The other day I was walking through my local Barnes & Noble bookstore and saw something that made me realize I’m getting old. Or at least older. That’s what happens when something you used regularly in your childhood suddenly becomes a vintage/retro cool collectible.

Gear from the defunct airline Pan Am (Pan American World Airways) suddenly has the hip retro factor akin to the Cool Brittania phase of just a few years ago. Barnes & Noble is selling cards, notebooks, journals, and tote bags featuring Pan Am’s stark blue-and-white logo, and plenty of other sites are selling a new line of luggage featuring the airline’s graphics. I’ve even heard that Marc Jacobs, a high-end designer, has designed one of these bags.

One site peddling the gear had me laughing my head off this morning. “These bags remind us of a better day when air travel was elegant,” it says enthusiastically. Maybe. But I traveled Pan Am a number of times in the years just before it went bust, and while the world-shaped logo might remind others of days when you dressed up for flying, the same logo was slapped on the cramped, overcrowded, smelly flights my family took back and forth to the Soviet Union in the late 80s and early 90s.

Seeing the Pan Am logo in my local bookstore, selling with all the hype of hip, did remind me of really awful airline food when you could still get it, but it also sent me back to those first heady days of living overseas when I was still a kid, when everything was absolutely fascinating and new and fresh and no matter how bad the transatlantic flight was, it was still the coolest thing on earth to be doing it. Sometimes we don’t know how lucky we are.

It happens every other year, and for 2008 the timing is right….

August 14-17, 2008 is this year’s celebration of gorgeous, colorful flowers.

They are mostly begonias, laid out in a carpet-like pattern on the magnificent Grand Place in Brussels.

It would be difficult to find a more dramatic, elegant backdrop anywhere in Europe.

It’s free to walk around and admire the carpet, or for three Euro, you can climb up to a balcony on the first floor of the Town Hall, to see the intricate pattern from above.

If you have a choice, see it on one of the first days, while the colors are at their brightest.

Related posts:

• Sure, Belgian chocolate, but which one?

I’ve got a bug for old travel books recently. There was Jan Morris — not an old book, but with many older essays in it — and before her Wilfred Thesiger, who makes me wish I could have been an Englishman stationed in Arabia before the Brits and French went in and carved it all up to make weird new countries like Iraq and Iran and basically screw up the rest of the century. It would have been nice to see the land before borders were dropped at the whim of imperialists.

And now I’ve gone further back, to Afanasy Nikitin’s Voyage Beyond Three Seas. Although Nikitin wrote his book in the mid-1400s, my edition is an imaginatively illustrated hardback published in the Soviet Union, complete with request from Raduga Publishers for readers’ “opinion of this book, its translation and design and any suggestions you may have for future publications.” Forget being nostalgic about the world of exploration before the advent of “adventure travel,” that line made me nostalgic for a time when, supposedly, publishers actually cared about the quality and content of what they printed.

Nikitin was a merchant in the 15th century who set out from his native Tver (now located between Moscow and Petersburg) for the reported riches of India, and is supposedly the first Russian ever to have reached India. Evidently, according to the publishers, India and Russia have always had a special connection: “Since olden times the peoples of the two great countries have lived in friendship, showing a keen interest in each other.” Which might explain why the two countries consistently produce more genius mathematicians than the rest of the world combined.

As a travel book, Voyage Beyond Three Seas leaves a lot to be desired by modern standards. There is little dramatic element, and descriptions of vast lands zip by so fast that I had to pull out an atlas and a guide to old city/country names to figure out where in the heck Nikitin had landed this time. Taken in the context of its audience, likely other merchants looking to make the arduous journey across seas and mountains, its descriptive power was considerable: “And near Ceylon precious stones, rubies, rock crystal, agates, amber, beryls, and emery are found. … The harbour of Pegu is not small, and it is mostly Indian dervishes there.”

