Travel Blogs

Colors in Connecticut

Posted by kampongboy | 24th October 2009

I spent one of my most beautiful Saturdays ever upstate in Connecticut, which is about an hour plus drive from Midtown Manhatten. The drive was along a very scenic route along the Hudson River and then on the Merritt Highway, which was flanked by rows of trees in full colors of the fall, green, yellow, orange, red, purple and what have yous.

Arriving at her place, we drove up a 100 meter long driveway to her very quaint and pretty house. The houses in the suburbs are HUGE! Her place was surrounded by so much flora i thought she lived in a nature reserve! it's SOOOO beautiful! After meeting the family and having a nice coffee and bagels, we spent the morning house-hunting for one of my colleagues. It was such great fun as we visited million dollar homes that were so well furnished and mind-blowingly awesome!

Continued | Kampong Boy in the Big Apple

Sunday Market

Posted by Hawkson | 27th October 2009

The French have been embroiled in religious wars since the dark ages and Languedoc Roussillon has seen more than its fair share of blood spilled in the name of god. So, for a country whose roots are so pedantically wedded to religion, it’s surprising to discover that the main Sunday morning attraction is no longer the church, it’s the market.

This market hall in Lagrasse, near Carcassonne, was built in 1324 and has been in use ever since…

Continued | Blissful Adventures

A walk on the wild side

Posted by JuliaInOz | 19th October 2009

“Stop!” I hissed through clenched teeth, my eyes never leaving the black, scaly tail ahead of us. Every muscle in my body was tingling, I didn’t dare breathe. Brilliant plan, moving to a country filled with venomous snakes, just brilliant. “What do we do now?”

The trail was barely wide enough for one person to stand abreast, overgrown with scraggly, chest-high brush. For all I knew, we could have fifteen angry snakes on either side. “Looks like a copperhead, they’re pretty chill,” Marcus whispered from behind me, with less-than-convincing confidence. “Maybe make some noise, let him move off?” We stomped and rattled bushes hesitantly for a moment, then paused to watch and listen again. I could just see the front half of the metre-long dark, scaly body. It slowly turned in our direction.

Continued | Adventures Down Under

Seville

Posted by paulymx | 14th October 2009

Seville, Cordoba and Granada form something of triangle with Cordoba in the north, Seville in the west and Granada in the south. We were heading west towards Portugal so we needed to backtrack a little along the same highways we’d travelled from Cordoba to Seville. Seville was another old Roman city that had risen to prominence under the Muslims. Seville retains its old cosmopolitan atmosphere and feels ‘more Spanish‘ than either Granada or Cordoba. We stayed in a simply but cute hotel cum restaurant in the middle of the old town, one street back from the cathedral. It was all whitewashed walls and blue tiles.

Continued | Paul & Shelly's European Vacation 2009

The Lost Continent: Travels In Small-Town America

Posted by Isadora | 13th October 2009

Bill Bryson was born during 1951 in Des Moines, Iowa. Like most middle-class American families of the time, vacations revolved around the "road trip" across the US. Such trips would usually include historic battle fields and anything that would let you in for free. Having been born only a couple of years later (and in a similarly-sized Iowa town), I could relate to Mr. Bryson's descriptions of the over-heated car, long hours on the highway and not stopping to pee. (After all, wasn't that what coffee cans were really designed for - emptying your bladder on long road trips?!) But, that's not what this book is about...

Continued | The Book Club

A Silver Rabbit and A Faux Turkey

Posted by GregW | 12th October 2009

After walking through the neighbourhoods of Islington on Saturday that lay to the north of my flat, Sunday I walked through the leafier, quieter and poshier neighbourhoods to the south of me - Holborn and Bloomsbury. Former residents include folks like John Maynard Keynes and Charles Dickens. Fictional residents include the Darling family, those whose little children followed one Peter Pan to Neverland. Today, the areas have such notable residents and institutions like Ricky Gervais, De Beers Diamonds and University College London.

Continued | Greg Wesson's Esoteric Globe

The Amalfi Coast, Italy: Day Two

Posted by vicki_h | 8th October 2009

After a long night of much needed sleep, we woke to our first real morning in Italy. We had only been there for 24 hours, but already, the differences were noticeable. For instance, I was puzzled at first by the toilets. No, not the whole bidet phenomenon, which did create it’s own series of emotion ranging from shock to curiosity to an immature fit of the giggles, but rather the fact that the toilets were backless, the tank being located somewhere else in the bathroom. This left me with the question: how do I flush? There was no tank with a flusher. I noticed a panel on the wall behind my backless toilet that had two giant push buttons, one more giant than the other. What to do? What to do? I nervously bit my nails, uncomfortable with the thought that I might push a button that could cause an alarm to go off, or a wild bathroom sprinkler. Was that the flusher? Was it? What if it actually turned all the lights off or shut down the plumbing?

Do I? Don’t I? Do I? After a few nervous moments, I finally just went for it. I chose the smaller button. I figured if it did something loud or terrible, the smaller button might be less loud and less terrible.

PUSH.

Flush.

Whew.

Continued | Come With Me...

The Burning

Posted by triptime | 5th October 2009

I didn’t buy a lot along the way. I mean, yeah, I picked up a couple things here and there, but clothes and souvenirs were not part of my agenda. And as many of you could tell through my pictures, I have pretty much worn the same things over and over again.

I started with five pairs of socks and I ended with five pairs. I started with five pairs of underwear and I ended with five. One pair of jeans, one pair of hiking pants, two shorts, a swimsuit, a handful of tees and two collared shirts were all that I had. For the most part, that is all that I came back with.

Continued | Izzy's Blogsite