Spain cracks down on hookers, requires vests for streetwalkers

by Tom Johansmeyer on

It’s not the same as Amsterdam, and it’s much different from flipping through the Yellow Pages (do people still do that) here in New York for an attractive “escort service.” Spain does things differently, especially outside Els Alamus (in Catalonia). If you want to find some temporary companionship, look for the yellow fluorescent vests … at least, that’s what The Telegraph says.

The prostitutes have gotten a bit lazy about this, and the police are cracking down. A 2004 law requires that pedestrians on major highways wear “high visibility garments,” The Telegraph reports. That means all walkers – including street-walkers. The story continues:

A spokesman for the regional police force, the Mossos d’Esquadra said: “In the past couple of months the prostitutes have been fined for two reasons: for not wearing the reflective jacket and for creating danger on the public highway.”

Some believe that the town of Els Alamus is anti-hooker, as the bright-vest enforcement wave comes on the heels of a measure to ban “offering sex for sale in public urban areas.” In Spain, prostitution isn’t illegal, but it is a distinctly entrepreneurial affair: one can’t profit from another person’s sex work (basically, you can’t pimp, but you can work for yourself).

So, what can the hookers do instead of hit the streets? How about get a room?

[photo by indi.ca via Flickr]

Top ten hostels in Europe

by Alex Robertson Textor on

Staying in a hostel in Europe is a rite of passage for budget-conscious travelers making their way around the continent. This is particularly the case for budget-conscious younger travelers. Here are ten hostels across Europe that either receive particularly high user-review grades or are notorious enough in one or another way to be noteworthy.

St. Christopher’s at the Winston, Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Winston presents itself as “an interactive museum of modern art.” However it refers to itself, it is without question one of the most dynamic budget hotels in Europe, with a few hostel-style dormitory rooms on offer. It’s got a restaurant on the premises and a nearby nightclub, and is aesthetically far more exciting that your average hostel.

Långholmen, Stockholm, Sweden. Ever wanted to spend the night in a prison? OK, a former prison? Långholmen is a rehabbed prison located just a stone’s throw from Stockholm’s supercool Södermalm nabe. Fantastic, and not as austere as you might expect.

Good Bye Lenin, Krakow, Poland. Tucked away in a corner of Krakow’s history-rich Kazimierz neighborhood, Good Bye Lenin replays the aesthetics of Polish socialism in a cheery, friendly space. Very atmospheric and fun.

Balmers, Interlaken, Switzerland. In operation for over a century now, family-run Balmers is Switzerland’s oldest hostel. Balmers offers dormitory rooms, private rooms, and tent accommodations. And lots of fresh air, obviously.

Meininger, London, United Kingdom. The Meininger chain of hostels can be found mostly in big cities across Germany and Austria. The London outpost, though not particularly British in spirit, is a welcome, well-scrubbed addition to London’s dreary hostel scene.Oops! Hostel, Paris, France. Far more stylish than your average hostel, Oops! injects a blast of fun energy in Paris’ Latin Quarter. Hotel interiors wizard Philippe Maidenberg is responsible for Oops!’s fresh interior design.

Hostel Archi Rossi, Florence, Italy. One of the best loved hostels in Florence, Hostel Archi Rossi offers free wi-fi, free breakfast, and complimentary walking tours of Florence. Archi Rossi is very close to the Santa Maria Novella train station, too.

Kadir’s Tree Houses, Olympos, Turkey. Near Antalya on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, Kadir’s Tree Houses is a sprawling complex of bungalows, cabins, dormitory rooms, and campground. Kadir’s provides a great range of services (laundry and a travel agency, to name but two) and also includes both breakfast and dinner in its nightly rate.

The Pink Palace, Corfu, Greece. One of Europe’s most notorious party hostels, the Pink Palace is a garish temple of hedonism, just possibly the best place in the world to play spin the bottle in five languages. Woohoo!

