26.2.07

Review of Italy Book: A Backpackers Guide to Reality

The Star-Telagram recently reviewed our book, Italy From a Backpack.

Travel guidebooks tend to start looking the same after a while: mini-reviews of places to eat and stay, must-see sights, a few suggested itineraries.

Pearson Venture Group of Seattle has come up with a line of books with a different and refreshing take on the genre. Each book in the "Europe From a Backpack" series is a collection of real, first-person accounts by young travelers. Their exploits tell you what really happens on the road.
Read the full review

16.2.07

Photo Contest

Post your best backpacking photos at Mytravelbackpack.com and you could win a copy of Europe From a Backpack, Italy From a Backpack, and Spain From a Backpack.
Post Your Picts

15.2.07

The best things in life are FREE!

I find when I travel that the most memorable sights and experiences usually involve no admission charge. Find them and enjoy!

1) A Free and Spectacular View of Paris
Many visitors to Paris are discouraged to find out the trip to the top of Eiffel Tower involves not only a lengthy line, but also a hefty price. But there is a better view of Paris available at no charge at the base of Sacre Coeur atop Montmartre. You'll pay a small fee to ascend the basilica (by foot), but the views from the top of the steps leading into the cathedral are breathtaking.

2) London's Changing of the Guard
The Queen's Guard in London changes in the Forecourt inside the gates of Buckingham Palace at 11.30 a.m. every day during the summer months and on alternating days in the winter. Although it's free to view, you might want to invest some time to get there early enough for a good vantage point. This might be Europe's most popular free attraction, and the crowds can be huge.

3) A Tour of the Rijksmuseum Gardens in Amsterdam
Many visitors to Amsterdam are disappointed to learn the famous Rijksmuseum is closed for extensive renovations. The work should be finished by 2008, but while it continues, you can visit the museum's gardens. A free printed guide will point out some art treasures that cannot be seen elsewhere at any price, let alone for free. Please note that the garden is not open on weekends.

4) The Roman Forum
You grew up seeing it in your history textbooks, but in Rome it comes alive at no cost. This was the central marketplace in ancient times, and it is well worth the time to wander the area and imagine what life was like in those days.

5) London's Tate Modern and Borough Food Markets
These two attractions are located alongside one another. Tate Modern offers interesting (some say outrageous) art, while the markets are a fun place to browse on Fridays and Saturdays. Why not pick up an inexpensive picnic lunch in the markets and make a budget day of it?

6) Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral
You don't have to be a student of architecture to appreciate this magnificent structure, generally regarded among the most beautiful on earth. You don't need money to enter and walk the inside unless you decide to climb the towers or visit the museum. It is a wonderful Paris experience. One warning: In summer, you might have to invest a lot of time waiting in line to get inside Notre Dame.

7) Westminster Abbey in London
There are admission fees for Westminster Abbey, but those who choose to worship here can see the inside for free. Evensong is at 5pm on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, plus at 3pm on Saturdays and Sundays. These are your opportunities to hear the Abbey Choir perform.

8) A Free Ferry ride in Amsterdam harbor
Boat tours in Amsterdam can be quite pricey. But one of the more revealing trips can be yours at no cost. You can traverse the older part of the Amsterdam port on a free ferry available behind the Centraal rail station. It's a short ride, but it might be a nice change of pace after a day of walking through the sites.

9) Scandinavia's Natural Phenomena
The Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis, the Midnight Sun and the Polar Nights are three things you won't want to miss in Scandinavia, depending upon the timing of your visit. Although getting to Scandinavia countries can be expensive, consider these three natural treasures handsome dividends on your investment.

10) Fashion Gawking in Paris
Paris fashions hardly fit into a directory of free or inexpensive things to see, but remember that looking never costs you anything. Rue de Faubourg St. Honore or the nearby Avenue Montaigne are places to see the latest fashions and the best shoppers in action.

11.2.07

Review of Spain From a Backpack

Spain From a Backpack was recently reviewed in the Chicago Tribune.

There are guidebooks and then there are stories. This series (other books in the series include "Italy From a Backpack" and "Europe From a Backpack") offers first-person accounts from mostly twenty- to thirty-somethings about their experiences--both good and bad--while living, working, studying or traveling through Spain. Some follow in the footsteps of Hemingway (running with the bulls in Pamplona); others participate in a pilgrimage along the Camino de Santiago. The stories here are, for the most part, modest descriptions of life in Spain. In "Life as a Metro Musician," an American sings classic rock songs and plays guitar in the Madrid metro. Anyone with memories of backpacking on the continent is sure to find moments of inspiration in this humble collection.
-- Chicago Tribue

10.2.07

Who Loves Chocolate??

The annual Eurochocolate festival of Perugia has earned itself the name as the most popular festival of the chocolate and the most followed by Italians, making of Perugia the European capital of the chocolate. For nine days the Umbrian chief town transforms itself for the occasion in a huge open-air pastry-shop for the delight of all the greedy persons and the slaves of cacao.

