30 Mayıs 2012 Çarşamba

Passports with Purpose – Building Libraries in Zambia

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Passports with Purpose, the travel blogger’s annual fundraiser, is now underway. Now in its fourth year PwP has partnered with Room to Read in 2011 and the goal is to be to raise $80,000 to build two libraries in southern and eastern Zambia through Room to Read’s Reading Room program.Funds raised will cover the costs of construction, library resources such as books and educational materials, teacher training and three years of support. After that, the library is handed over to the government school system.Here is how you can participate: Each blogger has secured a prize for a raffle. I’m donating a $100 gift certificate to B&H Photo, which I will send anywhere in the U.S. Check out Passports with Purpose to participate, for more details and a full list of prizes.  Last year PwP raised nearly $65,000 through Friends of LAFTI. The funds are helping build 25 homes in a small village, Karunganni, in South India.Travel bloggers Debbie Dubrow, Pam Mandel, Beth Whitman and Michelle Duffy founded Passports With Purpose in 2008 as a way to build community among travel bloggers and to give back to the places we, as travelers, visit.

Offbeat Eats From Around The World

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Nothing can highlight a cultural divide more than food. One person’s delicacy can be another’s horror.
Chapulines, fried grasshoppers, have been on the menu for thousands of years in Mexico. 
These dried seahorses were on display in the fish market in Tai O Village in Hong Kong. Would you sprinkle them on a salad like sundried tomatoes? Or are they a standalone food?
No doubt great artistry and care went into making these donkey sausages, which were on sale in Marche Forville a market in Cannes, France. I wonder what wine you would pair with them and if they a bit stubborn to chew? What are the strangest foods you have been brave enough to try when traveling?

2011 Travels In Photographs: What Makes You Want To Go?

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The aim of travel photographers is to capture a destination in a way that instantly takes you there and makes you want to go. Beautiful scenery is an easy way to achieve this but travel photography is also about what makes a culture unique. Below I chose a single photograph from each place I traveled to in 2011 that defined my experience. Easier said than done.


In March I traveled to Mexico City, Oaxaca and Puebla. The above photograph was taken in a food market in Oaxaca. To me it defines the artistry seen throughout Mexico in many contexts. Here everyday food items in plastic bins are arranged in a way that makes them look like vivid art. Note the absence of commercial logos.


The Golden Gate bridge would have been easy to illustrate San Francisco. But I would never want to bore you. Pictured here is a photograph taken in April of a mural in the Mission District. It is a memorial to a San Francisco rap artist.



This was taken in Cozumel, Mexico in the off season in July. There is a reason why a beautiful empty beach with white sands and azure water never goes out of style.



Idyllic and insular these Victorian gingerbread cottages are on the grounds of the Camp Meeting Association in Oak Bluffs, Martha’s Vineyard. Methodists who every summer would camp and worship here originally occupied the grounds in the 19th century. The cottages, privately owned by camping descendents and members of the Camp Meeting Association, eventually replaced the tents of the original worshippers.



A place of privilege the French Riviera is no place for bargains except for the public pedestrian scenic coastal path which stretches from Cap d’Ail to Monaco. It is lined with Belle Epoque villas perched in the mountains and along the Mediterranean. Early October, when I was there, was a perfect time to go. Beautiful weather and no crowds. The local wines are a bargain also. But you already knew that.



Puerto Rico brings to mind a proud heritage and the beauty to back it up. This photograph of the Paseo de La Princesa (Walkway of the Princess) and the Old City wall, a Unesco World heritage site in Old San Juan, was taken in November.


Wishing you a happy, healthy, prosperous 2012. Where will your travels take you in 2012?

UK Bound

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I’m spending the next few weeks in the UK. My mother is from Wales and I’ll be visiting and staying with family and friends in North Wales and surrounds. This trip is long overdue.
Naturally photography is on the agenda. In addition to travel photography I plan to take images that depict everyday British lifestyle. The goal of the latter is to take  photographs that immediately make you think  “Britishness.”
When you think of Great Britain what images come to mind?

The Longest Town Name In Britain

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Welsh is not an easy tongue to pronounce for most butthe 58 letter long town name Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogochwould take even a phonetics expert to Olympic levels. Located on the island ofAnglesey in North Wales this Celtic tongue twister is also one of the longest placenames in the world.
In English the name means: St. Mary's Church in the hollowof the white hazel near the rapid whirlpool and the church of St. Tysilio witha red cave.

The village is also called Llanfairpwllgwyngyll and wasgiven its longer name in the 1860s to snare the honor of having the longesttrain station name in Britain. Today tourists flock here to have their photo taken in front of thesign.

Go on, try and say it in Welsh. I dare you.

23 Mayıs 2012 Çarşamba

Tag Your Love with Google Maps Street View

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If you can't afford to whisk the love of your life off for a romantic weekend in Paris you could try sending her a romantically tagged Street View image from the city instead. You never know it just might work.

