I did, however, have tremendous respect for the tour's guide. The guy was a font of knowledge, an encyclopedia of facts, Latin names, historic dates, geography, you name it, they know it. And they deliver all this stuff in a consistent patter, all while staying charming and patient, oh so patient. Imagine. The mind boggles.
Here's a excerpt from a post that sums up what a good tour should leave you feeling:
Other than self-guided tours with a handset or headset, I can't remember the last time I had a professional tour guide lead me around a city, showing me the sights. The "Archeological Windows" tour we took last weekend literally opened doors to places in Zürich I had never seen or heard of.-- Guided Tour, Vacation Viernes
Here's a round up of some guided tours -- food focused, bonus! -- in New York City. I've taken the food tours at Pike Place Market, and I rather enjoyed them.
Even if I go to New York pretty regularly, I am now planning my 15th trip, I always find guided tours I have never done before. I love bus tours, I will talk about one in particular in this article, but I prefer the walking tours.--Best Guided Tours of New York City
I love this weird little excerpt from Bananarchist:
When Cynthia and I traveled through Penang, we took a guided tour of the Cheong Fatt Tze mansion led by a hilarious, dry, flamboyant, extremely intelligent Chinese-Malaysian man, who said things like, "This portrait of Cheong Fatt Tze has been consumed by termites. We've sprayed it with pesticide. We are all hoping for the best," "This house was called La Maison Bleu, parce que...c'etait bleu," and very slyly, at the end of the tour, "This tour, like all other well-planned commercial tours, ends...in the gift shop...where we try to squeeze just a few more ringgit out of you." During the tour, he also found reason to say, "If you look into any Chinese person's refrigerator, anywhere in the world, I guarantee you will find Tupperware, but not name-brand Tupperware, generic Tupperware, old take-out containers, washed out margarine tubs. Chinese people waste nothing, and I am rather proud of this."--Bananarchist
And this is another nice reaction to a guided adventure:
The Aboriginal guide was fascinating. He talked about Aboriginal culture, the importance of Dreamtime, respect for the environment, respect for each other, how Aboriginals lived off the land for 40,000 years, the extended kinship model, the need to take just what you want and not what you need. In fact, there are so many areas we could learn from the Aboriginal culture. -- Blog in Isolation
As I've said, the guided tour thing isn't really my deal, but there are times when it totally makes sense. Our trip to Southeast Asia was guided, and that was not a bad thing -- but picked a company that provided plenty of free time and never rushed us anywhere. And I had an agenda: introducing my husband to travel in "difficult" destinations. Guided tours are great for people who don't want to stress over logistics, who don't have a lot of time, or who want the added insight that having a knowledgeable guide can bring. They're also terrific for people who are anxious about traveling alone or who want to start traveling and just don't know how. While I'm not for them for me, I do think they can be a great way to go.
Pam blogs about travel and other adventures at Nerd's Eye View.
]]>Medieval Castle Blog is running a timely series on haunted castles that's kind of fun to poke through. Broughton Castle -- built in 1306 -- has its own blog because really, what's a castle without a blog? When I worked for that tech start up, I used to waste far too much time poking around on Castles for Sale since the tech boom was going to make me wealthy enough not just to buy one, but also to maintain it, which those in the know tell me is the real problem with castle ownership.
This article on Suite 101 has suggests visisting the grand palaces of Seoul, South Korea (um, okay!). And here's a rather amusing round up about the palaces of Leningrad, I mean Saint Petersburg, I'm fairly agitated that I've not yet been to see the palaces of Rajasthan in India,
I'll let you find your own prison links if you're looking to visit those grim places. I'm pretty sure I could not visit the Tower of London with the same eyes after watching the Tudors, the lucious Showtime series -- though wait, here's the Tudor Tutor which gives us the Ghost du Jour series, just to help you get your history right should you end up there. As a visitor, i'm hoping, not as a victim of Henry's fickle whim. That seems better.
Again I'll say it: I'm a sucker for a good historical site, even if my skin is a little thin sometimes. My imagination runs kind of wild thinking, wow, people LIVED here, they LIVED THIS WAY, and then, I need to know more about it. Palaces and castles and prisons, they're great eyeopeners into history and that is as good a reason to visit them as any.
Pam blogs about travel and other adventures at Nerd's Eye View.
]]>Is anyone else tired of the press trip debate? It returned last week -- on the tails of increasing paranoia about the new FTC rulings -- in a story posted by Gawker about NY Times writer Mike Albo taking a "free, all expenses paid trip to Jamaica." The NY Times explicitly prohibits their writers from participating in these kinds of events. Also on Gawker, an excerpt of the Times policy.
The following additional rules apply to travel writers, whether working for Travel, Escapes, T: Travel or any other section:
No travel writer, whether on assignment or not, may accept free or discounted services of any sort from any element of the travel industry. This includes hotels, resorts, restaurants, tour operators, airlines, railways, cruise lines, rental car companies and tourist attractions...
