Youpost 4

Key West

 

Probably the most picturesque place I visited is Key West. When I walked along the beach, feeling the fine sand between my toes and enjoying the panoramic view of the crystal-clear turquiose ocean, I thought I was in paradise. I never ever wanted to leave this place but here I am again in stodgy Austria telling you about it. Hopefully, I can spark your interest in this place by telling you more about it. First of all, before going there, you want to make sure you pack at least one swimsuit, an essential item. I can say this because I forgot mine and experienced the sweatiest holiday ever. Besides the swimsuit, you will want to bring sun glasses and a camera.

Things to do in Key West:

Most certainly you will travel to Key West via Miami as there are only a few flights destined for Key West. Don't rent a car to drive down from Miami as you won't need one in Key West. Instead, take one of the many tourist bus, which are not very expensive. When on the bus, make sure you sit in the front row so that you can enjoy the endless view.

This is the map of the Old Town Trolley route that tours around Key West. It stops at the most important places such as museums, bars, lookout towers and the beach. Using the bus to explore Key West is convenient and easy; you can get in and out wherever you want.

One of the stops of the Old Town Trolley is the southernmost point in the US. When visiting Key West, you have to take a picture standing next to the giant concrete monument, fashioned after a buoy. This monument is only 90 miles away from Cuba - want to hop over?

Don't forget to stop at Sloppy Joe's Bar. This bar serves the award-winning key lime pie, which is a special cocktial, Key West is famous for. Stroll along in Oldtown, where Sloppy Joe's Bar is located, and stop in at the Blonde Giraffe Key Lime Pie factory. If you prefer wine, try the one at the Key West Winery, where it is made of fruits like oranges, mangos and tangerines - but no graps. A truly unique taste bud experience!

With this post I hope to have given you a few pieces of information about Key West. It is most definitely a place to visit if you want to experience being in paradise. Knowing the beauty of this place, it is common among retired New Yorkers to move down to it to flee all city-related problems. I probably won't be able to do that but I know where to send people for a perfect beach wedding; by the way, what about your wedding?

Youpost 3

Studying the US history has made me really miss it; as I lived there for a year. So, my boyfriend and I decided to take a two-week trip to the US. When I told my friend in Washington, D.C. about the trip, she offered me her Volkswagen van to drive down to Miami,FL to enjoy a few days on the beach. After discussing further details with her, my boyfriend and I booked our trip: we will fly on Monday,  August 4th from Vienna to Washington, D.C., drive down to Miami, FL (we will leave the van at my friends' uncle in Miami) and return to Vienna on Monday, August 18th, 2014.

The plan: 

After the long flight from Vienna to Washington, D.C. we will probably be exhausted and jet-lagged, so we will stay at the hotel the first day to relax and adjust to time. The next day we will visit the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum to please my boyfriend's obsession with airplanes. Afterwards, will walk down 7th Street to Chinatown and the big Verizon Center. The food served in these little restaurants will hopefully be as exceptional as the holiday brochure says, and I am also excited to see the great Chinese gate next to them. From this gate we will take a walk to Vernon Square park and the nearby Business Center (further up the 7th Street) until we will meet friends of mine for dinner at night. On Wednesday, we will take the little tourist bus, which tours around Washington D.C, for sightseeing. Stops of this bus will be Washington Union Station (with an impressive train set inside and circle-arranged monuments outside) as well as the Washington Monument, the Korean War Veterans Memorial with the final stop at the Lincoln Memorial. This memorial not only honors Abraham Lincoln, one of the greatest presidents of the US who ended slavery and preserved the union, but also represents the idea of freedom and equality. Freedom and equality of black people were also a major concerns of Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech, held in front of this memorial on August 28th, 1963. This historic and spacious place will be breathtaking to see; I cannot wait to visit it. Also worth a visit is supposed to be the Capitol, to which we will stroll to the next day. This Capitol holds two houses: the Senate and the House of Representatives. These lawmakers (100 Senators and 435 Representatives), together with the

president and the supreme court,  build the three branches of the US government. Having visited the Capitol and the most important memorials and museums in Washington D.C., we will start our long drive to Miami, Fl. We assume that it will take us about two exhausting days from Washington, D.C. to Miami, Fl. Since the van is very spacious and comfortable we will also spend the night in it. Sleeping in the van will be an absolute dream come-to-true for me; I already bought sleeping bags and battery operated lights for these adventurous nights. During the day, however, my boyfriend and I will take turns driving until we finally arrive in Miami. The capital city of Florida offers inexpensive youth hostels and guesthouses but because we can sleep in the van, we will stay at a campground. When in Miami, I will walk the glamorous streets filled with exclusive clubs and shops until my feet hurt. Having seen these streets in many movies, I hope to get a glimpse of the luxurious lifestyle of the people living there; maybe even try an expensive dress in one of the shops.These unique streets are supposed to be bustling and packed with people and I will absorb all energy of this lively atmosphere. I can picture myself standing there, breathing and just taking it all in. Unfortunately, the holiday brochure says that the campground will be the contrary: small and deserted. Nonetheless, this will not stop me from making the most of our stay there. Despite the fact that the we will be staying in a more remote and filthy area of the city, I hope to be able to go to the fashionable residential districts on the outskirts and to the ones near the sea. Other than that, we do not plan to do a lot of sightseeing. Admittedly, we will just spend the time lazing at the beach until we have to fly back to boring Austria. All in all, I hope this will be an eventful and memorable trip to the US; and I cannot wait to sleep in the van.

