Free Travel: 02/20/11 ~ freeTravel247

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Time to Vote for the 2011 Weblog Awards (aka the bloggies)...

The finalists for the 2011 Weblog Awards have been chosen.

Now it's up to all of us to help decide who gets the 'bloggie'.

Casting your vote is as simple as heading over to the weblog awards site and clicking on your choices for each of the 30 categories (of course, you don't have to vote for all the categories - only the ones that interest you)

Each category has five nominees.

This year's travel category nominees are... (drum roll)

Camels & Chocolate

Everything Everywhere

Hole In The Donut Cultural Travel

My Itchy Travel Feet

The Vacation Gals

All brilliant and entertaining blogs, it's hard to make a choose just one. But why not do it any way.

And while you're there, check out the Music Category.

Kerry Dexter, one of my co-bloggers over at Perceptive Travel blog, has had her blog Music Road, which focuses on Irish, Scottish, folk, and country music from many different neighbourhoods, nominated for a bloggie.

Friday Photo: Port Said Policeman...

One of the stops on last year's Dawn Princess World Cruise was Port Said, one of the busiest ports in the world. Just before the Dawn Princess docked, the port was empty except for those guiding the ship in. But within minutes of arrival, out came the hackers, tables and tents were set up with items for sale and the whole dock took on a carnival atmosphere.

Overlooking this activity from a strategic place along the road above the dock, a lone policeman leaned casually against the railings.

(part of the Photo Friday network)

Quark Expedition Travel Writing Contest: Blog Your Way to the North Pole...

There's still time to enter Quark Expedition's Blog Your Way to the North Pole travel writing contest.

All you have to do is...

"..post a short essay (200 to 400 words) on this website. Tell us why you qualify to be Quark's Official Blogger to the North Pole. The 400 words must also include a short story about a unique trip or travel experience you've taken, as well as your photo. Then, reach out to your social networks to get the most votes."

An amazing prize is on offer - a trip for 2 to the North Pole aboard the world's most sophisticated and powerful nuclear-powered icebreaker. Airfare from the winner's nearest international gateway, as well a charter flight from Helsinki, Finland, to Murmansk, Russia, is also included.

However, the contest closes on 15 February 2011, so there's not much time left to post an award winning entry and also get the thousands of votes need to be in the running.

Alternatively, you could just cast your vote and help someone else win. That's what I'm going to do.

Here's my pick...travel writer and photographer Lola Akinmade who took part in the Write to Travel 'interview with a travel writer' series back in 2008.

Lola entered the contest a few months ago and is currently in the top 5 most popular posts.

Let's help get her to Number One...

Friday Photo: The Potato Seller at Helsinki, Finland

In a rush to catch a ferry in Helsinki, I nearly missed this floating 'potato seller' engaged in business.

(part of the Photo Friday network)

Travel & Words Spring 2011 Writer's Conference to focus on Sustainable + Green + Responsible Travel and Tourism

The theme for this year's Travel & Words Writers Conference is Sustainable + Green + Responsible Travel and Tourism.

The two day event (May 1-2, 2011) will be held Willows Lodge, a sustainable boutique hotel located near Seattle in Woodinville, Washington.

This Pacific Northwest conference connects travel writers with tourism organizations, publishers and sustainability experts to explore new freelance market opportunities.

Early bird registration, available until March 1, is $99 is available and includes conference materials, access to presenters and exhibitors, refreshments and meals.

Willows Lodge is offering a special room rate to attendees.

More information can be found at the Travel & Words website.

Take a Travel Writing Course in Italy...

The Sydney Writers' Centre, in partnership with Bookshop Travel, are running a unique writing retreat in Italy between Friday 16 September to Friday 30 September 2011.

Live like a local for two weeks in Florence during which time Sue White, one of Australia's busiest and most widely-published travel writers, will be presenting...

"...a series of eight morning travel writing classes...including practical workshops that simulate a press trip and a hands-on field trip so that your tutor can illustrate the practical aspects of note-taking and observation while travelling."

