MissAdventures

My Travel Life List

As long as I’ve been traveling and dreaming of travel, it is a surprise to me that I’ve never sat down and written out my travel life list. After all, one of the earliest goals I ever remember setting for myself was to visit Paris before I was 20. As an exchange student to Germany at 17, I accomplished my travel goal of seeing Paris – and a whole lot of Europe – well before my 20th birthday.

I’ve been traveling ever since. But it’s never enough.

As I’m getting older and dealing with more responsibilities in my life, I realize that I may never get to fulfill all of my traveling fantasies. But my life list – or bucket list, if you will – will hopefully be a reminder of  the things I’ve got left to do. Of course, I’ll probably pop in here from time to time and add things, too.

I hope that my list will spark you guys to comment below on some of the things that you’d like to do travel-wise before you die – or get too wrapped up in life to make a travel plan. Also, I should note that I was inspired to finally sit down and write this by one Spencer Spellman, the Traveling Philosopher, who himself is a southerner who dreams of seeing the world. Thanks, Spencer!

The List:

1. Visit Angkor Wat
2. Go to Bhutan
3. Go hang-gliding almost anywhere (strangely, I’m afraid of heights but this has always intrigued)
4. See the elephant sanctuary in Candy, Sri Lanka
5. Have my own travel show a la Rick Steves
6. Surf in Hawaii
7. Explore the Amazon
8. Go to a samba school in Rio de Janeiro
9. Learn to tango in Buenos Aires
10. Attend the Westminster Dog Show in New York City
11. Practice yoga in Pune, India, with BKS Iyengar
12. Drive cross country across the United States
13. Take a cruise of Alaska
14. Enjoy a completely debaucherous weekend in Las Vegas – buffets, gambling, spas, shows, the works
15. See all of the Greek Isles
16. Attend an opera in the ruins of the Terme di Caracalla in Rome
17. Visit the Hermitage and St. Petersburg, Russia
18. Stay in a castle in Scotland (Madonna’s preferably)
19. Snowboarding in Zermatt, Switzerland
20. Live in all 20 of Italy’s regions for at least a month per region
21. Binge on sushi in Tokyo
22. Watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade from the window of someone’s apartment, mimosa and/or bloody mary in hand
23. Visit the bourbon distilleries of Kentucky
24. Go to all three Triple Crown races – Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, Belmont Stakes (only been to the latter)
25. Visit all of the historic and/or worth-seeing MLB parks – Fenway, Wrigley Field, etc. (no Arizona, no Tampa Bay)
26. See the manatees in Florida and meet a koala bear in Australia
27. Dine with Anthony Bourdain in France
28. Visit more Native American reservations. I’ve only visited one, that of the Santa Clara Pueblo in New Mexico
29. Go to the Galapagos Islands
30. Spend time on a gorilla preserve
31. Overnight and dine at the Hotel Mamounia in Marrakech
32. See Jerusalem and the other historical wonders of the Holy Land
33. Visit Petra in Jordan
34. See the wonders of ancient Mesopotamia in Iraq (if there are still any to see)
35. Travel the Silk Road
36. Eat lobster in Maine
37. Travel back in time and see the giant Bamiyan Buddhas of Afghanistan
38. See a volcano erupt (from a safe place, of course)
39. Go to Mardi Gras in New Orleans
40. Sleep in the Lincoln Bedroom in the White House
41. Visit some of America’s great cities that I’ve yet to see: Chicago, Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis, L.A.
42. Live in Istanbul
43. See the Great Wall of China
44. See the Pyramids of Giza
45. Spend Queen’s Day in Amsterdam (a supposedly great party)
46. Drive a convertible Ferrari on the Autostrada in Italy while wearing Tod’s driving moccasins and Dolce and Gabbana sunglasses (a girl can dream…)
47. Learn how to drive a stick shift (my lack of knowledge on this part makes renting a car abroad almost impossible)
48. Take a guided tour of Rome on the back of a Vespa, preferably with a Gregory Peck look-alike. This tour may take a week or longer as there are *many* sites to see in Rome. LOL
49. Take a culinary tour of Mexico
50. See Prague, particularly the Jewish cemetery
51. Go to an Olympics – at least the opening ceremony

Photo © Wolfgang Staudt

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Five Films About Italy

I recently got the coolest invitation ever.

