Held Hostage With Bad Music Abroad: ‘A Total Eclipse Of The Heart’ In Italiano

by Dave Seminara on

The words were in Italian but the melody was unmistakable. Unfortunately, I recognized the Italian version of this insidious tune immediately.

Once upon a time I was falling in love, now I’m only falling apart.
There’s nothing I can do, a total eclipse of the heart. (Eclissi del cuore)

I was on a bus heading from one small town to another in Puglia, Southern Italy, and it was just the driver and I. Oh to be a bus driver in a small town in Puglia. They have total autonomy to play their own music, chat on their phones and text to their hearts content, so when you step on board, it feels a bit like getting a ride with someone. I was the only passenger on this bus and the driver didn’t look up from his mobile phone when I boarded.Moments later, he looked up from his incessant texting, as he continued to barrel down the road towards a town called Conversano, just to pop a homemade CD into the player with the offending tune. I couldn’t help but ponder two questions: 1) Why had someone, in this case a musician named L’Aura, chosen to cover this dreadful tune in Italian? 2) Why was the driver inflicting his horrible taste in music on me and other unsuspecting passengers at this volume level?

I had no idea but before I knew it we were on to an Italian cover of “Winds of Change,” complete with the catchy whistling. You’re already doing it in your head, right? Sorry for the earworm. Later in the day, I sat in an outdoor café that piped in a host of dreadful tunes, including Toto’s “Africa” and “Next Time I Fall in Love.” And just this morning in Kos, I went to a beach bar that was nice and quiet, ordered a drink and then was hit with an onslaught of Stevie Wonder’s “I Just Called to Say I Love You,” followed by a cover version of “The Careless Whisper” at ear-splitting volume. The truth is that travel can be hazardous to your aural health.

Sure, I could walk around with my iPod listening to Guided by Voices, The National, Neil Young and some of my other favorites, but when traveling with my wife and two children it wouldn’t be very sociable. And besides, listening to cheesy music can be fun, in small doses.

But I draw the line at being subjected to dreadful music at beach clubs or resorts where you can be held hostage by bad DJs for your entire trip. I love to hear the sound of the waves on a beach, not Bryan Adams singing “(Everything I do) I Do It For You.” I once stayed at a sublime Westin on the beach in Puerto Vallarta and loved the place save for the insidious soft rock hits that were piped into every conceivable nook and cranny of the grounds. By the end of the week, I think I’d heard DeBarge’s “Rhythm of the Night” approximately 14,000 times.

The odd thing about encountering rancid North American pop music outside North America is that you hear horrible songs you haven’t heard in ages but also learn about songs that somehow became popular without you noticing. I’ve often found myself speaking to a foreigner who can’t believe that an American has never heard of so-and-so, the American pop star that everyone knows about except for me.

Someday, my dream is to open my own hotel/resort so I can inflict my own musical tastes on the unsuspecting masses. But until then, I’ll be motoring, running on empty and continuing to search for that lost shaker of salt on the road, bad music and all.

Dogs Abroad: The Most Dog-Friendly Countries

by Elizabeth Seward on


I adopted my first dog as an adult last July. In January, I happened upon a stray dog and took him in, too. Now I have two dogs. It was only a year ago that I was without a dog and, in regard to traveling, without a worry. I now see that I took for granted my ability to hop on a plane to anywhere in the world and leave, for as long as I wanted to, prior to having dogs. Destinations still aren’t off limits for me – I can still go wherever I want to go – but my dogs can’t go everywhere with me and certain restrictions make it not worth trying in some cases. So where can we travel with dogs? What are the most dog-friendly countries?

The dog-friendly countries I have seen listed with the most frequency are below. If you have any you’d like to add to the list, please tell us about the country and respective rules in the comments.Belgium
Germany
Netherlands
France
Puerto Rico
Morocco

Bring Your Augmented Travel Agent Along For The Ride

by Chris Owen on

Often, planning a trip can call for using a travel agent. Venturing to unknown lands armed with the advice of someone who has been there before is always a good idea. Now, one travel organization is making it possible to take their agents along with you on your trip.