It is our policy not to give Travel assignments to freelance writers who have previously accepted free services. Depending on circumstances, the Travel editor may make rare exceptions, for example, for a writer who ceased the practice years ago or who has reimbursed his or her host for services previously accepted...
When the story broke, travelers on Twitter manned their keyboards and there was a lively conversation -- here's the #twethics (travel writer's ethics) archive, if you're interested.
Yes, it's not unusual for travel writers -- for well known writers of any stripe -- to be invited on a trip with the implied agreement that they'll write about it. Yes, there's some question about how truly objective a writer can be when they've taken a trip that was funded by their own nickels. Yes, pay for travel writing these days is rarely enough to cover the expenses of travel, it's rarely enough to turn a profit.
Are you getting 100 dollars a post -- enough to cover dinner and one night in a hotel you scored on Priceline? Are you getting 1200 dollars for a feature story about a far away place -- enough for a round trip ticket from the West Coast to Europe and a cup of coffee in the airport? Let's widen the circle a little bit -- are you buying every single one of those gadgets you review? Did you pay for that makeup/clothing/shoes/kitchen appliance/gaming device with your own cold hard cash and did your writing income cover the costs?
I think this entire debate is beside the point. Albo seems to have broken the terms of his contract by taking the trip. That's a business/contractual issue. But for me, the heart of this debate is the story that results from participating in a comped adventure. What's the story about? Is the writer offering critical insight into the destination? Is the writer giving you useful, actionable tips for a better trip? Are you reading a story that transports you to a place? Are any reviews practical, complete, and thoughtful? Or are you reading the same information you can get from the brochure stand in the airport? Is the resulting story nothing more than the PR company's copy, a first person rewriting of what's on the hotel or attraction web site? Regardless of who's paying, what am I reading as a result?
It's increasingly easy to be taken seriously by the entities that finance these trips. PR companies are interested in the high traffic numbers of group blogs, advertisers are looking to replace the fading print market with blog advertorials. They make their choices, send out some invites, and wait, hopefully, for the resulting wave of click throughs and conversions. The issue that came up again and again at the blogging plus travel events I attended this year was "How do I get one of those trips?"
I'd like to see more people asking "How do I write a good travel story?" My inbox is littered with PR pitches for travel related events. Odds are fairly high that I can tell if your post is sourced in one of those; odds are equally high that I can tell if you're on a comp, even if you haven't disclosed that fact. Ultimately, I don't actually care who paid for your trip. I care that the result is a well written story, critical and insightful.
In a perfect world, a travel writer could travel anonymously on an expense account and make a decent income from their stories -- but we all know that's just not true for so many writers these days. Press junkets and PR funded travel is part of the game now. We need to get used to that. And while I do think disclosure is a good policy for bloggers, it's ultimately up to the publication or the individual to decide. But I don't think participation in press trips immediately dings a writer's cred.
I'm not going to go after anyone because they've taken a free trip. Write poorly as a result of that opportunity, now that's when the gloves come off.
Related
Pam blogs about travel and other adventures at Nerd's Eye View.
]]>It always amuses me to go looking for round ups of scary/spooky/that third thing I can't think of destinations on the web because they're everywhere, everyone has a ghost story in their town, everyone has a haunting of some kind.
From this post on the Fayetteville Feed I learned that the Waffle House franchise is haunted though the wiki link is kind of unsatisfying.
Go on, just pick one at random. No matter how newly established, or how close to a church it may have been built, any and all Waffle Houses are haunted … True fact. Wiki it.
The Governor's Mansion in Florence, Alabama has a haunting, too, according to The Flor-Ala.
The legend says that on rainy nights, around midnight, one can hear a piano playing funeral music and can see the mounring family walking down the winding staircase to attend the soldier's funeral.
On the Genre Traveler (hey, who knew, but I guess it makes sense that such a thing exists!) there's a list of, you guessed it, the scariest [fill in the blank] in the US:
The haunted houses and attractions on these lists aren’t your average neighborhood decorations. Each haunted attraction costs up to $1 million to construct, uses professionally trained actors, Hollywood make-up artists and the latest technology to transport people into an insane, realistic and horrific environment that rivals any horror movie set.
Purple Slinky has another list of scary scary places -- in the US and England, mostly.
Some believe that their presence lingers long after their death due to emotional trauma. Others believe that something more sinister is at hand. Whatever the case may be, here are some of the scariest places on earth, and they just might make a believer out of you.
Fear is a subjective thing, I suppose. I'm sure the scariest place I ever stayed was that hotel that seemed to be doing a sideline in meat products, I kid you not, where the dining room was full of taxidermied animals, the waitresses has a look of battered weariness about them and the ruddy manageress wore a big apron and looked like it would be nothing for her to turn you into pate. Sure, it was all in my head, but that place gave me the willies.
