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:
So you’re going to be stuck in a plane for several hours, where the dry, stagnant air sucks the moisture right out of you. It doesn’t help that recent airline regulations limit the amount of liquids and moisturizer you can bring aboard. I don’t know about you, but whenever I’m in a plane for long periods of time, my skin turns positively gray. So what’s a traveler with sensitive skin to do?
Include Burt’s Bees Carrot Seed Oil Complexion Mist in your carry-on, that’s what. You may only be allowed to bring a quart-sized bag of liquids, but a good mister is absolutely worth the space. And with 100% all-natural ingredients such as rose oil, carrot seed oil, and patchouli oil, this particular mister gets a big thumb’s up. Just give a shake and acouple of good spritzes whenever your skin starts to feel drawn and tight, and you’ll find yourself remarkably refreshed.
Its website description says the Carrot Seed Oil Complexion Mist is specially designed for “mature” skin, but don’t let that deter you if you consider yourself young-at-heart. Carrot seed oil has amazing properties, including relieving stress and rejuvenating skin. Indeed, its anti-inflammatory nature is known to help treat dry skin, rashes, and dermatitis. An all-natural way to relieve eczema? Count me in!
If you’re old-school by nature, Burt’s Bees also offers the complexion mist in lavendar. The best part is, a mister is not restricted to just plane travel. Weary after a long drive with the air-conditioner on full-blast? Spritz on! Dull eyes after hours in front of the computer screen? Spritz on!
If you’re shopping for other kinds of misters, remember to avoid anything with alcohol in its contents. Alcohol-based products are bad for the skin, and terribly drying, which is the last thing you need when you’re on the go. Read the ingredients carefully before buying.
If you’re the crafty type, you can make your own complexion mist. Just be sure you know what you’re doing, as working with essential oils needs careful attention. For a lot of oils, pure equals extremely potent, and that can sometimes counter-intuitively harm the skin. You’ll have to dilute carefully measured doses with distilled water. Your local aromatherapist can be a big help in showing you how to make a mist that’s tailored specially for your needs.
A Travel Tip about soothing dehydrated skin would not be complete without a reminder to drink lots of water. So chug the H20 — just because you’re on the move doesn’t mean you shouldn’t look fresh and fabulous, so fill ‘er up!
Earlier this month, Tonje and I invaded—er, visited—Brussels, the capital of Belgium, and the capital of Europe, for that matter. When my co-worker first heard about our plans, her initial reaction was a puzzled, “What’s in Belgium?”
“Chocolate,” her husband supplied. “Belgian chocolate.”
“Oooh.” She nodded in understanding. “That’s right.”
It isn’t a major tourist destination, for sure. While getting ready for our trip, I’d scanned the local bookstore’s travel section. There were only four or five guidebooks that named a Belgian city, and out of those, only three contained anything substantial. Most guidebooks on Belgium will list a combination of any three of its cities—Brussels, Bruges Ghent, Antwerp, Waterloo—complete with maps. The reason for this is that, well, frankly, the place isn’t that huge. You can cover a lot of ground on foot, and these cities aren’t more than an hour’s train ride away from each other.
Nor is the country as jam-packed with tourist sights as its other European neighbors, so you should definitely know ahead of time what you intend to do and see in Belgium. Otherwise, you might wind up like the baffled lady who stopped us at the train station, just as we were to catch the next ride to the airport, and asked the loaded question of, “What is there to do here?”
Whether you’re planning an excursion to Brussels yourself, or are intending only a short stop before continuing on your way to Paris or Amsterdam, here are seven things you should know about this capital of the European Union.
» Read the rest of Seven Things You Should Know About Brussels ...
One Sunday, as we were rumbling down the road in the red Peugeot on our way back home from the Amboise open-air market, Jennifer turned around and asked: “Hey … do you guys want to stop and see the Chanteloup Pagoda?”
I knew most of the hundreds of châteaux of the Loire Valley, but I had never heard of a French pagoda. Visions suddenly filled my head of dragon-emblazoned silk banners streaming from Gothic turrets, and manicured topiaries flanked by delicate, blooming cherry trees, and I knew I had to go see it.
As it turns out, the “Pagode de Chanteloup,” or the Chanteloup Pagoda, was built upon the remains of the château de Chanteloup, which belonged to the Duc de Choiseul, minster to Louis XV. Said Duke eventually offended the king in some way, shape, or form, as was wont to happen in those days, and Dukey found himself exiled to Chanteloup from 1770 to 1774. But his friends remained loyal to him, and in 1775, he directed his architect, Le Camus, to build the pagoda in honor of them.
(I’m assuming that the king had died, which made it possible for the Duke to build the pagoda and not get his head chopped off, but my guidebook falls short at this point.)
We pulled up to the deserted parking lot, parked the Peugeot, and tumbled out of the car, ready to take a quick trip to the Far East. But, horror of horrors, we discovered that the gate surrounding the park was chained shut … and the pagoda was closed for the season.
» Read the rest of Breaking and Entering ...
This week, we feature an article by guest writer Sabrina Gaylor, who traveled to Iceland this past summer. Here she shares the mesmerizing sights of her visit.
Lupine by Akureyri |
As amazing as Iceland is, it’s just one of those countries that gets overlooked or bypassed for more traditional vacation spots. I had the good luck of getting a chance to tour the country this summer, which I jumped at because the global warming crisis means that Iceland may not be the same in the future. My tour guide told the group as we passed Vatnajökull, the majestic largest glacier in Europe, that it was receding at a steady rate and soon would be gone.
Even if Iceland is just the white-outlined dot on the map next to Greenland, it turned out to be a much more diverse country than I’d thought. Reykjavik itself was very hip and urban, but close enough to the water and to national parks that it was possible to get away. The rest of the country was filled with bleak, endless, rocky plains and fields of moss-covered lava, volcanoes, eerily blue lakes, small villages nestled in between the mountains, and hillsides covered in waterfalls and lambs. At some points, we drove over unbridged rivers.
But there are perils of traveling through very rural areas.
» Read the rest of A Whirring Tour of Iceland, by Sabrina Gaylor ...
It looks tempting. It really does. Fly from London to Rome — for 0.01 pounds? Not possible. Or is it? The price is right there, in bold blue, white, and yellow, enticing you … teasing you … thrilling you …
And so, filled with visions of rigatoni and fettuccini, you click on the link on the RyanAir website, and … oh, the humanity!
Many study abroad students (and well-seasoned travelers, and natives alike) have been seduced while overseas by the call of low-fare, no-frills, awesomely-advertised-bottom-barrel-price airlines. For someone who’s attempting a European tour on a budget, it seems idiotic to not travel that way.
But just remember the old adage about a thing looking too good to be true.
» Read the rest of Ryanair: You Get What You Pay For ...