Posts from year 2009
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New Years Eve in Prague
New Year’s Eve in Prague isn’t about classy countdowns or overpriced champagne in sterile rooftop bars. It’s chaos, fire and booze, all wrapped in medieval architecture and lit by the fuse of post-communist freedom.
Best concerts of 2009
The music industry spent most of 2009 insisting it was dying. Album sales were collapsing, record labels were panicking and every executive seemed to have discovered the phrase “new business model”. Meanwhile the bands did the only sensible thing: they got in the van and hit the road.
Celebrating Sinterklaas in Amsterdam
Amsterdam in December is a strange beast. The canals are cold, the skies a permanent shade of ashtray gray and the wind slices through my jacket like a sword by Hattori Hanzo. But it doesn’t stop there.
Review: The Beach
Alex Garland’s debut novel “The Beach”, published in 1996, was once practically mandatory equipment for backpackers. You saw battered copies everywhere in hostel common rooms, beach cafés, airport floors, wedged between a Lonely Planet and somebody’s increasingly questionable underwear.
Review: Air Babylon
This book by Imogen Edwards-Jones tells the tale of a character who works on a big airline. It actually feels like a collection of anecdotes tied together by something vaguely resembling a story line.
Fall of the Berlin Wall
Berlin doesn’t forget. It just mutates. Concrete slabs become canvases. Watchtowers become tourist traps. But beneath the layers of currywurst stands and souvenir shops selling faux fragments of tyranny, you can still hear the echo of boots on asphalt.
Review: Rule no 5: No sex on the bus
Brian Thacker is an Australian tour guide and travel writer. The book covers his day job of herding tourists on a bus trip through Europe but is really a lot more entertaining than it sounds.
Review: Nasty Bits
Anthony Bourdain spent years sweating behind the stoves at Les Halles in New York before Kitchen Confidential kicked the kitchen door off its hinges in 2000. Suddenly chefs weren’t anonymous guys hiding behind swinging doors anymore.
Travel book reviews
Apart from Moleskine notebooks and iPods, a good book is an essential companion for long journeys. And what book could be better than one about traveling? I’ve read a fair bit of travel books in my days.
Sweet days in Provence
Nice is beautiful in its own way, with fading glamour and tired charm. But after wandering down Promenade des Anglais, listening to waves, watching tourists and dogs, I felt like I’d seen the postcards. Time to wander beyond them.