Archive for the ‘Year of Geo’ Category

Year of Geography: Angola

Posted on January 17th, 2011 by Laura Byrne Paquet

Did you know that Angola has its own version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Well, it does. Called Quem quer ser milionário, it began airing in 2009 on TV Zimbo, the country’s first private TV station, which opened the previous year. Contestants compete to win 3 million kwanzas (about US$34,400). Here’s the set. […]

Read the rest of this entry »

Year of Geography: Andorra

Posted on January 15th, 2011 by Laura Byrne Paquet

No, Andorra was not Darrin’s eccentric mother-in-law on Bewitched. (That was Endora, for all of you under 40.) Andorra is a tiny country wedged into the Pyrenees between France and Spain. How small? Check out the map. See that little green area just northwest of Barcelona? That’s Andorra. Its capital is Andorra la Vella, often […]

Read the rest of this entry »

Year of Geography: Algeria

Posted on January 13th, 2011 by Laura Byrne Paquet

desert sands dunes Algeria

Unfortunately, Algeria is going through a bit of a rough patch this week, as riots have broken out to protest the soaring prices of food staples such as sugar. However, as I plan to do in the Year of Geography, I’m going to focus less on news and more on history and culture. And when […]

Read the rest of this entry »

Year of Geography: Albania

Posted on January 3rd, 2011 by Laura Byrne Paquet

Let’s start this quick peek into Albania with some background about this man on a horse. That’s Skanderbeg (or Scanderbeg, depending which reference you’re using), a 15th-century military hero. Born George Castriota (again, spellings vary) around 1404 in northern Albania, he was the son of a prince. For years, he was held hostage at the […]

Read the rest of this entry »

Year of Geography: Why I’m learning about every country

Posted on January 2nd, 2011 by Laura Byrne Paquet

Three years ago, around this time, I got what I thought was a brilliant idea. Having observed other writers spending a year doing various things that interested them–from living biblically to buying nothing–I thought I’d spend a year learning at least something about every country in the world, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. I’ve always been […]

Read the rest of this entry »

More News

Books

Book review: Writer explores England by kayak

As British writer David Aaronovitch points out in the introduction ...

Contests

Contest: Win an African safari for 11!

Become a friend of Intrepid Travel on Facebook, and you ...

Destinations

Anguilla…just because

Those of you who have been following my new series, ...

Food

Aussie cafe serves chocolate on steroids

If you've ever thought, "Gee, chocolate bars would be great ...

Home Exchanges

Wanna buy a home-swap site?

Ever wanted to run your own home exchange site? Do ...

How To

Useful tips for travel photography

For 20 years, I used single-lens reflex (SLR) film cameras, ...

Language

Five places to find foreign language schools

The current online issue of The Atlantic Monthly includes an ...

Music

desert sands dunes Algeria

Year of Geography: Algeria

Unfortunately, Algeria is going through a bit of a rough ...

Recipes

Recipe: Tara Farms Pecan Pie Muffins

OK, this is a first for this blog: a recipe! ...

Travel Trivia

Travel trivia: Islands of Japan

By area, what is Japan's largest island? (Hint: It's where ...

Vacation Rentals

More info on Montserrat villa

A while ago, I wrote a blog post about the ...

Volunteer Travel

The view from Cameroon

British ex-pat Steve Jackson writes a somewhat colourful, often cranky ...