As part of what’s quickly becoming an ongoing reasons to visit Albania series, HostelBloggers have dug up another one: Albania is the only country in the world whose government has fallen to a pyramid scheme. (It was during the mid-90s and about two thirds of the population were implicated…)
We picked up the scent over at the reliably ribald Roadjunky.com, where they’re running a feature on 101 examples that the world is as crazy as ever and that fly in the face of the creeping uniformity of globalization.
Whether the Albania factoid makes for an amusing story of other people’s misfortune or a rather endearing (if tragic) tale depends rather on how cold-hearted you are. But toss it in with all the other oddball facts about the country, and you’ve undoubtedly got a complete one-off of a travel destination.
It’s hard to put your finger on just what makes Notesfromtheroad.com so great. There are the absolutely stunning photos, certainly. And there’s also the love for (and profound knowledge of) the natural world that comes through in almost every post, too.
Author Erik Gaugerhe describes it as ‘the unvarnished, messy truth of travel, told by a regular guy’ but the reality is something rather different. He has an unusual and solipsistic perspective on life, travel, the universe and everything.
Ultimately, though, the appeal lies in the way he conjures up images of bouncing tumbleweed, encounters with bears and awe-inspiring nature in this distinctive, subjective voice.
During the summer months the extra hours of daylight have a profound effect on people in the uppermost reaches of the northern hemisphere. From the Swedish frog dance to the awe-inspiring White Nights of St Petersburg, the weeks on either side of the Summer Solstice are dotted with some of the most spectacular - and often downright peculiar - events in Europe.
Swamp soccer (pictured), wife-carrying, mosquito-killing, phone-throwing and air guitar competitions - here, eccentricity is very much the norm as a series of one oddball event after another is unveiled.
Given the long hours of gloom that lie in store, it’s hardly surprising that all this extra daylight induces a euphoric effect in people. But don’t just take it from HostelBloggers: “Maybe we are a little bit crazy… maybe we are just bored”, Reuters reports Toni Haukamakix as saying from the sauna-championships.
Crazy, maybe. But only in the best possible sense of the word.
Following this story that surfaced on the BBC a couple of days ago about an adventurous garden gnome, HostelBloggers have come across more tales of traveling toys.
Tilly, Tom and Tiny are three lucky rag dolls about to embark on an adhoc tour of the world. Each has a polite notice attached to it asking the ‘owner’ (i.e. whoever picks it up at any one time) to take the doll with them on one leg of their travels, and send in a few pics of the results.
You can follow their progress here. Good luck to the three of them, we say. And remember, if you happen to see a slightly haggard looking doll flagging a ride during your travels, be sure to stop and give it a lift!
Taking our cue from Chris, who’s just posted a list of the Top 5 Travel Movies to Give you Goose Bumps over at Nomad4ever, HostelBloggers have been banging our heads together over a similar subject - the 5 funniest travel movies ever made.
We’ve made a start below but it’s a work in progress - all suggestions are welcome!
1) Airplane! - This wild parody of an everything-that-can-go-wrong-will-go-wrong blockbuster was probably the first of its kind. With every second of every shot packed with gags, Airplane! paved the way for such comedy greats as Naked Gun, Police Squad and Hot Shots.
What’s the plot? Well, it’s got something to do with a bunch of crazed and (at times) depraved passengers who become stricken by a mystery illness while in the air. But it’s not really the plot that matters; it’s more the visual puns, the quick-fire wordplay, and the lead character’s drinking problem that ensure the movie’s place in our top 5.
Standout Quote: (Air Stewardess, over the loudspeaker): There’s no reason to become alarmed, and we hope you’ll enjoy the rest of your flight. By the way, is there anyone on board who knows how to fly a plane?
2) Eurotrip - Eurotrip has got itself a bit of a cult following, bless its sweaty preppy socks. Ok, so it didn’t get a great reception on release, but (just between us) there’s actually quite a few people out there who think it’s rather good.
