On eBay: chestnut from Anne Frank’s tree

by Catherine Bodry on

When Anne Frank was hiding in Amsterdam, she often gazed at a chestnut tree outside her attic hiding place, about which she then recorded in her famous diary.

The chestnut tree has been condemned, as its trunk is so diseased it could topple over. But before the tree is cut down this Wednesday, one entrepreneur was able to snatch a relic and attempt to make a profit on it. Charles Kuijpers, who lives next door to the tree’s garden, has put one chestnut from the tree up for sale on eBay.

Bids at the time of writing were at $700. How much would you pay?

The Amazing Race 12, Episode 2 recap

by Martha Edwards on

It’s Episode 2 of season 12 of The Amazing Race and the show starts out with teams starting to leave at (ugh) 12am. Their mission? To get to Amsterdam as quickly as possible. First we watched them as they drove to the Shannon airport, and I got a good laugh at the two blonds, Shanna and Jennifer — first they commented on how difficult the race is because, like, oh my god, they haven’t been able to get a manicure. Then the one driving couldn’t figure out how to turn on her highbeams, so she had to hold down the lever the whole time because it was obviously busted. “Unless I’m an idiot …“, she says. Um, no comment. Also, on the way to the airport, Donald and Nick (Grandpa and Grandson) got a flat tire. Poor guys.

Once the teams made it to the airport, all but Mariana and Julia made it onto the first flight to Dublin. From there, six teams made it onto the flight to Amsterdam, with Ronald and Christina and Nick and Donald vying to make it on standby. Both were at side-by-side ticket booths and while Ronald made sure to be polite, Nick didn’t extend the same courtesy and was a bit crass. But it paid off — Nick and Donald made it onto the flight, but the ended up getting a *very* stern talking to from Ronald. Ouch. But the moral of the story? Rude works.

A word about Ronald. He was hard to watch this week, if you ask me — he was constantly lecturing or criticizing his daughter when he could have been doing something productive like, um, I don’t know, the task at hand? I think it was mentioned that he is in sales and I can see that — he doesn’t seem to ever stop talking. He describes himself as optimistic with real truth flavour, but I would call him nitpicky. However, I loved his shirt — it read ‘Who’s your daddy.‘

Once they got to Amsterdam, the groups headed to a bridge (didn’t catch the name of it) and encountered a detour. They got to chose between rigging complicated knots and hoisting furniture up to a fourth-floor window of a Dutch house, or combing through thousands of bikes to find two with specific colours, then riding them to the next clue. It was pretty well divided — half the teams chose the furniture and half chose the bikes. Shanna, one half of team blond, did a pretty impressive job on the rope-rigging and furniture hoisting, I must say, as did Vyxsin (I’ve noticed that she usually does the physical work on team Goth. Not that there’s anything wrong with that — just sayin’ … )

After they completed this task, they headed to a rural area where they encountered a roadblock. One team member had to pole vault across a muddy bog to retrieve the next clue. This was by far my favourite part of the show — it was like watching some Japanese blooper reel, since so many people fell into the muddy water. I got the most satisfaction out of seeing Jennifer of Jennifer and Nathan fall butt-first into the canal on her first try — her constant banshee-like shrieking at Nate is really starting to get on my nerves. I felt bad for Grandpa Donald because he had such a hard time with it, but he did provide some comic relief by stripping down to his ginch. Kynt was very hesitant to vault across the pond — afraid to ruin his makeup or muddy his fishnet arm thingies, hmmm?

Next up, teams had to ride to the pit stop, Durgerdam. Well, to be precise, one team member peddled and one rode in a big bin in front. Vyxsin, of course, did the peddling, until she got fed up and insisted Kynt do it. Jennifer and Nate’s ride was, as expected, filled with more shrieking, interlaced with dirty talk about other teams — she called Shanna a ‘little b***h’ for being a better pole vaulter.

Lorena and Jason made it first and each won themselves a speedbike. Jennifer and Nate were second, followed by Jennifer and Shanna in third and Kynt and Vyxsin in fourth. Kate and Pat were last, and though they weren’t my favourites, I felt kind of sad for them because they were one of the only teams this episode that seemed to be getting along and enjoying the journey.

All in all, I was thoroughly entertained by this episode — there was a great balance between drama and comedy. Your thoughts?

(All photos from The Amazing Race Official Website)

Pot Fest in Amsterdam

by Neil Woodburn on

While we here at Gadling do not advocate the use of drugs, we suspect that some of our readers might feel otherwise. And so, as a public service announcement for all you pot heads out there, we’d like to point your pie eyes in the direction of Amsterdam later this month where the 20th annual Cannabis Cup will celebrate five days of getting stoned.

I’m not sure what will happen November 18 – 22 during the festival because the website is a bit short on information; it looks like someone got too baked and forgot to post an itinerary of events.

It does appear, however, that there is some type of competition amongst 21 coffee shops and 25 seed companies. In addition, Tommy Chong and Cheech Marin will be inducted into the Counterculture Hall of Fame. Wow, I can’t believe that it’s taken this long for the poster children of the pot movement to receive this honor. I’m sorry, but are you telling me that there have been 19 better qualified honorees over the last two decades of this festival?!?!

Anyway, if weed is your thing, be sure to head off to Amsterdam for five days of amnesia. Oh, and don’t forget your passport. And your wallet. And your pants. And your shoes. And to tell your boss you won’t be coming in to work. And don’t forget your passport too.

“Suicide Tourism” in New York

by Abha Malpani on

Just the title gives me the chills. I believe most people travel to enrich their lives, to explore the world, to grow as people, to relax, to have fun. The word “suicide” in relation to travel or tourism is just wrong.

A recent study by the New York Academy of Medicine reveals that more than 10% of all Manhattan suicides are tourists traveling to the Big Apple to take their lives. Jumping from landmarks such as the Empire State Building, Times Square and the George Washington Bridge, is one of the main ways of doing so.

The New York Times reports that from 1990-2004, of the 7,634 suicides in the city, 407 were tourists (i.e. non-residents of NYC). Although jumping from famous sites is generally more popular in New York, the Golden Gate Bridge in California and the Eiffel Tower in Paris are also notorious for their suicide rates.

Euthanasia is a never-ending debate that I don’t want to get into, but this whole death tourism subject was last thrown around in 2003 when a few Swiss organizations created a stir as they attracted an increasing number of foreigners to Switzerland to assist their death. “We help others to die with a dignity they cannot find in their own countries,” is what one of the organizations claimed they were doing. Euthanasia is also legal in Holland and Belgium.

As for those who kill themselves without assistance by jumping from a famous site: it is not clear if these people travel specifically to take their lives, but the research says that the people who do land up doing that, do so because it “guarantees them a notoriety they may not have had otherwise.”

The complete study conducted by the New York Academy of medicine will be released on Monday.

(Via New York Times)

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?