Travel Blog
Three U.S. Travelers Detained in Iran
by Eva Holland | 08.03.09 | 10:59 AM ET
Apparently, they were hiking in Iraqi Kurdistan and wandered over the poorly marked border. One of the three, Sarah Shourd, is a contributor over at Brave New Traveler.
Email to friend
del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Furl
Ma.gnolia
Mixx
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Yahoo! BuzzHomeless Polish Men Build Ship, Plan to Sail Around the World
by Michael Yessis | 08.03.09 | 10:05 AM ET
Nicholas Kulish has the details in a terrific story in the New York Times. The two dozen homeless men are building the ship in the yard of a former tractor factory in Warsaw, and “their story strikes deeper chords because, for all the modern tools in the building and corporate sponsors providing the raw materials, their endeavor echoes mythic themes of escape, adventure and redemption that can seem out of reach in a world of biometric identity cards and debt-collection agencies.”
Van Halen, Highway 40 and Happiness
by Michael Yessis | 08.03.09 | 9:20 AM ET
In his latest post on the Happy Days blog, Tim Kreider draws from his travel experiences to make an interesting point about happiness: “Maybe we mistakenly think we want ‘happiness,’ which we tend to picture in very vague, soft-focus terms, when what we really crave is the harder-edged intensity of experience.”
What We Loved This Week: TBEX, Corn Season and Sleeping In-Flight
by World Hum | 07.31.09 | 2:31 PM ET
Photo by Alicia Imbody Our contributors share a favorite travel-related experience from the past seven days.
Alicia Imbody
I loved jamming out at a concert to two great import bands: Swedish newcomers Peter Bjorn and John, and British legends Depeche Mode. It was an eclectic crowd, an incredible show, and it helped keep my mind off all the wanderlust-inducing summer concerts I’m missing. Here’s a shot of Depeche Mode rocking under a psychedelic disco world ... or something:
Jackson Mourners Still Heading to Neverland
by Eva Holland | 07.31.09 | 1:26 PM ET
Consider my earlier question answered. USA Today reports that “hundreds of fans” are showing up daily at the gates of the secluded ranch. Unsurprisingly, local opinion is split on whether the pilgrimage spot should become an official Graceland-esque attraction. (Via @amybp)
A Travel Writer Gets Dumped
by Eva Holland | 07.31.09 | 12:38 PM ET
By his old passport, that is. Like other writers before him, Lonely Planet’s Leif Pettersen says goodbye to his traveling companion of five years: “It ended so suddenly. One minute we’re jet-setting along as ever, the next she had simply run out of pages ... Oh sure, I’ll get another passport. She’ll be new, thin, have perfect skin and, ideally, will have never been with another guy, but it just won’t be the same.”
Marcel Theroux Rides the Rails
by Eva Holland | 07.31.09 | 12:02 PM ET
Looks like a love of trains runs in the family? The Guardian has a fun video—part one in a series—from second-generation travel writer Marcel Theroux’s recent train ride into northern Russia. (Via @elihansen)
‘Eat, Pray, Love in the USA’
by Eva Holland | 07.31.09 | 11:14 AM ET
Over at Matador Trips, Beebe Bahrami offers her top picks for culinary, spiritual and romantic America, with everywhere from the French Quarter to the Black Hills represented. It’s the latest in an “Eat, Pray, Love” themed series.
Kimchi Burgers Bring Sweet Taste of Freedom to Pyongyang
by Alicia Imbody | 07.31.09 | 10:41 AM ET
Just when we were beginning to think that isolated North Koreans might never enjoy the greasy spillover of the expanding McWorld, the first-fast food restaurant in Pyongyang opened yesterday. The Daily Press reports that the Samtaeseong Restaurant—which serves burgers, fries, beer and, of course, kimchi—is already proving a runaway hit with locals and foreigners, and plans to expand are in the works.
Schott’s Vocab on ‘Grief Tourism’
by Michael Yessis | 07.31.09 | 9:36 AM ET
The New York Times blog of modern words and phrases picks up on grief tourism. It defines it as: “Traveling to the memorial services or home towns of those who have died, in order to pay one’s respects—despite having no personal connection with the deceased.” It’s an offshoot of dark tourism, which Frank Bures examined for World Hum a couple years ago.
Esquire Improves Your Tourist Trap Experience
by Eva Holland | 07.30.09 | 4:15 PM ET
The men’s mag has a tersely written guide to some of America’s most popular tourist spots, and how to improve the time that you’ll inevitably spend visiting them—shoulder-to-shoulder with everybody else. Here’s a sample for Manhattan: “Joe’s Pizza on Carmine, not Ben’s on Spring. // House-tun, not Hyoo-stun. // Not SoHo. Period.”
Thanks for the tip, Eli.
Continental Adds DirecTV on Domestic Flights
by Eva Holland | 07.30.09 | 3:14 PM ET
The system, which broadcasts live from satellite rather than airing pre-recorded programming, will be widely installed by 2011, and USA Today predicts that other legacy carriers will follow suit. The outcome for travelers: We may not be able to check a bag or drink a Diet Coke without paying an extra fee anymore, but soon we’ll be able to watch the latest episode of “Ice Road Truckers” at 37,000 feet. That makes up for everything else, right?
Travel Song of the Day: ‘Rio’ by Goldfinger
by Eva Holland | 07.30.09 | 2:02 PM ET
NPR Types Pick 100 Best Beach Books for NPR Types
by Michael Yessis | 07.30.09 | 1:04 PM ET
Almost 16,000 “book-loving NPR Types” have finished voting on the best beach books of all time. The top 5:
1) The Harry Potter series, by J.K. Rowling
2) To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
3) The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
4) Bridget Jones’s Diary, by Helen Fielding
5) Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
My suggestion from last week finished at No. 99.
Brunel-Spotting in Southern England
by Eva Holland | 07.30.09 | 12:16 PM ET
If you’ve taken a train in London or southwestern England, chances are you’ve passed through or across one of Isembard Kingdom Brunel’s bridges, tunnels or railway stations. The Victorian engineer arguably did more than anyone to shape public transit in Britain, and his creations are hard to avoid.
I’ve been a Brunel fan ever since I accidentally wound up at his 200th birthday party at the foot of Bristol’s Clifton Suspension Bridge in 2006, so I was pleased to come across this excellent slideshow from the Telegraph, mixing paintings and photographs to depict Brunel’s greatest surviving structures. I’ve made it to four of them—how about you?
