~ So here I am in Melbourne, Australia for the start of three weeks house sitting. I should be out and about partying – or at least out having fun, which is not always the same thing – but instead I’ve been laid up all day trying to shake off the effects of either a head cold or the latest in an endless allergic reaction to who knows what.
Quite frankly, I feel like crud, but I hope to get out tomorrow to check out the city centre, and reacquaint myself with the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI), Federation Square, and the general vibe of Victoria’s capital.
I was last here in January and February, house sitting for the same owners, and caring for their ageing cat, Bruce. Given his advanced age, Bruce probably feels worse than me, but seems happy enough to sleep and get the occasional back scratch.
Speaking of ACMI, I wrote about my visit there last January to see the fantastic Dennis Hopper exhibition Dennis Hopper & The New Hollywood. As you might expect, I, along with thousands of other fans, am deeply saddened to learn of his recent death at 74. Hopper was one of the great Hollywood rebels, and managed to carve out a niche for himself despite the workings of the big studios, movie moguls, and critics. His legacy will live on when many other lesser actors will fade into obscurity and the occasion footnote in some history of modern cinema.
But I digress.
Being in Melbourne for three weeks also gives me a chance to work on my stripped down Round The World packing list. My small suitcase weighed in at just 14.4 kilograms (32 pounds), and even that probably has more in it than I really need. I’m also traveling with a lap top computer and some other essential technological aids. However, this is the extent of my on road kit.
The other thing I am working on is my ability to budget for an extended journey spanning many months. I am hoping to keep my daily expenses in Melbourne as close as possible to $50 per day, and hopefully, I won’t be spending much more than that while I am in New York. But that remains to be seen. For now, I’m concentrating on getting over my cold/allergy, and enjoying Melbourne.
~ I’ve had one of those days where all I did was pay out my hard earned cash, and got very little in ‘return’ to show for it. Well, that’s how it feels, anyway.
You see, today I bought travel insurance for my upcoming trip ($757.00), and paid for a couple of nights accommodation in a Super 8 Hotel near Los Angeles international airport (US$132.56). In return for my $889.56 I got a couple of electronic receipts, and documents spelling out the numerous terms and conditions governing my purchases.
Quite frankly, it didn’t seem like a fair return to me.
That’s one of the problems with travel. You seem to spend weeks, if not months, paying out large sums of money before you see any actual return on your investment. So far I have paid out $5,427.00 towards my trip and I haven’t even left the house yet!
I’m trying valiantly to stem a rising tide of panic which in my worst case scenario sees me flying out of Australia without any money left in my account to enjoy my travels. Of course, I will have enough, but when you are constantly forking out for tickets, insurance, accommodation, and pre-booked tours and such, departure time can seem like a long way off, and your wallet begins to look very thin.
Add to this the constant worry of watching the world’s financial markets rise and fall like a kite caught in a hurricane, and endless calculations on just how much more (or less) the Australian dollar will buy each day, and I know exactly why I don’t feel anywhere near excited enough about my approaching departure.
I console myself with the thought that with a month still to go before I fly out, I have pretty much made all my major travel expenditures except for any day to day living expenses I will have to deal with.
~ I'm not big on boycotts. But today I became aware of a ‘festival’ so bizarre and disgraceful that I think the country that hosts it, deserves to be boycotted until the event is stopped.
The event in question is the annual pilot whale/dolphin killing festival which takes place in the Faroe Islands. The islands, sometimes Faeroe Islands, Faroe(s), or Faeroes are an island group situated between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately halfway between Scotland and Iceland. The Faroe Islands are a part of the Kingdom of Denmark, along with Denmark proper and Greenland.
The atrocious slaughter you see depicted in the image illustrating this post, has been practiced since at least the 10th century, with around 1,000 creatures killed annually in the “grindadráp” (whale hunt) typically occurring during summer months.
Not surprisingly, the hunting of pilot whales/dolphins by residents of the Faroe Islands has long been a subject of controversy, and for good reason.
Although the International Whaling Commission enacted a ban on commercial whaling in 1986, pilot whales seem to be exempt because technically they are members of the dolphin family. To compound the problem, the Faroe Islands is one of the parts of the world where the IWC's rules still allow for subsistence hunting of such cetaceans.
As usual, supporters of the hunt maintain that the practise of killing pilot whales is "an age-old communal, non-commercial hunt aimed at meeting the community's need for whale meat and blubber." They also claim the animals are dealt with so quickly that their pain is brief, and that whale meat accounts for a quarter of the Faroe Islander's annual meat consumption.
Conservationists, on the other hand charge that the hunts, which take hundreds of whales at a time, are barbaric and pointless; that "the practice is outdated, cruel and unnecessary for a place with one of the highest standards of living in Europe." As if that is not enough, most of the whales go to waste - either being left on the beach to rot or thrown back to sea after they are killed.
While the Scandinavian countries have long been on my list of regions to visit, I for one will never visit Denmark, the Faroe Islands, or Greenland while this atrocious practice continues.
~ Yesterday, I caught a train into the centre of Adelaide. Hardly a remarkable event given the everyday nature of the task. However it soon dawned on me that all transport systems are not created equal, and the transport system in dear little Adelaide is probably the least equal of all the major cities in Australia.
The reason for catching the train was so I could start getting used to the idea of not having my own motor vehicle to speed me from point A to point B, in a convenient and timely manner. You see, in ten days I fly to Melbourne for three weeks to house sit for the same people I house sat for in January. While in Melbourne I will be relying on that city’s extensive network of trams to get me from Fitzroy North into the city centre (and home again). And when I hit New York in July, I will be using the subway system there to navigate my way quickly from Washington Heights to downtown Manhattan.
