Desktop travels: World's worst toilets

Ready for a break? Why not take a tour of the world's worst toilets? This website may have text that means diddly-squat to us but the pictures speak for themselves. They will certainly conjure up some delightful memories for In Your Pocket writers and other intrepid travellers who may have spent time, and a few pennies, in Eastern Europe half-a-decade or so ago.

Big fat ballet to tour UK

A Russian ballet group consisting entirely of fatties is to tour the UK - but (according to Ananova) only after health and safety officials check that the stage in each venue can safely carry their weight. The dancers weigh-in at a mimimum of 113kg.

The Big Ballet, hauling from the Urals, will include some spoofs of classics, such as Swan Lake and the Nutcracker. There will also be a more moderm component where the tutu-tubbies will perform to music from artists such as Robbie Williams, Tom Jones and the Pet Shop Boys.

According to The Big Ballet website:

The dancers courageously and imposingly prove that grace, elegance, charisma and nimbleness is not the demesne of the "thin", proudly presenting their voluptuous yet surprisingly sinuous and flexible figures.

Who's afraid of Ryanair?

How did a no-frills airline that flies businessmen on a budget and hard-up holidaymakers to destinations around Europe become a symbol of evil, greed, mankind run amok?

Find out here in this superb piece by the boys over at our good friends, Spiked.

Knut case: show us your growler

Polar Bear
Originally uploaded to Flickr by LongWilly.

Knut (careful how you spell that) is the first polar bear to be born in Berlin Zoo for . . . oh, ages. Thirty years, in fact. Knut was rejected by his mum, 20-year-old Tosca, but has been looked after for the past couple of months by zoo staff. Knut is, it has to be said, adorable. Go on, look at the pictures and see for yourself.

The thing is, Knut won't always be adorable. A polar bear isn't just for Christmas, and soon Knut will grow up and want to maul Arctic explorers and eat cute little seals. And he won't be adorable then, will he? He'll just be another polar bear with grubby fur and a bad temper.

So - we reckon the zoo should show off Knut as soon as they can. Apparently, however, they are a bit concerned that public display will freak him out somehow. You know, stress or something. He might get famous and then go bonkers like Michael Jackson. Anyway, we're keen to see Knut, so we hope zoo staff find a way to show off the cute little growler while he's still so cute.

Flaming underpant fury in Zagreb

An man in Zagreb has accidently set fire to his house and burned it to the ground after intending to immoliate only his dirty underwear. Enraged after failing to find any clean undies, Ivo Jerbic threw all his dirty duds into the garden and set fire to them, reports Ananova. The flaming undergarments, however, got out of control and ended up igniting the house. While no one was injured, the underpant arson could land Mr. Jerbic in jail for endangering the lives of his family.

Epoca de Aur

Even though rationing of basic foodstuffs had been introduced in parts of the Romanian countryside as early as 1978, by the time of the great Daciada of 1981, when Nicolae Ceausescu's propaganda team organised a massive display of nationalism rare in socialist societies, the Ceausescu era had become known as the Epoca de Aur (Golden Era). From that date forward all references in the press, in literature and even in daily life to the Ceausescu era were by default labelled as Epoca de Aur. The authorities hoped that if people were told often enough that they were living in a golden age, they might actually believe it. The lengthy queues for milk, bread and meat - when available - told a different story.

Since the revolution of 1989 that swept Ceausescu away, his era has remained in the general consciousness as Epoca de Aur. Now, however, the irony is intentional.

A new exhibition at the MNIR (Romanian National History Museum) aims to bring the realities of the Epoca de Aur to a wider audience. Making use of the vast collection of communist era exhibits at its disposal, the MNI has put this exhibition together with the ACM (Civic Media Association). It is slated to run until February 28, but will in all likeliness become a permanent fixture. The ACM hopes it will become the precursor to a permanent and more comprehensive Museum of Communism.

