I’ve always wanted to visit Iceland, and this picture from LoriGoldberg only adds to the temptation. She captures a geothermal area with boiling mudpools and steaming fumaroles called Námafjall in the northern part of Iceland.
Thanks for sharing this with us, Lori! Nice shot.
Are you a Flickr user who’d like to share a travel related picture or two for our consideration? Submit it to Gadling’s Flickr group right now! We just might use it for our Photo of the Day!
One of summer´s last weekends has come and gone. Enjoy the warm sun while it lasts! … and take some time to enjoy these travel tales as well.
‘Til tomorrow, have a great evening!
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If you think the recession in the US has been dreadful, I recommend reading up on how Iceland has been coping.
This nation of just 320,000 people let its banks pull the country into a total financial disaster.
Their three national banks had debt equaling over three times the countries gross domestic product.
Their government collapsed, their currency lost a third of its value, they had to take out emergency loans with the IMF, and some of their European neighbors don’t want to let them into the EU until they repay their debt. Sucks to be Iceland.
But despite all this, the country still has its biggest asset – itself. The nation is gorgeous, and they are heading back to their roots to take full advantage of this.
Tourism is up 20% this year, and they are on target to welcome 600,000 people, almost twice their own population. Part of the driving force behind this increase is a substantial drop in the cost of visiting Iceland. The country was always well known for its insanely high prices – it was quite normal to be charged $16 for a glass of wine, or $150 for a short excursion.
Many of these prices have dropped by at least 30%, which still puts them on the high side of what you’d want to pay, but makes it affordable enough to pull in more tourists. The lower exchange rate has also lowered prices of air travel to Iceland, flights from many European countries are available for under $200, and even round trip tickets from the US to Reykjavik are available for under $550 (all in) on Icelandair.
I highly recommend visiting the site of their tourism board to see how much the nation has to offer. Your tourism krónur may not be able to pay off their debt, but you’ll certainly help them in the right direction.
A mutual agreement allowing Europeans, nationals from four Caribbean countries, and citizens of two island nations in the Indian Ocean is expected to be passed and approved by the end of March, which will allow for hassle-free and smoother travel.
If you hold a passport from any of the following countries, it means you’re that much more free to travel between those listed sans visa: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, the Bahamas, Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Mauritius, and Seychelles. The maximum continuous stay in any one country will be three months (90 days).
I have a feeling this means we’ll be seeing more speedos and nude women on the beaches of the Caribbean very, very soon.
Eyesore or art, graffiti is part of any culture’s public dialogue. Vandalism is visual profanity, and we all swear in our own f—ing ways. I’ve been drawn to these wall scrawls for a while, probably since I read Holden Caulfield‘s concerns about the subject in Catcher in the Rye. My fascination gained momentum while I was stationed in South Korea.
A soldiers’ bar in Tong Du Chon (the Peace Club, which is no longer there) was littered with attempted wit. “I used to believe in the common decency of main,” one drunken soldier-scholar printed at eye level. Another replied, “I still do.” Eight hours into a soju-induced haze, this stuff is profound.
Along the way, I’ve become a connoisseur of this crime, though only as an observer. I have seen social commentary and even debate. And, there’s even been a bit of meaningless paint spilled in the vain hope of making a point. I’ve soaked it all in and hit a few readers up for their tips, as well.
So, let’s take a tour of some of my favorite acts of defacement. Some reflect careful planning and show artistic talent. Others offer nothing more than layers upon layers of cries for attention and assertions of self-importance.In Iceland, I read in the local English language newspaper, the Reykjavik Grapevine, that an outbreak of graffiti was the result of building vacancies triggered by the weakened economy (and this was back in June). This was supported by the observations of the walking tour’s prophetic viking. Hell, the wall says it all.
The Parisians waxed political on the walls of metro stations. I was in town for the hotly contested presidential election of May 2007, and the ultimate winner, Nicolas Sarkozy, took a beating in the vandals’ press. This is nothing compared to the scratched-out eyes on campaign posters, though.
Translation: Sarko = Bush = Berlusconi = Shit. The tagger lumps the president of France with the now former president of the United States and the hotheaded former president of Italy … not to mention a steaming pile. Politics took center stage in Tallinn, Estonia, as well. Thankfully, the vandals worked in English, making it easy for me to take a stab at recreating the crime.
From what I could see, this is something of a public discussion. First, it seems, a disgruntled “activist” wrote “Fuck Fascism!” And, I have to admit, it’s hard to disagree with that. Next, a second person probably popped “anti” in front of fascism, before a third joined the spray-painted conversation by crossing out “fuck.” A fourth crossed out “anti,” and we’re left with fascism. But, the entire discourse supports the original position.
At least, that’s how I’d imagine the entire process unfolding.
The most compelling, however, was in Quebec. I found it fascinating that the retort to an assertion of independence was proffered in English.
Of course, my neighbors are far from innocent. Here on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, we seem to be waging a war on body image. Custo Barcelona, an upscale fashion retailer, has ads on the corner of W. 71st St. and Columbus Ave. The models, wearing about as much body fat as they are clothing, glare at me every time I walk to Gray’s Papaya for a hot dog, as if holding me in contempt for my substandard diet. Someone (not me, I promise) decided to comment.
Hey, New Yorkers can be brutal, even in my quiet, peace-loving corner of the city. This is but one example of how the poor Custo models, have suffered, though. Check out the photo gallery below to get a sense of how Upper West Siders feel about this bit of eye candy.
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And, this is just a taste of what I have collected. Take a look at the next photo gallery to see what our readers have submitted. Fortunately, their collections are a bit more high-minded than mine. The stories with each photos are in the readers’ own words (with some slight editing).
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