Hotel 4 Youth, Berlin, Germany. There are two Hotels 4 Youth in Berlin. The branch on Schönhauser Allee gets especially high marks. 133 beds, conical pillows, and a few nice extras (seminar rooms, a pool room) make this a top Berlin hostel. Location in hip, bohemian Prenzlauer Berg is also a big plus.

(Image: foilman / Flickr)

Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar to undergo $100 million renovation

by Meg Nesterov on


One of Istanbul‘s most popular tourist destinations is getting a long-overdue makeover. The 550-year old Grand Bazaar is about to be infused with 140 million Turkish Lira (about $100 million USD) to renovate and update the covered market. Once plans are approved next month, work will begin at night to avoid disrupting day trade. The Grand Bazaar is over 45,000 square meters with nearly 3,600 shops selling everything from handmade rugs to gold jewelry to Turkish water pipes and was last renovated in 1894 after a major earthquake.

In addition to restoring the original features of the market, modernizing electrical work, the refurbishment aims to bring in more high-end Turkish and international brands to appeal to more local shoppers. While the bazaar currently sees about 500,000 visitors daily, only about 30% are local and name brands may attract more locals than tourist souvenir stalls. According to local newspaper Hurriyet Daily News, interested retailers include luxury goods label Vakko and supermarket chain Migros. With the Council of Monuments reviewing and approving plans, it is hoped that the Grand Bazaar will retain its heritage and avoid becoming another generic shopping mall. Regardless of new additions, locals and visitors can agree that cutting down on the large amount of stalls selling Made-in-China swag and “genuine” fake Gucci bags to make room for more traditional artisans could help preserve the unique landmark.

How to travel overseas with an iPod touch

by Amy Chen on

Rather than face exorbitant cell-phone roaming charges, my travel companion and I recently traveled to Europe with just an iPad and an iPod touch. Though that meant that we could only look up restaurants or things to do when we were in a free Wi-Fi spot, I enjoyed the break from my inbox. And rather than being tethered to Facebook updates, we both paid more attention to the scene at hand — though as soon as we landed at JFK, my travel partner immediately turned on his iPhone to check Facebook.

Over the course of eight nights, I stayed in six hotels that all had free Wi-Fi access. Here’s what I learned about traveling overseas with the fourth-generation iPod touch:

The iPod touch is an affordable way to stay connected while on the road. For the newest 8GB version with FaceTime, the iPod touch starts at $229, compared to the iPad’s $499 starting price tag. Since there is no data plan for the iPod touch, you don’t have to worry about incurring a monthly bill. Also, since both devices are light and compact enough to carry, I didn’t have to fret about leaving a laptop in our luggage, which we left with the hotel’s front desk during the day before moving on to the next one. Though I normally travel with a netbook in order to back up digital photos and clear memory cards, I solved the memory problem by bringing 18GB’s worth of SD cards, which was more than enough even when shooting RAW files.

Sometimes the iPod touch was able to log on faster than the iPad. For whatever reason, we sometimes couldn’t get the iPad to connect right away. Having two devices that could access the Internet also proved invaluable when plotting our next destination. I used the iPod touch to check simple things like the weather, the time (I still don’t wear a watch), and the train schedule. I also downloaded the free Oanda currency converter app, which I used to calculate exchange rates. Conversely, we used the iPad for booking hotels and travel entertainment.Keep your turned-off cell phone in a safe spot. I made a point to keep my regular cell phone turned off during my vacation, but I experienced a moment of panic at a restaurant when I discovered the phone at the bottom of my messenger bag — turned on. I spent the rest of my meal worrying about how expensive the roaming charges would be. As soon as I got back to my hotel, I checked my online cell-phone statement and was relieved to see that no major damage had been done by my carelessness. (I still have no idea how the phone powered on). Nevertheless, after that incident, I moved my cell phone into my bag’s side pocket so it would stay off and yet still be accessible during emergencies. And though my travel companion could have switched his iPhone to airplane mode and achieved the same effect as with the iPod touch, we found it easier to keep everything off — just in case.

