Tag: Walking

Walking Off Writer’s Burnout

Walking Off Writer’s Burnout (Photo: Jeff Biggers)

Jeff Biggers hadn't written anything original in months. The joy was gone. Then he and a friend went for a stroll in Bologna.

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Why is This Man Walking Around the World?

Aspiring travel writers can choose any number of paths. They can start a blog, or intern at a magazine, or simply start pitching stories to editors.

But 24-year-old Ryan Newburn is taking a different approach. He plans to spend four or five years walking around the world—almost literally. He’ll hoof it across Japan, then New Zealand, then Australia, and then he’ll work his way up Southeast Asia, and that’s only the beginning.

Why?

Among other things, the Nebraska native told Newsweek: “I thought about what I wanted to do with my life, and I’ve always wanted to be a travel writer. I want to meet extraordinary people from all walks of life, all over the world, and write about them.”

Well, if he pulls off the epic trek, he’ll have one incredible story to tell.


Paris: Pedestrianizing the Seine?

Good news for fans of dreamy riverside strolls: Paris city councilors will vote next month on a vehicle ban along the Left Bank. The ban would apply to a mile-plus stretch of riverside real estate, from roughly the Musee d’Orsay to the Eiffel Tower, and according to This Just in, “[p]ermanent foot and cycle paths ... 35 acres of new cafés, parks, sports facilities, and floating islands” would also be part of the package.


Which Way to the Promenade?

On the changing cruise industry and the joys of promenades past

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‘The Truth is People do Walk in L.A.’

Ryan Bradley’s Good series Walking in L.A. gets off to a strong start. He aims to reverse the notion that Los Angeles isn’t a place for walkers, and he’s carrying a lot of statistical ammunition.

Everyone thinks they know L.A., even if they’ve never been west of St. Louis. Nobody walks in L.A., right? There’s that Missing Persons song, or that line from Steve Martin’s L.A. Story: “...it’s not like New York, where you can meet someone walking down the street. In L.A. you practically have to hit someone with your car. In fact, I know girls who speed just to meet cops.”

But the truth is people do walk in L.A. And bike. Fully 12 percent of all trips in Los Angeles are by bicycle or on foot—that’s more than Austin or Portland. In sheer numbers, L.A. has more bikers and walkers than Washington, D.C., or Chicago, or even San Francisco. And it happens to be far safer for biking and walking than all three, according to a 2010 Benchmarking Report by the Alliance for Biking and Walking. I lump walking and biking together only because, until very recently, so did everyone else. In the 1990s biking and walking were “alternative,” like rock music. Fifteen years ago, Los Angeles spent “about $1 million” a year on pedestrians and bike services. This year Los Angeles has earmarked $36 million on walking alone. Could it be that this western cow-town, this place that’s synonymous with self-reinvention, is reinventing itself?

Bradley’s first exploratory walk in L.A.: a 17-mile trek from LAX to downtown.


Rory Stewart Wins in UK Election

“The Places in Between” author and Tory politician Rory Stewart captured 53.4 percent of the vote and will represent Penrith and The Border as a Member of Parliament. As Slate’s June Thomas tweeted, “Let the walking begin.”


Rory Stewart: Member of Parliament?

The author of “The Places in Between” is running for office in the U.K. No surprise how he’s campaigning. The man who walked from Iran to Nepal has, according to Slate, walked “300 miles over sheep-dotted hills” to familiarize himself with his potential constituency.


Why I Walk

Why I Walk iStockPhoto

No, it's not quick or expedient. But it offers something other modes of transport can't. Bill Belleville on traveling by foot.

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Video You Must See: ‘The Longest Street in the World’

Video You Must See: ‘The Longest Street in the World’ Photo by purplepick via Flickr (Creative Commons)

Two photographers take a stop-motion walk down Toronto's Yonge Street, a one-time Guinness World Record holder

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Video You Must See: Dawn at the Summit of Skiddaw


Morning Links: Holidays in Banda Aceh, ‘Slavery Theme Park’ and More

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Will Self: On ‘Psychogeography’ and the Places That Choose You

Will Self: On ‘Psychogeography’ and the Places That Choose You Photo by Michael Wildsmith.

The novelist and journalist talks to Frank Bures about his new book, long-distance walking and our search for the places that embrace us

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Walking Off the Karakoram Highway

Walking Off the Karakoram Highway Photo by bongo vongo via Flickr, (Creative Commons).

On a winding route to Pakistan's Rama Lake, taunted and ignored, Jeffrey Tayler learns the truth of the saying, "All politics is local"

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Caught in a Czech Funk

Caught in a Czech Funk Photo courtesy of Czech Tourism.

All David Farley wanted from the tourist information office in the tiny town of Nove Hrady was directions to the train station. Then he asked the young clerk a seemingly innocuous question: Was that funk booming from the speakers?

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