Mine Your Own Business Opens in Washington

This ground-breaking documentary - about how the international environmental lobby is attempting to ensure the continued poverty of Romanians in the former mining village of Rosia Montana - premiered today in Washington D.C. Watch the trailer here:

Uncomfortable as the film is, the neo-communist environmental lobby have tried to ban it in Romania, by threatening cinemas that show it: how ironic that it should be today, on what would have been Nicolae Ceausescu's 89th birthday, that Romanians are once again being told what they can and cannot watch.

More here and here.

Italian love park

An Italian town is set to open a park where people can go to make babies*, reports Ananova. As many Italians live with their parents until approximately forever, young couples are finding it hard to find somewhere to be intimate. The new park, however, will allow people to roll on the grass with abandon. We expect it will be a haven for frisky couples, miscellaneous pervets and those in search of cheap alfresco porn.

* - Or, if they're not Catholic, practise to make babies.

Is that a dog on your face?

While this might look like a mishap at a puppy chucking competition, it is in fact a "Warm Whiskers Eye Pillow". It's one of those sacks of seeds and other smelly crap that you can put in the microwave, heat up, and then put over your eyes so that... erm... your eyes get hot. And you can't see anything. Why one would want such a thing to pretend to be a puppy is beyond my imagination. But you can also adorn your face with a bear (polar or brown), cat or bunny.

Apparently, having a freshly microwaved polar bear sit on your face is relaxing. It's even more relaxing if you compliment it with a Warm Whiskers Herbal Neck Wrap in the shape of Golden Retriever Roadkill and Bunny Slippers that look like a freshly removed set of lungs.

Travel guidebooks: Crap, or what?

Picture from lloydi on Flickr.

There was an interesting article in the Times recently calling into question the quality of travel guidebooks: Travel guidebooks slammed. The message there is that guidebook publishers are cutting costs, paying peanuts, and printing monkey dribble. Some travel authors, apparently, write about places without even visiting them. There's also an allegation that authors write glowing reviews of crappy hotels in return for free accommodation or other... erm... services.

To me, this is just a reminder that the In Your Pocket formula is a good balance. We are supported by advertising, but maintain editorial independence. We use advertising revenue to employ good writers, and they write honest, independent reviews. What you get is a guide that is well written, cheap, up-to-date, informative and sprinkled with ads.

We value editorial independence highly. We don't write nice things about advertisers just because they are advertisers. Indeed, in the case of Vilnius In Your Pocket, we have lost advertisers because we have written honest reviews about them. We also have one advertiser who has a restaurant that is described as "utterly disgusting" - although I'm not going to tell you which one. Balancing advertising and editorial interests can be tricky, but I believe it's something we do well.

Reading such an article that questions guidebook quality made me think about what we're doing here, and I think we've got a good formula and offer an outstanding product. And I've got a great job.

Top stories from Down Under

I’m an Aussie living in Vilnius, a city that I reckon would top the charts if anyone bothered to get about and measure a quirky quotient. Having just put the finishing touches on the latest issue of Vilnius In Your Pocket, however, I found myself with a bit of time to goof-off and surf the net, and what I got was a piecemeal reminder that, yes, Australia can be a bit wacky too. Certainly it’s the ideal place to be eaten by a shark and still make it home for tea, to test the limits of Qantas (who are designing planes with only right wings – probably), to deal with an infestation of blood thirsty snakes and to get a credit card for your cat. Crikey! Next thing they’ll be puttin’ these Aussie dingbats in the bleedin’ zoo. (Genus: Homo sapien, Australian. Common name: Bruce.)

The way we were...

Bucharest's infamous Casa Poporului (the House of the People, or Palatul Parlamentului) under construction, circa 1987.

Queuing for cooking oil in the 1980s, on Str. Ion Campineanu (opposite Sala Palatului in central Bucharest). The Braserie is no longer there.

There is more of this kind of thing on the site of the US Library of Congress.

