New: Travel Planner Website!

I found an excellent resource for planning your travel abroad. You can use www.tripwolf.com to load interesting locations that others have voted on into a printable/downloadable trip planner. You can use it to search for nearby hotels and food places as well.
It creates a map to help you plan your movement and make sure you use your time efficiently, especially if you are are getting around by foot and do not have much time in which to see everything.

The link has been added to the list of links near the bottom the website’s pages.

http://www.tripwolf.com/

Q: It’s two months before my study abroad program starts and…

Q: It’s two months before my study abroad program starts and parts of the program still don’t seem finalized. Should I be afraid of participating in my program?

In answer to a student who wished to remain anonymous,
The short answer is no. I am not suggesting that you not be vigilant in making sure that aspects of your program are comfortable for you, but I would say that certain things are outside of our comfort zone not bother us, but simply because that’s just the way things are.
Study abroad programs are a perfect example of this. If your program involves academic credit like mine where the teaching portion abroad is assumed by an institution external to your home one, then you must consider the steps involved and the length of time and planning needed for each interaction.

For instance, my program is hosted by the Instituto Franklin at the University of Alcalá in Spain. That University already has its own insurance, identification, and enrollment procedures set up. So, unlike other programs where everything is determined by your home institution, these ones require an almost doubling of the tasks involved. What are these tasks you ask? Well, they include things like identification for accounting, and governmental purposes, proper documentation of travel arrangements with schedules and unique record identifiers. This means passport copies, flight itineraries, ticket numbers, emergency contact forms, and the like need to be collected by not only your home, but your host institution as well as the entity providing your lodging.

Why are these important?

A few things come to mind such as:

• Well, if you get lost or stolen the civil authorities need to know where you had expected to be and where they can hope to find you. This would be where the schedules come in.
• If you lose your passport, having a copy on you, or safe at one of the institutions gives you more safety than having nothing at all. (Many hostels in Europe, for example, require you to leave your passport with them as a form of collateral or for identification purposes for locked away items).
• Your ticket also shows that you actually intend to travel and that your study abroad coordinators are not investing money into students that end up not participating in the program.

Accommodation Verification Lag-time

In reference to accommodations, if you’re staying with a family like I will, they will want to have a full and proper description of who they will be exposing themselves and their personal space too. So your home institution will usually provide a questionnaire for you to fill out detailing your eating, social, religious, and other habits along with your physical description (yes, including picture) to your host family selection pool. It may seem a bit odd, but yes, for this instant you are a commodity to be compared against and selected for things like risk (social values, property, etc) and impact (affect you have on their everyday activities).

With these things in mind, it’s no wonder that your program may not have announced who you will be living with 4 or 5 weeks in advance of your travel. But rest assure, everything has to finalized before you leave, and the people you are being shipped off to have been vetted (especially study abroad families) for dealing with you and the benefits and problems you bring. So, keep this in mind, stay patient, and know that when you’re there, everything’s been thoroughly checked for your safety.

– Question from May 2012 UCF program participant

Travel Abroad Scavenger Hunt: Outlets

One of the most important things to remember when traveling to Europe is that the electrical outlets are different than the ones we have here in the U.S. and many neighbouring countries. The voltage is also different, with 220v used in Europe and 110v used in the U.S.

The good news is, that most newer appliances have dual voltage, meaning that they are able to safely uptake electricity in both U.S. and European systems without being totally destroyed. These units come in one of two forms. Either they have a switch which allows the unit to switch from 110v to 220v and vice versa, or they have a range of acceptable voltage from 110v to 220v.

That being said, the second problem of fitting the unit’s plugs into a wall socket needs to be addressed. Because there’s no feasibly economical way for companies to have all the different types of electrical outlet prongs built into their devices, you will need to purchase an electrical adapter.

Which brings me to the first tangible part of my study abroad experience!

 I received it in the mail today. All nice and shiny, it comes with prongs for Europe, Japan, the U.S. and a few others.
One thing I hadn’t remembered was that the Brits, although grouped with the Continent, rather like being different. The outlet used throughout much of continental Europe is the same (with Switzerland producing some slight variations recently). The outlet used in the UK  however, has three prong inserts, as opposed to the Continental two.