cost:
flight (€1,100)
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (€8)
museum (€12)
tourist bus (€13)
food (€400)
gas (€600)
campground fee (€200)
souvenirs (€50)
miscellaneous (€100)
---------------------------------------------------------------
€ 2483

YOUPOST 2

Stereotype: Americans are not environmentally friendly 

The stereotypical picture of America includes high polluting SUVs and plastic-packed XXL (fast) food everywhere. In the country where everything is possible, climate change is too. Do Americans really not care about global warming or are people just making up negative facts about the great US? Let’s take a look.

The National Geographic Society¹  (one of the largest non-profit institutions in the world) yearly releases a survey defining the Greendex² of a country to be able to compare the world’s countries environmental behavior. For this survey 17,000 consumer in 17 countries where asked about their housing, energy usage, consumption of goods, transportation and food choices (organic vs. conventional). Over the years America manages somehow to be ranked lowest.  From 2010 to 2012 Germany, China and Spain have increased their environmental actions/behavior the most whereas Brazil and India (former winner) have decreased largely. Americans and Canadians share the bottom of this ranking, remaining stable.  After studying this Greendex I can conclude that half of the Americans would describe themselves as green. Not even a fourth would say that he/she is concerned about environmental problems and their impact on health or life. However, 6% of Americans actually do feel guilty about their impact on the environment, which basically states that the stereotype is true (referring to this survey).  

Americans care more and more, but still not enough

You can't care about everything.
Financial inability or problems also keep you from being environmentally friendly next to rules and regulations (Americans can't buy the same cars as Europeans).

In general, Americans do a better job in recycling and buying organic food than they did in the past. The real problem is just the attitude towards global warming. There are constantly warnings and studies as well as predictions of scientists, which have failed before such as the prediction of the world-ending in 2012. People have heard it all before. Just saying something might happen if behavior continues like right now doesn’t impress anyone. I found a nice comparison to further explain this³: if there was a group of researchers who built a computer model that is able to tell you what you will be thinking in 24h, would you believe it? Probably not because there hasn’t been anything similar to this before. Same with climate changes. Although climate changes are natural like history proves (ice-age) we are not able to forecast them because we simply don’t understand them. Americans also argue that temperature never remains constant, not throughout the day, the year or decade. I bet you have caught yourself thinking or saying that this time last year was much warmer than right now. If not, just listen to elderly people talking about the weather. 
Weather forecast and climate change forecast - Americans listen to it but don’t trust the opinions on it, hence their behavior. 

How environmentally friendly is your behavior-calculate you personal Greendex:
http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/greendex/calculator/

¹ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Geographic_Society

² http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/greendex/#close-modal

³ http://www.drroyspencer.com/2009/05/why-america-does-not-care-about-global-warming/

sources:
http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf/media-content/file/NGS_2012_Final_Global_report_Jul20-cb1343059672.pdf
http://www.environmentalleader.com/2011/06/06/why-americans-don%E2%80%99t-buy-global-warming-part-i-of-ii/
http://www.psychworld.com/3-reasons-why-we-don%E2%80%99t-care-about-the-environment-2010-06
http://www.gallup.com/poll/2992/americans-environmentally-friendly-issue-seen-urgent-problem.aspx
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/04/22/earth_day_pew_research_poll_shows_how_little_americans_care_about_the_planet.html

YOUPOST 1

It’s that time of the year again.

It is almost as normal as it is special, Halloween, again. People can’t wait to dress up and look ridiculously “scary” but that is actually the purpose of it. As I did some research, I found out that the origin of Halloween was actually in Britain; dated back about 2000 years ago. Even back then people would put on masks to help the deceased, who would return as ghosts, to feel welcome and also leave food and wine on their doorsteps. Trick or treating, another tradition, derived from so called “souling and guising”. The first one stands for backing soul cakes and praying for ancestors whereas the other one describes people dressing up and singing in exchange for money or food. Pretty surprising, right? In fact, what surprised me most was that people would leave wash basin and towels for the spirit of their dead fellows to wash themselves before starting to eat the prepared food. Not enough, on November second they would go to their deceased’s grave (who should be back in the grave by then,  I guess) and drink tequila to celebrate. Imagine that in Austria, you could count the fingers pointing at you. As a matter of fact (the last historical one I promise), the English stopped celebrating Halloween after Martin Luther’s protestant reformation because they lost faith in saints and saw no more reason to scare away ghosts. Well, what am I trick or treating if I am not going to the cemetery the day after to honor the spirits and souls of my dead relatives? However, I personally like the fact that there is a day where the world gets crazy and people lose their manners. Normally, I would not go around my neighborhood wearing a costume, singing and asking people for candy. Finally, no fingers are pointed.

I guess, you just have to leave out the (side) effect of Halloween on the industry and the enormous amount of money it makes with it .

Happy trick or treating everyone and don’t be too “lazy” to dress up!

Check out my former neighbor and his house.












don't forget to dress up your pet