Tourism Ruins what traveling revels pg. 4
Escape Plans
pg. 8
pg. 12
How to Globetrot with Empty Pockets
2.21.2017 University Press 1
VOL.18 | #12 | 2.21.2017
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Last summer, I learned how to travel frugally, get by on very little money and cheat the system everywhere.
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For more tips, check out my website, www.homelessandabroad. com, with more detailed pieces about hitchhiking, cheating public transportation systems and just how amazing, tortuous, blissful and pushing traveling can be.
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Tourism RUINS What Travel REVELS
Tourism perverts cultures and only gives what the people bringing in the money want. Story by Andrew Fraieli
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It’s 1555. Masqueraded men and women flood decorated streets and canals where they drink and party, enjoying what would become the long, rich history of the floating city of Venice, Italy. But this isn’t the Venice I saw, and of course it wouldn’t be. I imagined a modern European city with its busy inhabitants walking to work over centuries-old bridges and kids playing in the street. But this isn’t what I saw either. Instead, I saw masks sold in shops to the 50,000 tourists who visit a day, gondoliers littering the waterways to solicit $100 from a tourist for a ride featuring breathtaking views of Burger King and streets so crowded with fanny packs and suitcases you couldn’t stop to look around. I visited Venice over the summer having heard people’s praise of it. But it’s no longer a city functioning for the people, it’s a city functioning for the purpose of gaining tourist money. I’ve seen the scars of tourism in cities from Paris, France to San Juan, Puerto Rico, and it destroys their functionality, changes people’s expectations of a place and perverts its celebrated history.
enice
In Berlin, Germany there is a place called Checkpoint Charlie. In WWII, it was the most famous crossing through the Berlin Wall between the west “free” Allied side and the east “Communist” Axis side. People routinely tried to escape from the east to the west. In 1962, Peter Fechter, like many others before him, was shot and killed by guards in his attempt. When I crossed onto the street with Checkpoint Charlie, I didn’t see a landmark representing tension, bloodshed and the division of people, I saw street merchants selling Soviet-era army hats and WWII American uniforms. I saw actors dressed as fake Allied soldiers taking pictures for a small fee in front of the replica guard house at the crossing. I saw tourism taking this piece of history and monetizing it. No longer was it an important part of the past defining this city, it was now a place to solicit money from people too busy taking pictures to recognize the pain people have suffered.
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Photo by Stella Al ves
I found out in my exploration of Rome, Italy, an apparently well known fact that the mafia has an incredibly strong presence in the capital — this was told to me by someone who works in the tourist business. And no, there aren’t people in pinstripe suits walking down the street with tommy guns. There are Indians selling selfie sticks on the streets, everywhere. There are Africans selling purses, the same purses, everywhere. There are different stands selling black and white photos on canvas with one element in red, the same exact photos, everywhere. I saw the patterns myself, but my friend revealed more. Most of the beggars in the streets work for the mafia. Legs broken on purpose to cause pity, children drugged to be quiet as they’re held by beggars to gain more money. These manipulations work because of the thriving tourism in Rome. I watched, day after day, for two weeks, as people gave these beggars and street vendors money, with my friend’s face falling each time.
ome
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I knew San Juan, Puerto Rico was a tourist trap the moment I walked into it. The capital is its own little island and has one grocery store, and they know it. The prices are high — just as expensive as Boca Raton — and there are more tourists there than locals. One of the greatest vices of tourist attractions is that it gives people the impression of seeing the whole country or culture, be it downtown Paris, or the city center of Rome or the capital of Puerto Rico. But the rest of the island is filled with jungles, adventures and completely different worlds. Mountains with winding roads and villages that dot the mountainside at night like stars, clouds floating beside you on thin, tall roads, caves and rivers to wade through and explore and a swing on a tree a thousand feet up.
an Juan Photo by Andrew Fraieli
You don’t find adventures near tourist traps. You don’t see little villages, you don’t meet wonderful, caring people. You find Burger Kings and a facade with people who want to take your gleefully surrendered money for a little entertainment and a popular exaggeration of a culture. Push past that and keep going. Go to the area you know nothing about and just look around. Talk to people, ask for directions to somewhere off the map. You never know where you will end up or what you’ll learn when you go past the curtain put up by tourism and really jump headfirst into a culture. Far from tourism, this is a lake in rural Tennessee outside Chattanooga. Photo by Miranda Shumes.
