Flying the coup? Take a parting shot.

AirportParkingReservations.com has a new contest running that is sure to draw some imaginative entries: Shoot en Route, (cleverly named by GoNOMAD editor Max Hartshorne) which asks entrants for creative photos of airport parking lots.

As Lao-tzu said, "a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step," and when traveling abroad, it all starts at the airport.

Prizes are given out monthly, the grand prize being a new Canon PowerShot SD850, with second place getting a cashmere travel pillow, third a solar charger.

The contest ends August 31 -- may the craziest photo win!

A Goal of World Travel

Chris Guillebeau is on a mission to visit every country in the world by the time he is 35. It didn't start with "every country," but after he put a check mark next to the original "100 countries by 30" idea, he decided not to stop. 

You can read about his journey on the New York Times website, and in the excerpt below:

One of the problems is that I am running out of places with easy access. It’s not like every country is an Italy or a Mexico. Soon, I’m going to have to start making arrangements to get to Chad, the South Pacific and central Asia.

I used to earn 200,000 bonus miles a year because of my business spending, but since I’ve become self-employed, those days are over.

I recently was approved for 13 credit cards, all of which offered mileage bonuses of at least 20,000 miles. So that’s going to be a big help. I keep waiting for an airline alliance to call, but until then I have no sponsors and pay for all my own expenses. The money comes from products I sell on my Web site and some limited business consulting. I recently received an advance from the publisher for my first book. I also have half a million frequent-flier miles from before, which I’m steadily going through.

Two Danes take on Route 66

Route 66 is called the Main Street of America, and is known overseas as a symbol of the American dream. In an article for GoNOMAD.com, Connie Westergaard and her boyfriend, both Danish, take on the legendary road in a white Chevy, looking for adventure and nostalgia.
Enjoy the excerpt below:

We grab lunch and continue to Arizona. This is where all our doubts about Route 66 are put to shame. This is where it gets good.

The Eastern part of the state is a smorgasbord of natural wonders, like The Petrifed Forest, The Painted Desert and Route 66’s very own meteor crater. It is a beautiful stretch that should be devoted a lot of time.

Central Arizona is a true haven of Route 66 memorabilia. We stop at The Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, the Jack Rabbit Trading Post, the Twin Arrows, before we get to Williams – a Route 66 stronghold and the first pearl on a string of authentic Route 66 towns.

Why Not Ride A Sled Down an Active Volcano?

Looking for a new extreme sport? How about going to Nicaragua and riding a modified piece of plywood down the side of an active volcano at speeds nearing 60mph?

On the New York Times travel page, you can read about Laura Siciliano-Rosen's experience with this (rather unique) new sport.

The hostel she stayed at (which offers beds for $6 a night!) runs tours on Cerro Negro, the youngest volcano in Central America. Here's an excerpt:

I had heard of a tour offered by Bigfoot Hostel, which Darryn Webb, a tour guide from Australia, founded in 2005, when he was developing the sport on Cerro Negro. He’d grown up sandboarding in Queensland, and once he visited the volcano, he realized its boarding potential. Here was a dunelike slope, only bigger and blacker, and with the added thrill of a potential eruption.

After a lot of trial and error with sledding vessels — he tried boogie boards, mattresses and even a minibar fridge — he settled on plywood reinforced with metal and augmented with Formica under the seat. “Once we figured out the sit-down boards, it became a lot more fun for people,” Mr. Webb told me by phone from Perth, where he now lives.
(Photo courtesy of Scott B. Rosen for the New York Times)

Spring Tulips in Holland

Spring is finally here, and with it comes blossoming flowers. In an article for GoNOMAD.com, Dale Fehringer explores Holland's beautiful scenery by bicycle, and ends up at the famous Keukenhof Gardens.
Enjoy the excerpt below:

Our cycling tour included a ride to Keukenhof Gardens, the famous bulb gardens we had heard so much about, and we were determined to get there. We had made our way through a long, tiring day, in which we were rained on and pedaled for hours into a cold wind.

We rounded another bend and the wind was still blowing strong, so we reached deeper to keep from turning back. But around this bend the wind blew us a wonderful perfume. Fields of purple hyacinth surrounded us; their bell-shaped buds in bloom.

