Update from past Face of Albright, Kelly Cross

Kelly Cross '08 is teaching English in Prague, Czech Republic, and sends us wonderful updates about her travels through Europe. I have the share the latest with you. If you ever doubt studying abroad or traveling Europe, just contact the Albright travel agent, Kelly Cross. Here's an email from her this week (warning, Kelly writes very looooooongggggggggggg updates):

MAY/JUNE 2009 TRAVEL DIARY

When faced with any predicament there are always at least two choices; to do something or to do nothing at all. Luckily for me my predicament provided me with three choices; to sit and watch, walk, or saddle-up a donkey. Clearly I chose the donkey. I’m going to let you hold that thought a bit, now let’s start at the beginning…

May. May has been jam packed with events up the wazoo. It started with a weekend trip to Amsterdam, the capital of The Netherlands or Holland. For those of you who were/are confused on the difference between the two, allow me to clear that up for you because I finally just figured it out and I’m quite eager to share my newfound knowledge. The Netherlands is the country and Holland is the name of three provinces (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague) within the country. So I have been to The Netherlands and to Holland because I was in Amsterdam, which is a part of Holland and Holland is a part of The Netherlands, so two places: check and check, at the same time. Did you follow? Well it’s all historically based and as I would love to go further in-depth I’ll let you google it or ask a history professor J In short, it’s a complete mess and entirely way more complicated than it ever needed to be.

If you have thought that perhaps Amsterdam is not what it’s cracked up to be or maybe it’s not your scene, come talk to me. It is a wonderful city. There were five of us who went. Esther and Hannah (the two girls I’ve been living with since Day 1), Geoff and Mason (the two boys we lived with before we found out flat), and me. So it was great. I would recommend anywhere between 2-3 days there. It is imperative to see the Anne Frank House (it’s her 80th birthday tomorrow), I thought it was wonderfully done. You must go early in the morning or right before it closes, otherwise you’ll be waiting in a line for hours. We also went on a bike tour. Amsterdam is notorious for their biking, absolutely EVERYONE has bikes, it’s incredible! These bikes are straight out of the 50’s too, so it’s hilarious. No one has a nice bike because there are about 10,000 stolen each year. Each person pays about $20 for a bike that was stolen. So it’s a nice little circle and only a matter of time before you actually buy the bike that was originally yours, right? A little Dutch humor for you.

Now what is Amsterdam most famous for? The marijuana and the prostitution. I could have stayed in Amsterdam for a longer period of time just to conduct a couple social experiments. Marijuana. It’s legal in Amsterdam. This is actually false- it is illegal. However, it is an offence that is not criminalized, so if you do smoke there is nothing the police can/will do. It’s also incredibly controlled, which is fascinating as well. I thought that it would be in the grocery store next to the cereal, but no. You can only buy it in an establishment with “coffeeshop” in the name. These establishments, most of the time, don’t sell beer or any form of alcohol because it’s really difficult to get a license for both and mixing the two is not encouraged. When you do walk into one of these “coffeeshops” it’s unbelievable because they hand you a full menu of different types of weed. It’s like going to the diner. Unreal.

The Red Light District. I had absolutely no desire to go through the Red Light District, but when in Rome….So these women have a paycheck, benefits, the whole 9 just like having a 9-5 job. They stand in their little window in front of these buildings and tap the window as you walk by. I felt, as a by-passer, more uncomfortable than them. I really disliked it immensely. When I went on the tour our tour guide said that Amsterdam is talking about shutting it down over the next two years. In my head I immediately thought that it was a great idea. However, I’m now on the fence. Here are the facts: Amsterdam is known for prostitution. All of the women choose to do this. There are security camera’s EVERYWHERE. It is completely 100% controlled. They make very good money. Now, if it is made illegal, the security camera’s will come down, it will not be controlled, and the prostitution will go underground. It’s sad because Amsterdam’s made a name for itself with this a part of its image and it’s going to be really hard to change that. So what is moral? No prostitution allowed with the high possibility of women being trafficked illegally or legal prostitution safe and legit? This is supposed to be easy.

So if the prostitution and weed are not on your to-do list, we definitely know it wasn’t on mine, I can vouch that there is still plenty to do. I kept busy in the city through the plethora of other things. The food is fantastic, there are canals going right through the city so you can go for a canal boat ride, there’s the Van Gogh museum, the memorable bike tour, and you can go out to the countryside to see the windmills and tulips. So there’s loads to do.

After this weekend trip that was really more of a lesson on society and culture than a holiday, we returned to Prague and to work. Mom and Poppa Cross came bopping through shortly thereafter. It was so great seeing them here. They were in Prague for 9 days and absolutely loved it. They pretty much explored the city inside and out and tried every Czech beer and typical food. They had a smooth trip except for their arrival, but I’ll let you ask them for the details of that J I will tell you it involved a train ride from Germany to Prague that was originally one train, but turned into 5 and a public bus. What a way to make an entrance, eh? All part of the experience.

The day after they left Hannah, Esther, and I embarked on the most anticipated traveling adventure of the year, our Costa Cruise through Italy, Greece, and Croatia. It was nothing short of spectacular. Still not sure if I’m a “cruise person” though.