Unfortunately, Adelaide is not Melbourne or Manhattan. As a result, the transport system here is nowhere near as frequent as the ones found in those two cities. Apart from the rush hour, here the trains run every half hour or so, and at night about once an hour. On weekends the trains again run about once an hour.
It stands to reason that if you are going to use the train system here, it helps to have a timetable for the line servicing your suburb, since if you miss one train you might have to wait up to an hour for the next one! In Melbourne and Manhattan, it doesn’t seem to matter that much if you miss your train/tram when you know another one will be along in 10-15 minutes. When the transport system is that frequent, you can pretty much dispense with timetables. Not so in Adelaide. Luckily I only had to wait for 20 minutes or so for the ride into town, but that was more than enough (and yes, I do now have a timetable for the Outer Harbor line which passes close to my home).
Still it’s good practise for world travel. It is easy to take modern transport systems for granted, even one as intermittent as Adelaide’s. But once you start travelling from country to country, using public transport becomes as much a part of the experience and adventure as anything else you might do. Especially when the signage and timetables (if they exist at all), are in a language you cannot speak – let alone read.
Come to think of it, this is as good a place to bear in mind this quote from Clifton Fadiman: "When you travel, remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable. It is designed to make its own people comfortable."
A friend recently sent me a copy of this amazing video apparently showing the world’s air traffic for a period of 24 hours, with each green dot representing one aircraft. But is it real or is it a fake?
Quite frankly, I didn’t know. The video has been circulating around the Internet for some time, either attached to e-mail messages, or uploaded multiple times to video hosting sites like YouTube, Vimeo, Google Video, and dozens of others. So today, I decided to try and track down the people or organisation that created the original video, and see if I could turn up the definitive answer.
To my surprise, the answer was not that hard to find with both the Wiredand NASAwebsites providing links to the clip. The original video animation was produced to be shown on the high definition 3D-Globe "Orbitarium" in Technorama - The Swiss Science Center in collaboration with the Institute of Applied Information Technology In IT, at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences.
It seems the boffins at the school used a commercial website called FlightStatsto gather global flight and schedule information for the departure and arrival times of every commercial flight in the world. They then plugged all that data into a computer to assemble their simulation.
As mentioned, the animation shows all scheduled flights over a 24h period (based on 2008 data). Apparently, every day some 93,000 flights are starting from approx. 9,000 airports, with between 8,000 and 13,000 planes in the air at any one time!
So, to answer my own question: Is it real or is it a fake? I am happy to declare the video animation to be real. I'm glad that's cleared up.
~ Excuse me while I vent my spleen! I’ve just been reading a review of the Oaks Plaza Pier Hotel (15, Holdfast Promenade, Glenelg, Phone: 8350 6688), in my local Adelaide weekend paper, The Advertiser (May 8, 2010).
Dianne Mattsson, the reviewer, gives the hotel an overall rating of four stars, and for all I know it deserves everyone of them. However, the thing that has got my blood boiling is the list of ‘facilities’ she mentions – one of which includes 24 hour Internet access for AU$27.50* per day.
Twenty-seven fifty!
You can park your car with them for $16.00 a day, but if you want Internet access you have to pay $27.50 per day!
Are they mad?
Almost every budget chain hotel/motel in America provides free WiFi Internet access as a matter of policy, and here in Australia we have some dinky little hotel charging $27.50 a day. Do they think people are going to spend their whole stay locked in their rooms surfing the Internet? Are they afraid that the few cents it costs them to provide Internet access for each room is going to send them broke? Can’t they see, providing free Internet could set them apart from their opposition and give them the edge they need to attract more guests?
Heck if it really is that expensive to provide ‘free’ WiFi to each room, why not add a few dollars per day to each room rate, and recoup their investment that way. Some guests will use the service a lot; others will use it a little; and still others not at all.
In an age when WiFi enabled computers and mobile phones are ubiquitous, it makes no sense to charge your guests an extra $27.50 a day to keep in touch with family, friends, or the boss. Especially, when more and more local cafés are providing free WiFi to attract customers through their doors.
Mind you, the Oaks Plaza Pier Hotel is not alone in slugging travellers huge fees for Internet access. In Australia this appears to be the ‘rule’ rather than the exception. So in their defence, the hotel might argue they are just following the industry norm. To which I would say, So what? How about thinking outside the square? More importantly, how about joining the rest of us in the 21st Century, and providing what should be an essential service to your guests – just like the ‘free’ linen service, television, and other standard room facilities every traveller now takes for granted.
For my part, I will never pay extra for Internet access, when I can choose a hotel that provides the service as part of their standard booking. The more travellers refuse to pay extra (and explain why they choose not to stay at hotels that do charge extra fees), the sooner these hotels will begin to include free WiFi or broadband access as part of their standard service.
* While the Oaks Plaza Pier Hotel does give you the option to pay $10 for two hours of Internet access, in my opinion this is even more a waste of money, and a further insult to their guests.
~ I’ve never been to South Africa, but with interest in the country building as the Fifa World Cup Soccer competition gets closer and closer (11 June-11 July, 2010), now might be the perfect time to think about travelling there and seeing if South Africa has more to offer than soccer and safari’s.
For those who seek meaning, connection, and want to make a difference as they travel, a San Francisco-based cultural and philanthropic tour company, is offering a one-of-a-kind Zulu ‘empowerment’ volunteer tour into Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa.
