Following the Equator | EF's Educational Travel Blog

Why students should tour Central Europe

By Paul Mattesini | EF Tour Director

I work with a lot of EF Group Leaders who ask my advice on which tour they should do next. I often suggest From Rome to Athens or Central European Quartet. "Why would I want to go to Central/Eastern Europe" is a common sort of reply. "There is no Colosseum or Eiffel Tower in Budapest, and what does Vienna do" is another sort of reply that I just made up.

So, here are some thoughts on why Central European Quartet is a great tour to take and also a chance for me to stop having to run through it each time I am asked in future — I can just direct the questioner to this blog.

Currency — Oh, the euro is fun, easy and all that. However, touring in Hungary and the Czech Republic gives you a chance to mix with old-school currency changes and exchange rates. Unfamiliar banknotes with pictures of unknown national heroes. Banks even want to tell you about the designers (I hope that moustache appears on a future banknote).

Statues — The Cold War, it all happened before Twitter, so it can sometimes be deemed as irrelevant to our lives as the Crimean War. However, one thing teachers and others of a certain age will always remember are those monumental statues to Soviet leaders. Just outside of Budapest is the fabulous Memento Park, featuring huge sculptures of the era. Your EF Tour Director can arrange a quick visit; trust me, it’s worth it.

Food — Stop for lunch at one of the service stations on the Austrian or German motorway, and you will be astonished at the range of things on offer. From sandwiches stuffed with smoked meats, cheeses and the like, meat dishes cooked to order as you watch and arrays of pastries, strudels and the famous Sacher Torte.

Prague — What a city. Seriously, what a city. Your EF guided sightseeing tour will take you through the castle grounds and down the hill across the Charles Bridge to the Old Town. From here, you have an afternoon to explore. Just wandering around this amazing place is a joy in itself. Stunning architecture, all sorts of shopping, boat rides on the river, etc. It is just one of those places that you might approach wondering, "What is there to see," and you leave thinking, "I need to come back and see more."

Berlin — A superbly modern European city that blends itself so well into its longer history (try the Reichstag Dome, Glockenturm or Potsdamer Platz). You will also get to visit the Checkpoint Charlie Museum as well as having time to see the Brandenburg Gate and the thoughtfully perceived Holocaust Memorial.

The other bits — While travelling between the cities, enjoy a chance to briefly visit Brno and Dresden (to go inside the Zwinger Museum), not forgetting the Hundertwasse House in Vienna and a walk along Budapest’s Andrássy útca.

Photo: pavelm via Flickr (CC license)

Focus On: European license plates

If you find yourself in a tour bus on a highway somewhere in central Europe, looking out at the license plates of the cars passing by, you might think Europeans have devised a public way to grade drivers.  

There are cars whose license plates bear an "A"; presumably they are the best drivers. Then there are those license plates marked with a "B"; good drivers still, one supposes, but could be better with more road practice. Before you know it, license plates marked "D" and even "F" pass by—with drivers either oblivious to their poor grade or defiantly refusing to let it bother them. 

Suddenly, as you wonder why you haven't seen a "C" driver all morning, an "E" drives by. An extra rung on the ladder of shame before hitting "F," perhaps? Then a "P." A driver graded on a pass/fail basis, maybe? Then an "NL." Not Listed? No License? 

If the grading-system hypothesis is beginning to feel like a stretch, it's because it is. The letters represent the country the car (and driver) is from. "A" is Austria. "B" is Belgium. "D" is Germany (Deutschland). "E" is Spain (España). "F" is France. "P" is Portugal. And "NL" is the Netherlands.

Group Leader Spotlight: Ian Lowe

Ian Lowe, a teacher and former football coach at Lethbridge Collegiate Institute in Alberta, Canada, first began traveling with students on the football team and in the high school band. After seeing the value these experiences provided to the program and his students, he promoted trips to Europe, and his travel program took off from there.

Now, Ian travels with a large group of students every year. He even has parents calling him, trying to get a head start on enrolling their children.

Ian (above right) shares his thoughts with us on the importance of student travel, advice for new group leaders and how traveling with students is like coaching a team.

Group Leader Spotlight: Dan Ware

It can happen at any point in life, but once you’ve been bitten by the travel bug, it’s hard to sit still. And with four trips on the horizon, Dan Ware—a history and geography teacher at Rock Bridge High School in Columbia, Missouri—is doing anything but that.

