Travel Blog: News and Briefs
What We Loved This Week: Palau, the O.C. and the National Aquarium Through a Child’s Eyes
by World Hum | 09.04.09 | 4:26 PM ET
Photo by Michael Yessis Eva Holland
I came home to Ottawa this week just in time to discover a new brewpub, Les Brasseurs du Temps, across the river in Gatineau, Quebec. The new spot is in a resurrected 1821 brewery building, and the house-brewed ales are delicious. I’m already plotting a second visit.
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Yahoo! BuzzWired’s Very Own Terminal Man
by Eva Holland | 09.04.09 | 2:26 PM ET
Instead of 24 hours in Airworld, Wired.com brings us ... 30 days in Airworld—in which one brave guinea pig flies every day and sleeps in the airport every night for a month. While blogging the experience, of course. Here are the details, including official challenge rules and ways the readers can get involved.
Airline Food Gets an Upgrade
by Eva Holland | 09.04.09 | 1:44 PM ET
You’ll still pay for it, of course. But with early attempts at for-purchase meals largely a bust, the airlines are trying again—bringing in known brand names (Ben & Jerry’s, for instance), celebrity chefs and more upscale options (fruit and cheese plate, anyone?) to replace the “soggy turkey sandwiches” we’ve all gotten to know so well.
So will passengers pay up for new, improved airline meals? I can’t speak for the rest of you, but they had me at “Cherry Garcia.”
‘A User’s Guide to Understanding Parisians’
by Michael Yessis | 09.04.09 | 12:12 PM ET
Among the tips from longtime Paris residents Pauline Harris and Simon Kuper: Know their codes. “When Parisians are rude to visitors,” they write, “it is often because they think the visitor has been rude. This city has an old-fashioned etiquette, and unlucky tourists trample it with both white-sneakered feet.”
No War Re-Enactments, Please, We’re Canadian
by Eva Holland | 09.04.09 | 11:33 AM ET
Next weekend marks the 250th anniversary of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham outside Quebec City, a decisive battle in the British and French struggle for present-day Canada—so you might expect a loud, colorful historical re-enactment, complete with muskets and period costumes. Right? Um, no. Instead, a “unifying” battlefield poetry slam is in the works. You can’t make this stuff up.
Finding ‘The Third Man’ in Vienna
by Eva Holland | 09.03.09 | 4:21 PM ET
Paul Gogarty’s Graham Greene-themed tour of the Austrian capital goes well beyond that famous Ferris wheel.
Mapping Manhattan in 1609
by Eva Holland | 09.03.09 | 12:32 PM ET
Union Square in the early 17th century? According to The Mannahatta Project, an interactive map that lets users search block-by-block for the ecological and wildlife history of Manhattan, it was home to the meadow vole and the white-footed mouse, rather than the Greenmarket browsers of today. (Via Boing Boing)
‘It’s Weird to Think That One Day I’ll Photoshop You Out of These Very Vacation Photos’
by Michael Yessis | 09.03.09 | 10:40 AM ET
This McSweeney’s piece is funny because it’s true. Evidence: our slideshow.
Hawaii: ‘Prejudice in Paradise’?
by Michael Yessis | 09.02.09 | 2:58 PM ET
The Southern Poverty Law Center has issued an intelligence report about racial tensions and issues with non-native Hawaiians on the islands. The report goes well beyond the issues we touched on earlier this year after a Saturday Night Live skit about “two grass-skirted, uke-playing, hula-dancing, minimum wage entertainers” who abuse guests at a hotel restaurant in Hawaii. (Via Fark)
Congolese Man Plans New Lawsuit Against Tintin
by Michael Yessis | 09.02.09 | 12:40 PM ET
Cover art from The Adventures of Tintin Vols. 6-10 Two years ago Bienvenu Mbutu Mondondo filed suit in Belgium, demanding Tintin in the Congo be removed from the market because of its “racism and xenophobia.” He got no response from the Belgian legal system, so he’s planning to “launch parallel proceedings in France and go ‘all the way to the European Court of Human Rights if necessary,’” according to the Telegraph.
“Tintin in the Congo” has been stirring up controversy in the U.S. recently, too. Last month the book was removed from the shelves of a Brooklyn, New York, library—news that made the mash-up map of book bannings in America that Eva wrote about yesterday.
Tintin, of course, has been celebrated by many people—including Julia Ross here on World Hum—for its “power to unite travelers and melt national divides.” (Via The Slatest)
Are Cruises Green?
by Eva Holland | 09.02.09 | 11:55 AM ET
That’s the question being tackled in Slate’s latest Green Lantern column. The short answer: No.
Ryanair: ‘Too Mean’ for Canada?
by Eva Holland | 09.02.09 | 11:13 AM ET
Jaunted predicts that the not-so-cuddly budget airline wouldn’t go over well with Canadians, who “prefer their service providers amiable and their experiences congenial.” Too true, eh?
The Plight of Western Women in Muslim Lands
by Michael Yessis | 09.02.09 | 10:04 AM ET
Judy Bachrach looks at the circumstances and issues Western women face when they’re living or traveling in Muslim countries. She writes in World Affairs Journal:
Local women are of such negligible importance that they can be viewed as prey. On the other hand, foreign women are in a wholly different category: wild and yet easy, so menacing and just plain available they are invariably treated as prey. The foreigner without a murderous uncle by her side or a veil over her face is a communal dish.
It’s a powerful essay. (Via Arts & Letters Daily)
Video: An Idiot’s Driving Tour of Moscow
by Michael Yessis | 09.01.09 | 2:38 PM ET
Here’s the idiot, who recklessly tried to re-create a car chase scene from The Bourne Supremacy:
If you want an accelerated travel experience, you’re better off doing this. (Via Gulliver)
What’s Better Than a New York City Hot Dog?
by Eva Holland | 09.01.09 | 12:44 PM ET
The New Yorker’s Matthew Diffee has plenty of ideas. A few for the traveling set:
- Yellowstone National Park
- Seeing the Northern Lights
- The sound of a train in the distance
- A nice set of luggage
- A full tank of gas
- A free trip to anywhere except Scranton
- The call of the wild
- A room with a view
- Coming home after being away for awhile
(Via Kottke)