Tag Your Love in the Streets is a nice Street View based promotional campaign by Moët & Chandon. Using the application you can select a Street View image from anywhere in the world and then add your own message. You can add text to the image and decorate the scene with a number of romantically themes images, such as flowers, hearts or a bottle of champagne.

When you have completed your message you can share it on Facebook, Twitter or directly e-mail a link to your romantic scene.

Also See

Tiffany & Co - Love is Everywhere - share your favourite romantic locations with this app from Tiffany & Co


Google Maps Eating Raspberry Pi

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UK school student Ryan Walmsley had a little time to kill whilst he was waiting for the delivery of his Raspberry Pi so he decided to create a Google Map of Raspberry Pi owners.

The Raspberry Pi Map shows the rough location of Raspberry Pi owners who have already added themselves to the map. The map is only a day old and already shows over 400 Pi owners. 20,000 Raspberry Pis have been delivered so far so there are a lot of other Pi owners out there who can add themselves to the map.

The Raspberry Pi is a credit-card sized computer that plugs into your TV and a keyboard and costs just $25.

The Sumatran Rainforest on Google Maps

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The island of Sumatra in Indonesia has lost almost 50% of its tropical rainforest in the last 35 years.The World Wildlife Fund, Eyes on the Forest and Google Earth Outreach have joined forces to create a Google Map of land cover, land use, and land users in Sumatra.

Eyes on the Forest: Sumatra allows users to explore data about the island's conservation values, forest diversity and wildlife. The aim of the map is to increase transparency about the threats to the Sumatran environment and identify the drivers of deforestation and habitat destruction.

It is possible to view a number of data layers on the map, including the dwindling rainforest cover over the last 35 years, wildlife ranges, protected areas and natural carbon stores.

Toyota are Filling in the Street View Blanks

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Toyoto has come up with one of the best Google Maps based promotional campaigns yet. To help promote the car the company are driving an IQ around with a 360 degree panoramic camera rig strapped to the roof. They are then capturing Street View images and filling in all the blanks on Google Maps.

The campaign, currently running in Belgium, allows anyone to report a street that doesn't have Street View on the Toyota IQ - Street View Google Map. The Toyota IQ then travels to the street, captures the Street View images and adds them to the map.


The purple map markers with white dots indicate the streets that the Toyota IQ has visited. If you click on a marker you can then visit the street using the Toyota custom Street Views.

Songs from Strangely Isolated Places

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The Places Series is a Google Map of songs inspired by isolated locations. Using the map you can select a marker and listen to the song inspired by that location.

The information windows are particularly attractive on this map and allow the user to listen to the mapped music tracks directly from the map.  It is also possible to filter the tracks displayed on the map by genre and by artist.

17 Mayıs 2012 Perşembe

Street Scenes: Puebla, Mexico

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A blank wall can present itself as a canvas waiting to be filled. 
The man on the bicycle rode into this canvas in the historic center of Puebla, Mexico a UNESCO World Heritage site famous for its colonial architecture. If this photograph were in black and white you might think it was vintage based on the look of the bike, the newspapers stacked high on the back and the lack of corporate logos that soil most streetscapes in this day and age. 

The Canals of Los Angeles California

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I wonder how many tourists strolling the boardwalk in Venice Beach, Los Angeles realize that the area is named for the canals built by a tobacco magnate at the turn of the last century?
Less than a five minute walk from the counter culture malcontents, tourists, surfers, street performers and homeless along the beach and boardwalk the pedestrian paths of the Venice Canals make for a nice stroll. They provide ample opportunity to appreciate the eclectic architecture of the homes that line them. It’s not uncommon to wonder what it would be like to live here. To start, you’ll need a few million dollars to purchase a home.

Abbot Kinney and his partner as part of a resort town they founded complete with amusement park, known as Venice of America, built the man made canals. Venice, its namesake of course the original in Italy, fell on hard times in the 1920s in part due to prohibition and politics. Its decline continued through the 1970s when urban blight was at its height. In the 1980s Venice began its ascent and was reborn again as a tourist mecca aided by its pedestrian friendly nature, a rarity in LA, and was touted as a unique attraction during the 1984 Summer Olympics. 

If you find yourself in Venice brunch along the aptly named Abbot Kinney Boulevard at Hals Bar and Grill. Or if you prefer a ringside view along the boardwalk check out Figtree’s Café and Grill. I can recommend the huevos rancheros and the coffee is good.

Homes From Around The World

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The architectural styles of homes unique to a particular region or city are often travel icons. 
The decadent Victorian homes referred to as Painted Ladies say San Francisco as much as the Golden Gate Bridge.

