Prague’s Charles Bridge For Sale

by Iva Skoch on

As if Madonna is not causing enough stir with her European tour, she got herself wrapped up in another controversy.

Louis Vuitton invited her to perform at a party on the Charles Bridge before her September concert in Prague. She accepted. The controversy is not with Madonna this time, it is with the bridge. LV booked the 14th century Czech national treasure for a mere $54,000 from Sept. 6-10, just to throw a private VIP party.

It would require the city to close it to all traffic for those days. Starved for cash (and probably after a few bribes) the City of Prague actually said yes, until some historians and politicians raised a big stink about it.

In an article titled Material World, the Prague Post quoted a senator who said that the Charles Bridge is no “whore for sale” and compared renting the bridge to “holding an eating party inside St. Vitus Cathedral [the famous Gothic church inside the walls of Prague Castle].”

Enough people protested that the city actually had to call the party off, suggesting to LV that they can take the waterfront instead. Poor little VIPs. Must feel a lot like wanting a Louis Vuitton bag and settling for a Gap totebag instead.

The Appalachian Trail

by Erik Olsen on

Ever since Bill Bryson’s book A Walk in the Woods, the Appalachian Trail has become de rigeur as a hiking spot in the United States. Not that people hadn’t heard of the AT and it’s infamous “blazes” (painted trail markers slashed on trees along the way), but he definitely make it more popular. The AT is about as fine a place to hike as there is in the US, with many various types of terrain and the chance to see deer, bears and lots of other wildlife. I’ve only been on a few limited sections of the trail, but it’s total length is damn impressive. It basically stretches the entire vertical length of the East Coast.

If you’re interested in checking out the trail a great place to go and gather information about it and to get a feel for what hiking the trail entails is the Official Appalachian Trail Association web site. It’s not as detailed as it could be ,but it’s a fine start. There are lists of books you can get, a general overview section and some trail stories from the intrepid folks who have done the trail…or parts of it anyway. Of course, there is more information there if you choose to become a member. The cost to do so is $25 (student rate) to $600 (for a lifetime membership. (Another good site is Fred.net’s state by state look at the trail.) At the very least it’s a good cause, as the trail truly is one of the nation’s treasures.

Cape Verde

by Erik Olsen on

Cape Verde is a tiny West African archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean that is beginning to attract a lot of interest. An all-new international airport opened on the island of Santiago and hotels are being bult like mad. So what’s all the fuss? Well, the country is divided into two groups of islands: Northern Windward “Barlavento” (Boa Vista, Santo Antao, S. Vicente, Sao Nicolau and Santa Luiza) and Southern Leeward “Sotavento” (Brava, Fogo, Maio and Santiago). It is a remarkably diverse place, being, as is was, a crossroads for traders for several centuries. It attracted so many different cultural groups that the resulting mix of culture there can be quite baffling.

The official language is Portuguese, but Creole is spoken too. So is English. The food is so diverse there is said the be a specific Cape Verde cuisine. Sites to see include the volcanic Mt. Fogo, UNESCO Heritage town of Cidade Velha and the picturesque Mindelo. If you want to learn more, then listen to journalist Martin Corben’s dispatch from 2004. Also, be sure to check out the Wikipedia entry on the country because the photos are just fabulous.

Fresh Fruits and the Nude Beach of Sauvie Island, Oregon

by Iva Skoch on

Portland, Oregon, is home to some wonderful sights and is a terrific, vibrant town nestled in some of the best scenery in the country. But, however picturesque the city is, you might still need to “get away from it all.” One of the best places to go is a small alluvial island near the convergence of the Columbia and Willamette (pronounced will-A-mit, sounds like “dammit”) rivers, called Sauvie Island.

It’s actually minutes from the center of town, but it’s worlds away. Here, the lovable hippie-grunginess of the Pacific Northwest meets the quaintness of Tuscany and the vistas of Switzerland. You can find ‘u-pick’ farms growing vegetables and flowers, along with dairy cows, horses, and a big wildlife preserve. There are camping locations, nature trails and beaches.

Right now is the time to head there to grab your late-summer-harvest fresh foods. Make sure to try the different berries indigenous to this region, such as the marionberry, which even grow wild on the roadsides. If you are not afraid of starches, test your orientation skills in the Corn Maize, an annual maze cut through a farmer’s field. A tip for runners or cyclists: the paved portion of the island is a scenic 12-mile loop of good, flat pavement.

The best time to go is early morning, when the quiet little rural island is still waking up. Clear days offer gorgeous views of both Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Hood and very little traffic. It’s common legend that it has Portland’s only nude beach; but this, I can neither confirm or deny. I can confirm, however, as a former resident, that the legendary Pacific Northwest “Pillsbury-doughboy tan” can be spotted here, in the wild.

Lonely Planet’s Brooklyn Get Together

by Erik Olsen on

I got stuck at work last night and was pretty much set on just heading back home and collapsing in front of an episode of Lost or something with a bowl of Pad Thai on my lap. But then I remembered I’d been invited to this little shindig over in Brooklyn put on by the folks at Lonely Planet. Some free vittles, Stella on tap, so I figured why not. I boarded the L train and headed over and, as so often happens in New York, a little event that you hadn’t much thought about turned out to be a great time. I met, like, seven or eight Lonely Planet writers, and chatted with them about working for LP and the whole travel-guide-as-career experience (less inspiring than you might think…but, hey, you know you’d still give it a whack).

One of the guys I met is pictured here. His name is Robert Reid and he’s one of the writers on the forthcoming New York City book as well as several books on Latin America. His photo over at the LP makes him look a bit like Che Guevara’s studious little brother, but as you can see in the photo here, he cleans up well.

As a side note, I have to confess that an LP guide on New York seems a bit odd to me. I mean, LP books are always about places you go, where you escape. They’re not about where you live. But of course that’s downright silly. LP’s Frank Ruiz, their media maven (pictured here with colleague Cindy Cohen…and a good dude) suggested he’d send me a copy and I will dutifully review it here. After all, who better to judge if the NYC guide is any good than a New Yorker?

Anyway, the LP event last night was also meant to bring attention to National Passport month, LP’s drive to get more Americans with passports in their hands (a measly 25 percent of us have passports…what is wrong with us! If you don’t have yours, go out TODAY and get it. Yes, I know the lines are long at the passport office, but please, do it, it will be worth it). There was also a big motor home outside the Galapagos Restaurant where some of the crew from the upcoming show Road Trip Nation were hanging out. So I chatted with them for a while, too, and even got a DVD of the show.

An altogether prosperous night, philosophically speaking, wouldn’t you say?