Latest Travel News

óla!
i love the sound of the spanish greeting, its so….hot.
anyway, let me finish telling you about amsterdam. we went to the red light district again on our last day and walked around and saw a few deals being done, i wanted to take a photo but then i thought ¨why¨so i didnt. umm, i brought myself a couple of ´souvenirs´but clitz confiscated my batteries (she is afraid of buzzing in the night) so sadly i have yet to test out my purchases. but get this (dan and juzzy you´ll love this), one of them is called THE POCKET ROCKET. heheheheeee.
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One of the best ways to get to know the people and the culture in a country is through hitchhiking. The best book about hitchhiking I have ever read is Kinga Freespirit’s Led by Destiny. Kinga and Chopin began with nearly $600, 2 backpacks, a one-way ticket, almost no plans and many dreams. Her book is an amazing story starting in Poland with a one-way flight to New York City, continuing to Toronto, Alaska, Mexico, Central America, South America, New Zealand, Vanuatu, Australia, Brunei, Taiwan, Japan, and through Asia and East Europe, ending in Poland. Apart from interesting exciting writing, Led by Destiny includes beautiful photographs from all over the world. I admire their strenght to accomplish their goal of hitchhiking around the world and hope more people will set out to realize their travel dreams.

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What an adventure! 33 days, 4 continents, 9 countries, 19 flight legs… Whew, we made it. Sounds like “The Amazing Race”!

The voyage got off to an inauspicious start right from the get go. Exiting a West African country is never a picnic and is typically good for some stories in itself. We arrived at the airport over 3 hours in advance of the flight time (Flight 1: Luanda - Lisbon) and then waited in line for over an hour just to get to the room where you check in where we got to watch the Portuguese/Angolan fine art of line cutting at its best. Another 30 minutes in a second line and we were finally checked in. Luckily passport control and security had no line - everyone was still in the first line. Steve’s years of transatlantic flights and United 100K status got us into the lounge where were at last got to relax. Of course the flight was late - there was no way all those people could get through the line in time. Initial panic about making our connection in Lisbon was relieved when our Lisbon - Zurich (Flight #2) flight was also late. However, Steve’s suitcase still did not find its way onto the connecting flight. The fellow at baggage assured us that it would be delivered to our hotel in Delhi. Steve would have to make do with 1 change of underwear and socks until then. Flight leg #3 had a shaky start the next morning as the airport folks directed us to the wrong line where we waited for an hour before informed of “our” mistake - we then rushed to the correct counter, managed to get checked in on time but alas, not sitting together. We finally made it to Delhi for the beginning of our Indian adventure.
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as i was talking to my mom this morning, i realized that i hadn’t updated this thing in a real long time, so here are some snippets:

a week and a half ago one of my students punched through one of the windows of the classroom next door to mine (long story) and ended up losing over 2 pints of blood. that’s a lot of blood. it was super scary and he has missed 6 days of school because of it.
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John Bridges

Auckland at Night
I can’t say that I slept particularly well what with the city traffic, Friday night revellers and jet lag, but I did stay in bed until 08h45. One look outside at the blue sky sparked me into action - and to define the day’s events.
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Brad Frankel & Rich DarwinOk just a quickie…we’re back in Perth…arrived yesterday and had a much needed night out.

Started on a few bottles of wine, from the Southern region, then head out about 10ish….straight to ‘The Deen’, which is one of the must publicised venues. It wasnt that busy when we first arrived, but it was rammed within an hour…We left there about 2ish and popped over to a place called ‘Paramount’.
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The Swedish company Ticket has researched the travel trends this winter and noticed 40% more early bookings compared to last year.

The most popular countries were Thailand, Spain, Egypt, USA, India, Cap Verde, South Africa, Vietnam, Australia and Portugal.

The top ten destinations were Phuket (Thailand), Gran Canaria (Spain), Bangkok (Thailand), Tenerife (Spain), Krabi (Thailand), Hurghada (Egypt), Lanzarote (Spain), Goa (India), Miami (USA) and Fuerteventura (Spain).

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The European colonizers of South America wiped out entire indigenous populations with what we know in the UK as the “common cold”… well now it seems those ghosts of the Americas past are eventually getting their revenge on an innocent group of European students in La Habana. Almost everyone has had some kind of flu-stomach-fever virus… I wont go into too much detail but several of my friends have tested out the highly acclaimed Cuban health system… Corina was “lucky” in that she got to go to a private clinic (basically for tourists, in Miramar, the district where all the embassies are) although this was in the middle of the night with a fever and after being rejected from a Cuban hospital. Tomas on the other hand got to stay a couple of nights in a public hospital. He’s German and I think she shock of the difference between the private health system he is used to and the Cuban one jolted his body into sorting itself out… after he was tested for dengue and if I’m correct was put on a drip. No-one knows what was to blame… was it the refrescos naturales made with unboiled water? Was it the now highly suspicious and definitely avoided “vegetarian” (but specializing in pollo - chicken) restaurant? Defrosted ice cream? … the possibilities are endless but I think it wasn’t food poisoning but a nasty Cuban bug that our feeble (or just unadjusted) bodies cant fight… although I have to say (proudly but with fingers crossed!) I had some of the symptoms but managed to get rid of them in a day with the help of some Ibroprofen and sleep. Get me.
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Hello Everyone

Sorry for not writing for so long. The last you heard I still had a few more days at camp left. Well with our bunk decideding not to tidy unitl the last few hours before the bus left, as you can imagine it was rather hectic. We had to wait until all the kids left and then move and scrub and then get cheacked off. It was crazy and we were the last few on the buses back to nyc lol.
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Mike Odle

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