Well, I wasn’t born there, but John Cougar Mellencamp was (well, near there at least) and not only did he croon about it, he still lives there.  Welcome to Bloomington, Indiana. No offense Hoosiers, but for Indiana, this was a pretty cool, cultured, and charming little town.

On a 900+ mile drive from New Jersey to Chicago, I stopped in Bloomington in Southern Indiana for a couple days to visit my cool cousins, Michael and Nancy, who moved there about a year ago from New York.  You’d think it might be quite a transition for these savvy and worldly New Yorkers, from the bigness of all New York has to offer.  And yet, they realized after moving here that they missed nearly nothing about New York except their friends.  Bloomington offers variety, culture, worldly food, just on a much more manageable scale.

“I love how easy it is to do so many cool things; how easy it is to have the same lifestyle we had in NY…on a much smaller scale, but no less in quality.” Nancy said as she and Michael walked me around their pretty, leafy neighborhood of older, classic homes and the green campus dominated by stately limestone (from local quarries) buildings.

What did Michael miss about NY?

“A good deli.”

‘Nuff said.

But even if there are no ‘real’ delis, Bloomington has a fine and broad selection of eats, many dotted around the charming downtown streets which surround the Monroe Country Courthouse. We savored some flavorful dumpling dishes at Samiras, an authentic, local Afghani joint. Yum.

They also introduced me to The Farm, a local restaurant with a vintage tin-ceilinged vibe and a big-time chef. Daniel Orr grew up in Indiana, but got out of his small town to work in kitchens from France to New York (executive chef at famed French restaurant, La Grenouille) to Anguilla.  Chef Daniel returned to his home state of Indiana to open his multi-faceted culinary complex:  with a restaurant, market, and a ‘root-cellar’ bar with live music. The focus is on the local and fresh ingredients. My cousin recommended the Wild Bianca pizza.  The crispy brick oven pesto, mushroom, and white truffle oil (I can eat this on anything) pie did not disappoint, but did make me awfully full because I could not stop eating it.

The city of Bloomington, or B-Town, lies just 50 miles south of Indiana’s state capital, Indianapolis and has a population of over 70,000 residents, squeezed into 20 square miles.

What is most happening in Bloomington? Indiana University. Established in 1820, IU has approximately 40,000 students. The green and lovely campus, chock-a-block with grand buildings made from Indiana limestone, has been named one of the five most beautiful in America.

Bloomington is also home to a large music scene.  The Grammy nominated band, The Fray recorded their triple platinum debut album, How to Save a Life, at Echo Park Studios in Bloomington.

Much of Bloomington’s wealth of music originates in the Jacobs School of Music at IU, which has for decades been among the nation’s largest and most highly ranked schools of music.

One of the most well-known and interesting graduates, surely has to be Will Shortz…the ‘king of crosswords.’

Graduating in 1974, he is the only person known to hold a college degree in enigmatology, the study of puzzles. Shortz achieved this exceptional feat by designing his own curriculum through Indiana University’s Individualized Major Program.  He’s the crossword editor of The New York Times, the former editor of Games magazine, and the founder and director of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (since 1978), which was documented. And just a few years ago, he was the main subject of Wordplay, a film documenting his work and his smart, yet quirky loyal fan base.

My visit concluded with a nice drive to Lake Monroe, the state’s largest inland lake, where Michael and Nancy enjoy their sailboat when summer rolls around and the current (not pink) home of aforementioned small town boy, John Mellencamp.

Old Johnny Cougar is known to be a big fan of Indiana University basketball and is regularly seen in attendance at home games.  In 2000, he gave the IU commencement address, in which he told graduates to “play it like you feel it!”  Following the delivery of his address, Indiana University bestowed upon him an honorary doctorate of Musical Arts.

Bloomington, it turns out, is a pretty neat place. Beautiful architecture, culture and arts all around.  My favorite part? Just hanging out with family over good food, wine, and conversation.  Thanks to Nancy & Michael for hosting me and introducing me to their new ‘cool’ small town.

Welcome to Travel Tip Tuesday (TTT? T3? TraTiTu?).  I realized that after 3 years of traveling and living out of a bag, I really have become quite the expert on this solo world travel thing. There’s no denying I have a lot of experience. I realized that here and there I was slipping in some tips, so I figured I should start pointing them out in a weekly post. Well, I hope it will be weekly, sometimes maybe it won’t. But at least it will always be on a Tuesday, well, I guess I could slip it in on Thursday as well. I mean, my blog, my rules, right?  If nothing else, at least alliteration should keep me in line.

Today’s Tip:

Use your ATM (automatic teller machine) Card.
Don’t leave home without it (and a spare packed somewhere else—get one from your bank before you leave home).

I have NEVER once in 12 years traveling abroad used Travelers Checks. As far as I’m concerned they are obsolete. I also NEVER exchange money at a bank or exchange place or anywhere. The best exchange rate you will get is through your bank at home…so use your ATM Card.  If you don’t have one…get one. My ATM debit card works around the world and there are ATM/Bank Machines everywhere. Nowadays, ATMs are about as ubiquitous as McDonalds.

