currently I am working on essays for school. That is why I won’t be able to post new travel reports anytime soon.

Since one of my essays is about Cuba, I have found an interesting website/organisation. If  you are living in Berlin this could be interesting for you. The organisation is called “Freundschaftsgesellschaft Berlin-Cuba e.V.” Their goal is to promote communication between Germans and Cubans and to learn more about Cuban culture etc. In addition they want Cuba to be a free and independent country.

If you are interested in Cuba you can travel there with this organisation. They offer 3 week long work “vacation” where you have a place to live and food (along with other voluntary workers). Besides work, excursions etc are included as well. Of course you have to pay for the flight etc but for me this sounds like an interesting opportunity to get to know real Cuba and its people. Here is the link to their website. It’s only available in German.

Thank you for reading my blog!

thanks for participating in my poll! Here the results (up to now)

1. New York
2. L.A. ; My personal experience in Minnesota

New York received a slight majority of your votes. That’s why I will write about my time in New York next time. Los Angeles and my personal experience in Minnesota are very close to New York.

Bye for now!

last time I recommended some travel blogs. I have been to some places in the USA (just a small part of this huge country) and would like to know about your interests. I hope that some of the places I have been to, sound interesting to you. Or maybe you have also been to a place there and want to know my opinion about it.

I will be happy to write about the place that has the most votes next week. So please feel free to tell me your wishes. You can chose more than one answer and you can also leave comments!!!!

If you like to know more about Ireland visit seetheworld1.

If you like to travel to Panama and know more about it visit Sibylle’s Panama Blog.

If you want to know more about exotic countries (general information, no travel reports) this site is really good to learn more about the different places in this world: whatsgoingonin

When I tell you where it is  you probably do not imagine it as a great place to go.

It is located in South Dakota,USA.

At least I did not expect South Dakota to be an interesting and amazing state to visit.  Now, I think different.

During my exchange year in Minnesota in 2006, my host brother and sister went on some trips with me. In March of 2006 we drove to South Dakota. The highways there are very boring and for a 100 miles or something you cannot find a fast food restaurant or a real town (which is quite dramatic if you’re starving…).

In the end though, it was worth visitng- thanks to a National Park called Badlands.

Now you are maybe wondering why a National Park is called Badlands. The reason is, that there is no drinking water, the landscape is very arid and for settlers this was a bad place to stay.

For us today, however, the Badlands are “good lands”. I cannot describe it in words, so I want to show you some of my pictures. We only drove through the Badlands for half a day. Sometimes we stopped and walked a little bit and took pictures. I hope that you can imagine what it looks like.

badlands

view on badlands

The “hills” there fell like sand. You can actually break parts out of it easily. I found it amazing how these hills can survive such a long time. I would think that with the next shower, they are gone.

badlands material

badlands path

They exist for about 28 million years! (see their website) That is why it is a great place to find fossils (for professionals).

If you are interested in geology and fossils at all you should visit the Badlands National Park. Even if you do not really care about the history, I think everyone will be amazed by this beautiful place.

Please let me know if you want to see more pictures of the Badlands or if you want to know more. For detailed information you can have a look at the Badlands Visitor Guide 2009 (pdf).

]]> http://melina89.wordpress.com/2009/06/18/is-there-a-place-called-badlands/feed/ 1 maitai89 badlands 8 badlands badlands material badlands path http://melina89.wordpress.com/2009/06/10/your-opinion/ http://melina89.wordpress.com/2009/06/10/your-opinion/#comments Wed, 10 Jun 2009 20:01:53 +0000 maitai89 http://melina89.wordpress.com/?p=137 ]]> Dear readers,

this time I would like you to tell me your opinion about my recent posts and Croatia. I would appreciate it if you participate in my first poll! As always, you’re welcome to leave comments. Thank you!!!

Nin cathedral

Nin is a very small town, so the cathedral and some ancient ruins are the only sights to visit.

In Zadar, there are more ruins, from Roman temples. There are in the middle of a square, next to a cathedral and a bell tower.

Zadar cathedral and tower

Zadar Roman ruins

From the tower you have a wonderful view over the city and the port.

View from tower

As you can see, the city of Zadar is quite big. Therefore you can find many shops and restaurants there.

If you can, you should visit Sibenik and Split in the South of Croatia. Sibenik offers a castle, from where you can enjoy the wonderful view over the city and the canal. I went there to watch the sunset and it was a very nice spot to take sunset pictures. Furthermore the city has an old cathedral (World Heritage Site) with a beautiful dome.

Sibenik cathedral

Sunset from castle

Split is Croatia’s 2nd largest urban center (info from wikipedia) and a World  Heritage Site. Especially the old town is impressive. There is a part of Diocletian’s Palace, which was built in the 4th century (info taken from link). Split is- like Zadar- a seaport.

