Friday, August 24, 2007

Bike City Berlin

Here's a great article on TreeHugger, a green lifestyle blog, on how wonderfully bike-friendly Berlin is. Once again, I am unable to make a link, so cut and paste, people.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/07/bike_city_berli.php

Awesome Site For City-Lovers

Through kayak.com, which is a great airplane ticket search engine, I was introduced to gridskipper.com. Right now I am totally unable to make the Kayak address a link, but I've added Gridskipper to my list of links on the right-hand side. Apologies about Kayak. Use it anyway.
Gridskipper only covers six or so cities, so it's not a total travel site. But if you are going to one of their six cities, it's a veritable font of information. Their authors pick a theme, such as great falafel in Berlin, and write little blurbs on their seven favorite falafel spots. Now, for the best part: the blurbs are accompanied by a Google map! I was very impressed when I saw this. Gridskipper has a variety of themed blurbs 'n' maps, allowing it to appeal to a variety of demographics. For example, I was interested in the "How to Dress Like a Berliner" blurbs, while I skipped right by "Jewelry in Berlin" due to its teaser's inclusion of the words "high-end." On my student budget, I'm looking out for the 3 € falafel.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Two Weeks To Go...

I feel like I should have something to say for this post, but I think I may be in a bit of denial about my upcoming trip. I leave two weeks from tomorrow, and it is just unbelievable, especially the length of time I will be overseas (ten months, if I decide to come back at all). It seems that school is coming up, what with my cousin moving up to Pittsburgh to attend Pitt and my brother starting again in a week, yet I'm not going to Toronto. It's an odd thought.

I bought a Moleskine City Guide for Berlin. Moleskine makes journals that apparently Hemingway and Da Vinci used, or something like that. They are too small for constructing novels, if you ask me. But my Berlin book is great! It is very minimalist and subtle, which is appealing as long as you don't need reading glasses. Otherwise, you probably won't be able to read any of the print in the book. It has 18 small maps of neighborhoods of Berlin, and one wonderful map of the U- and S-Bahn (subway/streetcar), plus plenty of blank pages for notes on things like yummy Thai restaurants.
My main guide is Moon Metro Berlin, which I really like the asthetic of. It has six maps, but they're pretty big, and pages full of recommended restaurants, stores, and attractions. Seems good so far, but only time will tell whether it's a worthwhile guide. I often find that travel guides are not overly student-friendly, i.e. everything recommended is pricey, in terms of a student's budget.

Right now, I find myself space-bagging winter clothes and making copies of my passport and debit card. Fun!