Eight Great Food Markets from Around the World

by Kraig Becker on

One of my favorite aspects of travel is visiting unique markets in foreign countries. These sometimes charming, sometimes chaotic, always fascinating and entertaining places offer up slices of local culture, unusual foods, and a variety of other goods, both common and unidentifiable.

It is in that spirit that BootsnAll gives us a list of eight of the world’s best food markets, offering up great places to shop for fresh food in all corners of the globe. Each of the markets on the list exhibit local influence and style, while providing a shopping experience that is sure to leave an impression on visitors long after they’ve gone home.

For instance, the list starts with Pike Place Market in Seattle, Washington, a market that has been open for more than 100 years, and specializes in fresh fish and giant crab legs. There are more than 200 merchants in Pike Place, selling everything from fresh fruits and vegetables to handmade cheeses. The market is even the site of the original Starbucks.

For a completely different experience, head to the Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne, Australia. The article notes that Queen Victoria is the largest open air market in the southern hemisphere, offering up plenty of fresh food items, but also electronics, antiques and more. And during the summer months, the night market comes alive with a party atmosphere, with visitors from all walks of life strolling the market late into the evening.

Checkout the other six markets on the list as well, and if you’re traveling to any of these cities in the near future, be sure to drop by one of these markets and explore it for yourself. It is likely to be one of the most unique travel experiences of your life.

Photo of the Day (4/29/09)

by Jamie Rhein on


In Russia, according to AlphaTangoBravo/ Adam Baker who took this photo, folks are likely to break into song at any place at any time. Of these three, I’d say that the woman is belting it out. Baker said that Americans often get stuck in such situations when asked to sing because they fumble around trying to think of a song. Think show tunes is my motto.

One of the lovely aspects of this shot is how the clothing and the accordion helps set the scene. There aren’t many places I can think of where this wouldn’t be Russia. It’s also wonderful that the chipped and flaking paint is not important when it comes to making connections with others.

If you have a shot of people making connections, or any other one you feel mighty pleased with, send it our way at Gadling’s Flickr Photo Pool. It might be picked as a Photo of the Day.

Barneo Ice Station Opens

by Kraig Becker on

In another spring tradition, the Barneo Ice Station has opened for another season, providing the gateway for adventure travelers and explorers to make a “last degree” journey to the geographic North Pole from the Russian side of the ice.

The ice station sits roughly 60 miles from the Pole at 89º N. Latitude, and each year it has to be rebuilt thanks to the shifting ice flows at the top of the world. The process begins with two Russian built Hind helicopters scouting the region for relatively flat, smooth surfaces on the ice. Once the location is selected, the first supplies, along with a team of engineers, hits the area to go to work creating a runway. Once that runway is finished, large supply planes can land on the surface, and a full blown camp, including a Russian post office, is established.

Shortly after the camp is officially opened, visitors begin to arrive. Some are polar tourists who will make an expedition to the North Pole on skis, while others are scientists and environmentalist that come to study the area, and the effects of climate change on the health of the ice, as well as the creatures that live there.

Generally the station closes down at the end of April or early May at the latest. It is just there long enough to support the teams, and then everything is packed back on to the supply planes and shipped off for another year, when the process will begin again. But for a few short weeks each spring, it becomes a hub of arctic adventure.

Gadling teaches you to read the Cyrillic alphabet in 5 minutes

by Aaron Hotfelder on

It used to be that when I saw Russian words like this– компьютер, студент, пасспорт — my eyes skipped over them like yours probably just did. But the Cyrillic alphabet, which is used in Slavic languages like Russian as well as non-Slavic languages like Kazakh and Mongolian, is easy to learn.

Given the number of English cognates in Russian (the language we’ll focus on here), learning the Cyrillic alphabet allows you to read and understand dozens of words in Russian, including the three above (computer, student, and passport, respectively).

Here’s a short five-minute lesson on how to read Russian’s Cyrillic alphabet…

1. Some letters are virtually the same as in English. The Cyrillic letters A, K, M, O, and T are close relatives of their English counterparts. The Cyrillic letter Б (which looks like a lowercase “b”) also makes a “b” sound. The letter “C” always makes the “s” sound, like in the English word “cite.”

2. Others are closely related to Greek. Frat guys and sorority girls already know the letters Г (gamma), P (rho), П (pi), and Ф (phi), which are the English equivalents of “G”, “R”, “P”, and “F”, respectively.

Easy so far, right? Check out a few examples:

a. кафе = ?

b. бар = ?

c. опера = ?

d. робот = ?

Look below the fold for the answers…

Answers:

a. кафе́ = cafе́

b. бар = bar

c. о́пера = opera

d. ро́бот = robot

See? Easy. On to the next lesson…

3. Some letters are imposters. They look familiar but don’t sound like their English counterparts. The Russian letter “H” makes the “N” sound, “y” makes the English “oo” sound, and “B” sounds like the English “V.” This letter, И, which looks like a backwards “N”, makes the “short i” sound, as in the English word “pin.” The Russian letter “Я” sounds nothing like it’s mirror image in English. Instead, it makes a “ya” sound, as in “yacht.”

Wth me so far? Here are a few more Russian words you already know.

a. Интерне́т = internet

b. CпyTHИK = Sputnik

c. POCCИЯ = Russia

d. PECTOPAH = restauran(t)

4. The rest of the letters, well, they’re just jerks. You’ve never seen ’em, and you just have to memorize how they sound. Here’s a quick run-down.

Ц = “ts” as in “pizza”

Ш = “sh” as in “shoe”

Л = “l” as in “lamb”

ж = “zh” as in “measure”

Д = “d” as in “door”

З = “z” as in “zebra”

Ю = “oo” or “yu”

Ч = “ch” Since the letter looks like a “4” and makes the “ch” sound, think of the word “fortune.” Four-chun. Get it?

There are a few more subtleties and even a couple more letters in the alphabet, but we’ve only got five minutes here, and I think you’ve got the gist of it.

Time for your final exam. Candy will be e-mailed to the top scorers.

a. You’re in St. Petersburg and you see a restaurant with this written on it: MAKДOHAЛД’C. Where are you?

b. You’re in a Moscow bar and would like to drink something authentically Russian. Someone suggests Bо́ДKA. What are you having?

c. You’re applying for your Russian visa and a form asks whether you’ve ever criticized the Russian президе́нт. What’s it asking?

Hope you’ve enjoyed the lesson… Leave your “final exam” answers in the comments…

For a helpful, longer-than-five-minute primer on the Russian alphabet, go here (pdf).

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Vladimir Putin: Fake tourist?

by Aaron Hotfelder on

It was a well-known tactic of the KGB, the Soviet Secret Police organization, to disguise their agents as tourists who would ask probing and embarrassing questions of visiting heads of state. But a new photo has just surfaced that purports to show Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who was once a member of the KGB, dressed as a tourist during Ronald Reagan’s 1988 visit to the Soviet Union.

Pete Souza, the man who took the photo above, says the US Secret Service was not fooled by the undercover KGB agents. According to Souza (now the official White House presidential photographer), Reagan reportedly said, “I can’t believe these tourists in the Soviet Union are asking these pointed questions.” A nearby Secret Service agent replied, “Oh, these are all KGB families.”

So is the dorky tourist in the photo above really Vladimir Putin, as Souza claims? Not according to Russian political analyst Andrey Piontkovsky. “Vladimir Putin was a major serving in Dresden and he wasn’t important enough at that time to be brought to Moscow,” he said.

More here.