Travel Blog
Walking in a Winter Wonderland
by Sophia Dembling | 01.16.09 | 10:36 AM ET
Photo by Sophia Dembling I live in Texas and every now and then I get nostalgic for real winters. “I miss snow,” I’ll say to my husband, who grew up in Illinois and knows from snow.
And he always says the same thing: “That’s because you never had to shovel a driveway.”
Yes, OK. I grew up in a New York City apartment and now live where snow is here today, gone today. We do get it once or twice a year, but it rarely sticks more than a few hours. Snowmen in Dallas are a tragic sight, as much mud and leaves as snow. Still, hard as it may be to believe during this cold snap we’re having, I like traveling to where I can enjoy real snow. I’m no skier, but I like watching snow fall, walking in it, and sitting inside being warm on a snowy day. (I’m always game for an excuse to sit on a couch.)
Email to friend
del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Furl
Ma.gnolia
Mixx
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Yahoo! BuzzThe Critics: ‘Last Chance Harvey’
by Eva Holland | 01.16.09 | 10:30 AM ET
The reviews are in for Last Chance Harvey, the travel-infused romance that hits theaters today. Opinions vary on the quality of the film overall, but everyone seems to agree that the efforts from stars Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman are a rare treat.
“Just about everything works in this small and surprisingly hopeful film,” writes Betsy Sharkey in the Los Angeles Times, “with beautifully attenuated performances by Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson, who slip into the characters Hopkins has sewn for them like an old sweater.” LA Weekly’s Aaron Hillis agrees—at least in part. “Hoffman and Thompson—despite the 20-plus years between them, and her graceful restraint in contrast to his creepy assertiveness—have a genuinely sweet chemistry,” he writes, “which is the exact and only reason to seek this one out.”
Morning Links: Glum Gladiators, ‘Nutters and Nudies’ and More
by Valerie Conners | 01.16.09 | 8:39 AM ET
- Yesterday’s incredible US Airways rescue in the Hudson River has yielded a medley of media coverage including eye-popping slideshows, surprising facts about bird strikes on planes and even a sprinkling of gallows humor.
- One New York City diner is taking the ultimate road trip to Alabama.
- Boston.com is featuring a series of stunning photos taken from NASA’s Earth Observatory website.
- Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn announced plans for the band’s third album, dubbed the “Syria Sessions” and inspired by Arabic orchestral music. The band will head to Syria to record in March.
- The backlash against Slumdog Millionaire has begun, including harsh words from one critic describing the film as “poverty porn.”
- With the number of foreign tourists to Rome down more than 12 percent from last year, the dolce vita is no more for the city’s “glum” gladiators, carriage drivers and other tourism operators.
- Vegas’s iconic topless showgirl review, “Les Folies Bergere,” is closing after entertaining oglers for 49 years.
- We previously noted Australia’s call for applicants for the “best job in the world.” Now, the video applications are rolling in, and there’s no shortage of “nutters and nudies.”
Got a suggestion? .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) your link.
Wandering Through ‘Hawaii: Holoholo Wale’
by Pam Mandel | 01.15.09 | 4:33 PM ET
Photo by Pam Mandel. Confession. I was not all that interested in Hawaii at first. Too touristy, a cliche, whatever. Maybe it was the Elvis movies or the Brady Bunch in Hawaii episodes or the glitzy ad campaigns that showed swimming pools that looked like mini-golf courses. A significant birthday brought me there, my mom’s dash-zero year meant a family gathering, a holiday home, a minivan.
At the time, I was living a divided life between two places, a small town in Austria and Seattle, Washington. In order to get to Hawaii for this January birthday, my mate and I boarded a flight in wintery Vienna. Two days later—after a one-night stop in my Seattle apartment to repack—we stepped out of the plane on to the tarmac at the Kona airport and I fell in love.
US Airways Plane Crashes Into Hudson River
by Jim Benning | 01.15.09 | 4:07 PM ET
All 155 people on board survived. The Airbus 320 apparently had just taken off from LaGuardia when it hit one or more birds, causing engine trouble. A dramatic rescue ensued. Reports the AP: “The plane was submerged in the icy waters up to the windows, and rescue crews had opened the door and were pulling passengers in yellow life vests from the plane.”