What's the scariest place you've ever been?
Pam blogs about travel and other adventures at Nerd's Eye View.
]]>Then, on my way home, I sat next to a young guy who works on the deck of a commercial fishing vessel out of Seattle. He lives in Salt Lake with his wife, but works for weeks at a time out at sea, pulling nets full of fish out of the ocean. He'd wanted to be a marine biologist but didn't go to school, now he says he gets to see things he'd never see in the classroom -- whales and all kinds of marine life. He told me they have email on the ship, that it costs 8 cents a minute to call home via satellite phone, and that sometimes, when he's on night shift, he doesn't see the sun for a very long time. We didn't talk the whole time -- I was beat -- but as a person who lives in a fishing town, I really enjoyed meeting a guy who works in that industry. Oh, Alaskan Pollack, and apparently, they're abundant this year.
Both of these companions don't totally make up for the time I sat next to the drunk, misogynistic and antisemitic German, or the screaming baby (again, save your letters and postcards and admit it, it's not fun to sit next to a screaming baby for too long, even if said screamer is yours). A good seatmate can make or break a flight. You can make a friend or pray for it to end quickly.
Here's a very sweet post about travelers bonding on a flight to Chicago:
Mason and I made our way through the Atlanta airport train to our second flight. He was happy to have me guide him through the crowds and onto the train. "I wasn't sure how I would get there," he said. I showed him the way to the gate and left him to get some food while I waited at the gate. My name was called--my upgrade had come through. I went to the gate agent and explained that I'd prefer to stay in my original seat--she could give the upgrade to someone else.--37 Days
And here's a Flyer Talk thread about not so talky seatmates:
Would it seem strange to you to sit inches from someone else for over 12 hours and not say hardly a word to them? It seems like two human beings could find something in common to break up the extreme tedium of a long international flight. Some arrangement could be set up that conversation would end when the other person wanted to sleep or just relax. Flyer Talk
There's a funny, snarky post on Wired's Terminal Man series (in case you didn't follow, he's the guy who spent an ungodly amount of time living in airports) about the Seatmate From Hell:
I doubt few will compare to Shauna, who I met on yesterday’s Newark to Orlando flight. I had just moved to an aisle seat in her otherwise empty row so I could stretch out. As the flight attendants finished the safety briefing, Shauna (We’ve changed her name) leaned in and asked if I was allergic to dogs. I replied that I wasn’t, and she pulled a chihuahua from what I thought was a handbag. Its faux-diamond necklace, spelling out KIKI, told me that I had just made one of the worst seating decisions of my life.--Terminal Man
On the Independent, there's an article about what makes the worst seatmate:
A poll of nearly 1,600 travellers from the US and Canada found that air passengers with "poor hygiene" are the least desirable travellers with whom to share an armrest.--Worst Seatmate: Follow Your Nose
I'm feeling pretty lucky after this last batch of flights. On my originating flight, the first leg from Seattle to Salt Lake, the middle seat in my row was empty! I admit it, if I'm not traveling with my husband, the best seatmate is no seatmate at all.
Seatmate stories? Share in the comments, please!
Pam blogs about travel and other adventures at Nerd's Eye View.
]]>A flight attendant on Oprah Winfrey's private jet filed a lawsuit Friday denying allegations that she had sex on board.
In the suit, Corrine Gehrls, 39, claims that fellow flight attendants Myron Gooch and Kirby Bumpus -- who is the daughter of Winfrey's best friend Gayle King and is Winfrey's goddaughter -- made the accusation that caused her to be fired.--Huffington Post
]]>A flight attendant on Oprah Winfrey's private jet filed a lawsuit Friday denying allegations that she had sex on board.
In the suit, Corrine Gehrls, 39, claims that fellow flight attendants Myron Gooch and Kirby Bumpus -- who is the daughter of Winfrey's best friend Gayle King and is Winfrey's goddaughter -- made the accusation that caused her to be fired.--Huffington Post
You know what there's not a lot of? Interesting commentary on this story. Or, you know, facts. There's some "news" about Oprah's BFF Gayle saying this is a frivolous attack, but that's about it. It's all going to be resolved in court, eventually, the unseemly details with come out, and we'll make remarks about gold digging and/or Oprah.
I don't know about you, but the big question for me is as follows: Were they in the air at the time the act in question took place? And while I understand that having your staff get busy during work hours may well be a breach of contract, let's talk logistics.
First things first: Yahoo answers has a thread about legality. Is it illegal to have sex on a plane? There's a handy Wikipedia link in there to the Mile High Club page in which a few noted cases are described as well as the thoughtful comment that the legality of said act might be dependent on where the participants are at the time, where the flight originated, where it lands, and what rules the carrier has.
Staring at Strangers mentions that Singapore Airlines actually has a policy, or rather, a request, for those deluxe fliers in the double beds:
Seems that Singapore Airlines is asking passengers to refrain from hanky panky when in the double beds. So, is smooching is okay? How about groping hands in your partner's nether parts?