FYI, I paid about $4 (shipping included) for this cool gadget.

Airlines again :)

Domestic (Foreign) Multi-City Stops

Okay. So, if you are planning on buying multi-city tickets like me for your study abroad trip (

It’s not every day you get to fly 4,000 miles across the horizon, might as well stop by a few places on the way to your final destination), you should consider the type of airline you using. Think about it: major US airlines are probably transporting U.S. tourists or other international travelers, so it wouldn’t make sense for them to be making stops all over the place right? Right. the major U.S. airlines that I looked are charging more for the inter-European legs of my trip. Domestic airlines such as RyanAir.com found me a ticket for about US$ 60 less than what companies like American or United were charging me for the same route. So, I plan to enter the first European city-stop via my trusty U.S. airliner, and for any inter-european flights afterwards, I will use domestic liners.

Miles & Alliances

Another thing to look is for is Airline Alliances. U.S. airlines have partnered up with each other domestically and with foreign liners in the international market. When looking at cashing in your miles for study abroad (like I’m doing), its good to check what companies miles are actually worth more per mile (when flying internationally as opposed to domestically). This is because when some U.S. miles are used with international partner carriers, they count for less than they would at home. Also, some alliances (although having the same amount of partners) are more region-oriented than others. For instance, Oneworld alliance doesn’t have a Chinese partner, and Star Alliance only recently initiated partnership proceedings with two Mexico-related coverage liners (TACA and COPA). For my study abroad in Spain, I had names like Iberia, Air France, British Airways, and American Airlines resulting in the lowest prices. Oneworld alliance, though deficient in some regions, was my cheapest bet to Spain (Iberia, British Airways, and American Airlines are all in the Oneworld Alliance).

Video Post: My First Night Train (Prague to Budapest)

Although it would be my last time traveling through the Prague subway, I was so excited that I would be traveling on my first night train! My next stop was Budapest, Hungary, and although there were many earlier trips I could have chosen, I decided to pay the 14 euro reservation fee for a bed in a couchette on the overnight train. I don’t know what the full fare would have been, but I’m happy I had a Eurail pass and didn’t have to worry about that :-). My main reason was to cut lodging costs. I needed to get to Hungary and I needed to sleep: night train solves all. Cheaper than the cost of a hostel stay, I was able to save all around on money and time and I recommend it to anyone who’s interested in backpacking.

The only negative in my plan was the long wait I had in the train station between my last scheduled daylight activity and the train that left almost at midnight. Being closer to the North pole in the summer meant that the “day” was much longer throughout all my European adventure than it would have been in Florida at the time. At least, that sounds like something I remember from high school geography that sounds like it’s right!

Well, after paying to use the restroom and finding that one of them had been closed for the night (I have no idea why, if you have to pay to enter any way), and being offered narcotics while thinking that I had lost my luggage to a closed storage facility, I finally saw my train on the arrivals board!

Given permission to board the train, I searched the door tags for my room and found to my surprise that the other bed would be left unoccupied that night. I made a video of my exploring the amenities offered in the sleeping cabin that I hope will convey the comfort and utter awesomeness I felt that night!

Video Post:The Prague Castle Complex

Parts of this sprawling medieval castle compound, the largest Europe, can be spotted at almost any point in the old city.

 According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the Prague Castle is the largest coherent castle complex in the world, with an area of almost 70,000 m². [1]

Although collectively referred to as “the castle,” the many buildings that make up this mega-fortified mini-town include at least four churches, four palaces, over five gardens, and is home to shops, government offices, and museums. Today, the castle is the seat of the President of the Czech Republic and represents as the historical and political centre of Prague and the Czech state.

One of the churches: Basilica dedicated to St. George

• Main Architectural Style: Romanesque / Baroque (facade)
• Extras: Benedictine Convent
  • Abbess possessed the right to crown the Queen consort of Bohemia
• Royal/Sacred tombs:
  • Prince Vratislav
  • Boleslav II
  • St. Ludmila

St. George’s Basilica, Prague, Czech Republic – See if you can spot it in the video!

