RoadJunky Looking for Travel Writers with Flavor

by Adrienne Wilson on

In my eyes the Internet has enabled so many talented and not-so-talented some bodies and nobodies to sit up during late night hours, burning the midnight oil, typing up a storm to later divulge beautiful heart-felt pieces or thought provoking political essays from their minds or even bland pull-my-finger material. Really, sometimes it’s hard to surf through it all without wasting a whole lot of your precious time. The point is – the worldwide web is this incredible vessel allowing those with a voice and a decent typing speed to become “writers.”

With that out the way I wanted to let you know that RoadJunky is seeking travel writers. By this they are looking for people with flare and flavor who probably aren’t so good at taking precise notes on hotel and restaurant addresses in Caracas, but have a very cool story to tell instead. They want to know what it’s really like to travel THERE to that place that YOU went, because every experience like every voice is different. Got it? Comprende? Capeesh? So now onto the guidelines – writers should have an edge and desire to cover areas in Central and South America, Europe and South East Asia. Oh, and they pay a little sumthin’ sumthin’. Now get your finger out your nose, check out the submission guidelines, samples and get to whipping something up!

Tour Prince Charles’ London Home

by Adrienne Wilson on

After the chaos caused by the gang of knuckle-headed terrorists (I’m being kind) cools off over in London, it may tickle your fancy to take a walk up to the Clarence House. For those that follow royalty as if were a part of their very own family heritage, the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall are allowing visitors to tour their London digs. The 19th century stucco mansion will have tours up until October 8 and by appointment only. Admission for adults is somewhere around $13 and children must give up $7 of their monthly allowance to be able to step inside.

In addition to forking over their hard-earned change children must be clean; clothing pressed – without a wrinkle; hair-slicked back – extra gel; well-mannered and delightful little souls to say the least. Oops, so the last few requirements were some of my own, but if I were Princess of Duchess allowing the general public to view my residence I’d have rules more strict than the most uppity of nightclubs and two doors men named Brutus and Fidel. Just so no one gets any ideas.

It should be a pretty cool tour for those who make it there in time to see the Clarence House.

via USA Today

Persepolis Recreated

by Adrienne Wilson on

Just wanted to point lovers of ancient history, especially Persian history, to this highly educational and entertaining video on Persepolis Recreated. Located in the province of Fars in south Iran, Persepolis is where Cyrus the Great decided to build a palace worthy of an empire. It was conquered by Alexander the Great two centuries later. Not only did he conquer, but him and his men looted the place packing all the incredible treasures onto 20,000 mules and 5,000 camels. What a crazy entourage to have your back when it’s time to loot the palace and change history as we know it.

History really blows my mind sometimes and that little bit tells nothing of the land once known as Parsa, presently known as Persepolis. If you’ve got 40 minutes to kill this is a grand opportunity to learn something in the process. The website the video is featured on looks like it’s in Danish, but the video is in English – so don’t panic!

Turkish Food: Borek

by Adrienne Wilson on

When I put börek in as my only word for my Google search, I was almost positive I would retrieve an extravagant amount of information on: Börek; the disco/hockey star, Börek; the factory in insert city (here), or Börek; the new fragrance from Will Ferrell (the latest star gone / perfume maker). Without having to narrow my search I found the börek I was looking for listed at the very top. It is the same börek I’ll be munching on in the city of Istanbul in 22 more days. Honestly, I hadn’t a clue what börek was a month back, but a friend of mine told me to try some when I land in Turkey. And it looks like I will.

Börek is a Turkish term for filled pastries, which means while börek may not be any of the other items listed above there is still a handful of börek to choose from. This Turkey Travel Planner defines several types of filled pastries, where the filling is usually white sheep’s milk cheese and a chopped veggie such as parsley or spinach. For a break down of the different types of börek to inquire about in at your local Turkish restaurant head over to Turkey Travel Planner. I’d like to learn how to prepare something like this at home, but I haven’t mastered some of the simpler pastries, therefore I’ll leave the ones filled with white sheep’s milk cheese to the people that know how to make it taste best.

Paradise Lost

by Erik Olsen on

There is a well-known syndrome in travel called the Lonely Planet effect. This is not a syndrome in the sense that someone is afflicted with it…not like, say Asperger’s Syndrome. But what I’m talking about it the matter of how we so often as a traveling species love our places to death. Lonely Planet, the Bible of so many travelers, has always billed itself as the authority of how to get to those far off and away places that others don’t go. But the sheer publication of information, directions, places to eat and stay, about such places, then unleashes the hordes of us that venture to them and, usually, ruin them. By ruin, I mean where lots of tourists go, there will inevitably follow lots of knick-knack salespeople to sell them stuff, lots of cheesy hostels and hotels that want to capture their dollars. You know the problem. It’s everywhere.

This topic actually came up in the conversation I had with LP’s Don George and he rightly defended the guide series. But still, what to do ?

Well, I found a nifty little editorial in the LA Times about this topic. The writer, Bill Stall of the opinion section, discusses mostly the way that Backpacker and Outside Magazines ran certain spots for the best hikes, best [laces to mountain bike, etc., and takes them to task for these rankings and how they inevitably lead to legions of visitors who can spoil them. I’m not sure I totally agree, and I’m also not sure keeping any place safe from tourism is possible. It seems a part of human nature in a crowded, affluent society to want to visit places unvisited by others, and so to visit them….hence a circle of destruction. What to do ?Dunno. Maybe start thinking about visiting the moon.