Turning in with your honey after a gourmet meal and champagne, one wonders what else you would want to do but what comes naturally?
This made me laugh -- The Mile High Club Does Not Exist (includes NSFW language, you're warned).
I fly a lot as the Minister of Common Sense, and I don’t think the famous "Mile High Club" actually exists. I think that anyone who says they have had sex on a plane is probably lying. Every time I go into a bathroom on an airplane, I wonder about the possibility of trying to have sex in there - and I've become increasingly convinced that it’s a mechanical impossibility.
Honestly, I can't think of anything unsexier than flying -- well, that's not entirely true, but let's just say it's on my list along with visits to the dentist and expensive yet invisible household repairs -- think sewer, plumbing, furnace -- for generating ardor. Sure, a romantic vacation is one thing, but being crammed in a coach seat while a youngster kicks me in the kidneys (save your comments, I know, I know) and I pay 12 dollars for a tray full of nitrates... I'll save it for the destination, thank you.
Pam blogs about travel and other adventures at Nerd's Eye View.
]]>But there are, out there in the world, those that love Vegas. The restaurants, the shows, the lights, the excitement. And it's to them I'm turning to offer up advice for what you should do if you've got some free time during Blog World Expo later this week.
Lost in the USA says this about Vegas:
Las Vegas is one of the most magical places you can travel to and have fun in so many different ways ... Las Vegas is a city where all dreams and magic can be seen, felt, enjoyed and lived, so enjoy the city.
... and gives you a plan of attack for getting the most out of your stay.
The Vegas 10 has a bunch of -- you guessed it -- top ten lists of where to eat, family activities, spas...
This is an older post on Simply Wanderlust, but the attitude is right for folks like me -- it's called Surviving Vegas and makes some suggestions for doing just that. Be sure to check that the recommendations are up to date -- Vegas is nothing if not changeable.
I went to Vegas for the first time in 2006. I hated it. If I had my way, I would have never gone back, but, of course, circumstances arose and it was pretty much required. I learned, on my second time there, that Vegas is survivable even if you don’t love it.
Budget Travel has a very recent thread on Where to Sleep and Eat in Vegas -- it's all about the comments, that's where the advice is. And Simple Green Choices has compiled what seems like the impossible -- a list of sustainable Vegas picks. Who knew.
There's one thing I'm really looking forward to on this upcoming trip -- I'm joining blogger Jessica on a field trip to the Neon Museum. There are some great pictures from the Neon Museum on Flickr, of course.
]]>The 'unsinkable'' British liner Titanic sails out of Southampton, England, at the start of its doomed voyage in 1912.
A recreation of the voyage will depart from Britain on April 8, 2012 and head for spot where ship sank on April 12, 1912--The Globe and Mail
]]>The 'unsinkable'' British liner Titanic sails out of Southampton, England, at the start of its doomed voyage in 1912.
A recreation of the voyage will depart from Britain on April 8, 2012 and head for spot where ship sank on April 12, 1912--The Globe and Mail
Let's get this out of the way first and foremost: D'ya get to slam into an iceberg, too? Okay, okay, I'm done with that. Mostly. Well, not really, but I'll snicker quietly to myself while I tell you an unrelated story. I was in the line to see a movie, NOT Titanic. In front of me, a family buying tickets for Titanic. Mom to the ticket agent: How long does the movie run? Ticket agent: [Muffled speech.] Girl of ten or so, standing next to mom: THREE HOURS JUST TO SEE A SHIP SINK?!?!?? Okay, NOW I'm done.
The truth is, the Titanic, at her launch, was a miracle in a golden age of travel. The imagination reels at the fancy dress, the steamer trunks, the chandeliers. Those spooky photos of the giant rusted hull on the ocean floor, the objects recovered that seem like ghosts... I actually see the appeal. The glowing optimism of a time that made this giant seagoing cruiser, the tragedy of loss, and then, in more modern times, the miracle of science that brought her back to us.
But it's not, uh, smooth sailing for the tour company. From World Hum:
"Miles Morgan Travel, the company behind the Titanic Memorial Cruise, tells Reuters it has “come in for a little bit of criticism,” but stresses the upcoming trip is meant to be “a commemoration not a ghoulish recreation of the original journey.”
From All Seeing Eye:
It's rather ironic, considering, that the health and safety page on the website makes no reference to lifeboats or evacuation procedures. In the event of any disaster the band will play, but if you are still on board when they conclude by playing Autumn (not Nearer My God To Thee, that's a myth) then you are in real trouble.
From Interstitial Life:
Also, the whole idea that they plan to take the same route at the exact same time of year (you know...the time of year when ice burgs are in the vicinity) seems a bit like tempting fate.
I'm sure they are at least better supplied with life boats.