The editorial director of focusfeatures.com, distributor of the new George Clooney film The American, asked me to come up with a list of my five favorite Italy films. The result was Five in Focus: American Expat Bloggers on Italian Movies. I was one of six bloggers that was granted this fun opportunity to both relate my favorite films set in Italy and get a link back to my site Italofile.com.

Who would have ever thought that my labor of love, my little website on Italy travel, would get mentioned in the same breath as a George Clooney film? Well, I am thrilled and hope this is just the beginning of more fantastic opportunities and lucky breaks.

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Six Things You Must Do in Istanbul

As you may know, Istanbul is the Europe Capital of Culture for 2010. Istanbul has been prepping for this year for quite some time, readying the city for an influx of new tourists to sights like the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, and the Grand Bazaar.

While I’m not heading back to Istanbul any time soon (unfortunately), I do have this wonderful city on the brain a lot. I like to think about what I would do if I had a chance to go back for a weekend and about all the enjoyable things I did there when I used to visit from Ankara. So I’ve come up with a top six list of things that I think others should do when visiting this Capital of Culture. This is not straight from any guidebook; it’s a highly subjective list of things that transport me back to this magical metropolis on the Bosphorus. But first-time travelers take note: several of my suggestions are in Sultanahmet, the district close to most of the city’s big attractions.

Wake Up to the Ezan (Call to Prayer)
Waking up to morning prayer in Istanbul is easily done, as there are mosques all over the city, each with their own muezzin and loud speaker. Some non-Muslim travelers may find the constant call to prayer annoying and even discombobulating when it comes in the middle of a nice snooze. It also may come as a surprise to some travelers to hear the ezan in Turkey, a supposedly secular country. But this is one of those things that makes Turkey Turkey and especially provides the proper mood to a visit to Istanbul.

I highly recommend waking to the Blue Mosque (Sultanahmet Camii) call to prayer. This is the main mosque in Istanbul and has a muezzin with a mesmerizing voice. This photo, by the way, was taken from the penthouse of the Alzer Hotel, located directly across the Hippodrome from the Blue Mosque. I was fortunate enough to stay in this room only once (unexpected upgrade!) and its view was incredible, as you can see. It also has a great rooftop breakfast, by the way. But dozens of other hotels in the vicinity will put you within earshot of the Blue Mosque.

To learn more about the call to prayer, check out this great guide from Turkey Travel Planner.

Eat at Sultanahmet Köfteçisi
So you think you don’t like broiled lamb meatballs? I didn’t think I did either until I went to the original Sultanahmet Köfteçisi in Istanbul. Even though it’s only a few paces from tourist central, this 90-year-old establishment still has a local feel. There’s a nice, brisk, lunch counter feel to this branch, too. Maybe that’s because there’s no menu. You can order köfte, which comes with a side of grilled peppers (sometimes very spicy!) and, for an appetizer, there’s the mixed green salad or the traditional white bean salad with onions topped with olive oil and lemon juice. Pretty simple. Pretty delicious. If you do any more traveling around Turkey, you’ll inevitably see the chain restaurant of the same name. But know that this is the original and best. I *dream* about these little treats, and I don’t even really like meat all that much.

Spend Time Around the Galata Bridge
Before going to Turkey, I had no idea how crazy the country was about fish and fishing. The more I thought about it, though, it made sense: Turkey is bordered on three sides by two seas – the Black Sea and the Mediterranean (known in Turkish as Akdeniz, the White Sea). The angling craze especially makes sense in Istanbul, which is practically an seafaring city bobbing around in the Bosphorus Strait. To go almost anywhere in Istanbul, you need to take a ferry or cross a bridge. And a great bridge to spend time on is the Galata Bridge, which connects the Eminönü and Beyoğlu (Galata) districts across a narrow waterway known as the Golden Horn (Haliç). Legend has it that the Golden Horn is where all the Constantinopolites dumped their gold and valuable possessions in the 15th century when it was clear that they were going to be conquered by invading Ottomans (the army of Mehmed II, to be precise). I can’t help but think that all the fishermen that line both sides of the Galata Bridge will one day pull up a dazzling diamond encrusted necklace or glass slipper from the deep waters below. So it’s fun to watch them.

It’s also fun to watch the anglers because they actually do catch fish. Rarely is it anything very big. Usually just istravit (a small mackerel). But there’s always such a happy, familial vibe among the fishermen. Another great thing about the Galata Bridge is you can find street vendors on either end of it (and restaurants underneath it) selling delectable fried fish sandwiches. As with the Sultanahmet köfte, a trip to Istanbul isn’t the same without it. So bring your appetite.