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Story by Andrew Fraieli
Camping
There are lots of places to go within Florida, Georgia and Tennessee, all within driving distance, to have an adventure off campus. Between camping in the Everglades and getting plastered in Miami or Atlanta, this is a rough guide to prices and distances to help jog some desire to go and try something new.
Camping is cheap, you get to sleep outdoors, see the stars away from the city and make fires without getting in trouble. In flat Florida, it’s an easy hike to get to your campsite, but it’s also hotter, filled with mosquitos and there are alligators and crocodiles …. the modern dinosaurs that can eat you. Tennessee is beautiful, mountainous and has hiking as it’s meant to be. If you’ve lived in Florida your whole life, Tennessee will be an incredible revelation as it has real Southern food and opportunities for rock climbing everywhere. Along with all of this, there are actual forests here, not grass that has “saw” in its name and giant spiders. Georgia is where the movie “Deliverance” takes place, so if you’ve seen the movie, then take that as you will going into the woods. Ignoring hillbilly rapist murderers, Georgia has a distinct lack of light pollution with it being so rural, so you’ll see more stars on the way to Atlanta than you’ve probably ever seen anywhere in Florida.
Big Cypress National Preserve. Photo by Emily Creighton 8 2.21.2017 University Press
Gear
If not having a sleeping bag and a tent is what’s stopping you, FAU’s Outdoor Adventures in the recreation center has camping gear for rent at a discount to students.
Tents
Price
two person
$15/week
three person
$18/week
four person
$20/week
six person
$25/week
eight person
$40/week
Places
All of these suggested campgrounds I have either camped at myself or a close friend has. No generic bullshit. Each place is within 12 hours driving distance from Boca Raton, so you can go on an adventure without breaking the bank.
Name
Where
Flamingo Campground
Southern tip of the Everglades (3 Hours)
Price $20/night
Drinking
I don’t drink. But, I have a lot of friends who do. So, if you’re stuck in South Florida, and need a way to forget you’re not far away from home, these little spots will help.
Name
Where
Why
Cash Only
Fort Lauderdale
beers are from local distilleries A warehouse converted to bar and lounge
Bahia Honda
About an hour from Key West (4 Hours)
$36/night
Lauder Ale
Near Fort Lauderdale Airport
Big Cypress National Preserve
West side of the Everglades (2 Hours)
$10-$24/night
Laser Wolf
Fort Lauderdale
A Hipster dive bar with retro video games
Foster Falls
Chattanooga, TN (11 Hours)
$12/night
The Green Parrot
Key West
Live Music
Great Smoky Hour southeast Mountains of Knoxville, TN National Park (11 Hours)
$14/night
Gramps
Miami
Local artists play live every week
Funky Buddha Lounge
Boca Raton
Local musicians and open mic monday nights
Funky Buddha Lounge, Boca Raton. Photo by Ryan Murphy
*Broken deadlines courtesy of Riemy
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Plan A B C D Screw-ups happen. Learn from my mistakes and you should be fine. Know your surroundings, keep your pack light, always have a compass and proper clothes and some cash and globetrot to your heart’s content.
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ou’re going to screw up when you travel. You’re going to end up without the right currency for the country you are in, no idea how to say “where is the bathroom” in the right language and not have a place to sleep some nights. But it’s all right, part of the adventure is not knowing what’s going to happen next. I’ve already made these mistakes while hitchhiking, sleeping outside and not knowing where I’m going. This is to make sure you learn from mine so you aren’t stuck with a dead phone or protein deficiency on the side of the road in the freezing pouring rain with a soggy hitchhiking sign.
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Phone
Story by Andrew Fraieli
One of the most important things to have when you are traveling like this into different countries — couchsurfing or staying in hostels and hitchhiking — is a phone with GPS that has access to the internet. I, thankfully, didn’t screw that up. But what I did screw up was leaving my charger at home. That turned out to be disasterous. It forced me to buy a cheap one at a small electronics store in Paris with the little spare money I had. This charger ended up being the bane of my existence for a month as it took literally 12 hours to fully charge. Multiple times I almost didn’t have a place to sleep and didn’t know where I was because my phone died. Don’t buy cheap chargers if you forget or lose yours, buy a decent one. As well as having a portable charger, retrospect is 20/20.
