Facebook recently released this infographic on the top 25 location “check-ins” on Facebook in 2013. Is it sad that 4 of the top 25 check-ins were at Disney theme parks? Many of the other locales were predictable tourist hot-spots—Piazza San Marco in Venice, Las Ramblas in Barcelona, Taksim Square in Istambul. But the biggest surprise on this list is that Germany’s top check-in this year was on Hamburg’s Reeperbahn; how sleezy is that.
No matter where you are around the globe you can spend this New Year’s Eve in New York City. The free Times Square Official New Year’s Eve Ball App 2014 will allow you to follow the festivities, listen to the live musical performances, watch live streaming video feeds and watch the famous Waterford crystal ball drop. You can get the app here or at the event website.
Last month my favorite Spanish street art collective Luzinterruptus installed their Consumerist Christmas Tree in Durham, England as part of the annual Lumiere Festival. To construct the nearly 30 foot tall tree, the group asked local residents to donate plastic bags in exchange for cloth ones. In addition to the 3,000 bag anti-consumerist tree, the collective, along with volunteer artists, created colorful garlands with hundreds more bags to hang across the streets around Prince Bishops Plaza.
What a neat way to raise concerns about holiday consumerism and the environmental threats from plastic bags at the same time.
all photos courtesy of Gustavo Sanabria
This year Airbnb seems to have been in the news constantly for one legal battle or another. But this wonderful Airbnb campaign called Birdbnb is all about the joy, art and serendipity of travel. Comparing travelers to birds, the project commissioned artist Josh Stricklin to create fifty birdhouse replicas of some of Airbnb’s most distinctive home listings. The resulting birdhouses were strung up in New Orleans’ Audubon Park. You can learn more about the project and see each of the individual birdhouses right here.
Book Hive is an amazing animatronic, art installation that celebrates the 400th anniversary of Bristol, England‘s libraries. Now on display at Bristol’s Central Library, this fantastic installation was created by the art/tech group called Rusty Squid.
The mesmerizing interactive work derives its name from the hexagonal cells in which the moving books are displayed. Book Hive will be on view in Bristol until March 7, 2014. Hopefully, it will become a traveling exhibit after that.
Are you are writer looking for free housing? Are you willing to relocate? Maybe Detroit is the place for you? Write-A-House is a unique non-profit group based in Detroit, Michigan that helps to train people in construction skills by renovating abandoned houses. When the homes are 80% complete, the group gives the houses to writers who are willing to move to Detroit. The writers are then responsible to complete the rehabilitation work, pay property taxes and homeowner insurance. After two years of residency, the writers in residency receive full title to the houses.
One of Write-A-House’s goals is to develop a real writers’ colony that will build a vibrant literary community in Detroit. If you’d like to participate in the project, or just learn more, visit the website here. Applications are being accepted for Spring 2014.
I’m continually surprised by the smart and unexpected ways that social media tools are transformed and appropriated for fun and practical uses. The clever gang behind the social travel app JetPac City Guides (free iOS) has scoured every public Instagram picture and used the results to create city-specific guides to over 5,000 cities and towns around the globe.
So what does that mean for you as a traveler? The app aggregates photos of local sites like cultural attractions, hipster hangouts, coffee places, beer spots, views, restaurants, etc., and makes recommendations with accompanying Instagram pics. The app also is searchable by categories such as “tribes”—Places Intellectuals Go, Places Students Go, Places Stoners Go, Places Locals Go, etc..
My take so far: I’m liking the opportunity to see photos of places before I search them out, but I don’t necessarily want to make travel choices based on popular vote via Instagram. What do you think?
Travel Between The Pages 