Class topics include

"...Knowing Your Market, Life on the Road, Walking the Streets, Hitting Your Target Audience, The Details You Need, How to Handle a Press Trip, Workshopping your Travel Writing, Selling Your Work and much more."

Afternoons will be left free for participants to explore the city of Florence and beyond.

You can find more information about Travel Writing in Italy 2011  at the Sydney Writers' Centre website.

The 2010 NATJA Awards for Great Travel Writing...

February must be award season for travel writers.

Not only have the finalists for the Weblog Award for best travel blog been announced but so have the winners of this year's NATJA awards.

The NATJA awards honor the 'best of the best' with gold, silver, and bronze awards in 61 categories ranging from best independent blog to special focus travel articles (internet)such as these two published in Perceptive Travel - Two Wheels, Two Drinks: Biking Through America's Heartland and Once Upon a Time in Vienna

Discover who won what for yourself at the NATJA 2010 awards webpage.

Survival Guide - Elephant Charge - National Geographic Video

NationalGeographic | September 02, 2008 | In the African rain forests of Congo, conservationist Mike Fay is charged by a 3-ton elephant. What does Mike do to keep himself out of harm's way?

Yothu Yindi with one of their best songs, Djäpana

Yothu Yindi with one of their best songs, Djäpana, via BitingTheDust.

Mapping the Midwest by favorite food

Some examples include:

Chicago-style hot dog - soft, poppy-seed bun topped with a frankfurter, layered with yellow mustard, nuclear-green relish, onions, tomato wedges, pickle spear, peppers and celery salt. It's considered more of a snack than a meal to natives and should be consumed sans ketchup.

Cincinnati-style chili - This distinctive breed of chili is so popular in Cincinnati that there are parlors dedicated to it —chili parlors, that is. The Cincinnati version of chili tends to be a sweeter, soupier dish than traditional non- Ohio chilis. It's served with noodles and is distinguished by spices such as cinnamon or chocolate.

Indianapolis Breaded pork tenderloin sandwich - Hoosiers love their pork, and they love it deep-fried.

Omaha Reuben sandwich - Omaha stakes its claim on this pickled delight, which involves corned beef, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut and Russian dressing on rye bread.

Read about other food cities in the Chicago Tribune article below.

References:
Mapping the Midwest by favorite food. Chicago Tribune, 2011.

Lynx specialization has led to evolution success but it might become a trap

From Smithsonian magazine:

In 2000, lynx were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Montana was thought to be home to about 3,000 animals, but it has become clear that the number is closer to 300. "The stronghold is not a stronghold. They are much rarer than we thought."

In the vast northern boreal forests, lynx are relatively numerous; the population is densest in Alberta, British Columbia and the Yukon, and there are plenty in Alaska. Bobcats and mountain lions—culinary opportunists not overly dependent on a single prey species—are much more common in the lower 48.

Snowshoe hares constitutes 96 percent of its winter diet of the American lynx (Lynx canadensis). The other predators can move on to different prey, but of course the lynx, the naturalist Ernest Thompson Seton wrote in 1911, "lives on Rabbits, follows the Rabbits, thinks Rabbits, tastes like Rabbits, increases with them, and on their failure dies of starvation in the unrabbited woods."

Lynx weigh about 30 pounds, a bit more than an overfed house cat, but their paws are the size of a mountain lion's, functioning like snowshoes. They inhabit forest where the snow reaches up to the pine boughs, creating dense cover.

During hunts the cats leap so far that trackers have to look hard to spot where they land. A researcher once watched a lynx at the top of one tree sail into the branches of another "like a flying squirrel, like Superman—perfect form."

References:
Tracking the Elusive Lynx. Smithsonian magazine, February 2011.

Colombia is the second-largest exporter of cut flowers, after the Netherlands

From the Smithsonian magazine:

A 1967 term paper by a graduate student in horticulture at Colorado State University titled "Bogotá, Colombia as a Cut-Flower Exporter for World Markets" started the boom in this Latin American country. The paper suggested that the savanna near Colombia's capital was an ideal place to grow flowers to sell in the United States.

