Destination: Europe
Dingle vs. An Daingean: The End?
by Michael Yessis | 04.30.08 | 4:39 PM ET
The popular Irish town best known to travelers as Dingle, and called An Daingean in Gaelic, may soon be known officially by two names, Dingle and Daingean Ui Chuis. That’s the compromise proposed by Ireland’s Minister for the Environment, John Gormley, who said he plans to amend a 2004 order requiring many Irish towns, Dingle included, to adopt Gaelic names. A majority in Dingle resisted the name change, favoring the English name for its familiarity with tourists. The residents came up with a compromise name—Dingle Daingean Ui Chuis—which prompted a round of international publicity and, now, an amended law and an AFP story. No word on whether Fungie will be getting a name change, too. (via Jaunted.)
Related on World Hum:
* Out: Dingle. In: An Daingean.
Photo by Michael Yessis.
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by Kristin Luna | 04.29.08 | 4:00 PM ET
The first time she crashed at a stranger's home, Kristin Luna feared she'd wind up an Agence France-Presse headline. Now she looks forward to sleeping on others' furniture -- and not just to save money.
Bid to Save Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport Fails
by Michael Yessis | 04.28.08 | 10:57 AM ET
Not enough people voted in a referendum to save Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport yesterday, dooming the iconic airfield to closure come October. Among Tempelhof’s claims to fame: The terminal, once the biggest building in Europe, was intended to be an awesome symbol of Nazi Germany. The airport also served as the hub of the Berlin Airlift of 1948-49.
Related on World Hum:
* Jan Morris in Berlin: ‘Ooh, That’s Nice!’
* Extreme Eating in East Berlin With the Stasi
Photo by martinroell, via Flickr (Creative Commons)
Rural Pubs in Ireland Becoming ‘So Yesterday’
by Michael Yessis | 04.25.08 | 1:43 PM ET
The Irish pub may be ubiquitous around the world, but it’s struggling in parts of its homeland. Mary Jordan writes in the Washington Post, “Wealth has given the Irish more options and less time—a bad combination for the local pub. More people are spending sunny weekends in Spain rather than evenings of ‘craic,’ as good times and conversation are known, down at the pub.” The video that accompanies Jordan’s story is below.
Anne Frank Postcard Discovered
by Jim Benning | 04.24.08 | 11:32 AM ET
Remarkable: A teacher poking around his father’s antique shop in Holland discovered a postcard mailed by Anne Frank to a friend in 1937, seven years before her death. She’d written, “Good luck for the new year.”
Related on World Hum:
* Anne Frank’s Beloved Chestnut Tree to Fall
‘Long-Neck Women’ Fight Against Confinement in ‘Human Zoos’
by Michael Yessis | 04.22.08 | 11:20 AM ET
Marie Claire, The Age and the Times UK are among the publications with recent stories about the plight of the “long-neck women,” a group of Kayan refugees from Burma who are known for wearing brass coils around their necks. Tourists from around the world flock to Northern Thailand to see them, but many of the long-neck women have apparently had enough of living in a “human zoo.” Several of the women have removed their coils and are fighting to move to New Zealand and Finland, where they have been offered resettlement.
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees has taken up their cause, but so far no exit visas have materialized. The stories allege that the Thai government refuses to let the women leave, fearing that their departure will hurt tourism in the region.
Golf Courses, Bedsheets and the ‘Endless Search for the Peculiar’
by Eva Holland | 04.18.08 | 11:47 AM ET
“What constitutes a meaningful cultural difference?” That’s the question that The Smart Set contributor Michael Gorra is faced with after a bedsheet-shopping expedition in Hamburg. What follows is a thoughtful essay on the traveler’s search for differences, our inevitable comparisons to the familiar and our efforts to make it all add up in the end. Laced with references to the peculiarities around him (Berlin’s new golf courses, or the way cashiers in Hamburg make change), the essay left me reassessing the way I take note of the world around me when I travel. It also left me craving the “cool pilsner tingle” of a mug of German beer.
Robert Burns Would Have Scoffed at Vegetarian Haggis
by Joanna Kakissis | 04.15.08 | 3:07 PM ET
But I love it. I was in Scotland last week, eating the herbivore version of Scotland’s national dish as much as possible. It’s not that I’m afraid of the real haggis —an agitative mix of sheep liver, heart, lungs and other internal organs blended with meat, oats, barley and spices and cooked inside a sheep stomach. It’s just that “fake haggis” tastes better and seemed far easier to find. It may be a sign of the health-food times in Scotland, great purveyor of heart-attack cuisine. But a furious Robert Burns is surely scoffing in his grave.
‘Is a Week Too Long in Venice?’
by Eva Holland | 04.10.08 | 12:33 PM ET
That’s the question posed recently by a Times of London reader, concerned that he may get “bored of the watery Italian city” before the week is up. “Perhaps we got carried away,” he writes, “as it now seems like a very long time.” Times travel expert Richard Green offers a perfectly reasonable answer, suggesting day-trippable destinations in the Veneto, but the response I kept waiting for—“Bored in Venice? Are you serious?”—never came. So here it is.
Stop the Presses: Tunisian-Born Chef Makes Rome’s Best Carbonara
by Joanna Kakissis | 04.09.08 | 1:50 PM ET
Nabil Hadj Hassen, who arrived in Italy at 17 and went on to train with some of the country’s top chefs, won the heart of highly regarded reviewer Gambero Rosso with his dish of pasta, eggs, pecorino cheese and guanciale (cured pig cheek) at the restaurant Antico Forno Roscioli. But The New York Times recently explored how his triumphant carbonara also flagged a question looming over Italy’s revered cuisine: Is the food still Italian if the chef is not?
Hemingway’s Favorite Venice Bar Offering Discounts to Americans
by Jim Benning | 04.08.08 | 10:40 AM ET
Yes, this is what the weak dollar and subprime loan disaster have come to: discounts at Harry’s Bar. Can you imagine the final line of A Moveable Feast were it written today? “But this is how Venice was in the early days when we were very poor and very happy and many fine American homes were in foreclosure and we were enjoying 20 percent off at Harry’s Bar.”
EU Approves Cell Phone Use on Planes
by Michael Yessis | 04.07.08 | 6:06 PM ET
Nooooooo! I was hoping this day would never come. Alas, I lose. And so does everyone else who’s going to end up “sitting next to a chatterbox at 30,000 feet” en route from London to Rome. The silver lining: The United States will maintain its ban on cell phone use on planes, and has no plans to change its mind.
20,000 Bags Delayed at Heathrow’s New Terminal 5
by Michael Yessis | 04.01.08 | 12:17 PM ET
Unfortunately, it’s not another April Fool’s Day joke. Since opening March 27, Terminal 5 at London’s Heathrow Airport has been a disaster. One of the major issues: The $8.5 billion automated luggage system failed to work as promised.
An Expat in Athens: A Life Abroad, as a List
by Joanna Kakissis | 03.28.08 | 11:01 AM ET
Photo by riting on the wall via Flickr (Creative Commons).
If lives of expats can indeed be boiled down to lists, Marie Claire has some good ones. The magazine spotlights five American women living abroad: an author in Paris, a nonprofit worker in Beijing, a photographer in Cairo, a communications consultant in Tunis and a yoga teacher in Hamburg. They have all found things to love about their new homes but still long for their old ones.
‘Older Brits’ Are Going Wild, Too
by Michael Yessis | 03.27.08 | 10:53 AM ET
It’s not just the study-abroad crowd. From an AFP story: “The drink-fuelled antics of young Britons causing havoc on holiday are well-known—but Britain’s over-55s are now joining them in getting into trouble while abroad.”