These images on gCaptain show the actual cruise liner in some horrifyingly rough seas -- I'm green just eyeing the photos. And hey, if you find yourself with several thousand dollars to spare, you can book yourself on the trip here.
The occasion? It will be 100 years since the sinking of the unsinkable. The liner will go out to the place where the Titanic went down, then, theoretically, continue on to New York. Along with your regular cruise activities -- the spa, the buffet, the Lido deck (whatever THAT means), there will be a series of Titanic historical lectures and educational activities, and who knows, maybe a line at the bow to be King of the World! I don't know about you, but as per my usual reaction, I'm keeping both feet on the shore.
Pam blogs about travel and other adventures at Nerd's Eye View.
]]>Interesting, the magazine wing does a MUCH better job of putting together their list, including folks like ocean rower Roz Savage and, huh, I did NOT know Jane Goodall had a Twitter account, did you?
We're out there, seeing the world.There are the founders of GoGalavanting, Kim Mance and Maren Hogan, they're all over Twitter. Beth Whitman, founder of Wanderlust and Lipstick -- she's out there. Audrey and Dan, of the always beautiful Uncornered Market, they're in crazy places and on Twitter. TravelSavvyKayt took her son to Jordan, is that not adventurous enough? I'm not even trying, here. (These are blog links, I encourage you to click through, read their blogs, and see if you'd like to follow them on Twitter.) I'm thinking you can come up with a few names without trying, too.
It's the lack of effort that gets me. I'm scrolling through my Twitter feed, just there to the right, and seeing women expats in Morocco and Shanghai. Women who have reinvented themselves as travelers in their 50s. Women who have always avoided the mainstream and make their living as digital nomads. All kinds of adventurers, and oh so many of them are women. And only ONE on the NGA list? ONE? Really?
Are you an adventure traveler? Are you on Twitter? Leave your Twitter name in the comments, please.
Pam blogs about travel and other adventures at Nerd's Eye View.
]]>Those warnings don't always work -- plus, those who had planned to do aid work are going anyways. Here's a post from a soon to be Peace Corps volunteer:
]]>Those warnings don't always work -- plus, those who had planned to do aid work are going anyways. Here's a post from a soon to be Peace Corps volunteer:
Coming to Samoa after a natural disaster like this one is intimidating, but also very uplifting to know that so many people are already coming together to begin relief work there and that I will soon have the opportunity to be a part of it. I guess now that something like this has happened so close to my arriving, I am more prepared for it if it happens again.--Talofa from Samoa
thUMBERLLA reports the losss of a handful of travelers after the disaster hit:
One Australian and one New Zealander is dead and atleast six Australians are missing after an earthquake and tsunami struck Samoa and American Samoa this morning. --thUmbrella
There's a post on Matador from a New Zealand based teacher who has Samoan students in her class; it's just heartbreaking:
I think he just wanted to sit down for a while and talk about life in Samoa. In effect, his reflections seemed to be asking why he is here in New Zealand when he should be back in Samoa where life is simple and you don't have to pay for food, housing, and water. You just build your house, grow your food, and spend time with your family.--Three Spoons
There are some before and after photos posted on Brooke's Blog -- and news video clip with some devastating footage of the destruction.
Samoa is 2600 miles from Hawaii and 1600 miles from New Zealand. I know this because I looked it up yesterday for a post about the tsunami watch in Hawaii. The upshot of these numbers, which might not mean much as just numbers, is that Samoa is really far away from anywhere else. As such, it's not a heavily trafficked destination for travelers -- flights don't stop there anymore on their way to [fill in the blank]. With the extent of the damage, it could be a while before we find first person accounts posted about what happened on the ground and in the water. I'll be watching for more reports from travelers -- and keeping the people of the Pacific in my heart.
]]>I gave up on The Amazing Race because I was annoyed with the biceps flexing Lance and his fiance, Kerry, I was disgusted by the lying Maria and Tiffany, and when I had to hear that Canaan is "staying sexually pure for Mika" I turned off my TV. I wanted the show to be about the travel challenges and the places and I didn't want to give these people another minute of my time. I was getting bogged down in personalities and I didn't like their company.
Alternatively, I gave up on America's Best Idea only because I wasn't in the right mind space for it -- not surprising, I suppose, with the clicking back and forth to the Amazing Race. That said, I'll be tuning in again and I'd like to sit down and watch the Yosemite episode again -- a former California girl, I'm very fond of that park, it's a beautiful place and I have spent many a crisp afternoon there awestruck by the valley's beauty.
TV Squad blogger Jackie Schnoop was kinder to the Amazing Race:
In this single two-hour season premiere, we were reminded why The Amazing Race keeps snapping up those Emmy Awards for the best reality show on television. We're talking quality teams -- no Jerry Springer fans here! We're talking the adrenalin rush that viewers get just sitting on couches watching the show. We're talking a glimpse into other lands, cultures, and people we might never get the chance to experience in our own lives. We're talking simply amazing.
