Destination: Europe
Happy St. Patrick’s Day. Please Enjoy Your Local “Irish Pub Concept.”
by Michael Yessis | 03.17.06 | 11:04 AM ET
No matter where you are this St. Patrick’s Day, chances are high that you’re near an Irish pub. That’s no accident. “In the last 15 years, Dublin-based IPCo and its competitors have fabricated and installed more than 1,800 watering holes in more than 50 countries,” Austin Kelley writes in a fascinating story this week in Slate. “Guinness threw its weight (and that of its global parent Diageo) behind the movement, and an industry was built around the reproduction of ‘Irishness’ on every continent—and even in Ireland itself.”
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Yahoo! BuzzThe Bloody Good Saga of Tourism Australia’s Latest Advertising Campaign
by Michael Yessis | 03.17.06 | 10:20 AM ET
Tourism Australia recently debuted a new advertising campaign that turns on the slogan, “Where the bloody hell are you?” Very cheeky. Very Australian. And quite offensive to the ears of the members of Britain’s Broadcast Advertising Clearance Center. (With an uptight, bureaucratic name like that, it probably doesn’t take much to offend.) Last week, the group banned the campaign from the country’s televisions because it uses the word “bloody,” which, according to The Age, is the 27th most offensive word to the BACC. That’s behind bollocks (No. 6), bugger (No. 21) and sodding (No. 24).
The Pasta Nazi
by David Farley | 03.16.06 | 1:13 PM ET
Not long after moving to Rome, David Farley thought he had the city wired. Then he visited Al Cardello restaurant and met chef Angelo.
The Life of a Billionaire Traveler
by Michael Yessis | 03.15.06 | 12:23 PM ET
Oslo, Tokyo and the other places that topped the recent list of most expensive cities list hardly make a dent in the budgets of these private-jet flying, American Express Centurion card-wielding, $25 room service hamburger-ordering travelers. Forbes has an inside look at what it’s like to travel like a billionaire.
James Joyce’s Trieste
by Jim Benning | 03.14.06 | 12:12 PM ET
There’s more out there in the travel world than a trip to Dublin for serious James Joyce fans. The peripatetic writer spent 11 years drinking and writing in Trieste, the port city in northeast Italy. The Boston Globe featured a travel story Sunday about Joyce sites there. It turns out, from a writing standpoint, that Trieste was good to Joyce. He wrote “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” there, most of “Dubliners,” and he even began “Ulysses” in the city.
Bullfighting School: ¿Quién es Más Macho?
by Jim Benning | 03.13.06 | 12:50 PM ET
I don’t talk about this much because, frankly, it just intimidates people, as it should. But back in 1998, when I was but a young magazine freelancer with a dog-eared copy of Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises” on my bookshelf, I enrolled in bullfighting school. The California Academy of Tauromaquia in San Diego, to be specific. That’s me in the photos. It was for a story for Men’s Fitness magazine.
I studied the art of bullfighting for several weeks, learning the ins and outs of cape-handling, among other essentials. For homework, I studied episodes of the TV show “When Animals Attack.” And then, wearing the traditional white shirt and cap of a bullfighting student, I stepped into a stone bullring in Mexico under a hot desert sun (actually, it was rather cool, but “hot” sounds more unforgiving; stick with me here), and went mano a mano with a snarling, charging 400-pound heifer. I graduated with honors.
Before any of you send angry e-mails: Not only did I not harm the animal, but at the time, I was a vegetarian who wouldn’t go within 10 feet of a Big Mac, so send your notes elsewhere. But I digress. I bring this up now because Gadling just pointed out a recent New York Times story in which the writer attended the same bullfighting school and faced a 300-pound heifer.
Now, I know what you’re thinking: Three hundred pounds? That’s it?
Exactly. That’s the first thought that ran through my mind.
Back in the day, if you wanted to prove yourself in the ring and deliver a meaty story to your editors, you made sure you faced at least 350 pounds of lumbering beef. Know what I’m saying? And honestly, if you were an editor worth your salt, you wouldn’t print a bullfighting story by a writer who faced anything close to 300 pounds. At the New York Times, you’re just giving more ammunition to those in Red America who claim the liberal media elite are out of touch. Don’t you editors know your heifers? Get back in touch. We need you. No bull. Okay, a little bull.
