Trek Earth

photo © Maciek Duczynski
Maciek Duczynski's gallery includes photographs of Italy, Sweden, Poland, Iceland and Croatia... I find his photographs of Norway particularly striking and unusually beautiful.

New favorite website. Trek Earth has gallery upon gallery of photographs taken all over the world by what appear to be both amateur and professional photographers. While you can certainly search Google or Flickr for images of these same places, the difference is that these photographs have been uploaded for the specific purpose of sharing the travel experience. Typically the images are of high quality (and often quite breathtaking), while a Google or Flickr search will result in a hodgepodge of good, bad and occasionally quite ugly. The photographs are organized by country, region, and city or town. You can look up any place on earth. The city where my mother grew up in Australia - which I had seen few photos of before, the place where my friend lives in Scotland, the small town in the Southern United States that I call home - They are all there. Places I have been. Places I have dreamed of visiting. I am completely thrilled with this treasure chest of gorgeous images. Pick a place, search on Trek Earth, and spend a few minutes transported.



photo © Tom Hill
This street in Edinburgh is very near where my friend lives and, to my mind, does a good job of capturing the feel of walking those streets.

Good Food Deep South

I've been tagged.

Liza of Something Something (a really wonderful Israel based blog) tagged me with this meme. I am certainly a foodie, so the subject at hand cannot help but appeal, and it's got BRILLIANT practical applications -

The rules:
1. Add a direct link to your post below the name of the person who tagged you. Include the city/state and country you’re in.

Nicole (Sydney, Australia)
velverse (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
LB (San Giovanni in Marignano, Italy)
Selba (Jakarta, Indonesia)
Olivia (London, England)
ML (Utah, USA)
Lotus (Toronto, Canada)
tanabata (Saitama, Japan)
Andi (Dallas [ish], Texas, USA)
Todd (Louisville, Kentucky, USA)
miss kendra (los angeles, california, USA)
Jiggs Casey (Berkeley, CA, USA)
Tits McGee (New England, USA)
Kat (Ontario, Canada)
Cheezy (London, England)
tafka PP (Jerusalem, Israel)
Liza ("Northern" Israel)
dame (Southeastern United States)

2. List out your top 5 favorite places to eat at your location.


--1-- Five Star Day Cafe - Athens, Georgia - 229 E Broad St, Athens AND 2230 Barnett Shoals Rd, Athens- Southern, homestyle food and a quirky, sunny atmosphere. You order your food at the counter and then find a seat and the food is brought out to you. The menu offers barbeque, pot roast, roasted chicken, and - my favorite - the excellent river trout topped with a corn and black bean salsa as well as veggie plates that are piled high with three sides. The sides are southern classics like collard greens, fried green tomatoes, brilliant smoky macaroni and cheese (which, I suspect, has smoked gouda in it - brilliant), fried potato cakes and hoppin' john (black eyed peas and rice). They also serve brunch on Sundays and they always have some inexpensive items like a bowl of chicken and dumplings or PB&J sandwiches written up on the blackboard alongside the dessert of the day - usually a seasonal cobbler. My favorite place to eat in Athens bar none.

--2-- Flora and Ella's Restaurant - Labelle, Florida - 550 Highway 80 W, Labelle, FL 33935 - Classic Southern food and a warm friendly atmosphere. This place is what Cracker Barrel could have been modeled after, but it's the real deal. A great local restaurant with a little country store out front. All the classic southern standards - including a really excellent southern fried steak. My impression is that they are best known, however, for their pies. The pie selection is excellent and I worship their pecan pie. I love anywhere that serves a wide variety of pies and Flora and Ella's are worth going out of your way for.

