Winging It VS. Tour Guides

When traveling the tourist has a decision to make regarding how he/she wants to actually tour the area. There are different options that come along with this. Picture yourself on a holiday in Italy, we all know there are hundreds of historical sites that attract tourists from all over the world. So now among your options you can either A) pay to be on a guided tour, or B) explore the place on your own. This decision is definitely a matter of personal opinion and there are definitely pros and cons for each. The options will vary with different travelers.

Florence Guided Bike Tour

When deciding on your place of travel, we'll just stick with Italy for our example, you will most likely look at websites regarding travel idea and they will always have a few guided tours that you can spend some extra change on, or a lot of extra change on. If you know nothing about the background history of anything in Italy, then you may want to pay for the tour guide who actually knows what he's talking about and will most certainly speak English  When choosing one however, try to find a tour with good reviews. One of the most common complaints is that the tour guides are dry, bored, and just seem uninterested in the sites they are showcasing. As brought up in class, it seems as though tour guides leave out interesting facts about sites as well, ones that we would like to hear about. So the guided tours are nice if you have no idea where you are going or have no background history on the site.

Tourist Viewing Trevi Fountain

For the more adventurous, you could always explore the areas on your own. I feel this is common in travelers who take trips backpacking through Europe. If we are say, back in Italy, and we take a trip to the Trevi Fountain, we could read the background history they have posted at the sites and chat with a few locals to see what they have to say about the place. Exploring sites on your own gives you the freedom to view the site in your own way and have your own perspectives. It's nice to be able to linger for as long as you'd like at the sites you love and simply skip over the ones that have no interest to you. Also, while not being on a guided tour, you wouldn't feel so stuck to the tour group and would feel more free actually walk about and speak with locals or even other tourists. However, if you do not speak the local language traveling on your own can become a little difficult, but never impossible.

Traveling and sight seeing is always fun and eventful no matter which way you choose to view it. There are always pros and cons to every decision one makes. Whether you'd like to have someone that speaks English showing you the sites, or would like to be adventurous and take a leisurely stroll through the sites, it's all up to you. I personally would like to view the sites on my own and learn about them at my own pace while meeting new people and taking as much time as I'd like. I feel as though guided tours are rushed and I never get enough information about the things that interest me, and I get too much information about the things that bore me. A self guided tour is custom to your liking, which is how I prefer my travel experiences.

Tourism is a Museum

Personally, I should have written this post in the beginning of this project. In hind set, this is the essential issue at hand, yet it has not been covered. The main purpose of this blog is discuss museums and tourism, which is exactly what I and my group members have done. However, we have not discussed what makes tourism, tourism. To break it down, tourism stems from the need to be immersed in other cultures and the easiest way to access cultural ideas is through museums. In a sense, a tourist does not always have to visit museums, but those who visit museums are tourists, no matter what.

A typical American experience in New York City is a prime example of how to be quickly assimilated into a culture with minimal effort. Even as a New Jerseyan how lives merely an hour outside of the city, I still get a little culture shocked. The New York experience covers a large array of different opportunities to learn more about not only New York but America as well. The great part about NYC is its "museum mile" (it is exactly what it sounds like). With museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Arts, the Guggenheim, and the Museum of the City of New York within blocks of each other, tourists are likely to make this a pit stop when touring New York because it is the easiest way to not only see all of NYC but to learn more about how American culture stems from a variety of ideas.

But why put all of the museums in the city on top of each other? This is a common theme in large cities.    For example, London also has a museum mile made up of hot names like the British Museum, the Charles Dickens Museum, and the Sir John Soane's Museums. Unlike the museum mile of New York City, London's museum mile fits its own culture. Everything in New York falls into a grid shape pattern that expresses how Americans need to simply access their art and cultural. In London, their museum mile is spread out, allowing international tourist to not only view the museums, but to see parts of London as well.