The fragrance was everywhere. We stepped off our bikes and inhaled the elixir. We forget our freezing hands and aching muscles – this made it all worthwhile.

Now we could ride on.

At Keukenof, we were enthralled by the colors, made even more vibrant on this gray, cloudy day. There were tulip bulbs of every kind and they stood as armies of splendidly cloaked soldiers with their brightly colored headdresses a perfect symphony of color.

A Three Day Adventure in Kiev

In an article for GoNOMAD.com Olga Volobuyeva, a Russian-based translator, describes a short trip to sunny Kiev, the capital of the Ukraine and one of the greenest cities in the world. During her stay she samples some of the hearty local cuisine.
Enjoy the except below:



Yummy! Some people go to Ukraine just to try the famous Ukrainian borsch with garlic (beet-based soup of about 20 ingredients) with pampushky (Ukrainian doughnuts), salo (salted pork fat eaten with garlic, onion, bread and pickles) and vareniky (tasty dumplings made from boiled or fried dough filled with potatoes, or sour cherries or sweetened cottage cheese, served with butter or sour cream.)

Ukrainian national cuisine is considered the richest and the most diverse among Slavic cuisines. We couldn’t resist trying their gorgeous borsch even though the hot weather didn’t favor eating hot soups.

Kievsky Tort is one more local specialty, a much newer invention compared to the dishes mentioned above. This is a layer cake made of crumbly raised wafers, hazelnuts, and something else extremely tasty.

The Small Town Feel in Alabama

In a brand-new feature article on GoNOMAD.com, Max Hartshorne writes about the "Charming Small Towns and Downtowns" in and around Mobile, Alabama.

Despite any imagined preconceptions some Northerners hold towards the deep South regions like Alabama, Hartshorne's article captures a slice of the Southern attitude and spirit which disproves any biases: "I knew it and laughed when I was met with derision in the cafe when I told people my next destination. They'd start singing "Sweet Home Alabama," and mocking my choice of a trip."

Enjoy the excerpt below, and then go read the full thing!

In Alabama you've got to make your choice at a very early age. Unless you're bound by your family tradition, it's never too early to decide whether you love Auburn or The University of Alabama. Here, there is no doubt about which camp anyone is in. It's refreshingly unambiguous.
I asked our bus driver Doug where he stood. "Alabama!" he thundered.

Our guide from Orange Beach Gulf Shores, Kim, said she was a Tiger. That's the mascot for Auburn, they're the Tigers. Alabama is the Tide. The Crimson Tide.

One of the writers we traveled with is a lifelong Alabamaian who graduated from The U of Alabama.

She still recalls the absolute shock and awe that her and her cheerleader friends experienced once when they were practicing in a gym and Coach Bear Bryant walked in. "We all just stopped and our jaws dropped, it was so amazing, nobody said anything, we were speechless."
Such was the power of the legendary coach, who won more national championships for 'Bama than any other mere mortal ever since.

A Unisex Nude Section at Scandinavia's Most Beautiful Beach

I am currently researching a story in Pori, Finland, a beautiful little city that is well known among Finns for two things: the Pori Jazz Festival that has taken place every summer in July-- featuring world class acts like Santana and Stan Getz-- and Yyteri Beach, often called the most beautiful beach in all of Scandinavia. However, there is little in the way of English language articles on Pori, except this one from GoScandinavia.about.com which reveals Yyteri beach to be a hot spot for nude beach enthusiasts.
Enjoy the exerpt below:




Yyteri Nude Beach in Pori, Finland, is one of the few beaches for nudism in Finland. With a length of 6 km, Yyteri Beach is one of the longest beaches in Finland, but a large part of the beach requires clothing.

You'll find lots of dunes and sand along this beach area on Finland's west coast. Yyteri Nude Beach itself is a smaller section of the beach. It's a unisex nude beach.

You can find this nude beach near the town of Pori, on the west coast of Finland. Pori is about 1.5 hours west of Tampere, 2 hours north of Turku, or a good 3 hours northwest of Helsinki. Take a look at the map of nude beaches in Finland to see where to find Yyteri Nude Beach. A direct bus connects the beach to the city center of Pori.

There's an annual frisbee tournament at Yyteri Beach. It takes place in July and attracts quite a crowd each year. The area's recreational activities for visitors include camping, surfing, minigolf and golf, volleyball, and tennis.