--3-- European Street Cafe - Jacksonville, Florida - 2753 Park Street (Riverside) - Cute, eclectic bistro with a phenomenal beer selection, a wide variety of exotic sandwiches and salads as well as familiar classics, great German bratwurst (and genuine - warm - german potato salad!), and a little import shop where you can buy brilliant blackberry jam and the best candied fruit slices EVER. The atmosphere is friendly and relaxed without being too casual, the staff is solicitous and professional, and the food is always very good. There are actually four locations in Jacksonville, but I always go to the one in Riverside which I believe is the original location.

--4-- Bahama Mama's Kitchen- Key West, Florida - 324 Petronia St (In the Bahama Village Market) - Best meal of my life. Seriously. Bahama Mama's Kitchen is a tiny little building with a small bar and soe open air seating outdoors, it's right next to a sort of makeshift craft market that is open during the day and is typically speckled with wild roosters and chickens wandering about. I was there in the summer, so we sat inside the little building. I seem to recall that there were maybe four or five tables. I had conch fritters and shrimp hash cakes and fried plantains followed by this dessert that was like funnel cake that had large juicy chunks of pineapple mixed into the batter. I could have eaten there every night. If I had to eat the food from one restaurant for the rest of my life, I think I'd live on those conch fritters and shrimp hash cakes and fried plantains quite happily. Being a big time foodie, I ate at at least a dozen restaurants in Key West. All but one restaurant (including this great nothing little stand that sold cuban food where I bought a brilliant bowl of rice and beans) proved the adage that you cannot get bad food in Key West but Bahama Mama's was by far and away the best meal I had there. I still crave it. I cannot wait to go back. Frommer's notes on Bahama Mama's Kitchen


...and there were supposed to be five. But THAT is why I hadn't put this up before. I'm picky. And these are the four I felt like listing. My apologies. As I have left it so long to respond, I'm not going to tag anyone - but if anyone would like to take up the challenge - especially in the Southeastern U.S. where the recommendations will do ME the most good! - please do so and let me know!

Scotland

view of Edinburgh from Edinburgh castle

I watch a lot of films. I watch a silly number of films from the UK and therefore I found that some things in Scotland were oddly recognizable. It's strange, knowing I have never been somewhere before and yet being surprised to turn a corner and see something that feels innately familiar.

And yet..

I am fascinated by the unexpected dfferences. Things no one ever thought to mention. The odd bits.

The toilets are unusually deep. This is in no way important, so it doesn't exactly come up in popular culture. But they are formed differently than toilets in the U.S. And the shower is in a whole separate room. It makes sense in some ways and I love the shower room at my friend's home which is small and cozy and has wood floors and ceiling. I just didn't know.


handy dandy toy dispenser

I went into the ladies room at a pub and instead of a condom dispenser - which is fairly familiar in the States - there was a sex toy dispenser. Vibrators and flavored condoms and... wait for it.... wait for it... inflatable sheep. That's right. Inflatable sheep. I assume that they are purchased by drunk tourists who think they are funny (I mean, I was sober and I found it funny), but I really can't - and won't - imagine what a woman wants with an inflatable sheep. Maybe it's for gift giving.


another view of Edinburgh from Edinburgh castle

I was surrounded by massive buildings of grey stone. Varying shades of grey, all cool massive stone, making the city almost otherworldly. Yes, there are also greys that verge on beige and black and there are colorful signs in the windows. I WAS expecting a lot of grey and a lot of stone but had no idea that it would be everywhere. It's fascinating. Some storefronts have a facade on the bottom floor shop that has been painted bright fire engine red or rich mossy green - usually with gold block letters to tell you the name of the pub or shop housed therin - and they stand out like bright splashes amongst the old stone. NONE of the buildings I saw were wood and I didn't know how different this would feel to the eye, but it really does. It made me feel like I had stepped into a book, the uniform of stone the city wears.



The wind whips through the streets (I am told Edinburgh was designed originally to have the wind flow through the streets in just such a way to remove the odors once associated with city life) and makes me wobble on my feet. I have never felt wind like this. I knew to expect rain and some grey skies and mist, but the wind is pervasive and presses against you and makes my hair snap in the air behind me. It leaves you with this sense of being surrounded by nature and weather no matter how ensconsed in the city you may be.