Stroll Up and Down Istiklal Caddesi
The labyrinth of the Grand Bazaar is tempting and definitely worth visiting on your first or fifteenth time to Istanbul. But I prefer hanging with the Istanbulites on Istiklal Caddesi. This long, mostly pedestrian street has the cool cafes, quick bite delis, gorgeous boutiques, chain stores, coffee houses, raki houses, and flower stalls and it’s also the area you’ll find most of the European embassies and Istanbul’s hidden churches (check out the utterly lovely Armenian Church (on a narrow side street off of Istiklal – near some yummy fish restaurants) and the San Antonio di Padova Church). There’s always something going on on Istiklal, ranging from a political rally that has spilled over from nearby Taksim Square or just street troubadors playing music. Walk down Istiklal and you’ll feel like you’re part of the very vibrant city that is modern Istanbul. And, yes – there are good eats and great shopping in these parts.

Hang Out by the Bosphorus
I love watching the locals on the Galata Bridge but I really love hanging with the locals in the shadow of the Bosphorus Bridge, that mammoth feat of engineering that connects Europe to Asia. There are several spots to get down close to the Bosphorus for good views of the bridge as well as the giant cargo ships, cruise ships, and tourist ferries that come and go on this waterway. The most obvious of these spots is in a cute neighborhood called Ortaköy, where there are tons of tea houses. And you’ll want to order up a tea (çay), too. Tea has never tasted so good as when it’s delivered piping hot in a tulip-shaped glass.

Get Out of Town – Go to Prince’s Island
Take it from me: leaving Istanbul will make you love it more. And what better place to leave Istanbul for than Prince’s Island, also known as Büyükada (Big Island)? If the pace of life of Istanbul is too much for you, then the Prince’s Island – which is car-free – is the antidote. Daytrippers typically pull into port (after an exhausting, and usually hot, 45-minute ferry ride) and head straight for the horse and buggy depot, where you can purchase a quiet, horse-drawn trip around the island. It’s pretty relaxing – for the humans anyway – and you get to admire some of the gorgeous Ottoman-style country houses that the island is known for. Not surprisingly, many of Istanbul’s elite, including Orhan Pamuk, have houses on the island and there are even a few hotels tucked into the hillsides, most of which charge a pretty penny for a night’s stay or an afternoon lunch.

I regret I’ve only spent one day on Prince’s Island. But it certainly left me wanting more, as did Istanbul. What I’d give to be sipping in Istanbul’s sea air right now.

All photos © Melanie Renzulli except for Sultanahmet Köfteçisi which is from afyonblog on Flickr and Istiklal Caddesi which is from Wikipedia.

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28 Things I Learned At TBEX

This past weekend, I was fortunate enough to attend TBEX, a meet-up of travel bloggers organized by Travel Blog Exchange and, in particular, Kim Mance of Galavanting. For those of you who attended and may have met me, I was under the guise of Italofile, my blog about Italy travel (@italofileblog on Twitter), and also as USA Tourism Board (@usatourismboard), an unofficial guide to USA travel that I’ve been playing around with over the last year (to little success *sigh*).

At any rate, the TBEX conference was incredibly useful for knowledge gathering, networking, and enjoying a few Gin and Tonics on a lovely, if sticky, June evening in New York City. Here’s a list of what I learned, some professional, as well as personal, revelations. I’d love to hear what you learned, too, so leave a comment below.

Things I Learned At TBEX

1. Travel bloggers and travel writers are the same. We have (or should have) editorial calendars, self-imposed deadlines, and an inherent drive to learn more about the world around us.

2. My travel writing heroes are real and they are fabulous. Pictured are Jim Benning, Mike Barish, David Farley, and Robert Reid. Not pictured, but also in my pantheon are Johnny Jet, Spud Hilton, Chris Gray Faust, Sean Keener, and many many others.

3. Your own travel photos are better than photos you’ve “borrowed” from Flickr, according to Gary Arndt of Everything Everywhere. (See horribly grainy photo in link #2 – but, hey, it’s mine!)

4. Travel writers like to drink.

5. Some travel writers like to drink $300 glasses of scotch. Don’t do that if you’re on a press trip and liquor is comped. Bad form.