Travel Leaders Franchise Group will soon be releasing a travel app designed to arm their customers, and only their customers, with customized travel information.

At the time of booking, agents at Travel Leaders will provide a link that enables their clients to download the app prior to their departures. Armed with an augmented reality function, travelers point their devices at a landmark or location to instantly learn about the area’s top sites to visit, along with admission prices, hours of operation and reviews.

The app enables clients to “take their agents with them virtually on a trip,” Roger Block, president of Travel Leaders Franchise Group told Travel Weekly.

Destination content will be fully loaded at the time of the download so clients won’t incur any international roaming charges.

Feeling left out because you don’t have a Travel Leaders agent in your back pocket? Don’t. While this agent-loaded app is personal, so is the do-it-yourself version from TripIt.

The TripIt app takes travel-booking information – via direct entry or by forwarding confirmations from airlines, hotels and other travel service providers – and forms its own itineraries, complete with destination information.


[Flickr photo by U.S. Army via Compfight]

What 50 Euros A Night Buys In The Greek Isles Right Now

by Dave Seminara on

The day before we left for Greece, the newspaper headlines made it sound as though the country was about to disintegrate. “Greece on Brink of Collapse,” blared the U.K broadsheet The Daily Telegraph in a front page above the fold piece last week, after the International Monetary Fund said that Europe’s leaders should prepare for the possibility of Greece leaving the Euro zone.

We’ve been reading bad news about Greece for many months now, so the most recent news that Greece is about to hold yet another election and may very well leave the Euro zone is just the latest chapter in Greece’s economic free fall. Over the last year, protesters have run wild on the streets of Athens, and other Greek cities on several occasions, but why are some tourists avoiding Greece this year?

We spent most of the last month in Italy and I met several people who said that they considered the Greek Isles but decided against it based upon all the bad news coming out of Greece in recent months. A pharmacist in Kefalos named Bill, who gave my family a lift to the island’s lovely “Paradise Beach” told us that he has friends around Europe who asked him if there was enough food to eat in Greece.

“It’s ridiculous,” he said. “They see all the bad news on T.V. and think people are starving here.”

I have the opposite take – Greece is still safe, especially the Greek Isles, and with other tourists staying away, now is the time to visit as the crowds are thinner and the prices will probably never be better.Is there something unseemly about swooping into a country in crisis for travel bargains? The Greeks would say: hell no, please, please, please come to Greece! There is nothing you can do to help the Greeks more than to come here on your next holiday.

I’ve been in Kos with my family for just a few days but have already noticed that the crowds are light and the prices are enticing. After booking another hotel on the Internet before arriving, I walked into a place on the harbor called the Kosta Palace, and after a brief negotiation, I was offered a two-room apartment with Wi-Fi, a kitchenette and a balcony with no view for a family of four for 50 euros per night, including a copious, if aggressively mediocre, breakfast buffet.

Like nearly all mid-range Greek hotels, the place is nothing fancy. In fact, the furnishings at nearly all moderately priced hotels in Greece are practically identical – that is, not that stylish. But the room is clean and spacious, the Wi-Fi works (sometimes), the water pressure is good and the place has a nice pool and a stunning rooftop bar with panoramic views of Kos (see video). A couple can score a room here for as little as 45 euros through the end of May, and 55 euros through the end of June, which is awfully hard to beat.

Over the next six weeks, I’ll be traveling around the Greek Isles, starting in the Dodecanese islands in the eastern Aegean, so stay tuned for more updates on the situation in Greece.

[Photos and video by Dave Seminara- photo 1 was taken at the beach bar of Kos’s Hotel Artemis, photo 2 was taken at the Kosta Palace’s rooftop terrace.)

Losing My Ryanair Virginity

by Dave Seminara on

Ryanair, Easy Jet, German Wings and other discount airlines have changed how Europeans travel, but until last week, I’d yet to fly on a budget European airline and had no idea what to expect. After booking a ticket from Bari, Italy, to Kos in Greece several weeks ago on Ryanair, my expectations were very modest based upon a very annoying booking process and a series of warning emails I received about baggage and boarding procedures.

