Galway Archives - Traveling Archive

Places in the Heart

T-Boy Society of Film & Music — Wed, 16 Jun 2021 01:32:24 +0000

The enduring Celtic Cross. Photo courtesy Tourism Ireland.

Richard Carroll – T-Boy writer:

Sightless Fiji

Fiji has a profound long-lasting effect on my heart and soul. An island country deep in the South Pacific where nature comes miraculously alive with cloud rain forests, a lush tropical mountainous terrain, 333 islands, hundreds of islets, and sweeping views of a dark blue crystal clear sea, all of which seem to be suspended in time. Fiji’s dramatic setting of upscale island holiday hideaways offering pollution free skies, an unrelenting sun shimmering on glistening water, and palm-lined beaches, have attracted visitors from all parts of the world.

A Beeve Doctor and young boy with eyes that can now see. Photo courtesy of Beeve Foundation.

I experienced a heart-tugging dilemma on one of numerous visits this time with Dr. Beeve, a noted eye physician and surgeon based in Glendale California and his wife Dorothy an RN, that unfortunately this ideal scenario of sun and sea is also a huge negative for the Fijian’s creating blinding cataracts affecting a huge number of Fijians of all ages along with other troubling eye difficulties.

Fijians travel from island to island in canoes and boats, fish and farm the ocean, swim before they can walk, and are living an island lifestyle which from birth seriously affects their eyesight. The stinging contrast is the Fijians might not be the happiest people on earth, but are affable and forthcoming, welcoming visitors with open arms, regardless of personal difficulties, of which are usually overlooked or ignored by tourists.

I found this distressing and heart-tugging drama unbelievably touching. Men unable to work and support their families because they are sightless, children born with eye deficiencies, a grandmother who has never seen her grandchildren, Fijians unable to leave their island because of poor eyesight, and young mothers who see their offspring as a milky blur. I noticed that even most of the dogs had cataracts too.

Joyful Fijians in recovery after a Dr. Beeve eye operation. Photo courtesy of Beeve Foundation.

Since that visit in 1991 when the Beeve’s established the Beeve Foundation, Dr. Beeve and his staff quickly realized that the Fijians were receiving very limited eye care and medication, and had no access to modern medicine. On their first mission with a small staff which included an anesthesiologist, ophthalmic surgical technologist, a dental hygienist, and an assistant who helped with pre and post op care, and patient education and vision testing, set up a makeshift eye clinic in Bure 2 on upscale Turtle Island. The word quickly spread and hundreds of sight-impaired Fijians formed a long line patiently standing in the blazing sun, some arriving via canoes days in advance, the line of canoes stretching to the horizon. Many Fijians I spoke with could not remember when they had vision and were spellbound when the day after surgery they gazed at Dr. Beeve with better than 20/40 vision. The Beeve’s said, “When we complete a cataract operation it’s like resurrecting someone from the dead. It’s an incredible feeling.”

The Beeve Foundation Team in Fiji. Photo courtesy of the Beeve Foundation.

In 2017 the Beeve’s were honored for their more than 25 years of medical missions; 28,503 eye exams, issuing 27,714 pairs of glasses, 1,756 cataract extractions with lens implants, 55 corneal transplants, and 1,005 other procedures for more than 30,000 Fijian patients, the majority of whom were legally blind. Dr. Beeve and his wife Dorothy finally retired with Loma Linda University continuing the Fiji missions. In 2018 with a team of world-renowned cataract surgeons Loma Linda performed 137 surgeries in six days.

The Fijians live in a tropical paradise but with an ironic twist, but for a writer the unpredictability of travel can often leave a lingering memory, such as the Beeve’s and their Foundation successfully treating over three percent of the entire Fiji population.

Halina Kubalski – T-Boy writer and destination photographer:

A Memory of My Father

Wiktor Surmacz and fiancé Maria walking on Aleje Ujazdowskie in Warsaw, 1934. Photograph courtesy of Halina Kubalski

My father, Wiktor Surmacz joined the Polish Army in 1934. After a few years he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in the Polish 179th Infantry Regiment, working closely under the command of General Franciszek Kleeberg when defending the Polish city of Kock, a town in eastern Poland about 120 kilometers southeast of Warsaw with a large Jewish population at the time.

On September 9, 1939 the German’s dropped bombs on the town and a fierce battle with the Germans took place. The Poles were badly over matched by the German 13th Motorized Corps and 60th Infantry Division, but fought gallantly lastly running short of ammunition with both sides suffering huge casualties. The final battles were fought October 2 – 5, and on October 6th after bombardment by heavy German artillery and outnumbered by the thousands, General Kleeberg surrendered.

Polish soldiers during the Battle of Kock. (1939) Public Domain

The Germans sent my father to the infamous Mauthausen Concentration Camp located on a hill above the market town of Mauthausen located 12 miles east of Linz. The Germans never released the accurate death toll at Mauthausen but it was calculated that between 130,000 to 320,000 perished in Mauthausen during the war years. My father never spoke about his five years as a prisoner but did say to his wife, my mother, Maria, “There was no food at Mauthausen.”

Survivors at the Mauthausen concentration camp. Wikimedia Commons.

He was later sent to a sub concentration camp, a farm labor camp that was bad if not worse than Mauthausen. Possibly the transfer took place due to the fact that dad spoke German. He was liberated in 1945 at the end of the war by U.S. troops weighing all of 80 pounds.

My father’s one and only visit to the United States, he was astonished at the boundless selection of food in the supermarkets. He passed May 8, 1984, age 73, after six weeks in a Warsaw hospital, his health badly damaged by his years as a prisoner of the Germans.

Fyllis Hockman – T-Boy writer:

One of the Most Impactful Experiences in my Travel-Writing Career

First a little background. As a teenager I had my first visual exposure to the horrors of the Holocaust in some newsreel depictions of the liberation of some camps after the war – the emaciated survivors with their sunken eyes, gaunt bodies and harrowed auras. I called my mother, who had told me of the Holocaust my whole life, and said: “Mom, I finally understand.” Now six decades later, I came to understand even more.

The International Monument at the former Mauthausen concentration camp reads,
“The living learn from the fate of the deceased.” Wikimedia Commons.

Mauthausen, one of the largest of the camps, was built high upon a hill in Linz, Upper Austria, where Hitler was once a resident, near a large quarry. The rationale behind concentration camps evolved over the war years from imprisoning people, enslaving them and engendering fear among the general populace to simply one of extermination. And that was carried out in so many ways. Mauthausen was considered a Level 3 Camp where the guiding principle was that no one left – everyone was to be killed in some way or other. The SS excelled at very efficient methods of mutilation and annihilation.

The roots of genocide, according to our guide, were fostered in anti-Semitism, an us vs. them mentality, a de-humanization of others who are seen as “less.” It was hard not to draw some parallels to today’s world…

The “Stairs of Death” at the Mauthausen concentration camp. Wikimedia Commons.

Other cases involved prisoners forced outside during winter over whom cold water was poured – a particularly appealing entertainment for the SS guards who delighted in “showering” people to death – outside the actual gas chamber showers, that is…. Because any SS who shot an inmate trying to escape got extra days off, a favorite party trick was to entice prisoners into situations where they might appear to be escaping – and then shoot them. Stomach cringing continues.

Starved prisoners pose in concentration camp in Ebensee, a sub-camp of Mauthausen, used for “scientific” experiments. Wikimedia Commons.

Others, sick and beaten, simply died during daily roll call, a grueling process of standing in the heat or cold for 4-5 hours at a time, and being forced to do exercises when most of them could no longer stand. It is hard to hear all of this – and my stomach clenched and my eyes teared and I was overcome by a sense of helplessness and disbelief that these things actually happened – and no one cared.

Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler of the SS at Mauthausen. Hitler authorized Himmler to create a centralized concentration camp system. Wikimedia Commons.

In the barracks hundreds were housed in such horrendous conditions the term unsanitary does not begin to describe the degradation. On the wall is a quote depicting the “wheezing, hissing, moaning, sobbing, snoring” that filled the night-time air in 20 languages. “The noise fused into a single, terrible sound produced as if by a giant monstrous being that had holed up in the dark.” Another quote: “Anyone who hadn’t been brutal when they entered the world became brutal here.” More gut-wrenching stomach-churning.

And then we went through the gas chambers where thousands were killed and then the ovens where their remains were buried, with a side visit to the infirmary where unspeakable “experiments” were carried out.

And yet the neighbors and surrounding community ostensibly didn’t know what was happening, despite being within earshot of the thousands of prisoners suffering and screaming. In fact, some complained about the noise – but not about why it was occurring. The grandmother of our guide, who was seven at the time, said she could smell the stench of the burning bodies; she knew something bad was happening but nobody talked about it.

Survivors greeting US soldiers at Mauthausen. Wikimedia Commons.

Of the 200,000 prisoners who occupied Mauthausen from 1938-1945, about half were killed. There were only 20,000 survivors when liberation finally came on May 5, 1945, with another 80,000 already too ill to benefit from the end of the war. Not surprisingly, the liberators were shocked at the condition of the prisoners. I imagine so too were the community members when they were finally exposed to what was really happening in their backyard. At this point, my stomach was in perpetual decompression mode.
There were signs on walls from visitors in multiple languages: RIP, Never Again, and You won’t be forgotten. A simple drawing of an eye with a tear coming down was the one I most related to.

Most of the guards went home after the war suffering no consequences and little was said about what they had done. No one talked about it. According to our guide, it took Austria four decades to acknowledge its part in the Holocaust.

The Mauthausen Thought Area of today. Wikimedia Commons.

There were multiple school groups of teenagers at the camp and I felt thankful they were learning of the atrocities they otherwise would probably have no knowledge of. I wished I could understand what they were saying about their experience. History will now change as there soon will be no survivors, no one to say this is what actually happened, and the Holocaust will be relegated to the status of other historical occurrences which the young will learn about in school but will not relate to. Who really cares about the Crusades? There will be no visceral understanding. It will have nothing to do with them. There will be nothing to keep it from happening again. I only wish I could call my mother and tell her once again, that now I REALLY understand.

Stephen Brewer – T-Boy writer:

On the Lasithi Plateau

I saw Bartholomew for the first time when I was traveling around Crete twenty years ago. He was standing placidly, shyly almost, a fine long neck slightly bent beneath a mop of thick shiny black hair, sturdy legs planted firmly in the grass of a meadow on the Lasithi Plateau.

Lasithi Plateau in Crete. Photography by Stephen Brewer.

No, this was not a starry-eyed meeting with an Adonis. Bartholomew is a donkey. I have no idea what his real name is. The only other donkey I have ever known was Bartholomew, so that is what I call this one, too. I’ve been back to the Lasithi Plateau at least a dozen times since I met the Greek Bartholomew, who’s usually grazing outside a modest white house at the edge of Tzermiado, a village of just a few streets. I’ve encountered him plodding along the lanes that lace the fields, with bundles of earth-covered vegetables hanging from either side of his back. The cargo looks light and the weathered, bearded man leading him never seems to be in no hurry to get anywhere. I’ve also passed Bartholomew on the road that skirts the edge of the plateau. He’s been pulling a little cart driven by an ancient-looking woman dressed in black, a shawl around her shoulders despite the heat, and a kerchief concealing her hair. Bartholomew has been sauntering lazily and it’s always looked to me as if his companion has nodded off to sleep.

