Ever wanted to quit your job and travel the world? If you want to learn how to make a career break a reality, meet other travelers who’ve taken career breaks and those still in the planning stages, then you’ll want to check out the Meet, Plan, Go event happening in 17 North American cities on Tuesday, October 18.
BootsnAll is the local Portland host, so we’re excited to share that after the quick sale of early bird tickets in May, tickets are back on sale!
Location:
The Meet, Plan, Go! Portland event will be at The Cleaners at Ace Hotel in downtown Portland.
Panelists:
Laura and Russ sold everything they owned in 2009 to travel by bicycle. They took the value off of their stuff and put it on the opportunity to live deeply, to follow their dreams — to create everyday adventures. They’ve pedaled over 12,000 miles, given presentations about bike touring, connected with bike advocates, explored the connection between cycling and rural economies, and written two e-books. Over the past two and a half years, Laura and Russ have turned their passion for cycle touring into an innovative business that encourages and promotes traveling by bike. Laura also continues to create jewelry and custom bicycle headbadges on the road, and Russ documents their experiences in photo, video and sketches.
>>Follow their journey at the Path Less Pedaled
Kim & Brian moved to Oregon in their early twenties with $700 in their pockets, two dogs, a car, two spoons, two forks, two plates, a mini television, a bag each of clothing, and a few boxes of mementos. Five years later they’d built an entire life: married, bought a house, and filled the house with stuff. They’d climbed their way up their respective ladders and were earning good salaries. Knowing that the 9-to-5-in-a-cubicle kind of life is not what their lives are for, they decided to “give it all up” to travel the world. Kim & Brian are in the middle of planning for their big trip departing in the next year.
>>Follow their journey at RTW So Many Places
We’re still busy bringing together a great panel of career break experts, travel authorities, and real people who have achieved their career break goals for the October 18th event. So we’ll be sharing even more information on the panel shortly!
If you are tired of two weeks of vacation time and want to break away from the cube to explore the world, then you’ll want to add the Meet, Plan, Go! North America event to your calendar for Tuesday, October 18. This year, Meet, Plan, Go! is coming to: Austin, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New Orleans, New York City, Orlando, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, Washington DC, and Toronto.
Plus, if you’re in the Portland area on Tuesday, September 20, BootsnAll is having a casual travel meetup at Prost!
Planes, trains, and automobiles may be the way most of the developed world gets around, but these aren’t the only forms of transportation in use around the globe. Sometimes travel is more about the journey than the destination, and these methods of transport ensure a trip you’ll never forget.
Tuk tuks and rickshaws seem to be the preferred mode or transport in much of Southeast Asia and India. These little three-wheeled taxis only seat about two people and were designed to easily maneuver in and out (often at breakneck speed) of a crowded city’s chaotic traffic.
Only at the University of West Virginia in Morgantown can you whiz along the rails in your own personal transit pod. Operating since 1975, these pods can be shared by up to 20 people; passengers can control whether the pod stops at each station or passes by. It’s the closest you’ll ever come to having your own personal train.
In Buenos Aires, you can ride the southern hemisphere’s oldest subway, built in 1913. Take Linea A and you’ll ride in style in one of the original wooden cars.
Some Central American countries also have subway systems, but if you’re a budget traveler, chances are you’ll end up on the chicken bus. These local buses are sometimes called “Diablo Rojos” (Red Devils). Often fixed up American school buses, they tend to be painted in brightly colored murals and offer a minimal degree of comfort for a long ride.
While most tourists dream of taking a gondola ride in Venice, this romantic mode of transport isn’t really practical. To properly get around in Venice, you’ll need to hop on a vaporetto – the Venetian version of an aquatic bus – which run up and down the Grand Canal, or a traghetto, which looks like a gondola but costs much less (about 2 euro) and ferries people across the Grand Canal.
In Amsterdam, canal rides are nearly as popular with tourists as they are in Venice, but for locals, the preferred way to get around is by bike. Bikes vastly outnumber cars, with bike lanes on nearly every street, and for about 7-12 euros per day, you can join the thousands of people getting around Amsterdam on two wheels.
Hilly cities all around the world – from Porto to Rio – employ funiculars to help residents and tourist ascend to great heights. A steep cable railway, a funicular uses a cable attached to a tram on rails to move it up and down a steep slope. In Paris, the Montmartre funicular makes the one-way journey up Montmartre hill in about 90 seconds, saving visitors the strain of climbing 200 steps.
When a funicular just won’t cut it, you can avoid the exertion of climbing a mountain by riding in a cable car or gondola to reach the top. Found all over the world, some of the most famous include the cable car at the Klein Matterhorn in Switzerland; the one that whisks visitors to the top of Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa; and the cable car at Grouse Mountain, in Vancouver, Canada, which you can take if you aren’t up for the grueling Grouse Grind, which makes its way 2800 feet up the mountain.
