Red Corner: 24 Hours in Moscow

by Neil Woodburn on

The Independent (UK) has a regular column entitled “24 Hours In:” which offers a succinct snapshot of a popular destination and what it has to offer the time-pinched tourist.

Moscow was one of the more recently highlighted cities. Take a moment to pop over to The Independent site to learn where to stay, what to eat, what to see, and what to avoid (cheap vodka) while visiting the Russian capital. It’s an annotated version of your basic guidebook. If you find yourself short on time and heavy on rubles, print it out and hail the nearest taxi: you’ve got a long day ahead of you.

Red Corner: Karlovy Vary AKA Karlsbad

by Neil Woodburn on

Recently we posted about the Karlovy Vary Film Festival which just wrapped up in the Czech Republic last week (American director Laurie Collyer won the Crystal Globe award for best picture).

The LA Times, however, was a little tardy in their reporting. They finally ran an article about the city on the front page of Sunday’s Travel Section, a day after the festival ended. Despite being home to Hollywood, however, the LA Times article did not focus on the film festival at all, but rather the magical curative mineral waters that have made this town a legendary spa retreat for hundreds of years.

When I first visited Karlovy Vary (also known as Karlsbad) 15 years ago, the sight of elderly patients in bathrobes wandering slowly about the city cradling cups of warm mineral water was a little unnerving at first.

But, that’s what they do in Karlovy Vary. People come from hundreds of miles to drink the mineral water in hope of curing a plethora of ailments. There are traditional spa treatments as well, but it is the legendary water bubbling up from 12 separate springs that make this picturesque town so unique.

Red Corner: Prague the Movie Star

by Neil Woodburn on

Quite a bit can be said about a city based upon the movies that have been filmed there. Usually a theme arises that pigeonholes the city as the perfect location for a western, action film, period piece, or some other type of genre.

So what common theme ties together Amadeus, Mission: Impossible, Van Helsing, and Shanghai Knights? These four wildly different films have only one thing in common: Prague.

The Czech capital has stood in for dozens of film locations over the last 20 years. Some represent Prague as Prague while others tend to use it as a double for other locations such as Paris (Les Misérables) and Vienna (Amadeus).

Check out the nice article in BMI’s in-flight magazine detailing the various movies filmed in this wonderful location. They’ve included a couple of screen shots as well, to help you get a better feeling for Prague’s schizophrenic film personality.

Red Corner: Siberia as We Know It, Disappearing

by Neil Woodburn on

File this story under “Places to go Before Global Warming Destroys Them.”

The LA Times is reporting that global warming is seriously threatening 400,000 miles of Siberian permafrost. While this is great news for scientists searching for woolly mammoth bones previously locked in the permafrost for 10,000 years, this is not such good news for the rest of us. Melting permafrost releases carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, thereby heating up the planet and increasing the rate of global warming.

Siberia will turn swampy and mushy and become inhospitable (in an entirely different manner than it is now). In addition, the famous Permafrost Institute in Yakutsk will have to close, or perhpas more appropriately, become a museum of the past.

In the meantime, I’d love to pull on some big rubber boots and go tromping through the mud in search of woolly mammoth tusks.

Lhasa Train is Chugging Away

by Neil Woodburn on

We’ve posted a few times already about the controversial railroad the Chinese government has been building to Lhasa, Tibet. Well, now it’s a reality. The first train pulled into Lhasa on Monday and with it came the first rolling stock of Chinese gentrification that will undoubtedly change the region forever.

The train, hermetically pressurized to keep out the thin air of the Himalayas, presented a few surprises on the maiden voyage. Despite the sealed cabins, the change in air pressure blew-up packaged goods, the ink tubes in ballpoint pens, and even the “tiny airbags” in laptops and MP3 players that are designed to cushion the internal parts. Some passengers faired equally poorly, throwing up as the train chugged away at 16,000 feet.

Hmm… maybe this gentrification thing will take a bit longer than expected.