A Crete donkey named Bartholomew.(wikimedia.org)

Bartholomew is a noisy animal, and I’ve become accustomed to listening for his hee-haws when I walk on the paths that skirt his pasture. If motorbikes aren’t idling in the broad intersection that passes as the village square, I can sometimes hear him when I’m sitting in the Cafe Kronio late in the evening. The homemade raki is usually taking effect by this time, and I can almost mistake Greek Bartholomew for the Bartholomew of my youth.

The first Bartholomew belonged to Franny, an artist friend of my mother’s who lived on a rose and holly farm her Dutch stepfather established back in the 1920s. Franny liked to throw parties on summer holidays. My parents and their friends would drink cocktails on the trim little lawn in front of Franny’s house as Bartholomew snorted from the other side of a hedge and my brother, sister, and I and any other children who were around ran through the fields and explored the two huge barns. Occasionally my father and a few of the other men would hitch Bartholomew up to a cart. They were unlikely farm hands in their white shirts and dress slacks, and I doubt they had any idea of what they were doing. They managed, though, probably because Bartholomew was docile and patient. We youngsters would clamor aboard and Bartholomew would pull us up and down the long gravel drive that led from the house and barns to the road.

Taverna Cafe Kronio, Tzemadio, Crete. Photograph courtesy of Christine Kargiotakis

One evening Vassilis, who runs the Kronio with his French wife, Christina, handed me a napkin on which he’d sketched a map. “Tomorrow you should make this walk,” he said. “I can’t go with you, but you should be fine.” He poured me some more raki and rummaged in a bookshelf to retrieve a reprint of a scholarly article about Karfi, a Minoan settlement in the Ditka mountains high above the village.

“It all uphill. Am I fit enough for a hike like this?” I asked Vassilis, who is a skilled mountaineer. “Probably. You are not as fat and lazy as many men your age.” I assumed he was implying American men. Over the years he and Christina have told me stories of Americans who have come into the Kronio, usually involving their size and peculiar culinary habits. An exceedingly large American woman on one of the bus tours that brings tourists up from the big resorts on the north coast made an impression when she asked Vassilis to top her baklava with ice cream. “Of course I told her ‘no.’ One does not eat ice cream with baklava,” he reported, shuddering theatrically with indignation. “Incroyable,” Christina added from the desk where she does the accounts.

A historic paved road on the edge of Tzermiado in the Lasithi Plateau. Wikimedia Commons

The next morning I walked past Bartholomew’s pasture so he could bray at me and soon I was picking my way up a steep, stone-strewn path that climbs a shoulder of the mountains. The mind wanders when you’re struggling up a hot hillside, and I thought again of the first Bartholomew. One of my early memories was being thrilled to see his picture on the front page of the newspaper when Franny lent him to the Adlai Stevenson presidential campaign for a photo-op during a whistle stop. I don’t know what became of Bartholomew. Franny sold the farm when I was still in grade school, and I remember being embarrassed because I burst into tears as my dad and I drove around the cul-de-sacs of split-level houses in Holly Hills, the subdivision that replaced the familiar fields.

Karfi today, once a 3,000 year ago sanctuary for the last of the Minoans.
Wikimedia Commons

I was now high enough to see the plateau spread out below me, a tidy patchwork of fields, comfortable and welcoming, enclosed within an unbroken circle of mountain peaks that keep the outside world at bay. White sails of windmills that pump water through irrigation channels moved with the wind. After leveling off a bit the path rose again to the crest of a rise. Just across a gully was a jumble of rocks that are the remains of Karfi, cradled in a fold of barren terrain and indistinguishable from the gray landscape. Far below, the Sea of Crete appeared as a bright blue expanse on the horizon.

Karfi was a sanctuary for the last of the Minoans, who took refuge in these heights about 3,000 years ago, and the civilization that built vast palaces and painted fanciful frescoes of dancing ladies died out on these barren slopes. I could make out faint traces of their single-story houses and gridlike streets, and I could almost see the phantoms of Minoans among the rocks. It was easy to imagine the mountainside humming with the chatter of human souls who no doubt laughed, told stories, shared meals, fought and made peace with one another. Residents out for an evening stroll must have scrambled up to the knoll where I was standing and gazed out to sea.

The return was on a longer route, across a high ridge then a gradual descent on a stone-littered track that herders use to goad goats up and down the mountainside. I’d been picking my way across the rocks for at least half an hour when I began to hear the tinkling of bells and bleats that grew louder as I neared a tall, wide tree. My thoughts of resting in the shade were dashed when I came close enough to see a large herd of goats crowded beneath the branches, sheltering from the sun.

The stunning landscape of the Lasithi Plateau. Photograph by Stephen Brewer.

A little farther along the scrub gave way to dense, unkempt olive groves. I heard him before I saw him, a loud hee-haw from the overgrowth. Then Bartholomew appeared, grazing in grass almost as tall as him. I noticed he was saddled, and the bearded man I’d seen with him before was working a neatly plowed patch of earth tucked away among the trees. I sat down against a gnarly trunk, not far from Bartholomew, who raised his head to acknowledge my presence. There I soon dozed off, thinking about donkeys and those Minoan ghosts floating around on the mountainside above me.

Tammy Skinner – T-Boy writer:

Rediscovering my Heart and Soul

Expectation burnout. Oh, it’s a thing my friends. A very real one. Which is why when I was asked to ponder the theme of Heart and Soul travel and what that means to me, I instantly knew where I had to go to rediscover my heart and soul which has most definitely been squeezed out of me like a tired dirty mop that has barely any drips of water hanging from its threads. Point blank. I was slightly… just a little teensy OKAY a whole lot depleted. I know I’m not the only one by any means. Who of all of us hasn’t found themselves stretched with oh too many expectations over the past year and counting? Whether it was the expectation of pulling internet connectivity out of thin air when in midst of a zoom call that goes dead or the 40th call from your kids’ teacher that they were falling behind on their fractions and division… we were ALL in some way, shape or form in survival mode. And all of that on top of playing the game of KEEP AWAY with a deadly virus.

For more than 80 years the Little River Inn has been welcoming guests to experience the beauty of the Mendocino Coast. Photograph courtesy of Tamara Skinner.

As my husband and I drove up the Mendonoma Coast after dropping off the kids at their grandparents at Sea Ranch, I could feel a little bit of an exhale coming on. Then we got to Mendocino and the azure blue ocean waters started to cry out my name. TAMMY it called…YOU’RE FREE LIKE THE SEA. Soon we caught glimpse of the spot we had picked for our refuge from incessant expectations – the Little River Inn which is an inviting 80-year-old hotel that has a restaurant (with a full bar) on site and hospitality like no other. It’s been in the family over five generations and the warmth of the owners trickles down to every single employee who seem intent on doing only one thing-to nurture you back to well-being.

Central Californian coastline looking south, with the McWay Rocks in the foreground, and McWay Cove in the center. Photograph courtesy of Diliff.

We also specifically picked Little River Inn for its’ special rooms that come with a hot tub on the deck along with a built-in special back rolling massager (I can’t even talk about this without rolling my eyes to the top of my head). Because of the covid craze, I hadn’t been comfortable getting a human massage so I couldn’t wait to get in the tub and get my machine massage. Oh boy! I don’t know how to describe the pure bliss of sitting in a hot tub overlooking the deepest blue majestic water, soaking in the negative ions and having my muscles pounded releasing the tension which felt like a thousand rocks settled into the river inside my body. As I sat in the tub longer and felt more and more of the rocks dissipate, slowly my own flow started coming through as I was able to hear my intuition again. It had been a while! I missed that trusty guide of mine that I used to be able to access so easily. Turns out over a year of incessant snack demands and frustration tantrum sighs coming from my “zoombies” from their “bedrooms/classrooms” had drowned out that melodic voice of guidance.

Mendocino, California. Photograph courtesy of Jef Poskanzer.

Mother’s Day upon us, newly restored and with exploration vibes drawing us out of our heavenly room, my hubby and I got in the car and drove to the picturesque Mendocino village to see what my heart had in store for me there – revelation wise. Found in the backdrop of many films due to it being established in the 1850s and filled with New England styled Victorian homes (which have been restored into shops, inns and restaurants), we lazily strolled up and down the streets of this peninsula/bluffs surrounded land and wandered into the shops that called to us.

There was one in particular that summoned me in by its décor alone. I seemingly floated into Loot & Lore and found myself instantly surrounded by my favorite things-jewelry, tarot decks and books. I glanced at a beautiful Saints and Mystics deck that begged me to pick a card and picked a message from St. Paul who (according to this deck) was the Patron Saint of writers and spiritual searchers! The synchronicity was not ignored by me who had just told my husband that I’d like to get an intentional sign of a way to release my writer’s block. Finding two intriguing little zines (one on making vision boards and the other entitled GETTING OVER IT: Move on from the Bullshit That is Holding you Back) I decided to buy them along with a pen that had a quartz attached to the end of it with “Be the Light” etched on the side of it. At check out, I befriended the lovely store owner, Cynthia, working the register who told me this pen would cure my writer’s block. Yes please! And thank you! Enchanted by the flow and feeling of effortlessness languishing type roaming my soul told me I was healed.

Animals on display at the Little River Inn. Photography courtesy of Tamara Skinner.

I have often pondered on the fact that like machines we as Americans specifically are programmed to produce. Produce results. Produce good grades. Produce promotions. Produce babies. Produce retirement funds. But what if all of that is just one really really long inhale? What if the answer involves us also concentrating just as much on the exhale? For our waves to recede back in the waters after thy maniacally crash onto the shore? What if we just want to talk? To laugh? To have fun? Be known and understood? Feel the sun on our bare legs, drink champagne, embrace for too long? Mendocino healed me and it didn’t take much. Okay maybe it did. Ocean view+hot tub+negative ions from the waves crashing+genuinely caring employees concerned with my needs+magical stores offering guidance and hope. Most important, this stunning coastal wonder found me in the silence and without interruptions long enough to sneak its guidance in, and voila just like that I find myself back on California’s Highway 1 heading south to pick up our children, eager to practice this new mantra of “producing” less while “allowing” more.

Weave Cleveland – Travel Guys cinematographer:

Super Cool York

It’s surely timing and serendipity that set any particular place in our reverie forever. For me I will forever say that York, England is the most fascinating and enchanting place I have ever visited. You can instantly get lost in history at the walled city of York, and I mean instantly!

York’s city walls (circa 1890 and 1900). Wikimedia Commons.

You can stand in one spot and see Medieval, Gothic, Roman, and Edwardian architecture each direction your eyes are drawn… and more. Not the oldest part of town but the most compelling part is ‘the Shambles.’ Named so for the meat shelves and hooks where butchers and sellers displayed their meats for sale. Those were days long ago. Nowadays it is the ‘must see’ area of the city. It looks like a movie set. You can even spot Turkish architecture mixing in with the Tudor stylings. These narrow, tangled cobblestone streets also have something unique which I have never seen or heard of before – Snickleways. A Snickleway is a narrow tunnel-like passage to get you over to another street without having to walk around the block. An ‘enchanting’ short cut. I think there’s five of them.

Five Snickelways lead off the Shambles in York. Wikimedia Commons.

York has some serious Viking history and I learned something there that now makes sense even in my own city. The Viking word for road is gata. In English, gata gets translated to gate. So, even though I have spent my life imagining a garden gate or front yard gate, etcetera, in this case it actually means road. Bathgate, Helmsgate, Fossgate, Coppergate, Newgate, etcetera. I think that’s cool.

Another fascinating fact was how much time the Romans spent there and all the work they did. Constantine the Great was in York when he became a Roman emperor in 306 A.D. and started his rule from there. He was pretty great, he had a city named for himself – Constantinople (now Istanbul). The magnificent York Minster Cathedral has underground excavation of Roman ruins going on right now since workers in the 1960’s discovered them when trying to shore up the foundation of the Minster.