This three-week trip in September 2010 (September 4-25), organised by The Cultural Explorer, gives volunteer travellers the rare opportunity to immerse themselves in the vibrant Zulu culture while participating in a variety of service-oriented projects. Travellers will be encouraged to design a project based on their own interests and skills: for example, volunteers might want to refurbish a school or to tutor students in math, science, English and art. Other volunteers might choose to work with children an orphanage or teach in a creche (day care centre). And still others might want to teach marketable skills to Zulu women and young people or assist rural businesswomen with marketing ideas.
Volunteer travellers will stay in a lovely hotel in the small rural town of Eshowe. There will be excursions daily into the numerous nearby Zulu villages -- with opportunities to observe traditional and contemporary life, attend a Zulu wedding, birthday, or healing celebration. Volunteers will visit with the local sangomas (traditional healers), the only white sangoma in South Africa, and attend meetings with Zulu educators. Travellers will also enjoy lively dinners with local activists, politicians, and entrepreneurs who are invested in making positive change within the Zulu community.
Volunteer travellers will also spend a weekend on a safari in the Hluhluwe Umfolozi Game Reserve, the oldest game park in South Africa, looking for the Big Five: lion, leopard, rhino, elephant and Cape buffalo. Also planned is side trip into the city of Durban and a chance to visit the beaches along the Indian Ocean.
The Zulu Empowerment trip starts in Johannesburg, South Africa's largest city, with an in-depth history lesson and an excursion to the Apartheid museum, Origins Centre, the thriving township of Soweto, and downtown Johannesburg. Travellers will be treated to authentic South African foods and music. The volunteer portion of the trip will be based in Kwa-Zulu Natal, about 7 hours south of Johannesburg, an area known for it's large Zulu population and diverse terrain.
Pat Walker, founder of The Cultural Explorer, has spent several years cultivating contacts within the Zulu communities in Natal. Her company offers both group and individual trips, and specialises in authentic cultural, volunteer, and philanthropic travel experiences.
Travellers will meet with her personal contacts and colleagues. "This is a one-of-a-kind volunteer trip," she says. “We have teamed up with a local family-run organisation that has been working in this area for several years. We find and their projects to be authentic and they really do make a big difference in the lives of the Zulu community. We are pleased to make this volunteer trip available to adventurous travellers who want to go beyond the ordinary travel experience."
About the Zulu: The Zulu are the largest South African ethnic group of an estimated 10–11 million people who live mainly in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. Their language, Zulu, is a Bantu language. The Zulu Kingdom played a major role in South African history during the 19th and 20th centuries and the Zulu were known as fierce and determined warriors. Under apartheid, Zulu people were classed as third-class citizens and suffered from state-sanctioned discrimination. They remain today the most numerous ethnic group in South Africa, and now have equal rights along with all other citizens. The current president of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, is a Zulu.
Speaking of South Africa. Recently, I became aware of some amazing footage currently online via YouTube. Titled, Battle at Kruger the video shows a pride of lions attacking a young buffalo at Kruger National Park. What is really incredible is the fight the young creature puts up to survive and the even more amazing footage of the buffalo herd fighting off the lions in an attempt to save the calf. Warning: Not for the faint hearted!
~ I recently wrote about a bunch of free iPhone applications being offered by Lonely Planet through the iTunes site. While that amazing offer has since ended, from time to time the company continues to offer good deals on some of their many other products.
For example, Lonely Planet are currently offering 30% discounts across the entire Gifts to Inspire category; and 30% discounts on all their National Park and Wildlife guides. You can also pick up a free Latin American or European phrase book with the purchase of the Peru country guide, or the Discover Europe guide book. And lastly, you can now buy the USA Book for just $19.99.
What's the catch?
These offers are available for a limited time only, and only if you use individual coupon codes with each purchase.
The 'good' news?
I just happen to have those coupon codes right here! So if you are planning a trip to Europe, Peru, or the USA (and are planning to visit some of America's great National Parks), then why not save yourself some money by following the links below and using the codes at the check out stage of your purchase to save some money.
~ I’ve written several times already about researching my New York trip. Today, however, I wanted to write about one of the best online sources for travel research I have discovered anywhere.
TripAdvisor.com features more than 30 million travel reviews and opinions from real travellers around the world; Over a million businesses covering 70,000+ cities, 450,000 hotels, 90,000+ attractions, and 560,000+ restaurants; Over two million candid traveller hotel photos covering 100,000+ hotels; and thousands of forums where you can ask (and answer) questions on any aspect of travel you care to ask about. While I have only made selected use of TripAdvisor and the New York City forums in particular, there can’t be too many places on the planet that are not covered by a forum on the site. I have used TripAdvisor to search for reviews of hotels, restaurants, and other places, and even contributed a review or two of my own), but it is the forumswhere TripAdvisor is proving to be most useful as I plan my New York stay. By reading through dozens of previously asked questions from prospective travellers to New York City (and asking a few of my own), I have learned about unusual tours, off-beat locations, and gained insider knowledge about many other hidden gems that most visitors to the city miss. For example, take the responses to the question: Something different to do for a frequent traveler to NYC? (from someone calling themselves ‘MaconMemories’). Reading through the 26 replies I learned about the Louis Armstrong House museum in Queens; the new(ish) Highlinewalkway; Italian cooking classes; a food tour with the Enthusiastic Gourmet; discovered the Walk New York Citysite; and this site which seems to list every major museum and gallery in New York. Add to all of this suggestions for exploring parts of the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens, and you can see there are a wide range of possible activities to consider - and all from just one query. Some forum members are so knowledgeable about their city they have been designated Destination Experts by TripAdvisor. Indeed, some of these experts have posted thousands of replies to queries from travellers all over the world. And when I say ‘thousands’, I mean thousands. Some Destination Experts have post 10, 20, 30, and even 40 thousand or more replies to questions! I don’t know if these people have lives outside of answering queries on TripAdvisor, but they are always knowledgeable, patient, courteous, and very generous with their time. Anyone can search through and read answers to previously posted questions, but if you want to ask a question yourself (or post a reply) you must create a user account first.