And the reviews on America's Best Places are positively swooning:
Tonight, Ken Burns' newest entry "The National Parks: America's Best Idea" premiered. Two hours of sheer bliss. Everything is perfect! Obviously, it is physically beautiful, but as always, the writing, the casting of actors reading roles, the Peter Coyote narration, the historians/assorted other knowledgeable folks, the music is all spot-on brilliant.--The Flaming Nose
So I’m sitting here tonight, engrossed in the new Ken Burns documentary, “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea.” The first 2-hour installment of a 12-hour series premiered tonight on PBS. And all I can say is, “Wow.”
Burns has done it again.--Adventures of a Middle-Aged Drama Queen
Truth be told, while I'm not crazy about watching the Amazing Race, I'd kind of like to be on it. I have this idea that I'd go on with my best gay boyfriend, a guy who has traveled Not At All but is so good natured and unselfconscious and likable that I think we'd be a winning combination. With his being game for anything and my travel cred... well, it's all speculation of course, though it's fun to toy with the idea.
Were you watching travel TV instead of traveling? What did you think?
Pam blogs about travel and other adventures at Nerd's Eye View.
]]>On the Northern tip of Morocco, just east of Tangier, where the Atlantic meets the Mediterranean, there is a little piece of Spain called Ceuta, in fact further along the coast there is another one as well known as Melilla. The closest for us is Ceuta or Sebta as it is sometimes known in Morocco. It is a tiny place of about approximately 28 square kilometers.
]]>On the Northern tip of Morocco, just east of Tangier, where the Atlantic meets the Mediterranean, there is a little piece of Spain called Ceuta, in fact further along the coast there is another one as well known as Melilla. The closest for us is Ceuta or Sebta as it is sometimes known in Morocco. It is a tiny place of about approximately 28 square kilometers.
A mere formality of a border crossing and you literally step across from Morocco into a little bit of Europe.-- Mint Tea and Tagine
Sold! I'll take it! With very pretty food pics and some rather nice writing, Mint Tea and Tajine features a place I'm dying to go, Morocco. Talk about whetting your appetite for travel. (Sidebar, this reminds me, if you're interested in Morocco, don't miss My Marrakesh, it's gorgeous too.) I have to wonder what is it about Morocco that inspires such beautiful aesthetics.
For most of my career trucking I have run at night. My favorite reason being, nights like the other night when the moon led the way. My trucking company is aptly named Quarter Moon Express because of nights like this. I am so lucky to see mother nature at her best and worst. I’m in it knee deep day in and day out and there is always something new to see.--One Girl Trucking
Let's hear it for the road warriors, those that bring our television sets and lettuces and socks to places where we can get them. One Girl Trucking is doing just that. This is an interesting read, a look into the cab of the big rigs next to me on the highway, the working travelers.
How do you budget for your vacation? Do you have a savings account specifically for traveling? Do you decide where you'd like to travel to, try to decide what it might cost and save specifically for that destination?
It doesn't really matter which you method you prefer, the important thing is that you decide where you'd like to go and either make sure you have enough money or start saving and be ready when the right fare pops up.--Globe Diva
I'm a sucker for practical advice that's really, truly, useful. Globe Diva has a fine series on budgeting for your travels. To me,it's second nature (cough--thrift store wardrobe--cough) but I do understand it can be difficult to prioritize travel in a complicated life, and really, whose life isn't complicated? Good stuff here. Dig around, a sensible woman like this is sure to have more to offer.
Detailed breakdown of every cent, dinar and colone we spend.--Saben and Lin
Speaking of practical, I'm a sucker for financial disclosure (note to self, start disclosing finances!) when it comes to travel. It takes the mystery out of how it's done. Saben and Lin are keeping an active and open account of what their round the world adventure is costing them. And, yep, they have good travel stories, too.
There's more good stuff in the BlogHer Travel Blogroll. Go fishing and see what you can find.
Pam blogs about travel and other adventures at
I would be lying if I said I'm not nervous. The rig, good lord, it's huge. Our last trip was in a minivan. And while I love the idea of bringing home with me where ever I go, this thing is apparently the size of road tripper K's apartment. Think about that. We're going to drive down the road in K's apartment.
The first thing I did when I learned about this trip was look up driving tips because, well, of course. I'm happy with have a party of three, that means a driver and one person at each corner, hopefully waving bright orange safety flags. I see that some of these big rigs have back up cameras, though I hope never to be driving in reverse, forward, always forward! I also hope never to drive through a narrow city center, parking garage, supermarket parking lot, oh, you name it. Open highway to campsite, that's what I'm hoping for. I'm sure the truth will be very different and twice as terrifying. If you find yourself behind a 30 foot rig at 30 mph in a 70mph zone, be kind, it's probably me.
