YOUPOST 4

About two weeks ago I blogged about traveling and talked about a place I want to visit in the future. In contrast to that, today I want to tell you something about a place I have already been to in the past. The place I want to talk about is Egypt. When I was thirteen, my parents, my sisters and I went to Hurghada, a city at the Red Sea Coast, during the summer holidays. It was the first time for me to travel by plane (which I was very excited about, but then I realized that flying was actually quite boring) and Egypt was the first country I visited that was completely different to my home country Austria – even though Hurghada is a tourist destination packed with hotels and therefore we didn’t experience too much of the everyday Egyptian lifestyle, I still noticed a big cultural difference. 

 One of the first things my family and I noticed was the fact that we didn’t see many females in the hotel staff. Nearly everyone working there – even the cleaning staff – was male, which was definitely something we hadn’t seen at any other place we stayed before. But all of them were exceptionally friendly and open. One night when we walked over the square in front of the hotel, people were singing and dancing. We stood by to watch and it didn’t take long until someone asked us to join in! But – and here a warning – there is a small line between friendliness and obtrusiveness. While the people in the hotel were all very nice, the people who worked on the beach were annoying for the most part. There were so many salesmen and all of them talked to us – no matter if we pretended to sleep or not. There were, however, also nice people amongst them, for example a guy who taught me how to write my name in Arabic. 

The Red Sea is such a beautiful place. Yes, the beaches were kind of crowded – though it wasn’t nearly as bad as in Italy – but the water itself was great. Only a few meters in, where we still could stand on the ground, there were already coral reefs and we didn’t have to dive very far to see colorful fish. My sisters and I had so much fun with diving and swimming, it was great. 

The Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut

But my highlight of the vacation wasn’t the beach or the friendly people, it was my trip to the Valley of the Kings. I’ve always been really interested in history, even back then, so I really looked forward to that. Although I hate early mornings, I voluntary got up at four in the morning for the trip. A tip we got from the hotel staff was to wear reasonable clothing. It was extremely hot in the desert and of course the first instinct of many people would be to wear as little clothing as possible – which is the worst thing one could do! It’s actually recommended to cover much skin, but stick to light colors, white at best. Also wear some kind of headgear to avoid sunstroke and drink much water. 

Entrance of the Luxor Temple

The Valley of the Kings was impressive for me. It’s an area where over sixty tombs of Egyptian pharaohs are located. It fascinated me that you can still see the original colors and drawings made thousands of years ago on the walls. We also saw the Valley of the Queens (were wives and other relatives of pharaohs – not only queens – were buried), the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut (which was really impressive because of its architecture and height), the Colossi of Memnon (again very impressive because of their size) and Luxor (which is a modern city, but ruins of the temples of Karnak and Luxor are still to see). In Luxor we also took a boat trip on the Nile, which was much fun.

I enjoyed my holiday to Egypt very much, as I thought it was great to learn something about the country, but also to relax at the same time. However, it’s important to mention that my vacation took place in summer 2007 and a lot has changed since then. As most of you probably know, there has been much rioting, political change and instability throughout the country in the last years. The security risk is very high right now, even in the tourist regions in the south of the country and I don’t know how similar a vacation there now would be to my fantastic trip nearly seven years ago.

Anyways, my experience of the country back then was very positive. As long as you can handle the annoying salesmen on the beach, put on enough sunscreen and a hat and are a little bit interested in old monuments, it’s a great destination to visit.

YOUPOST 3

One of my biggest dreams is to travel the world. Sadly until now the farthest I’ve been away from home was Egypt – it was a great holiday, exotic and very different from anything I had ever seen before, but I still want to see more countries and get to know more cultures. If I could travel anywhere in the world right now I would probably choose the US. Why? Well, for one it’s one of the biggest countries in the world with a number of interesting places to visit. Cities such as New York, L.A., Chicago, San Francisco, etc. are very well-known over here and locations for many movies and TV-series I love – which is another reason to visit: I’d love to compare TV and reality. Because sometimes when I watch my favorite TV-series I find myself wondering how close the way of living that is portrayed on TV is to reality and how much of it is only exaggerated. And of course, since I’m studying English now and learned so much about the most important events in American history in the last month, I became even more curious and interested in traveling there.

  

 

Choosing where to go to isn’t the easiest decision, because – as I mentioned before – it’s a really big country with countless intriguing places. I decided to plan a trip to New York, which is one of the most well-known cities of the world with a lot of famous sights, so it’s probably a great destination for my very first trip to the US. The next decision is when to go. After putting some thought into that question, I decided to plan my trip for February, when I have my five weeks semester break. I decided against going in summer, because I normally work in the summer holidays and I’ll need the money, as a trip to the US is expensive.