Diet
Weather
A proper diet is not easy to maintain when you don’t have access to a kitchen and can only eat what you can carry in your pack. My normal diet for those two months, and usually any time I travel, is fruit, bread and peanuts. Bread is always cheap and filling, fruit has a lot of nutrients and peanuts help with the protein. For short periods of time, maybe a couple weeks, it’s fine. After that, and if you have a more sensitive stomach, you will start to have malnutrition issues. I spent maybe a month without eating meat, not compensating enough for the loss of protein. I felt tired all the time no matter how much I slept and felt faint when I would be walking in between cities for about a week and a half. One day someone cooked me three burgers. I ate them all and within minutes “woke up” and realized how much had been wrong with my health the past couple weeks. Pay attention to what you’re eating over the long term and make sure you eat enough protein and include variation — sardines have a huge amount of protein per serving and you can carry tins in your pack. Don’t almost faint with no idea why with your thumb out at a truck stop.
Money A final important screw-up of mine to learn from is the way to handle money. Not the amount to have, but the way you have it. There are many places where a debit/credit card is accepted, but there are also many rural places where cash is the only way to pay. Always have a good amount of cash and make sure to split it up and put it in different places in your pack and a bit in your pocket as well. This way, no matter what gets lost or possibly pickpocketed, you’ll have a backup. Something I also screwed up multiple times is remembering that different countries have different currencies. When in Europe, where you can pass through three or more countries in a day, its gets difficult to remember to change currency. Always look up the exchange rate before going somewhere to make sure you’re not getting screwed. When buying things with a currency you’re not familiar with, relate it back to the price of a loaf of bread. It will help give some kind of base to the money’s worth to translate back to what you know.
Gerlach, Nevada. Photo by Kiki Baxter
Over the summer, I hitchhiked from Paris to Budapest to Copenhagen. Before you even leave, know what the weather is like where you are going. That may seem obvious, but when I got to Paris, I didn’t know it rains almost everyday. And I didn’t have an umbrella until the day I left. I didn’t think about the fact that because Copenhagen is so far north, the sun doesn’t completely set either, along with still being 55-60 degrees in summer. I only had a light sweatshirt and jeans. Think about the weather and how much you’ll be outside while traveling, walking, hitchhiking and exploring. It may be a bit more to carry, but it’s better than literally freezing and getting sick in the rain.
Sleeping
Over the summer, I hitchhiked from Paris to Budapest to Copenhagen. Before you even leave, know what the weather is like where you are going. That may seem obvious, but when I got to Paris, I didn’t know that it rains almost everyday. And I didn’t have an umbrella until the day I left. I didn’t think about the fact that because Copenhagen is so far north, the sun doesn’t completely set either, along with still being 55-60 degrees in summer. I only had a light sweatshirt and jeans. Think about the weather and how much you’ll be outside while traveling, walking, hitchhiking and exploring. It may be a bit more to carry, but it’s better than literally freezing and getting sick in the rain.
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Photo by Alexis Hayward
Go Ch
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Traveling warrants a lot of questions: Where are you going? Where did you come from? How’d you get there? But the biggest question is always, “How did you afford it?” My answer: the slower you travel, the cheaper. Hitchhike for free and get through maybe two cities in a day. Dish out big bucks for a flight and cross the globe. Couchsurf for free and maybe get a bed but definitely make friends. Stay in a hostel and definitely have a bed and maybe make friends. It all depends on your time frame. Two days? Two weeks? Two months? If you’re looking to travel over spring break, time isn’t really on your side. However, if you’re planning for summer, you have more options. Here’s what I’ve learned to make the most of the money you have for the time you have.
Story by Andrew Fraieli
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You may see it as staying with strangers and that you have to be careful, but they’re letting a stranger stay at their place too. I’ve stayed with four 20-year-old college kids in Ljubljana, Slovenia, a 50-year-old rich doctor in Paris, France, the parents of a 27-year-old hitchhiker in Saint-Avold, France — people of all kinds and cultures. Don’t be afraid of strangers so much, there are nice people everywhere.
T
he next most expensive thing is a place to sleep. As most people don’t want to sleep in a bush in the park wherever they go (I had to do this in Budapest), Couchsurfing. com (see sidebar) would be the next cheapest thing as it’s also free. But, you have to be willing to go a bit farther and try a little harder than buying a hotel room.
References are Couchsurfing’s version of Yelp reviews. People write about the host after staying with them, whether their house was clean, what they did with them, how interesting or fun they were, whatever it may be. It works the other way as well. Your host will write a reference for you saying how much you followed house rules, how fun and considerate you were, and other hosts read those to determine if they’ll host you or not.
