weather. Hard to believe that not long ago I was lounging on a beach in my bikini, sweating buckets. Now I am bundled up in winter clothing trying to retain what little heat I have. My body has definitely been confused about the time, date, temperature, and location of where I am.

Wageningen is, from what I've been told, in the middle of bumblecrap nowhere. It seems that this has been a trend on my trip, since I've been to bumblecrap Georgia and bumblecrap Costa Rica as well (ok, I don't necessarily think that Drake Bay was bumblecrap nowhere, but some folks told me it is). Anyway, central to this town is Wageningen University, so it's a college town of sorts, which in Europe means that it is a ghost town on weekends since most students go home during this time. You can read more about Wageningen here. Perhaps one of the most interesting things I've learned so far is that the Netherlands exists essentially because of all the dikes that were built to hold the water out--approximately 27% of the area and 60% of the population is located below sea-level. How wild is that??

The rest of this entry will be based on photos:

My first night in Wageningen, this is the accumulation of all the sugary European goodness that I love--Digestive biscuits (cookies), Lindt chocolate bars in the flavors of hot chili and hot mango, stroopwafle, black licorice, Englese drops, licorice-flavored cookies, Nutella, Ferrero Rocher dark chocolate, and--finally-gingerbread! The way to Suzi's heart is to get any (or all) of these goodies in the same room. :)

Me riding sidesaddle on the back of Adam's bicycle.

This is a Dutch parking lot. Bicycles are abundant in Wageningen, and the preferred mode of transportation for most. There are tons of bike lanes, cars yield to bicyclists, there's a fine for cycling without front and back lights at night, and the bike lock systems are a lot easier than in the states. I've had my first "side saddle" bicycle rides since being here, which is a little scary since my balance is less than stellar, but it's quite fun.

Yesterday (Jan 9), we took several busses and trains out to Den Haag for the Cool Haus (Cool Event) ice sculpture viewing and had a drink at the Holland Casino ice bar. It's a tented area that is -10 degrees indoors, and truly has sculptures, a bar, and a mock hotel room (the Royal Ice Room) made of huge chunks of ice. We spent an hour admiring the art work, sliding down an ice slide surrounding an igloo, and had a shot of Jaeger at the ice bar. It was chilly, but well worth the effort. See more ice bar/sculpture photos here.

A Dutch vending machine. Hamburger, anyone?

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George Bush International Airport, Houston, TX

La china guapa. It has been a while since I've had a nickname that stuck, but I have to admit that I like the one that Kumata and Sara picked out for me in Costa Rica. It stemmed from our first bus trip out to Corcovado, when several men on the street called me la china guapa, and it's pretty much stuck since that moment. For all of you non-Asians who have never been to a Spanish-speaking country, it's customary for anyone who looks even remotely Asian to be labeled china (Chinese). This was true even in Spain, and even though it used to annoy me because I'm not Chinese, I've learned to take it with a sense of humor. Next on the agenda is getting used to all of the Southeast Asians who insisted that I must be Japanese (which I'm not either!).

Chinese pulpería

My flight out of Costa Rica was as near of a close call as my flight out of Seattle. I awoke in San Jose, Costa Rica at 5AM this morning, anticipating that I would have more than enough time to make it to the airport for my 8AM flight. Sara's host mom bade my farewell, and her host sister Kumata walked me to the main drag to catch a taxi. It took nearly half an hour to hail a cab (much longer than anticipated), and by the time the 4,000 colones ride got me to the airport and I made it through the exit tax (ingresos) line, and the line to check into my flight, I was the very last person they allowed to check in. The line to get through security was even longer, but somehow I found myself in the "unaccompanied minors" line, and got through in less than five minutes. I suppose that's one benefit to looking like I'm under 18.

Creative way to deal with sunburn

Anyway, as a recap of the last couple of days, Sara and I spent the day after snorkeling (my last blog update) as an entirely lazy last day in Bahía Drake. We ate breakfast and lounged around Casa Horizantes on the front porch reading our books until noon. I managed to finish my first book of the new year, Maya Angelou's autobiographical novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. We then rented a sea kayak and spent a couple of hours kayaking around Drake Bay, doing our best to protect our already sunburned backs from the sun. Yesterday, we caught the last speedboat of our trip out of Drake Bay into Sierpe, and then a shuttle to Palma Norte where we took a 6 hour bus ride back to San Jose. It was a day of waiting, as our speedboat was 45 minutes late, our bus 60 minutes late, and our friends in San Jose were nearly an hour late meeting us. Still, I suppose that is what one should expect on trips--lots and lots of waiting.

