A video bike trip from Berlin to Istanbul

by Jeremy Kressmann on

Josh Wedlake spent a month riding a bicycle from Berlin to Istanbul. Not only was his ride an impressive feat of endurance, the animated video recreation he’s made of his trip is nearly as amazing. For over four months upon his return, Josh was animating and editing a 3D version of his journey using an open-source animation tool called Blender.

Not only does the film provide viewers with a beautiful visual feast, Wedlake provides a wonderful accompanying narration, loaded with deep reflections and plenty of poignant moments. Passionate travelers like Josh are inventing a new method of travel storytelling, using digital tools and new methods to bring their experiences to life.

Best of all, Josh is raising money from his ride and the video to donate to charity. If you like the film, you can offer a donation here and here.

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Ten Great Cities for Photography

by Gadling Staff on

Some cities just draw you in, beckoning you to capture their souls on camera. There are billions of places in the world where photo ops abound — The Pyramids, Rome, London, and The Great Wall of China are a few of the most famous examples.

Here are ten less common places where magnificent scenery, people, and everyday life are like no other — and can lead to some terrific travel photography.

Budapest, Hungary

Quite simply, Budapest has the most exquisite architecture. The detail of the buildings is like no other, especially at dusk — they all seem to change color with the succession of each frame.

Further, the winding River Danube dividing the city is a spectacular sight, with its bridges spaced at precise intervals.

Fira, Santorini Islands, Greece
Everyone has seen images of Santorini, one of the famed Greek Islands, but somehow when it’s captured through your own lens, it speaks to you of ancient time and tradition, of a different culture that you have only read about in history books.

Views of the volcano and spectacular sunsets in Fira, Santorini’s capital city, seem surreal. The people and their faces, the blue sky touching the blue water — both blue, yet somehow distinct — and the white stucco houses and churches, restaurants and tavernas are images that bring a serenity to your heart and a love for all things Greek!

Tokyo, Japan
Alive and bustling around the clock, people-watching in Tokyo is like no other place on earth. The vibrancy of this 24-hour city — the neon signs and jumbo-trons in Shibuya, the color, the streets — you don’t know where to look first.

Divided into sections called wards, each section has its own allure. Despite the differences among the wards, though, you can easily sense the fast pace of this city in its photos.

San Francisco, California, USA
Synonymous with diverse culture, ocean scenery, and unusual topography, this San Francisco is a photographer’s best friend. The streets winding through here — from exclusive Nob Hill, to Chinatown, from Fisherman’s Wharf, to the Embarcadero, from Haight Ashbury, to the Mission District — provide the contrasts of life in this hilly town.

Moreover, the fantastic views of the San Francisco and Bay Bridges make for a fantastic portfolio of visual memory. Even the weather is photogenic — with it’s rolling fog enveloping the bridges and hovering close to the ocean.

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Paris, France
No list would be complete without mentioning Paris, for obvious reasons. Despite having seen thousands of images of the Eiffel Tower or the Arc de Triomphe, each one still makes me gasp just a little. Moreover, taking my own photographs of the sights of Paris, both day and night, make me smile.

This sophisticated City of Lights has “that Wow Factor.” Snapshots of Moulin Rouge, Sacre Coeur, The Louvre with it’s glass pyramid, or sitting on a park bench in the Jardin des Tuileries capturing the heart of the French people, all display such a span of eras in France — new versus old. The meandering Seine River, with boats lazily drifting by, reflect a relaxing calm. The allure of this city is that even if you have never visited, you can identify it unmistakably through photos.

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Nazare, Portugal
This seaside village, north of Lisbon, is an out-of-the-way, modest, fishing village. The people sitting on their stone sidewalks, playing musical instruments, or selling fruits and nuts under colorful umbrellas, have that intriguing look from another time. Their happy and smiling faces will fill your lens with joyful simplicity. Even the food is delightful to photograph with it’s authentic ethnicity, caught right at the ocean’s edge and cooked to perfection.

One of the other things you may be drawn to in Nazare are the old doors and doorways, brightly colored and uniquely shaped and sized. A collection of those door photos is one of my prized possessions, since it always conjures memories of my visit.

Obidos, Portugal
This l3th century Portuguese town, built within a castle, is a step back in time. Nowhere else I’ve seen can you zoom back in time that far while surfing the Net in the local cafe.

Capturing people at work here — serious and intense — in Obidos was my favorite, not to mention that they still live in colorful village apartments above their stone shops with clay roofs, surrounded by olive trees and churches. It’s here in this picturesque village that I’ve captured countless photos of the intricate stone and exquisite tile work for which the Portuguese are famous.

Lucca, Italy
Calling all food and wine lovers! Lucca, a city in central Italy, beckons you. Located on a wall with an amazing array of churches, this village waits to be viewed and appreciated.

In Lucca, you can learn to cook and eat Italian food, bike, sightsee and capture the most unforgettable photos of authentic Italian life. Nothing is more beautiful here than pictures of food, because in Italy, food is an art!

Hollywood, California, USA
Hooray for Hollywood! Quintessential Tinseltown! This is where star-gazing in every form is a pastime. Celebrities abound, and glitz and glamor is everywhere. All the landmarks, from Hollywood and Vine, to Sunset Boulevard, to Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, seem surreal and indulgent.

Everyone’s seen images of Santorini, but when it’s captured through your lens, it speaks of time and tradition, of a culture you’ve only read about in history books.

Casts of characters (literally and figuratively) line the streets, sometimes in the flesh and sometimes in the form of the Walk of Fame Stars. It’s everywhere, waiting for the eye of the lens. be sure to keep your camera firmly in hand, ready for that celebrity sighting.

