Janelle Nanos: November 2008 Archives

We're about to heave ho for the holiday weekend, but we here at IT just wanted to say how thankful we are for all of you readers. And also for our new blog design, which we've been loving more and more each day. So instead of your requisite gobbler image, (and since our colleague Carol is just back from a visit to Istanbul) we thought we'd share this lovely selection of photos shot in Turkey (as in the country) all pulled from our online Flickr pool. Enjoy the holiday!

OPEN THREAD: Where are you heading for the holidays? What's your favorite Thanksgiving tradition?  

National Geographic Traveler wants to see your best shots of Washington, D.C.!  

We're putting together a user-generated photography gallery for our website that we will post in mid-December. We want your shots from all over the city, from the monuments on the Mall to the unique neighborhoods that not all the tourists get to. If you aren't sure what kind of photography we are drawn to, pick up a magazine or wander around our website.  We love real images with great composition and a good sense of place.

To participate, first take a stunning photograph in Washington, D.C., then add your photos to the group pool on our Flickr page, and last, but not least, tag your top five images with the tag: NGTDC.  Please only tag five of your photographs maximum. Oh, and don't forget to add a description so that we know what we are looking at!

The deadline is December 15th, 2008. After that, our photo editor will pick the cream of the crop for our web gallery. You will receive placement on Traveler's website and a year-long subscription to National Geographic Traveler, the world's most widely read travel magazine.   

Photo: by assistant photo editor Krista Rossow.

Since I've been blogging a bit about maps lately (both the incredibly detailed, and distinctly less so) I couldn't help but get excited when I started poking through the National Geographic holiday catalog and found their Personalized Puzzle Maps. At the risk of ruining a few family members gifts this year, I felt the urge to share the details.

Each map is unique, and all you have to do is provide your address as the starting point, and the map elves will create a 400-piece puzzle of the area around your home using a U.S. Geological Survey map. And the best part? The center puzzle piece is in the shape of a house, and its placed exactly where your own home is found. You have to order by phone (+1 888 225 5647) and the cost is $39.95

For more great holiday gifts (including fun travel items like the pocketed security sock) check out the rest of the catalog. And since we're all friends here, be sure to use the Friends and Family discount code: 08HFF20 while checking out (good through Dec. 7).

Photo: National Geographic Catalog

Have you ever wanted to mush with an Iditarod dogsled team? Well here's your chance: On December 1, the bidding begins for the annual IditaRide Auction. The event is in its 15th year, and is one of the main fundraisers for the famous Iditarod Trail Ride Dog Sled Race. A winning bid will let you ride along with a team through 11 miles of Anchorage parkland and "a screaming crowd of spectators," says Deby Trosper, the auction coordinator. It all takes place on the day before the official Iditarod begins in March, and gets you an inside glimpse of the "Last Great Race on Earth." Given, it's a small glimpse (the actual race covers 1,100 miles and typically takes nine days), but it sounds like a fantastic time.

Trosper says bids average about $1,400, but if you want to lock in a spot, you can secure one for $7,500. So what exactly, can you expect if you get a winning bid? You most likely won't get to drive the sled, she says, as the experienced drivers will handle that. But you will get to sit in the front, right behind the dogs, and get showered with hotdogs and muffins, offered by cheering fans along the route. "We encourage folks to bring pillows" to sit on, she adds. "You're in a birch sled about five inches off the ground." It's best to wear warm clothing (layers), boots, hats and gloves, and watch out for moose ("A lot of times there's an opportunity to get a taste of the Big Wild," Trosper notes). The entire trip takes about an hour to complete, and when they're done, the mushers-to-be get off their sleds looking "like little kids at Christmas." She says that many of the IditaRiders often get pretty attached to their mushers, and will try to get to the Iditarod finish line in Nome, Alaska, to see them win. If you can get up there for the winning celebration, it's like "Alaska's Mardi Gras." But take note: hotels are hard to come by, and often book up a year in advance.

So as we're wrapping up Geography Awareness Week, I thought I'd share what perhaps is the antithesis of the National Geographic MapMachine. It is the very cool website called the Hand Drawn Map Association, which I came across via our friend Anne over at Prêt à Voyager.

The site is the brainchild of Kris Harzinski, and it's a delightfully simple repository of people's sketched out maps. It recently got a plug on NPR's Here and Now, and in the interview, Harzinski says that he set up the site after coming across a set of maps from within the stacks of his old papers, and that each one evoked a memory and told a little story. Looking through all of the submissions, here are some of my favorites: "I heard you broke up with your girlfriend. Here's where to find me," a Dungeons and Dragons homage, a map to fossil layers in Livingston, Alabama, a fake country for a colony of ants, and the best way to get to the passport office in London, England. There are over a hundred to look through, and you can submit your own maps to the site as well.

And while we're on the subject of maps, be sure to check out our collection of very fun walking tour and Insider's Guide interactive maps, now online on Traveler's new website.

Image via the Hand Drawn Map Association.

Photographer Alexandra Avakian rides a UN vehicle through Lebanon in 2005. By Hassan Siklawi.

If you're looking for a fantastic female role model, you may want to add Alexandra Avakian to your list. At the age of 9, she decided that she wanted to grow up to be a National Geographic photographer. She's now been shooting for the magazine for over 13 years, and has covered some of the more violent and important stories of our time, dodging bullets in Somalia, enduring beatings by Hamas, and getting unprecedented access to Yasser Arafat while accompanying him on his travels. Her new book, Windows of the Soul: My Journeys in the Muslim World, recounts the stories behind her pictures, often in heartwrenching detail. She edited the book while undergoing chemo treatments for breast cancer, and the project, she said, only galvanized her will to survive. Janelle Nanos spoke with Avakian about shooting photos in between gunshots and how she finds her subjects. You can read more about her book and other work on her blog at National Geographic online.

Congratulations on the new book. Looking back, how did you get interested in photography?

My father was a director and editor, my stepfather a theatre and film director, and my mother is an actress, so I grew up backstage and on movie sets. My father would sit me behind the camera and show me how the director of photography had set up the shot, how it was composed. He'd teach me how photo essays in Life magazine were made, so I was always attuned to pictures and storytelling.

You can often see that training in your work, as your images often have layers within them. How do you translate that training to the haphazard situations you often find yourself in?

There's a big difference between setting up a shot in a studio and being in reality during unfolding news. But I studied art history too. I think that once you know what excites you in terms of composition and aesthetics, you're going to bring that everywhere with you, no matter where you are.

What aspects of your own life inform your work?

I came from a very strong family of artists, and everyone is a strong personality and works very hard. Also, I have an awareness and organic interest in knowing what's happening in the world and what's happening with people outside of our comfortable realm. There was also the desire to engage and connect with my family history. My family fled the Armenian genocide. Part of them were wiped out by Stalin in the Great Terror. There were many, many other massacres that my family had to deal with living in that region. So when I found out about that, I understood they had been through a lot of pain.

Want a way to explore Rome that's part Harry Potter, part Da Vinci Code? Then check out the new scavenger hunt cum guidebook, called The Ruyi. The interactive game will have you wandering through the streets on a quest for answers to cryptic clues. Confused? Intrigued? the London Times has the details:

The book is part of The Ruyi, an ingenious game that aims to take you on a tour of the backstreets of select European cities while telling you a little of the history and the myths they contain. All you need is a map, a mobile phone and the book, which you buy online. In it there's a number--you send a text message to that number and receive your first instruction in return, telling you which of the 60 stories in the book you should read once you reach your first destination, followed by a question, which tells you where to go.

The point, it seems, is to give you an experience a bit more interactive than what you'll find in a typical guidebook.

The European Union's new regulation on airline ticket transparency, which requires airlines to quote a fare including all taxes, fees and surcharges, went into effect Nov. 1. How will the new rules affect air travelers here and in Europe? Contributing Editor Christoper Elliott asked Meglena Kuneva, the EU commissioner for consumer affairs.

First of all, congratulations on passing and implementing this important law for consumers. Can you tell me how the the price transparency rule works?

These rules will ensure transparency of information for consumers so that they may confidently compare airline offers and make informed choices when purchasing airline tickets. European consumers will be better informed of the final price to be paid when purchasing an air service that departs from an EU airport.

Why was this rule necessary?

We have all seen and been misled by some airlines advertisement campaigns offering a one way ticket for 1 Euro, only to find that the offer is limited and that additional charges significantly increase the cost of the airline ticket.

Does the law apply to online and offline purchase?

Regardless of how a consumer purchases an airline ticket, be it online or via a travel agency, these new European rules will today oblige air carriers to publish the total air fare, which is to include a breakdown of all applicable taxes, fees, charges and surcharges foreseen at the time of publication of the price.