6. If you go on a press trip or get PR stuff in the mail and you’re going to write about it, disclose it. Every time.

7. Both PR people and travel writers should do research on each other to make sure that their relationships make sense.

8. If you want to increase your SEO, make sure you add titles, alt tags, and descriptions to your posts and especially any photos or videos that you use because the latter have less of the “market share” on search engines.

9. Knew this, but it was reiterated at TBEX: Google’s Adwords Keywords is invaluable for SEO.

10. You can SEO your site to death, but if the content is no good no one is going to care. Write for humans, damnit!

11. It’s not enough to have a laptop and an iPhone. Travel bloggers use all kinds of cool tools like the Quick Pod handheld tripod for shooting video or taking photos of yourself, the wireless mini battery extender for iPhone, and Pano, an app for taking outstanding photos on the iPhone (as long as the light is right).

12. My next computer should be a Mac or an iPad. Really jealous of the three TBEXers who won the iPad drawings from TripAdvisor.com.

13. The people who work at TripAdvisor.com are pretty nice and know how to throw an awesome happy hour (see #4).

14. I should get to Australia – and particularly the Northern Territory – immediately. I was mesmerized by Mike Barish‘s talk about it during lunch on Saturday. Wow.

15. If I could write about travel the way Mike Barish casually talks about travel, I’d be eternally grateful to the universe and perhaps much wealthier than I am today. But then….

16. Overheard at TBEX: “Travel writers have been starving artists for an eternity. Travel blogging’s not going to change that. Much.” Or…something like that.

17. I’m not the only travel blogger with kids. LOTS of mommy travel bloggers were at TBEX including Ciao Bambino and Luxury Travel Mom. The work that these ladies do is amazing and makes me realize that I need to stop bitching about having no time to write. (That said, ladies, are your kids in school, have a nanny, etc.? Or are you parenting and writing at the same time, all the time?)

18. Having a son with autism also should not hamper my ability to be a kick ass travel writer, as evidenced, once again, by TBEX organizer and galavanter Kim Mance.

19. Two days to attend TBEX was both too much and too little time to spend away from my kids.

20. Some travel bloggers look just like their Twitter avatars, in particular @italylogue and @journeywoman. It was so great meeting Jessica and Evelyn.

21. Journey Woman, aka Evelyn Hannon, is a pioneer of women’s travel, having started in 1982. And don’t ask her to change her website: it’s comfortable, like your grandmother’s house.

22. Finding your niche is important. More important is sticking with it, getting better with each post.

23. If you’ve excelled at your niche, create and sell an e-book about it, a la Nomadic Matt. It’s a way to monetize your blog without having to fill it with ads.

24. Invest in your blog by, for example, purchasing a theme. (Something I learned from Nomadic Matt’s eBook How to Make Money with Your Travel Blog. (See…#23 works!)

25. The extremely prolific travel writer Zach Everson doesn’t seem to have a geographic specialty, rather his niche is humor, a trait that works for a ton of markets. To wit, this tweet on ethical blogging and this one about shooting travel video and this tweet on traveling within the U.S. Was cracking up the whole time. Wish I had such a gift.

26. Speaking of gifts, An Irreverent Curiosity: In Search of the Church’s Strangest Relic in Italy’s Oddest Town by David Farley comes out in paperback on July 6, 2010. Who doesn’t want to read about the search to find Jesus’s foreskin? Yeah, thought so.

27. Pam Mendel, of Nerd’s Eye View, is incredibly funny (knew that, TBEX cemented it) and quite the activist for travel writers. I love the way she used her guest spot on a conference panel to demand Free WiFi in hotels. It really is just as important as the lighting and indoor plumbing.

28. Try to keep the emotion out of travel writing. Look at your work objectively and don’t beat yourself up thinking that every one else but you has got it figured out. As Sean Keener so nicely put it in this tweet:

It’s not about keeping up. It’s about finding your voice and your “why”

Thanks everyone for a great weekend! I sincerely hope I can make it out to Vancouver for TBEX 2011.

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Three Best Travel Secrets

I’ve been tagged by Robin Locker at My Mélange to provide my three best travel secrets. She actually tagged me on my Italofile.com site. But I had so many good secrets beyond Italy that I wanted to share my top three non-Italy secrets here. To see the Italy list, head over to Italofile. Have a look at both of them!

Of course, it’s not fair to really call these “secrets,” as there are plenty of other people who have gone before me and recommended the same places. So, just consider these as my current favorites among a bucket-load of tips.

Three Best Travel Secrets

Lycian Coast, Turkey
The Lycian Coast of Turkey is awash in tourists, especially from Europe and particularly from the U.K. But Turkey, in general, has yet to take off as a destination for Americans, which is why I’m including it on my list. This ancient coast is the Mediterranean of my dreams, with dramatic cliff-framed beaches (the beach above is Kaputaş Beach) and ruins from ancient Greeks, Romans, and Lycians (an ancient tribe particular to this region) strewn about. In the off-season, from about October to April when it’s not blazing hot, you can hike the Lycian Way, a 500km trail from Fethiye to Antalya. For a beach holiday, consider staying in Kaş which has a lively, walkable downtown with bars, fish and meze restaurants, and organic textile boutiques.

Kerala, India
One of the most memorable trips I’ve ever taken was aboard a houseboat, adrift in the backwaters of Kerala, one of India’s most southernmost states. I wrote about my backwater trip at length way back in 2004 and, re-reading my posts from that time still give me blissful memories. If you are fortunate to go to India and have time to make it to the south, do not miss the opportunity to ride aboard a kettuvalam (rice boat). I’m sure that with 3G networks these days, you can take this trip without unplugging from your phone and internet. But here is a chance to disconnect completely, with only books and scheduled meals to interrupt your quiet contemplation.

Apalachicola, Florida
When I started writing this list, I didn’t intend to have all beachy destinations. But so be it. Apalachicola is yet another place I have written about on this blog in a two-parter titled Long Weekend in Apalachicola Part 1 and Part 2. If you read those posts, you’ll see that this lazy beach town gets me back to my southern roots. Apalachicola is also part of what’s called Florida’s “Forgotten Coast” because it’s largely undeveloped, in that it is lacking in the over-the-top, on-the-beach high-rise resorts that characterize much of Florida’s shoreline. Apalachicola is also the Oyster Capital of the United States, so you can get the fattest, freshest oysters here, either on the half-shell or fried up for a po-boy.

So there’s my non-Italy list. I’m not going to tag a whole bunch of people like I did for my Italy list, but I will give props to Katie at Tripbase, who started this whole meme. It’s been fun!

If you’ve enjoyed reading my tips and decide you want to dream up your own list, tag me. I’d love to read what others have to say.

Photos © Melanie Mize Renzulli

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Paul Theroux On How He Became a Travel Writer

Paul Theroux may be a curmudgeon, but he’s a damn good travel writer (if that’s what you must call him). This piece in the Guardian about how and why Theroux became a travel writer comes a few days shy of the release of his books The Great Railway Bazaar and The Old Patagonian Express as Penguin Modern Classics.

I couldn’t agree with Theroux more on this point:

The travel book was a bore. It annoyed me that a traveller hid his or her moments of desperation or fear or lust. Or the time he or she screamed at the taxi driver, or mocked the folk dancers. And what did they eat, what books did they read to kill time, and what were the toilets like? I had done enough travelling to know that half of travel was delay or nuisance – buses breaking down, hotel clerks being rude, market peddlers being rapacious. The truth of travel was interesting and off-key, and few people ever wrote about it.

I can hardly stand reading a long-form travel writing feature (unless it’s in Outside Magazine), even though that’s the line of work I’m in. It’s an inconvenient truth. And, yet, the guidebook writing business is one that leaves little opportunity to report on the distasteful aspects of travel. As guidebooks must take on a certain form – where to go, what to do, where to eat, etc. – there’s little room to list the negatives. And so you cull the best from what you have experienced.

I think that blogs offer the critical travel writer a great forum for expressing the more personal aspects of trips. Perhaps, some day, I will have the chance to write a book about what I really think about Italy, Turkey, India, etc. Stay tuned!

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Planting Season at MissAdventures

Dear friends,

I must apologize for the long delay in writing. But, I have been up to big things. First of all, I have been concentrating on my writing and my other blog Italofile.com. I am using Italofile as a way to explore the Italy travel landscape beyond the pages of my books The Unofficial Guide to Central Italy and Michelin’s Green Guide Tuscany. Indeed, Italofile covers all of Italy. So, please have a look.

We are still in Turkey and loving it. While Ankara may not be the most scintillating of cities, we have enjoyed traveling around to many exciting sites in Turkey: Istanbul, Kaş, Safranbolu, and numerous daytrips in Anatolia. Next up is a trip to Ephesus and Selçuk, which I hope to report back on when we return.

