Ever stumbled upon the perfect café, sequestered deep in the quietest corner of a buzzing city, and just had to share the secret? Ever wanted to be part of that secret? Travelistas Lynn Lau and Abby Bender combine their journalism and travel experiences to bring readers Notes From A Café: Travel stories from the deep end, a refreshing cure to the usual stodgy travel resources. Notes From A Café revolves around the love of travel, with articles covering countries from Belgium to Norway to Malaysia, along with tips and resources to fellow travelers interested in the non-touristy side of exploring the world.
Celebrating the joie de vivre of traipsing the globe, Lynn and Abby feature their stories and secrets under headings such as "Voyage Vignettes" (focusing on the thick and thin of personal travel accounts), "Foreign Foibles" (cultural gaffes and taboos), "Travel Tips" (a grab-bag of information and suggestions for travelers), and "Roaming Reviews" (frank guides on true must-see's and definite stay-away-from's).
A random selection of our articles:
There’s an abundance of advice available when it comes to taking your four-legged friend along with you on road-trips, but what if your friend has two legs and feathers? Not as much information, for sure. Admittedly, a large part of the reason for this is that traveling by car is stressful for most birds. However, if, after doing proper research, you find that hitting the road is your best or only option, here are a few tips that might help.
» Read the rest of Have Wings, Will Travel: Road-tripping with your birds ...
Keeping in theme with Abby’s article, one handy tool to make sure you know where you’re going is the ever-simple pen and paper.
Keep the slimmest pocket-sized notebook handy for when you’re at the Metro/RER station, trying to buy train tickets, or when you absolutely, positively need directions and the only person you can communicate with alternates between made-up sign language and wry laughter. If you know the bare basics of the language, but for some reason suffer a mental short-circuit or can’t find the precise word you need, remember, the language barrier needn’t be an obstacle. It can be a starting point.
» Read the rest of Oh, And You Can Doodle With Them During Dull Moments, Too ...
Click to see the whole set!
It had been a blast visiting my friend Tonje, but now it looked like my trip was going to round off in a sticky situation.
My return flight was through Vigra airport. However, Tonje and I were miles away in Volda, and though Norway might be a good ol’ pocket-sized country, the keyword here is “pocket-sized.” It doesn’t have airports in just any which city. The main method of transportation is by bus. We’d have to take a bus from Volda to Moa, and then transfer onto a second bus that would shuttle me the rest of the way to Vigra. Collectively, a five-or-six-hour journey.
Hey, we decided, no problem. All the more fun and countryside to see before parting.
The problem was, when Tonje checked the bus schedule, there weren’t any buses between Volda and Moa on the day I was supposed to leave.
Mental note: Never choose Sunday as a departure day again.
» Read the rest of A Detour to Ålesund ...
Owning pets—or, to be more accurate, their owning me—means that while I’m able to enjoy trips and vacations, I will definitely not be taking off to go around the world anytime soon. That doesn’t mean I can’t live vicariously through The Lost Girls, however!
The Lost Girls are three fresh young ladies from New York who decided to shuck off their business suits, ditch their nine-to-fives, and spend a year going around the world. They began their journey in January 2006, though now it looks like they might end up taking up more than the intended one year. But hey, one can’t live life to a schedule after all, can one?
I haven’t caught up on all their posts yet—there’s such a lot!—but I do enjoy their Trip Planning links, which are available on the sidebar to the right of their website. Among other things, they explain how they paid for their trips and reveal what they packed. Between you and me, I can’t wait for them to update the section that tells how they gave their employers notice!
Another favorite section is the top 20 reasons they took off and embarked on this adventure. Partly funny, partly thoughtful, this list definitely rules, not least because it reasons that “fending off a drunken pervert in Central Park hardly constitutes as communing with the locals.”
If you’re interested in embarking on your own worldwide sojourn, give the Lost Girls a read. As these fine ladies put it, “Sometimes you have to get lost in order to be found.”