Whether he’s traveling on an educational tour to Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam or exploring Austria, Germany and Switzerland, Dan understands the importance of the lessons that take place outside of the classroom. To integrate his tours into his classroom lessons, he takes advantage of the credit option EF offers and also makes sure to teach his students some of the life skills they’ll need for traveling abroad at his pre-tour meetings.

Over the years, Dan (pictured above on a school visit in Kenya) has learned a few tricks for holding a successful recruitment, too. He shares some of his secrets:

Group Leader Spotlight: Jeremy George

A few years ago, Jeremy George, a high school history teacher from Springfield, Missouri, had never traveled abroad. Then he found EF.

Since taking his first group abroad, Jeremy has traveled everywhere from Austria to Australia with EF Educational Tours. Next year, he will travel on tours to Amsterdam and Paris and France and Spain, and he is already planning a tour to England, Ireland and Wales in 2010.

Jeremy—pictured above with students in Australia (he's in the black-and-blue jacket to the right of the guy in the cool hat)—talked with us about the "irreplaceable experience" of travel, establishing a reputation for taking students on tour and his own dream tour of Italy:

Friday Fun Fact: Birth of the postcard

The postcard as we know it—that ubiquitous travel souvenir— originated in 1869 in Austria.

Dr. Emanuel Hermann, chancellor of the Austrian Ministry of Commerce, is credited as the inventor of the postcard, according to his New York Times obituary in 1902. He first suggested the idea in a newspaper article, and postcards were introduced as an experiment in October 1869.

Postcards quickly became so popular that they soon expanded to other European countries, including Great Britain, Switzerland, France, Germany and Spain. Although a version of the postcard was created in 1861 in Philadelphia, the first U.S. postcard didn't appear until 1873.

Photo: pknitty86 via Flickr (CC license)

Friday Fun Fact: Neutral countries

Photo: ianlord via Flickr

Most people know that Switzerland is a neutral country, but may not realize that the Swiss are not alone in their neutrality. There are a total of eight neutral countries: Austria, Costa Rica, Finland, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkmenistan.

Broadly, neutrality means not taking sides in armed conflict between warring countries, but it has a range of real-world manifestations: For instance, Switzerland and Sweden are famous for their large armies (and those armies, in turn, are famous for pocketknives and bicycles, respectively), while other countries keep very small fighting forces. Likewise, Ireland allows foreign military forces inside its borders—specifically, military aircraft can land at Shannon Airport—while other neutral countries don't.

Neutral countries in Europe (Austria, Sweden, Ireland and Finland, but not Switzerland) also find themselves in the conundrum of belonging to—and being bound by the policies of—the European Union, which is not neutral. 

Travel Tidbits: One long walk

How much does it cost to travel from Bristol, England, to Porbandar, India?

If you're Mark Boyle, the answer (hopefully) is nothing.

The catch is that Boyle is walking—yes, walking—from his British hometown to Gandhi's birthplace without any money.

The 28-year-old former businessman (pictured at left) began the 9,000-mile "pilgrimage" last Wednesday and plans to survive by relying solely on the goodwill of humanity or working for food and a place to rest.

"I've got some sunscreen, a good knife, a spoon, a bandage ... no Visa card, no travellers' cheques, no bank accounts, zero," he told BBC radio. "I won't actually touch money along the way."

Boyle, who also goes by the name Saoirse, estimates he'll cover 15 to 45 miles a day walking through France, Italy, eastern Europe, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. He guesses it will take him two and a half years to arrive in Porbandar, Gandhi's birthplace on India's west coast.

You can follow Boyle on his journey by reading his blog. And, if you happen to spot him along the way, be sure to post your sighting.

Read on for this week's installment of Travel Tidbits.

Education around the world

The February issue of Edutopia magazine is out. It's especially worthwhile because the theme is global education.

The cover story, "As the World Learns: Education as a Vital Global Marketplace Represents the Future," is particularly interesting with reports on how students are taught in Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, India, Japan, New Zealand, Pakistan, Russia, Sweden and Uganda. There's also a report on Room to Read, a global nonprofit that builds schools and libraries in developing countries. Plus, there are additional global education resources.

The other cool thing in this issue is the Sage Advice page, which asks, "How do you prepare your students to be citizens of the world?" Some good responses that are worth reading.

Edutopia is the website of The George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit that celebrates and encourages innovation in schools. The monthly magazine is free to qualified subscribers. You can even get the ultracool digital version, which looks and reads just like the printed version.