There are thousands of couchsurfers everywhere and they are usually locals. It’s more often than not the best to stay with them as they’ll be from the area and know things you wouldn’t think to find, like a mountain hike in the middle of Puerto Rico off the highway, or a hidden squat down the street or the secret catacombs of Paris.
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Couchsurfing and Your Profile Couchsurfing.com is a website that aims to put you, as a traveler, in touch with someone who is willing to let you crash on their couch in exchange for your cooking skills, awesome stories, killer guitar-playing skills or whatever nice thing you can do for the person. The point is travelers helping travelers however they can. During the summer, I used Couchsurfing over 30 times to find a place to sleep in Europe when I didn’t have money to pay for a hostel. You have to look personable and safe to get a place. Make sure your profile is filled out completely with clear pictures of yourself and has as much detail as you have the patience to include. You find hosts searching by city and they read your profile to decide whether they’d enjoy having you. When you send a message to a host, explain what you’re doing, why you want to stay with them and try to ask them about a week before you need to stay.
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ostels are basically college dormitories run like hotels. If you’re able to spend a little money, you’ll be in a bunk bed with maybe 10 other people to a room. They are very cheap compared to hotels and it’s easy to meet other travelers as those are usually the only people staying there, but you won’t meet many locals.
There are different kinds of hostels. In major cities, you will find the ones with fancy decorations, TVs, beer pong and bars — essentially the party ones. Next you’ll find the ones that get business simply because the party ones only have so many rooms, and they’re usually more expensive. These secondary hostels have bars as well but are a lot more calm and simple and roughly $10 a night. If there’s one amazing thing about hostels internationally, the cheaper ones are almost always around $10, if you can get the cheapest room. Hostels also have bathrooms and showers, with towels and sheets for you to use. Many have kitchens and fridges that can be used as well without any extra charge, and cooking with groceries is cheaper than going out to eat. The people who work at hostels and the people who stay at them have a unique knowledge. They are almost always travelers with a lot of experience and if they work there, they know a ton about the area. Ask them about places to go that aren’t common so you can see the local scene. You’ll find out about squats, underground concerts, all kinds of places and ideas that you wouldn’t have found on your own. Photo by Emily Creighton
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lying usually ends up being the most expensive way to travel, but the cheapest — and sometimes necessary — way to travel fast. The difference depends on luggage (see sidebar for packing essentials), how many flights the trip takes and where you’re flying to and from with whatever transport in between.
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n i Rom n e h
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I went to Rome from Rhode Island and back for $650 last summer. This is almost half of what it normally costs to fly that far across the ocean during tourist season. The catch was it took me about 30 hours to get there. I took a four hour, $30 bus ride from Rhode Island to New York City because flying out of JFK International Airport was cheaper than Providence, Boston or anywhere else around. After my eight hour, overnight flight, I took a connecting flight through Moscow with a six-hour delay because it was also cheaper instead of direct. I did all of this with a small Nike duffel bag as a carry-on for my two-week stay with a friend to save on checking bags.
At almost every airport, there is a free shuttle that goes to bus stations and back or to other common places to pick people up. Look for it, ask around — it’s another $20 you can save.
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I never travel with more than a carry-on. This way I can avoid any checked bag fees that are normally around $25 and up. It also ensures that I’m not packing too much (remember: the more you pack, the more you have to carry), and with multiple connecting flights, your checked bag could very well end up on the other side of the country or not arrive until days after you. Because major international airports tend to be less pricey than others, it can be cheaper to, say, take a plane from Orlando to New York and then take a Greyhound bus to Rhode Island, instead of a direct flight to Providence. Check prices of nearby airports and your destination, as well as bus or train prices. It can end up cheaper and you could see more on the way. Always check for cheaper flights in surrounding cities. Waking up an hour earlier to get to another airport and save $50 is well worth it. I once took a bus four hours out of the way for a cheaper flight and saved $70. In Florida, Orlando is usually the cheapest followed by Fort Lauderdale and then Miami.
Keep an open mind to times and days. Sunday could be $40 cheaper than Tuesday at 5 p.m. and 7 a.m. could be $50 cheaper than 5 p.m. Saturdays are the cheapest days to fly in my experience, with Google Flights being what I use to compare places and times. Use it, love it, spend hours checking every possible combination of days, times, places and airports each day of the week. Prices change daily.