For all the tourists the occasion is without any doubt a good one to discover the most remote corners of this antique medieval center and to enjoy the famous Umbrian hospitality.

Dates of Chocolate Festival 2007, From October 13th to October 21st.


rotating gelato dispenser Rotating Gelato Spencer!
chocolate bricks... Chocolate Bricks
note the sculpted hairdo Thats one big piece of chocolate!

Eurochocolate was hailed in few years from his first edition as one of the most important event in Perugia. Started in 1994, this festival has extended with the editions of Turin and Rome. Eurochocolate, begun thanks to the support of Perugina (now belonging to Nestlé), one of major chocolate producer in Italy and in the world, is the festival that gluttons love most. The event takes place in the central streets and squares of Perugia, and for eight days the historic centre of the city changes thanks to the chocolate expositions, the open air laboratories, and the chocolate tasting. During the week, in some stands, wise confectionery artisans create enormous chocolate sculptures, which are destroyed in last festival days and the pieces distributed to all the people. Confectioners and chef display in the creation of chocolate dishes, experimenting new flavours: today the cacao is also used for the preparation of main and second courses. Chocolates and tastes are given for free everywhere. Eurochocolate has been also defined the gluttons festival, unique and various as the most prestigious Italian and foreign confectionery reality that here expose their products. Lindt, Nestlé, Caffarel, are some of the brand participating to this festival. Here in 2003, ten confectionery masters have created the biggest chocolate of the world (a bacio perugina), that entered the Guinness book. It was more than 7 meters large, two meters high and made with 3500 kilograms of dark chocolate, thousands of hazelnuts, for a global weight of 5980 kilograms.

During Eurochocolate the city of Perugia is populated by thousands of Italian and foreign tourists, so its better to book in advance your hotel, bed and breakfast, country house or holiday house in Perugia.
Visit the official site www.eurochocolate.com

8.2.07

Video: Italy Study Abroad

Video: Man Draws Rome from Memory

This is amazing. Stephen Wiltshire, a savant, draws Rome from memory.

Video: Salzburg

Video: Where the Hell is Matt?

Matt is a 30-year-old from Connecticut who used to think that all he ever wanted to do in life was make and play videogames. He achieved this goal pretty early and enjoyed it for a while, but eventually realized there might be other stuff he was missing out on. In February of 2003, he quit his job in Brisbane, Australia and used the money he'd saved to wander around the planet until it ran out. He managed to visit 39 countries on all 7 continents.

Meet Ben Bachelder

Ben Bachelder is a contributor to the Europe From a Backpack series. His most recent story, "Looking for Lava," appears in Italy From a Backpack. Prior to that he wrote, "The Other Side," about his trip to Morocco. You can find that story in Europe From a Backpack.

Ben was born and raised in San Francisco's Bay Area and called Berkeley his home for his university years. His hippie-ish parents (they won't admit to it) raised him to be a free thinker and Berkeley reinforced that. At the age of 17 he discovered electronic music and the rave scene and became a DJ, which helped put him through school and boosted his ego much more than he really needed. It was after graduation that he finally left the US and experienced Europe and the glory of hitchhiking. He also fell in love with volcanoes, and parked himself in Hawaii to commune with the goddess Pele. However, the song of the road beckoned and drew him as far as India on a fourteen month bare-bones journey. By that time, his girlfriend back in Hawaii threatened to disown him, so he reluctantly returned. That lasted for a mere twelve months, until the shores of Southeast Asia drew him in. A few months bouncing around there gave him a good feel for the region, to which he vowed to return as soon as possible. Now, after crisscrossing the US numerous times and poking around in Central America, he's made his way to Antarctica and will be in New Zealand and Oceania soon after. He has committed himself to experiencing all seven continents by age thirty, when that happens he'll reassess his life and figure out what to do from there.

A word from Ben about his story:

I chose Italy for my first first stop outside of the United States because I was already in love with its volcanoes. Little did I know that I would have such an intimate experience with one! I compiled a geologic history of Mt. Vesuvius for one of my college classes and went to Naples to see the mountain "in the flesh". While hanging out in the hostel, I read about the Isole Eolie, the island group near Sicily that Stromboli is a part of, and decided to head down for a visit.

My experience atop Stromboli convinced me that I wanted to learn all I could about volcanoes. When I got back to the US from my European trip, I headed to Hawaii to enroll in a Master's program studying volcanology. I ended up dropping out before I even started because all I really wanted to do was hang out on the Big Island, poking around the lava flows that Kilauea has been producing for the last twenty-odd years.

These days I'm in the shadow of yet another volcano, Mt. Erebus in Antarctica. I'll be in the Andes soon, and out to Africa's Rift Zone before too many years pass. Hope to see you on the road!
View Ben's Travel and Hitchiking Photos on Flickr
Read more of his stories at Digihitch.com