Truth be told, I've long be jealous of/fascinated by the motorhome crowd. Their self contained yet nomadic lives look ideal to me, though I'm sort of stunned by the range of scale. I'd be totally content with the classic VW camper bus, but at a Campground in Cody, Wyoming this summer, I saw a rig so huge as to be frightening, pulling -- I kid you not -- a Hummer as the buzz around town vehicle. Someone filled in the lines on that picture in such a way as to leave a carbon footprint the size of a small refinery, but believe it or not, I get the intent.
The motorhome dwellers seem to be prolific bloggers -- hey, they have a comfy couch from which to blog every night! They're all over the planet, too.
Here's a newish blog --Peter and Kay on Tour -- by some travelers in a motorhome that's closer in scale to something I can imagine living with -- and how great does this trip sound?
We have decided to start with a five week sojourn to France, as we know it quite well and are comfortable there. Crossing from Dover late afternoon, our first stop will be just outside Calais and from there we will go wherever the mood - or more importantly the weather - takes us. That's the joy of motorhoming.
And here's another newish one, darned cute too -- Live the Adventure.
This blog will show you how you can embark on your own RV journey, whether that would be starting with a short weekend getaway or leaping into the lifestyle full-time. I'll share with you how our dream lifestyle came to be, how we chose our motor home, cost involved in our RV lifestyle, how we homeschool our kids while traveling and how we all manage to keep our sanity!
Odel and Laurie have been traveling since 2003, though their blog -- Semi-True Tales of Our Life on the Road -- goes back to (only) 2007. On this post, they catalog the list of things they decided they had to have when they bought their rig -- and the options they'd now consider must have or okay to go without.
This stuff is totally the tip of the iceberg on the motorhome blogs -- check out this list from Geeks on Tour, for starters. All these stories, all these travelers, roaming around in their moving homes -- I'm excited to see what that's like, first hand.
Pam blogs about travel and other adventures at Nerd's Eye View.
]]>But though my phone rang with concerns for my safety and well being -- I was clear the other side of the country! -- though my neighbor and I sat, stunned, and watched over and over as the smoke rose, as the text across the bottom of my TV stated that two other planes were "missing", though I could not believe my eyes, it was not right then that I felt the change. It was not until I headed to the airport eight, or maybe twelve weeks later that the feeling of something lost crept up the back of my neck and settled on me, right there in the departures terminal. I have never enjoyed flying, but I have also never been afraid. And in December, 2001, for the first time in life, I was afraid to fly.
I do not wish to belittle the tremendous loss felt by the families who lost those they loved on September 11th. I can not express my sympathy, still, for their pain and my hope that some day, justice will be served. My loss, this minor shift in feeling, is insignificant, it's nothing in the face of the gaping holes where fathers and mothers and sisters and brothers and lovers and friends used to stand. The change for me is a small one, a falling out of love, the disappointment of a broken heart, the tarnishing of something that once seemed valuable. But it's my loss, it's the one I know, the one I can speak about.
September 11 changed travel. Not just for me, but for everyone, everywhere in the world. I saw it in 2008 when I handed over an unopened bottle of water that I'd purchased on the wrong side of the gate in Bangkok. I saw it last month when my sister in law, visiting from Europe, described the complicated visitor registration process she had to go through. I saw when, in 2006, rushing to make a connecting flight in London, the airlines staff raced me to the gate only to call me to a full stop to remove my shoes. I saw it in May when I dropped my husband off and was bullied on the airport drive for sitting too long in one place. My friend with the generic name who's on the no-fly list sees it. My Indian friend who's always pulled aside for special screening sees it. My house guests who arrived last weekend -- via a domestic flight -- without toothpaste see it. It is everywhere, this blanket of security wrapped around travel, designed to make us believe that there are those out to get us and those who are working hard to keep us safe.
I never minded the steely faced interrogators at the departures gate in Amsterdam or Munich because everyone got the same treatment but I hated -- I still hate -- taking off my shoes and pouring out my soda. In Molokai's tiny airport, I handed my unopened drink to some loitering taxi drivers rather than throw it away before being liberated of my sunscreen ten minutes later by a security guard. I've watched frustrated mothers in London hand over items that they'd been given on their previous flight because they weren't allowed into the arrivals terminal. I've watched young guys in desert garb singled out for special screening and I've been pulled into that line myself.
After 9/11, my folks canceled their trip to Egypt, Americans everywhere put their international holidays on hold. I flew anyway, holding my breath, eying the other passengers, thinking of the words of our former county executive, Ron Sims, who spoke at a rally I attended shortly after 9/11. "No man can cause me to fear my neighbor," he said, and I hoped that was the case but I knew it wasn't true any more because there I was, afraid for the first time since I'd walked solo in the Himalayas, since I woke up completely off the grid in Pakistan, since I wandered the streets of Alexandria, lost. I had never been afraid and there I was, in the departures terminal in Seattle's airport, afraid.
