Towering cow sculptures made from cars scattered throughout Finland

by Elizabeth Seward on

If you’ve been penning a list detailing your reasons to visit Finland, here’s another brick for that rationalization wall: cow sculptures. Miina Äkkijyrkkä is a Finnish sculptor who previously spent time studying dairy farming. Now she constructs gigantic sculptures depicting cows, but she builds these artsy towers with a unique material–cars. Based in Helsinki, Miina travels all over the country to source her old cars from scattered dealers. On her website, she includes cow photography. It appears as though this artist does, indeed, create straight from the heart, as she should. At first read, this might all seem a little ridiculous to you. But even if it is ridiculous in your books, her art is simply magnificent–innovative and, of course, huge. When I finally make it to Finland, which I’m hoping will be sooner than later, I’m going to seek out these multicolored, metal cow structures.

Thanks: Inhabitat.com

Yerevan: Covered food market

by Alex Robertson Textor on

Markets are great places for getting a sense of what makes a place tick, for grasping both the local agricultural bounty of a place and its culinary inclinations. Yerevan’s covered food market presents no exception to this general principle.

It’s physically a very impressive site, looking for all intents and purposes like an ornate Jugendstil airplane hanger. It is lively and fascinating, a great place for observing life in the capital of Armenia as well as for shopping for fruits, vegetables, and spices.

Stall owners at the covered food market have perfected the art of the medium sell, occupying that fantastic space between insouciance and overbearing intensity. Visitors are invited to inspect and taste products by salespeople, who in turn know how to read cues and back off when appropriate. My half-hour stay resulted in a dozen offers to try samples of nuts, dried fruit, and various spices. One fellow was so rapid-fire with his offerings of dried and candied fruit that I had to bow out. There is, after all, only so much dried stone fruit that a person can eat in 90 seconds. The entrepreneurial instinct turns the market into a hands-on place. At one point, a salesman dipped his finger into a bag of cardamom and brought it to my lips.

Pricing at the market is pretty reasonable, which makes it a great place for picking up food for immediate consumption and gifts alike. My wishlist was short: saffron and honey.Saffron is particularly well represented at the market, with many stands offering the very pricey spice. A small cup of saffron costs 1000 drams (about $2.65); a special rare saffron of identical weight was priced at 5000 drams ($13.20). Iran currently produces most of the world’s saffron, and Iranian saffron can be purchased all over the market. The Iranian saffron on offer is professionally packaged (in distinction to the local variety, which is very informally enclosed in lidded plastic condiment cups) and also considerably more expensive. The ubiquity of Iranian saffron here can be explained by proximity. Armenia’s border with Iran is just five hours by car from Yerevan.

My honey needs were easily met. Several vendors sell the stuff in old soft drink bottles among other repurposed containers. For anyone wanting to purchase a labeled jar of honey, there is a stall under the arcade on the right side of the market (entering from Mesrop Mashtots Avenue) that sells delicious honey by Multi-Agro, a local brand. A small 150 gram jar costs 550 drams ($1.45).

The market’s visitors are mostly residents, with a handful of tourists wandering through. If you don’t look like a local you will probably attract a fair amount of attention from stall operators.

Check out other posts in the Far Europe and Beyond series.

Volvo Ocean Race kicks off from Alicante, Spain

by Grant Martin on

It’s dark when I wake up in Alicane, with heavy, blue-grey storm clouds twisting upwards through the Mediterranean sky. Somewhere, 10,000 feet above this small Spanish city the gods are fighting over weather patterns; there’s a dash of clear blue sky here and a seam of storm clouds there, a maelstrom of wind, cloud, rain and energy hashed up atmosphere. In my view, it’s the perfect condition for sailing.

Out on Team Abu Dhabi’s VO 70 though, the weather conditions take a turn. Stale, soft wind starts to blow in from the southwest and our head sail softens. So the officials delay race start for another twenty minutes. In the mean time, our skipper Ian Walker spends time prepping his crew and exploring the winds around the race waters. And we wait.

It’s the day before the official launch to the Volvo Ocean Race and I’m out on a practice run with Team Abu Dhabi, who have invited me to come out and explore their operation before the kickoff. Alicante, a modest city two hours southwest of Valencia is both the opening port for the race as well as home base for the media operations and the upcoming Volvo Ocean Race museum. Over the next nine months, six teams will sail from here around the horn of Africa up into Abu Dhabi, around India, into China, across the perilous southern ocean and then into the Americas before reaching European shores once more.

Many among the management compare the event to the Everest of sailing but it’s more than that. It’s years of boat building, design, planning and execution. It’s the logistics of hop scotching tons of freight and support staff among ten ports across the planet, alternating ports to keep up with the boats. It’s holding onto your guts amidships when the swells of the southern ocean are trying like hell to pull them out of you.

There’s a grave determination among the eleven men on this ship as we cross the starting line and dig into the first leg of our race. Each spinnaker will be cast and folded hundreds of times in the next nine months, each sailor pushed to his limits. In Alicante, the weather is warm and the men are still strong and cheerful. Our world – this ocean will soon have its way with them.

[Editor’s note: Team Gadling joined the Volvo Ocean race at the request and expense of Team Abu Dhabi. Media support made the ships sail no faster nor the writers get any wetter while on assignment.]

Westport Sea2Summit adventure race allows athletes to experience the beauty of Ireland

by Jessica Festa on

Held in Westport, Ireland, the Westport Sea2Summit adventure race will take place on Saturday, November 12, 2011. The race incorporates some of the biggest thrills in Westport, including Croagh Patrick, Clew Bay, the Sheaffry Mountains, and the new greenway.

Two separate races, each with three categories, will include road running, cycling, mountain hiking, obstacle courses, and a sea run across a shore line (the maximum height of the water will be 2 feet deep). The first race is the Sea2Summit Spirit, which caters to participants who have never done an adventure race before, while the Sea2Summit Supreme gives athletes an extra challenge. The three categories for each race include Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced.

For more information or to sign up for the race yourself, click here.

Video: One girl’s solo hike through Iceland

by Jessica Festa on

In the summer of 2011, Austrian photographer and cinematographer Klara Harden hiked solo through Iceland. During the expedition she worked on a film project, documenting the entire journey and acting as her own film crew. The images are breathtaking as she shows varied scenery of mountains, brooks, terrain, valleys, glaciers, volcanoes, homes, and more during her 25-day expedition.


MADE IN ICELAND from Klara Harden on Vimeo.