I have no hesitation in saying that TripAdvisor – and especially the forums there – is my first online stop when looking for ideas and answers to the many inevitable travel related questions I have.
~ How much research is too much? I ask this question because I have been spending hours online researching my summer New York trip, and everyday I find new and exciting events, places, and activities to add to my already extensive notes and burgeoning lists.
At some point you have to stop researching and start arranging your findings into some sort of coherent order so as to get a better idea of what your findings reveal. I’m probably at that point with researching my New York trip. In fact, I’ve got more than enough pencilled in to keep me busy for the whole of my stay, but I keep discovering extra things to add to my schedule. To make matters worse, several major events have yet to publish their full summer programs, which means I will need to return to their websites over the next month or so, to see what their final schedules will look like.
At least I know I will never be bored!
I believe it was Samuel Johnson who said of London, England, "The man who is tired of London is tired of life, for there is in London all that life can afford." A statement that surely applies to New York City even more so than London.
I certainly don’t expect to be bored in New York, and if I am, I will have no-one to blame but myself!
When I have more time I will list some of the many activities I am considering for my stay, but right now I’ve got to get back to my research. In the meantime take a look at my New York Dreaming entry…
~ I’ve been using this free application from the New York Times for a couple of months now, and it has become my favourite source of news about America in general, and New York City in particular.
As soon as you launch the app, it downloads the latest news, and presents you with a list of around 15 of the days top news stories, along with the opening sentence of each so you can get a quick look at the latest headlines (see image). As always with the iPhone, you simply tap the screen to read a news story or scroll through the list to see what else is available.
Along the bottom of the application is a five icon menu bar which lets you jump to the Latest News, and the most popular Emailed news items. You can Save an article for future reference, and Search through the days news stories to find a topic that interests you.
However, the application offers much more than this.
Tapping the More icon (no pun intended) presents you with an array of 22 other icons representing the different sections in the hard copy of the daily New York Times. From World News and Technology to Sports and Travel; from Fashion & Style to Automobiles and Obituaries, every department of the physical paper seems to be available at the touch of a ‘button’.
~ Tapping the Edit button calls up another screen of icons with which you can modify the main menu bar that runs along the bottom of the screen.
You simply drag and drop your icon of choice over an existing menu item, and your icon will replace it. Due to lack of space, there is only room for five icons on the menu bar, and one of these must always be the More icon, but if you have a particular interest in one or two areas of news, this feature allows you to jump straight to them with one touch rather than two or three.
But wait – there’s more.
When you tap on an article to read it, the main menu bar is replaced with a new menu bar from which you can ‘share’ the article. A pop-up box lets you Email the item to yourself or anyone else on your Contacts list. In addition, you can send the article as a text message, or let your friends know about the item via Twitter or Facebook (assuming you have accounts with those sites). This new menu bar also lets you enlarge the font size of the on-screen print to make it easier to read, if you like me, struggle to make sense of anything under 10 or 12 point type.
Finally, the application has its own section under the iPhone’s Settings menu (accessed from the main screen). Here you will see a section headed General, from where you can make permanent changes to the way the New York Times app displays content each time you open it. For instance you can choose to Save News for… (1 to 7 days); change the Article Font Size… (from the smallest, 8pts to the largest, 14pts); turn Landscape Orientation… (on or off); and turn Large Headlines… (on or off).
In return for providing the application for free, the New York Times displays a thin strip of advertisements towards the bottom of the screen. Thankfully, the ads take up little screen space and are unobtrusive enough to not be a constant source of irritation. It’s a small price to pay for access to some of the best, most up-to-date newspaper content in America.
You will find the New York Times application in the iTunes App Store under the News section.
Highly recommended (even if you are not living in, or travelling to the United States).
~ For the past month or two I have been in training for travel. Health professionals, and national health authorities constantly encourage people in first world countries to eat well, drink less alcohol, exercise regularly, and in the case of smokers, to give up the habit completely. Thankfully, I have never been a smoker and I’m only an occasional drinker, but at 110 kilograms (240 pounds) I can afford to lose some weight and not miss it.
The hard part is motivating myself to get up off the couch – or more to the point, to tear myself away from the computer – and find some type of exercise that will help me shed some weight and get a lot fitter.
My biggest problem is – I hate exercise. I get no pleasure at all from pumping iron at a gym, sweating profusely in an aerobics class, or sitting on a stationary bike pretending I’m in the pelaton at the Tour de France. As for running on a treadmill, all that conjures up for me are images of mice racing headlong on running wheels, getting nowhere fast.
As I say, I need something special to motivate me to get up and move. For me, this motivating factor has become travel. It is just the incentive I need to get fit or die trying!
Since travel tends to involve a lot of walking, I’ve settled on walking as the best low impact way of preparing myself for my next round of jet-setting. So every day, I head off to walk one of three circuits I have mapped out around my neighbourhood and along the foreshore between Semaphore and Largs Bay.
The three circuits involve distances of three kilometres (1.86 miles); five kilometres (3.10 miles); and eight kilometres (4.97 miles). How far I walk on a particular day, will depend on how I am feeling, but more and more I am walking the longer distance of eight kilometres. In fact, after a couple of months of regular walking, I have now become fit enough to extend that distance even further. Hence my previous entry, Walking Manhattan.