In my opinion, there is a simple equation to why so many museums call major cities home. Seldom do tourists venture out to the small, mom and pop cities to do their sight seeing. So all in  all: a large city + a museum mile= a tourist hotspot, not only for international tourists, but for citizens as well. Tourism would be nothing without museums to marinate all who go in a city and country's culture.





http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/city-guides/new-york-walking-tour-2/
http://www.museum-mile.org.uk/page2.html

The National Museum of Iraq

After reading the article emailed to us by Dr. Li, I decided to take a better look at this museum, its history, and the looting's that occurred. Also known as The Baghdad Archaeological Museum, the National Museum of Iraq was established with the help of Gertrude Bell in 1926. From this time until the 1930's the museum was under the Ministry of Public Works until being taken under the Ministry of Education thereafter. The museum has had help from German and Italian governments in the construction of more buildings surrounding the museum.

During the Gulf War in 1991 the Museum was closed and did not re-open until April 28th, 2000 for former president Suddam Hussein's birthday. On April 7th, 2003, theft and looting began continuing until April 12th. The museum staff was asked to leave on April 8th though they attempted to hold back looters until U.S. Forces arrived on April 16th. Most Storage rooms were looted though none of the steel doors showed signs of forced entry. Museum staff believe about 15,000 items were stolen of which over 3,000 have been recovered.

http://www.gadling.com/photos/the-national-museum-of-iraq/

The museum has since been protected, however Iraqi archaeological sites have not causing large-scale looting. This looting has been causing a lot of work for museum staff who have been receiving large loads of undocumented artifacts that have been confiscated from the borders.

The museum has been opened since February 23, 2009 for VIP Tours and school groups and is suspected to re-open to the public in 2013. As of late, the museum workers, with the help of many other organizations have been working hard to get the museum back up and running. There are prospected to be twenty-seven galleries total by the opening of the museum.

As we've been talking about the question of the ethics of looting this research has brought a couple of questions to mind. It seems a little fishy that the whole place was looted including storage rooms with out a single sign of forced entries. It makes it almost seem as though the looting was some sort of inside job. The looting of the museum was devastating, however, the looting of the sites seems to only benefit them. While yes, they have no idea as to where the artifacts came from and have to do a little extra work to figure out their origins, the museum is receiving free artifacts all the time to add to their new exhibits but now they are lost to their archaeologists.

So for my  fellow classmates, what is your personal position on looting and how did this article affect it?

Museums that will Scare you Silly

Why do we want to be scared? Frank Farley, PhD psychologist at Temple University says that "People are intensely curious about the 'dark side,' and trying to make sense of it. They're interested in the unusual and the bizarre because they don't understand it and it's so different from our everyday lives." The reasons we want to feel fear are similar to the reasons we want to visit museums. We are intensely curious about their contents, causing us to question and try to make sense of their origins. So why not fuse our desire to be scared and learn about the past together? Here are a couple of the scariest museums across the world:

1. The Mutter Museum: the most local on the list is the Mutter Museum, located in South Philadelphia. It's famous for it's collection of skulls and dead, preserved specimens, including the tallest skeleton on display in North America and a 5 foot-long human colon. The museum also holds entrails of some famous names, including President Grover Cleveland's malignant tumor and a 10 pound growth removed from John Wilkes Booth, Abraham Lincoln's assassin.

2. Seodaemun Prison History Museum: located in Seoul, Korea, this prison-turned-museum is a must-see for thrill seekers visiting Korea. Built in 1910, it was used to house Korean prisoners that the Japanese would torture and experiment on. Visitors can see rooms such as the “corpse removal exit” where the bodies of prisoners were smuggled out, and the execution building. The most bone chilling aspect of the museum, called the “Place of Experience”, gives museum visitors the chance to watch animatronic mannequins perform the same torture rituals that were performed on the prisoners decades ago-in the same room that they were performed.

3. Catacombs of Palermo: not originally intended to become a museum, the catacombs have done just that, and have been nicknamed the "museum of death". In the basement of the Capuchin Monastery in Palermo, Italy, visitors can view the actual corpses of monks and local members of the community... in the same clothing and state that they were buried in. The most recent bodies are from the 1920s, and are so well preserved that they look like they are sleeping. Maybe they are!

These are just a few of the frightening museums you can visit around the world. For more information on these museums and others, visit http://listverse.com/2010/06/21/top-10-museums-that-will-scare-you-silly/ .

