Saturday, July 30, 2011

Canada’s World Heritage Sites


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So much to see – so little time…

Canada has fifteen national treasures that the world has officially recognized—and plenty of others. UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, has named 15 Canadian national treasures World Heritage Sites. Personally, I haven’t seen any of them, and I’m probably never going to see more than one or two if I’m lucky. However, you may have more money, or more luck than me so for the record, here is the list. What are you waiting for? Get crackin’!

At SGang Gwaay, an island in the southern portion of Haida Gwaii (formerly the Queen Charlotte Islands) in British Columbia, you can still walk among the remains of the Haida First Nations cedar longhouses and carved mortuary poles crumbling under hairdos of day-glo green moss.

Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, Alberta, is aptly named. It’s the place where, as far back as 5,500 years ago, Aboriginal peoples chased herds of bison over a cliff, killing the animals so they could use the buffalo meat, dried skins, hair and other parts for their survival.

If you are after a more urban experience, the Historic District of Old Québec is a 400-year-old portion of Québec City, QC, bursting with European flair.

In Old Town Lunenburg, Nova Scotia (a British colonial settlement, established in 1753), the colourful wooden houses and buildings have been well-preserved or restored by past and present residents of the town.

L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site, situated on a northern point of the island of Newfoundland, uncovers the remains of an 11th-century Viking settlement, the earliest known European steps and establishment in the New World.
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There are 10 more Canadian World Heritage Sites, including:
  • Nahanni National Park
  • Dinosaur Provincial Park
  • Kluane/Wrangell-St Elias/Glacier Bay/Tatshenshini-Alsek national parks
  • Wood Buffalo National Park
  • Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks
  • Gros Morne National Park
  • Waterton Glacier International Peace Park
  • Miguasha National Park
  • Rideau Canal
  • Joggins Fossil Cliffs
Click links below to see video footage on YouTube of some of Canada’s great attractions:
Québec, ville inscrite au patrimoine mondial de l'UNESCO...
L'Anse aux Meadows...
Wood Buffalo National Park...
Parc National Wood Buffalo...

More Information: www.travelmanitoba.com
Article courtesy of the Canadian Tourism Commission. Text has been modified from the original.

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Lonely Planet Canada (Country Travel Guide) A Short History of Canada: Sixth Edition Canada (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

Friday, July 29, 2011

Friday Foto – Giant Kouroi of Samos

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The human figure in this image helps puts the giant male sculpture into some sort of perspective, although nothing prepares you for the stunning craftsmanship, the perfectly proportioned figure or the size and beauty of this work.

The figure stands a small archaeological museum on the island of Samos, in the Eastern Aegean.

Located in Vathi, the capital of Samos, the museum occupies two buildings: one known as the ‘storehouse of ancient objects’, built in 1912, and a modern building financed by the German auto manufacturer Volkswagen in 1987.

The museum houses exhibits found in excavations all around Samos, the most impressive of which is the gigantic kouros (male) statue which towers above all other exhibits and visitors alike. There are also other statues and friezes depicting scenes from mythology or daily life, pieces of pottery, small statues, tools, pieces fashioned out of bronze and ivory, weaponry and much more to fascinate and delight the interested visitor.

Opening Hours:
Tuesday-Sunday: 08.30-15.00
Monday: closed

Entrance fee:
Full admission, 3 Euro
Reduced admission, 2 Euro
Telephone: +30 22730 27469
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Ancient Greece: From Prehistoric to Hellenistic Times (Yale Nota Bene) Ancient Greece (DK Eyewitness Books) Ancient Greece: A Political, Social and Cultural History

Monday, July 25, 2011

In Review: Sean and David’s Long Drive

Sean Condon is a master of the quick quip, an eye-catching headline, and a connoisseur of the finest pomades*. As a young copywriter in an unnamed Australian advertising agency, Sean was bored, disillusioned, and desperate for a change in his environment, and his life. His answer? To undertake a long drive around Australia with his mate David O’Brien.

The result of their 6-7 week odyssey is what constitutes Sean + David’s Long Drive (Lonely Planet Publications, 1996. Republished 2009). In fact, the book is essentially a reproduction of the daily diary Sean kept throughout the trip.

To be precise, their trip didn’t take them around Australia per se, but through the centre of the continent. Roughly, the route they followed went thus (see map): [E]Melbourne to Adelaide (via the Great Ocean Road), then Alice Springs, Uluru (Ayers Rock), Tennant Creek, [B]Darwin, Tennant Creek (again), Mount Isa, Townsville, [C]Cairns, Townsville (again), then down the east coast of Australia taking in Surfers Paradise, Brisbane, [D]Sydney, Canberra, and finally back to [E]Melbourne. Whew! If that seems like a long way – it is. Over eleven thousand kilometres in fact.

Incredibly, Sean Condon didn’t drive even one kilometre of that total distance. It seems he doesn’t drive (or at least he didn’t at the time he and David undertook their journey), which meant that David O’Brien had to drive every one of those eleven thousand plus kilometres.

Sean Condon is a graduate of the Bill Bryson School of Travel Writing. (Actually, I just made that up. To my knowledge there is no actual BBSoTW, but if there was, Sean would surely have been a graduate of the Class of ‘96).

Sean, like Bryson has an acerbic wit, a talent for focusing on the odd, the banal, and the ridiculous as they travel across continents, and a talent too for writing about them with humor and occasionally something bordering on compassion and empathy.

Condon, I guess would be labelled a Generation X-er (he was born in 1965), and presumably he reflects the thinking – and lives the lifestyle – of that generation of thirty-something’s that are lumped within that catch-all label. Sean and David spend much of their down time (when not actually on the road), boozing, smoking, eating junk food, womanising, and boozing some more.

Come to think of it, they spend much of their driving time indulging in the same practices as well.

The book is not a travelogue in the usual sense of the word. If you are looking for specific information and advice about say, Alice Springs, or Darwin, or Charters Towers, you are only going to get the briefest glimpse from Sean + David’s Long Drive. A peak behind the curtain, so to speak. Partly this is because Australia – especially the interior, or ‘outback’ – is so vast, flat, and featureless, that the landscape seemingly never changes for hundreds of miles.

To break the monotony and boredom of the trip, Sean and David engage in small talk – lots of it – that covers their favourite music and bands, women they have known, and television shows that Gen X-ers grew up on. Shows such as the Brady Bunch, Scooby Doo, and other such fare.

I don’t think I learned anything new about Australia that I didn’t already know, and I learned a lot about Sean that I didn’t need to know. While the book is entertaining enough and easily digested, Sean’s humor and jaundiced view of the journey began to grate on me after a while, and it was all I could do to finish the book. Having said that, I must admit that Bill Bryson’s writing can have the same effect on me, so maybe the problem lies with me, and not with Sean Condon – or Bill Bryson.

I suppose that’s a roundabout way of saying, if you like Bill Bryson’s writing, you will like Sean + David’s Long Drive as well.

Details:
Paperback: 296 pages
Publisher: Lonely Planet; 2nd edition (February 1, 2009)
ISBN-10: 9781741795226
ISBN-13: 978-1741795226
ASIN: 1741795222

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*Pomade
— n
1. a perfumed oil or ointment put on the hair, as to make it smooth and shiny
[http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Pomade]

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Purchase Sean + David's Long Drive from Amazon.Com as well as other books written by Sean Condon via the links below.
Lonely Planet Sean & David's Long Drive (Travel Literature) Drive Thru America The Secret of Success is a Secret: & Other Wise Words from Sean Condon
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