Two days ago I had my first ever experience doing a video Skype chat with a friend who’s on the road and trail trekking for a Lonely Planet guidebook. We got to catch on up some personal news, rather than the quips about writing and travel we usually exchange over email, and it was something awfully cool to see her face and have her wave to my son from Patagonia.

The experience left me feeling a little sad, though. As always happens with technological advances, no matter how welcome, something is lost.

I was unavoidably reminded of when I’d first moved overseas and not only had no access to email, but was too poor to make regular phone calls to family and friends. I lived on letters. Over a slowly sipped coffee at one of Vienna’s lovely old coffeehouses, I’d write about my daily life in this foreign place, my German lessons, my two illegal jobs, the people I met, the grumpy lady who ran the deli counter across the road from our apartment, the movement and conversations of patrons and waiters in the cafe …

I’ve always been a letter writer. No matter how many emails I write now, nothing trumps the pleasure I get from running an actual pen over an actual piece of paper. It used to make my day to write one of my sisters a thin one-page Aerogramme (alas, no longer available). And I love receiving them. After Skyping with my friend, I went and rummaged through a trunk of old possessions, finally pulling out the shoebox packed with letters from many friends, received in several different countries over the years. Seeing the handwriting and ripped-open envelopes was like greeting those friends all over again.

It also reminded me of the loneliness I felt, in a foreign country with a new husband. It was a comforting sort of loneliness, a feeling introverts are familiar with, the chance to get reacquainted with yourself. And, with being able to email and chat with family no matter where I’m traveling, it’s a loneliness I haven’t accessed in a long time. We are all expected to keep in touch.

There’s something that gets lost in the travel experience when you can’t feel a little loneliness. It’s a chance to absorb the place you’re in, and to investigate your own internal landscape, as Pico Iyer calls it. Keeping in constant contact with loved ones prevents us from accessing that space. Letter writing, on the other hand, allows us to muse over our investigations of the world both outside and inside, without hurry and without deletion. We can follow our thoughts where they take us.

Welcome to this edition of the Carnival of Cities.

This is a blog carnival, where one blog publishes contributions from other blogs. In this one, we explore any aspect of a single city, anywhere in the world.

Last week was hosted by the UpTake Attractions blog, and next week we’re back at our “home” blog, the Family Travel Logue on BootsnAll.

If you’d like to host the Carnival on an upcoming Wednesday, please contact me at sheila “at” sheilascarborough “dot” com. Thanks!

Off we go….

Cities in the Americas

Orlando, Florida, USA   MB presents The Cathedral Church of St. Luke posted at Florida Everyone Forgot, saying, “I came across this ornately decorated cathedral while walking around Downtown Orlando a few months ago. It’s amazing that after visiting the city for years, I never saw this amazing building.”

Mexico City, Mexico   Catherine Bardrick presents Chilling out Chilango-style in Chapultepec Park posted at Small Fish in the Big Taco, saying, “Many think of Mexico City as a polluted crime-ridden,traffic-choked kind of place, but I am interested in showing very different aspects of the city. Look at what a highly liveable place it is full of leisure and relaxed chilling-out…and check out those colours which are a constant source of wonder and delight…”

Nashville, Tennessee   Barbara presents Your Bliss. Your Blog. Your Conference. posted at Capitol B, saying, “Nashville to host BlissDom ’09 – women’s blogger conference!”

San Francisco, California, USA   Kathryn presents San Francisco and “That One Time When” posted at San Francisco is Sexy, saying, “A post about how it’s easy to find creative opportunities and experience in San Francisco and why it is valuable to do exactly that.”

Chicago, Illinois, USA   Byteful Travel presents Is Navy Pier a glorified shopping mall? posted at Byteful Blog, saying, “The city of Chicago is full of wonders and gems for the curious traveller to discover, many of them available free of charge. After briefly visiting Wrigley Field, I explored the famous Navy Pier, which reminded me more of a small city than a pier. (Tons of high resolution photos included.)”

Detroit, Michigan, USA   Dominique King presents Motown magic comes out of the shadows one summer night posted at Midwest Guest, saying, “Motown celebrates its 50th anniversary this week, and I remember a magical musical evening with the label’s legendary Funk Brothers.”

Newport Beach, California, USA   Joanne presents Newport Beach Vacation – At Sea posted at Newport Beach Vacation.

Washington, DC, USA   Barbara presents Buddha Bar Bringing Some Zen To DC « Capitol B posted at Capitol B.

Cities in Europe

Tautavel (Aude,) France   candy presents Traveling Through Aude: Discovering Our Pre-History posted at Carrie and Danielle.