Your eyes could glaze over reading too much of that kind of listing, combined as it is with enumerations of various fighting forces and servants and retainers and elephants of various leaders and warlords. Like I said, little dramatic element. But reading between these lines, and paying attention, you realize that Nikitin suffered massive hardships in his endeavors to trade the riches of India with the riches of Russia. From being attached and plundered by “pagan Tartars” to becoming madly depressed over his “sinful” decision to give up his “true faith” of Russian Orthodoxy for Islam, you get the impression that Nikitin dragged himself over the seas and land by pure force of will, often hungry, always lonely and desperate to return to Russia, very often nearly losing his life. (Note: the conversion to Islam is unclear, but scholars studying the text have concluded that he very likely did, explaining why he constantly referred to his “sinful voyage.”)

Compare this with the over-hyped experiences of travel writers who throw themselves into possibly life-threatening situations (or at least physically endangering themselves) and then can’t wait to rush home and write about it. Lacking introspection as well as true observation, these books and articles have to hinge themselves on adventure travel because the days of true exploration are over, which, as I’ve mentioned before, can leave a sadder literary landscape.

With a background of a home they will assuredly return to, most travel writers who follow this path fail to reach the desperate pitch of a muted and untrained 15th-century resident lost and hungry in a foreign land, who dragged himself home mile by mile and died before making it back to his hometown. The irony is that, when true adventure was possible, it wasn’t held to be admirable or desirable. Further irony — it’s almost depressing to know that in 2006 an Indian organization retraced Nikitin’s journey … by driving in SUVs.

Nobody sold Nikitin a package tour to India, touting hobnobbing with natives, and the risks he took were not to alleviate a privileged white boy’s malaise, but to expand the glory of his home country and bring something of the outside world back.

Of course, it’s debatable whether real exploration or adventure travel is more desirable. The former very possibly does more damage than the latter, as adventure travel has a vested interest in preserving wilderness and culture. But the writing is another thing entirely. It’s hard to take seriously so much of our modern adventure travel, written as it is with so little knowledge and historical context, when compared with the adventurers and explorers of bygone ages, people with a thirst to learn about a reachable speck of foreign lands, not just the limits of their physical capabilities.

Traveling around cyberspace this week, I came across two articles that reminded me that there’s a lot of weird out there worth exploring.

The first article, 7 Bizarre Tours You’d Actually Sign Up for … Maybe highlighted some truly interesting tours that you never would have thought existed. For example, how about the Illegal Border Crossing Tour in Mexico, a ‘night-time guided hike and you’ll be chased in the dark, shot at by (fake) police and you may or may not make it under the fence’. Sounds like something the PC police might have a problem with but I’ve just added it to my list of things to do on my road trip next year. (note to self: make sure I pack some old clothes). Other intriguing tours include the Karaoke Ghost Tour of Sydney and the Scandal Tour of Washington DC.

The second article, Top 10 weird attractions around the globe, offers a list of ‘one of a kind’ events and places. From the Cockroach Race in Brisbane, Australia to the Hakone Kowakien Yunessun Wine Spa in Hakone, Japan, there’s enough weird here for everyone. If I had to choose one, I’d definitely be heading for the wine spa.

And if that’s not enough weird, just yesterday I was reading a short article in the recent Wanderlust magazine that listed ’sewer tours worth a visit’ ranging from the sewers to Paris to New Dehli.

It sure is a weird, weird world.

Welcome to this edition of the Carnival of Cities; it was supposed to be posted as usual on Wednesday (18 June) but I was “overtaken by events” preparing to teach a new workshop yesterday, here in Austin (Learn Five Web 2.0 Tools in One Day.)

Let’s just say that the workshop went very well, but five tools is probably a few too many to cram into one teaching event. :)

At any rate, let’s pause and take a quick world tour in one blog post:

** Cities in the Americas **

Lodi, California, USA JHSEsq tells a great story about an everyday hero saving a life on the train tracks in Life in Lodi: The Village Has a Real, Live Hero posted at Colloquium.

