Archive for the ‘Passport Travels’ Category
Tuesday, July 1st, 2008
Well, I’d forgotten all about that. But in yesterday’s mail, I got two copies of Travellers Vancouver & British Columbia. The cover credit still goes to the original writer but whaddaya know? That’s my name on the flyleaf. And somehow, it’s even more fun to flip through the images and say, “Hey, I took that picture!” Or, in some cases, to J, “Hey, you took that picture!”
We’ve done all of our previous work under my byline - J wasn’t physically present to sign the contracts and he shuns the spotlight, but his photos made the cut more often than mine for the Hawaii guide we have coming out under the same label. Next time, he’s signing the paperwork, too. It’s interesting to see what makes the cut - they’re not the photos I’d pick. That tells you how much I don’t know about commercial publishing.
And what do I think of the book? I have a love/leave relationship with guidebooks. I’m a big fan of them for armchair reading and planning. And I do like to read the background sections while I’m traveling - the history and culture overviews tend to be useful if sometimes a bit shallow - they do help you get the big picture.
But it’s the big picture I like guidebooks for only. A lot of space is dedicated to restaurants, hotels, details details details, and that’s the stuff I like to get on the ground. I prefer locals, fellow travelers, and the web for advice. Guidebooks are imminently fallible and they’re out of date so quickly - the long production lead time ensures that the cafe you loved has moved or closed, the hotel rates skyrocketed, the airlines gone out of business… any number of things can change in the nine months it takes to create a guidebook.
So sure, you could go ahead and get this one if you’re off to BC. But don’t rely on it alone. Oh, and if you’re going to go, go in August or September, the best time of year on this part of the planet. And go to Nelson. And camp in Burton. And spend a day at the hot springs in Harrison. And and and… see what I mean?
Live advice. It’s got something on guidebooks.
Posted in Travel Reads | 15 Comments »
Sunday, June 29th, 2008
Disclaimer: The folks that run My Life of Travel paid me to review their site. I was on the fence, but an email exchange in which we agreed that payment for a review did not guarantee a good review put my hesitations at rest. For the opportunity to review their site and their purchase of an ad link, we say this: Thanks for supporting Nerd’s Eye View!
Face it, there are a zillion different travelblog host sites. I’m staggered by the sheer quantity of them and it seems that every other week a new one pops up. They all seem to be offering similar things - photo albums, journal entries, friends, and some have mapping.
Because there are so many, this isn’t a comparison. It’s just a straight review of My Life of Travel. I looked for a few specific things - how easy is it to set up, how does the content look, is the site easy to navigate, what do I think of the bells and whistles..etc. Here goes: (more…)
Posted in Passport Travels | 5 Comments »
Friday, June 27th, 2008
Getting these was like getting a perfect present every day. They came from Italy and Germany and Ohio and Seattle and Chicago and…
Not shown? The stunning set of postcards from Lia, collage artist extraordinaire.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All of you.
And yes, I’d still happily send you a postcard. Here’s the how to.
Posted in Passport Travels | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, June 25th, 2008
It’s not just the fact that you can get a snappy 2bd 3ba condo for well under what we paid for our Seattle digs. It’s the vibe that reminds us of what we loved about Seattle when we first got here, a certain funky unpretentiousness. And the moderated landscape that makes biking everywhere doable for those without quads of steel and granny gears.
We’ve just returned from a short visit with the family in our sister city to the south, Portland. We started our day drinking coffee and eating treats at Crema Bakery & Cafe, a sunny, friendly place in the Laurelhurst neighborhood. It’s no match for our favorite Seattle treats, but it was a lovely nonetheless.
Then we took a leisurely guided spin on a bicycle built for one or two, you decide, along the waterfront. We did some serious dawdleing on the front porch while reading The Oregonian. We ate gelato at Staccato Gelato - we’ve been there before and it’s still just as yummy. Thus fortified with dessert, we strolled a leisurely handful of blocks for a supreme Italian dinner in an absolutely adorable restaurant; Il Piatto. They dish up some fine food - and they have a happy hour dinner menu that lets you feast on such things as crepes stuffed with ricotta, pine nuts, spinach and smoked pear for about 10 bucks less than the dinner time prices.
We couldn’t stay - we had to head back to day jobs and chores in Seattle, but we are already thinking that next year, we’d like to book some quality time on that loaner tandem and do some of the Pedalpalooza rides. Seattle’s hills can take the wind out of your biking sails if you happen to stow the ride for a season, but Portland, she doesn’t care when you were last on your bike, she’ll be nice about it. We’re not pulling up stakes and heading south just yet, but don’t think we didn’t discuss it.
Posted in Passport Travels, Playing Outside | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, June 4th, 2008
For some time now, I’ve been meaning to write to the editors of my favorite magazine, National Geographic Traveler to say this: I love you, but could you quit throwing the word “authentic” around? Nitpicky, obsessively literal, and probably very annoying, I know. But stick with me.