Robert Louis Stevenson: Internet-Bound
by Eva Holland | 01.15.09 | 1:49 PM ET
A new website is in the works for the “Treasure Island” author, in an apparent effort to revive his fading legacy. (As Book Bench blogger Katherine Ryder puts it, “he’s been left out of various editions of the Norton Anthology of English Literature; worse, “Treasure Island” has been adapted by Hollywood so many times, even Kermit the Frog has a version.”) When it comes online in 2010, the site will make Stevenson the latest travel-esque literary heavyweight—after George Orwell and Ernest Hemingway—to find a new home in cyberspace.
While we’re waiting, Ryder recommends reading Stevenson’s An Apology for Idlers. “He’ll remind you of a vision of life that our teachers warned against,” she writes, “that aimless days are just as important as work days, that staring out the window is also learning, that unadulterated bliss is found with your feet up ... He may even convince you to take a vacation, or at least demand more of one.”
I Resent That
by Sophia Dembling | 01.15.09 | 11:37 AM ET
“Business Week” recently ran a list of America’s Most and Least Favorite Cities, and my home town of Dallas ranked ninth least favorite. Adding insult to injury, the article says, “The top negative attributes, according to the survey, were the people—their backgrounds, talents, and perspectives (49%); environment—climate, park space, natural resources (39%); and image (38%).”
Well. Harumph.
Morning Links: Skycar, Disney Shanghai and More
by Michael Yessis | 01.15.09 | 9:07 AM ET
- Disney and Shanghai have reportedly agreed on plans for a new Disney theme park in China.
- Google has added a transit layer to its maps in 50 world cities.
- The Skycar—a flying car—departed from London to Timbuktu with Neil Laughton behind the wheel.
- CNN offers video profiles of Dubai’s Emirates terminal and the airport of the year, Hong Kong International Airport.
- What about the world’s worst airports?
- Hu Jintao warns of potential travel problems in China for Chinese New Year.
- Men’s Fitness names Salt Lake City the fittest city in the U.S. The fattest? Miami.
- Slideshow: Paragliding over Africa.
- A Japanese website maps smells around the world. Apparently, there’s a “toasty odor of cow dung” somewhere out there.
Got a suggestion? .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) your link.
Racking Up the (Frequent-Flier) Miles
by Eva Holland | 01.14.09 | 5:08 PM ET
Call it carbon-neutral mileage running. Over at The Art of Nonconformity, blogger Chris Guillebeau reveals how he collected more than 300,000 frequent-flier miles in just five weeks—without stepping on a plane. The secret? Some savvy manipulation of those ubiquitous “Sign up NOW and get 30,000 miles FREE!” airport credit card offers.
Guillebeau estimates that he spent roughly $500 on the experiment, and gained $12,000 worth of miles in exchange. His post includes detailed instructions for any readers hoping to join in the fun.
If You Build an Eco-City, Will They Come?
by Joanna Kakissis | 01.14.09 | 2:06 PM ET
Photo by bschmove (Creative Commons). Green is trendy, and the very fashion-minded Milan loves trends. So if all goes as planned, by 2013 a chic, eco-mini-city called Milano Santa Monica will open some seven kilometers outside Milan’s city center in a town called Segrate. If this place actually looks like the computer-generated images on its website, it’s going to be beautiful. Imagine two million square meters of lush green space with well-designed and energy-efficient apartments and shops, and a pedestrian mall with a waterway, parks and lots of trees.
R.I.P. London’s Astoria
by Eva Holland | 01.14.09 | 10:14 AM ET
The legendary London venue is closing down this week to make way for a new rail line. The Astoria and its annex, Astoria 2, have hosted everyone from Nirvana and David Bowie to Iggy Pop and Eminem over the years.