Bronze statue of Constantine the Great outside York Minster, looking down upon his broken sword, which forms the shape of a cross. Wikimedia Commons.

Now, here’s something really special, especially because I am Canadian and have grown up with these: KitKat, Rolo, Aero, Smarties, York Peppermint Patty… and the list goes on – they all came from York. Terry’s and The Rowntree Family and a few others all started in York. In fact. Mr. Rowntree even helped MacIntosh financially to keep his toffee business going. MacIntosh is still on store shelves today. Not to be confused with the MacIntosh raincoat maker or the Glaswegian designer/architect. The giant firm Nestlé may own them now but these candy bars all came from York.

If you visit York you can see the National Railroad Museum or the birthplace of Guy Faux or visit an old English pub smaller than your current bedroom and even learn all about the horse thief and notorious criminal Dick Turpin… but most of all it will be tangling your way through town that will steal your heart. What a super cool place York is.

Brom Wikstrom – T-Boy writer and mouth painter:

The real voyage of discovery consists, not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes. – Proust

It was a revelation to me when visitors to our Seattle home would marvel at our views of Mt. Rainier, the Olympic Mountain Range and Puget Sound. Likewise, guests from other parts of the country would delight in the majesty of towering cedar trees or the red flash of a robin’s breast. These are common sights to us and register appreciation but not the awe-inspiring experience that we have witnessed in others.

View of Mount Rainier National Park from Dege Peak Spur Trail. Wikimedia Commons.

The abundant natural beauty along our shorelines, in our national forests and even the arid portions on the eastern side of Washington State have always moved my spirit in ways that are renewing and I’ve always considered myself fortunate to live in the Pacific Northwest for that reason.

With that in mind, my wife and I began taking winter trips to be with family in St. Petersburg, Florida several years ago and were equally inspired by what to us is exotic wildlife and natural beauty. Because of my wheelchair, I am always in search of accessible trails, promenades and boardwalks where I can engage with nature and Florida offers many such opportunities. We stayed near two local parks that became regular destinations and offered wheelchair accessible trails that highlighted nature and native history in unique settings.

Weedon Island Preserve. Wikimedia Commons.

Sawgrass Lake Park and Weedon Island Park have miles of accessible boardwalks and trails and kayaking options and are treasures of natural wonder. I have enjoyed many peaceful hours in rapt wonder watching the diverse wildlife that call them home. Alligators ply the placid waterways along with turtles, lizards egrets, herons, and pelicans and though these are relatively common sights for residents, I am continuously amazed at the diversity and abundance present at these and other public parks in St. Petersburg.

Salvador Dalí Museum at St. Petersburg, Florida. Wikimedia Commons.

St. Petersburg is equally renowned for its beautiful beaches and the iconic Salvador Dali Museum along with the newly reopened pier and those are surprising, beautiful and culturally dynamic, but give me a few tranquil hours among mangrove swamps and leaping mullets and my heart will sing.

James Boitano – T-Boy writer:

Slovenia

As a geography buff, I’d always wanted to go to Slovenia. Its relative obscurity made vis-à-vis its better-known and more war-torn former constituent republics of the former Yugoslavia made it all the more appealing. I like obscure even more than well known Why go to France when you can go to Luxembourg or better yet, Andorra? And what was this little country of 2 million people like there tucked at the crossroads of the Germanic, Italic and Slavic worlds? I just had to wait for my chance.

Slovenia’s capital city of Ljubljana. Wikimedia Commons.

So, in 2002 while attending the Eurovision music event in Riga Latvia, I met Samo. He was a rumpled, brilliant, and kind high school teacher, a fellow Eurovision fan, and the first Slovenian I’d ever met. We so hit it off as friends, spending hours until late at night, engrossed in conversation at the hotel bar after the events and day’s rehearsals. We met again at Eurovision in 2005 in Kiev and again at Eurovision in 2007 in Helsinki. And each time, he invited me to stay at his home in Slovenia’s little capital city of Ljubljana. I finally took him up on his offer in 2011 for a 10-day visit. And you know what? I returned for another 10-day visit in 2012, And another in 2014 and my 4th x 10-day visit in 2017 (Covid prevented my last trip in 2020). Needless to say, Slovenia won my heart. During my 40 days of visits, Samo showed me every corner of the small country: from the mighty Alpine valleys to the Venetian Adriatic Coast, the rolling hills of the wine region, the little villages of the Pannonian Plain. For a small country, you can reach any region within 2 hours of Ljubljana. But most of all I met Samos friends and family.

Lake Bled, Slovenia. Wikimedia Commons.

Every night we would sit at a café and a crowd of a dozen would join us. The bar we went to was one owned by the father of the most famous Slovene, the father of Melanija Trump and they ironically called it the ‘First Lady Café’. I felt like so accepted by the people, the opposite of a tourist. Small countries so appreciate the attention, they are so often overlooked. And in small country, even a high school teacher is bound to know many people.

A traditional double straight-line hayrack in Slovenia. Wikimedia Commons.

During my visits I was a guest on Slovenian National Radio (during the coveted 1:00 am to 2:00 am spot!). Samo just knew the guy there and when he heard there was captive foreigner, I was invited. And during my 4 visits I attended several birthday parties held by his relatives and a wedding, at each being made to feel like a guest of honor. One day, I got to go on rounds with his friend who picked up produce at local farms and delivered them to grocery stores. We spent all day and crossed half the country. Imagine doing that as a ‘tourist’? And so, after all this, Slovenia has a big place in my heart…and I will return as soon as this post-Covid world allows.

Ed Boitano – T-Boy editor:

Ireland’s Romantic West Coast

My wife and I woke up to the smell of rich morning coffee. It was to be part of our breakfast on our first day in Ireland’s wild west coast. It has been said that all Irish homes become a bed and breakfast during the summer, and this Donegal County cottage with one spare room was no exception.

Full Irish breakfast. Wikimedia Commons.

The owners fussed over us at the table as we enjoyed a full Irish Breakfast: eggs, bacon, sausages, black and white pudding, fried potatoes and homemade rolls with marmalade. They told us of the area’s attractions and educated us on the Irish Potato Famine, that began in 1845 and lasted for six years, killing over a million men, women and children and caused another million to flee the country. The owner explained, the Irish in the countryside began to live off wild blackberries, nettles, turnips, old cabbage leaves, seaweed, roadside weeds and, towards the end of the Famine, green grass. The owner added you could always identify a Famine victim by the green grass stains around their mouth. He suggested that we read his favorite book about the Famine, The Silent People by Walter Macken.

To this day no one knows who these people were and how they were able to move such mammoth rocks. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Raymond & Brin Kennedy Weins, Wikimedia Commons.

We followed his instructions and found a Famine Pot in the middle of a forest, where some locals placed food for the displaced victims. It felt like we were walking through history.

We had already anticipated a trip to Slieve League Cliffs on the far west coast of Donegal, and were not disappointed once we arrived. Towering over 2,000 feet from the Atlantic Ocean, it is one of the highest sea cliffs in Europe. Its visual splendor gets my vote for the most striking site in Ireland.

We headed down the road to County Sligo for a pilgrimage to the gravesite of our favorite poet, W.B. Yeats (1865-1939), and soon found ourselves stuck in the car, avoiding a heavy downpour. We didn’t mind, we read Yeats and listened to an Altan CD, our favorite traditional Donegal music group, while basking in awe at the stunning green countryside. We read where the lyrical name “Emerald Isle” arrived from William Dennan, an Irish physician, poet and liberal political radical, in his poem When Erin First Rose in 1795.

Carrowmore Megalithic Cemetery. Wikimedia Commons.

Once the weather cleared, we stumbled upon Carrowmore Megalithic Cemetery, the largest burial site of Megalithic tombs in Ireland, built around 4600-3900 B.C. To this day no one knows who these people were and how they were able to move such mammoth rocks. We both could feel the power of the setting and something came over us; before we knew it, we were renewing our wedding vows. After a Sunday pub meal of Irish fjord lamb, potatoes and Guinness we found another B&B, where (once again) we were the only guests. We wanted to take the owner home with us, and to this day remain in contact. From her window we could see cattle swimming across a river.

The striking ‘terrible’ beauty of the Connemara. Photo courtesy of Chris Hood, via Wikimedia Commons.

The next day, it was a drive through the sweeping Connemara in County Galway, a stunning landscape where author Charles Dicken once described as a place of “terrible beauty.” We pulled off the road to study a Famine Trail named for the Doolough Tragedy of 1849. Scores of destitute and starving people staggered through horrendous weather for 15 miles to a manor’s house in the hope of food, only to be turned away. Apparently, the owner was too busy having lunch to be bothered. Later, corpses were found by the side of the road with grass in their mouth, while others desperately crawled to a local church where they could die on consecrated ground.

The annual Doolough Famine Walk. Photo courtesy Tourism Ireland.

Once a year a famine walk takes place on the trail to commemorate the victims. As we departed down the road, we both commented that we had not seen a single car for over half an hour. A second later there was a rumbling on the road. We had a flat, not unusual on these rock-strewn Irish roads, but faced with having to unpack our little rental’s cram packed trunk just to find the spare tire was a daunting thought. Before we knew it, two cars, each arriving from the opposite direction, appeared out of nowhere. The drivers both hopped out and quickly changed our tire. They barely stuck around for a handshake. Such is the hospitality of the Irish.

It was pitch black when we arrived at our next bed and breakfast accommodations, and laughed in wonder on how the owners managed to get the bed into our little room. But where were we? In the morning, with the blazing sun illuminating this piece of paradise, we realized our B&B was nestled on the banks of a breathtaking fjord. We were in the town of Liane, where the film, The Field was made. In one of the local pubs a huge painting of the film’s star, Richard Harris, hangs above the fireplace. On our dinner plates was lobster caught that very day in the fjord. A tablemate explained to us that in pre-EU Ireland there were no taxes on food, books and children’s clothing. Upon hearing this, my wife literally held back tears.

A traditional music session at the Gus O’Connor Pub in Doolin.
Photo courtesy of Chris Hood, via Wikimedia Commons.

Eventually we made it down to the musical town of Doolin, a coastal fishing village in County Clare on the Atlantic coast. Coined the traditional music capital of Ireland, this was an adult Disneyland for us where a number of pubs specialized in Irish session music each night. We joined in with locals and like-minded tourists, had big pub meals of more lamb and potatoes, bacon (think ham) and cabbage, then nursed pints of Guinness as we listened to reels, jigs and haunting ballads, many about the Famine and emigration.

Our daytimes were spent on trips to the Aran Islands, a landscape once so cruel and unforgiving that it consisted solely of solid limestone rock, where rugged locals actually had to produce their own soil, made of seaweed and smashed rocks to grow potatoes, their only source of subsidence; then the windy, yet curiously tranquil Cliffs of Moher, standing 702 feet with a stretch of five miles, featuring panoramic views of the Atlantic as far as the eye can see; a massive Dolomite burial site located on a livestock farm (its only explanation, a note from the farmer, “Mind the Gate”); exploring additional archaeological wonders in the Burren as well as its castles, some now converted to private residences. We carry the memories with us wherever we go. Yes, Erin Go Bragh!

