GADLING’S TAKE FIVE: Week of June 18

by Adrienne Wilson on

Time for another end of the week compilation of Gadling goodies you may have let slide by during the busy week. Here’s a look at some of our fav five once more:

5. Great Bistros:
Nothing rocks the socks off a well-seasoned traveler more than well-seasoned, savory, delectable, and toothsome cuisine from the locale they’re visiting. Agree? Neil points us to a Travel + Leisure piece on Great Bistros of Provence and if your mouth isn’t already watering from the suspense then perhaps you should hurry up and check it out now. Then let your senses and buds be taken by the delicious descriptions of all the yummy finds you’re missing in Provence.

4. Roadside America:
Long road trip planned through some pretty sparse areas of the country? Feel as if attractions are to few and far in between you and your final destination? Worry not – Erik kindly directs our attention to a life and road trip saving site called Roadside America. We’ve talked about it before on Gadling, but with summer here now you’ll want to plan ahead to so not to miss the World’s Largest Ball of Twine. Far out, right?

3. Roots Travel – African Ancestry:
Great, great way to plan a trip to Africa and possibly learn something about your family’s lineage. African Ancestry is a company helping individuals trace their DNA and find their roots. Too cool if you’re an African American or anyone who feels they may have an ounce of African  blood in their family tree. I’m already on the bandwagon to discovering more about my own lineage.

2. World Refugee Day:
There is never enough to be said for the growing population of refugees and to highlight the contributions made by refugees worldwide there is World Refugee Day. Events don’t end on June 20 though. Read the blurb and find ways to lend your hand to refugees after the date.

1. How to Get it All Into One Bag:
Packing – one of the biggest pains in travel! Argh! Just when you think you’ve got it down to a science you do something boneheaded like pack (insert your very unnecessary item here) and find later that you’ve created one of the biggest headaches ever. Take a look at this piece inspired by the Onebag.com site here on Gadling and share some of your own packing fixes. I think this is one refresher we can all use.

Cool Capitals

by Erik Olsen on

A lot of Flash interfaces for travel sites are too heavy and very confusing. Flash designers are often more self-involved with the design of a site rather than the functionality. I came across a site this morning that surprised me by its usefulness. Called coolcapitals, the site’s reach is limited as they only cover a few European cities including Amsterdam, Antwerp, Vienna and Zurich, and I hope they decide to expand, because the site is very informative.

So you click into one of the capitals and you find information on fashion, food, nightlife, hotels, etc. The interface is cute, with little people walking around and blocky little 8-bit buildings. Very cool.

Great Bistros

by Neil Woodburn on

Great Bistros of Provence. 

The title says it all.  And, the fact that this article was published in a classy, upscale magazine like Travel & Leisure, you just know that every single one of these great bistros are indeed great. 

I’ll just tempt you with a few of the items raved about and see if they tantalize your taste buds enough to click on over and check it out.

Marinated eggplant
Truffle omelette
Fresh-from-the-market ingredients
Saucisson de Lyon aux pistaches
Grilled orange roughy fillets drizzled with olive oil
Pan-roasted guinea hen paired with a tangy, tender lemon confit

 

Maine Lobster Fest Approacheth

by Erik Olsen on

Just a claw’s up:  The Maine Lobster Festival is coming once again to Rockland, Maine, and you need to be there. The festival turns the sleepy little town into a bacchanalia of crustacean cooking. This year’s Maine Lobster Fest takes place from August 2-6 and I can assure you that you will enjoy it.

There will be music, drinking, revelry and great gobs of steamy red lobsters waiting for you to dip their succulent flesh in butter and wash it all down with a local micro brew. Of course, the festival is not such a big hit with animal-rights activist, who got an unusual voice of support from the writer David Foster Wallace, whose treatise (pdf) on animal cruelty, will make you shift uncomfortably in your seat and perhaps never eat another live animal again…at least not one that screams when placed into a pot of boiling water.

Shamanizing

by Erik Olsen on


Admit it, you’ve always harbored a secret desire to getaway to the Amazonian rain forest, where you will hack your way into the deep, dark jungle to find a tribe that welcomes you, that offers you a potent drink containing a powerful hallucinogen, and after you try it, the heavens open up and all of life’s mysteries reveal themselves to you. Unfortunately, you end up with one heck of a hangover. Oh, and you forget most of what you learned. Sorry about that. After effects, you know. But you did take away one morsel of wisdom: those big green leaves in the jungle: they make really cool hats.

Alas, you and I are not likely to fraternize with shamans any time soon, but the folks over at National Geographic did just that recently, and they brought along a video crew. Yes, two Americans, including one of my current writing idols Kira Salak, went to the Peruvian rain forest to try ayahuasca, a kind of jungly LSD/Mescaline drug that the locals use for ceremonies… and to play jokes on their bosses (Memo? I wasn’t supposed to have that memo done today? What, are you on ayahuasca?). 

But seriously, this is wonderful story-telling and a cool story. I spent a wee bit of time in the Amazon years ago and very much dreamed of taking the time to plunge into the forest to do exactly this. Of course, I didn’t. Couldn’t stand the mosquitoes.