Disneyesque Dubai
Dubai, U.A.E.

I spent a week in the hot, desert-town of Dubai back in 2007.  I wasn’t sure if I was in Disney or Las Vegas, but Dubai is definitely like no other place I’ve ever been.  This photo was taken from the grounds of the luxury resort, Madinat Jumierah.  In the background is the world famous Burj al Arab Hotel, complete with helicopter pad hanging off the side of the building, butlers on demand, and a reservation policy to even set foot in the building.  I imagine in the 5 years since I’ve been there, a ton has changed since it is one of the world’s fastest growing cities, although I’ve also read that it also grew too fast – and now one in four homes is vacant and a quarter of office space lies empty due to oversupply.

Disclosure: This post is brought to you by Holidays in Dubai.

Before the Olympic torch is even ignited, London is already celebrating.  This June, the Queen of England celebrates her Diamond Jubilee, marking 60 years as Britain’s monarch, and just the second to celebrate this, other than Queen Victoria in 1897.  To mark the Diamond Jubilee, the UK government is planning a four-day Jubilee weekend in early June.

Some of the weekends festivities:

The Epsom Derby

On Saturday June 2nd, you can attend the Epsom Derby with the Queen. Going strong since the late eighteenth century, the Derby is Britain’s richest horse race, and the most prestigious of the country’s five Classics.

Concert at Buckingham Palace

A concert organized by the BBC will be held at Buckingham Palace June 4th. It will be attended by The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh and other Members of the Royal Family. 10,000 tickets for members of the public were made available through a national ballot.

Thames River Pageant

In one of the largest flotillas ever to be assembled on the river, over one thousand boats will muster on the River Thames in preparation for Her Majesty The Queen to take part in the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant.

Royal Dishes at Roux at The Landau at The Langham Hotel, London

Splurge at this grand hotel with some classic British dishes brought back to honor this auspicious occasion. Marked on the menu with a crown, the dishes, which celebrate royal British heritage, are modern interpretations of some classic dishes.

The Jubilee Woods Project

A 460-acre public wood has been created in Leicestershire to celebrate the Jubilee and also aims to plant six million trees across the UK, creating hundreds of new woodlands. As part of this project, 60 ‘Diamond Woods’ of at least 60 acres each will be planted to mark each year of the Queen’s reign. The planting will run to the end of 2012.

Harvey Nichols London Windows

In what they’re calling “their most ambitious installation to date”, the windows at one of London’s Top Department stores have been transformed into a quaint British High Street of yesteryear, complete with shops and boutiques seen throughout the Queen’s illustrious reign.  Take a stroll down memory lane and see old shops like H. Nichol’s and Sons Greengrocer, Blooming Lovely Florist, Nic’s Plaice Fishmonger, Harvey Nickers lingerie shop and The Knightsbridge Corner Shop — all filled with must-haves from the new season!

The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Singalong at the Royal Albert Hall

Celebrate 60 years of Her Majesty’s reign with a fun-filled evening of toe-tapping classics, wartime favorites, and old hits by Elton John and the Beatles.

The Opening of London Pleasure Gardens

Check out this new riverside arts and entertainment destination.  The creators have transformed an ex-industrial site in The Royal Docks into a waterside, urban festival ground to celebrate the very best of cutting-edge London culture.  It will provide London with a leisure garden featuring music, arts, cafes and bars, a pop-up hotel and sculpture park.

Disclosure: This post is brought to you by Tours4Fun.  After enjoying all the Diamond Jubilee festivities, check the out for your own European Tour.

Got Fish?

Nova Scotia exports more seafood than any other province in Canada.

During my time in this tiny Atlantic province I eat seafood everyday – from scallops to salmon to shrimp, it’s all fresh and delicious.

For the Love of Lobster

Ask anyone from all along the northeastern Atlantic seaboard how to make lobster and you will get a plethora of different answers – each one being the ‘best’ way.

Even here in 360-mile wide Nova Scotia, answers differ town to town or more accurately family to family.   We ate a tasty lobster dinner at the historical Cape Forchu Lighthouse, whose original light guided vessels safely into the Yarmouth Harbour since 1840.

Here is the ‘right’ way to cook and eat lobster according to Monica MacNeil of Nova Scotia Tourism:

If you can’t view the video, please click here to see it on YouTube in full HD goodness.

Oy Oysters!

We also get a firsthand lesson in Oyster farming at Eel Lake Oyster Farm.  More than one million oysters live in the lake right in the backyard of Nolan D’Eon’s house.  Fifteen years ago, he decided he wanted to make his living off his own land so he did just that.   Eel Lake Oyster Farm has become a major producer of these little delicacies commonly known as American or Eastern oysters.

I’m not a huge oyster fan, but eating a freshly shucked oyster, right out of the lake was indeed quite magical and fresh.