When you first arrive in a new country get your cash right away – airports or train stations are good places to find an ATM. Do it before you start to wander around town without any Shekels, Lire, or Dong.

Try to take out as much as you are comfortable with each time you go to the ATM (I take out a few hundred Euros at a time). Your bank most likely charges you a small percentage to convert the money each time…and it will save you a bit in the long run if you are NOT going to the ATM everyday.

Of course, before you get to the ATM, you must remember to figure out how many Swedish Kroner equals one dollar (about 7SEK=$1USD at the time of writing).  This means you’d have to take out about 700SEK if you wanted $100. And a $5 beer will be about 35SEK.  Jumping country to country can be confusing when it comes to currency. Take a moment to learn the exchange rate and figure out an easy formula or trick that helps you know it…and know it quick. This will help tons when you are negotiating a good deal for that hand-painted boomerang in Australia or buying late-night shots of raki in Istanbul.

As some of you may know, I am not only a writer and television producer, I am also a photographer. I’ve actually been a photographer longer than anything else I have done.  I’ve been taking photos since I was a kid with my clunky Polaroid camera and loved my first SLR, a Ricoh XR-M that my mom and step-dad got me one year for Christmas back in high school. I loved days in the darkroom in high school watching my black and white photos develop…yes, the ‘old days’ before digital.  I was a photographer for both my high school and university newspapers (The Rampage & The Gamecock, now oddly named the Daily Gamecock even though it is only published three times a week).   I have done a lot of things in life, but have always been doing some kind of photography work in the background.  I have recently put together another website mostly highlighting my travel photography at LisaLubin.com.  It is a work in progress and I will be adding photos to it each week.  Please pop over there and tell me what you think.  My photos are also hanging out and nicely organized over at Flickr.

And now, without any further ado, please enjoy today’s photo. Thank you.

Icebergs on Lago Grey
Patagonia, Chile

Just yesterday another aftershock rocked the Pacific just off the coast of Chile.   A few weeks ago an earthquake with a magnitude of 8.8 struck this long sliver of a country.  The devastating February quake triggered tsunamis, killed about 500 people and tore up roads and towns. According to the Chilean government, it has now caused an estimated $30 billion in damage to infrastructure, homes and industry.

I traveled through beautiful Chile in the Fall of 2006. The jaw-dropping glaciers, icebergs, and craggy, snow-peaked mountains of Patagonia in southern Chile were some of the most magnificent sights of my entire trip.

Check out my Chile posts here:

Sleeping in Metal Chairs
I’ve hit the bottom of the world
Get on the bus, Gus

In travel writing circles many talk about how to feel more ‘local.’   I once wrote about how much I liked going for a run in a foreign city.   It always made me feel like I wasn’t a tourist – running through the streets of Valencia or Melbourne or Minneapolis (at least at this pace it appeared as if I knew where I was going), finding a park, and often running alongside locals on their daily run. It was good for my spirit and body and also a great way to see some parts of a city that I may have missed – excercise and sightseeing all rolled into one feel-good package.

The only problem was I would feel the need to intensely study my map before leaving my hotel.  I definitely didn’t want to carry it with me, but I certainly didn’t want to get lost in some foreign city that I had little to no geographical knowledge of with nothing but my iPod and a room key. On the other hand, I have to admit,  I did like this challenge and the independence it made me feel. Plus, the slight fear of getting completely lost probably invigorated me and gave me that extra energy I needed to run just a bit more or a bit faster.  Who needs Red Bull when you have natural fear and anxiety to keep you going?

Well, now there is a website, that takes the fear out of running in a new place…or even your own hometown.  WalkJogRun.net helps you plan running routes by drawing them out on a map for you.   It’s sort of a Google Map mash-up including route markers, a distance/speed calculator, and even a calorie burn estimator so you can specifically run off that morning chocolate croissant in Paris, last night’s extra few glasses of Kölsch in Cologne, or that midnight Kogi taco in Los Angeles.

Not only can you plan your own route, you can ‘borrow’ other’s routes as well.   And for those of you with an iPhone…of course there is an app so you can basically bring the ‘map’ along with you after all.

Wintertime in New Jersey. This year, there seemed to be a crazy amount of snow. But how would I know? It’s not like I’ve spent any winters in New Jersey for twenty years and I’ve been out of the country for three years. So who am I to talk? But, either way, there seemed to be a lot of frickin’ snow.  And it was beautiful.

Despite what many think they know about New Jersey (and believe me, I have heard many a wrong assumption), it has very rural and bucolic areas. I grew up in Randolph, a somewhat standard American suburb, but still with a good share of farmland and forest land as well. So it was no surprise to see this on our front lawn during the recent two-foot snowfall.

Watch the video of my new friends here: