Overhyped, Unspoiled, and Underground
By Mr. Girard | August 2, 2008
Here’re three interesting pieces with ideas and opinions about where and where not to spend precious vacation time. The first, from the pages of Foreign Policy, details five places that don’t live up their (former) promise: “The World’s Most Overhyped Vacation Spots”.
Then Matador Trips offers some alternative destinations to avoid the crush of the fourth trip from the previous piece: “8 Places To Experience Unspoiled China”.
And finally, for the traveler seeking cooler respite in the dark, the editors of Business Week suggest the “World’s Greatest Underground Destinations”.
Too much to see in this world.
Categories: Africa, Asia, Europe, Middle East, North America, Oceania | No Comments »
Russian Landscapes and a Floating Island
By Mr. Girard | July 28, 2008
For many the mention of Russia evokes images of cold, industrial cities with dark skies, but I came across some photos of the nation’s scenery that most of us might never imagine. I also stumbled upon a story about one of the top spots on my list of places to visit in this lifetime which happens to be in Russia:Lake Baikal in Siberia, just north of the vast Mongolian border. It’s the world’s largest lake measuring at 400 by 40 miles at its longest and widest, and it holds 20% of the earth’s fresh water supply. But Baikal needs help: “The World’s Largest & Deepest Lake, 25-million-Years Old, is in Trouble”.
If cold isn’t your cup of tea and the stark industry of the former Soviet Union clashes with your environmental sensibilities, you might make your own island out of recyclables like Richie Sowa did in 1998. A new Spiral Island has been built and is set to open to visitors soon. Nice way to see the world.
Categories: Asia, Central America, Europe, Miscellany, Photography | No Comments »
Souvenirs
By Mr. Girard | July 24, 2008
I came across a neat slideshow at TIME.com with photos of one of the biggest museums in the world, one Team AZ will be seeing in 2009: “The Louvre: France’s Iconic Museum”. If you have some knowledge of art history, you’ll know that the Louvre houses one the world’s most famous paintings, La Giaconda, popularly known as the Mona Lisa. But there’s much more to see in the museum than Leonardo’s painting. Another famous piece is the Nike of Samothrace (right) which is a massive sculpture dating to the third century BC. The Louvre’s security detail will yell at you if you touch it.
Also have a look at a groovy photo set on Flickr by Michael Hughes called Souvenirs, for which he’s uniquely composed photographs of certain of the world’s landmarks. Among the sites he’s included are some of the places we’ll experience next year, such as Schloss Neuschwanstein and Mannekin Pis.
Categories: Art, Europe, History | No Comments »
Dubious Destinations
By Mr. Girard | July 9, 2008
While Yahoo! Travel recently posted its list “Best Scenic Drives in the US”, the BBC World Service examined China’s preparation for this year’s summer Olympics which’ll take place in and around Beijing in a timely documentary series. The broadcasts, “Countdown to the Olympics”, presented an investigation of continued religious persecution and political and economic disenfranchisement of the nation’s people despite China’s supposed commitment to reform it voiced during the petition process to host the games.
In addition to the world’s athletes, China will host spectators from all over the globe this year, but that country is one of several among the “World’s Most Controversial Destinations”. (Included in the list, regrettably, is Ethiopia, the land of my son and daughter’s birth.)
Categories: Africa, Asia, Central America, Middle East, North America, South America | No Comments »
The Sistine Chapel
By Mr. Girard | July 8, 2008
People enjoy mysteries and codes and secrets. Witness the mania in delving behind the esoteric veils of such institutions of the Vatican, Opus Dei, the Freemasons, the Illuminati, et cetera, engendered by Dan Brown’s entertaining (but wildly inaccurate) novels The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons. Witness too the millenarian zeal to find contemporary analogues to the symbols narrated in the New Testament book of Revelation and the hunt for arcane portends of major historical events and the unseen future hidden in the pages of the Old Testament using the so-called Bible (or Torah) code.
One of the sights Team AZ will be experiencing in 2009 is the Sistine Chapel, which recently has been the subject of speculation about hidden messages in its presentation. Read “Was the Sistine Ceiling a Papal Insult?” and Michelangelo ‘hid secret code in Sistine Chapel’” to understand claims about the artist who gave us, among others, iconic representations of the creation of man and the Christ’s final judgment.
The Creation of Adam is a panel on the Chapel ceiling and the Last Judgment is a giant fresco behind the Chapel altar. We’ll be standing underneath and in front of these and more art and history next year.
Dig Mark Harden’s Artchive entry on Michelangelo and see more of the artist’s work, then take the Sistine Chapel Virtual Reality Tour (bafflingly connected to a website for ballroom dance enthusiasts ).
Categories: Art, Europe, History | No Comments »
The Grand Tour
By Mr. Girard | June 23, 2008
The tour next year will cover much the same ground that is traditionally associated with the Grand Tour, a rite of young European aristocrats that dates back several centuries. It’s exemplified by George Gordon, Lord Byron, in his epic poem Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (full text of the poem). The New York Times’ Frugal Traveler elaborates on the tradition in “What is the Grand Tour?” as he recounts his own tour this summer.
The Frugal Traveler checked in from Paris, “Making Friends (and Dinner) in Paris” (where I know a few CDO students spent time this summer the French Club), and he recently reported from Rome,
“Wandering Beyond Classic Rome”.
In Italy we’ll also be spending time in Venice, where author David Kocieniewski took a chance touring unconventionally: “On Venice’s Grand Canal in a Kayak”. And what’s more conventional than to do what attracts many young travelers to Amsterdam? Of course, something we can’t and won’t do next year, but certainly there’s more to experience in the Dutch capital than a cafe filled with a bunch of bloodshot dullards: “10 Things to do in Amsterdam BESIDES Smoking Pot”. (Keep in mind though, number three on the list is out and we won’t be sticking around in the evening for numbers four or five.)
Even before Paris, though, even before Amsterdam, and even before Venice and Rome, we’ll begin our journey in London where we’ll be spending time in the Underground, so you might prepare yourself by reading how people are on in the Tube, “London blogger exposes life on the Underground”.
All of these cities have variously been stops on the traditional Grand Tour, and we’ll be enjoying them all on tour next year.
Categories: Europe, History | No Comments »
Work Your Way Around the World
By Mr. Girard | June 22, 2008
It was way back in 1992 that a then friend started me thinking about leaving Tucson for the wide world. He recommended a book, Work Your Way Around the World, that has suggestions for financing world travel by working in the places you visit, among them finding work as an extra in the Hong Kong film industry, planting trees in northern Canada, picking grapes and olives in Italy and Spain, and, obviously, teaching English anywhere (which led me to South Korea and Ecuador).
I discovered this list posted by the globally-minded web community at Matador Volunteer, “Top 10 Volunteer Opportunities Worldwide”, and this story at CNN, “Need a career change? Five jobs that let you see the world”.
Another book to check out if you’re interested in traveling as a lifestyle is Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel
Categories: Miscellany | No Comments »