The more I walk, the more convinced I am that I can tackle the length of Broadway, which for my purposes I am measuring from the 207th Street/Inwood subway station to the running bull sculpture at Bowling Green. According to Google Maps this is a total distance of 20.4 kilometres, or 12.67 miles. Again, according to Google, this distance could be covered in around four hours and eleven minutes of continuous walking.
Clearly, a reasonably fit person should have no trouble completing this walk. However, at 61 years of age, I am not quite reasonably fit – or ready to take on 20 kilometres. Yet. But I’m getting there. By the time I hit the streets of New York City in July, I will be ready, although I have no intention of completing the distance in one long continuous four hour walk. With rest stops and some sightseeing along the way, it is more likely to take the better part of 8-10 hours, but complete it I will.
So if you have problems like I do with exercise, take my advice and don’t call it by that name. Instead call it Training for Travel. It might just be the incentive you need to get up off the couch and out to the gym or onto the streets of your neighbourhood, in preparation for your next journey.
~ I’ve written before about slow travel The Slow Traveller, and the benefits that can be derived from that form of travel. Now that I am getting closer to my next extended trip, I thought I’d take another look at the concept.
At the end of June, I am heading off to the USA for three months, two of which will be spent in New York City. Having visited New York in 2008, and having seen many of the major tourist attractions (State of Liberty and Ellis Island, Empire State Building and numerous major galleries and museums, etc), I am not fussed about returning again to some of these locations.
However I do want to get a sense of how life is for the average New York resident. Or at least how it might be for a local resident on vacation, since I don’t have to go to work five days a week while I am there, and contend with the morning and afternoon rush hours.
So how does a slow traveller get the most out of their travel experience? By acting like a local and participating in the same events the local citizens will be getting involved in. This time I want to immerse myself in many of the events that New Yorkers will also be participating in. To that end, for the past few weeks I have been spending hours a day, researching some of the hundreds of events being planned for July and August in New York. Many of the websites I have visited are yet to post their full summer schedules, so I will need to come back to those over the next few weeks.
Things like the many free or low cost events that take place around the city every summer. For example: Shakespeare in The Park, the Central Park Summerstage program, free film screenings and music performances in Bryant Park, the Lincoln Center Out of Doors summer festival (July 28–August 15), as well as numerous other free events at the Lincoln Center, free events put on by the City Parks Foundations, and events at many other locations.
Perceptive readers will have noticed my repeated use of the word ‘free’.
The only way I can afford to spend three months in America, and two in New York City is by making my limited finances stretch as far as possible. Thus, there will be no luxury accommodations, no $100 meals, and no spending sprees on Fifth Avenue for this frugal traveller. Instead I will be making the most of the hundreds of free or almost free events taking place across the whole of New York.
My few indulgences will include a Broadway show (or two), possibly a cooking class with Rustico Cooking, a Hidden Harbor Tour, a couple of major concerts (if I can find something or someone worth seeing), and several other events currently in the pipeline.
I’m sure I will return to this theme over the coming weeks and months as my departure date approaches. However, if you have any places on your must see list favourite New York locations, or better still hidden gems you think I should know about, I’d love to hear about them.
~ One of the things I like most about travel is the sense of anticipation I get as the departure date draws closer and closer.
Couple this with the research I get to do about my main destination (New York City); the events I pencil into my travel calendar; the excitement I derive from discovering new people, places (and new things about myself), and it’s safe to say the pump will be primed and ready to go from the moment I touch down at JFK.
Here are some of the events I have already added to my schedule:
July 4th Celebrations featuring the Macy’s department store fireworks display
Eat pizza at Grimaldi's under the Brooklyn Bridge...
...and sleep in occasionally!
I’m also researching open mic nights, Irish music sessions, and of course I will return to some of my favourite 2008 locations such as The Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Rockerfeller Center, Brooklyn Bridge, Chinatown, the Staten Island Ferries, Greenwich Village, Central Park, and probably Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty (if I can be bothered fighting my way through the crowds and queues).
On my Been There – Done That! list are the Empire State Building and the New York Skyride; the United Nations Building; Madam Tussauds (tacky, yes, but worth doing once. Just); the New York Transit Museum; Bodies…the Exhibition; the New York Police Museum, and the American Museum of Natural History – although that is well worth a second look.
But what I particularly enjoyed on my 2008 trip was simply walking the streets of New York City discovering everyday life (people, events, places) in this amazing metropolis. On that trip (apart from one bus ride from the Staten Island Ferries hub, all the way up Second Avenue to Harlem and back down to 42nd Street), I never explored further than the American Museum of Natural History at about W 78th Street. This time I will be staying right at the top of Manhattan in Washington Heights, and I’m looking forward to ranging far and wide across the ‘top end’ of the island as well as revisiting the places listed previously.
Of course, there are many places not listed above. If you have any ‘must see’ locations you think I should add to my calendar, feel free to let me know via the Comments link below.
~ I went for walk today covering a total distance 8.1 kilometres in just under 90 minutes.
While I was out I had a crazy idea to walk Manhattan. I decided that on at least one occasion I would try and walk the whole of Broadway (or at least from 187th Street and Broadway down to Bowling Green where the famous Charging Bull is located), since Broadway runs pretty much the full length of the island.
I mapped it with Google Maps and the total distance is 18.3 kms. According to Google Maps it could be done in 3 hours and 44 minutes of continuous walking, although I don’t know how they arrive at that figure. However, it seems about right given that it took me 90 minutes to walk 8kms. Double those numbers for 16 kms in 3 hours, and there you have it. Heck, I’ve still got 44 minutes to walk the last 2.3 kilometers.