Photos by Many Moon Honeymoon, Sean_Marshall, Deigo3336, roaming-the-planet, redjar, Minassian Livingston, Muddy Ravine kmoney
We love SCUBA diving and we’ve managed to do a lot of it, racking up almost 400 dives between the two of us in some of the best dive destinations in the world including bucket list toppers like Palau and Sipidan. Yes, we’re lucky.
And, yet, we still have SCUBA dreams. Specifically, we dream about getting on a live-aboard dive boat–a dream we finally fulfilled in Belize.
The Aggressor III, our home and dive base for a week in Belize.
It’s fitting that we had our first (but hopefully not last) live-aboard experience with The Aggressor Fleet which has been taking small groups of divers out for multi-day, all-inclusive, full-service, intensively-dive-focused trips since 1984. The fleet currently has 10 ships serving 11 of the world’s best dive destinations including the Cocos Islands and the Galapagos Islands.
Aggressor is, admittedly, a terrible name unless you’re a pirate. But that’s what their fleet is called and who are we to argue? The company’s live-aboard in Belize is called the Aggressor III and it was our home for a week of eye-opening diving.
Crew members navigate the Aggressor III through the notoriously tricky reefs off Belize. Photo courtesy of Captain Simon Marsh.
We were welcomed aboard the Aggressor III by Captain Simon Marsh and his first mate (literally and figuratively) Andrina. They’ve both been diving for years and have both worked on other boats in the Aggressor fleet. We were in good hands.
Captain Simon Marsh with a 3-D dive map of Belize's famous Blue Hole dive site as he briefs us on board the Aggressor III live-aboard dive boat.
Dive master Jordy hoisting the ship's dingy, on board the Aggressor III live-aboard dive boat in Belize.
As the ship set sail we took a quick tour of our home for the week and found nine smartly-laid-out cabins (for up to 18 guests total) with A/C and televisions (for playing DVDs), ingenious storage/stowage areas and private bathrooms. The communal living room was cozy and had plenty of plugs for laptops and for charging cameras and batteries.
Upstairs on the top deck, a small wet bar even had a tap of local Belikin beer (though smart ship rules mean that once you have a drink you become a snorkeler for the day). Sadly, the top deck hot tub was out of commission.
One afternoon a pod of dolphins came to play around the boat, but by the time we got our snorkeling gear on and jumped in they were gone.
It was all kept spotlessly clean and neat by Randy who, when he wasn’t serving us delicious snacks or making sure our dinner plates were heaped high, was either polishing something, plumping pillows or ironing and folding napkins into amazing shapes. We wish him luck with his pizzeria in the town of Orange Walk. We can guarantee that it will be clean!
While the focus of the eight passengers on board was diving (we’ll get way into the dive sites and marine life in our next post), part of the live-aboard life occurs on the surface and, sometimes, even on dry land. You’ve got to let your body expel accumulated nitrogen (commonly called “out gassing”) above the water anyway, so you might as well have fun. Plus, it’s was much easier for Captain Simon to whistle “Hello” when he didn’t have a regulator in his mouth. The Lionel Richie’s hit quickly became the silly theme song of our sailing. “Hello. Is it sharks you’re looking for?”
Part of the Half Moon Caye Natural Monument as seen from the Aggressor III.
We spent an afternoon at the Half Moon Caye Natural Monument, a protected island that’s home to a thriving population of red-footed boobies and many of them had their red feet full with fluffy, demanding chicks when we were there.
Nesting red-footed boobies on Half Moon Cay Natural Monument in Belize.
Nesting red-footed boobies on Half Moon Cay Natural Monument in Belize.
Nesting red-footed boobies on Half Moon Cay Natural Monument in Belize.
Nesting magnificent frigate birds on Half Moon Cay Natural Monument in Belize.
The island is also a great place to have a picnic, especially with the talented Yanis, the chef from the Aggressor III kitchen, is on hand to handle the grill.
Yanis, the chef from the Aggressor III kitchen, takes her skills outside for a BBQ lunch during a shore excursion to Half Moon Cay Natural Monument.
The imposing Aggressor III is too big to dock at Half Moon Cay Natural Monument, so a local boatman ferried us from our floating home to shore.
Just one of many beautiful Belize sunsets that we saw while living on the Aggressor III.
There she is: the Aggressor III live-aboard dive boat and our home for a week of SCUBA diving in Belize.
[geo_mashup_map]
Related posts:
Photo courtesy of Aroberts on Flickr
London is known the world over for its top-quality theatres. While you’ll find that venues of all shapes and sizes put on first-rate shows throughout the year, heading to any of the following theatres could mean you are in line to take in some particularly breathtaking performances.
Undoubtedly one of the best London theatres is the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith. Situated on King Street, the performing arts venue first started life as an opera house in 1895, although it has since grown substantially and currently puts on some 1,000 shows every year.
In 1966 the theatre was closed and due to be demolished until a public outcry saw it rebuilt on a new site further up King Street, with the Queen overseeing its grand reopening in 1979. Further development work took place in 2004 and visitors to the Lyric Theatre today can see plays and other productions in House, a 550-seater auditorium, and Studio, a smaller stage that seats 120 people.
