Travel Turtle

Moi, Je Joue

I’m sure you’ve seen the new “Miss Dior Cherie” perfume ad on television. Directed by Sofia Coppola, who I think has a real talent for choosing just the right music for the right scenes. I am actually not much of a music fan, but Ms. Coppola makes me love it and feel alive. I can’t find the Miss Dior Cherie commercial online, at least not anywhere that will let me post it here. If you want to see it, just go here.

And the commercial makes me fall in love with Paris again. It brings to mind everything I want Paris to be, romantic, fun, playful, sweet, exciting. The commercial makes me believe in the power of this perfume and though my brain tells me that’s not how life works, I just want to believe it for a little bit.

{Photo Credit: Fashionologie}

Geography Awareness Week

This week is Geography Awareness Week. I love geography. I used to have a large world map on my bedroom door with all of the world’s flags on it. (I also love flags.) Emma blogged about flight map posters by Mario Freese today which I think are a great way to begin Geography Awareness Week. This would have also been a great decorative item for my bedroom.

I love the brighter spots, representing the connection hubs of the most popular destinations. What I love even more are the faint lines and dots. The places that don’t get too much traffic, where you have to get on a six-seater plane, or land on something that only slightly resembles a runway and exit the “airport” to the large parking lot holding 2 cars, a cow, and unchained bikes. When I look at the image above, those are the spots that are calling for me to visit.

Seven Things About Me

I’ve been tagged by Copper Heart Designs
Here’s how this works:

THE RULES:

• Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
• Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
• Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their name as well as links to their blog.
• Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

So here are my seven random and weird facts about me.

• When I travel someplace new, I like to buy a book about the history of the place and/or a cookbook of regional dishes.
• Even though I have no rhythm and can’t sing, I once seriously considered auditioning for the play Rent. Not for the broadway version, but the traveling version.
• I often reference the movie Dogville in conversation.
• I absolutely love to sing into a fake microphone when I’m home or in my car. The fake microphone can be anything from a hairbrush, bottle of water, plastic microphone or my husband’s hand.
• I’m always on the lookout for the world’s best burger. For about 5 years of my life, I was convinced that it was at Kennedy Space Center’s food court. When I went back to see if it was still true, they didn’t have any burgers.
• My favorite candy bar is the Kit Kat. I like to eat the chocolates off the side first and then eat layer by layer.
• Things I used to collect when I travelled (but don’t anymore): pins, snow globes, post cards, magnets, glasses, t-shirts, shot glasses.

Now tell me seven things about you!

I want to stay here!

Part of the joy of staying at hotels is being able to open your windows to views you can’t get at home. Readers at Hotel Chatter constantly submit pictures of window views at hotels around the world. Good and bad. Sometimes it can be really good:

That’s the Intercontinental Bora Bora. And I’m not going to waste our time pointing out the real bad. If you want to see more, or submit your own images, you can do it at their flickr pool.

If your budget doesn’t allow you the $700+/night indulgence of the view above, don’t worry! Lisa Bongzee at etsy is selling beautiful and definitely more affordable prints with images similar to the one above.

The Wildflower Cafe in Clearwater, Florida

If your travels ever take you to Clearwater, Florida (which I would highly recommend they do because the Gulf Coast Beaches in Florida are beautiful!) please take the time to stop at the Wildflower Cafe. Their website title says “Exceptional Food” and I wholeheartedly agree. I went to an event once and someone brought a lemon cake from that cafe. This was years ago. It took me almost a year to stop thinking about it every day. I think now I think about this cake once a week. It was so dense, yet so light. It was soft, with sugar crystals that added more than just a textural difference, it mixed with the cake and frosting flavors to create the perfect cake experience.

ah.

{Image from Wildflower Cafe}

I’d love to hear about more must-eat places in other cities and towns. If you have any, please share in the comments or send me an email.

Finding the Right Trip

Whichever stage you are in your planning your next trip desire, I highly recommend checking out tourtoo. What is tourtoo? It’s a user-generated information portal to travel ideas. I recently ventured over to tourtoo to use while I try to figure out where in Asia I might want to go in 2009. Since I’m at the very beginning of my planning, I jumped around a little bit and found:

Golfing in Vietnam

Remote Luxury Islands

Archeology and Ancient History Tours

Look at all that great variety! Another great feature is that since it is user-generated, you can always add your own idea, experience or suggestion to the mix. Actually, now that I think about it, I think I might and I think you should. If you do, let me know, I’d love to read what you wrote. In the meantime, don’t forget the tourtoo resource when you plan your next escape.

{All images from tourtoo}

Yay! I won an award!!

The lovely Joy De Vivre gave me the Superior Scribbler Award!! Thank you so much!

And with great power comes great responsibility:

*Each Superior Scribbler must in turn pass the award on to 5 most deserving Bloggy friends.

*Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author and the name of the blog from whom he/she has received the award.