And I’ll probably need every one of them!
Starting at Public School 48 (at 4360 Broadway, not far from where I’ll be staying), the route will take me past Columbia University; the Malcolm X & Dr Betty Shabazz Memorial; close to the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine; the Children's Museum of Manhattan; the Beacon Theatre; Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts; and into Columbus Circle.
From Columbus Circle I’ll head down into Times Square, and on down Broadway to the Flatiron Building at E 23rd and Broadway. Here I will be on familiar ground, having walked this area extensively during my New York stay in 2008. Ignoring the Barnes & Noble book store in Union Square I’ll continue on to The Strand Book Store at 828 Broadway (www.strandbooks.com). On their website they claim to have 18 miles of books, and who am I to dispute this?
Down, down Broadway I’ll go. Past Greenwich Village, the Bowery, Tribeca, Little Italy and the neighbourhood that has all but swallowed it up - Chinatown. On through City Hall Park (looking out for the Brooklyn Bridge), past the Woolworth Building, St Paul's Chapel, and down past Wall Street until finally I reach the Charging Bull.
There can’t be too many visitors – or New Yorkers for that matter – who can say they have walked the length of Broadway. At the very least I will walk down to Columbus Circle, a distance of 10.4 kms (according to Google Maps), which is certainly doable.
Having completed the walk, I then have to walk back up Broadway to Fulton Street, and find the Broadway-Nassau Street subway station. Jumping on the A train, I’ll ride it all the way back to 181st Street station, stagger home, have a hot shower/bath, and go to bed.
~ As I write this the clock continues ticking on those free Lonely Planet city guides I wrote about yesterday. Remember, you only have until 11.59PM GMT tonight to download the guides of your choice. You will find them in the Travel section of the iTunes app store. Since we are once again talking about iPhone applications, one of my favourite new iPhone apps is Walkmeter, a sophisticated pedometer for the man (or woman) about town. Walkmeter measures distance covered, average speed per mile/km, elevation, calories burnt, fastest pace per mile/km, and much more. It even creates a map of the route you walk (or run, cycle, ski, swim, skate etc), and saves this as an overlay on Google Maps.
At just $5.99 this amazing application has rendered my $60 clip-on pedometer obsolete. It provides much more information than traditional pedometers with a much higher degree of accuracy. It is also a great motivational tool for people who need to exercise regularly (that’s me), since you can map out a regular exercise route, and then compare stats each time you complete a ‘circuit’.
But Walkmeter is not just a motivational tool for fitness addicts. Using Walkmeter I could map a walking route around New York City (or any location for that matter), and email family and friends to let them see where I have been. I could of course, keep these routes for future reference, and I’m sure they would make a great record of my explorations around New York.
The only caveat to all this is that you must have an iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS device. Walkmeter is not for iPod Touch or first generation iPhones, which lack GPS capability. You also need WiFi, Edge or 3G connectivity for viewing maps, or using Twitter, Facebook, or email updates. Thankfully, you can use the application in Offline mode which helps avoid data roaming charges while recording your walk.
Finally, the application comes in three versions: Runmeter, Cyclemeter, and Walkmeter. However, my reading of the information on the Abvio website seems to indicate that apart from each applications default startup setting, all three apps are exactly the same. That means you only need to purchase one app rather than three, assuming you like to run, cycle and walk.
~ Well, it’s been a long time germinating, but at last plans are starting to bud in anticipation of my next foray into the northern hemisphere. To paraphrase a classic song:
I love New York in June, how about you? July can’t come too soon, how about you? Midnight and Jake are waiting, I can’t stop celebrating, I am over the moon – how about you?
Yes, folks, the planets are lining up in the perfect configuration for your excited bloggist right now because I’ve recently teed up a two month, rent free, apartment sitting opportunity in Washington Heights, at the top end of Manhattan.
Yes, you read it correctly…
Two months.
Rent free.
New York apartment.
And summer in the city that never sleeps.
Did I say I was ‘over the moon’? That hardly captures how I am feeling right now, but believe me, I am flying!
Midnight and Jake are a couple of very cool cats (literally) that will be in my care for pretty much the entire months of July and August while their Australian owners are back home here in Adelaide over the American summer. In return for looking after the daily needs of the cats and keeping an eye on the apartment, I get to spend most of the northern summer in one of the most exciting cities on the planet.
I was particularly pleased to see Greenpoint, Brooklyn at the number five spot.
I spent around six weeks at the
Greenpoint YMCA on Meserole Avenue in 2008, and got to know my way around the neighbourhood reasonably well. I have written previously about my stay at the 'Y' in Greenpoint so I won’t repeat myself here (read Part One and Part Two if you want to know more).
By examining twelve broad categories including housing cost and quality; perception of safety; the number of public schools, shopping and services, food and restaurants and health and environment amongst others factors, the authors were able to compile a comprehensive and fascinating list.
Just for the record, here are the Top 10 most livable New York City neighbourhoods:
1. Park Slope 2. Lower East Side 3. Sunnyside 4. Cobble Hill and Boerum Hill 5. Greenpoint 6. Brooklyn Heights 7. Carroll Gardens and Gowanus 8. Murray Hill 9. Prospect Heights 10. East Village
~ Discovered a very interesting item on the Round The World Ticket website today that I thought I’d share and comment on.
Titled, 8 Not-So-Obvious Reasons To Go On A Round The World Trip, the writer talks about breaking routines; reinforcing your world view or re-examining your own culture and habits; making new friends and maybe even discovering a new home; the chance to reinvent yourself; and learning to appreciate your home (it may not be quite as dull – or dangerous – as you thought it was).
