Travel Blog
Gas Prices Threaten the Field Trip
by Julia Ross | 06.09.08 | 12:25 PM ET
It seems the $4-per-gallon mark is a tipping point in more ways than one. School field trips are the latest casualties of soaring gas prices, reports the Christian Science Monitor, prompting a spike in “virtual field trips” via video link. NASA and the Bronx Zoo are among hundreds of organizations now offering the virtual option. They sound great as supplemental learning tools, but I’m hoping the real thing doesn’t disappear altogether.
Photo by kevindooley via Flickr (Creative Commons).
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Yahoo! BuzzArthur Frommer on ‘Touristic Vandalism’
by Eva Holland | 06.09.08 | 12:17 PM ET
In March, we heard about the Finnish tourist who chipped an earlobe off one of Easter Island’s moai. Then, two weeks ago, mystery vandals took a hammer and screwdriver to Stonehenge. Vandalism at major cultural sites is nothing new, but with these recent incidents, it’s had a higher profile lately. In this Globe and Mail story, Arthur Frommer offers a possible solution:
It’s Official: Guevara Children Embarrassed by Che T-Shirts
by Jim Benning | 06.09.08 | 10:20 AM ET
They’re not too hot on the Che image being used to sell vodka or cell phones, either, the AP reports. No word on their feelings about this.
Related on World Hum:
* Che Guevara: Revolutionary, Icon, ‘the Guy Who Intented Those Mojitos’?
* Steven Soderbergh’s ‘Che’: ‘Almost Unreleasable in its Current Form’
* Che and the Image Seen ‘Round the World
World Hum’s Most Read: May 31-June 6
by World Hum | 06.06.08 | 4:07 PM ET
What We Loved This Week: Czech Beer, Patrick Leigh Fermor and the Triumph of the Human Spirit
by World Hum | 06.06.08 | 3:41 PM ET
World Hum contributors share a favorite travel-related experience from the past seven days.
David Farley
I’ve been back from a trip to the Czech Republic for two weeks, but I’m still thinking about the delicious unpasteurized beer I drank there. Called kvasnicove in Czech, unpasteurized Czech lager is not as ubiquitous as I’d like it to be, but I found it at the Regent Brewery in the town of Trebon as well as at a great, off-the-beaten path microbrewery in Prague called U Bulovky (that also happens to serve up way above-average pub grub, by the way).
The Latest Haven for the Homeless: Heathrow’s Terminal 5
by Joanna Kakissis | 06.06.08 | 3:17 PM ET
Homeless advocate Howard Sinclair says he’s helped and counseled at least 100 itinerant Londoners living at the terminal in the last three months, according to NPR. Heathrow officials are evicting people, as U.S. airport officials are forced to do. But the brass at London’s biggest airport have also hired specialists like Sinclair to help the homeless find homes and support.
Related on World Hum:
* Terminal Men Spend Almost Seven Weeks Living in Delhi Airport
* Tale of a Travel Martyr
* What a Difference Between the quality of the Items Handed out by Air France
Tony Horwitz on Book TV Sunday
by Jim Benning | 06.06.08 | 1:51 PM ET
The author of “A Voyage Long and Strange,” featured in this World Hum interview, recently talked up his latest work at the great Books & Books in Coral Gables, Florida—in front of C-SPAN cameras. The program will air twice on Sunday.
Is the Internet Ruining Travel?
by Eva Holland | 06.06.08 | 12:19 PM ET
Photo by dro!d via Flickr (Creative Commons)
Several high-profile British travel writers think so. In the Times of London, they weigh in on the proliferation of internet cafes, mass emails home and the rise of blogging from the road. Says Wanderlust editor Lyn Hughes: “I like to remember when ‘poste restante’ was the only way of getting in touch. It was so much more exciting then.”
Can’t We All Just Get Along?
by Eva Holland | 06.06.08 | 11:59 AM ET
Forget about “How To ‘Green’ Your Travels” or “5 Ways To Stretch Your Holiday Dollars.” German newspaper Bild has taken the “How To” article to a whole new level, printing a guide to help its readers avoid British tourists abroad. According to the Independent, the guide was a response to a successful lawsuit by a British traveler, who sued his tour operator after finding himself at a resort full of Germans. Just another beautiful We Are The World moment in international travel.
Gidget, Miki Dora and the Creation of the Surfing ‘Lifestyle’
by Eva Holland | 06.06.08 | 11:51 AM ET
Photo by rappensuncle via Flickr (Creative Commons)
n the latest issue of The Believer, Peter Lunenfeld chronicles surfing’s meteoric rise from SoCal subculture to global brand. “The thing to remember is that, since 1957, surfing as something you buy has overshadowed surfing as something you do,” he writes. “I would hazard that no other activity has ever generated as many products among people who neither know how to do it, nor follow those who do.” The essay touches on topics ranging from Gidget to Freud to Malibu Barbie, and uncovers the unlikely role of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in propelling the sport to pop culture dominance.
Angry Esperantists to Protest G-8 Summit in Japan
by Elyse Franko | 06.06.08 | 10:53 AM ET
Speakers of the artificial international language, Esperanto, are expected to descend on Hokkaido, Japan, just in time for the G-8 summit in July. Their beef? Not unfair trade, human-rights violations or war, but the global linguistic dominance of the English language.
‘Dichos’: The Southwest’s Newer, Cooler Fortune Cookie?
by Joanna Kakissis | 06.06.08 | 10:41 AM ET
2008 Book Passage Travel Writing Conference
by Jim Benning | 06.06.08 | 10:22 AM ET
This year’s Book Passage Travel Writers & Photographers Conference takes place August 14-17 in Corte Madera, California. I’ll be on the faculty, along with many writers and editors I admire: Simon Winchester, Tim Cahill, Isabel Allende, John Flinn, Tom Swick and (conference chair) Don George, just to name a few. If you’re interested in studying travel writing or photography and meeting editors and writers, it’s a conference well worth considering.
Travel Headline of the Day: ‘Airlines May Start Treating Passengers as ‘Freight’’
by Eva Holland | 06.05.08 | 6:08 PM ET
Nope, I didn’t come across this one in The Onion. Instead it caps a story from Bloomberg, about the increasingly desperate lengths to which the airlines might go to recoup spiraling fuel costs.
Where in the World Are You, Elyse Franko?
by Elyse Franko | 06.05.08 | 3:57 PM ET
The subject of our latest up-to-the-minute interview with a traveler somewhere in the world: new World Hum intern Elyse Franko. She just typed this up in the office.
Where in the World Are You?