Postscript:

The Hand of Human Kindness: The Irish and American Indian Tribal Nations

In 1847, the Choctaw People in the U.S. collected $170 – the equivalent of several thousand dollars today – to send to the people in Ireland who were starving during the Potato Famine. The senseless deaths and struggles experienced by the Irish was familiar to the tribal nation: Just 16 years earlier the Choctaw had embarked on the forced 5,043 mile-long Trail Of Tears, due to tyrant and American President Andrew Jackson’s illegal Indian Relocation Act. Thousands of their own succumbed to death from starvation, disease and freezing temperatures. Though the Choctaw People had meager resources, they gave on behalf of others in greater need.

A dignified Choctaw family. Photographer unknown. Wikimedia Commons

The Irish have long felt a debt of gratitude to American Indians. When current news broke that the Navajo and Hopi tribes were being ravaged by the coronavirus, Irish journalist Naomi O’Leary tweeted that now would be a good time to return the favor. That tweet went viral, and soon donations were pouring in from the Irish people, along with messages of gratitude and support.

In 2017, the Choctaw Native American Monument was erected in Midleton, Ireland, to honor the American Indian tribe that aided the Irish during the Great Potato Famine in 1847.

Kindred Spirits sculpture in Ireland, dedicated to the Choctaw Nation for their aid during the Great Irish Famine.
Credit: Photograph courtesy of ChoctawNation.com.

The post Places in the Heart appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Joe Biden Headlines, Māori Repatriation

admin — Fri, 22 Jan 2021 08:13:45 +0000

Curated by Ed Boitano

Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. is U. S. President

Newspaper Headlines of the Inauguration of Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.

Courtesy (The Freedom Forum Today’s Front Pages – Freedom Forum)
The Freedom Forum is a nonpartisan 501 (c)(3) foundation that fosters First Amendment freedoms for all.

From a Small, Rural Schoolhouse, One Teacher Challenged Nativist Attacks Against Immigration

Courtesy Ross Benes

In the wake of World War I, rabid anti-German sentiment led to the arrest, later deemed unjust by the U.S. Supreme Court, of Robert Meyer.

Southwest Marks 50th Anniversary with $50 Flights

PHOTO BY ERIC SALARD, via WIKIMEDIA COMMONS / CC BY-SA 2.0

Southwest Airlines is celebrating its 50th year in operation with one-way flight deals as low as $50 this winter.

Travelers have until February 8, 2021, to book the low fares, which require a 21-day advance purchase.

The discounted seats are valid for travel within the continental U.S. from February 9 through May 26, 2021. Meanwhile, travel between the continental U.S. and Hawaii, travel to and from San Juan, Puerto Rico and international travel are valid February 9 through May 20, 2021. Some blackout dates apply.

Booking weekday flights between the airline’s nearly dozen operating bases is likely to net travelers the biggest savings on spring travel. Notable routes available for $100 roundtrip include Atlanta-Nashville, Los Angeles-Las Vegas, Baltimore-Boston and Orlando-Fort Lauderdale.

Customers can also find nonstop international flights from under $180 one-way, including Houston (Hobby) to Cancun, Mexico for $175 and Orlando to Montego Bay, Jamaica from $153.

Contact your travel advisor or visit Southwest.com to search the airline’s low fare calendar based on your travel dates.

Germ Protection: Pack this Next Time You Have to Go Through TSA

Nakefits are lightweight, waterproof sole protectors that adhere to your feet and stay on for hours to protect you from germs, fungal infections, slipping and hot surfaces. Pop them on before going through TSA to give your feet protection. Or take them on a trip and pop them on before entering the hotel spa or sauna, taking a barefoot yoga class, or using the pool or hot tub. Available in a range of sizes suitable for children and adults, Nakefits can be easily removed without any pinching, peeling, or irritation of the skin. For further information, visit NakeFit USA.

Charting the Adventure Travel Industry’s Path to Recovery

IMAGE COURTESY OF TRIPADVISOR

Written by Heather Kelly

Tripadvisor and Phocuswright recently released a joint report reviewing consumer travel behavioral trends throughout 2020: A Year in Travel: Charting the Travel Industry’s Path to Recovery (free and publicly available). This report analyzes search and click data on Tripadvisor’s website throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, offers insights based on how travelers’ attitudes to travel are changing, and looks at what these trends may mean for the future recovery of the travel industry. The findings correspond with research from the Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA) and offer additional insights into how the adventure travel industry can adapt to changing consumer preferences.

No Two Alike: The First Photos of Snowflakes

Courtesy of Brian Clark Howard, National Geographic

Published in 1923, these vintage images highlight the beauty and mystery of snow crystals.

In the late 1800s, a self-educated Vermont farmer by the name of Wilson Bentley made the first successful image, or “photomicrograph,” of a single snowflake. He used a bellows camera attached to a microscope.

Here are some of the very first photos of snowflakes.

SEE THE PHOTOS

Dublin & Galway Selected Friendliest Cities in Europe

PHOTO COURTESY OF DONALDYTONG, via WIKIMEDIA COMMONS / CC BY-SA 3.0

It’s travel award season on the island of Ireland! In recent weeks, the island has been awarded a number of exciting accolades. Both Dublin and Galway have topped the Condé Nast friendliest cities in Europe list, while EPIC The Irish Immigration Museum has been awarded Europe’s Leading Tourist Attraction by the World Travel Awards for the second year running.

Meanwhile, Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel experts were wowed by the Burren Ecotourism Network’s community effort, naming them one of ten winners in the new ‘Community’ category of Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2021. Ireland’s Burren Ecotourism Network has been named one of ten winners in the new ‘Community’ category of Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2021.

“Heroes of Our America”: Reading a “Patriotic” History of the United States

By Alan J. Singer

Not long ago, history textbooks were written as patriotic fables. Examining one offers a warning about the cost of putting mythmaking ahead of historical learning

Heroes of Our America (1952) was a history book for fourth graders published by the Iroquois Publishing Company of Syracuse, New York. Its co-authors were Gertrude and John Van Duyn Southworth. John Southworth, with Harvard and Columbia University degrees, taught at a number of schools in the New York metropolitan area and was president of the publishing company. Gertrude Southworth, his frequent co-author, was also his mother.

I picked it off my office shelf after Donald Trump called for teaching “patriotic history” in American schools as a defense against a mythical radical “left” conspiracy and to ensure that “our youth will be taught to love America.” Heroes of Our America is an example of the kind of “patriotic history” Donald and I were both exposed to as children in the 1950s. I grabbed the book when it was discarded from the Hofstra University Curriculum Materials Center only a couple of years ago.

The Future of History in the Pandemic Age

By Michael Creswell

Historians need to consider and prepare for changes to the profession that will follow the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reading Room of the Maritime Research Center, San Francisco. (NPS PHOTO/K. KVAM)

Attempting to predict the future is always perilous, and events frequently humble those who dare to try. Making predictions is especially hazardous for historians, who often struggle to explain the past. Peering into the future is not part of their professional training, and their efforts to do so are likely to fail.

Trapped in Museums for Centuries, Maori Ancestors Are Coming Home

Courtesy Ye Charlotte Ming

Head and shoulders portrait of a Māori man. AFTER SYDNEY PARKINSON, PUBLIC DOMAIN, via WIKIMEDIA COMMONS.

Maori meeting house. IMAGE COURTESY OF MUIR & MOODIE, PUBLIC DOMAIN, via WIKIMEDIA COMMONS.

An English naval officer bartering with a Maori in the 18th century. IMAGE COURESY OF TUPAIA, PUBLIC DOMAIN, via WIKIMEDIA COMMONS.

New Zealand’s repatriation program brings human remains back and lays them to rest.

To the Maori people of New Zealand, the practice of preserving one’s head after death was an act of love and respect. Beginning in 1770, Europeans began trading the mummified and tattooed Maori heads, also called toi moko, spurring enemy tribal groups to collect the heads of enemies for sale. Now, European museums are sending the toi moko home. Since 2003, the remains of more than 600 ancestors, including toi moko, have been returned to New Zealand.

Less Will be More in Post-Pandemic Travel: Airbnb Chief

Smaller cities and more family time will gain favor over global tourism permanently in the wake of the pandemic, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky predicts. “They’re not yearning to see Times Square” after months of isolation from normal life, he observes.

What’s New in Berlin: House of One – Three Religions in One House

Berlin is soon to become home to something truly unique. Jews, Christians, and Muslims are planning to build a house of worship here – one that brings a synagogue, a church, and a mosque together under one roof. The three separate sections will be linked by a communal room in the center of the building. This will serve as a meeting place, where worshipers and members of the public can come together and learn more about the religions and each other. The House of One is a contemporary expression of religious life, expressed in an equally modern architectural language.

Start the Year Off Right with a Journey to Well-Being

Enroll Now

Limited Space Available — Act Soon!

Hawaii Offers Tourists Free Hotel Stays in Exchange for Volunteer Work

A Hawaiian Cultural Practitioner gives a traditional blessing for crews and spectators. PHOTO BY DEB ROSKAMP.

The program’s goal is to inspire mindful travel

Written by Stefanie Waldek

If gorgeous beaches, an incredible cultural history, and active volcanoes aren’t enough to convince you to visit Hawaii, perhaps the state’s voluntourism deal for tourists will nudge you across the line.

As of Oct. 15, Hawaii has eliminated the 14-day quarantine requirement for visitors who partake in the official pre-travel testing program, which now means that the state is able to promote the Mālama Hawai‘i initiative to tourists.

WNPA Recently Announced the Recipients of its Annual Awards

PHOTO BY L. NICHOLS, NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

Western National Parks Association (WNPA), a nonprofit education partner of the National Park Service (NPS) since 1938, recently announced the recipients of its annual awards. For over 30 years, WNPA has recognized individuals and organizations who make exceptional contributions to national parks and increase awareness of WNPA’s mission.

5 Things Science Says Will Make You Happier

Research-backed habits that will improve your outlook and positive attitude

By Nataly Kogan
Medically reviewed by Daniel B. Block, MD

It’s easy to assume that things like money and a luxurious lifestyle lead to happiness, but research shows that it’s the more simple experiences — like practicing gratitude or spending time with friends — that promote a sunny outlook.

Whether you need to shift from negative thoughts or want to continue a streak of positivity, here are five ways to boost happiness every day.

What Americans Abroad Should Not Expect

Pancakes

The fluffy flour-based pancakes that American’s have come to love at breakfast time (or for brinner) just aren’t found abroad. French crêpes are too thin. The Japanese version (okonomiyaki) is too thick and most often topped with savory things like meat, seafood, and cabbage. Australian-style pancakes are too eggy and have sugar in the dough.

The Radical History of Corporate Sensitivity Training

By Beth Blum

The modern-day human-resources practice is embodied by the Esalen Institute, in Big Sur, which is best known today as where “Mad Men’s” Don Draper ends up. PHOTOGRAPH BY JUSTINA MINTZ / AMC.

During these turbulent months, American corporations have responded to demands for racial justice by straining to showcase their sensitive sides. They’ve pledged, like Quaker Oats, to change offensive product names; they’ve scrambled, like Prada, nascar, and Delta, to implement emergency sensitivity workshops; and they’ve opted, like most of the major publishing houses, to hire sensitivity readers to vet new manuscripts for racist representations. Not so at the Donald Trump White House.

The Pentagon is Missing the Big Picture on “Stars and Stripes”

By Mark T. Hauser

The Pentagon’s plan to scrap funding for the Stars and Stripes newspaper isn’t just an attack on a historic military institution. It’s ignoring the lessons the paper’s history offers for efficient operation and integrating military operations with the economic life of the nation.