How to Shuck an Oyster?

(from Nova Scotia Departments of Fisheries and Aquaculture)

Step 1

Rinse the shells with water

Step 2

Hold the  oyster in a folded dish towel or oven mitt (oysters have sharp shells).

Step 3

Look for the hinge of the shell – it should look like an exposed seam which wraps around a smooth corner. Insert knife into the hinge. Gently but firmly twist the knife until the hinge pops open. There’s one muscle that holds the shell tightly together. Use the knife to sever the muscle where it adheres to the shell. Now the two halves of the shell should fall apart. Discard the empty top shell.

Step 4

With your knife, loosen the meat from the remaining shell and place it on crushed ice. Enjoy it with lemon, cocktail sauce, hot chili sauce, horseradish, or barbeque sauce…or naked for a fresh sea flavor.

Awaken your senses – taste the difference a Ruisseau oyster makes. This succulent oyster can be found nestled in the clean, cool waters of Eel Lake and is the pride of Eel Lake Oyster Farm. Upon visiting our farm, just 20 minutes east of Yarmouth on scenic Route 3, you can expect to find a family-owned business operating on a unique tidal lake.

Disclosure: I was a guest of Southwest Nova Scotia, the Nova Scotia Tourism, & the White Point Beach Resort, but, as always, my writing and views are my own.

Silverton, Colorado

As we near closer to summer, we are also nearing the end of avalanche season. For many, this has absolutely no meaning, but for those living amidst the snow and mountains of the western US and Canada…it is as real as it gets.  My mom’s drive to ‘work,’ has her driving past several avalanche chutes.

San Juan County is the least populous county in the state of Colorado. It’s located in the heart of the San Juan Mountains which have numerous peaks over 14,000 feet. As of the 2000 census, there were just over five-hundred residents in the entire county, most of which live in the tiny (yet largest in the county) town of Silverton, Colorado – which also happens to be the home of my aforementioned mom.  How tiny? The one and only local school in the county has just over 50 students in grades k-12.

This is backcountry. And while it’s an old mining town, there is some new blood in town thanks Silverton Mountain, a unique, backcountry ski area where you pretty much make your own tracks.  And this is not like other ski resort towns. You won’t find plush resorts and timeshares like in Breckenridge or Telluride or Aspen.  Here you won’t find any chains, no McDonald’s, Starbucks, or otherwise, and certainly no Holiday Inn.

Disclosure:  This post is brought to you by Sell My Timeshare now. Interested in buying a timeshare? Check them out.

Locally known as Keji (and much more easy to pronounce), Kejimkujik (ked-juh-muh-KOO-jik) National Park sits in the heart of southwest Nova Scotia.

And it is also at the core of the Southwest Nova Biosphere Reserve – a UNESCO site recognized for a balance between people and nature focusing on conservation and sustainable development.   The unique climate of this area makes it home to a very large and diverse population of flora and fauna.

Kejimkujik Seaside is an adjunct to the main park and aptly sits on the sea, giving you a feel for a bit of unspoiled Atlantic coastline.

We enjoy a hike through part of the park toward the sea.

Foggy mist blankets the trail, as we pass lichen and berries of all kinds (holly, black, bay).

When we reach the rocky beaches I feel like we’ve hiked to Scotland…no wonder this is called “New Scotland.”

The craggy bays here are popular hangouts for seals and cormorants that we spot in the distance through the fog. This time of year the mosquitoes have proven to be thick and we can’t linger too long on the beach without being attacked by the blood-sucking pests.

Disclosure:  I was a guest of Southwest Nova Scotia, the Nova Scotia Tourism, & the White Point Beach Resort, but, as always, my writing and views are my own.

Main Square
Brasov, Romania

I spent about a month dotting around the picturesque, medieval-looking villages in Romania‘s Transylvania region. Forget your Dracula-laden thoughts from childhood tales, this charming area is bustling with locals having a drink at outdoor cafes surrounded by the fairy-tale like remnants of German-Saxon architecture.  Populated by about 200,000 inhabitants, Brasov’s center is here on the Council Square, or Piaţa Sfatului in Romanian, where markets and yes, public punishments, were held starting in the 1300s. The council house in this photo was built in 1420. Just another reason I love Europe, we simple don’t have buildings this old in the United States.

Like all places, Nova Scotia has its indigenous foods, many I’d never even heard before, let alone was able to spell.  As I often tend to do, I found myself eating my way through this tiny province with no shortage of tasty morsels and fresh foods at every turn.

Rappie Pie

This traditional Acadian dish is not really pie at all actually. Rappie pie, or Rapûre, was described to me as a “glue-like” casserole made from potatoes and chicken broth.  Suffice it to say, the descriptor is quite accurate, leaving not much more to say than that. Potatoes and glue – dropping into my stomach like an adobe brick – not the most flavorful, and not really an attractive dish, but most likely filling on a cold, wet winter day.  It’s often topped with molasses or butter.