Road Town, Tortola, BVI
Down into the Caribbean Sea we go to capture a special kind of tranquility in photography. The small Island of Tortola, BVI, (capital city: Road Town) accessible by a ferry, entices you right at the dock.

The houses are brightly painted in Caribbean blues and greens, with splashes of pinks and corals. There’s nothing like a photo of that gorgeous aqua clear-to-the-bottom water! Further, sunsets on Cane Garden Bay are tranquil purples, golds and blues. Also, the slower pace is evident and amazingly (and easily) conveyed through a lens.

Hundreds of thousands of places around the world are worthy of being photographed, but these wonderful places are each a treasure trove to be captured and remembered.

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Want more? Don’t forget to check out Gadling’s series, “Through The Gadling Lens,” which explains how to get the most out of your travel photos.

Worst travel mistakes of the 2000’s: Diplomatic Dipsticks

by Andrew Evans on


As we take time to count our travel sins of the past decade, I get all teary-eyed and indecisive. Where to begin? Couldn’t we just say “Iraq” and be done with it? And are we including food mistakes? ‘Cuz I got some real doozies: how about shrimp ceviche from a quaint Mexican beach cafe or fresh cut watermelon in India? Uh, those would be travel mistakes, no? But like, since we’re trying to refrain from the scatological (are we?), I choose to relate the following story of which I may or may not have played a small cameo role:

Once upon a time, there were two young men working in Brussels, preparing to embark on a business trip to poor, struggling, deprived Eastern Europe. Filled with kindness and goodwill, the two decided they would add a charitable purpose to their journey by driving across Europe in their vehicle–a beige, 1975 Mercedes with a good 250,000 km under her belt–and filling it with used office computers to give away to the lesser half of the digital divide.

in order to ease their way through the red tape of certain notorious Eastern European countries, the boss of the young men lent them a pair of expired diplomatic license plates, which (in Euro-capital Brussels) tends to grant you permission to do whatever you want: park on the sidewalk, speed a little bit, drive like a maniac, etc. So, the young men screwed on the two red license plates and set off on their grand cross-European adventure.

Feeling confident with their special diplomatic status, the young men parked in the city center of lovely Budapest for a break. They wandered about for hours sightseeing and upon returning, discovered not one, but TWO parking tickets fluttering from the car’s windshield wiper. As they wrung their hands with worry for this small misfortune, a Hungarian policeman approached them, pointing out the fresh car ticket and asking for additional information. Immediately after that, a second Hungarian policeman approached from the rear, pointing to the second parking ticket.The young men stood back and watched with awe as the two Hungarian policemen began to argue with each other. Both policeman had issued parking tickets, both wanted glory for punishing the foreign offenders and yet, upon closer look, they had in fact issued tickets to two different cars. The pair of diplomatic license plates were actually different number plates gleaned from different cars, and each cop had recorded only one of the numbers on the ticket. It was also soon revealed that both were expired plates. The young men could not respond to the policemen’s inquiry as to the actual registration number for their car. This led to the car getting towed to the outskirts of Budapest and a thorough search being conducted during which time, a dozen computers were found stashed in the backseat and trunk of the car.

To make a long story short, it was something of an international incident that required some top-level EU intervention to resolve. Anyone who traveled in Central and Eastern Europe in the early 2000s will remember the huge stolen car rackets that pervaded and made it nigh impossible to rent a car. After this little glitch, it was a miracle that the car was eventually released back to the young men and they were able to drive back to Brussels.

And so the moral of the story is: When in Budapest, make sure your back matches your front. Always.

One-day sale from Intrepid Travel starts now!

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Intrepid Travel puts together some amazing trips, and today’s deal will make them even more accessible than usual. For the next nine hours, trips will be discounted deeply … all Intrepid trips … more than 400 of them. Price cuts range from 15 percent to 60 percent in this rare opportunity.

Trips departing soonest, of course, come with the greatest price breaks. Book an excursion that leaves in July, and you can generally knock 60 percent off the price. Those taking off in August can net you a savings of 30 percent, with the rest of the year’s trips 15 percent off.

The sale starts now and runs until 7:30 PM this evening. Each includes all accommodations and land transportation, some meals and a guide.

After the jump, you’ll get a sense of how much you can save.

Inca Encounter: this nine-day jaunt from Lima to Cuzco in Peru is only $664, down from $1,660

Road to Budapest: spend 15 days going from Vienna to Budapest for $692 – instead of $1,730

Kenya Adventure: eight days in Kenya will cost only $604, rather than $1,510

18 unique travel experiences for the well traveled

by Kraig Becker on

So you think you’ve been everywhere and done everything? Is their something missing when you travel these days? Is the sense of adventure gone? Never fear, because the Times Online has compiled an interesting list of 18 unique travel experiences that are designed to give us a special experience on our getaways.

The suggestions on the list run the gamut from adventurous to decadent to down right surreal. For instance, if you’re headed to southern Africa, then you might want to stay with the bushmen of the Kalahari Desert, where you’ll have the opportunity to go on an initiation hunt and spend the night in their village. If that seems like you might be roughing it a bit too much, than perhaps you’d prefer to spend the night on a private island and go sailing off the coast of Croatia. How about taking an exclusive tour of Nefertari’s Tomb in Egypt, where you’ll be one of just 20 visitors in the soon to be closed monument. Or, how about the workout of a lifetime when you’ll be training with the the toughest rugby team on the planet, New Zealand’s All Blacks, , for one very intense week.

Each of the travel experiences comes with a good description of what you can expect on your unique adventure. A link is included to the travel company that is offering the trip, along with expected prices, in this case listed in pounds. But be warned, these one-of-a-kind experiences don’t come cheap, but how do you put a price tag on this kind of excitement?