Here’s the definition of authentic from Webster’s via Dictionary, trimmed for the etymology and pronunciation details):
1. Having a genuine original or authority, in opposition to that which is false, fictitious, counterfeit, or apocryphal; being what it purports to be; genuine; not of doubtful origin; real; as, an authentic paper or register.
To be avenged On him who had stole Jove’s authentic fire. –Milton.
2. Authoritative. [Obs.] –Milton.
3. Of approved authority; true; trustworthy; credible; as, an authentic writer; an authentic portrait; authentic information.
4. (Law) Vested with all due formalities, and legally attested.
5. (Mus.) Having as immediate relation to the tonic, in distinction from plagal, which has a correspondent relation to the dominant in the octave below the tonic.
This is my deal: I don’t think you can describe a place as authentic as though it could be real or fake unless you’re talking about an actually facsimile of place, like the Venetian in Vegas or the Polynesian Cultural Center on Oahu. These are reproductions of places that exist in the real world as real places. The Venetian and the Cultural Center are freaky fake. The “authentic” places aren’t so scrubbed; the canals of Venice are stinky, Oahu has crazy traffic. There’s no Starbuck’s in Venice, but seven bucks for a cappucino? And the real Hawaii is covered with food chains, they’re everywhere.
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Posted in Op/Ed, Passport Travels, Seattle | 13 Comments »
Thursday, May 22nd, 2008
Flying Ruinair in Germany is like shopping in Aldi but knowing there is a Marks and Spencer or a Sainsbury store nearby where the prices are also Lidl.
I wasn’t sure what was bugging me about Ruinair
until I came across that particular passage. The book is funny, snarky, self deprecating, all thing things I like in travel writing. I laughed out loud a few times and it’s clear that Paul Kilduff, the author who schleps himself about Europe on a oddball tour of non-destinations and second cities, loves to travel and sees past the shiny airport propaganda.
But Ruinair is punctuated with inside jokes for continentals. I get it. I’ve flown the craptasticly cheap Irish airline, been screwed by their ridiculous rules and fees, and thanked them for it. Once, I went to London from Austria for 10 Euros. And then, on the return, when I was five minutes late to check in, they charged me a whopping 50 pounds to put me on another flight even though there was a good half hour before my flight departed. Whatever. They make no apologies and no excuses, and if you can deal with the advertising and the fast food service, it’s a screaming deal.
But I don’t really want to read a whole book about the experience. And I don’t want to have to decode the humor. After a while, I started to feel like I was sitting in a comedy club in an English speaking country not my own. Sure, I get some of the jokes - hey, I have the resume to decipher them, having worked in Dublin, lived in Austria, and taken advantage the cheap intercity flights of Europe. But I didn’t get all of them. When Kilduff mentions celebrity sightings, I don’t know who he’s talking about or why I should care. When he takes a hatchet to the service, the staff, and the colorful Ruinair boss over and over again, I get it, already. I also get the quote I’ve pulled above, but odds are that most American readers have no idea what that sentence means. Do you?
I probably could have been content with a couple of short essays, but a whole book? I gave in about halfway through.
–
On a clear day, you can see the majestic peak of Mount Rainier from Seattle. I used to be able to see it from my bathroom window, while standing in the bathtub. Now, when I cross the West Seattle bridge and there are no clouds, I see the rounded white mountain in the distance towering over the shipping traffic of the Duwamish slough and the concrete strip of Interstate 5.
Living in Seattle, it’s hard to ignore the call of the mountains and for a while, I joined The Mountaineers where I learned how to climb and how much I ultimately did not enjoy the competitive edge of the sport. So it’s with some - albeit very minor - experience in the field that I cracked Dark Summit: The True Story of Everest’s Most Controversial Season
, yet another story of Things Gone Wrong on Mount Everest.
I find mountaineering maddening. I totally get the drive to see the top, but I can not get down with the conquerers aesthetic. Nature and the mountain will win every time and if you have the good fortune to get to the top and back without injury or worse, I believe it is due to the cooperation of the elements as much as anything else. Where things really unravel for me is in the life or death situation where you have teams of climbers hellbent on summiting to the detriment to the wellbeing of others.
There are two quotes in Dark Summit that I wish I’d marked so I could have them here. One is from Sir Edmund Hilary saying that there is absolutely no way they’d leave a man to die on the mountain, that they would make all efforts to perform a rescue, summit or no. The other is by a climber who says that you’ve taken your life in your own hands - when you choose to pursue the summit, you are eschewing any guarantee of life support and expect to be left to die so your comrades can make it to the top.
That is poor paraphrasing, forgive me. But they contrast two totally different ways of thinking about mountaineering. Dark Summit does an excellent job of letting the climbers express their attitudes against the backdrop of a very bad season on the big mountain. The book is a compelling read and if at times I found it frustrating, it’s because I was angry with the climbers, not with writer Nick Heil’s work. I’m afraid I’m going to compare it - like lots of other reviewers, I’m sure - with Into Thin Air, another riveting read about Everest. But there’s room for both books on your shelf. Dark Summit is compelling, engaging, and thought provoking, and a exciting - if aggravating - read.
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Posted in Travel Reads | 3 Comments »