However, the writer’s second reason, Lose your desire for materialism really caught my attention. The concept of travelling light has been touched on before on this blog (Jim's Guide to Travelling Light). But the chance to declutter your life has not, and this is as good a place to mention it. But first, let me quote the full passage from the above article.
2 – Lose your desire for materialism
People who are preparing to embark on long-term travel are often forced to liquidate many of their possessions before they go out of necessity, but even those who aren’t will likely take on a new relationship with the material world. There is something about living out of a backpack for months or years on end, that tends to make people wonder how valuable their DVD collection or 10+ pairs of formal shoes really are. It doesn’t happen to every long-term traveller, but it seems that quite a few who survive with but 10 kilograms of possessions for an extended period will change their ways upon return to society at large.
Especially if you’ve gotten rid of most of your stuff before you left, you’ll think twice about nearly every new purchase when you get home, and this will likely save you quite a bit of money, though you’ll probably just use the extra dosh toward more travel anyway, so it’s not like you’ll get rich as a result.
When you live out of a backpack for a long time you realise that you need amazingly few things on a daily basis, and each new thing that you might add to this begins to just feel like extra cargo that you’ll have to sell, give away, throw away, or store again one day.
That last paragraph really struck a chord with me. On my seven month 2008 trip, I sent several boxes of ‘stuff’ (memorabilia, books, CDs and DVDs, clothes, etc) at considerable expense back to Australia. Eighteen months later apart from the books, CDs and DVDs, and a couple of items of clothing, almost everything else has been thrown away! And even those books and multimedia items I’ve kept have not been read or re-read, and neither have the CDs and DVDs received much replay since my return.
So why did I buy them in the first place? Mostly because I wanted to remember some of the more significant events of the trip. I think I was afraid I would forget the most interesting and exciting parts of the journey, and thought if I kept permanent reminders, then I could keep those memories alive. All of this makes perfectly good sense of course, but then it has occurred to me since that in fact, as travellers the things we do ultimately remember are precisely the most interesting, and exciting events we experience during our travels.
Maybe those details we eventually forget, are not quite the life changing events we thought they were.
Mind you, as technological innovations continue to change and miniaturise, keeping those memories alive is becoming easier and easier. Small digital cameras, and cameras on virtually every mobile phone now allow us to record everything from skyscrapers to hotel receipts; the meals we eat and the rooms we stay in; our methods of transport and much more besides.
Hopefully, the next time I travel, I will not feel the need to accumulate more baggage and ‘stuff’ than I absolutely need to help me enjoy the travel experience to the full.
Technology and travel; has there ever been a better time to marry the two fields together?
I am constantly amazed by the convergence of technology with modern life.
On my recent trip to Melbourne my new iPhone was permanently attached to my hand. Whether reading books while travelling on the city’s tram system, tracking my progress via Google Maps, looking up locations and information online, snapping photographs, taking notes, listening to music and podcasts, playing games, sending and receiving text messages and yes, even making the occasional phone call, my iPhone was constantly by my side.
As much as I continue to use the phone on a daily basis, I am still blown away by the marriage of technology and convenience it offers. Take this simple example: Yesterday, as I walked down Semaphore Road towards the beach, I was listening to the BBC radio program The World Today being broadcast via WHYY, a public radio station based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Semaphore Road, Adelaide; the BBC; WHYY, Philadelphia; an iPhone – and not a wire in sight. If that’s not incredible, I don’t know what is.
In future entries, I will begin reviewing some of my favourite travel applications.
~ The Australian Centre for The Moving Image(ACMI) is located at Federation Square in the heart of downtown Melbourne, and what an amazing place it is. If you are any sort of movie buff, ACMI will be high on your list of places to visit while you are in Melbourne. In fact, yesterday, was my second visit to the Centre, and I still haven’t seen the current major exhibition: Dennis Hopper & The New Hollywood. This is because there is simply too much to see and take in during one brief visit.
Across the three levels of ACMI, you can access Australia’s huge collection of moving images held by ACMI itself, and the National Film and Sound Archive (containing 1.4 million items). These archives include the earliest footage of the Melbourne Cup, and the landmark feature film The Story of The Kelly Gang (1906), as well as the latest award winning animations and so much more.
Then there is the ACMI studios which provides “Hands-on spaces for creative workshops, performances, talks and events”, while downstairs in the galleries you can visit major exhibitions, spend a good hour or two examining Screen Worlds which showcases the story of film, television and the new digital culture. You can also try your skills on a range of the latest computer games, or play a selection of old ‘retro’ games like Wolfenstein (remember that one) or many others.
Finally, as you would expect, the Australian Centre for The Moving Image would not be complete if it didn’t include several cinemas which screen full programs of the latest films as well as retrospective seasons of classic movies or films featuring specific actors – like Dennis Hopper.
Frankly, I’m jealous. I wish Adelaide had something similar, but I am delighted to have been able to spend some time visiting this incredible facility. Not to be missed.
What: Australian Centre for The Moving Image Where: Federation Square Hours: 8am-6pm (cinemas are open later) Entry: Free for most areas (fees apply for major exhibitions) Online: http://www.acmi.net.au/ Phone: 03 8663 2200
~ Why is it that no matter how fast you may be driving along the highway (or suburban road for that matter), someone always wants to get in front of you. Even when you are sitting on the speed limit, someone will still come up behind you and wait for an opportunity to race past.