Diocletian's Palace in Split

The cities are worth visiting, if you

• enjoy historical architecture
• are interested in history
• want to get some impressions of the Croatian culture

This was all about my holidays in Croatia. I hope you enjoyed my posts. I will be happy to answer any questions or feedback!!!

The Park is located in Croatia near the border to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Some scnenes of Karl May’s Winnetou movies were shot there. It is a beautiful lake and waterfall location which is surrounded by many trees and walking trails.

Plitvice bridge

Plitvice lakes water

I recommend to arrive there early, because it takes time to see everything. There are not just walking trails, but also a boat ride. The entrance fee is 110 kuna (15  Euro) in the summer season.  (see the website of the park)

View from trail

waterfall

I was impressed by the clear blue water. There were many fish, and also outside the water you can find interesting insects, like a purple dragonfly.

Fish

Fish in water

View from boat

lake and bridge

I hope that you have a first impression of the Plitvice National Park now. I only used my pictures (as always). Of course the quality of the pictures always depends on the weather and the time of the day. Please tell me if you have any questions or comments! Next time I will move away from nature in order to show you some great ancient cities of Croatia!

Krka waterfall

Where in the world do you think is this breath-taking spot??? Be honest- would you have guessed that this is in Croatia? Just 2 days of driving away from Berlin????

Personally, I expected Croatia and its national park to be boring, but what I found is a spectacular place!

To see this waterfall you have to visit the Krka National Park. It is around the Krka river, near Sibenik.

Entrance fee for an adult is 95 kuna, which is 13 Euro. You can then walk to this waterfall. If you want to see more of the national park (which I recommend) you should take a 2 hour boat trip. This costs 100 kuna, so again about 13 Euro. Visit their website for more information.

I enjoyed the park very much. The water of the river was so clear and blue. You can see many fish.

Krka fish

One thing, that I found very nice was that you could go into the water. The temperature was ok, but you have to be careful when you walk on the ground barefoot. There are many rocks. Here are some more impressions of the Krka waterfall. These are all taken from the walking trails.

Krka waterfalls: people in the water

Krka waterfalls

Krka waterfalls from trail

Krka waterfalls

If you want to see more, take a boat trip! It is worth it! It goes along the river and at the end there is another waterfall- Roski-Slap. There you can take a break and walk a little bit. I enjoyed the trip, since it was a rather small boat with only few people on it. You could even touch the water.

The boat

View from boat on Krka river

One highlight of the boat tour was that we saw a little turtle. Since the boat was small, we were able to be very close to the shore. Then we also got close to Roski-Slap.

Turtle on Krka shore

Roski slap

I hope that you were able to get an impression of Krka National Park. I did not write that much, because I think that the pictures speak for themsleves. If you would like to know more about it, please do not hesitate to ask me! I will be happy to answer your questions and comments.

By the way- maybe some of the pictures seem familiar to you. Some scenes of Winnetou 1 were shot in the park.

My parents and I stayed in an apartment which belongs to a campground -  Camping Kozarica. It is located directly by the sea and only a few minutes away (walking) from the centre of Pakostane. What I liked about it was

• the nice apartment building, comfortable, with a balcony
• the view from the balcony (the sea and pine trees)
• direct sea location and still close to town

View from our balcony

Some disadvantages were:

• a bar with loud music near the apartment building (sometimes until 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning)
• the “beach” of the campground, since it is full of stones (you should have shoes if you wan to walk) and you either have to jump into the water from a concrete platform or take the stairs

Croatia does not have many sandy beaches, so the beach there was like many other beaches in Croatia. It’s is my personal point of view, because I prefer sandy beaches. Other beaches were also full of stones, but you could walk into the sea. For that you need “swim shoes” unless you like walking on stones…I did not like to wear those swim shoes, because it was harder to swim with them. Also you have to look out for sea urchins. That’s why I often took the stairs and began to swim right away without touching the ground of the sea. You can see some pictures also on the websites of the campground.

Another disadvantage for me was that the water was really cold when we got there. This is because of a certain sea current in this area. It became warmer, but at first it was a shock for us, because we expected warm water- it felt more like swimming in the Baltic Sea. In contrast to the Baltic Sea though, the water was very clear at all times. That’s why it is also a nice place to go diving or snorkeling.

As you can see it depends on your own preferences whether you like this place or not. If you don’t mind rocky and stony beaches, Croatia is definetely worth visiting (as summer vacation). In Pakostane you should not expect a calm place, since there are bars and other (not huge) apartment buildings around.

Maybe you do not want to have a “beach vacation”. Then you should definetely visit Croatia. There are old cities to visit and many impressing national parks. You will read about (maybe) unexpected things you can see there in my next post!

To read more about Pakostane visit their website. Here are some impressions of the campground and the surrounding area. All pictures are taken by myself in summer of 2006.

apartment building

trail near campground

beach campground (platform)

beach campgound (pebbles and stones)

Beach in walking distance from campground

view on beach near campground

beach acccess from campground

palm tree in pakostane and me