Globe Rambler

On sites like Amazon.com you can find a very interesting book called “1,000 Places to See Before You Die: A Traveler’s Life List” by Patricia Schultz.

Patricia Schultz, a travel guru who has written many other interesting books, has struck gold, in my opinion, with this one. I’ve read it and although I consider myself a guy with a good all-round education I was surprised to see destinations I’ve never heard about.

Mud Pools in Rotorua, New Zealand

Chichen Itza , Mexico

Earth has a lot of beautiful places and choosing from so many possibilities is really difficult and this is where the author’s magic is found. You really can’t go wrong by buying this book as it is user-friendly, in a minute you can find lots of things to see.

Bora Bora , French Polynesia

Machu Picchu, Peru

At only $14 and $4.23 if you buy a used one, I believe it’s some money well spent.

Last week Greece faced it’s worst fires in history, disaster which left the country in mourning as 65 people were reported dead. Nations around the globe rushed to aid the Greeks and now a new treat lies ahead.

Sunday there were floods in the country’s north and especially in the Halkidiki peninsula, home of the worldwide known resort with the same name. The area was hit last year by fires which burned the vegetation and damaged the soil. Sunday’s flood effects were increased by the lack of vegetation as two villages were swept by raging torrents, their force transporting, along other debris, a number of cars in the sea. A number of people were reported missing including a 25 year-old-man who’s car was swept away by swollen stream waters.

Water levels in Melisourgo, 56 miles east of Thessaloniki, have risen to as high as 6.56 feet (2 m) in places, also the city of Thessaloniki alone (Greece’s 2nd largest city) has received more rain in the past 48 hours than is standard for the whole of October and the rain looks set to fall until Wednesday, so this situation could well worsen. The government announced that urgent flood-control measures were being implemented in fire-devastated regions.
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It’s the last day of summer and you’d like to escape for one last time from the gritty urban streets. But it’s already Friday and all your hopes of going away for Labor Day are close to nothing. As now time is of the essence we try to present you some quick tips in the hope it will save you time and also help in taking fast, wise decisions.

A good way to see what’s still available and also a indicator for what you should expect at is Home Away, the world’s leading vacation rentals marketplace. They offer houses for rent all over U.S but also worldwide. If you plan to travel abroad it may be a little bit more difficult as last minute flights are harder to book at this time, but if you’re not afraid to hop in your car and drive for a few hours, this site might just be the one for you. In the next photos you can see a possible destination: a nice cottage in Walden, Vermont and the views it offers – 300-500 $ per week.

At this Home Away link you can find a list of still available houses, just refine your search by entering the area you want to look in.

If you want to travel abroad, as I said, it will be a little more difficult but not impossible. At Expedia I found a great and easy way to search for flights. In less than 2 minutes I’ve found 2 flights departing from New York on 1st of September to Nassau, Bahamas and returning next Wednesday morning (5th Sept.) at a roundtrip price of around 800 $. The site also, while looking for flights, can accommodate you to a hotel in the area, thus approaching two problems in the same time.

At a price starting from 380 $ per person with flight and hotel fare included, Last Minute offers you a great Labor Day escape in Mexico City.

Here are some LastMinute Deals with some search criteria already chosen (New York as default- change it in one click) by us. All you have to do is choose between “flight + hotel”, “flight + car” or “hotel + car” categories and browse the results.

11thHourVacations.com comes to us offering, along other great deals, cruises in the Caribbean, Mexico, Pacific Coast, Bahamas.

For example this spectacular 4 day Cruise starting at only 399 $ per person still has availability and the departure date is 2nd September.

Wouldn’t you like to stay for only 35 $ on The Strip at the Stratosphere Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada? Deals like this one are offered to us by Travelzoo, so be sure to check them out.

If you arrive at the Stratosphere on September the 1st and want to stay there for 3 nights, you can book the World Tower - Deluxe King suites for only a total of 150 $. How is that for a bargain?

These were some of our pieces of advice. Surely there are other ways to plan your Labor Day, if you didn’t do it already, but what we tried to do here is to have given you reliable information in order for you to take decisions as soon as possible.