The laughs come from watching four all-American high-school friends bluff and blag their way round mainland Europe. With sexual encounters in Amsterdam, British football hooligans in Paris, and a meeting with the Pope in the Vatican, what’s not to like?
Standout Moment: The entire Amsterdam segment. Perfectly predictable!
3) Sullivan’s Travels - Mixing slapstick humor with quick-witted banter, Sullivan’s Travels has its protagonist cartwheel through America on the back of a railroad car, searching for the meaning of life and finding the importance of humor.
Of course, there’s a great tradition of American road movies (from Thelma and Louise to Badlands), and some of them have also been amusing (Roadtrip springs to mind) but Sullivan’s Travels was one of the originals, and they just don’t make ‘em like this any more.
Standout Tagline: Veronica Lake’s on the Take!
4) Planes, Trains and Automobiles - Like Sullivan’s Travels, this 80’s comedy is basically an American road movie - but with all the fun and disaster of Steve Martin at his best thrown into the mix.
Neal Page (Martin) is trying to get home in time for Thanksgiving but when bad weather grounds his flight the adventure begins… What follows is a good old family movie with more travel related catastrophes than you can dream of, with even more added comedy by John Candy’s irritating ‘Curtain Ring Salesman’.
Standout Moment: Getting charged for speeding after the speedometer is melted in a ‘minor’ car fire…
5) Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure - Well, it’s travel of sorts! We just couldn’t ignore the film that made every adolescent, young adult, and (lets be honest) aging statesman cry with laughter.
Bill S. Preston (Esq.) and Ted Theodore Logan run riot through the annals of history, traveling (we emphasize the word to persuade ourselves as much as anything else) from one famous historical moment to the next in order to complete a school project. The result: Carnage, hilarity, and a lot of dodgy guitar playing.
Today, we’ve been mostly reading the hostel stories posts to be found on HostelManagement and various other places elsewhere around the web… And it took HostelBloggers right back to our days when we managed a hostel in Spain.
One day, a guy called Rob turned up. Blonde, cocky and incredibly narcissistic, he stood at the hostel reception admiring his reflection, and booked a double room (because he’d picked up this ‘really hot German girl’ a few days earlier).
He checked in, and then went to his room to sleep for the rest of the afternoon. A little later on, the aforementioned ‘hot German girl’ turned up. She slipped into the room they’d booked together and proceeded to have very loud sex with the windows and shutters wide open.
Now, the hostel (as with most old Spanish houses) was set around a central patio - on a square, effectively - so everyone in the other rooms and social areas could hear, and, like one voyeuristic guest, watch them at it. It went on most of the afternoon.
The next day they left, and no more was thought about it… until a couple of weeks later. One of the guests came bounding up to reception, clearly a little agitated. “There’s porn on your computer - loads of porn!” she gabbled excitedly. Anyway, it turned out that our friend Rob was something of a sexual exhibitionist: he’d downloaded all of his ‘erotic hostel adventures’ on to a computer.
And it wasn’t just a few, either, but photo after photo of his conquests in revealing positions, punctuated only by artful shots of himself in the nude. Interestingly, he hadn’t just slapped them all over one computer, but EVERY guest computer. He must’ve really wanted people to see him.
What was interesing about it, was that it seemed far removed from your average drunken dorm room slap ‘n’ tickle (high on everybody’s list of backpacking bugbears/annoying hostel types), but a narcissim on a far grander, more calculated scale.
To this day HostelBloggers wonders if he pulled a similar stunt in every hostel he went to…
During a checkered traveling past, HostelBloggers have slept in some fairly unusual places: there have been castle hostels, treehouse hostels and even a couple of haunted hostels. When luck and planning have been against us, we’ve had to make do with a park bench on a few occasions…
Beaches have also, naturally, featured quite highly. But never, in all our days, have we slept in a giant sand castle.