Fricot

Here we have basically the same ingredients as rappie pie, but this is not allowed to gel or congeal into it’s cousin’s gluey state and remains more of a thick chicken-stew.  The flavor reminds me of something grandma would give you if you were sick, but with the consistency of gumbo.

Quahogs

Quahogs, or hard-shell clams, are shellfish that live in mud flats along the eastern seaboard from Canada to Florida. The name comes from the Indian name “poquauhock,” meaning horse fish.

In fish markets there are specialty names for different sizes of this species of clam like littlenecks, topnecks, cherrystones, and the largest being called quahogs or chowder clams. We even tried a quahog burger from the Roadside Grill.

Solomon Gundy

We couldn’t find the exact origins of this name – whether it is Jamaican or from an old British term – I actually ate Solomon Gundy growing up, but we simply called it pickled herring. I couldn’t find much of a difference in the pickling juice, onions, and smoked herring as it is found here in Nova Scotia compared to how it would be at a deli on Manhattan’s lower east side.  It has a strong taste and, as a kid, I didn’t like it at all. Of course, like most things, it’s grown on me and now I find it quite tasty!

Chowder 

Anyone from New England – the Boston-area and north of there – claims the ‘best’ chowder. The word chowder has its roots in the Latin word calderia, which came to mean cooking pot. In French, the term became chaudiere which is starting to sound much more like ‘chowder’. It also could from the old English word jowter (a fish peddler). Like many dishes from the past, it originated as a sort of ‘poor man’s’ stew with bits of whatever was at hand thrown in. Whatever the term;s origins, here in Atlantic Canada, good chowder is a given. Fleshy bits of seafood in a creamy broth of milk, potatoes,  onions is the typical make-up of this popular dish.  And if you just can’t get enough, you can see Nova Scotia by following the Chowder Trail and filling your stomach with hearty bowls of this specialty from all around the province.  Without even realizing it, I had hit quite a few of these spots during my visit like Charlotte Lane, Churchill’s at Digby Pines, and La Vista at the Atlantica Resort.  In writing this article, I’ve also learned that Chowder is also the main character of a cartoon in which all the main characters have food names like Shnitzel, Paninin, and Gazpacho.  Might have to check that out.

Lunenburg Pudding 

Just like Rappie ‘Pie’, this is no dessert.  Back in ‘Ye Olde British times’, the word pudding actually meant sausage. Sadly I never got to try this spicy encased meat of cooked beef, pork, and other animal innards. The “pudding” resembles a cross between a firm paté and liverwurst.

Dulse

Probably the most intense food I tried in Nova Scotia, dulse is basically a healthy snack food of dried red algae. It is popular in Northern Ireland, Iceland, and the Eastern parts of Canada.  Being a sushi lover and having had many a seaweed-wrapped maki, I though I was prepared for the ocean-like flavor.  Wow. This was much more intense than I ever expected.  Eating dulse is like eating a dried concentrated fruit roll-up of the sea…definitely an acquired taste and fittingly a hugely imported product to Japan. It is a good source of minerals and vitamins compared with other vegetables, contains all trace elements needed by humans, and has a high protein content.

Irish Moss

Also known as carrageenan moss, this is commonly used as a thickener. You may have seen it on your ice cream or lunch meat ingredients.  We saw it on the beach, but didn’t actually take a bite out of it.

And of course all types of shellfish like oysters, scallops, and lobster are quite common and plentiful in these parts. In fact, the hot debate of the “right” way to cook lobster rages on.  Coming soon…a video of one Nova Scotian’s ‘right way.’

Have you ever had any of these dishes?

For more info on the foods of Nova Scotia go to the Taste of Nova Scotia.

Disclosure:  I was a guest of Southwest Nova Scotia, the Nova Scotia Tourism, & the White Point Beach Resort, but, as always, my writing and views are my own.

TV Tower & Tram Wires
Berlin, Germany

I love Berlin. I’ve been there twice and the second time I was looking to stay and work and learn German.  Although I do freelance now for a German publishing company, the winds of travel kept me moving on and I haven’t taken my chance to live there…yet.

This is a shot of the Fernsehturm or TV tower near Alexanderplatz in central Berlin.  Built in the 1960s, it remains the tallest freestanding structure in Germany and the fourth tallest in Europe.

My friend Sherry has invited me to crash with her at her cool Berlin pad thanks to the Go with Oh project in which she stays in holiday apartments a week at a time in Rome, Venice, Vienna, and Berlin.  I can’t believe I am now having to turn down travel offers. Sigh…but I know I will get back to Berlin, someday.