Copies of the Stars and Stripes being delivered to Marines of Task Force Tarawa during Operation Iraqi Freedom, April, 2003. U.S. MARINE CORPS PHOTO BY 1ST SERGEANT DAVID K. DISMUKES, PUBLIC DOMAIN, via WIKIMEDIA COMMONS.

The post Joe Biden Headlines, Māori Repatriation appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Travel Path to Recovery, 12 Days of Christmas

admin — Tue, 05 Jan 2021 11:09:29 +0000

Curated by Ed Boitano

The 12 Days of Christmas

The 12 Days of Christmas start on Christmas Day and last until the evening of the 5th January – also known as Twelfth Night. The 12 Days have been celebrated in Europe since before the middle ages and were a time of celebration.

The 12 Days each traditionally celebrate a feast day for a saint and/or have different celebrations.

Charting the Adventure Travel Industry’s Path to Recovery

IMAGE COURTESY OF TRIPADVISOR

Written by Heather Kelly

No Two Alike: The First Photos of Snowflakes

Courtesy of Brian Clark Howard, National Geographic

Published in 1923, these vintage images highlight the beauty and mystery of snow crystals.

Here are some of the very first photos of snowflakes.

SEE THE PHOTOS

8 Immune-Boosting Smoothies We Want to Sip All Day Long

Courtesy Mary Nunes

Whether it’s flu season, allergy season, or you’re just in the mood for a refreshing, flavorful drink, an immune-boosting smoothie is always a good idea. By snacking on something as easy and convenient as a smoothie, you can jam-pack your body with antioxidants, vitamins, and more superfoods that kick-start your immune system into gear. Smoothies are (rightfully) all the rage these days, as they are easy to make, totally filling, and can give your body a plethora of health benefits.

READ HERE

You Might be an American Traveling Abroad if…

Inspired by Jeff Foxworthy with assistance from the Alot Travel Team

If you wear a Baseball Cap while traveling abroad you might be an American tourist.

Baseball is the American pastime, right? At least, it was at one point, and it’s still thought of that way, even though we watch more pro football than baseball at this point.

Still, we love the caps, and we carry them around with us everywhere — including overseas, where they immediately mark us as Americans.

5 Things Science Says Will Make You Happier

Research-backed habits that will improve your outlook and positive attitude

By Nataly Kogan
Medically reviewed by Daniel B. Block, MD

Whether you need to shift from negative thoughts or want to continue a streak of positivity, here are five ways to boost happiness every day.

“Heroes of Our America”: Reading a “Patriotic” History of the United States

By Alan J. Singer

Not long ago, history textbooks were written as patriotic fables. Examining one offers a warning about the cost of putting mythmaking ahead of historical learning

Start the Year Off Right with a Journey to Well-Being

Enroll Now

Limited Space Available — Act Soon!

Hawaii Offers Tourists Free Hotel Stays in Exchange for Volunteer Work

A Hawaiian Cultural Practitioner gives a traditional blessing for crews and spectators. PHOTO BY DEB ROSKAMP.

The program’s goal is to inspire mindful travel

Written by Stefanie Waldek

WNPA Recently Announced the Recipients of its Annual Awards

PHOTO BY L. NICHOLS, NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

Dublin & Galway Selected Friendliest Cities in Europe

PHOTO COURTESY OF DONALDYTONG, via WIKIMEDIA COMMONS / CC BY-SA 3.0

What Americans Abroad Should Not Expect

Pancakes

The Radical History of Corporate Sensitivity Training

By Beth Blum

The modern-day human-resources practice is embodied by the Esalen Institute, in Big Sur, which is best known today as where “Mad Men’s” Don Draper ends up. PHOTOGRAPH BY JUSTINA MINTZ / AMC.

The Future of History in the Pandemic Age

By Michael Creswell

Historians need to consider and prepare for changes to the profession that will follow the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reading Room of the Maritime Research Center, San Francisco. (NPS PHOTO/K. KVAM)

The Pentagon is Missing the Big Picture on “Stars and Stripes”

By Mark T. Hauser

The post Travel Path to Recovery, 12 Days of Christmas appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Kids’ Letters to Santa, Jewish Festival of Lights

admin — Fri, 11 Dec 2020 15:27:16 +0000

Curated by Ed Boitano

Letters to Santa Reveal the Toll the Pandemic is Taking on Kids

Courtesy Faith Karimi, CNN

PHOTO CREDIT: CNN

Jonah wants nothing from Santa this year except for a cure for coronavirus.

Anthony told Santa he wants a magical button he could press to transport him away from the weary reality of the pandemic.

Jasmyne’s Christmas list is short and to the point. “This year, I would like end of Covid-19, world peace, climate control, new Xbox,” it reads.

In their letters to Santa Claus, kids across the US are still asking for toys, clothes, Legos and video games. But in a year filled with illness and uncertainty, a review of letters addressed to the North Pole and collected through the Post Office’s Operation Santa program reveals the pandemic is weighing heavily on children.

Some are imploring Santa to make coronavirus go away. Others are asking for masks for Christmas. Still others write about the challenges of going to school online or how their parents can’t afford to buy presents this year because they lost their jobs.

“Dear Santa,” Jonah wrote. “I don’t want anything for Christmas, but I would like to ask you if you can do me a favor: Can you please find a cure for Covid-19 and give it to us to save the world. Thank you.”

Eight Elaborate Christmas Displays Across America — And the People Behind Them

From Left: Dave Rezendes, Livermore, California; The Kielawa Family, Huntington Station, New York. PHOTOS COURTESY OF DANELLE MANTHEY.

In her new book, photographer Danelle Manthey captures a distinct type of American folk art: Christmas light decoration.

READ ON

Happy Holidays and a Good and Healthy New Year to Us All

By Susanne Servin of Herzerl Tours

ADVENT – is the quietest time of the year (line of an Austrian poem).

Advent time (which is usually the four weeks in December and translates to expectant waiting) in a non- religious way is very meaningful for all us right now – as we are expectantly waiting for a relief of this awful pandemic that ravages our country and the world – for a vaccine to come.

But there is HOPE!!!

And to cheer us all up or to take our mind of things – lets bake!

My most favorite Christmas cookie recipe is Vanille Kipferl (vanilla crescents) – it’s a family recipe going back to my great grandmother, Emilie Zimmermann.

I have featured it on my website but let me send it to you again.

Best Cities for New Year’s

Courtesy Diana Polk, WalletHub Communications Manager

With New Year’s around the corner but the scale of celebrations limited by the COVID-19 pandemic, the personal-finance website WalletHub released its report on 2020’s Best Cities for New Year’s.

Dublin & Galway Selected Friendliest Cities in Europe

PHOTO COURTESY OF DONALDYTONG, via WIKIMEDIA COMMONS / CC BY-SA 3.0

8 Immune-Boosting Smoothies We Want to Sip All Day Long

Courtesy Mary Nunes

READ HERE

You Might be an American Traveling Abroad if…

Inspired by Jeff Foxworthy with assistance from the Alot Travel Team

If you wear a Baseball Cap while traveling abroad you might be an American tourist.

Baseball is the American pastime, right? At least, it was at one point, and it’s still thought of that way, even though we watch more pro football than baseball at this point.

Still, we love the caps, and we carry them around with us everywhere — including overseas, where they immediately mark us as Americans.

5 Things Science Says Will Make You Happier

Research-backed habits that will improve your outlook and positive attitude

By Nataly Kogan
Medically reviewed by Daniel B. Block, MD

Whether you need to shift from negative thoughts or want to continue a streak of positivity, here are five ways to boost happiness every day.

The Pentagon is Missing the Big Picture on “Stars and Stripes”

By Mark T. Hauser

Ireland’s Voices Stream Christmas Hope to the World

The home of Guinness in Dublin will be the location for a unique Christmas concert that will connect the heart of Ireland with the world.

One of Ireland’s most respected musical events, Other Voices, is staging a special Christmas show in the Guinness Storehouse, which will be live streamed around the world on 16 December.

PHOTO BY AIRBNB

Featuring a wide range of Irish talent, ‘Other Voices: Home at the Guinness Storehouse’ will see this iconic building in the heart of Dublin come alive with an eclectic programme of Irish music, stories and songs.

How an Ancient Revolt Sparked the Festival of Lights

By Amy Briggs

On the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City, a colorful menorah lights up the night during Hanukkah. PHOTO BY YONATAN SINDEL, FLASH90/REDUX.

It’s time to celebrate Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights that lasts for eight days and nights. This year Hanukkah starts on Thursday, December 10, and ends Friday, December 18. The holiday’s popularity has surged in modern times, but its origins date back to the turbulent centuries following the death of Alexander the Great, the ancient Macedonian leader who conquered the Persian Empire.

READ ON

The Grinch That Keeps on Grinching

A new television special hearkens back to the nearly 50 years of Christmas thievery from the Dr. Seuss classic

Courtesy Patrick Sauer, SMITHSONIANMAG.COM

PHOTO BY CAYOBO, via WIKIMEDIA COMMONS / CC BY 2.0

The first time readers young and old laid their eyes on the Grinch, he wasn’t green. He wasn’t on television, on stage, or even in a book. He didn’t even debut amidst the Jing-Tinglers of the season, but rather during the dog days of summer. In 1955, a 33-line illustrated poem “The Hoobub and the Grinch” ran in Redbook magazine. In it, Dr. Seuss introduces the Grinch as a con artist selling a piece of string for 98 cents to a yellow-furred galoot out catching some rays. It’s “worth a lot more than that old-fashioned sun,” says the Grinch. (A scam to be sure, but the Grinch is right about the broiling damage that can be done without proper UV skin care.)

No Two Alike: The First Photos of Snowflakes

Courtesy of Brian Clark Howard, National Geographic

Published in 1923, these vintage images highlight the beauty and mystery of snow crystals.

Here are some of the very first photos of snowflakes.

SEE THE PHOTOS

WNPA Recently Announced the Recipients of its Annual Awards

PHOTO BY L. NICHOLS, NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

What Americans Abroad Should Not Expect

Pancakes

The Radical History of Corporate Sensitivity Training

By Beth Blum

The modern-day human-resources practice is embodied by the Esalen Institute, in Big Sur, which is best known today as where “Mad Men’s” Don Draper ends up. PHOTOGRAPH BY JUSTINA MINTZ / AMC.

The Future of History in the Pandemic Age

By Michael Creswell

Historians need to consider and prepare for changes to the profession that will follow the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reading Room of the Maritime Research Center, San Francisco. (NPS PHOTO/K. KVAM)

“Heroes of Our America”: Reading a “Patriotic” History of the United States

By Alan J. Singer

Not long ago, history textbooks were written as patriotic fables. Examining one offers a warning about the cost of putting mythmaking ahead of historical learning

The post Kids’ Letters to Santa, Jewish Festival of Lights appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Dublin & Galway Friendliest Cities, 8 Smoothies

Ed Boitano — Thu, 19 Nov 2020 02:57:28 +0000

The T-Boy Society of Film and Music Selects Top Horror Films

The Horror Film’s roots lie in German Expressionism. When it moved to Hollywood, along with many of its directors, it was smart, scary and clever, but eventually evolved into camp, then cheap thrills trash. John Carpenter dominated the horror film for years, yet like most genres it has exploded with sub-genres of films that can still interrupt a good sleep. Holy Dracula, there are too many good ones out there! Our members’ lists offer a rare look at what is in their darkest dreams.