I’ve left MissAdventures.com fallow for such a long time that it will be hard to get up and running again. Bear with me. But hopefully having taken a break from this site for a while will have provided more ideas to grow.

One thing that I’d like to do is to take this blog into a slightly new direction: less about me and more about travel ideas to Turkey, India, or wherever I may be next! In other words, less about the “Miss” (or, now, “Mrs.”) and more about the Adventures. I’ve had fun and good feedback on Italofile, so I’d like to extend the creativity and expand the postings on MissAdventures as well.

Thanks a lot for your understanding and patience.

Cheers, Melanie

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Beypazarı and the Food of Anatolia

Last weekend we went to Beypazarı, a small village an hour and a half by bus from Ankara. Located on the old “Istanbul to Baghdad route,” Beypazarı has been inhabitated by various tribes and peoples, including the Seljuks, who left behind a 12C mosque, and the Ottomans, whose “konak” houses dot the town’s hillside. Beypazarı is known for its silver, especially filigree work, and is responsible for 60% of Turkey’s carrot (havuç) production.

Beypazarı, whose name translates roughly as “gentleman’s market,” struck me as a typical Anatolian village. Off the hot, dusty (but tidy) cobbled streets, old men huddled, drank tea, and played backgammon. A majority of the native women covered their hair with broad, patterned silk scarves that fell to about waist-length. Meanwhile, during the festival, young men wearing finger cymbals danced two-by-two to music that was part Turkish flute (ney) and part techno drumbeat. Near the town’s Ottoman Müze, what appeared to be a high school woodwind quartet played the requisite “Rondo alla Turca” from Mozart’s Sonata No. 11.

While more cosmopolitan parts of Turkey, such as Istanbul, like to play up their historical and geographical connection to mainland Europe, Anatolia looks to its pan-Turkish heritage. And, Beypazarı being the Turkish heartland, it wasn’t a surprise to find a large mosaic map in one town square which highlighted the “Turkic” areas of the world: Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Bulgaristan (Bulgaria), Turkmenistan, Uighur Mongolia, etc. Groups of beautiful, dark-haired, light-eyed girls wore the traditional costumes from these regions.

But back to the food. Those famous carrots were a central theme at the Beypazarı Festival. Multiple vendors offered bottles of fresh carrot juice, while others sold carrot helva. Further along, there were stands overflowing with dried fruits (including incredibly sweet sun-dried tomatoes) and nuts, packages of grape leaf dolmas and walnut baklava, and ayran, a yogurt drink not unlike a lassi. We stopped at a döner kebap stand and later watched village women rolling out and cooking gözleme (a bit like a pancake) filled with a hard, white cheese (beyaz peynir) and parsley (maydonoz). Beypazarı’s classic dish, which we didn’t get a chance to taste, is a casserole of lamb, rice, eggplant and earthy, easily attainable ingredients. The village also makes good use of a copious amount of walnuts by preserving them in a “walnut sausage,” a confection that looks exactly like the meat product but is flavored with nuts and sweetened with grape jelly. In addition to ayran and carrot juice, Beypazarı residents wash down their meals with mineral waters from the Inözü Valley.

Only an hour and a half from Ankara, Beypazarı is probably a sleepy town for 364 days per year. But it still merits a visit for its lovely Ottoman houses, gorgeous silver, and honest food. And even though the village is not quite on the tourist route, it has a surprisingly sophisticated, English-language website, helpful for planning a daytrip.

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Here First! Miss Adventures or Ms. Adventure?

Hi there! Are you looking for Ms. Adventure, the website of the Animal Planet television show that launched in January 2007? Or are you looking for Miss Adventures, the on again-off again blog of freelance travel and food writer Melanie Mize Renzulli?

If it’s the latter…welcome! If not, check out Ms. Adventure here.

It’s unfortunate I didn’t know about the auditions for the Animal Planet show (heck…I was in India getting blessed by elephants, adopting stray cats, and running from cobrawallahs). But, I have no hard feelings. Hopefully, as more and more people watch the show they’ll stumble upon my site. It’s also kind of weird how I once worked for the Travel Channel (like Animal Planet, under the Discovery, Inc., umbrella). But again…no hard feelings!

I am going to start posting more frequently in the coming months, so, as they say on t.v., stay tuned.

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From One Colony to Another

It’s not fair to compare Bombay and Hong Kong, two bustling Asian cities once under the realm of Britain, but I couldn’t help doing so while on a recent trip.
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