The dock at Sierpé

Boating through the mangroves on the way to Sierpé.

Kumata and Jeff met us at the bus station in San Jose, and we were taken to the host family's new home in San Jose, which is much bigger and nicer than their house in Limón, with four bedrooms and 3.5 baths (and hot water!) compared to the 3 bedroom 2 bath house in Limón. It was a pleasure to be able to see it before leaving. We had our last home cooked Costa Rican meal, and lounged around before heading to bed. This is when Sara and I discovered the disadvantage of the new house (besides the house's first cockroach that we discovered during dinner): the house is right across the street from an outdoor basketball court that doubles as a hangout spot for local teenagers at night and a loud step aerobics class that begins at 5AM. I no doubt was counting my lucky stars for learning early on the necessity of traveling with earplugs. You never know when there will be screeching monkeys or drunken teens preventing you from getting a good night's rest (no joke..the monkeys were a problem in Bahía Drake).

Krishmir, Kumata, Sara - Christmas Eve (well, midnight) in Limón, Costa Rica

After a 3 hour plane ride to Houston and a much shorter customs line, I am now back in the US sipping a Wendy's vanilla frosty with Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat Pray Love for my 14 hour plane ride, waiting to embark on chapter 3 of my adventure. As usual, there was a bit of culture shock on the airplane, as I was surrounded mostly by American English-speakers. Sometimes when you travel abroad, you wonder what it's like to be able to understand and potentially jump into any conversations that go on around you...and when you finally experience it again, it is less than a thrill. I am excited for my pending return to the E.U., although a little nervous to be hit with high prices once again, even though as some others on my flight concurred, Costa Rica is actually more expensive than other destinations such as Southeast Asia. My trip to Costa Rica a times put me out of my comfort zone, especially in terms of the humidity and mosquito population, but like all other trips I have been on, I am grateful for the experience, definitely plan to return, and recommend that others visit as well. ¡Pura Vida!

Suzi's Photo of the Day

Canada-US border, March 2008
Vancouver city/island trip during spring break of senior year. So excited to see my friend again in less than 24 hours!

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Isla de Caño, Costa Rica

Okay, well we´re not technically on Caño Island anymore, but we spent most of the day there today as part of a daylong snorkeling trip. Caño Island is a biological reserve located 20km away from Drake Bay, so we got up at 6am this morning (the sun was already shining brightly at this early hour) to catch a speedboat to the island. There were about 5 other snorkelers, as well as 6 scuba divers on our boat, and the snorkeling was pretty decent. I can´t lie, I kind of regretted not finishing my scuba certification in college--if anyone can cure my fear of deep water and my inability to clear my ears underwater, I´d be all about getting my scuba certification.

In Bali, the snorkeling seemed very touristy in that we snorkeled with baggies of bread and fed the fish to get them to swim around us. It was cool, but kind of like having pet fish in the wild. At Caño Island, the snorkeling was slightly deeper, and the water much more clear and blue, so all of the fish and marine life were in their natural habitats, which was an honor to be able to observe. There were huge tuna, parrot fish, and other various schools of fish, and we were lucky enough to see about a half dozen small sharks lurking in the waters below, as well as several turtles. Being surrounded by all of this marine life reminded me of the Fred Barnett´s Hawaiian Reef Fish Madness video my brother and I used to inhale as kids. It definitely helped solidify some of the early reef fish knowledge that stays with me today.

Isla de Caño

A little girl and her puppy, Mancha

The water was warm, and the sun shining bright, so we without a doubt are a shade or two darker (and redder) than we were yesterday, but it was a day well spent. We also met a couple of girls (one from California and the other from Vancouver Island), one of whom had a similar mission to my own, which was funny. I truly am meeting a lot of others in the same boat as myself, which is somewhat reassuring.

Me, Sara, and our two new friends!

Tonight, there are 6 Russian tourists inhabiting our B&B with us, so we will luckily get to mooch off the of the fish dinner that will be prepared for them. I suppose I should feel a tiny bit of guilt for craving fish for dinner while snorkeling today...

Suzi´s Photos of the Day

Alhambra from the Albaycin

The Alhambra, Granada, Spain, Spring 2007

Since I studied abroad in Granada, I have countless images of the Alhambra, and toured it more times than I can remember, but these are definitely my favorite views of this Moorish fortress of Andalucia.

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