Dublin & Galway Selected Friendliest Cities in Europe

PHOTO COURTESY OF DONALDYTONG, via WIKIMEDIA COMMONS / CC BY-SA 3.0

Top Horror Films

By the T-Boy Society of Film & Music
Curated by Ed Boitano

POSTER DESIGNED BY MACARIO GÓMEZ QUIBUS. “© SHAMLEY PRODUCTIONS, INC.”, PUBLIC DOMAIN, VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS.

From Ed Boitano:

Nosferatu (1922)
Director : F.W. Murnau
UFA made artistically outstanding and technically competent films during the silent era. Located in Berlin, its studios were the best equipped and most modern in the world. It encouraged experimentation and imaginative camera work and employed such directors as F. W. Murnau, Fritz Lang, Ernst Lubitsch and G.W. Pabst; all pioneers in the expressive use of camera position, lighting, stylized art direction and acting, and editing techniques.

#LETUSALLUNITE: A Global Campaign on the Occasion of the 80^th Anniversary of “The Great Dictator”

To mark the 80^th anniversary of “The Great Dictator,” one of Charlie Chaplin’s most iconic films, Chaplin’s World announced today that it is launching a year-long campaign with international partners. #LETUSALLUNITE, a human fresco on a global scale, will unite the citizens of the world around the universal values of the film.

80-Year-Old Man Killed After Confronting Bar Patron For Not Wearing Mask

When an 80-year-old man at a bar near Buffalo, New York, noticed a fellow customer not wearing a face mask, he confronted him. The customer responded by swiftly pushing him to the ground, the police said. Five days later, the man was dead.

Fall Foliage Trip Planning

Written by Kim Knox Beckius

Hogback Mountain, Vermont. PHOTO COURTESY OF CHENSIYUAN, via WIKIMEDIA COMMONS / CC BY-SA 4.0.

The annual display of colorful fall foliage clogs scenic byways this time of year as onlookers travel for “leaf peeping” getaways. As the trees put on a memorable show for us, behind the scenes, it’s due to the slowing of chlorophyll production. That’s what’s going on, you see: an un-greening of leaves that unveils the true colors that have been masked throughout the summer. As underlying pigments pop, lighting up the landscape, mountainsides and roadsides truly do warrant gawking.

The Radical History of Corporate Sensitivity Training

By Beth Blum

The modern-day human-resources practice is embodied by the Esalen Institute, in Big Sur, which is best known today as where “Mad Men’s” Don Draper ends up. PHOTOGRAPH BY JUSTINA MINTZ / AMC.

Amtrak’s New Fall Fare Sale Lets You Bring a Friend for Free

Riding the rails is the perfect way to follow fall down the Northeast Corridor

Written by Katherine Alex Beaven

Summer may be officially over — R.I.P. — but Amtrak is already giving us reasons to get excited about celebrating fall. This week the national rail service announced a huge buy-one-get-one sale on Acela business class and Northeast Regional coach train fares. This means you can buy a ticket and bring a friend for free — or just split the difference and save 50 percent on ticket prices.

The 5 Best Ways to Prevent a First Heart Attack

By Sharon Basaraba
Medically reviewed by Richard N. Fogoros, MD

Whether your father, mother or siblings have had heart disease may seem like the most important predictor of your own chances of a heart attack. Not so — says a large Swedish study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology in 2014. In fact, it showed that 5 specific lifestyle factors like eating right, regular exercise and quitting smoking can combine to prevent 80% of first heart attacks.

Epiphany Central – 15 Lessons from the Pandemic

By David Erskine

Dr. Allen asked me to write a fourth blog yet again from just ten minutes north of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. If you read my last blog, you know that we experienced another COVID-19 surge a few weeks ago. The good news now is that California has flattened the curve (for a second time) as I write this mid-September.

The One Horror Film Stephen King Was Too Scared to Finish

Courtesy of Richard Evans

PHOTO COURTESY OF PINGUINO KOLB via WIKIMEDIA COMMONS / CC BY 2.0

Stephen King has been responsible for many of our nightmares over the years. The prolific author has written a staggering number of terrifying novels and stories, many of which have been adapted into equally frightening films. But King is also a fan of the horror genre, and frequently recommends books, movies, and TV shows that have hooked him. In fact, he often showers them with effusive praise. In a new foreword for the 2010 reissue of his nonfiction book Danse Macabre, he called The Blair Witch Project the “worst nightmare you ever had.” Read on to find out why the movie spooked King so badly, along with his other favorites. And for more ’90s nightmares, revisit The Scariest Movies ’90s Kids Can’t Forget.

8 Immune-Boosting Smoothies We Want to Sip All Day Long

Courtesy Mary Nunes

READ HERE

You Might be an American Traveling Abroad if…

Inspired by Jeff Foxworthy with assistance from the Alot Travel Team

If you wear a Baseball Cap while traveling abroad you might be an American tourist.

Baseball is the American pastime, right? At least, it was at one point, and it’s still thought of that way, even though we watch more pro football than baseball at this point.

Still, we love the caps, and we carry them around with us everywhere — including overseas, where they immediately mark us as Americans.

What Americans Abroad Should Not Expect

Pancakes

5 Things Science Says Will Make You Happier

Research-backed habits that will improve your outlook and positive attitude

By Nataly Kogan
Medically reviewed by Daniel B. Block, MD

Whether you need to shift from negative thoughts or want to continue a streak of positivity, here are five ways to boost happiness every day.

The Future of History in the Pandemic Age

By Michael Creswell

Historians need to consider and prepare for changes to the profession that will follow the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reading Room of the Maritime Research Center, San Francisco. (NPS PHOTO/K. KVAM)

The Pentagon is Missing the Big Picture on “Stars and Stripes”

By Mark T. Hauser

In February, the Pentagon proposed slashing funding for the famed soldiers’ newspaper Stars and Stripes, a story that roared back into the news in September after its publisher reported he had been ordered to halt publication by the end of the month.

“Heroes of Our America”: Reading a “Patriotic” History of the United States

By Alan J. Singer

Not long ago, history textbooks were written as patriotic fables. Examining one offers a warning about the cost of putting mythmaking ahead of historical learning

The post Dublin & Galway Friendliest Cities, 8 Smoothies appeared first on Traveling Archive.

T-Boy Society of Film & Music’s Friendliest Destinations in the World

T-Boy Society of Film & Music — Sat, 26 Sep 2020 15:30:56 +0000

Curated by Ed Boitano

The T-Boy Society of Film & Music’s latest poll is dedicated to the Friendliest Destinations in the World. As you can see from our members’ selections it could be a village, town, province, state, region or even a neighborhood within a destination. We felt it appropriate to have a positive, feel-good segment as opposed to all the ongoing negative news that we are bombarded with on a daily basis. May we all reflect on Mark Twain’s uplifting line: Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can read. With that in mind, here is the T-Boy Society of Film & Music’s Friendliest Destinations in the World.

Fiji, an archipelago of more than 300 islands, is a tapestry of native Fijian, Indian, European, and Chinese cultures, about 1,100 nautical miles northeast of New Zealand. TOP LEFT PHOTO COURTESY OF TAVYLAND via WIKIMEDIA COMMONS / CC BY-SA 3.0; BOTTOM PHOTO BY MIGUEL SANCHEZ via WIKIMEDIA COMMONS / CC BY 2.0.

Richard Carroll — T-Boy Writer:

Fiji — A small island nation in the South Pacific with a distinct personality and a lightness of love that radiates in the endless island breeze, understands the art of hospitality and the mutual enrichment of visitors. The Fijian “Bula” is more than a greeting, it’s a wish for happiness, good health and the energy of life. Strongly family oriented, the native Fijians, born and raised in the country with Melanesian and Polynesian ancestry, are soft spoken, moving easily with the rhythm of the sun and sea and fickle weather patterns, often greet visitors with welcoming smiles and a generous reception that soothes the soul and sets a joyous mood.

London’s Traditional Black Cabs — Flagging down one of London’s traditional black cabs and hooking a ride is where respect for the driver is beyond comprehension. Our last ride in early 2020 the cabbie with great humor sang a little Sinatra for us during a short tour while pointing out numerous little-known hidden treasures. Ranked the world’s best, the cabbies are the elite of London, friendly for sure, with the demeanor of tourism assurance that all is well and you are in good hands. To achieve this high standard of expertise which dates to 1865, they have to master “The Knowledge” entailing 320 routes, 25,000 streets and 20,000 landmarks, which takes between two to four years to complete with a series of difficult written and oral tests, and a demanding driving exam. GPS’s are forbidden because the cabbies have one implanted in their heads, while some studies revealing their brains are larger in regards to memorizing The Knowledge. Asking them questions about London is great fun and informative too and like opening a foot-thick library dictionary.

Ireland — Driving through the Irish countryside and reading the Celtic road signage is challenging, but asking directions you can easily end up in their home with a cup of tea. I found the Irish with their sense of humor and generous affability enjoy sharing with strangers while possessed with an impressive gift of conversation. Their love of music and dance and pub life with nightly sessions performed by excellent musicians is the perfect showcase for Irish hospitality, and friendship, if only for the evening. Driving from Dublin to Belfast visiting small towns and villages I met the friendliest people this side of Fiji all asking, “Where might you be from?”

The dual nationality island of Saint Martin is divided between France (Saint-Martin) and the Netherlands (Sint Maarten) in the northeastern Caribbean Sea. IMAGE COURTESY OF HOGWEARD via WIKIMEDIA COMMONS / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Fyllis Hockman — T-Boy writer:

St. Martin — The Caribbean island of St. Martin is known as The Friendliest Island, and its claim deserves a truth-in-advertising award. Literally three times when we stopped to ask directions (a common occurrence as road signs are basically non-existent), the guy got into the car and took us to our destination. And not once did we get robbed or even asked for a tip, a de rigueur practice in many other Caribbean islands. That was friendly enough for us.

Galway Bay is roughly 31 miles long and 19 miles in breadth on the west coast of Ireland, between County Galway and County Clare. PHOTO COURTESY OF TOM WEBER.

Tom Weber — T-Boy writer:

Galway, Ireland — Steeped in history — her roots go back to the early 12th century — Galway is a prosperous bohemian, artsy cosmopolitan city.

Widely considered the Emerald Isle’s cultural heart, Galway, in a word, is COOL.

How come?

For openers, the sixth most populous city in Ireland is considered one of the “sexiest cities in the world,” one of the “great cities of the world,” one of the “best travel destinations in the world,” and, the foam atop a pint of Guinness, the “friendliest city in the world.” The latter according to readers of Travel + Leisure.

Admired for her vibrant lifestyle, colorful storefronts and pubs, exceptional dining and overall festive nature, Galway plays host to a burgeoning calendar of organized events that attracts visitors from around the globe.

Designated a UNESCO City of Film, she hosts the annual Galway Film Fleadh, the International Arts Festival and the Tulca Festival of Visual Arts.

There’s also the International Mussel and Oyster festivals, and the Gathering of the Boats festival, featuring 100+ uniquely Irish craft, the Galway Hookers.

Why, there’s even the Dip in the Nip, the first-ever skinny dip for charity.

And, that’s just the tip of the iceberg for the city considered by her peers to be the “most Irish” of all.

The Brooklyn Bridge was the first steel-wire suspension bridge in the world and was formally opened on May 24th, 1883. PHOTO COURTESY OF SUISEISEKI via WIKIMEDIA COMMONS / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Stephen Brewer — T-Boy writer:

Welcome to New York — If you were to believe some news outlets, New York is either a smoldering heap of rubble or a rat-infested wasteland populated by gun-toting criminals. I’m pleased to report that my beloved city is quite pleasant these days, though I really do miss those annoying tourists who just don’t get the way the checkout lines at Whole Foods work and all those office workers and matinee goers who get in my way when I’m trying walk at a quick pace down Fifth Avenue. I believe we’ll get through this crisis, as we have so many others, that folks will start coming back, and that the city will adjust to challenges ahead in quirky, exciting ways. Because New York is just a wonderful place, and we New Yorkers are pretty resilient.