Over the years, it has put on a wide range of shows and in 2009 was the first theatre in Europe to host Spring Awakening, an award-winning production that received four Laurence Olivier prizes, while Aladdin and A Midsummer Night’s Dream are among the forthcoming performances.
The theatre can be reached easily by tube. Hammersmith station is just a two-minute walk away and connects to the Circle, District, Hammersmith & City and Piccadilly lines.
Alternatively, the Hammersmith Broadway Bus Station is situated just a short distance from the venue. Those travelling by car should enter the postcode W6 0QL into their sat-nav.
Head to the London Palladium on Argyll Street (W1F 7TF) and you can be confident that you’ll be visiting one of the capital’s leading theatres.
Some of the most famous names in entertainment have appeared here since it opened on Boxing Day in 1910, with Harry Houdini, Ella Fitzgerald and Sammy Davis Jr just some of the icons to have headlined.
There have been many famous productions held at the Palladium over the years, with Andrew Lloyd Webber’s version of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in the 1990s perhaps one of the most well-known. The musical initially starred Australian actor Jason Donovan in the title role, although TV presenter Phillip Schofield later took on the part.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a musical based on the 1968 film of the same name, has the distinction of being the longest-running show ever to play at the venue with an amazing 1,414 performances.
The theatre has a maximum capacity of 2,270 and is currently showing Lloyd Webber’s production of The Wizard of Oz until January 2012. Ticket prices start at £25, although premium seats cost £85.
Several one-off concerts and shows take place all year round so there’s always plenty to see.
You can reach the Palladium by taking the Central, Victoria and Bakerloo tube lines and getting off at Oxford
Circus.
Seating 2,350 people, the London Coliseum (WC2N 4ES) is the city’s largest theatre venue.
With its first performance seeing a variety show take place on Christmas Eve in 1904, it has put on thousands of plays and other theatrical events, although for a period in the 1960s it became a cinema.
During the Second World War, meanwhile, the theatre was converted into a canteen for air raid patrol workers, with Prime Minister Winston Churchill once giving a speech from the stage.
The historic venue has gradually been expanded over the years and in 2000 the auditorium and other public areas underwent extensive refurbishment, that saw these returned to their original Edwardian decor.
Now home to the English National Opera, a fantastic range of operas, ballet recitals and dance performances are held all year round, with the Nutcracker and The Death of Klinghoffer just two of the upcoming shows set to take place there.
Situated on St Martin’s Lane in the heart of London’s West End theatre district, you’ll find the London Coliseum is located near the Charing Cross, Leicester Square, Embankment and Covent Garden tube stops.
If you’re travelling by bus, numbers 3, 6, 23, 91 and 159 are just some of the many routes that stop by the venue.
If you’re a lover of musicals, the historic Victoria Palace Theatre on Victoria Street, SW1E 5EA could well be the place for you.
Since March 2005, it has hosted Billy Elliot, the theatrical version of the 2000 film starring Jamie Bell, which is set to run until December 2012. Ticket prices range from £19.50 to £65.
Previous productions include Grease, Fame and Kiss Me, Kate, which ran for a year in 2001-02 and won the Laurence Olivier award for Best Musical Revival, so this really is a venue synonymous with top-quality entertainment.
Although a theatre has existed on the site since 1832, the venue you see today was built in 1910 and is perhaps most recognisable for its gold-leafed statue of prima ballerina Anna Pavlova that stands on top of the structure’s dome.
Take either the underground or train and exit at Victoria station, or get the 8, 11 or 211 routes that call at Victoria Bus Station, and you’ll be at the theatre in a matter of moments. It is situated just 100 metres from both transport hubs.
There are also a number of luxury London hotels in close proximity including Hotel 41 which is widely considered to be one of the finest hotels in Europe.
Despite its name, the Royal National Theatre (SE1 9PX) actually comprises of three individual performance venues, allowing the South Bank complex to put on several spectacular shows on the same night.
You can take in a play at the 890-seater Lyttelton Theatre or the intimate 300-seater Cottesloe Theatre, which is set across three levels; however, you’re likely to find that the biggest and best events take place at the 1,120-seater Olivier Theatre.
Located roughly halfway between the London Eye and Tate Modern, reaching this centrally-located theatre could not be easier. Waterloo is the nearest tube station and connects to the Northern, Bakerloo and Jubilee lines, while the 4, 26, 171, 243 and 341 buses are just some of the routes you can take to get there.
Opened in 1976, among the many notable productions held at the theatre include 2009′s Phedre, which starred Helen Mirren, and a two-part adaption of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials novel in 2003.
Given the multiple venues and breadth of shows, ticket prices can vary substantially, although they usually start from £12 upwards.
Whether you prefer musicals, operas or traditional plays, heading to one of the above London theatres is sure to make for a memorable evening out in the capital.