by anjel on January 4, 2010
One of the problems with traveling on the light and on a budget is the accumulation of treasure. Yes, of course, we are collecting “memories” and “photos,” but I really did want to buy a souvenir tea jug with Ghengis Khan’s face on it, those dishes in Basque, the giant artisan lamps in Ireland…want, want, want. However, it is always an easy decision to walk away when thinking about strapping a giant Korean moon vase to my backpack or even the prospect of trying to ship it home–that and what I call the “experience dollars” it means in another country.
That is why this little necklace from the Insadong district in Seoul has me smiling. It is one of the only objects I have purchased on this trip that is not a functional necessity. It is just cute.
And small.
[read the full post…]
by anjel on November 25, 2009
SooSoo is a great little gallery and design shop tucked away on the outer edges of Tallinn. In addition to the usual design shop items that you can find everywhere around the world (think UglyDoll, light up furniture, etc), they also had a great collection of locally and regionally designed goods. I thought the knitwear was especially fabulous–I am totally loving these bright Baltic patterns with a twist. [read the full post…]
by anjel on November 25, 2009
In addition to there beautiful country and delicious food, the Basque have a rich tradition in symbolism. You often see older buildings and pathways marked with various patterns and icons. When we were at the Fete du Piment in Espelette, I was blown away by a local artisan company that takes these traditional designs and applies them to tableware with a modern twist. They are all locally produced, handmade, and use bio-friendly ink. If it were not for the backpack, I would have easily walked away with a server plate or two. They do ship overseas though! Check them out at Gatu Creations.
Google translate does a fair job on the site, and in the “Collections” section you can find brief explanations of different symbols
by connal on November 24, 2009
The fact that most of the EU is on the Euro makes traveling from country to country a breeze as far as money is concerned, but not everyone uses the same money yet. Here are a few of the currencies that we’ve been buying in as we travel and their current exchange rates (locked in time for future reference).
100 US Dollars will get you:
60 British Pounds
67 Euro
109 Australian Dollars
138 New Zealand Dollars
1,046 Estonian Kroon
1,744 Czech Koruny
2,885 Russian Rubles
105,606 South Korean Won
by connal on November 12, 2009
While trekking through Spain we spent one night in the small town of Najara. Wandering around the city we came across the local library and decided to take a look. It was your basic small-but-nice library, relatively forgettable except for the series of BBC English language books we found. Our Spanish was (is) terrible and we figured we could reverse engineer them to learn a little Spanish on the road.
[read the full post…]
by anjel on October 19, 2009
I have an insatiable comic addiction. I can’t get enough. Comic books, graphic novels, manga, large format, collections, indie paperbacks, tried and true superheroes…I do not discriminate. I love them all equally and for different reasons. [read the full post…]