Mulberry Street in New York City’s Little Italy (circa 1900). PHOTO COURTESY OF THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, PUBLIC DOMAIN, VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS.

To reassure myself of these facts, I recently indulged in a bit of nostalgia and walked up to the West 80s. This is where I lived when I came to New York 40 years ago, in an old building that was home to many residents who had been there for half a century or more. In those big, rambling, high-ceilinged rooms that in the 1970s were quite affordable I decided that New York was the only place I ever wanted to live. The streets are eerily empty in these days of self-isolation, but back then the old-timers, as I called them, would bring their folding lawn chairs down to the sidewalk to sit in the sun and watch the neighborhood comings and goings. The de facto leader of the group, Mildred, was my next-door neighbor. I came to rely on Mildred for the latest news and gossip, which she was always eager to impart over a few highballs. It was Mildred who informed me that the super had used three cans of Bon Ami to get the blood off the sidewalk after a late-night knife fight on our corner. Such occurrences, and even some more violent ones, were not uncommon on the then-still-gentrifying Upper West Side. One night the cook at our local diner shot a waitress to death just beneath our windows, then turned the gun on himself. “In a jealous rage,” Mildred confided to me the next evening, adding, “Frankly, he was a terrible cook and she was a two-timing tart.”

Empire State Building as seen from Top of the Rock, New York City (circa 2008). PHOTO COURTESY OF DANIEL SCHWEN via WIKIMEDIA COMMONS / CC BY-SA 4.0.

No event, though, topped the demise of a poor fellow who jumped from a top floor window of the high rise across the street. The sidewalk sitters had been right there, lined up in their lawn chairs, witnessing it all, the leap, the plunge, the gruesome carnage on the street. “His head damn near rolled into our lobby,” Mildred informed me when I rounded the corner from the subway. “That’s his arm hanging from that branch over there,” Harry Stein added, though I did not follow the line of his pointed finger.

COVID-19 in New York today. PHOTO COURTESY OF ANTHONY QUINTANO via WIKIMEDIA COMMONS / CC BY 2.0.

I can only wonder if my old neighbors would be as blasé about the Covid crisis. Would some of them have succumbed? Most of my old neighbors slipped away relatively peacefully. Harry spent his last days in Brooklyn, living with a daughter after a cast-iron skillet fell out of Mrs. Kahn’s window and shattered his femur. Mildred was not convinced it was an accident. “I don’t know what she was doing with a skillet, because she doesn’t even know how to make toast,” she sniped. Sweet, elegant Lillian dropped dead of a heart attack at a dinner party, with Mildred in attendance. “The best damn grilled lamb chops and those little buttered peas,” the ever-practical Mildred lamented, “and I couldn’t go on eating, could I, with Lilly’s corpse right there on the dining room floor?” Mildred died of old age in a nursing home in Queens. Her send off was a sadly stilted, canned service in a funeral home chapel on West 72nd Street at which the officiate referred to her as Millie, a nickname she loathed, and asserted that she never had an unkind word for anyone. I was thinking fondly about that old crew as I sat on the steps of the building across the street (the one of the defenestration incident) and looked over to the sadly empty sidewalk in front of my old doorway. Two young guys walked by, glanced at me, and delivered the mantra of our times, “Stay safe.” Then it occurred to me that now I was an old sidewalk sitter, too, and with my unkempt white hair and weird-looking mask, a pretty wild-looking one at that. But honestly, I’m not an antifa terrorist, and if you come to New York, I and millions of my fellow citizens are here to show you that out city is still a pretty nice place to be.

Clockwise from Top Left: Poulnabrone Dolmen, Burrren National Park, Ireland. PHOTO COURTESY OF BURRREN NATIONAL PARK; The enduring Celtic Cross at the site of Connemara’s Doolough Tragedy of 1849. PHOTO COURTESY OF CHRIS HOOD, via WIKIMEDIA COMMONS / CC BY 2.0; Patrons at O’Donoghue’s Pub in Dublin where the Irish folk band, the Dubliners made a name for themselves. PHOTO COURTESY OF TRAVELING BOY; The annual Famine Walk to commemorate the victims of Connemara’s Doolough Tragedy. PHOTO COURTESY OF TOURISM IRELAND; This Gaelic speaking woman in County Mayo was more than happy to offer a ride. PHOTO COURTESY OF TRAVELING BOY.

Ed Boitano — T-Boy editor:

The Western Counties of Ireland — My wife and I woke up to the smell of rich morning coffee. It was to be part of our breakfast on our first day in Ireland. It has been said that all Irish homes become a bed and breakfast during the summer, and this Donegal County cottage with one spare room was no exception. The owners fussed over us at the table as we enjoyed a full Irish breakfast: eggs, bacon, sausages, black and white pudding, fried potatoes, and homemade rolls with marmalade. With poetry in their eyes and hospitality in their hearts, they weaved a heartfelt narrative of the area’s attractions and educated us on the Great Irish Potato Famine that began in 1845 and lasted for six years, killing over a million men, women and children and causing another million to flee the country. They explained that the Irish were pushed out to the barren, twisted rocks of the Western Atlantic countryside and began to live off wild blackberries, nettles, turnips, decayed cabbage leaves, seaweed, roots, roadside weeds, and, towards the end of the Famine, even green grass. They added you could always identify a Famine victim by the green grass stains around their mouth. Our Irish hosts spoke with such passion and magnitude that it felt like it was happening today. We followed their instructions and found a Famine Pot in the middle of a forest, where locals placed food they could spare for the displaced victims. It was as if we were taking a walk through living history.

Two days later, it was a drive through the sweeping hills of the Connemara in County Galway, a landscape once described as a place of ‘terrible beauty.’ We pulled off the road to study a Famine Trail. Known as the Doolough Tragedy of 1849, scores of destitute and starving people staggered through horrendous weather for 15 miles to a manor’s house in the hope of food, only to be turned away. Apparently, the grand man of the manor did not want to interrupt his lunch and never met them. Later, corpses were found by the side of the path with grass in their mouths. Too weak to walk or speak, many were crawling to churches so that they could be laid to rest on consecrated ground. Once a year a Famine Walk takes place on the trail to commemorate the victims.

Eventually we made it down to the musical town of Doolin, a coastal fishing village in County Clare on the Atlantic coast. Coined the traditional music capital of Ireland, this was for us an adult Disneyland. An assortment of pubs specialized in Irish session music each night. We were made to feel welcome as we joined in with locals, and nursed pints of Guinness as we listened to reels, jigs and haunting ballads, many about the Famine and emigration. We carry these precious memories with us wherever we go. Erin Go Bragh!

The former capital city of Kyoto is the center of traditional Japanese culture and Buddhism. PHOTO COURTESY OF OSKAR VERTETICS FROM UNSPLASH.

T.E. Mattox — T-Boy music critic:

Kyōto, Japan — The history, the shrines, the gardens, the people. Great place to honeymoon.

Cannes, France — Go mid-to-late November. Every restaurant and bar celebrates the Nouveau Beaujolais.

Clarksdale, Mississippi. — Everyone gathers for the music; everyone leaves as friends. Blues is a healer.

Le Grazie, Italy — This is every sleepy, little fishing village photo you’ve ever seen. A step back in time.

Vancouver, BC — The city is multi-cultural and walkable with a young vibe. Spent days in Lord Stanley’s park.

Nestled at the confluence of the Danube and Savare rivers, Belgrade is the capital of Serbia. PHOTO COURTESY OF MISTER NO via WIKIMEDIA COMMONS / CC BY 3.0.

James Boitano — T-Boy writer:

Serbia — Asking directions often leads to being offered a ride, a friendly conversation or even an invitation.

A favorite bar in Spain’s Castilla y Leon city of Villadolid, in where everyone sang Happy Birthday to me – people I’d just met. PHOTO COURTESY OF RICHARD FRISBIE.

Richard Frisbie — T-Boy writer:

I hear places like New Zealand, Tahiti, and the Philippines, are the world’s friendliest places, but I’ve never been to them, so can only assume they are. The friendliest place I’ve been is Spain. Time and again my visits are greeted with smiles and warm welcomes. Even a recent visit to Cancun was extra special because the Iberostar Grand’s manager was from Bilbao, Spain. We shared many things in common, and even some friends!

Most memorable was my first visit to Galicia, Spain. I got secret family recipes, friendly tours, and I met people I’d see again and again on future visits. When I expressed my love of Galicia — the people and the food & wine — my new friend (guide) said it was because they were my people; that my Irish ancestors had settled here so it was like coming home for me.

On my last (pre-COVID-19) visit to the Castilla y Leon city of Villadolid, in Spain, a good friend took me to his favorite bar where everyone sang Happy Birthday to me — people I’d just met! What a great feeling to be so embraced by the warmth of the Spanish people.

One other place to mention is France. I spent ten days in the Champagne region and met the nicest people. They shared great food, bubbly, and warm stories of their experiences with Americans in their country. My visit was only marred by a radio interview I gave in Paris on the day I was leaving. The host tried to get me to say disparaging things about my visit. It was clear he had an agenda — Americans thought the French rude while the French thought Americans loud, coarse and obnoxious. It is obviously a Paris thing, so I remembered the people of the countryside and praised them. In the end he was sorry he’d taken that tack. He sounded foolish. I’d go back, but only if Spain isn’t open!

National Library of Ireland, Dublin. PHOTO COURTESY OF YVONNEM via WIKIMEDIA COMMONS / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Greg Aragon — T-Boy writer:

One of the friendliest places I’ve been to in the last couple years is Ireland. This little island of magical castles, green hills, idyllic towns and rolling rivers is also populated with some of the nicest people. It seemed there everywhere I went on this trip, there was someone offering to help and offer advice

On my last visit to the Emerald Isle my friend and I were assisted by a friendly local the moment we exited the plane at Dublin Airport. Here, a fellow passenger who lives in Ireland, showed us where the rental car office was located, and then gave us detailed directions to our hotel and a few sightseeing tips for our upcoming trip down the southern coast.

Once at the Harcourt Hotel in Dublin, the staff was super nice and gave us advice on touring the city and seeing the magnificent Norman/Gothic-influenced Christ Church Cathedral, built in 1038; the Dublin Castle built in 1208; and the moat-surrounded Drimnagh Castle.

Johnstown Castle in County Wexford is one of the great Victorian revival Castles in Ireland. PHOTO COURTESY OF SHEILA 1988 via WIKIMEDIA COMMONS / CC BY-SA 4.0.

After a night of pub-hopping, we followed the Irish Sea to the Port of Wexford. Along the way we traversed rolling green hills, speckled with thousands of fluffy white sheep and herds of slow-moving cattle. At a rest stop, we met a family that told us to visit the mysterious Johnstown Castle, built between the 15th and 18th centuries. This was great advice, as the castle was a highlight of our trip.

Eerie and beautiful, the gothic revival-styled Johnstown Castle welcomed us with giant stone turrets, lush ornamental gardens and a serene lake. The gardens are a popular destination for walks and picnics.

Built 800 years ago, Hook Lighthouse continues to serve its original function and now boasts the accolade of the world’s oldest operational lighthouse. PHOTO COURTESY OF ANDREAS F. BORCHERT via WIKIMEDIA COMMONS / CC BY-SA 3.0 DE.