Alicante, Spain   Andrew Edgington presents A Day Trip to Alicante posted at Spain Golf Villa Rental Alicante, saying, “Check out what Alicante has to offer and all the things you can see and do in just one day.”

Cities in Australia/New Zealand

Lake Tekapo, New Zealand   Andy Hayes presents Best Place to see the stars posted at Sharing Experiences, saying, “This is such a wonderful and special place, so I hope you’ll include it. Thanks, Andy.”

That concludes this edition.  Submit your (one, non-spammy) blog post about any ONE, UNO, SINGLE city to the next edition of the Carnival of Cities using our carnival submission form.

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

Hey everyone, it’s awards season. Time to start voting for your favorite travel blogs.

First up is the 2008 Weblog Awards.

The finalists in the travel category (yes, finally, there is a travel category) are…

  MyKugelhopf
  Folie a Deux
  The Asian Traveler
  Curious Expeditions
  Notes from the Road
  The Lost Girls
  LL World Tour
  Jaunted – The Pop Culture Travel Guide
  Intelligent Traveler
  The Cranky Flier

There’s a few of my favorites there, as well as some I can see I’ll be spending some time at getting to know in the future.

It’s great to be able to vote and support fellow travel bloggers, so get out and vote. I have but I’m not going to tell you who for.

But wait, there’s more…

Caitlin from Roaming Tales provided a heads up on the first every Lonely Planet Travel Blogger Awards.

There are 11 categories and the nominations are now open, so head on over and start nominating.

• Best Destination Blog
• Best Expat Blog
• Best Travelogue
• Best Consumer Travel Blog
• Best non-English language Blog
• Best Video Blog (including YouTube Channels)
• Best Micro-Blogging (twitter etc)
• Best Image Blog
• Best Themed Blog (trekking etc)
• Best Group Authored Blog
• Best Podcast

The nominations will remain open until sometime in Febuary, then voting will take place.

First Air New Zealand gave it a try. And now, hot on their heels, Continential Airlines is testing the feasibility of using sustainable biofuel to power commerical airliners with a North American Jatropha-Fueled Test Flight. Wonder who’s next?

Have you heard? The Grand Canyon’s South Rim Visitors Center is going solar with some 84 solar panels that are expected to offset at least 30% of the power used at the center.

Check out Jamble Magazine’s Singapore Green Guide. And Planet Green has the Green City Guide to Milan.

Skip the car and start walking with this list of Top 5 Strolling Neighborhoods of San Francisco.

Discover these new green cafes around the country.

GPS will soon go green with Audi and Nissan GPS systems that will allow you to choose the most efficient and therefore, least polluting routes from A to Z.

Shanghei’s URBN Hotels claims to be carbon neutral. Seems only right given that it’s located in a country with the world’s highest levels of carbon emissions.

Did you know that some cities in the States are offering parking privileges to hybrid drivers?

Planning a skiing holiday? Then have a look at this list first of The 10 Best and Worst Ski Destinations for the Eco-Conscious Skier.

Every year around this time, for some reason unknown to me, the thought of space travel bangs away on my imagination. Last year around New Year’s I wrote about the Many-Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics, and speculated on the idea of traveling to different universes.

This year the imagination engine is sticking closer to home. At least in physical terms. I think. (Physics can be so darn confusing.) I’d really like to travel to space one day. I’d love to see Earth from space, and would just turn inside-out to be able to visit another planet.

In my lifetime, that’s obviously not going to happen. But when it does, when humans someday possibly venture out to see another planet, and maybe possibly even find there’s someone already living there, I’ve been wondering something.

Will we have changed as a race by then? Our current wanderlust, our travel addiction, is fed by many centuries of mistakes and misunderstandings. Travel started out as conquest, then as discovery, then as exploration; then we moved on to the Grand Tour of the 1800s and zipped to today’s mode of faffing all over the planet as quickly as possible. In the beginning, and even today, the travelers generally made the colossal mistake of assuming that the places they were visiting needed civilizing, de-populating, and colonizing — aka “This place belongs to those who can make use of it,” a concept we haven’t really grown out of yet.

The current horror and accompanying rhetoric coming out of the Middle East makes me wonder if we’ll ever truly be ready to venture out into space and contact other species or at least see other places. Will we ever advance enough to assume on contact that another place might have something to give or teach us aside from its extractable resources? Or that another culture might know more about wisdom, existence, or what’s important in life than we do?

Can we travel without ruining?

We haven’t managed it yet on our own planet. But I have hope. After all, there’s all you Perceptive Travelers out there. Maybe your sensibilities will determine those of the future.