And I didn't expect Edinburgh to be so culturally diverse. It was SO diverse that I met Americans and Brits and a Welshman and Germans and an Austrian... and other than chatting to a few people in shops I really didn't meet any Scots. Which was odd. But everywhere you turn, you hear a different language. Edinburgh has a big time melting pot thing going on. I swear I saw a wider diversity of nationalities in Edinburgh than when visiting New York. I didn't spend ALL my time in Edinburgh, mind. I also saw Glasgow and spend a night in a little town on the lower part of the Highlands. But I spend a lot of time just puttering around Edinburgh, hopping busses and shopping and drinking in pubs and watching people through the window while I ate in a cafe. I am inclined to think puttering about is the best way to get to know a place.

Oh, and I had NO IDEA that Dolly the cloned sheep's body had been stuffed and placed on display. But it has been. It can be viewed at the Royal Museum in Edinburgh. It's bizarre.


Dolly's body spins around on a motorized pedestal.

I expected a lot of the other differences. Tea. Lots of tea. And now I'm craving tea all the time. They have crap selection of cold cereal but 50 flavors of "crisps" (potato chips) and more variety of biscuits (cookies) than you can imagine. The traditional Scottish breakfast was huge and included baked beans (which I did expect) and blood pudding which, to my mind, is the UK answer to grits (which I didn't expect). It's like grits in a sausage shape mixed with blood and pepper... if that makes any sense. It's not as horrific as it might sound to my fellow Americans, but not necessarily something I intend to start adding to my breakfast menu all the same.

And while the numbers of brightly coiffed and multi-pierced Punk afficionados in the States seems to be dwindling, I am pleased to report that the practice is alive and well in Scotland. I saw more pink and green hair than I have since... well, since my little sister was in high school and doing her infamous impression of the Horse of a Different Color.

All of this being the very long way about saying that I am back, I am well, I will get back to the normal business of blogging and I absolutely loved Scotland.

I'm going back as soon as I possibly can.


Hollyrood Abbey... in this photo Wonder Woman is taking the place of The Dame, thus preserving her anonymity

Finally

I will be blogging a bit this week, but suffice it to say that I am finally in Scotland. There are lots of castles, they will put anything in a pastry, everything is made of stone (well, ok, all the buildings.), their grass looks somehow greener and at least half the men look far more rugged and masculine than I am accustomed to - which I find refreshing.

Hot Scot Contest

I’m off to Scotland in a few days and as such, have been scouring the internet for all things Scots. By far and away the most amusing site I have found is for the Date A Hot Scot contest. Click the link and apparently after you vote for your favorite Scot you can also register to win a trip to Scotland for two (theoretically for two women). It seems to be an effort to boost tourism by way of pimping out native sons. Which I think is HILARIOUS!

I have no idea who to “vote” for. I wonder if the "winner" gets a real prize or just gets stuck spending an afternoon with some crazy foreign women. Probably the latter. The website also has a guide to areas of Scotland designated by the type of man you want to find. Completely silly but all in good fun. I certainly hope there aren’t women out there planning a vacation to the Highlands just because this website assures them of meeting a hot young Laird!

"I'll tell you one thing, Fred, darling... I'd marry you for your money in a minute."

”Do I detect a look of disapproval in your eye? ...Tough beans buddy, 'cause that's the way it's gonna be. ”

- Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s

Tomorrow I go to New York. Which I associate with a great number of things, but mostly with John Lennon’s death, Liza singing “New York, New York”, myriad period dramas about immigrants coming to Ellis Island, ridiculously large pastrami sandwiches at the Carnegie Deli and women in impossible clothing and sky high heels chain smoking on Sex and The City.



