Destination: Germany
AIDS Levy for Air Travelers?
by Eva Holland | 07.06.09 | 11:07 AM ET
There’s a proposal in the works to add a special tax, marked for efforts to fight AIDS in developing countries, to all flight purchases in the U.S., the U.K. and Germany. A similar tax has been in place in France for three years and has raised nearly $1 billion. The Financial Times has the details on what the plan might look like.
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Yahoo! BuzzOdd Jobs: The Grill Walker
by David Farley | 06.22.09 | 10:41 AM ET
David Farley meets a guy in Berlin who sells sausages from a grill strapped to his body
Paying for Passport Stamps
by Eva Holland | 06.19.09 | 1:50 PM ET
Over at Jaunted, blogger JetSetCD has opened up a conversation on those oh-so-tempting, oh-so-corny souvenir passport stamps.
You know, the ones from places like Checkpoint Charlie, Machu Picchu and so on. And then, beyond the stamps from major tourist sites, there are the just-so-I-can-say-I-was-here countries—Liechtenstein, San Marino and the like—that charge for their entry stamps, too. So, Jaunted asks, are novelty passport stamps worth their price? Or are they just as bad as “buying those horrific gift spoons”?
I have to admit, I’ve never actually been faced with the question before. But I love my passport stamps, and I can’t see putting a set of fake East/West Berlin markers into the mix. On the other hand, though it would irk me to pay, I’d probably want proof that I crossed Liechtenstein’s borders. What about you?
The Secret is Out on Secret Dining
by David Farley | 06.19.09 | 10:38 AM ET
I met a woman at a party a few months ago who, when she witnessed my eyebrow-raising eating prowess, revealed she knows of a few secret dining spots: places only known by the covert band of dining cognoscenti, a cabal of eaters who fetishize the idea of eating in places that no one else knows of. I know, it’s exciting. I tried to extract the information from her that night with the grace of a tooth-pulling dentist, but she wouldn’t budge.
An Aerogram From Berlin
by Evan Rail | 05.21.09 | 10:25 AM ET
Photo by Evan Rail Evan Rail laments the slow demise of ready-to-mail aerograms
Drink a Microbrew, Save the Planet, Taste the Culture
by Joanna Kakissis | 05.19.09 | 1:29 PM ET
I’ve said before that travelers who want to walk the talk of environmentally responsible living must also seek out sustainable food (i.e. no Chilean sea bass!) when on the road. I’m adding locally brewed beer to my list.
Making and transporting beer doesn’t produce nearly as many carbon emissions as boutique wines, which are often flown by overnight air, says Pablo Paster in his column for Treehugger. Still, Paster advises eco-imbibers to drink a local brew over that beloved German beer.
Video: Alison Stein Wellner: The Heat Seeker
by World Hum | 05.11.09 | 11:16 AM ET
Alison Stein Wellner traveled around the world to eat the hottest food she could handle, a quest she chronicled for World Hum
The Heat Seeker: Eat, Sweat, Love
by Alison Stein Wellner | 05.11.09 | 11:12 AM ET
iStockphoto Alison Stein Wellner likes her food hot and spicy. To find out how hot and spicy, she searched the world for heat. Part one of five: Currywurst in Frankfurt.
Elbach, Germany
by World Hum | 05.05.09 | 12:59 PM ET
REUTERS/Michael Dalder Bavarian mountain riflemen in traditional outfits march during a parade in the southern village of Elbach, near Fischbachau. About 5000 mountaineers from Bavaria joined the traditional annual parade to honour Patron Bavariae, the Patron of Bavarian mountain rifleman.
The Book Bench: ‘Let’s all Move to Berlin’
by Eva Holland | 05.04.09 | 3:01 PM ET
I’ve had a longtime fascination with the Parisian expat writers of the 1920s. Books like “A Moveable Feast” or “That Summer in Paris” never fail to make me wish I was sitting in a Left Bank cafe, making a cup of coffee last for hours while I wrestle with a short story or pause to chat with other struggling writers who’ve wandered by.
Of course, Paris is hardly the place for impoverished creative types anymore, but—say the New Yorker’s Book Bench bloggers—there’s a viable European alternative if I ever decide to attempt a modern-day recreation of my Hemingway daydreams: Berlin.
Eight Great Travel Stories About Food
by World Hum | 04.28.09 | 4:06 PM ET
iStockphoto To mark World Hum's eighth anniversary, we've collected eight favorite stories from our archives that explore the sweet spot where taste meets travel
Eight Great Stories of the Shrinking Planet
by World Hum | 04.28.09 | 10:08 AM ET
To mark our eighth anniversary, we've collected stories from our archives that speak to ways people and cultures are mixing and colliding
Schwerin, Germany
by World Hum | 04.24.09 | 11:00 AM ET
REUTERS/Tobias Schwarz The Schwerin castle and its ornamental garden during the opening day of a federal horticultural show in Schwerin
World’s Poorest Countries Want Levy on Airline Tickets
by Joanna Kakissis | 04.08.09 | 2:16 PM ET
Rich nations produce most of the world’s CO2 emissions but poor countries often pay the price, suffering through worsening droughts, intense flooding, rising sea levels, crop failures and pollution. Sometimes, their citizens are forced to become economic refugees, and leave their homes altogether.
So in the name of climate justice, representatives of the world’s 49 poorest countries told negotiators at UN climate talks in Bonn that air passengers should each pay a $6 emissions levy per flight, The Guardian reports. This could raise about $10 billion a year that poor nations could use to help adapt to climate change.
Around the World in Five Dates
by Terry Ward | 04.07.09 | 12:04 PM ET
iStockphoto The language of love may be universal, but the etiquette of dating is not. Terry Ward looks at courting from Tehran to Tokyo.