Archive for the ‘Portfolio’ Category
Winter Palace
As we head towards colder months, here is some gorgeous winter inspiration. Restaurant Tusen is a creatively and naturally inspired building in Ramundberget, Sweden and was designed by Swedish firm Murman Arkitekter. They recently won first prize in the “holiday” category at the World Architecture Festival.
More at my article in Been Seen here.
Sweden by the Numbers
A few weeks back The Traveler’s Notebook published my piece Sweden by the Numbers, a fun little collection of stats from my last trip to the motherland.
Since I’m feeling a little need for Sweden today, I figured I’d post a quick excerpt:
Bags of Swedish candy brought back in suitcase: 6
Meals that included potatoes: 10
Meals of blood pudding: 4
Days with less than two fika (coffee break): 1
Starbucks sightings: 0
IKEA sightings: 3
Postcards sent with photos of topless sunbathers: 3
Topless sunbather sightings: 0
It’s an interesting exercise to reduce a whole trip down to pure numbers. Whole article is here.
Bikes Power People and Businesses
A little over a month ago I wrote a story called “Pedaling to Profit: The Upswing of Bike Powered Business.” It got picked up by the Huffington Post, and then today none other than Boing Boing decided to give it a mention. Needless to say, I’m stoked.
This can only mean one thing: bikes are hot. And if businesses are running their operations on two wheels, you can too. Even fair-weather cyclists no longer have an excuse, it’s finally spring! So pump up your wheels and take your classy ride out for a spin. Need help? Read this great article on Chelsea Green called “Spring Has Sprung: Now Get Off Your Fat Ass and Bike to Work.”
What can bike commuting do for you? Apparently:
* add over 2 years to their life expectancy
* have the general fitness and health of someone 10 years younger
* are 50% less likely to experience depression
Go get on it!
7,800 Miles Across the Andes: An Interview With the First Two People to Trek the Entire Andes
I recently got to interview two of my adventurers, Gregg Treinish and Deia Schlosberg. Early last year they returned from a two year trek where they hiked the entire length of the Andes. Impressive. Plus they’re both fabulous people.
Here’s part of the interview, you can check the rest out at Matador Life.
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AB: You decide to take off from your regular lives and trek the Andes. What goes through your head and heart before embarking on such an adventure?
Gregg: To me, the unknown has always been incredibly exciting. Not having any clue what lay around the next corner captures this special place inside my head that is very deeply attached to a visceral feeling of being alive, of doing something worthwhile.
Oftentimes, I find myself saying that had I known what was in store I might not have gone; this is certainly the case with the Andes as the challenges were far greater than either of us anticipated. Before the journey, there was a lot of fear, which my mind somehow translates to excitement.
I think that it would only be fair to say that there was a high level of disillusionment as well. While I obviously thought about what it was going to be like, I somehow let myself believe that it was going to be fun day in and day out, this despite a cognitive recognition that it wasn’t going to be fun in many cases.
I think that in order to follow through with something that you know could very well be your demise requires a certain level of denial.
Check out the rest of the interview here. And you can listen to a podcast with Gregg and Deia reading the first installment of their story in Wend Magazine here.
Wend Gets Mentioned on Greenupgrader
I was so excited to learn today that Wend got an excellent mention over at GreenUPGRADER, one of my preferred green blogs on the web.
A sample:
…the features include outdoor adventures, eco-minded company profiles and products, a Greenery section, with an overall cutting edge feel that is a welcome relief from the typical outdoor mags.
And GreenUPGRADER gave a particular shout out to my own article How Many People Could Your Cotton T-Shirt Hydrate. It’s always nice to be reminded that you’re doing good things!
Runner-up in the Guardian’s December photo contest!
I was happy to find out yesterday that the above photo (taken in Glacier National park) was selected as a runner-up in the Guardian’s December Been There photo contest . The first-place winner was an incredible picture taken in India. You can check it out here.
Sounds of Travel: Air’s ‘Ce Matin La’
My latest Sounds of Travel is up over at Gadling. I wrote about one of my favorite bands and songs, Ce Matin La by the French duo Air. It’s hard to listen to it without being put in a good mood.
Here’s an excerpt:
For me, traveling music has to provide a good background. It has to to flow with your up and down emotions, fit a variety of situations, but be distinct enough that it brings back memories when you return home. For that reason, in my last post I wrote about St. Germain, which is one of my favorite artists to listen to while traveling. Along those same lines comes Air, another electronica-inspired group that hails from France.
As I wrote about St. Germain, music like this immediately takes me back to living in France; I can envision the first time and place that I listened to either of these two groups. But Air is a little more than that, the duo’s second album Moon Safari has become my traveling soundtrack — no matter what the destination — and my song of choice is Ce Matin La.
To read the whole post click here.
Excerpt From My Travel Journal: Saigon
This morning I realized that exactly one year ago I came home from my trip to Southeast Asia. This also means that it’s been a whole year since I’ve been out of the country (shocking, I know!) But in honor of that trip, I decided to post my favorite blog from that trip. I wrote it while in Saigon. Enjoy!
Zippo
I made the severe mistake today of sitting down at a café in the backpacker-full Pham Ngu Lao neighborhood. Well, sitting down at the café wasn’t the problem, it was the fact that I chose to consume my much needed refreshing lemon juice at the one table that sat on the sidewalk.
Sidewalks in Saigon tend to be covered in motor bikes, so enough space to fit a table and make it look nice was already surprising. I therefore took advantage. I managed to momentarily forget about the people that cruise the area selling their endless supply of wares: photo-copied Lonely Planet books, Zippo lighters, knock-off sunglasses, postcards, etc.
Within minutes of sitting down I was approached by a cyclo driver. Cyclos are the popular way of getting around Saigon for tourists; the driver sits on a bicycle in back and carts around someone in the chair-looking contraption built onto the front. The man walked right up to our table and opened up a magazine to the center-fold.
“City cyclo tour? I give best one. So good, I’m in magazine. Magazine comes by I wave and say hello and they take picture.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Sounds of Travel: St. Germain’s ‘So Flute’
Over at Gadling we’re doing a series called the Sounds of Travel, featuring music that we’ve either discovered while traveling or that reminds us of traveling. Last week I wrote an article on “So Flute” by the French band St. Germain (they’re one of my all time favorites). Here’s a little preview:
France. This is a country known for its music. The stereotypical accordion tunes from atop Montmartre embodied in the soundtrack of Amélie, the ballads of Edith Piaf, and the intense lyrics of adopted icon Jacques Brel (he was actually Belgian, but the French like him so much they seem to forget). But beyond those symbolic melodies that scream French roots, there’s another side to French music. One that is much more urban, cosmopolitan and chic. It’s the smooth, electro-jazz, slightly funky sounds of contemporary bands like St. Germain.
Read the rest of it, and watch a video of “So Flute,” here.
Photo Chosen for Gadling Photo of the Day
The photo from Glacier National Park that I posted last week (scroll down to see it) got selected for Gadling’s Photo of the Day on Monday! Check it out here.
blog.annabrones.com 