And a giant sand castle is exactly what the ’sand hotel’ that’s been built on Weymouth Beach (in Dorset, England) is. It took four eager sculptors (and a JCB) over a week to build, and is made up of over 1,000 tonnes of sand. As for the price? A very reasonable £10 a night. But then, of course, it doesn’t have a roof!
For more details, check out the full story from the BBC here.
The night market: it’s hard to think of a more budget travel-friendly institution for the backpacker in Asia. And few are as rich in sights, sounds and smells as those you get in Beijing.
Turning to Hobotraveler.com (a glorious mess of a budget travel storehouse) to elaborate the point, we stumbled on this Beijing Night Markets post. There are some great images of what is, when you get down to it, a pretty unique sensory phenomenon.
The silkworm, the starfish, the scorpions - it brought it all back… And, just as when HostelBloggers were actually there, we tried to be interested and consider it a unique cultural experience and blah, blah, blah… we really did. After a while of gazing at these increasingly weird and wonderful foodstuffs, though, we were driven into fits of immature giggling by one thing: goat cock (see below).
But ’political correctness’ aside, when we thought about it, it struck us that perhaps the right response to anything you experience on your travels is normally always the natural response - even if it is a childish one!
After all, it’s essentially the differences between cultures that make travel so worthwhile. And if you stifle your response to something then, well, what’s the point? You can take it as a given that Chinese travelers in London have been bemused and amused in equal measure by elements of British cuisine. (Like, say, a tasteless, dry ‘traditional roast dinner’…)
Who’s to say that amusement isn’t a perfectly reasonable and healthy cultural response?
Any backpacker in Barcelona who’s ever wandered down las Ramblas will testify that it’s the world’s greatest stage for street performers. In fact, the ‘Living Statue’ is something of a local art form.
And that’s precisely what the above clip so cleverly pokes fun at.
If it’s rough and shaky (which some people will find annoying), the effect is undeniably pretty impressive. The clip slowly sets the scene, moving through a number of other performers, before settling on a kneeling, donkey-headed figure, with a small deposit of, ahem, manure, to its rear quarters.
It’s odd and, frankly, a bit dark. (There’s something a little unsettling about the children going up, peering into the hollow shell of a donkey’s head, and then giving it money…) But in HostelBloggers’ humble opinion, it’s definitely got something.
Matt Harding’s been dancing his way around the world (as seen below) for a while now.
And for a time there was something undeniably heartwarming about Matt and his funny little dance. Innocent. Charming, even. So what happened? Why the ‘was’?
On the surface, nothing. He looks like a really likeable fella. And he hasn’t traded in his homely, on-the-spot jig for a sleeker, sexier model - a tango, say. But there was a subtle shift, in the form of two little words: corporate sponsorship.
The market’s become increasingly good at identifying internet trends and squeezing them in its anaconda-like grip. And so it was with Dancing Matt. One moment he was dancing for the love; the next, it seemed, he was dancing for the money.
Don’t get us wrong - we’ve all got jobs to do. HostelBloggers, after all, is the naughty little brother of HostelBookers. It’s arguably a little different, though, selling a part of a personal project to a manufacturer of chewing gum.
Alright, so it’s not like he’s videoing himself on a seal-clubbing, kitten-drowning world tour sponsored by Exxon. You’d still have to ask yourself, perhaps: is this what I set out to do?
And in the meantime, it remains to be asked: would HostelBloggers do the same thing in his position? Well, we’d have to be left in a darkened room with a monkey suit, some dancing shoes, a sack of chewing gum, a large cheque and our consciences to find out!
1) Airplane! - 
2) Eurotrip - Eurotrip has got itself a bit of a cult following, b
3) Sullivan’s Travels - Mixing slapstick humor with quick-witted banter, Sullivan’s Travels has its protagonist cartwheel through America on the back of a railroad car, searching for the meaning of life and finding the importance of humor.
4) Planes, Trains and Automobiles - 
5) Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure - 
