Travel Blog
A Life’s Travels, Six Words Only
by Julia Ross | 03.03.08 | 9:23 AM ET
Last month, the online magazine Smith published an addictive collection of six-word memoirs, titled Not Quite What I Was Planning. As you might expect, the project’s abbreviated life stories—contributed by Smith’s readers and a few well-known writers—cover a wide arc of joy, tragedy, heartbreak and fulfillment.
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Yahoo! BuzzWorld Hum’s Most Read: Feb. 23-29
by World Hum | 03.01.08 | 3:21 PM ET
Our five most popular features and blog posts this week:
1) Promised Land Closed
2) One Man’s Odyssey into ‘Eat, Pray, Love’
3) Photo: What You Don’t Want to See in the Cockpit High Over Belize
4) Mint and Djinns in Fes (pictured)
5) A Journey to Remote Kenya to Meet Granny Obama
What We Loved This Week: Flogging Molly, ‘Arirang’ and the Best Hot Chocolate East of Paris
by World Hum | 02.29.08 | 3:55 PM ET
World Hum contributors share a favorite travel-related experience from the past seven days.
Jim Benning
I was in New York City Thursday night and caught the rollicking Irish folk-punk band Flogging Molly at the Fillmore. Their ebullient shows never fail to make me want to jump up and down for hours while clutching a Guinness. Thursday’s show was typically brilliant. Here’s a video from one performance:
Photo: What You Don’t Want to See in the Cockpit High Over Belize
by Jim Benning | 02.29.08 | 11:27 AM ET
Okay, so he’s not exactly asleep, but still. And we thought only passengers were raiding airport gift shops for sudoku books. World Hum contributor Abbie Kozolchyk shot this recently somewhere over Belize:
Deadly Ricin Found in Las Vegas Motel Room
by Jim Benning | 02.29.08 | 11:12 AM ET
The discovery was made Thursday at an Extended Stay America Hotel. Seven people, all apparently in good condition, have been sent to hospitals for observation. It puts the whole bedbugs debate into perspective, doesn’t it?
National Parks Riddled With Contaminants
by Joanna Kakissis | 02.29.08 | 11:02 AM ET
We recently noted that fewer Americans are spending their free time camping, hiking and fishing in our great outdoors. But while our parks are losing human crowds, they may are gaining some people-produced troubles—contaminants such as pesticides and mercury.
‘Eat, Pray, Love’ Driving Memoir Boom
by Jim Benning | 02.28.08 | 3:30 PM ET
Oprah sang its praises. Rolf Potts didn’t. But love it or hate it, Elizabeth Gilbert’s post-divorce travel memoir “Eat, Pray, Love” is among the popular books now driving a boom in new memoirs being published, reports USA Today.
Protesters of Heathrow Expansion Hit the Roof
by Eva Holland | 02.28.08 | 3:23 PM ET
Five members of a group called Plane Stupid managed to breach security and climb onto the roof of the British parliament this week, to protest the planned expansion of London’s Heathrow Airport.
Q&A With Erin Granat: On Americans Studying Abroad
by Eva Holland | 02.28.08 | 12:00 PM ET
Americans who’ve traveled overseas know well that the U.S. is more loathed than loved in many quarters. But for students traveling abroad for the first time these days—and fortunately, there are many—that realization can be startling and eye-opening. I recently asked Erin Granat a few questions about her experience.
‘Once’ and the Art of Busking
by Michael Yessis | 02.28.08 | 9:34 AM ET
The Implications of a Viable Northwest Passage
by Michael Yessis | 02.28.08 | 7:09 AM ET
We’ve touched on what a navigable passage through the Arctic will mean for international shipping and travelers. The latest issue of Foreign Affairs offers a thorough look at the economic and political implications of an ice-free Northwest Passage, something that, according to experts, could happen as soon as 2013.
Dollar Hits Record Low Against Euro
by Joanna Kakissis | 02.27.08 | 5:57 PM ET
The dollar ended trading at $1.51 to the euro today, sending me into official crazy-lady mode. Are the other American expats living in Europe on modest dollar salaries also crying with me, or have they resigned themselves to a 2008 of $8 cappuccinos, $20 blocks of feta and sharply curtailed travel plans in the rest of the hyper-expensive continent?
Related on World Hum:
* NYC Shops to Visitors: Give us Your Huddled Euros Yearning to be Free
* An Expat in Athens: Hitting the Polls in Greece
Photo by jopemoro via Flickr (Creative Commons).
A Turban Too Far
by Julia Ross | 02.27.08 | 2:29 PM ET
When in Gujarat, wear a turban, or in Chile, a poncho. Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Vladimir Putin and scores of other world leaders have long followed the practice and escaped unscathed, so why not Barack Obama? A Guardian photo gallery brings much-needed perspective to the photo (above) that has stirred controversy this week.
Cracked Picks World’s ‘Most Baffling’ Theme Parks
by Michael Yessis | 02.27.08 | 11:14 AM ET
Baffling? I guess Cracked hasn’t been keeping up with Planet Theme Park, where baffling is the norm.
Pizza and Intrigue in Naples: A Graphic Travel Story
by Eva Holland | 02.27.08 | 10:16 AM ET
Tom Downey, whose first ‘graphic travel story’ we blogged about awhile back, has put out another in this month’s Conde Nast Traveler. As in the first story, Naples: The Case of the Stolen Starter was created with artist Neil Gower and fuses techniques from graphic novels and detective fiction to create a unique piece of travel writing. From the piazza to the mercato to the trattoria, Downey encounters all kinds of compelling details of Neopolitan life while his illustrated hero attempts to save a pizzeria whose dough has been stolen.
