Journal 5

My absolute favorite place I’ve ever visited is Paris, France. All of my family lives in Paris so I’ve experienced it as a tourist and as a local. I love that Paris is filled with so much history and beauty. My favorite part about Paris is the Eiffel Tower. At night time the Eiffel Tower lights up and glitters for about five minutes, every hour on the hour. I always tell people that sitting and watching the Eiffel Tower light up with a nutella crepe in one hand is my happy place.

The Eiffel Tower was built for the World Fair of 1889 by Gustave Eiffel. Today it is known as one of the beautiful structures in the world, but back when it was built many of the Paris inhabitants thought of it as an eyesore. This was a huge controversy, and still continues to be a topic of controversy today. At the time people complained that it was structurally unsound, and said that it didn’t fit in with the architecture of the rest of the city. The Eiffel Tower was much more contemporary in design, while the rest of the city was still supporting architecture that was built one hundred years earlier.

Today people still deliberate on whether or not the Eiffel Tower blends in with the rest of the city. A lot of time people will say it sticks out like a sore thumb in a city of such dainty structure. Personally, I think the Eiffel Tower is a wonderful addition to the city. It may be different in design than the rest of Paris, but I think it provides diversity. I think it helps the city exemplify such old and rustic style, as well as simply a technological and modern segment.

 

Journal 4

Unless you are traveling for business, you are traveling to explore. Whether you’re there for a relaxing vacation or for high intensity tourist trip, you are taking an adventure through the environment and the culture of a certain place. Within some of these environments, you can find stories of establishment, of excitement, and even of fear. The history of these environments is what has shaped these environments to what we enjoy. These places are filled with landmarks dating back to ancient and medieval times, or even to revolutionary moments thirty years ago. These structures unite us with the identity of an area and give us the opportunity to preserve it for future generations.

            The point of this blog is to discuss the places I want to visit, and the places I have visited. I have a lot of places I want to visit, and this summer my goal is to make it to Italy. Other than the burning desire to fully immerse myself in the mouth-watering cuisine (pizza, spaghetti, and gelato are three of my favorite foods), the historical landmarks that are found in Italy are SPECTACULAR. There’s the Colosseum, the Vaticant, and my favorite: The Leaning Tower of Pisa.

            The Leaning Tower of Pisa was built in the 10^th century, and is quite largely recognized all over the world as one of the symbolic measures of Italy. It is considered to be one of the seven wonders of the medieval world and was imperfect since the beginning. Construction started in 1173 AD and was leaning to the northwest since the moment it was finished being constructed, due to weak foundation and unstable soil. Why is the Leaning Tower of Pisa significant you may ask? Well… it is an 183 feet tall building that his stood for about 11 centuries, it stood tilting at 5.5 degrees at one point, and was saved. It brings about curiosity. A major question I ask is: why hasn’t it fallen? This building was simply meant to be a bell tower of the city of Pisa’s cathedral, yet it has turned into a significant landmark. It is remarkable and a baffling part of history that is sincerely mind blowing. I cannot wait to explore it for myself this summer.

Leaning Tower of Pisa
Photo Credits to Mike's Travel Guide

Journal 3

Jennifer and Tim are the creators and writers of the blog Luxe Adventure Traveler. They currently live in Italy and are known for their awesome adventures and lavish accommodations. They have visited 51 countries and both hold full time careers, involving travel. Their blog contains many different types of content ranging from destinations to travel deals. They discuss the fun things to do during the day in each location as well as the comforting places when you want the journey to be slow and relaxing.

 I think what makes their work so popular is that they offer a variety of information to all different types of people. The content on their blog provides information to those who are traveling on a budget, as well as those trying to have all the luxuries a place can offer. My favorite part of the blog is their section titled bucket list. I picture my blog to be a lot like this section, considering I have not visited near as many places as they have or even lived on a different continent. I plan to take their bucket list and their pieces on destinations, which are factual based, and combine those formats to create my blog.

Genre is situational based. So in this instance, they are in the situation where they are able to travel and their careers  even push them to do so. You see this feature a lot on their blog, especially when you go to the destinations section they have a whole map that with the places highlighted that they have visited. Since they are living in Europe at the moment, traveling from country to country is much easier there. You can definitely see that on the long list of European countries that they have visited. I would have to push against that genre though and go for my situation, where I am not in the circumstance to just pick up and leave. While their approach with genre was more realistic, mine will be more wishful. Their blog will help a lot with figuring out where I would like to visit and provide me with a lot of direction concerning information.