Travelogues

Travelogue: South Africa, Zambia, and Botswana

By Jackie Walker

After some 21.5 hours of travel and several time zones, we finally arrived in Capetown, South Africa! South Africa has approximately 47 million people of diverse origins, cultures, languages, and beliefs. The population is 79% African (Black), 9% European, 9% mixed, and 2.5% East Indian and Asian.

We visited the Cape of Good Hope, the southern most tip of the continent and Cape Agulhas where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet--an awesome experience! The Dutch (Boers) influenced the region with Dutch-style architecture, and the French (Huguenots) brought a flourishing wine industry. South Africa has a spectacular coastline (comparable to California's or the Almifi Coast in Italy), with waves shooting about 80 feet high. The mountain ranges are also quite spectacular. We crossed several mountain passes, as we traveled inland with stops in Durban, the Kingdom of Swaziland, and Zululand, where we stayed in traditional Zulu huts.

Next was our safari in Kruger National Park, one of the largest game parks in South Africa. In Kruger, we were fortunate and lucky to see the famous "Big 5": the lion, elephant, buffalo, rhino, and the elusive leopard. We were very excited to see a leopard dragging an impala (fresh kill) off to high ground. While in Kruger, we also saw zebras, wildebeests, impalas, rhinos, and a variety of exotic birds. From Kruger, we went on to Johannesburg and Pretoria, the capital.

Then we flew to Zambia to see Victoria Falls, whose African name is Mosi-oa-Tunya or "The Smoke That Thunders." It is truly one of the natural wonders of the world. The highlight of our trip was a one-day safari in Chobe National Park, Botswana. We saw large herds of elephants, giraffes, hippos, lions, impalas, monkeys, crocodiles, and exotic birds to name a few.

Overall, our vacation/safari was educational and exciting! In two and a half weeks we covered about 2,242 miles of travel by coach and plane. This was by far one of my favorite and exotic vacations, filled with wonderful memories and pictures that I hope you all enjoy as you view them at http://www.flickr.com/gp/11700805@N07/0tVX7f.

Travelogue: New York City

By Andrew Kloak

On my vacation, I went to New York City and New Jersey. After spending most of my life in Chicago, I began this trip with a healthy skepticism that the biggest apple in the bushel of American cities is the best. This was the Kloak family reunion, and we had fourteen in attendance out of a possible twenty-five people. I figured this was not a bad turnout for being on the East Coast.

Most New Yorkers probably wouldn't consider their city to have a comparable counterpart anywhere in the country, Los Angeles and Chicago included. I came into this like a pugilist taking on the heavy-weight champion in Madison Square Garden. I wouldn't challenge this monster of U.S. finance and culture straight up. That's a strategy that would get me knocked to the canvas in the first round. My approach would be to concentrate my efforts with quick short jabs on the inside.

My brother, George, and wife, Liz, live in Ridgewood, NJ, in the Bergen County suburbs of NYC, so that was our base of operations for the six days we were there. That was great because we were finding a lot of hotels in Manhattan that were charging $500 per night.

Yes, New Jersey like Chicago doesn't get much respect, but there are good things to see there, too. We toured the Hermitage in Ho-Ho-Kus, NJ. The Revolutionary War-era house was closed that day, but they gave us a private tour after seeing that we were admiring it from the outside. It was great to see. George Washington stayed at the house with his army camped all around the site after the Battle of Monmouth in 1778.

NYC has its share of early American history, too. We learned that the stronger English forces made the Big Apple its stronghold for most of the Revolutionary War, so it was no small gesture that that the Founding Fathers made the city our first capital until moving it to the District of Columbia. I was surprised to see that Washington was inaugurated as the first president on the steps of Federal Hall in 1789 in the heart of present-day Wall Street.