But my interactions with live Ryanair staff were pleasant and the flight itself was smooth sailing. Here are some observations and tips for flying on Ryanair.

Don’t use Google Chrome. After clicking through what seemed like a thousand pages offering me everything from rental cars to luggage, I clicked “purchase” but then my browser just spun fruitlessly for hours without confirming my purchase. It was unclear to me if the purchase went through, so I had to call Ryanair, which, like everything else associate with this airline, isn’t free. I was told that their site doesn’t support Google Chrome and that I should try again with Internet Explorer. I did so and the purchase went through without a hitch.

Be careful how you click. Ryanair’s booking process is a mess. You need to click or unclick a lot of different options. Do you want priority boarding? Would you like to buy some new suitcases? Do you want to get a text message with flight details? How about some travel insurance or a rental car? It goes on and on and on.

Better travel light. You’ll pay dearly for your checked baggage, and you need to estimate how much your bags will weigh. For my flight, bags up to 15 kg (33 pounds) cost €20 each, and bags up to 20 kg (44 pounds) cost €30. If your bags go over the limit you paid for, you pay €20 for each kilo over your allowance.

Think you’ll just bring a ton of stuff with you on board? Think again – you can only bring one item of cabin baggage per passenger weighing up to 10kg (22 pounds) with maximum dimensions of 55cm x 40cm x 20cm. If your carry-on is too heavy, they can refuse to allow you to bring it, or they can charge you a €50 surcharge to check it. And they don’t allow you to pool baggage weight, even if you are traveling with small children who don’t have baggage.

They kill you on the exchange rate. You have to keep clicking to figure out how much you’ll actually pay. This is how our tickets broke down for a family of four:

162.96 EUR Total Fare
8.00 EUR Passenger Fee: EU 261 Levy
1.00 EUR Passenger Fee: ETS
24.00 EUR Passenger Fee: Web Check in
60.00 EUR Passenger Fee: Checked Bag(s)
24.00 EUR Passenger Fee: Administration Fee
279.96 EUR Total Paid

The worst part is the awful exchange rate they give you. At the time I booked, the Euro was about 32 percent higher than the dollar but they gave us a ridiculous 42 percent exchange rate, bringing our €279 ticket up to $397. If we’d gotten the legit exchange rate, it would have been about $368.

No assigned seats. You’re required to print your boarding pass in advance, and can check in up to 15 days prior to your flight. I wasn’t willing to pay for a reserved seat, but our flight was only about half full, so I had no issues with the open seating policy. We boarded and the flight attendants told us we could sit anywhere beyond row 8, as the front of the plane was reserved for those who paid for priority boarding. Since we were traveling with small children, we got priority boarding, which was a nice touch.

You need some smokes? How about lottery tickets or phone cards? The first thing you might notice about Ryanair planes is that there’s no pouch on the seatback. People tend to stuff garbage in them and by eliminating these pouches it helps them turn the flights around quicker. Ryanair boasts the best on-time performance of any European carrier and they need to be efficient in order for their low cost business model to work.

Shortly after our flight took off, on time, the stewardesses started trolling the aisle with things for sale. I expected food and drinks, but the first items they trotted out were packs of cigarettes, lottery tickets and phone cards. What next, I thought, condoms? Or perhaps some Viagra? I thought about getting a chicken tikka plate for €5 but thought better of it. Soon enough, the young ladies were back again, this time with a selection of perfume and cologne. I didn’t need them but considered buying a bottle for a strongly scented gentleman behind me in the boarding line.

Verdict. I’ll fly Ryanair again without hesitation. Once you know the drill and learn how to navigate the booking process, it’s fine. Even with the dodgy exchange rate, the price we got was still better than the competition, and for me, that’s pretty much the bottom line.

[Photo by Alberto P Veiga on Flickr]