All the details in air travel conspire to remind us that we are afraid. The theater of security, the zip-lock bags, the piles of half empty water bottles. The bins of discarded items, too sharp to take on the plane, the passengers in their socks repacking their electronics. You, hipster guy next to me in line for that flight to Austin, you are an object of fear. You, 70-something guy clearing security in Tucson, unraveling your complicated back brace, because it contains metal stays, you are an object of fear. Girl in skinny jeans and Converse high tops, Russian family with complicated luggage, nursing mother, all of you, everyone in line is a suspect until security tells us otherwise. You are an object of fear.
There are, I'm sure, sophisticated reports that tell us exactly how much money was lost in travel since 9/11. We can probably find data that lists the number of canceled trips, of vacant hotel rooms, of airline seats left empty. There are numbers that will tell us how many security officers have been hired and how many Swiss Army knives have been confiscated. But there's no measure for this tiny loss, this cumulative fear. Yes, everything changed in that instant, of course it did, how could anyone think otherwise? It didn't stop there, though, with this catastrophic lurch in American society. It continued, a gradual erosion of optimism, a cliched loss of innocence.
It feels so long ago, I am older now. I will not see Afghanistan in this life, I will not see Baghdad. I doubt I will make that magical drive across the deserts of Persia, the Silk Road doesn't seem to be in my future anymore. I have to wait for my next life as an Arabic nomad, as a different wanderer than I am today. For now, when I travel, I face my fear. I am afraid. I go anyway; I take my fear with me. This is what has changed. It is nothing, I know, but it is my loss. A slow shift, a minor weight, a broken heart.
The Sheer Power of Silence
A Living Memorial
Eight Years Later by Clara Hart
Once, I met a friend at the station in Salzburg, Austria, and we stood in the entry way of the train station restaurant watching a tango dance while all around us, the trains came and went. I met a sex therapist in a llama boa on a trip to Eugene, Oregon, and on the same train, some time before that, I met a 20something woman who was training to be a cop specializing in drug busts. Some Dutch ladies fed me on a train from Venice and in India, I woke up in the middle of the night to look out of my cabin and in the hallway, two Sikh men were unrolling their turbans the entire length of the rail car. Stop me, I can go on and on. So can any number of other travelers and that's our segue in to the links...
Trains are the most common and convenient way to travel within Europe. You can see beautiful country side as you journey to your next destination, and European trains are modern, clean and very efficient. We booked all our train travel on www.Raileurope.com.
We traveled from Rome to Florence and then to Venice by train, each trip lasting about two hours. We took the AVE, a very fast train traveling upwards of 300 KM per hour, from Madrid to Barcelona in under three hours. And we took the CHUNNEL from Paris to London, what a great system! We departed from the center of Paris, and arrived two and half hours later in the center of London. Gone are the Hydrofoil days of yonder!-- Mamarazzi Knows Best
After a long day yesterday and a great night sleep, we decided it was about time that we sorted out our train ticket to Xi-an.
One bit of advise, it is always better to get a little help. Earlier this week we decided to get out train ticket to Xi-an ,it went rather smoothly to our knowledge, until we meet 3 'Brits' doing the same journey as us. However there train ticket they purchased was twice the price as ours. At first we thought we got a great deal. To good to be true, it wasn't until someone said it was a seating ticket rather than a sleeper which we requested.
It is always good to book a overnight train as you save on accommodation. Later that evening we decided to have a good look at our ticket and realized that it was going to the wrong place, Tai shan, not Xi'an, in mandarin/useless English pronunciation they are pretty similar sounding. To our knowledge it is a small village south towards. Now we understand why the lady was giving use funny looks at the station, probably not many travelers visit this area, and that it was half the price of the other travelers tickets.--Brad and Leah's Great Adventure
Well, there was but one thing to do, try and open the door for the first time. Reaching under the mattress I tried the door and sure enough I popped out onto the floor of the dirty train hallway. Several of my things endeavored to follow me as John held the baby and asked if I was okay. I spoke too soon, "yeah, I'm okay.... AHHHH" and at just that moment, I raised my head and found myself face to face with an upside down rooster. He looked like he was dead but from my understanding of the old woman who carried the thing slung on her back like some wee babe, he was asleep. Apparently she was able to rock the animal to sleep so she could travel with it on her back. It was about then that a pig ran squealing past and I knew for certainty that this was NOT Kansas anymore. See, I had to say these types of quips quite often or I would indeed have a difficult time. --tiastacia's journal
In a perfect world, I'll be invited, one dreamy day, to take the Maharaja Deccan Odyseey train. I can't actually look at the site without getting covered in goosebumps -- it's a railway fantasy, oh, that's for sure. Hey, a girl can dream, can't she? As for the magic of train travel? It's the pace, the space, the sound of the rails. I love it.
Pam blogs about travel and other adventures at Nerd's Eye View.
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