Disclosure: This post is brought to you Wimdu. Need fantastic late rooms available at a low cost?  Try us for a wide choice of affordable holiday apartments.

Nova Scotia: Mahone Bay

We pull off the two-lane highway that rings much of Nova Scotia into the unexpected, lovely grounds of the Atlantica Hotel & Marina Oak Island, a great jumping off point for the many outdoor activities in the area like kayaking, hiking, and surfing.  Here you can stay in a guestroom, an oceanfront chalet, or even escape to your own seaside villa.  We were just here for a lunch break, but the bright La Vista dining room did not disappoint. We savor our fresh seafood while being regaled of tales of Oak Island just across the bay.

“When all the oak trees are cut and seven men are dead the treasure will be found” so says the legend of Oak Island, one of hundreds of islands here in Mahone Bay. And I am told you can buy one of the islands for cheap.  Some are for sale for a reasonable $750,000.  But this particular island is mysteriously the only one with oak trees and the burial ground for a possible boat-load of pirate booty in what is known as the ‘money pit.’  Or it could just be a big sinkhole.  But either way, the Friends of Oak Island Society and other treasure hunters have been digging around and documenting the goings-on here for hundreds of years.   Many theories abound of who possibly left their treasures here: the Knights Templar? The Free Masons? Or maybe Captain Kidd?  The hunt continues…and so does our journey around Nova Scotia.

Lunenburg

After a satisfying lunch at Atlantica, we push on down the coast to uncover my kind of treasure – the charming seaside village of Lunenburg, a place populated by wood houses proudly painted all the colors of a sherbet rainbow: periwinkle, magenta, and bright reds.  Many of these peacock-colored homes literally push their chests out like proud birds in the form of what’s known and the Lunenburg Bump, an architectural feature supposedly only found here. It’s like a swollen bay window where folks can take a look out to sea from a ‘perch’ inside their homes.

We snack on our to-go boxes of dessert on top of a hill at the perfectly-located Bluenose Golf Club, across the bay from Lunenburg, taking in its classic, Scandinavian fishing-village look.

On a stroll through the tiny village, and UNESCO World Heritage site, we uncover some of the local entrepreneurial treasures.

The 14-month-old, Ironworks Distillery is housed in a former blacksmith shop from 1893, giving it the perfect artisan-feel. Pierre and Lynne distill their own line of vodkas and other spirits and ship them all over the world.

If you can’t see player, watch full HD video of Ironworks Distillery on YouTube.

Just a short stroll down the street sits the Lunenburg Shipyard where the reconstruction of the Bluenose II carries on. The huge wooden sailing ship is a replica of the original and when finished will carry on the efforts of the original ambassador ship by sailing around the world and bringing the good word of Nova Scotia to countries far and wide.

The daughter of one of the builders of the original Bluenose, has opened up a shop on the edge of town, aptly named, the Windbag.  She recycles old sails and turns them into nifty bags and totes.

White Point Beach Resort

We spend the night in a lodge at the summer-camp-feeling White Point Beach Resort.  Dozens of kids spend the summers here from abroad learning the language and enjoying the laid back natural beauty of the sea and surf. The most unexpected part? Bunnies and lots of ‘em.   Wild rabbits hop all over the green lawns happily munching on grass and allowing visitors to come oddly close to them.

Note: Since my visit, White Point unfortunately suffered a fire, which destroyed their main lodge. Thankfully, no one was injured…and, I am told, every bunny survived.  They immediately announced they would rebuild and have already planned the design and hope to break ground this spring. Their vacation homes and cottages are still available to guests during the rebuild. Here you can actually watch the re-birth on their construction cam.

Disclosure: This post is brought to you by Flight Centre.  From one side of Canada to the other, there are thousands of great things to explore and do. The best way to see it all? Find cheap flights to Vancouver with one of the low-cost carriers flying in to Vancouver International Airport.  As sponsors of this post, Flight Centre can certainly get you there.  After your visit in Vancouver it’s time to start heading East. It might take longer, but traveling the countryside through places such as Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto and Quebec City are by far the best way to see it all before arriving in Nova Scotia.

During my visit, I was a guest of Southwest Nova Scotia,  Nova Scotia Tourism, & the White Point Beach Resort, but, as always, my writing and views are my own.

I was lucky enough to go off-the-beaten path with my couchsurfing host from Sevilla, Spain when he took me hiking in Aracena, which is a tiny village located near the western border of Spain northwest of Sevilla. We hiked some trails, ate an amazing lunch with some of the local jamon, and of course, saw the village underwear, some men’s boxer briefs enjoying the breezes of Aracena, Spain.

Disclosure: This post is brought to you by Tours4Fun. Take your own Tour of Spain, and maybe you will find underwear too!