As for the California Academy of Tauromaquia, it offers an excellent bullfighting education, and I’d recommend it to anyone interested in learning the basics. And really, shouldn’t we all know at least the basics? No? Okay.
Conan O’Brien: “Hasselhoff is Big in Germany, But I’m the King of Finland”
by Michael Yessis | 03.11.06 | 9:25 PM ET
Five days in Finland turned out to be fruitful for Conan O’Brien—and Finland. I just watched last night’s “very special episode” of Late Night with Conan O’Brien, which was devoted exclusively to his brief journey through the country. It turned out to be a sweet love letter and, as expected, one of the more hilarious television travelogues I’ve seen. O’Brien, whose show is extremely popular in Finland, received a Beatlesque-greeting at the airport in Helsinki, inquired about Finnish stereotypes, scared some Chinese tourists, took a pack of sled dogs for a spin in Lapland and visited some of his fans in their homes, even going so far as attempting to repair an on-the-rocks friendship.
Conan O’Brien Takes on Finland
by Michael Yessis | 03.10.06 | 7:38 AM ET
The Late Night host will finally debut footage from his recent trip to Finland on tonight’s program. If you can’t wait, check out the video teaser and a series of photos he’s already posted on the Late Night With Conan O’Brien Web site. O’Brien’s trip seems to be creating some buzz for Finland tourism, and the Finnish Tourist Board is certainly trying to capitalize on it.
Spain: Home of the World’s Coolest Architecture
by Michael Yessis | 03.10.06 | 12:22 AM ET
Slate recently posted a slide-show essay about innovative architectural developments in Spain. The presentation includes great shots of Bilbao’s Guggenheim Museum, Granada’s Museum of Andalusia and Barcelona’s Santa Caterina Market. New York’s Museum of Modern Art also currently has a great multimedia exhibition on its Web site, featuring audio commentary and images of more stunning Spanish buildings.
David Farley and Jessie Sholl: A Passion for Prague
by Jim Benning | 03.06.06 | 1:02 AM ET
They met seven years ago in Prague. Now, they've edited a new Travelers' Tales Prague collection. Jim Benning asks the pair about the city's unique appeal.
Büyük Menderes
by Ben Keene | 02.24.06 | 4:14 PM ET
Berlin’s “Love Parade” Returns
by Jim Benning | 02.22.06 | 12:45 PM ET
After a two-year hiatus due to money problems, Berlin’s Love Parade is scheduled to return to Germany’s capital this year. The wildly popular techno street party, which was apparently exported to a number of other countries, is set to take place the weekend of July 15, just after the end of the World Cup. Said the owner of the parade’s new corporate sponsor of the event on CNN.com: “This brand has achieved cult status and is known worldwide.” Ah yes, there’s nothing like a little talk of the power of the brand to evoke the true spirit of the Love Parade.
Top 10 Apres-Ski Spots
by Jim Benning | 02.21.06 | 2:25 PM ET
I love snowboarding, but I probably love kicking back afterward even more. There’s nothing like that feeling of exhaustion and satisfaction after a long day on the slopes, when it’s time to soak in the hot tub, reward yourself with a great meal and relax by a crackling fire. So I was happy to see MSNBC.com offer a list of the top 10 scenes to do just that. Aspen makes the list (Hollywood stars, great restaurants). So does Killington (check out the Wobbly Barn and the Pickle Barrel) and Lake Tahoe (casinos galore). Internationally, Cortina in Italy and Argentina’s Bariloche are included. And so is Chamonix-Mont Blanc, my personal favorite. MSNBC cites its “location on the crossroads of France, Italy, and Switzerland that makes it a natural multicultural mecca for serious skiers and serious partiers.”
Elizabeth Gilbert: ‘Eat, Pray, Love’
by Frank Bures | 02.20.06 | 11:23 PM ET
In "Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia," Elizabeth Gilbert turns to travel in an effort to find, well, everything. Frank Bures writes that her journey will leave you smiling in your liver.
Chinese Cyclist Aims to Ride Solo Around the World
by Michael Yessis | 02.14.06 | 11:52 AM ET
The Olympic spirit has really gotten into Yang Guangwen. The 46-year-old plans to ride his bike around the world beginning in March, visiting the cities that have hosted the Games since their modern inception. Beijing will host the 2008 Games, and Yang wants to do his part to promote the Olympics through travel.