Occasionally, I have found myself speeding along a major highway, inadvertently exceeding the speed limit by 10 or 15 kilometres and hour, only to look into the rear-view mirror to see another driver waiting impatiently to get ahead of me. Of course, once I adjust my speed back to the speed limit, the speedsters sweep past at the earliest – although not necessarily the safest – opportunity.
Surely getting there should be half the fun of travel, so why not relax and enjoy the ride?
I now try to cruise along at a comfortable speed rather than the fastest speed permissible. For me this means driving at around 90kms an hour rather than 100-110kph. At the slower speed I find I can relax a little and find too that I have time to look around at the landscape I am passing through, rather than race blindly down the highway.
Driving at slower speeds also increases a drivers ability to avoid hazards such as kangaroos (or deer or moose for that matter), which clearly have no road sense whatsoever. In fact, sometimes I think kangaroos deliberately wait until they see cars and trucks approaching before they attempt to bound across four lanes of interstate highway! Not only that, but they insist on crossing highways often just before dawn, or at dusk when the available light makes it even harder to see them.
The downside of driving a little slower than the speed limit is the grinding of teeth you can almost hear from fellow road users who are lined up behind you. Thankfully, most Australian interstate highways offer long straight stretches of road, which makes it reasonably easy and safe for other drivers to get around the slower travelers like me.
To get back on theme, I think there is lot to be said for taking the slow road; for taking time to smell the roses; for taking the road less travelled – and other well worn clichés.
In the words of the great American folk singer Woody Guthrie: Take it easy – but take it.
~ Until 1975, Hanging Rock was a volcanic rock formation unknown to most people outside of Victoria. All that changed when the Australian film director, Peter Weir, turned Joan Lindsay’s book, Picnic at Hanging Rock into one of the finest feature films in modern Australian cinema.
The book and the film, tell the story of the disappearance of several female students and a teacher from an exclusive girls boarding school who visit Hanging Rock for a school picnic on St. Valentine’s Day, in 1900.
In Australia, the film made stars of Helen Morse, Jacki Weaver, Anne-Louise Lambert, and Peter Weir in particular, although only Peter Weir went on to real international fame. Almost all the actors in the film have spent their subsequent careers acting in Australian television dramas. Few if any, went on to have an international movie career of any real substance.
All this is by way of an extended introduction to explain my second visit to Hanging Rock a couple of days ago. To say Picnic at Hanging Rock put the volcanic outcrop on the map, is an obvious understatement. Anyone who has seen the movie, should make a point of visiting Hanging Rock if they are passing through the Mt Macedon area, or if they have the opportunity during their stay in Melbourne.
Since Hanging Rock is about an hour’s drive from my Melbourne house sitting address, it was a no brainer for me to jump in my car and head out of town for the short drive to the Rock and to reacquaint myself with the mystery and majesty of this area.
There are essentially two main walking paths: one going around the base of the Hanging Rock (a distance of 1.8 kilometres), and the other much more strenuous (though shorter) walk leading up to the summit.
Both paths can be traversed over a couple of hours, depending on how fit and active you are feeling. For those visitors who enjoy a bit of solitude, I recommend the easy walk around the base of Hanging Rock. I encountered only two other people on my walk, and was lucky enough to spot a group of kangaroos resting quietly in the shade of some eucalypts at the base of the Rock. This, in addition to the Kookaburra’s and Cockatoo’s calling overhead, and the abundance of butterfly’s, made it a very pleasant walk.
Since I was there anyway, I also followed the path to the summit of Hanging Rock. There are two paths to select from. One built using steps, and the other following a smooth asphalt covered path. Both paths meet towards the top of the Rock, where you can continue to the summit. The summit climb showed me just how unfit I have become, and left me puffing and blowing and gasping for air at one point. Note to self: get out and exercise more, Jim!
Because Hanging Rock is a little off the beaten track, it is not exactly crawling with visitors – or at least it wasn’t when I visited in the middle of the week. Not that I’m complaining. However, if you are able to time your visit to coincide with some of the special events that take place at Hanging Rock, you might like to consider these. Annual events include The Age Harvest Picnic, car events, annual picnic horse races on New Years Day and Australia Day, and an annual outdoor screening of Picnic at Hanging Rock itself, among other events.
Hanging Rock Information Open every day except Christmas Day Hours: 9.00am – 5.00pm Fees: $10.00 per car Phone: Ranger 0418 373 032 Office Hours (03) 5421 1469
Image: Hanging Rock, Victoria Camera: Apple iPhone 3G Photographer: Jim Lesses
Strange isn't it? It is midday on January 1st, here in Adelaide as I write this (with a slightly befuddled head following yet another late night seeing in the new year), which means we are already 12 hours into 2010.
Meanwhile, in New York it is still only 8.30pm on New Years Eve. I imagine there are thousands of people streaming into Times Square to join the thousands who are already there, waiting to start celebrating in style once midnight finally arrives in that great city.
The revelers in Los Angeles on the other hand, have still got more than six hours to wait before they see the new year reach them. I hate to tell you this folks, but you may as well stay home and get an early night because New Years Day, 2010 looks remarkably just like every other new years day I have ever celebrated.
And yet, celebrate it we will. Just like we celebrate the birth of a new child or the start of spring. All hold the promise of something new; something fresh; something we haven't experienced before.
For myself, I hope 2010 brings me closer to my family and friends, and closer to a few more of the billions of people populating this wonderful planet. I hope too that each of us can take our own individual steps closer to peace, compassion and understanding. God knows, we and the planet could do with it.
Wherever you are, and whoever you are with, may this New Year, 2010, infect you with Peace, Love and Understanding.