The savanna is a high plain fanning out from the Andean foothills, about 8,700 feet above sea level and 320 miles north of the Equator, and close to both the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. Those circumstances create a pleasant climate with little temperature variation and consistent light, about 12 hours per day year-round. A former lakebed, the savanna also has dense, clay-rich soil and networks of wetlands, tributaries and waterfalls left after the lake receded 100,000 years ago. And Bogotá is just a three-hour flight from Miami—closer to East Coast customers than California, the center of the U.S. flower industry.

Producing a single rose bloom requires as much as three gallons of water.

View Larger Map

Today, the country is the world's second-largest exporter of cut flowers, after the Netherlands, shipping more than $1 billion in blooms. Colombia now commands about 70 percent of the U.S. market; if you buy a bouquet in a supermarket, big-box store or airport kiosk, it probably came from the Bogotá savanna.

The country is the world's second-largest exporter of cut flowers, after the Netherlands.

The global marketplace will always demand cheaper flowers, and Colombian farms must compete with growers in other nations, including neighboring Ecuador and rising flower power Kenya.

References:
The Secrets Behind Your Flowers. Smithsonian magazine, February 2011.

Chekhov: "Any idiot can face a crisis; it is this day-to-day living that wears you out."

From The Writer's Almanac:

January 29 is the birthday of writer Anton Chekhov, born in Taganrog, Russia (1860). Chekhov is one of the inventors of the modern short story. His stories were usually short, full of passive characters, and without much of a plot. They didn't have big emotional climaxes, and they usually ended with a moment that revealed something about the main characters' lives.

His first play, The Seagull, opened in 1885. It got horrible reviews, and he walked out on it at intermission and vowed never to write another play. But two years later, it was produced again, this time to rave reviews. The success inspired him to go on to write the plays Three Sisters (1901), The Cherry Orchard (1904), and Uncle Vanya (1897), which are now considered classics.

Chekhov said, "Any idiot can face a crisis; it is this day-to-day living that wears you out."

References:
The Writer's Almanac:

Akashi Kaikyō Bridge - 100 Wonders of the World

This series of blog posts is based on the book 100 Wonders of the World by Michael Hoffman and Alexander Krings.

The Akashi-Kaikyō Bridge is the largest bridge in the world.

The Akashi-Kaikyō Bridge, also known as the Pearl Bridge, has the longest central span of any suspension bridge, at 1,991 metres (6,532 ft). It is located in Japan and was completed in 1998. The bridge links the city of Kobe on the mainland of Honshū to Iwaya on Awaji Island by crossing the busy Akashi Strait. It carries part of the Honshū-Shikoku Highway.

Before the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge was built, ferries carried passengers across the Akashi Strait in Japan. This dangerous waterway often experiences severe storms, and in 1955, two ferries sank in the strait during a storm, killing 168 people. The ensuing shock and public outrage convinced the Japanese government to develop plans for a suspension bridge to cross the strait.

The Akashi Strait is an international waterway that necessitated the provision of a 1,500-metre (4,921 ft)-wide shipping lane.

The bridge was designed to withstand winds of 286 kilometres per hour (178 mph), earthquakes measuring to 8.5 on the Richter scale, and harsh sea currents. The region is tectonically extremely active, with smaller earthquakes occurring almost daily.

Each of the major steel cables is 3 feet thick, 13,000 feet long and is composed of 290 bundles of wire.

The bridge is used by approximately 23,000 cars/day.

View Larger Map

References:
Akashi Kaikyō Bridge. Wikipedia, public domain.

Quinoa with dried cherries and milk

1% Organic milk from Costco

1% Organic milk from Costco

Dried Cherries from Costco

Dried Cherries from Costco

Quinoa with dried cherries and milk

Quinoa with dried cherries and milk

Calendars

Americana - 2011 Calendar

Americana - 2011 Calendar

2011 Calendar

2011 Calendar

Man's Best Friend - 2011 Calendar

Man's Best Friend - 2011 Calendar