T
he cheapest and slowest way to travel is my favorite: hitchhiking. I hitchhiked over 2,500 miles in two months in Europe during the summer and met a tremendous amount of people doing the same thing, finding places to sleep with kind people because of it as well. You meet locals, see little towns and open up your adventure to other people and places, and get a little mystery added.
You need patience. The point of hitchhiking is enjoying the journey, so focus on your surroundings and look around, you won’t get a ride right away. You also probably won’t get straight to the city you are going, you’ll get picked up and dropped off multiple times. Again, the next best thing is to enjoy right where you are while you wait.
You need a sign saying where you are going, be it cardboard or a notebook. I used a notebook as it had lots of paper and I could change my sign if it wasn’t working. Use big bold letters and note that the bigger the sign, the quicker they see it and the more time they have to decide to stop for you.
Look fun. I would sing to myself and kind of dance in place a bit. No one wants to pick up someone on the side of the road that looks bored and grumpy. Wave at people as they pass, make sure they can see your sign, smile and keep your thumb out.
People pick up “thumbers” because they want entertainment, they’ve hitchhiked before and know it’s rough or because they know someone who’s been there. Try to be fun and talkative about what you’re doing and why, ask them if they’ve ever hitched before, ask them why they picked you up. Be social and you’ll both enjoy the ride. You could do all of this and still not find a ride because no one is going the direction you need. Get to the edge of the city where the traffic goes in the direction you are traveling, be somewhere a car can safely pull over out of the way of traffic (something like a stoplight or stop sign where you could hop in) and try to find a highway on-ramp. They can be very good places as you know that the cars driving by are leaving the city. Keep in mind, do not go onto the highway by foot; hitchhiking on highways is always illegal and very dangerous.
What to Pack
Packing is always an issue. How many pairs of socks? How many bras? Shirts? Pants? Sandals or sneakers? How much money? Toothbrush, deodorant , toothpaste? In general, stick to clothes — roll them instead of folding to save space — a med kit, a compass, a camera and maybe a Sharpie and a journal. Anything else, like a toothbrush, you can buy wherever you’re going to save space and weight, there’s always a baggage weight limit and it’s easy to accidently go over with a lot of small nonessential items. If you’ll be in warm weather, you don’t need more than three T-shirts, a pair of jeans, a pair of shorts, five pairs of socks and underwear. Also, take boots as you never know when it’ll rain. A good sized backpack for flying and travelling with is about 50 liters. It’s a useful size for backpacking and hiking and fits on airlines as a carry-on.
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Sites to Bookmark
There are a lot of websites that say they have good advice on traveling, but a lot of them have never done what they give advice on, or their advice is so general that it’s useless. I use the websites to the right when I need a place to crash or a guide on where and how to dumpster dive.
Hitchwiki.org Trashwiki.org Couchsurfing.com
WWOOF.org Warmshowers.org Photo by Andrew Fraieli
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561-362-5561
Open Mon-Fri 10am to 8pm Delivery & Catering Available
2.21.2017 University Press 19
Why You Should Trust Me Story and photo by Andrew Fraieli
N
one of the advice in this issue means anything if I’m not a reliable, dependent source. I try to write advice that is acutally useful, not the “10 Best Resturants in San Francisco” or the “5 Best Bars in Prague.” I want you to be able to take this issue somewhere and use its advice to travel cheaply and far. To the right is a map of Europe. France is to the left, Denmark is at the top and Italy is at the bottom. The red line is the path I took from Paris to Copenhagen. Below are stats of my trip, along with other places I’ve been. I hope this gives merit to my words and you believe that money isn’t the biggest thing necessary to travel and a college budget is plenty.
• Parisians aren’t as rude as people say. How would you feel if you lived in one of the most touristed cities in the world and everyone spoke a different language than your own to you first? Learn a tiny bit of French and they will gladly speak to and help you. • It rains. A lot. Bring an umbrella. •
Anything more than a euro for a baguette is too much.
