I've been blogging with Neil for about a year now wondering how the heck is he managing to crank out such bounty with his sly wit and traveler's know-how. Since the number of posts Gading manages to put out in a day are sometimes hard to keep up with, I thought I'd give you ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
Red Corner
Ode to Neil: What is 1% of 2,000 posts?
I've been blogging with Neil for about a year now wondering how the heck is he managing to crank out such bounty with his sly wit and traveler's know-how. Since the number of posts Gading manages to put out in a day are sometimes hard to keep up with, I thought I'd give you ...Red Corner: Stereotyping Pinko Communist Russia
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Vodka-swilling, fur hat-wearing, blini-eating Ruskies!
Stereotyping, negative or otherwise, plays an important decision in deciding where to travel. "The Irish are all drunks!" might be exactly the thing that drives you to Ireland, or it might be what makes you avoid it ...Red Corner: Moscow Yachting
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Perhaps the last place in the world one might expect a yachting trend would be Moscow. Sure, the city sits on a river, but it's a river that one can literally sit on for 3-4 months of the winter when it is frozen solid. That's not exactly great yachting conditions.
And ...Red Corner: Shooting Plastered Bears
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Sometimes people travel to kill things. For those that enjoy doing so, one of the most attractive creatures to dispatch is a bear.
And so, when Juan Carlos, the King of Spain visited Russia recently, that is exactly what he wanted to do. The Russians, however, were ...Red Corner: The Onion Mocks North Korea's Bomb
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North Korea has dropped the bomb and the satirical newspaper, The Onion, has responded appropriately.
"N. Korea Detonates 40 Years of GDP" screams the headline, and the article only gets funnier after that. I'll give you just a small taste of the black comedy that follows: ...Red Corner: Czech Food the Worst?
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For quite some time now the British have deservedly suffered under the Worst Food on the Planet moniker. For centuries, the Anglo palate has been mocked, maligned and otherwise dragged through culinary slander.
According to a critic from South Africa, however, another ...Red Corner: Bizarre Kazakh Pyramid Completed
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Megalomania has brought us some very bizarre architecture throughout history. It's nice to know that the dictator of Kazakhstan is keeping up the tradition.
Visitors to the capital of Astana, can now revel in a freaky new pyramid commissioned by President Nursultan ...Red Corner: Serbian Slopes
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It's getting to be that time of year again and we here at Red Corner want to be sure to point you to the very best behind-the-former-iron-curtain ski locations.
This week, we look at Serbia.
One of the country's more famous resorts, Kopaonik, was actually visited often ...Red Corner: A Day in Varna
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Yesterday at Red Corner we pointed you in the direction of the new up-and-coming Bulgarian party town of Varna.
Today we'd like to follow up with a great little feature from The Independent: 24 Hours In Varna.
I love this section of the paper because "24 Hours" cuts ...Red Corner: Party like a Bulgarian
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Even when I visited Varna, Bulgaria in 1991, less than two years after communism fell, the town was a lot of fun.
Situated on the Black Sea, the resort town was a popular vacation spot during the Cold War for those living on the other side of the Iron Curtain. Its ...Red Corner: The Napa Valley of Georgia
We've posted a couple of times before about the wondrous wines which hail from the former Soviet republic of Georgia. And now, the New York Times has discovered them as well.
C. J. Chivers, writing in last Sunday's paper, takes us to the fertile valleys of Georgia for a ...Red Corner: North Korea Loophole
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Considering that it is almost impossible to obtain a tourist visa into North Korea, I was rather excited to hear about a small little loophole which allows visitors to cross the border for a brief tour of a very special mountain.
Mt. Kumgang has a legendary reputation ...Red Corner: Albania's Bad Rap
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Albania doesn't exactly have the same reputation for travelers as a place like Italy or France. Those who tend to visit, however, come back with glowing reviews. Well, most of them do anyway. We posted a few months ago about a piece by A. A. Gill who basically ripped the ...Red Corner: Trekking in Georgia
One of the more phenomenal locations I've trekked in the last few years is the former Soviet republic of Georgia.
Georgia's Caucasus Mountains are rugged and beautiful and populated with small villages and very hospital locals. And the food is wonderfully fresh and ...Red Corner: Giving the Former Iron Curtain a Chance
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Here at Red Corner, we've been linking quite a bit recently to articles by Susan Spano of the Los Angeles Times. This is because Spano did some extensive touring through Eastern Europe last Spring and has been publishing a number of articles about her adventures in the LA ...Red Corner: Art Nouveau Budapest
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I first fell in love with Art Nouveau architecture while living in Prague.
I've never liked the Art Nouveau paintings and thought that this artistic style had nothing more to offer. But the buildings, oh my the Art Nouveau buildings are fantastic!
There are a handful of ...Red Corner: Cuba Crumbling
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Cuba is one of our favorite topics here at Red Corner. There is no where else on earth as anachronistic and old fashioned as this Caribbean nation. And, there is nowhere else on earth as likely to change so rapidly the moment the local government topples.
In the meantime, ...Red Corner: Tea Time in Kiev
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Tea is the second most popular drink in the world after water.
I'm not a huge fan of it myself, but sometimes on cold evenings in dark cafes, I like to hunch over a little mug and sip away.
Tea is especially beloved in Ukraine. But where is the best place to sit and ...Red Corner: Slovak Mountains
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I've often wondered if I've actually been to Slovakia. I visited the region while it was part of Czechoslovakia but haven't had the chance to go back once it became its own country.
I did like what I saw when it was part of Czechoslovakia, however.
For example, Slovakia ...Red Corner: Painting Mao
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One of the first things one notices upon stepping into Tiananmen Square in Beijing is the massive, three-story tall painting of Mao Zedong. Like every other tourist to pass through this famous square, I too snapped a handful of photos of this gargantuan visage.
I didn't ...
