What We Loved This Week: NYC Waterfalls, Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Euro 2008

Travel Blog • World Hum • 06.27.08 | 2:19 PM ET

Frank Bures
I was passing through the Brussels airport this week when I saw a copy of Dave Eggers’ book What is the What? It’s the story of Valentino Achak Deng’s life in Sudan’s civil war and beyond. I’d been avoiding this book, partly because a friend told me it was boring. But on the recommendation of Doreen Baingana, who I met in Entebbe, I picked up a copy, started reading and haven’t stopped. I really didn’t want to like this book, because it seemed like one of those quasi-celebrity-vanity-charity projects that I hate. But I have to admit, I was wrong. It’s wonderful, transporting and brilliant.

Julia Ross
The Smithsonian Folklife Festival: It’s one of the best things about living in Washington, D.C. This year’s festival focuses on the cultures of Bhutan, Texas and NASA. I spent a couple hours down on the Mall yesterday, watching hot but happy crowds two-step to Los Texmaniacs and listening to a restaurateur from Corpus Christi describe her family’s flight from a small Vietnamese village to Gulf Coast Texas. But my favorite moment came as I watched a Bhutanese woodcarver, dressed in a traditional gho and white slippers, spend several minutes standing over a subway grate, apparently fascinated with the view into Washington’s underground. I’ll be back for more next week.

David Farley
New York City Waterfalls. The waterfalls have arrived in New York and the city is abuzz. Danish artist Olafur Eliasson’s waterfalls—90-120-feet tall scaffoldings sprinkled along the East River on both the Manhattan and Brooklyn waterfronts—make up the biggest public art project since Christo clad Central Park with saffron-colored gates four years ago. My favorite cascade is the one that falls from the Brooklyn Bridge. Waterfall gawkers have until October to see them.

Michael Yessis
I couldn’t get enough of the Euro 2008 frenzy. The Germany-Turkey semifinal thrilled on many levels, and the shots of the Fan Zone took me back to 1992, when I caught Denmark’s upset win over Germany in the Euro final in the packed Rådhuspladsen in Copenhagen. A taste of the celebration that night:

Elyse Franko
I love Sidestep.com. It never fails to show me the cheapest flights to wherever I want to go. I was really amazed last January, when I got a one-way ticket to Istanbul with a three-day layover in London for $300. I just used Sidestep to find a one-way ticket from New York to Vienna this week and I’m very happy to have paid only $443, tax included. Since Vienna’s not really a trans-Atlantic travel hub like Frankfurt or London, I didn’t expect to find much for less than $500. For comparison’s sake, the same search brought the following results on other websites: at least $742 on Expedia, $541 on Travelocity and $475 on Priceline, after taxes and fees.

Joanna Kakissis
I’ve always been fascinated by the edges of cultures, where entirely new traditions are created out of sheer necessity. That’s why I so enjoyed Dan Bilefsky’s amazing story in the International Herald Tribune on Albania’s sworn virgins, or women living as men in the country’s mountain villages. For centuries, families with a shortage of men were often led by unmarried women living in celibacy but doing everything else men do—working, carrying weapons and owning property. Bilefsky and photojournalist Johan Spanner also have a great slideshow accompanying the story.

Eva Holland
I’ve lived in Ottawa off and on for 18 years, and—like most Ottawans—never had any idea that the Ottawa River is home to some of the best whitewater in North America. This week, I finally gave rafting a try, and I loved the adrenaline rush, the exercise, and the chance to be outside and on the water all day. I’ll definitely be back for more.

Jim Benning
JFK. I made an all-too-brief visit to New York and flew out yesterday evening from the JetBlue terminal. John F. Kennedy International Airport gets so much bad press. I’m sure some of it is well-deserved. But I breezed through the security check in all of two minutes and, despite frequent long queues of planes waiting to take off, my flight left right on time and arrived in San Diego early. The situation at JFK may be bad, but it’s not all bad.

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