This week I just keep thinking about Breakfast at Tiffany’s. The marketing for that film gave the impression that it was about this impeccably well-dressed, light-hearted woman in New York. When I was little, that’s what I thought. I saw the svelte caricature on the poster and thought, “THAT is what a woman should be.” Little did I know. When I watched it at 14 I was shocked to learn that the film isn’t really about a perfect, happy glamour girl at all.



Holly Golightly is a lost creature beneath her glossy (and, admittedly, quite impressive) surface. At a glance she appears to be full of life but closer examination reveals that she is running from her humble beginnings, from life’s ugly truths and from any connection that might force her to wake up. She has a checkered past and dark secrets. Her life in New York is a hollow, beautiful sham.



It’s almost disturbing how glamorous the image of the film is, as if the studio didn’t get the plot. It makes me think of reading a book and halfway through realizing that the cover artist couldn’t possibly have read the book. But I realize the impression is intentional. Promoting a film as being about an emotionally disturbed con woman who is trying to find herself in all the wrong places and some morally compromising ways might not have been considered an easy sell in 1961. It’s also a quasi-romance between Hepburn's damaged female escort and George Peppard's (really dreamy) writer/gigolo character. Racy stuff, really.



I find Holly unbearably sad. As I have been sad lately, the terribly lost Ms. Golightly keeps coming to mind as I plan my trip. Of course, I’m not as nearly confused as she is, but I am trying to find some part of myself that's gone missing, or at the very least my equilibrium. So I suppose that explains hearing “Moon River” running through my head. And this weekend, for me, is about getting lost.

”I'm like cat here, a no-name slob. We belong to nobody, and nobody belongs to us. We don't even belong to each other.”

traveling vicariously

I don’t travel much. I want to, but I don’t. And I’m bitter about it - which is a story on it's own. Perhaps because my parent's roots are not of this country and I have family overseas - I have always wanted to try living abroad. My infrequent travel leaves me lusting for strange places and exotic excursions - and so I read expatriate blogs.

This is a list of some of my regular haunts and a quick note on what I read them for. If you have a favorite expat I haven’t included, email or comment with a link.

petite anglaise - The now-infamous British expat in Paris is a long time favorite of mine (long before she made headlines for being fired for mentioning work in her blog); clever, funny and lots of daily life mixed with musings about the French, plus she has a little girl who says the most adorable things and her anecdotes regarding raising a multicultural child are interesting, delightful and often surprising (see this post)

la Coquette - An American of French decent, living in Paris; daily life, observations about the French perspective on foreigners, great humor and fashionista fun (she works in fashion and lives in Paris - this obviously makes for good reading)

Bangkok Expat Mama - an American living in Thailand; daily life anecdotes with attention to the details of living in Bankok (food and shopping and the way people behave toward you - also raising a child in a different culture than her own, includes entertaining accounts of that), lots of personality, definitely a good read

Kommissarie F. Curiosa - an American living in Stockholm, Sweden; focus on dating / relationships but also cultural differences with a lot interest in social and economic issues, she's funny, she likes to make lists and she put up the most horrific pic of David hasselhoof which gave me a good chuckle

Cynthia - an American vet student living in Edinburgh, Scotland; actually a close friend of mine who is writing her blog for friends and family back in the states but, unless she objects, I’ll keep this link up. She’s very clever and can show you a side of Scotland so few expats can - getting covered in cow poo (or, rather, working with animals)

NOT an expat blog but Loads of fun from the “other side of the pond”:
My Neighbors Are Hoors - a lovely lady in “Grey Toon”, a.k.a. Glasgow, Scotland, who shares adventures living in a flat just a few floors up from a brothel; incredibly funny, usually fond of the “ladies of negotiable affection” who live downstairs, and often writes Scottish phrases which I just LOVE

I definitely gravitate toward Scotland and France. France probably for my fascination with the style French women are thought to embody and Scotland... Hmm. Probably comes from seeing too many movies that have Gerard Butler in them, reading Outlander novels and too much time spent reciting the "He knows a lot about Sean Connery." scene in Trainspotting.