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Word for the Travel Wise (05/21/06)

by Adrienne Wilson on

Normally, I do my best to construct the word of the day lesson around a current event, holiday, or something I just had to get off my bird and I suppose you could say I’m doing it all the same today with some added shameless promotion for my very own birthday. So what I’m really trying to say is, excuse me while I toot my own horn. Last year I spent my birthday weekend in the Bahamas and this year I blog from Salem, Illinois in America’s glorious Mid-West where there is little to do it seems. I could spout out about which foreign land I’d love to be parading around at the moment, but I sort of do that everyday so I’ll carry on no further. Here are a few ways to wish someone Happy Birthday across the globe:

  • Afrikaans – Veels geluk met jou verjaarsdag!
  • Albanian – Urime ditelindjen!
  • Arabic – Eid milaad saeed! or Kul sana wa inta/itayeb/a (mas/fem)
  • Benagli (Bangladesh/India) – Shuvo Jonmodin!
  • Bicol (Philippines) – Maogmang Pagkamundag!
  • Bulgarian – Chestit Rojden Den!
  • Chinese (Cantonese) – Sun Yat Fai Lok!
  • Danish – Tillykke med fodselsdagen!
  • Esperanto – Felichan Naskightagon!
  • Farsi – Tavalodet Mobarak!
  • French – Joyeux Anniversaire!
  • Georgian – Gilotcav dabadebis dges!
  • Greek – Chronia Pola!
  • Maori – Kia huritau ki a koe!
  • Romanian – La Multi Ani!
  • Sudanese – Wilujeng Tepang Taun!
  • Surinamese – Mi fresteri ju!
  • Welsh – Penblwydd Hapus i Chi!

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Click here to go to this page that lists Happy Birthday in 161 languages. While you’re searching for another one not found on my list here to send my way (coughs), I mean to tell your younger sibling or pet dog, I’ll be hanging out at Wal-Mart with some cerveza. Seems to be the thing to do out yonder.

Cheers!

Red Corner: The Blue Danube

by Neil Woodburn on

While I’m not a big fan of big ocean going cruises, there is something entirely different about boarding a much smaller boat and cruising down a river-especially when it’s the Danube.

David Wickers of The Sunday Times (UK) recently spent a week leisurely touring the majestic river aboard a 114 passenger boat with 75 cabins.

His trip started in the Bavarian town of Passau and made its way downriver to Budapest, Vienna and Bratislava with a few shorter stops in places such as Esztergon (Hungary) to see a cathedral and Melk (Austria) to visit a monastery.

Wickers paints a pleasant picture of what it’s like to travel by boat; the leisurely pace, the relaxed lifestyle, the comfort of never having to pack yet arriving in a different city every day. “Sightseeing doesn’t come much more easygoing than this,” he confesses.

This is both good and bad. Wickers clearly laments how such mode of travel attracts a much older core of travelers. In addition, the routine is regimented on board, and the daily excursions are too short with barely enough time “to sniff the air.” But if you want to take it easy and see some truly wonderful cities with almost no effort, than this is the trip for you. Want to delve even deeper into Eastern Europe? Try a ten-day cruise that continues through Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania before arriving at the Black Sea.

Transylvania International Film Festival

by Adrienne Wilson on

It always does me
great pleasure to step out and away from the places I only dream of voyaging to one day to share with you my personal
thoughts on places I have seen with my own two. This happens to be the case today with Cluj-Napoca, Romania. This year
marks the 5th edition of the Transylvania International Film
Festival to be held June 2-11, 2006 in the Eastern European university town filled with amazing, rich history,
people, inexpensive food and culture. Though I have not experienced the festival itself in Cluj-Napoca, I can only tell
you checking out local cinema is
bound to be an experience beyond phenomenal. The website is slowly but surely updating info on the schedule for this
year’s event, but just so you’ll have an idea of what’s in store see what occurred last year.

If you’re
thinking along the likes of Bram Stoker, Anne Rice or those missed episodes of Buffy stick to the states and
search for YouTube clips. Romania is so much more than the folklore.

(Poster is from last year’s edition.)

Word for the Travel Wise (04/03/06)

by Adrienne Wilson on

Of all my travels abroad one of
the places I miss more than anything is Romania, but that could very well be due to the special memories it holds as my
very first trip abroad. Before making my way over family and friends wished me well with tons of good luck as if they
were afraid something really horrific was going to happen. And while I hate to make yet another Dracula reference in my
Romanian lang lessons, it was almost as if they thought a vampire would come crawling into my hotel room and I’m sure
you can guess the rest or if you like you can use your imaginations and create a better ending. One where the young
girl returns home safely and later becomes a blogger for an online travel site and teaches words from various
lingos.

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

no roc – good luck

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

Bottled Water vs. Tap Water

by Adrienne Wilson on

You
would think bottled water would win without a question in a battle of being the healthier choice, but some
enviornmentalists say not so fast.

"Bottled water is no often
healthier than tap water, but it can be 10,000 times more expensive," says Emily Arnold, a researcher with the
Washington D.C. non-profit.

The battle over whether bottled water is more healthier than that running
from the faucets in our kitchen sinks isn’t so much about the humans drinking the liquid, but more so about the planet
and how the consumption of bottled water and the waste may be hurting Earth. Campaigners challenge the idea of drinking
bottled water in our developed nation by stating 25 percent of bottled water is just tap water in pretty packaging,
sometimes further treated and many times not at all. They also note the high mineral content in some bottled waters as
‘unsuitable’ for feeding babies and young kids. In developing countries where tap water is unsafe or unavailable
bottled water instantly wins the match. Believe me, I care about Momma Earth a great deal, but from L.A. (where the tap
water smells) to San Juan, CR, to Cluj-Napoca, Romania (where the water had a brown tint) bottled water wins. Hands
down.

But what to do with all that plastic?

Nat Geo News ran the piece
back in February this year and with Earth Day approaching it’s no wonder it jumped out at me. The picture with the
enormous load of plastic cash on the man above also caught my attention.