Hoping that we succeed, we wish you a fine and relaxing Labor Day, wherever you are!

As many of you already know Earth’s climate is suffering from tremendous changes due to the “Green House” effect. A much smaller percent of us really do something about it. Lewis Pugh, a British adventurer, decided to act as he swam 0.6 miles (1 km) in the freezing, now ice-free, waters of the North Pole.

By staying almost 19 minutes in water at temperatures of 29°F (-1.6 °C – if you are wondering how water doesn’t turn to ice at that temperature, the explanation is that salt keeps it from freezing) he set another record for swimming in the coldest waters a human has ever done. Lewis, a WWF-UK ambassador, explained before setting off to the North Pole his aim:” I want to raise awareness of climate change by showing dramatically what is happening in the Arctic. I can’t think of a better way to show that climate change is a reality than by swimming in a place that should be totally frozen over.”

10 years ago his deed was impossible because the temperatures were much lower. In recent years the Arctic is undergoing rapid environmental changes. Over the last century, its average air temperature has warmed at twice the global rate. According to a recent United Nations report the Arctic ice sheet has shrunk by 6 to 7 percent in winter and by 10 to 12 percent in summer over the past 30 years. Experts now believe that by 2040 the Arctic could be largely ice-free in the summer months.

In the title the word “drama” was used. Why drama? This incredible record comes only to show how fast the world’s climate is changing. It affects as all, it will affect definitely our children and mostly our grandchildren. In the Arctic in the front lines of those affected are species such as the polar bear and have serious impacts on other species such as ringed seal, Arctic cod, and walrus.

So, if you like watching documentaries about Polar Bears, think about recording them. If humanity goes on with careless polluting the Earth, those tapes may very well be the only source for your kids to see polar bears in their natural habitat. Now think twice before revving up your car!

You can read Lewis’s diary from the expedition here. Also if you think he is interesting, check out his next projects at his homepage.

As one of the world’s top travel destinations Greece has been suffering in the last week from ravaging fires that burned nearly 500,000 acres in the first three days, leaving behind a landscape of blackened tree trunks, gutted houses and dead livestock. At least 63 people have died during the past three days as Greece’s worst fires in living memory destroyed entire stretches of forest and emptied villages, hotels, camp sites and resorts. Across the country, hundreds of people were evacuated.

Others took refuge in churches and schools, while the Health Ministry was sending hundreds of tents to southern Greece to house those left homeless. The worst of the fires have been concentrated in the mountains of the Peloponnese in the south and on the island of Evia north of Athens. Strong winds blew smoke and ash over the capital, blackening the evening sky and turning the rising sun red.

In a nationally televised address on Saturday, Greek Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis said : “So many fires breaking out simultaneously in so many parts of the country cannot be a coincidence.[…] The state will do everything it can to find those responsible and punish them.” Fire department spokesman Nikos Diamandis blamed arsonists for causing the fires. Investigations are being ordered to find out if the fires are a result of attacks that could be considered terrorism.

Anti-terror squads were already questioning 32 suspects as the Greek government offered rewards of up to 1,350,000 USD for information. Prior to this information, the Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis also declared that a 65 year old man was charged with arson and homicide in connection with a fire near the southern town of Areopolis on friday that killed six people and also that several people have been arrested on suspicion of arson although some were accused of starting fires through negligence rather than intent.

As suspicions arose concerning the arsonists and their reasons, Dimitris Karavellas, the Greek World Wildlife Fund’s director declared: ”Greeks still consider the forest as an area of land for development.” “We get situations where there are forest fires one year and nothing but houses a couple of years later” he also said.

These kind of statements only came to confirm some of the population ideas that some of the land scorched by the fire and now forest-free will be used for developing new building sites for houses, casinos or grand hotels.

Also the world heritage site of Olympia was under threat from the flames as the fire reached the hills overlooking the ancient Olympic Games birthplace.

Eventually firefighters were able to beat the ravaging flames which only skirted the site not damaging any of the ruins. The success of the brave firefighters is well represented in the previous photo of victory in front of the hills overwhelmed by wildfires and smoke.