“People tend to get misty-eyed about the demise of historic dives, and in this sense the Astoria does not disappoint,” Ian Winwood writes in the Guardian. “The security people can be difficult, the beer is always too warm and if it weren’t for the musicians on stage the loudest sound in the room would be people’s feet un-sticking themselves from the floor. ... The Astoria is inconvenient and exciting, just like London itself.”
Morning Links: A New Way to See the Prado, Cuban Tourism and More
by Michael Yessis | 01.14.09 | 8:00 AM ET
El Tres De Mayo by Goya (via Wikipedia) - An American in Spain writes about studying Euskera, the “clearest sign of Basque identity.”
- Greenpeace buys land in effort to halt a third runway at Heathrow. It’s now the prime minister’s move.
- Here’s an interesting project: Masterpieces from the Prado on Google Earth.
- Jonathan Raban on the best presidential writers. He notes some of the travel bits of Barack Obama’s “Dreams From My Father.”
- Cuba reported huge tourism numbers in 2008. It could grow if Obama implements the policy outlined by Hillary Clinton.
- A steady flow of flights from Europe—and “tightened restrictions in Thailand and elsewhere in Asia”—are fueling sex tourism in Mombasa, Kenya.
- A couple of long-term travelers share ten lessons of the road. No. 2: Smile.
- The BBC offers some tips on landing that best job in the world.
- Lawlessness reigns at San Diego’s skate parks. Given the city’s financial shape, officials decided not to staff them. Skateboarders have flocked to the parks for the “[f]reedom to smoke while they skate, drink beer, bring dogs, ride minibikes amid the skateboards and scrawl graffiti.”
Got a suggestion? .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) your link.
Bird’s Nest or White Elephant?
by Julia Ross | 01.13.09 | 5:09 PM ET
Say it ain’t so. A mere five months after the Beijing Olympic Games, has the Bird’s Nest stadium become a tourist trap? With no permanent tenant signed, that’s how it’s looking. I’m a big fan of the building and would happily pay the $7 fee to walk around inside, but at the same time hope the Chinese find a dedicated revenue stream to maintain it.
For a behind-the-scenes look at how the stadium was built, check out the documentary, Bird’s Nest: Herzog and de Meuron in China. The best parts are the unintentionally hilarious culture clashes between the building’s two “make-the-trains-run-on-time” Swiss architects and their Chinese partners. You can imagine.
Because Underdogs Rock
by Jenna Schnuer | 01.13.09 | 12:03 PM ET
Growing up in New Jersey, you, quickly, understand what it’s like to live as the underdog. My poor home state. Its wonders are frequently overlooked. Isn’t that just a place where people who commute to NYC live? It’s an easy punchline for most outsiders. New Jersey. Heh heh. Snicker snicker.
Yes, I’ll admit that, once I went off to college (Boston—another underdog place), I made Jersey jokes and laughed along the millionth tired time somebody asked me what exit? I made it clear that I hated Springsteen, that hair bands were evil and that my aesthetic leanings were more Manhattan than Jersey. I vowed never to return (permanently) to the Garden State. But graduating into the lovely economic climate of 1992, well, plans changed. I ended up back at my parents’ house in Teaneck, commuting into Manhattan via NJ Transit’s 167 bus.
Morning Links: Science Pubs, Staged Plane Crash and More
by Michael Yessis | 01.13.09 | 8:13 AM ET
- Money guy Marcus Schrenker apparently staged a plane crash to fake his death. Wow. Gawker calls him “one of the most memorable villains to emerge in the financial crisis.”
- Bill Donahue in Panama: It has “the dark allure of a Graham Greene novel.”
- Tourism officials in Australia have put out a call for the best job in the world.
- Foreign Policy hosted a virtual roundtable on Samuel Huntington’s legacy.
- Tokyo’s Tsukiji market has reopened to tourists.
- Maclean’s examines “changes that have taken place in the travel landscape as a result of 2008’s tumultuous economy.”
- Sake consumption may be falling in Japan, but it’s on the rise in the U.S.
- In these Portland, Oregon “science pubs,” drink in a little physics or volcanology lecture with your brew. Even better: “There are no tests.”
Got a suggestion? .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) your link.