*Each Superior Scribbler must display the award on his/her blog, and link to this post, http://scholastic-scribe.blogspot.com/2008/10/200-this-blings-for-you.html, which explains the award.

*Each Blogger who wins The Superior Scribbler Award must visit this post and add his/her name to the Mr. Linky List. That way, we’ll be able to keep up-to-date on everyone who receives This Prestigious Honor!

*Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her blog.

For the purposes of this award and my blog, I decided to add blogs that are either international to me, or written by someone who lives in a country separate from where they are from, AND they do crafts or make and like pretty things. So, with that in mind I give you (in no particular order except for alphabetical):

• Ashley Thomas
• Florcita
• Ismoyo
• Marion Hearts Pretty Things
• The Spotted Sparrow

In addition to loving how the above “scribble”, I also immensely enjoy their pictures, thoughts, inspiration and blog. So please click on those links above and see what I’m talking blogging about.

Thank you again Joy De Vivre Design!!!

A New Leader!!!

I’m not sure if you heard about the new leader that was named this week. Well, I’m sure you heard of one, but not the other. Bhutan crowned the world’s youngest Monarch earlier this week. I’ve been told by anyone who’s been to Bhutan that it is one of the most beautiful countries in the world. I believe it. First, let’s examine what the Boston Globe had to say, “The young ruler vows to maintain a stance of protection against the worst aspects of globalization, maintaining the “Gross National Happiness”, a measurement of national progress that places a high value on spiritual development. Gross National Happiness is a term invented by, and proudly embraced by Bhutanese since 1972.”

Gross National Happiness!!! Looking at the pictures, I can understand why they want to be measure progress in happiness. The use of color in this country are amazing. I need to visit. Right now.

While my own government might not measure progress by happiness, nothing is stopping me from using it as a measure myself. What about you?

{Found the story via NotCot and Sub-Studio photos via Getty Images}

How to Travel Creatively

“London Times” by arete

Want to bring a little bit of arts and crafts culture into your next trip? Here are various ways you can insert creativity into your travels.

• Most Required: A notebook. People seem to love the moleskine, and I think they’re great. Take notes of places you want to go beforehand, keep notes of what you did during, and reflect on the way home.
• Most Obvious: Go to a museum. If you’re up to it, do some research before you go and read up on the architecture of the building, or of a couple of paintings and exhibits. This gives you a destination once you arrive. Stand close to the paintings. Note the brushstrokes.
• Most Deliberate: Bring your knitting, sketchbook, craftbook. Sit at a park or on a train and do some work as you watch this new world go by.
• Most Introspective: Take pictures. Get really close. Get upside down. Take tons of them. Take a picture straight down. Take a picture straight up. Find patterns. Get abstract. Have photography contests with you travelers.
• Most Difficult: Dress like a local. What’s their style? Take the first evening to shop or assemble the outfit. Take the second day to “fit in”.
• Most Educational: Take a class. Are there any one-day workshops available? Sign up and go.
• Most Collective: Pick up business cards, flyers and random pieces of paper and scrap your trip as you go.
• Most Friendly: Go to an outdoor market or a craft fair. Talk to the vendors. Ask them about the area. Buy something from them.

Are there any others you can think of?

Hola Mola

Several years ago I went on a trip to Costa Rica and stayed at the Cariblue Hotel in Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, Limon, Costa Rica. Great hotel. Private bungalows on the edge of the rain forest and right across the street from the Caribbean. The owners were gracious, the food delicious, and the accommodations relaxing. Hiking along the beach to the nearest town is a great way to start the days. The nearest town, at the time, had two pay phones, dirt roads and one of the best restaurants I’ve ever eaten at.

On the last night there, dining at the hotel, waiting for the kitchen to pack a meal for the bus ride back to San Jose (that’s just how great they were, they packed food for the next day!), I knew I wanted to remember the place. Browsing through the gift shop, I saw these material crafts that were the same as the decorations in the room. Perfect. I now know that it’s called a mola. Here’s some pictures of them from around the web:

From Flickr

From Flickr

I’ve since learned more of the history of these colorful and beautiful items. These originated as part of the traditional Kuna women’s dress of Panama. It’s layers upon layers of fabric, which are cut away to create the design and then stitched together (process known as reverse applique). Traditionally there are two pieces with a similar theme, one for the front of the dress, one in the back. When the women are tired of wearing it, they disassemble their outfit and sell the pieces in two parts.

From Wikipedia

If you are heading to Panama and want to find a good quality mola, here are some things to look for:

• Evenness
• Almost invisible stitching
• Lots of layers

If you are looking for one that might be a little more authentic, remember that they will probably be more faded and worn (since they are used). Also look for mola’s with matching themes.

If you don’t plan on going to Panama any time soon, but want to have something mola-ish at home, etsy is a great resource. Click on this link to find mola-tagged items on etsy.

What do you think of the mola?