Though in the same country the adobe homes of New Mexico and other parts of the Southwestern United States couldn’t be any more different than the Victorian beauties of San Francisco. Their architectural roots are Native American and the material used to build them suited to dry, hot climates. 

More than a few colonial Mexican cities have been named UNESCO World Heritage sites due in large part to their stunning architecture. This colorful casita in Guanajuato may look small from the outside but don’t be fooled. Homes of this genre regularly feature an outdoor central courtyard and are long and spacious.   

Like the casitas of Mexico, Hutong homes found in Beijing, China also appear small from the outside and feature a courtyard lifestyle.
What style home is unique to the part of the world you live in?

Street Scenes: The Dark Passage of Villefranche sur Mer

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Just a block from the waterfront of Villefranche sur Mer on the Cote d’Azur in France is the coastal town’s Rue Obscure or Dark Passage. 
Dating from the 13th Century and devoid of sunlight it is more tunnel than street. Houses and businesses were built around and above it and can be reached by doors lining the passage. Throughout the centuries residents used it to travel safely during times of attack.  Pictured above is a cafe that has been tucked inside the far end of the street.

Staircases From Around The World

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Sometimes a staircase is just a way to get you where you need to go. But staircases can also be pieces of art, archaeology and places to meet.
How about climbing a stairway to nowhere in a surrealist sculpture garden built in the Mexican jungle by an eccentric Englishman? 

Cascading down the sides of one of India’s oldest and deepest step-wells, Chanda Baodi, are steep stairs you’ll have to navigate with care.

Most who travel to Rome will at some point walk by and perhaps even sit and watch the world go by on the Spanish Steps.
This post was inspired by a piece in Travel & Leisure on the World’s Coolest Staircases in which the image of Las Pozas above was featured.

13 Mayıs 2012 Pazar

The Ugly House, North Wales

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Situated in Snowdonia National Park in North Wales The Ugly House, or Ty Hyll in Welsh, appears to unfairly labeled.


Legend has it that its origins date from the 1500s when two outlaw brothers homesteaded the land. At the time the law allowed that if between sunset and sunrise you could build four walls and have smoke coming out of the chimney the building was yours. A property line was defined by standing at each corner of the house and throwing an axe as far as you could.

It’s unclear why it was named The Ugly House. One account maintains the home was named for the less than attractive outlaws, who used it as a hideout.

The last private owner moved out in the 1960s. The cottage lay derelict until the late 1980s when the Snowdonia Society bought it. It is open to the public during the peak summer season.

What do you think? Is this house ugly?

NYC Alternate Side Parking iPhone app finished

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street cleaning sign

Finally. Or almost finally. The NYC Alternate Side Parking iPhone app is finished, and waiting for approval from Apple. With this app you'll never need to call 311 again, check your calendar, tune into the radio, or use my web site any more because you'll always be carrying the answer with you. 

It incorporates the calendar that I've been posting online every year since 1996 with the latest updates broadcast by the city's Department of Transportation.  So, you'll know both
  • the scheduled dates in advance, and
  • extra alternate side suspension dates added for snow or other unusual circumstances
Stay tuned for an update and screenshots once the app is approved.

Free NYC Alternate Side Parking iPhone app now available in the iTunes store

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My first app is now available on the iPhone store. The approval process was straightforward. Unlike a previous experience in 2009, it was quick enough (less than ten days) and I didn't have any problems with rejection. Click on the iTunes link below to see screenshots and download the app. The app is free — what do you have to lose?



NYC alternate  side parking iphone app on itunes store

Leave any comments here if you have any problems with the app so that I can fix them. My extensive testing was only with my phone, and I'm willing to believe that other phone/iOS combos could work differently.

If World Ends, So Does Alternate-Side Parking

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If the world begins to self-destruct on Saturday, as some religious figures have predicted, there may be a bit of consolation for New Yorkers left behind to perish: alternate-side-of-the-street parking rules would be suspended.


Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg on Friday pledged relief from the often-criticized rules, saying it was “official policy” in a doomsday situation. “Alternate-side parking will take on a whole different meaning, actually,” he joked in an interview with John Gambling on WOR-AM (710).

Full story on the New York Times:
If World Ends, So Does Alternate-Side Parking

This the mayor talking, but does he really have the authority to declare a suspension of alternate parking?

Alternate Side Parking to be suspended in parts of South Brooklyn

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Alternate Side Parking Regulations will be temporarily suspended in parts of Sunset Park, Greenwood Heights, and Windsor Terrace Sections of Brooklyn Community District 7 starting Monday, Mar. 26 while the D.O.T. posts new signs. After the signs are all installed, the streets will only be cleaned once a week. Provided that the streets are judged to be clean enough, this change will become permanent.

Full Press Release from NYC DOT

A similar change was enacted successfully in Park Slope several years ago, and as a result Park Slope street sides are generally only cleaned once a week.