The Best Hostels to Get Wasted In

by Catherine Bodry on

Martha’s post on her drunken debauchery across the globe got me thinking about the hostels I used to seek out in my infant days of traveling. Eager for familiar accents and the kind bonding that 10 hours of drinking will bring, I was drawn like a mosquito to juicy flesh to any establishment my trusty Lonely Planet profiled as “full of drunken American college students.” While those descriptions were probably meant to deter travelers from that type of lodging, they served as guiding lights for me. I’m a little bit ashamed to admit all this now, but at the time I fully embraced being such a cliché. (Although now I’m probably just a different cliché.) But staying at places like these made me feel a little less lonely (and a lot less sober). And I had a great time.

A few that come to mind are Balmer’s Herbage in Interlaken, Switzerland; the Pink Palace on Corfu, Greece, and the Flying Pig in Amsterdam. The photos on the front pages of their websites ought to clue you in as to how you’ll sleep if you’re hunkered down in one of their bunks.

I know these aren’t the only three; where are the other party hostels?

Russian Mother Gives Birth to Enormous 17.5 lb Baby Girl!!

by Matthew Firestone on

A Russian woman has given birth to a baby girl weighing 17.5 pounds, more than twice the average newborn weight.

“We were all simply in shock,” reported the baby’s mother, Tatyana Barabanova. “My husband couldn’t say a thing – he just stood there blinking.”

The baby girl, Nadia, was by delivered by Caesarean section at a hospital in the Altai region of Siberia, and will be joining her eight sisters and three brothers.

All of Tatyana’s previous babies weighed more than 11 pounds.

“We don’t have the money for special foods so I just ate potatoes, noodles and tomatoes,” added Tatyana.

Calling All Cubists

by Brett Atkinson on

Is that what you call someome who is a whiz at solving a Rubik’s Cube? Either way the best on the planet at working out those challenging little cubes of coloured plastic will be heading to Budapest for the 2007 World Rubik’s Cube Championship on October 5.

It’s fitting the Hungarian capital will host the event as the devilish device was let loose on the world by Hungarian Erno Rubik in 1980.

Other crazes to emerge in the decade that taste forgot were Milli Vanilli and Cabbage Patch Kids, but neither has had the staying power of the Rubik’s Cube.

With world championship contenders aiming for a time of under 10 seconds – the world record of 9.86 seconds is held by Thibaut Jacquinot of France – it promises to be quite a show.

Thanks to Toni Blay on Flickr for the pic.

Pack Your Bags Now. Germany Proposes Seven-Year Limit on Marriages

by Iva Skoch on

I know what you are thinking. Seven years is still eternity by the standards of some. It is still a long time to stay with someone you married in Vegas intoxicated. Either way, restricting marriages to only seven years sounds like the best idea the 21st century has put on the table so far. Followed closely by the iPod, of course.

Gabriele Pauli, a German politician, has put the temporary marriage issue on her agenda. This is how it works: “You will only commit for a fixed period and will actively have to renew your vows if you still want to continue,” she explains. If they don’t want to continue, there is no need for divorce.

Now, somebody needs to figure out what to do with children born into temporary marriages. Do I hear temporary child rental?

Also:

Photo of the Day (09/24/07)

by Iva Skoch on

I took this photo last week in Bohdalov, Czech Republic about 150km southeast of Prague. It was a glorious fall morning with fog rolling over the lakes. Clearly, it was not as much about my photography skills as it was about mother nature making a statement but still, I was pretty proud of this photo.