Many hotels generate individual Wi-Fi passwords for each guest. Some hotels used a computer system to print out a unique Wi-Fi code for our stay. Other hotels used our passport number to create a password. One downtown hotel gave us a username and a password that we could use while sitting in the attached cafe. Even after we checked out, we’d stop by that cafe to order a coffee, rest our feet, check our e-mail, and look up restaurants. At one hotel, we were given a code for one week of complimentary Wi-Fi access, but unfortunately that was our last night so we weren’t able to take advantage of the pass.

Some hotels provided free Wi-Fi in the lobby but charged for Wi-Fi access in the room. In one hotel, we decided that sitting in the lobby was better than paying 15 euros for in-room Internet access. As it turned out, our room smelled like cigarette smoke so the less time we spent in there, the better.

[Photo by Amy Chen]

Reflections on a round-the-world journey

by Alex Robertson Textor on

Several nights into our journey, as we were speeding along dark roads en route to our guest house on the island of Lifou in New Caledonia, I felt a bolt of irrepressible excitement of the sort familiar, no doubt, to most travel enthusiasts. We’d just spent several nights in big, bold Sydney, a bona fide world city, well-organized and self-evident. Sydney was exciting, but, truth be told, not unlike many places I knew well. The quiet island of Lifou, with its hybrid French-Melanesian culture, provided a novel contrast. There were few people around, and few streetlights. The air smelled sweet. Occasionally a car overtook us during our 40-minute journey, and headlights once or twice revealed women in bright clothing walking along the side of the road.

We had made it to an unknown place. I felt myself caught up with that familiar emotion known to all who love travel: teeming excitement, tied to a lack of knowledge of what was to come.

Taking stock of a five-week trip after the fact is perhaps unavoidable, but it’s also fraught. You don’t want to put too much energy into second-guessing what you did on your journey, perhaps in particular because a specific round-the-world itinerary is unlikely to be repeated. Simultaneously, you also want to learn from the experience.

Here’s what we planned well and what we might have executed differently if we had the trip to do over.Good planning.

• Hotels. Our hotels were well chosen, all in the $95-$175 range. In terms of value, we did especially well by scoring a room through Hotwire at the Hilton London Docklands for just under $100 per night. Most of the hotels we chose are well-located, or close enough to secondary attractions to feel central.

• Open-ended approach. Our general lack of planning as far as activities are concerned was also beneficial. This approach gave us time to relax into each destination and pick up inspiration on the spot. Our approach perfectly fit my neighborhood-based strategy of urban exploration. More tourist sight-oriented travelers might find this approach to be less satisfying.

• Variety of destinations. Another plus was the variety of our itinerary’s destinations. By including big vibrant cities and out-of-the-way insular idylls on our itinerary, we were able to enjoy a range of experiences in a relatively short period.

So-so planning.

• Johannesburg. As I detailed in an earlier post, our brief Johannesburg stay suffered from poor planning. In retrospect, it turns out that I’d simply consulted the wrong sources. Several friends and acquaintances popped out of the woodwork following the publication of this blog post with tips. I’ll be better prepared for my next visit to Johannesburg. Lesson: always get feedback from your trusted contacts and carefully contextualize reports of a city’s security situation.

• Tanna Island. I’m a big fan of picking a base and then fanning out to other places. I wish we’d taken greater advantage of this approach to spend a few nights on Vanuatu’s Tanna island. I read about Tanna, an ecological wonder of nature, in Lonely Planet’s Vanuatu & New Caledonia guidebook. It is fairly easy to visit Vanuatu from New Caledonia.

• Rodrigues Island. Nine nights on Mauritius was perhaps two too many. A jaunt to the country’s far flung Rodrigues Island, 350 miles to the east, would have provided a fascinating cultural and physical contrast with the main island.

This is the final Capricorn Route series installment. Check out other stories in the Capricorn Route series here.