We took a three-hour Circle Line Boat Tour around Manhattan. The place is so organized that they even have official titles for the people who sell you water while you are waiting in line to get on the boat. There was a Water Hawker 1A, 2A, 3A, etc. We went past all five boroughs (Manhattan, Bronx, Harlem, Queens, and Staten Island) on this exciting journey. All told, we passed under twenty bridges as we circumnavigated Manhattan.

The city of NY is doing a lot with piers just like San Francisco. Our guide, John, explained their ambitious plans for piers. They are tearing down all the cargo piers and currently constructing thirteen new ones with restaurants and hotels on them. He said they towed about one-thousand cars that morning alone to the city-owned Pier 76 where the owners could retrieve them after paying their $283. And if they didn't pick them up in a day, they would be pushed into the Hudson. What humor these New Yorkers have.

My favorite building on the New York skyline was the seventy-seven story high Chrysler Building with its art deco style. It's not far from the Empire State Building and looks like it. This skyscraper's spike and bluish-black coloring reminded me of Batman's Gotham City.

NYC's Wall Street took a blow after September 11 when a number of financial firms moved across the Hudson to New Jersey. You can see that on the boat tour, especially since a number of those firms moved to Jersey City. That town's skyline has grown by an impressive 25% since 9/11, according to our other tour guide, my brother George.

When our cruise boat passed the Statue of Liberty, I was seeing what my grandparents saw one-hundred years ago as they passed through Ellis Island, arriving from Bohemia (present day Czech Republic). Our guide said this gift from the French people to the United States was copper colored in the early years. My grandmother and my grandfather met in New York and were married in Palisades Park, NJ.

Deep down, I like to think of myself as a battler descended from a clan of battlers from the south side of Chicago, but as each day passed on this trip, I started to see that our story goes back even further, to the Statue of Liberty and New York City itself.

Ground Zero was just as awe inspiring as the Statue of Liberty. We went to a subway platform and looked down into it from that elevated position. It was hard to believe that this was the spot where two jetliners going six-hundred miles per hour slammed into these buildings and caused them to collapse and virtually shut down the southern tip of Manhattan for six months. There is a road that goes down four levels to an earthen pit that is still very much a work in progress.

While on Central Park West Avenue, we saw the Plaza Hotel that Paul Hogan in Crocodile Dundee walked out of while looking for the subway on his first morning in NYC. I remembered that our guide on the boat had said that Catherine Zeta-Jones lives on Central Park West Avenue, too.

The food was great. We went to Chinatown and had dinner at a restaurant that has the best wonton soup in the country according to the New York Times. The Times was right; it was great. Now, if I could only remember the name of the place.

This area was tremendous to see. NYC (and even New Jersey) earned my respect, and, while I didn't make it through fifteen rounds (six days wasn't quite enough), I would definitely return again to this heavy hitter of American cities.

A typical house in Ho-Ho-Kus, NJ

The Kloak's on the steps of NY's Federal Hall

Front row: Andrew; second row (L-R): father, George Kloak; Mariana; mother, Therese Kloak; and wife, Teofila, holding Cassandra

The Chrysler Building of Batman lore

Statue of Liberty from NY Harbor

Ground Zero

Travelogue: Costa Rica

By Gaelen Lombard

I went to Costa Rica for 10 days following our 9th Annual International Symposium on Multidetector-Row CT this June. I had done plenty of research before going after discovering that for a small country, there is quite a lot to see. The country does not have much to offer in terms of "must-see" metropolitan attractions, but it does have plenty to offer in terms of natural wonders. I decided to avoid the capital city of San Jose entirely, and I have no regrets about doing so. My top priorities were to see volcanoes, waterfalls, and forests. I flew into the international airport, rented a car, and drove to the Monteverde Cloud Forest that same day. The next two days, I explored the national parks in the area and other attractions. Following that, I drove around Lake Arenal to the Arenal volcano and stayed there for another two days, enjoying the very active volcano and hot spring retreats on its slopes. Then, I went on to La Paz Waterfall Gardens/Poas Volcano and finally ended my trip by taking a car ferry to the Nicoya Peninsula and relaxing in the tiny beach town of Montezuma for three days.