A Different Phase: Dark Tourism

Most tourism spots around the world involve some since of tragedy. It is hard to imagine wanting to surround a vacation with thoughts of the violence and death on a vacation but sites such like Auschwitz receive soaring numbers of visitors on an annual basis. Why are we, as a society, attached to these dark reminders of our past? Is it a pilgrimage to bury condolences to the deceased or a new form of tourism that is grabbing hold of the western worlds attentions?

Auschwitz is known to Adolf Hitler’s ultimate victory during his reign. Now, what remains attracts thousands of visitors. Survivors come to pay respects to loved ones lost and younger generations come to remember what had happened within its gates. Without being able to visit the site, part of history will slowly start to fade away. Auschwitz is not likely to lose any popularity anytime soon, but it still leaves me to wonder why such a dark memorial is a must see destination for tourists visiting Poland.

Like Auschwitz, the 9/11 Memorial in New York City is a constant reminder of the pain that a society has overcome. Also like Auschwitz, the 9/11 Memorial gains outstanding numbers of visitors who are willing to be reminded of the overwhelming loss the country faced in order to forget what happened. These tourist, I being one of them, are captivating by the visual representation of all who lost their lives. In an opposite way, the memorial is breathtaking and when you are physically standing even near it, there is a sense of hope, that society is and will keep moving forward. 

With dark tourism comes a new form of etiquette for viewing locations. Instead of an enthusiastic air, dark tourism has created pleasant, yet somber atmosphere. Tourist are more than eager to gain an understanding of tragic events that occur at these depressing locations to get a tighter hold on history. Seeing places such as Auschwitz and the 9/11 Memorial create an impression on generations that suffered through the national crisises and serves to inform those who do not know that pain. Dark Tourism is on the rise as tourism becomes more and more intellectual rather than just for amusement. 

The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs take America

Currently in Seattle, the King Tut exhibition is currently the most popular one in the country. It has been traveling across the US in the past few years and is scheduled to head back to Egypt in early 2013. 
King Tut is often the first thing people connect when thinking of ancient Egypt. His tomb was accidentally discovered in 1922, and has been teaching people vital information of ancient Egypt since then. 

Some of the artifacts at the exhibit

The exhibition itself is currently the most popular in the world. It has had over 9 million viewers since it's opening. In this extraordinary exhibition, you’ll find artifacts that came directly from King Tut's tomb, including the golden sandals found on his mummy and a 10 foot tall statue of the young king that was found at his tomb. Other artifacts include ones from his family and Egypt at the time that he ruled. 
The exhibition has even drawn attention from some celebrities such as Kanye West and George Bush Sr. 
It heads back to Egypt in January of 2013, so you must act fast if you wish to see the young prince's artifacts before it is too late! Currently at the Pacific Science center in Seattle, tickets start around $40, and include access to the exhibition, an audio guide, and a I-max movie experience about Tut's life. 

George Bush Sr. and Wife at Exhibit

Kanye West at Exhibit

Promotion poster by National Geographic

American Museum of Natural History

Upon our recent field trip I began to think about other museums in the area that I'd possibly like to visit and compare to our trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. One museum that crossed my mind was the American Museum of Natural History. I don't know much of this museum other than what I've seen in Ben Stiller's "Night at the Museum." So I decided to do a little more research to see what I could find out about it.

The museum is located in Central Park West at 79th Street in New York City. It was founded on April 6th, 1869 by Albert Smith Bickmore with the support of William E. Dodge Jr., Theodore Roosevelt Sr., Joseph Choate, and J. Pierpont Morgan. Since the opening the museum has moved and been renovated several times adding more and more exhibits. The most recent renovation being in 2009 where they restored the 77th Street "Castle" facade. cleaning the masonry along the south side as well as complete reconstruction of the arch of the porte-cochere.

Today the museum has over 43 permanent exhibitions and is currently holding 6 temporary exhibitions. Among all of these you can find Theodore Roosevelt's Memorial, multiple fossil exhibits, and even exhibits based around Native Americans. There is a huge variety of artifacts at this museum that range from the ocean to outer-space and everything in between. I definitely wouldn't mind taking a trip there.


Theodore Roosevelt Statue


Barosaurus in the Theodore Roosevelt Retunda


Lower Level


First Floor


Second Floor


Third Floor

Fourth Floor

All information and pictures were found at http://amnh.org