Blogs

Or perhaps that should be, "e-Margonaut Sitings!" As you know, we love wanderers, adventurers, flaneurs, meanderers and basically all travelers who are as interested in the journey as the destination. And we're especially keen on celebrating e-Margonauts who inspire us to get off our duffs and plunge into that technicolor tapestry of otherness waiting outside our doors. So it's with unchecked enthusiasm that I introduce to you a couple of intriguing wanderers who've fluttered across our radar. Although both favor similar monikers - Wandering-Woman and WomanWandering - and although both have recently chronicled their virtual connaissance in their respective blogs, until recently they were unaquainted, one an American living in Salamanca, Spain and the other a New Zealander living in Antwerp, Belgium. (I should add that I know neither, and my only familiarity with either is new and limited to what I could discover in their blogs.)

"Fifteen ways to travel on the cheap" was the link at the bottom of the Forbes.com travel article titles "Getting There". Promising right? Sort of. At least a few good pointers to pass along to you. But also some drivel. And some serious "no brainers".

By Jim Johnson - Summer's around the corner and if you haven't yet figured out where to wander, consider Germany. Augsburg, Germany is throwing Mozart a 250th birthday celebration! Known as the "German Mozart City" for its many connections to the famed composer and musician Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Augsburg will celebrate his birthday in 2006 with a number of exciting events and attractions. Festivities will include the 55th German Mozart Festival, the 6th International Violin Competition Leopold Mozart, a newly designed Mozart House, the re-opening of the small Golden Hall, and the extravagant renovation of the Rococo Hall in the Schaezler Palace.

By Roger Munns - More used to Grand Prix cars than dog sleighs, Monaco’s Prince Albert’s forthcoming trek to the North Pole has been greeted with surprise by many. But the Prince is fairly accustomed to the cold, in contrast to the Mediterranean warmth of Monaco where he became ruler last July following the passing of his father Prince Rainier, who had ruled for over 50 years.

Lordy lordy ... you know your life is a story when the guy at Singapore Airlines excuses himself to 'read the novel of your booking history'. This particular booking history began 14 June back in Istanbul. I worked for a private school who were contractually obligated to pay my flight back to New Zealand at the end of the teaching year. Meanwhile I met Gert and before committing to the process of immigrating to Belgie, we decided we needed to be sure so I changed my original flight home to NZ from 2 August to 15 September 2005. Time passed, Gert and I realised we were serious but that a free one-way flight via Istanbul to New Zealand wasn't as much use to me as I had imagined. A return flight from New Zealand, via the Belgian Consulate for New Zealaders which is based in Australia (for my Residency Permit), would incur some crippling costs, not to mention paying for an indeterminate stay in New Zealand without income. At the 11th hour we discovered the long-term visa application could made from within Belgium ... so we checked, 6-8 weeks blah blah, boring now ... to be processed, they told me.