From the castle we drove to the storybook County of Wexford, where we checked into our hotel and met some Irish business people who invited us for a pint of beer and told us all about the city. They suggested we see local attractions such as Kennedy Park, Tintern Abbey, The Dunbrody Famine Ship, and Hook Lighthouse. The lighthouse is the world’s oldest working lighthouse.

The next morning we had a tasty Irish breakfast of smoked salmon, eggs, sausage and bread, and met some fellow guests who told us about a B&B in the seaside village of Youghal, the home of Sir Walter Raleigh. We took this advice and had a memorable stay.

Blarney Castle is a medieval stronghold near Cork, Ireland (circa AD 1200). PHOTO COURTESY OF URBAN HAFNER via WIKIMEDIA COMMONS / CC BY-SA 2.0.

Our next stop was the 600-yr-old Blarney Castle, where I kissed the legendary Blarney Stone, and met more friendly locals who told us to make sure and visit the Midleton Distillery in County Cork. Our last Irish night was spent at Andy’s B&B in Nenaugh. This charming little place felt like staying at a friend’s house. Everyone was super friendly and there was piano player in the bar who led patrons on rousing sing-alongs such as Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond.

Copán’s Maya ruins in western Honduras. PHOTO COURTESY OF TALK2WINIK, PUBLIC DOMAIN, via WIKIMEDIA COMMONS.

Raudi Benscoter:

Copán, Honduras — Everyone is super friendly, helpful and informative.

The neoclassical Catedral de Santiago is located in the city’s historic center, facing Santiago’s Plaza de Armas. PHOTO COURTESY OF CHILEAN HERITAGE.

Ringo Boitano — T-Boy writer:

Santiago, Chile — The dapper man in a suit with briefcase, barely concealed his smile when we asked in bad Spanish if this was the train to Santiago’s City Center. He expressed interest in our narrative, and seemed pleased that we had traveled so far to see his county. He promptly paid for our faire, and when we protested, said in perfect English that you are guests in my country and it is my obligation to host you. The trek to Santiago was fulfilling, where he attentively listened to our itinerary, suggesting easy walking tips to other nearby attractions. He warned us that we might briefly suffer from altitude sickness due Santiago’s lofty position in the Andes. He was right; and we grabbed a park bench overlooking the iconic neoclassical Catedral de Santiago, and alternated between pre-Covid deep breathing and watching the cosmopolitan city come to life at the city’s center, Plaza de Armas. We noticed that citizens sense of formality is one of politeness, but never one of evasiveness. While examining a restaurant’s menu for native Amerindian and Spanish dishes — humitas (corn that is pureed and cooked in corn husks) and pastel de choclo (a corn and meat pie) — a man walked past us and quietly said, Good restaurant. Later, and lost again, we would enter a shop and ask for directions to another area. Our answers were always conveyed in written form on a clean piece of paper, just to be sure that we didn’t miss a thing. A few years later I caught an interview with singer/composer, Cyndi Lauper who had just returned for a world concert tour. She was asked what was her favorite country to tour. Like Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday she said, Chile, definitely Chile! Her announcement was met with disbelief by the clueless entertainment journalist. Chile! Why Chile? Here reply was brief and simple, Because of the kindness of the people.

Port Townsend, Washington is known for having more than 300 Victorian-style homes. PHOTO COURTESY OF JOE MABEL VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Annie Brouwer — T-Boy writer:

Port Townsend, Washington State — I remember in Port Townsend thinking ‘wow’ — everyone is really friendly here 🙂

For many, even the new Yankee Stadium in Concourse, Bronx, New York City, epitomizes New York culture and tradition. PHOTO COURTESY OF MATT BOULTON via WIKIMEDIA COMMONS / CC BY-SA 2.0.

Roger Fallihee — T-Boy writer:

Oddly enough I’ve found Manhattan to be a very friendly place. It’s obviously hectic but I’ve found the people of NYC to be very friendly and helpful. Always willing to recommend restaurants, give directions, etc. Even the rowdy fans at Yankee Stadium are cool.

The Taizé Community is an ecumenical Christian monastic fraternity in France, composed of more than one hundred brothers, originating from about thirty countries across the world. PHOTO COURTESY OF DAMIR JELIC via WIKIMEDIA COMMONS / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Alex Brouwer — T-Boy writer:

Taizé Community, France — What began as a house for refugees after WWII has become a monastic community that draws thousands of young people from across the globe each year who participate in communal life. The community stands for peace, unity, kindness, and reconciliation and as far as I know is the only monastic tradition officially recognized by all three historical branches of Christianity: Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant. During only a week there, I was told by many people of vastly different backgrounds and religious beliefs that Taizé is one place they truly feel at home.

Peru — As a stranger and a foreigner, I was welcomed into a family and a community that was not my own. I’ll always be grateful for that.

Mexico City, Mexico — I remember the friendliness and kindness of all the people we met in CDMX, especially one woman who gave us directions, waited for the bus, paid for our ride, and inexplicably gifted us her bus card despite our refusals.

Ireland — During both my trips to Ireland, I found it easy to strike up conversations with just about anyone.

Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday, refers to events of the Carnival celebration, beginning after the Christian feasts of the Epiphany. PHOTO COURTESY OF CAROL M. HIGHSMITH, PUBLIC DOMAIN, via WIKIMEDIA COMMONS.

Barb Boitano:

New Orleans and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico — Though both destinations are very touristic, I’ve always found the people to be warm and welcoming, even during Mardi Gras.

A small dairy farm in Vermont where the owner invited Rourke and his former girlfriend to spend the night. PHOTOS COURTESY OF ROURKE.

ROURKE — Composer and Musician:

Hawaii — How can you not be friendly in Hawaii? A few days before our wedding, we took a taxi from Wailea to Lahaina. It was a long, traffic clogged drive, in a taxi that was breaking down, but with the friendliest taxi driver, who a week later sent us a text about our marriage.

PHOTO COURTESY OF ROURKE

Vermont — Driving through the more rural areas of the state, we met a local dairy farmer who invited us to spend the night on his small dairy farm. His wife cooked dinner for us, using wild fiddlehead ferns from the hills behind the farm. Breakfast on a farm was just like this city slicker always imagined it would be.

New Hampshire — With a diner in Bedford called “The Friendly Toast,” need I say more….

Vancouver

Puerto Rico

The post T-Boy Society of Film & Music’s Friendliest Destinations in the World appeared first on Traveling Archive.

A Romantic Irish Vacation: Exploring the Enchanting Emerald Isle

Ed Boitano — Tue, 18 Jul 2017 02:30:05 +0000

Photo courtesy Tourism Ireland

My wife and I woke up to the smell of rich morning coffee. It was to be part of our breakfast on our first day in Ireland, always a dream in itself. It has been said that all Irish homes become a bed and breakfast during the summer, and this Donegal County cottage with one spare room was no exception.

The owners fussed over us at the table as we enjoyed a full Irish breakfast: eggs, bacon, sausages, black and white pudding, fried potatoes and homemade rolls with marmalade. They told us of the area’s attractions and educated us on the Irish Potato Famine, that began in 1845 and lasted for six years, killing over a million men, women and children and caused another million to flee the country. The owner explained, the Irish in the countryside began to live off wild blackberries, ate nettles, turnips, old cabbage leaves, edible seaweed, shellfish, roots, roadside weeds and, towards the end of the Famine, even green grass. The owner added you could always identify a Famine victim by the green grass stains around their mouth. He suggested that we read his favorite book about the Famine, The Silent People by Walter Macken.

We followed his instructions and found a Famine pot in the middle of a forest, where locals placed food for the displaced victims. It felt like we were walking through history.

We had already anticipated a trip to Slieve League Cliffs on the west coast of Donegal, and were not disappointed once we arrived. Towering over 2,000 feet from the Atlantic Ocean, it is one of the highest sea cliffs in Europe. Its visual splendor gets my vote for the most striking site in Ireland.

We headed down the road to County Sligo for a pilgrimage to the gravesite of our favorite poet, WB Yeats (1865-1939), and soon found ourselves stuck in the car, avoiding a heavy downpour. We didn’t mind, we read Yeats and listened to an Altan CD, our favorite traditional Irish music group, while basking in awe at the stunning green countryside. We read where the lyrical name Emerald Isle arrived from William Drennan, Irish physician, poet and political radical, in his poem “When Erin First Rose” in 1795.

Photo courtesy Heritage Ireland

Once the weather cleared, we stumbled upon Carrowmore Megalithic Cemetery, the largest burial site of Megalithic tombs in Ireland. Built around 4600-3900 BC, the site is characterized by massive polished stones.

Photo by Maelor at English Wikipedia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

To this day no one knows who these people were and how they were able to move such mammoth rocks. We both could feel the power of the setting and something came over us; before we knew it we were renewing our wedding vows. After a Sunday pub meal of lamb, potatoes and Guinness we found another B&B, where (once again) we were the only guests. We wanted to take the owner home with us, and to this day remain in contact.

Photo courtesy of Chris Hood, via Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0

The next day, it was a drive through the sweeping Connemara in County Galway, a place that author Charles Dickens (1812 – 1870) once described as a place of ‘terrible beauty.’ We pulled off the road to study a Famine Trail known as the Doolough Tragedy of 1849.

Hundreds of destitute and starving people staggered through horrendous weather for 15 miles to a manor’s house in the hope of food, only to be turned away. Later, people found corpses by the side of the road with grass in their mouth.

Photo courtesy Tourism Ireland

Once a year a Famine walk takes place on the trail to commemorate the victims.

As we departed down the road, we both commented that we had not seen a single car for over half an hour. A second later there was a rumbling on the road. We had a flat, not unusual on these rock-strewn Irish roads. Faced with having to unpack our little rental just to find the spare tire and equipment was a daunting thought. Before we knew it, two cars, each arriving from the opposite direction, appeared out of nowhere. The drivers both hopped out and quickly changed our tire. They barely stuck around for a handshake. Such is the hospitality of the Irish. It was pitch black when we arrived at our next bed and breakfast accommodations. But where were we? In the morning, with the blazing sun illuminating this piece of paradise, we realized our B&B was nestled on the banks of a breathtaking fjord. We were in the town of Liane, where the film ‘The Field’ was made. In one of the local pubs a huge painting of the film’s star, Richard Harris, hangs above the fireplace.

Photo courtesy Doolin Tourism

Eventually we made it down to the musical town of Doolin, a coastal fishing village in County Clare on the Atlantic coast. Coined the traditional music capital of Ireland, this was for us an adult Disneyland. Three pubs specialized in Irish session music each night. We joined in with locals and like-minded tourists, had big pub meals of lamb and potatoes or bacon and cabbage, then nursed pints of Guinness as we listened to reels, jigs and haunting ballads, many about the Famine and emigration.

Photo courtesy of Nicolas Raymond & Brin Kennedy Weins, via Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 4.0

Photo courtesy Doolin Tourism

Our daytimes were spent on trips to the Aran Islands, a landscape that once consisted of solid limestone rock with locals having to make their own soil; the windy, yet tranquil Cliffs of Moher , standing 702 feet with a stretch of five miles, featuring panoramic views as far as the eye can see; a massive Dolomite burial site located on a farm; exploring the archaeological sites in the Burren as well as local castles. We carry the memories with us wherever we go. Erin Go Bragh!

For further information, click-on Republic of Ireland.

The post A Romantic Irish Vacation: Exploring the Enchanting Emerald Isle appeared first on Traveling Archive.

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