Europe
Miles traveled by thumb: 2,500 Total miles: 2,800 Time frame: 2 months Cost: Flight - $700 Traveling budget - $600 Cities visited: 56 Countries visited: 12
World
Miles traveled by thumb: 2,500 Total miles: 8,000 Cities visited: 169 Countries visited: 14
Language of theTraveler
When traveling to multiple countries that all speak another language, you’ll need to pick up a lot of terms. Some like “beer” are great to know but it won’t help with directions. In general, the most important words to learn in terms of being polite, getting directions or getting a ride are, “excuse me,” “please,” “thank you,” “hitchhiker,” and the name of the city you are going to in that country’s language. Not Munich, München, not Copenhagen, København. These words won’t help you keep a conversation going, but if the locals do speak English, you’ll speak enough of their language to be polite and show you are trying. This should make them more likely to speak English and help you if they can.
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•
One of the most expensive cities in Europe. Do not accidently end up in Zurich. A cheeseburger at McDonald’s is 12 euros. • Swiss German is spoken here, if you speak German you probably won’t be able to understand them, but almost everyone speaks some English.
• In the center of Copenhagen is Freetown Christiania, a squat that’s been around since the 60s and a beautiful place full of sculptures, hippies, murals, beer and weed. • In most of Scandinavia — Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway — it’s perfectly legal to camp in forests, so if you have a sleeping bag and a tent,
• Near the city center of the capital of Slovenia is a squat in an abandoned bicycle factory named the Rog (pronounced like “rock”). It’s about 10 years old, full of amazing kind people and every night they have free soup, pasta and bread for anyone there. If you don’t have a place to sleep you can go here. Ask around and you will find it easily. • Most people in Ljubljana speak English very well. 2.21.2017 University Press 21
Your
UltimateStaycation
There are a fair amount of hidden places on campus that the average student doesn’t get to experience without a little exploring. Some of those are the rooftops and the tunnels under the school, but you can figure those places out on your own. Here are places to check out during your spring break vaction on campus that are off the beaten Breezeway path to entertain, fascinate and question when they got there. Story and photos by Andrew Fraieli
Don’t worry – if campus is your spring break destination, there’s still plenty to see. Location: El Rio Trail
There is a bike trail that spans the entire eastern side of campus called the El Rio Trail. At one end of the trail (south toward Glades Road) is a large banyan tree with a single picnic table and two park benches underneath. On the exact opposite side of the trail past IVA and entering the Palm Beach State area, is a small iron bridge overlooking the stream that also follows the east side of campus. It’s a nice spot to get away from FAU without having to go too far.
Location: administration building
Location: multiple
The administration building is located behind the large courtyard to the east of the Breezeway. Just inside there are two elevators. Heading down instead of up will bring you to the basement. Unknown to most, there is actually a student lounge in there, complete with soda machines and couches. Just ignore the fact that it looks like a set of a horror movie before the blood gets everywhere.
If you enjoy playing piano, or want to spend a week trying to learn, there are multiple pianos on campus that are available for anyone to play. Sometimes the doors to get to them are locked, sometimes they aren’t, so here are five options just in case. On the first floor of the College of Arts and Letters by the side facing Heritage Park Towers, there is a three-doored lecture room. Inside is a brown, full-sized grand piano. Down the hall and to the right, still on the first floor, toward the green walls saying Studio 2, is Studio 2. Inside is a small stand-up piano. Always make sure it is empty before entering and do not touch the set. At the opposite side of Arts and Letters, to the left of the amphitheater and just down the hall from Studio 1, is a large lecture hall. In the front of the room is a black, stand-up piano. The light switch is a small button on the panel on the inside left of the entrance. In the same part of this building, there are acting practice rooms in the back hall by Studio 1. One of the first rooms on the right has a stand-up piano as well. In the front right window of the Schmidt Biomedical Science Complex, near the engineering building, facing the odd seaweed metal statue is a small, out-of-tune stand-up piano. If you walk inside and go to the right, it’s against the window. 22 2.21.2017 University Press
Location: spaceship building
(Social Science Building)
Known to most stoners on campus, there is a large green stairwell on the outside of the spaceship building near Arts and Letters. At the top of the stairwell, there is graffit and art on the walls, as well as the lingering scent of a girl named Mary Jane. On the opposite side of the building though, is another stairwell. This one is hidden next to the dumpsters and maintenance cars, but at the top, rather than graffiti and the smell of weed, is poetry. As old as six or seven years ago and as new as last week, there is always new poetry on the walls. Unfortunately, some time over the summer break, someone tried to clean the walls and most of the pencil-written poems were washed away.
Going from the bottom to the top, the pianos found in Arts and Letters, the student lounge, the poetry/graffiti and the El Rio Trail bridge.
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