The decision to rent a car is a tough one. Public transportation reaches everywhere, if you do not want to worry about the safety of your rental car, driving directions, or driving hazards. The roads there are pretty rugged (i.e., unpaved), and signage ranges from "okay" to "non-existent." Plus, they do not even make local area maps, and the larger country maps leave much detail to be desired. Luckily, I speak a bit of Spanish, so getting lost was never the end of the world, and locals were always very helpful with directions. When driving internationally, you have to expect you will get lost. Costa Rica is no better or worse than other countries I have been to, but it is still maddening. In larger towns, the roads spontaneously become one-way, but with no signage to indicate which way. They do not name their streets. The major highway (the Central American Highway) is only two lanes in some parts, unlit at night, and winds through steep rainforest passes. It is exotic, until you get stuck behind a big rig going 20 mph for four hours. Then, it just becomes incredibly tedious and incredibly thrilling, when your companion decides to pass them on a blind turn! (Everyone does it.) All in all, I have no regrets about renting a car and driving--if you are safe and cautious about it, it can give you a lot more flexibility. And even though I went during the rainy season, I only had to do one river crossing.

Costa Rica is a very popular destination as an alternative to Hawaii because it has tropical rainforests, beautiful warm beaches, and an equal duration plane ride that is competitively priced. Best of all, everything is cheaper than Hawaii once you are there. Plus, you can use U.S. currency almost everywhere. I would highly recommend it to everyone. The amount of wildlife to be seen is unsurpassed. You don't even have to visit the national parks to see it. There were monkeys living in the mango groves above my bungalow in Montezuma, and I had to watch out for the fruit and other debris they'd drop on the ground. In addition, Arenal Volcano is one of the most active volcanoes in the world, and you can view the lava flowing down it from your hotel room at night. Where else in the world can you go and enjoy rainforests, lava, hot springs, monkeys, toucans, and lakes all in the same place? It is phenomenal.

I have so many great memories from the trip, but if I had to name my favorite destination, it would be Monteverde. The tiny community in the elevated mountains has been shaped by a group of Quakers who emigrated there in 1951 in protest to U.S. military policy. It is a group of three little towns, which are touristy, but in an outdoorsy way. It is a trek to actually reach Monteverde--all roads going in are unpaved and practically unsigned to help keep tourism down. Most hotels there are eco-lodges, and everyone lives in ecologically sustainable ways. There is so much to do, from the area's three national parks, to extreme (and not-so-extreme) sports activities, butterfly gardens, orchid gardens, frog ranariums, etc. Hiking in Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve was a misty wonderland, and I'd never seen anything like it. You can check out my journey's pictures at this link (http://www.flickr.com/photos/9649588@N04/sets/72157600697586070), and see for yourself. Enjoy!

Travelogue: Turkey

Mary, Phil, and Emily in front of the Blue Mosque of Istanbul

By Mary Bobel, MBA

Turkey is a beautiful country, so rich in history and tradition. My husband, Phil, my daughter, Emily, and I were particularly fortunate to have our daughter's friend, Baran, who is of Turkish descent, as our wonderful guide. Baran speaks fluent Turkish and his knowledge of the Turkish culture and landscape greatly enhanced our trip! We started our visit in Istanbul, a city that spans two continents separated by the beautiful Bosphorus. A ferry ride was a great way to capture the view of the city with all of its historic mosques, palaces, and museums. We visited the famous bazaar, which spans several city blocks, with jewelry, carpets, and apparel for sale.

After three packed days in Istanbul, we flew to Cappadocia, a region in the middle of the country known for its unique geological features. A hot air balloon ride was a great way to capture views of the landscape with all the dwellings built into caves. There were underground cities with as many as eight stories to explore. We finished our trip on the Aegean coast where the World Windsurfing Championships will be held in August. The Turkish people were so friendly and helpful, and the food was delicious! I want to return because there is still so much of the country we did not have time to see.