It's been a week since the election, and already my couch, floor, and possibly my bathtub have all been reserved for January 20th, when president-elect Barack Obama is sworn into office. And apparently I'm not alone, as the Washington D.C. tourism push has already begun. There has been few words about planning yet from the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, but here's what we do know: it's gonna be crowded.

Rebecca Pawlowski of the Destination DC visitors bureau says she's fielded over 600 calls in the past few days from people interested in coming to town, and that their online inauguration guide has already gotten 20,000 hits since going up last week. Tickets to the events are free - but they'll be hard to come by - as you have to get them through your Congressperson or Senator. But you should know now that any ticket being sold for cash is probably fake, so don't get duped.

This past weekend, I wandered down to the Georgetown waterfront to scope out D.C.'s newest public park. The seven-acre swath of land right on the Potomac River was once a huge cement parking lot under the Whitehurst Freeway, but over the past several years its been revitalized into a gorgeous green oasis with sweeping views of the Key Bridge and the Kennedy Center. It's a nice antidote to taking in the commercial offerings of Georgetown's busy M Street, with a labyrinth for contemplative strolls and several grassy areas perfect for flinging frisbees.

For a great afternoon outing, walk further to the eastern edge of the park and take in the beautifully designed House of Sweden embassy building, whose café hosts music programs on many weekends. Another option: veering off the path to Thomas Jefferson St., where you can grab one of the parchment paper-wrapped cupcakes at the funky Baked and Wired bakery.

The new park links up with a walkway that stretches all the way down to the National Mall, and is a perfect place for visitors to stop and relax their feet after stomping around among the monuments. There's still some work to be done (another round of construction will create a viewing platform at the site, where you'll eventually be able to catch the many regattas that race along the Potomac) but it's a lovely new addition to the city. For a glimpse of it on video (shot by yours truly) click through to the jump.

Will the outpouring of international support for president-elect Barack Obama (well, on most counts at least) change the way that American travelers and expatriates are treated abroad? William J. Kole, the Vienna bureau chief for the Associate Press, thinks so, as he received a big, fat kiss from a complete stranger after the results came in. He writes:

For longtime U.S. expatriates like me -- someone far more accustomed to being targeted over unpopular policies, for having my very Americanness publicly assailed -- it feels like an extraordinary turnabout.

...When you're an American abroad, you can quickly become a whipping post. Regardless of your political affiliation, if you happen to be living and working overseas at a time when the United States has antagonized much of the world, you get a lot of grief.

In the past, Kole writes, he's told his children to speak more softly to avoid getting dirty looks in the subway, has feigned Canadian citizenship, and has avoided wearing his red, white, and blue running singlet in marathon races. But now, he says, things seem to have shifted, not solely for pro-Obama sentiment, but out of "friendship and admiration."

We'd love to hear from you about how you think the experiences of Americans abroad may change. If you are traveling or are living outside of the States, are you seeing a difference in how you're treated? If you're heading abroad, do you anticipate doing anything differently? Let us know in the comments below.

Photo: Destiny_Studios via the Intelligent Travel Flickr pool

We'll be the first to admit that folks in the travel world do tend to fall on the quirky side, but even we have to recognize when we encounter the insane. Which is what we thought when we heard from our contributing editor (and recent Lowell Thomas Award Winner) Carl Hoffman, who recently emailed us about his current project: traveling by self-imposed lunatic express. "I'm traveling around the world on the world's slowest, most crowded and most dangerous buses, boats, trains and planes for a book to be published next year," he writes. The key, you see, is that there's little that's actually "express" about his trip, and there's little that's safe either.

On a recent leg of the journey, Carl spent five days on a ferry from Jakarta to Sarong, where he and his cohorts (seen in the video, above) spent most of the night sleeping in the "ekonomi," otherwise known as steerage. A glimpse of exactly what that's like after the jump.

A friend in D.C. just wandered past the Newseum, my favorite new museum here in Washington, and shot off a quick camera phone picture of the crowds gathering outside, looking at all of the headlines printed and behind glass announcing Obama's win. I thought it might be worth a virtual visit, so here's their online gallery of front pages from around the world. Pretty impressive.

Read more: Get the story behind the Newseum, and its current exhibit, G-Men and Journalists.

Photo: Tim Corsi