MetaFilter Introduces TravelFilter

In the most recent MetaFilter podcast, Matt “Number 1” Haughey talked about a new addition to the MeFi lineup, TravelFilter. The site is “totally alpha,” meaning there will likely be some bugs and broken functionality, but the essence of the site exists.

All of the existing Ask Metafilter questions tagged with travel (over 3,000 of them!) were imported and hand-filtered into four basic categories: Where to Go?, Destinations, Travel Smart, and Trip Reports.

The Where to Go? category is used to ask questions if you don’t have a specific destination in mind and want to “query the hive mind.” Destinations is geared towards questions regarding a specific location, like “What is there to do in Rome?” The Travel Smart category is for general travel tips and tricks, and Trip Reports is designed to let you share your experience about a particular trip or location.

Perhaps the most unique feature is the ability to browse questions based on their specific locations. If you’re planning a trip to, say, Los Angeles, simply browse to the city’s destination page and find all the LA questions asked in the past. You can also easily navigate up a level in the breadcrumb-style navigation to view all questions directed towards California, and higher up to the United States.

travel.metafilter.com

Gipfelbier, or Another Excuse to Drink Beer

I read an interesting AskMetafilter question the other day, it asked: “What is the German word for a beer enjoyed at the top of a summit that you have just climbed?” Apparently the asker climbed Mount Tongariro on the North Island of New Zealand, where they ran across two German men on the summit, each enjoying a beer along with the beautiful view. “They told us that this was a traditional thing for German hikers to do on top of mountains that they summit, and they even had a specific word for the beer enjoyed on such an occasion.”

It turns out there is a term for such a thing: Gipfelbier, or “summit beer.” According to a response posted to the original question, “Gipfelbier or Gipfelhalbe (Halbe = half a liter of beer), it’s simply a reward for having made it to the top, Gipfelschnaps is also common.”

Any excuse to drink beer is fine with me, even if it means lugging it up a mountain first.