Search Results

Photo of the Day (12/25/06)

by Iva Skoch on

Here is one to Romania! It’s hard to believe they will be a part of the EU in no time…

I have never been but the mountains (Piatra Craiului) are supposed to be great. A few of my friends have gone there to hike and ski and loved it. Here is a photo of the countryside from Marek Wagner for the Czech travel mag Koktejl.

Romania and Bulgaria are the new hot places to travel in Europe. Adventure travelers fear that the EU membership will make them lose their edge. Real estate agents are buying property there like crazy because it’s still cheap but they know when those budget airlines start offloading (first students, bachelor party types, then families from Western Europe) by the thousands, it is officially over.

Borat Review: Finally!

by Neil Woodburn on

After posting so many times about Borat, I thought I’d get around to writing a short review having finally seen the film.

In a nutshell: it’s funny, go see it.

I don’t want to focus on the cinematic aspects of the film–that’s not the aim of this website. I do, however, want to discuss some of the more controversial aspects that relate to travel and stereotypes.

As many of you recall, the Kazakh government has been irate over comedian Sacha Baron Cohen’s bumbling depiction of a reporter from Kazakhstan. His fictional Borat character encompasses all the backward stereotypes a person might have about far-flung lands they know nothing about.

The character, however, is so over the top that the Kazakh government really shouldn’t worry that people who saw the film will immediately think all Kazakhs are as demented as poor Borat. Only a complete idiot would think this.

I’m one of the very small minority of people who have seen the movie and been to Kazakhstan and I have to say, other than the suit he wears, and a brilliant fake accent with all the proper grammatical mistakes, Borat is no more a Kazakh than I am. In fact, the village featured in the movie wasn’t even in Kazakhstan, but was actually a small gypsy town in Romania by the name of Glod. If anyone should be angry, it should be the country of Romania, a place that people will now think is nothing more than a depressed backwater of gypsy villages. Sadly, even the gypsies are ashamed of this portrayal and are suing Cohen (check out their feelings about the film here).

But the reality is that Cohen isn’t really making fun of the gypsies just as he isn’t really making fun of the Kazakhs. The people that Borat is truly mocking are the Americans. Somehow, his bumbling Kazakh caricature, for whatever reason, has a knack of getting the Americans he comes across in the film to open up and reveal the ugly underbelly of American culture. Along the way we encounter bigots, sexists, homophobics, racists, religious zealots, and numerous other small-brained reprobates far more real than the absurdist Kazakh journalist actually interviewing these people.

Yes folks, I’m ashamed to admit it, but the Americans are the ones being mocked here, not the Kazakhs.

Removing Tourists from Your Travel Photos

by Adrienne Wilson on

There have been many vacations in my past (with the exception of Romania and Tajikistan) where I was bummed out by the amount of tourists crawling all over the walls, floors, and big toe of some famous marble statue. Trying to a take a decent photo becomes depressing and so I usually give into capturing the moment with all the tiny little speckles I call human beings dotting the shot. And if you’re anything like me, you let out a huge sigh and mumble under your breath how you wish they’d all go away, but you must also remind yourself that someone else under the giant Buddha is also wishing they could erase you too. It almost sounds like a game doesn’t it?

Eliminating other obnoxious, gawking, tourists from your photo after the fact can be difficult, but is not impossible. The first thing one must try to do is take the picture with as few people as possible. Then comes the fun part – making them all vanish! The first tip as found on the dsphotographic.com site is to use a tripod. (This is assuming you are starting from scratch.) After you’ve got some photos to play with you’ll need to take them into Photoshop and from this point you’ll need to check out the tutorial because it gets very detailed from here. Overall the tourist removal sounds like it could be well worth the effort in the end, but it will involve some amount of work.

Geotourism

by Erik Olsen on

New fads and trends in travel come and go, but one that I kind of hope sticks around awhile is something called Geotourism. The term was introduced (or partly so) in 2001 by the magazine National Geographic Traveler and basically is a type of tourism that (taking a breath) sustains or enhances the geographical character of a place-its environment, culture, aesthetics, heritage, and the well-being of its residents. (whew).

What this basically means is that when you travel, you need to invest yourself in the place a little bit, you need to visit with an attitude of protection and preservation….in other words, don’t go looking for a Taco Bell, don’t buy all the cheesy tourist crap you can find and by all means don’t lambaste the locals for NOT taking American dollars.

The site says that Geotoursim has taken off…even through there are just three countries so far who have signed the so called Geotourism Charter, the document that lists principles for good destination stewardship and enriching travel experiences. And it’s a rather odd assortment of countries at that: Norway, Honduras, and Romania. But as I said, it’s a great concept in theory, and now lets see all travelers try to live up to it.

Word for the Travel Wise (11/11/06)

by Adrienne Wilson on

Say goodbye to your loved ones before heading to the land of Dracula as you may never see them again. (Insert wicked laughter.) Okay, sorry… Am I going to bring up another Dracula reference every time I give you a Romanian word? Gee, I hope not. I’m short on creative energy and brain cells today, but just be sure to use this easy word one or two time sin passing or on your way out from your fabulous Romanian vacation.

Today’s word is a Romanian word used in Romania:

la revedere – goodbye

If you’d like to know some real practical basics visit this Easy Romanian site. They offer proverbs, months, numbers, and days of the week. As usual Pimsluer offers great audio methods and Lonely Planet has a pocket sized phrasebook for Eastern European langs. BBC has the quick fix holiday downloads with the very, very, basics of the language worth looking into.

Past Romanian words: ciocan, no roc, multumesc, buna, ajutor