Money is actually my biggest problem when it comes to traveling in general and the reason why I don’t travel as much as I would like to. Being a student I get support from my parents, but they won’t pay all my travel costs just because I want to see the world. And only working in the summer holidays doesn’t earn me enough money to go to fascinating places all the time. But if I plan carefully and don’t expect the highest standard everywhere I go, I can get by fine. If I want to fly for under €500, I’ll have to prepare myself for a long and uncomfortable flight. The same goes for accommodation: I certainly won’t stay in a luxurious five-star hotel. 

When I’m finally in NYC I intent to make the most of it and see many of the famous sights and places. I’ll try to walk as much as possible, because you often find yourself in more interesting situations if you go by foot. You meet more people and maybe get ideas from occurrences in your surroundings you wouldn’t get from sitting in a car or train. And of course it’s also free. If I can’t reach a destination by foot, I’ll go by train or subway, but I’ll try to avoid taxis, as they are more expensive. 

I definitely want to visit the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero and take a walk through Central Park. Then I’d like to take a trip with the Staten Island Ferry and see the Brooklyn Bridge. I’d also like to see Madison Square Garden, because it’s one of the most famous arenas of the world. If I end up going to New York with my sisters and my father we’d definitely want to go to a hockey game in MSG as we are all big hockey fans and it would be an amazing experience for sure. I also want to see the Time Square and Broadway and maybe even watch a musical there, because I love musicals. 

 

In addition to all these things there’s another important element for me in traveling: food. I don’t need expensive restaurants with fancy dishes, but I always want to try typical food for the region I’m in. America is a melting pot, it unites many cultures in one country and that is also very noticeable in New York. The cuisine of New York City is influenced by the many ethnic groups that call the city their home now. I want to try as much international dishes as possible, starting with a trip to Chinatown, trying some New York-style plain pizza, having tacos, bagels and burgers, eating Vietnamese, Pakistani, Korean, Russian, and more. I’m generally very open when it comes to food and I like to try new things, so I think I’ll love that side of my journey.

I know that my bank account won’t be very happy about all my plans, but I’m generally quite good in spending the least money as possible. I’m aware that I’ll still spend a lot, but I’m sure that I will have some great experiences and much fun in return!

YOUPOST 2

Americans are fat, uneducated and love guns.
Americans are generous, open-minded and hard-working.

Sounds familiar? You probably heard or even assumed some of these things yourself in the past, because these statements are just a few of the most common stereotypes about the USA. A Stereotype is a generalized judgment about a group or class of people. Contrary to popular belief stereotypes are not always negative, but can also be positive and are often based on grains of truth.

Having stereotypes about other countries and people is completely normal and often not even a conscious decision. They tend to be based on personal experience, misunderstandings, stories of other people and of course the media, literature and movies. Often countries even support certain stereotypes themselves – Austrian advertisements for example often feature idyllic mountain landscapes, traditional folk music and people in dirndl and lederhosen. 

So where does a stereotype like “Americans are fat” come from? Well, for one America probably has the biggest range of fast food chains in the world. When we think of American food, McDonald’s is often the first thing that pops into our minds. Documentaries like Super Size Me¹ only reinforce the image of “fat America”. And studies also show that it’s not a completely unwarranted belief: Over years the USA has topped lists of the most obese countries in the world. They recently have been passed by Mexico, but are still number two with an obesity rate of 31.8 percent. Among adults even 69 percent fall under a category that includes overweight and obese figures.² So as we see this stereotype is not completely baseless, but this still doesn’t mean that it applies to every single American citizen.

  
My first example was a very negative one, so it’s only fair to list a more positive stereotype as well. One would be “Americans are open-minded”. As this is more of a subjective opinion and can’t be backed up by scientific statistics it’s much harder to prove it right or wrong. Still, when you type in “positive American stereotypes” in Google, you find the adjectives friendly, welcoming, kind, etc. very often among the search results. Many people comment that Americans smile a lot, you get greeted on the streets and that people are generally very happy. Another reason why this might be a stereotype of the USA is that the immigration rate is very high and that the country is very rich in cultural diversity which can be seen as open-minded. Although this is a very nice generalization, it’s still a generalization and these are usually not completely true. So even if a large amount of Americans is said to be very friendly and open-minded, it doesn’t apply to every single one of them and you might get across some rude and unkind people, too.

In conclusion most stereotypes, negative or positive, are based on some sort of truth, but they still aren’t reliable and even if they might help us to get a quick impression of a culture or a group of people, they don’t apply to individuals. So keep in mind that when you meet a person you should never judge them by a universal belief, but get to know them personally and you will see that not every generalization is true. 

¹"Super Size Me" (2004) 

²http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/09/mexico-obesity-rate-united-states_n_3568537.html