I’ve seen a lot of articles lately about where to go in 2013 and it got me thinking about two things: 1. All the places I want to go in the world and how that list isn’t getting much shorter. 2. The way that pretty much every aspect of life is subject to trends. When I first realized — probably sometime in high school — that trends exist in categories beyond clothing I was astounded. People regularly talk about clothing trends or fads, but we don’t talk as often about trends in television shows or food or styles of teaching. In the end though, what is popular ebbs and flows…
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Weekly Travel Inspiration: The Fault in Our Stars
“It happened all at once: We exited the highway and there were the row houses of my imagination leaning precariously toward canals, ubiquitous bicycles, and coffeeshops advertising LARGE SMOKING ROOM. We drove over a canal and from atop the bridge I could see dozens of houseboats moored along the water. It looked nothing like America. It looked like an old painting, but real–everything achingly idyllic in the morning light” —The Fault in Our Stars, page 156 The Fault in Our Stars is a bestselling novel by the author John Green, which was published on January 10, 2012, and celebrated its one year anniversary yesterday. It is a heartbreaking and humorous…
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Weekly Travel Inspiration: Hobbit Safety
I know this video came out a month ago, but I saw The Hobbit recently and it seemed appropriate. In case you haven’t seen it yet, Air New Zealand came out with an airline safety video that is Lord of the Rings themed. Peter Jackson has a quick cameo, and the whole affair is silly while still providing real safety information. They even made their slogan: The Airline of Middle-earth. I hope it makes you feel like hopping on a plane even if it can’t actually fly you to a fantasy world.
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Weekly Travel Inspiration: End of the World Edition
In honor of the world NOT ending today, your weekly travel inspiration is a video about people making the most of everyday. One Day on Earth encouraged people all over the world to film on December 12, 2012 (12.12.12) and submit the footage to be compiled into a feature length movie. This was the third year in a row that they set out this challenge–the previous two occurring on 10.10.10 and 11.11.11 respectively. Check out their website to watch some footage from the previous years, and to learn more about how the project hopes to showcase the diverse stories that are taking place simultaneously all over the world.
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Weekly Travel Inspiration: Instagramming Paris
I spent last week in Paris with my mother. And I discovered a new obsession. Sacre Coeur Paris is an amazingly photogenic city. I felt like a wonderful photographer while I was there because I took so many beautiful photos, but I think it was less my photography skills and more the city’s innate charms that looked so good. Nothing can beat seeing Paris for yourself, but I hope you’ll enjoy this sample of the photos I took there. I found that as awesome as these shots looked on their own, they also lended themselves well to instagram. Winged Victory, at the Louvre What I’m really enjoying about instagram is…
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Weekly Travel Inspiration: The World’s Best High Teas
This morning Lonely Planet tweeted the article: The World’s Best High Teas and it seemed like an appropriate weekly travel inspiration given how tea- and Britain-focused An Opportune Moment has been these last couple of weeks. Only one of the high teas mentioned in their post is in London–Claridge’s–but many of the others are in countries that were once British colonies. Half of them are in Southeast Asia, which I’m tempted to take as a sign that that region of the world should be my next destination after Europe… But I’ll probably settle for taking a daytrip to New York City once I’m back in the states, to visit Tea…
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Weekly Travel Inspiration: Exhausted Edition
This week’s travel inspiration is the fact that I’ve been on the road for the last 48 hours. Traveling from the Greek island paradise of Kea to the city of Sarajevo has involved 1 ferry 2 buses and 3 trains, 2 of which were overnight. On the first overnight train, my friend Katie and I just booked normal seats and enjoyed no sleep–the train’s fluorescent lighting never so much as dimmed, and passengers came and went all evening. So, on the second overnighter, we learned our lesson and spent a little extra money on a berth. We also enjoyed an unexpected stopover in Sofia, Bulgaria because there were no direct…
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Weekly Travel Inspiration: The Happiest Countries in the World
When I first arrived in Copenhagen a few weeks ago, my mom (hi Mom!) shared this article with me on facebook. It lists the top 5 happiest countries in the world according to two different reports. The first is The World Happiness List (commissioned by the UN) which ranks Denmark as the happiest country in the world, and the Netherlands as fourth happiest. The other report is the Happy Planet Index, which looks at how happy the people are as well as how sustainable their lifestyle is. Costa Rica claims first place on this list. During The Great European Adventure, I’ve visited the Netherlands and Denmark, and my first trip…
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Weekly Travel Inspiration: Scottish Independence
This week your travel inspiration is a BBC news article about a Scottish independence rally that happened in Edinburgh last weekend. Thousands at Scottish independence rally in Edinburgh A friend of mine who is a Gaelic speaker and a staunch supporter of Scottish independence posted this article on my facebook wall after we got dinner in Edinburgh. Over our meal, he informed me that a majority of Scottish people support independence, but I was still skeptical of the country’s ability to break away from the UK. There is a referendum vote on the matter planned for 2014, so I guess we’ll all find out then. Now, you may be wondering,…
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Weekly Travel Inspiration: I’m in Iceland!
At the risk of appearing self-centered, this week’s travel inspiration is a photo I took today in Iceland. It’s of the geyser Strokkur (which means “chum” in Icelandic) erupting. This geyser erupts every 4 to 8 minutes and is located next to Geysir, also known as The Great Geysir, which is the geyser from which all other geysers get their name. Geysir hasn’t erupted in a long time, and as we stood beside it, our guide cheerfully informed us that if it happened to go off while we were standing there, we would all die. I’m not sure if this is actually true considering many people have witnessed its eruption…