The Cathedral of St. Vitus, St. Wenceslaus and St. Adalbert

• Main architectural style: Gothic
• Designations:
  • Roman Catholic Cathedral, Seat of Archbishop of Prague
  • Basilica
• Famous:
• • Biggest Church in Czech Republic
• Curiosities:
  • The church is owned by the Czech government
  • St. Wenceslas:
    • One of a small group of royals to have been canonised by the Catholic Church
    • He is one of the patron saints of the Czech state
    • He is the “good King Wenceslas” mentioned in the 1853 Christmas carol by John Neale
    • He died a Duke of Bohemia, but was raised to the dignity of a king after his death by Holy Roman Emperor Otto I

St. Vitus – Prague, Czech Republic

I didn’t have enough crowns (Czech money) left to purchase a trip up the bell tower and they wouldn’t take credit cards or Euro. Everywhere else took Euro (with a slight fee), but those volunteer girl guards weren’t budging for poor littles tourists like myself. 😦

Video I made of walk through much of castle complex:

Related Articles

• Priceless Prague (goudenleven.wordpress.com)
• Sightseeing: Praha (studyabroad.joshuascriven.com)
• The End of the Road: Prague Castle (briefhiatus.wordpress.com)

Night Wandering

I had made free reservations to see the Bundestag (yes, you need reservations to go inside the cool glass dome). Because I had arrived a few hours later than originally planned, I wasn’t able to take the tour and only got to see the German federal government buildings from the outside. I know I missed something special, but I was not to disappointed, because as I continuously discovered, the Germans sure know how to impress! Outside the Hauptbahnhof (on the Washingtonplatz side) there was a huge area for events that had large photo displays with work from local artists set up like a maze. There were also two outdoor bars with flashing neon lighting (I like flashing neon lights, that’s why I mentioned this). I crossed the bridge near the plaza (Friedrich-List-Ufer I think it was) that had a man-made beach area under it on the other side. It was too packed for me to order anything, especially because everyone there seemed to be in groups.

I ended up strolling down the “pier” and ended up in an open area with two large walls on either side. To this day I don’t know what those two walls were for, but they seemed to funnel your attention, and large crowds perhaps, towards  a really tall building. Not until I went closer did I realize that that building and the others that were emblazoned with light were the ones I had always read so much about. To my right was the Bundeskanzleramt (Germany’s head of state is a Chancellor or Bundeskanzler, his staff are housed in this building). To my left was the Paul-Löbe-Haus, a building associated with the Bundestag (German federal lower legislative chamber) that has extra office space for MPs. In the video, this is the building that is in the final freeze pane. Walking further, I was able to pass over the wonderfully manicured lawn with fountains in front of the majestic Reichstagsgebäude, the German Parliament building for the lower house, the Bundestag. My camera doesn’t take great night video or photos, so I didn’t take that many, but I think the ones I posted didn’t turn out too badly.

As I walked down Dorotheenstraße, I saw the amount of building space dedicated to parliamentary purposes was astounding, considering most office spaces I’d seen for the same before were relegated to one square or block. Now that I’m looking at the Google map, I can see what I was unable to at night: that the building is divided into sections and each section has its own courtyard. Turning onto Unter den Linder from Wilhelmstraße I was able to see what I considered the most beautiful sight of the night: the Brandenburg Gate. A restored former wall of old Berlin the old city.  It reminded me of other triumphal arches around Europe I had seen, but the neoclassical design, sheer size (up and out), and brilliant lighting led me to believe that it must have been a modern creation. Further research proved otherwise: Wikipedia.

As I knew I had an early day ahead of me, and the fact that everything was so quiet in the darkness, I decided to head back to the hotel with no stories of sordid drinking and revelry or the like.

Tips for next time:

1. Don’t rely on tour guide maps being available after dark.
2. Plan out night spots (events or photo ops) so you don’t wander aimlessly in the dark without knowing where the nightclubs or fun spots are.

Below is a very short video of me snooping around the train station outside the Bundestag. Pretty audacious having it so close to government buildings. Also thought it would be cool to show a bit of the opulence dripping off the smoothly polished stone. Standing by my opinion that Berlin knows how to impress!
Also, I uploaded the Germany Facebook album just now. Get it here.

Related Articles

• Berlin Part One (studyabroad.joshuascriven.com)
• 48 hours in Berlin (morganwiltshireblog.com)