Atlanta, Georgia, USA Claudine recommends the Canine Cocktail Hour at Hotel Indigo posted at her blog theatlantatraveler.com, saying, “We love our pets in Atlanta!”

Seattle, Washington, USA Pam Mandel presents Seattle’s Wing Luke Asian Museum posted at Nerd’s Eye View, saying, “Seattle has a new museum that addresses the Asian and Pacific Islander cultures that call our city home. The museum isn’t quite ready for prime time, but the building is a stunner and the museum promises to be a real gem when they have all their exhibits installed. It’s worth a preview.”

Caminos de Los Indios, Venezuela APH gives some background on Socialist Cities at the Market Urbanism blog, saying, “Development of Caminos de Los Indios, the first of five “Socialist Cities” has begun south of Caracas. In his 2007 inaugural speech, Hugo Chavez said, ‘We need to [develop] a system of cities based on federations, federal regions. We need to build communal cities, Socialist Cities.’”

San Francisco, California, USA CatSynth presents In the shadow of the bridge posted at catsynth.com mp3 kitty cat synthesizer music, saying, “Images and thoughts from our neighborhood in San Francisco.”

Moab, Utah, USA Ms. Smarty Pants gives us some highlights from Moab, Utah posted at Ms. Smarty Pants Know It All, saying, “Moab is a smaller town, but it is the main hub of southeast Utah.”

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Ethan lists all sorts of things to do, plus a neat little photo stream, in Vancouver: So Much to Do, So Little Time posted at Never Clever Whatsoever.

Ocho Rios, Jamaica Amy @ The Q Family presents Carnival Cruise - Day 6 - Ocho Rios posted at The Q Family Adventure, saying, “Our quick visit to Ocho Rios shows that there is more to see in Jamaica than we can do in one day.”

New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA John presents the Most Common Birds in Middlesex County posted at his comprehensive A DC Birding Blog.

Seattle, Washington, USA Mary Jo Manzanares says to get off of the couch and Let’s Get Ready to Scramble! Writing at her blog The Seattle Traveler, she says, “Explore the streets of Seattle and get a little exercise with this urban orienteering competition.”

Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii, USA Kara Williams presents Good, Big Eats at Kahuna Kabobs in Lahaina, Maui posted at Traveling Mamas.

** Cities in Asia **

Nagoya, Japan Silicon Valley Blogger presents Making Money Through Day Trading: The Secret Lives of Stay-At-Home Mommy Speculators posted at The Digerati Life, saying, “This details the story of a day-trading Japanese suburban housewife in Nagoya, Japan.”

Beijing, China I had a wonderful two-part Family Travel blog guest post by Laura Bond Williams about taking young children to Beijing. Part One covers the logistics of long-haul travel from Texas to China with little ones, and Part Two has details of her family’s time in Beijing.

Tokyo, Japan Wendy presents Teenage Tokyo: Hangry and Angry posted at Escape From New York, saying, “They look like the revenge of Hello Kitty. Their names are Hangry and Angry and they have scars, eye patches and stitches.”

Xuan Wei, China Junjie has some nice photos of Xuan Wei posted at Junjie’s China blog.

** Cities in Europe **

Perugia, Italy Karen Bryan presents Review of Holiday Inn Perugia - great value for money and scenic pool posted at Europe A La Carte Blog, saying, “A value for money hotel close to the beautiful Umbrian town of Perugia in Italy.”

Nuuk, Greenland Katrina Cain asks What is the Biggest City in the World? and I’m going with her square kilometers definition. She writes at What is the Biggest….

That concludes this edition of the Carnival of Cities. If you’d like to host the July 2 or July 9 edition, drop me an email at sheila “at” sheilascarborough “dot” com. Thanks!

Pam over at Nerd’s Eye View is hosting next week’s 25 June edition, so submit your (one, non-spammy) blog post to the next edition by 12 noon US Pacific time on Tuesday, 24 June, using our carnival submission form.

Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

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