Would you go back to Italy one day?
Would you even leave the USA again?
Author Archives: simply three cents
Donations In Another Nation
As part of one of the challenges on the Amazing Race last night, teams had to donate funds they earned, as well as all their travel money, to a local Indonesian orphanage. Their contribution was financial, but have you ever donated your time or talents to those less fortunate while traveling?
Share in the comments below.
Favorite places
One of my favorite places to be. Here it’s restful, peaceful and pretty. And there’s some really great wine to be had too!
We were supposed to visit with family this weekend for fall foilage but foul weather forecasts fumbled that formulation. How’s that for alliteration?!
National Book Month
What a great month to pick for National Book Month. It’s getting chilly and fall nights are perfect for catching up on all those unfinished beach reads, which have now turned into your fall reads.
I haven’t been on an airplane since July so my reading has diminished slightly. I would like to finish Tina Fey’s Bossypants, and I am going to pick up a guidebook or two…perhaps Lonely Planet’s Brazil and Bolivia.
Personally, I am a fan of books where you can dog-ear the pages and actually flip back, or forward, to a particular passage. Yes, sometimes I flip towards the end and read a few pages before I actually get there. Oops.
What do you plan to read? What have you read that you can recommend? Please share in the comments below!
And Happy National Book Month to you.
Life. Uncomplicated. Part Three.
Tips, tips and more tips! I feel a bit like Oprah – without the status, celebrity and money! Feel free to share your tips in the comments below.
Today we talk alcohol:
1 – Ever drop a piece of cork in a bottle of wine?
If you lose any part of the cork in a bottle of wine and you don’t want pieces of cork floating in your glass, hold a coffee filter over your glass and pour the wine into the glass via the filter. Voila! The pieces of cork get stopped by the coffee filter. Genius!
2 – I always keep a bottle of Champagne (or Cava or Prosecco) in the fridge because you just never know when you will want to properly celebrate.
3 – If you need to chill a bottle quickly, put it in the freezer. Simply enough. But set the microwave timer so you don’t forget to take it out. Crucial 😉
Be Inspired
Check out Matador’s 50 most inspiring travel quotes of all time. My personal favorites include:
“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” – Henry Miller
“If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home.” – James Michener
I love this next quote and I hope my writing gets this across. The unknown allows us all to experience things outside of our comfort zones. When taken out of that familiar setting, something as simple as buying a knee brace will require effort and patience to get it done. It’s the lack of familiarity, and assumed ease, that makes the experience – behind door number one, two or three that much more exciting.
“To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted.” – Bill Bryson (who is one of my favorite travel writers)
I have mentioned this quote in a previous post…
“When you travel, remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable. It is designed to make its own people comfortable.” – Clifton Fadiman
And this quote applies to life in general, it is not exclusive to travel.
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain
WHY Should I Have All the Fun?
Readers,
Some of you send me rough ideas for WHY Wednesdays…and I thought WHY should I be the only one posting for WHY Wednesday?
If you need any inspiration you can search in the categories along the right side of the blog, click on the link for WHY Wednesday and you can see my previous WHY Wednesday posts.
Send me your write up for WHY Wednesday. It can be about ANYTHING your heart desires!
Email me your very own WHY Wednesday and I will post it as a future WHY Wednesday right here on Simply Three Cents!
Happy World Tourism Day
“World Tourism Day is an opportunity to reflect on the importance of tourism to global well-being. As we travel, let us engage with other cultures and celebrate human diversity. On this observance, let us recognize tourism as a force for a more tolerant, open and united world.”
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
Message for World Tourism Day 2011
Message for World Tourism Day 2011
Just another excuse to travel! As if I needed another…
The Amazing Race started last night!
YAY!
While it’s not at all how I like to travel, I can’t get enough of The Amazing Race (to be referred to as TAR in this post).
I like to take my time to soak up a place, a culture and it’s food…except when I happen to be running for a connecting flight in Frankfurt.
Of course TAR is edited to show the worst of some people – ignorance, getting mad when there is a language barrier, etc. – but at the end of the day, it IS reality TV. You just have to hope that when the cameras are off, the offending teams are not so insulting to the local cultures.
There have been some eye-opening places featured and I have picked some of my destinations based on where TAR went. In fact, I couldn’t wait to get to Ushuaia, Argentina – the southernmost city in the world – because of TAR.
It also doesn’t hurt that the host of the show, Phil Keoghan, isn’t so bad on the eyes.
If you watch, have any of the destinations featured on any season of TAR inspired you to go, or plan a trip, there?
Stop and Smell the Roses
This post from the Solo Traveler Blog reminds you to remember to stop and smell the roses.
It’s much easier to do when traveling, and not so easy when you are caught up in the grind. But this is a good reminder for the ‘in the grind time’ as well.
Make sure to watch the video in the Solo Traveler post as well.
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