We arrived into Venice and immediately hopped onto the beautiful Costa Victoria. We disembarked at 6pm sailing right past St. Marks Square at sunset. The next morning we arrived in Ancona, Italy. Cute little town, but nothing too special to be honest. Moving on…the next stop was Santorini, where they filmed Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Any image you have in your head of what it probably looks like is most likely spot on. The cruise ship couldn’t get too close so we had to tender boat it in. Upon reaching shore you have three options: walk up, take a cable car up (not an option because there was a massive line) or take a donkey. And we hopped on that donkey. It’s nothing like riding a horse because there is no control on your part or the part of the donkey for that matter. An experience that came with a “once is enough” mentality. After reaching the top we meandered around the island, which was formed by a volcano. The views were simply stunning. Then we got back onboard the Costa Victoria and went to Mykanos for the afternoon/evening. Another incredibly beautiful island, however I did like Santorini better. Mykanos you can find some amazing restaurants and the infamous Paradise Beach. We ate the best meal of the trip there while watching the sunset. The restaurants are 5 feet from the ocean and the seafood is still moving on your plate it’s so fresh and pretty cheap! It was like a scene from a movie.

The next morning we found ourselves in a little place called Athens. We paid extra for an excursion and it was the best “euro-age” I’ve ever spent. Athens is huge and there are so many people and A LOT of cars- I wanted in and out of there as fast as possible. We had a bus pick us up at the port and bring us straight to the Acropolis with a tour, then to the Olympic stadium, and we finished the day at Plaka, which was also quite the sight. Then back onboard unscathed. It was glorious. On this excursion our cruise English director came along so I had the wonderful opportunity of drilling him on the “cruise ship lifestyle”. These guys really work. 7 days a week no time off, occasionally an afternoon. Crazy, but good money and their getting paid to see the world (well the same 7 stops, but the world nonetheless). It is also important to mention that the Costa Victoria is quite a versatile woman-she’s Italian so speaks Italian as her first language then Spanish, French, German, English, Greek, and to round it all off-Chinese. Every announcement onboard was 20 minutes long because everything had to be translated. This is not a problem, except the majority of the passengers were Italian. Italians are not known for being quiet and soft-spoken, so after their announcement the noise ensued as you’re trying to climb closer to the speakers to understand your very small snippet (which was undoubtedly not the same information because it was always shorter than their version) before it continued on in the next language. This was comical in the beginning, but when I almost missed salsa lessons, all joking was put aside. However, I did make it and now I can salsa in Italian. Check that off the life list.

The next morning we went to my favorite place hands down, Corfu. It’s a small Greek island in Northern Greece. Everything paradise should be. There is a rich forest floor full of trees and green shrubbery that leads right to a massive ledge revealing a crystal clear cove suitable for swimming. We were on one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever been to and there was NO ONE. To top it all off- the FOOD, the food was just so good. We rented a jeep and just conquered the island. The woman at the car rental place was so nice, too nice actually. She saw we were Americans and struggling with the language and gave us a map in English, the problem was all of the signs were written in Greek. As the navigator it doesn’t get anymore cliché, it was all Greek to me –ba dum dum-apologies, but we know this had to happen at some point.

The last and final stop was our starting point, Venice. The lowdown on Venice. If you have the opportunity- go, it’s sinking. My suggestion is to keep your standards low because it is very expensive, crowded, and hot so the canals give off a smell that is not pleasant (this is true ONLY in the summer though). There are too many tourists in and out of there: 20 million a year and 60,000 inhabitants. The tourists mostly just stay for the day so they’re not spending enough money to cover the damage. Venice definitely needs to do something to deal with crowd control, but on a positive note, there is not another place like it in the world AND you must go on a gondola ride it was such an enjoyable experience and they’re undoubtedly the best tour guides in the city. It was a highlight of the trip, behind the donkey ride of course. One day in Venice-we came, we saw, we left.

We did leave, but upon seeing our accommodation it might have been better to stay. For 12 Euro’s a night and being the young travelers we are, we decided for an adventure. The name of the place is Camp Jolly and let me tell you, it was jolly alright. So we got there and those of you who know me well, know there has to be at least one good travel story, well sit down here we go. So this Jolly place is a campground. It was a really great idea, in theory, “let’s camp our last night on our 5 star ocean cruise liner vacation. Just to prove we know how to rough it!” Well all was good in the world until about 430am when mother-nature, for the first time all week, woke up with a vengeance. The wind started up and was a whipping and a whizzing shaking the tent so much we thought we were going to blow away. The temperature then just dropped to absolutely freezing levels. I opened my bag and started to put on random layers of clothing. All I could think about was the 90 degree beach weather on Corfu the day before. The next morning we woke up misjudging the time and had 90 min to shower, get dressed, get to the airport, checked in, and on the plane. Problem: it’s an hour away and the bus we were counting on taking didn’t leave for another 2 hours. So Camp Jolly called a taxi that got us there in about 25 minutes. I have never been so scared in a taxi in my entire life. This man wanted to be Jeff Gordan himself.

Now I’m back in Prague, I’m back at work, dealing with the post-holiday memories of the fun in the sun, while looking out the window of cold, rainy Prague. I have two weeks left then onto Chapter Two. I’ll be sending one more update within the next two weeks as a wrap up and that one will, for sure, be shorter…I promise J

Also a big congratulations to the graduating class of 2009! Heard it was a wonderful and flawless, outdoor graduation J Hope you are all well and enjoying the first weeks of summer! It is also the birthday of an Albright 2007 graduate today, Marie Levins. So a BIG Happy Praguian Birthday to you Marie!!!!!! In the Czech Republic it is customary to take your friends out and buy them drinks (the complete opposite of the states) so if anyone wants to go out tonight...Marie? haha Just Kidding. Happy happy birthday!!

One of my students e-mailed me their homework this morning and wrote, “Kelly Have a Successful Thursday”.
I would have settled for good, but successful just sets the bar much higher.

Have a successful day friends,