EE TV : Bonkers

Eastern European television can be completely bonkers. My current favourite show here in Lithuania is Stresas - a game show in which contestants are simultaneously grilled and tortured. Some have tomato sauce poured all over them, some are encased in a box with excitable live chickens and others, as you can see, simply have rubber bands applied to their heads. How you're supposed to answer questions in such a condition I don't know. I guess that's what causes the stresas. I also don't understand a word of it--I'm sure it's all typically nonsensical anyway--but it's still good childish fun to watch such antics. Video clips from Stresas are available at the bottom of this page.

Also of note on Lithuaninan television at the moment is that Da Ali G Show is being screened in English. It's a treat for expats.

Stresas is shown on TV3 each Monday at 20:45.
Da Ali G Show is on Tango each Sunday and Monday evening at 21:30, but from January 21 will be shown each Saturday evening at 22:30.

How to park like a Lithuanian

There's a website called youparklikeanasshole.com. It presents the parking antics of variously stupid and selfish people, mainly from America. That, however, is nothing. We draw your attention to Lithuanian parking. Lithuanians park like people who really really really need to go to the toilet. To follow their example, simply think of no one other than yourself and imagine that you will explode if you don't park somewhere--anywhere--right now.

Browse through this site to see how Lithuanians seem to think nothing of parking on zebra crossings, footpaths, in handicapped spaces, diagonally across multiple spaces, and... oh, the list goes on and on.

Plane Stupid

Strictly on the premise of 'know your enemy,' I recommend taking a look at this site, the work of a ragged band of student, liberal types who see human development and progress as a bad thing.

Amongst their more crackpot proposals are a ban on all short-haul flights operated by budget airlines, which they claim are a 'perk of the rich.'

We at In Your Pocket love flying, love travelling and frankly agree with Josie Appleton, who today writes on Spiked! that 'life's too short to be carbon neutral.'

Havana In Your Pocket

With the death of Fidel Castro now not too far away, we hear that plans are being hatched in darkened rooms of Miami and Kuala Lumpur to launch a Havana In Your Pocket. We assume the shopping section will feature the top Cuban store in the photo, first seen at the great anti-Castro site therealcuba.com.

Lithuania: Palanga gets pounded by storms

On Sunday, I wrote about Lithuania's beaches in the Sunday Times, noting the Palanga pier as a highlight. That night, it was ripped apart by a storm. Previously permanent fixtures--stairs, rubbish bins, telephone booths, old-lady beggars and so on--were also scattered about whimsically by nature. Anyone who knows the area might like to have a butcher's at this article (it's in Lithuanian, but with clickable pictures) to see the damage.

Remembering Jan 13, 1991

Remembering Jan 13, 1991
Originally uploaded by Kritta.

I really smell of smoke. I spent a while earlier this evening hanging around a big fire outside Lithuania's Parliament. A decent crowd had gathered. Military and police ambled peacefully about. Old blokes with chiselled faces stood about in long army coats reminiscing. Little kids wearing beanies in the colours of the Lithaunian flag enjoyed the fire, but probably were left wondering what it was all about.

It was all in aid of the memory of the events of January 13, 1991. (Actually, it was the night of January 12 and the morning of January 13, if you want to be exact.) I don't have the time or inclination for a full history lesson here, but basically Lithuanians had gathered around Parliament, the TV Tower and other significant buildings to protect their recently declared freedom from the Soviets, who were not inclined to listen.

Soviet tanks stormed the TV Tower and 14 people wound up dead. The full story is covered in the current issue of Vilnius In Your Pocket. You'll also find a couple more photos if you click on the one above and explore my photos on flickr a bit.

An extra fiver or you don't fly

Pic from flickr / thegingerpimpernel.

People who bought airline tickets online prior to December last year for flights departing the UK after the end of January this year are being asked to pay an extra five pounds to cover an increase in Air Passenger Duty. This is covered in The Times, but what is not mentioned is how passengers of non-UK based airlines like airBaltic, flyLAL and Wizz will be affected. Add a comment if you have any experience, and we'll update this post if we find out.

As Seen on CNN: Sights and Sounds of Serbia... or is it Romania?

Well, well, well.

It appears the Serbs have been willfully expanding their territory again. This time however there are no tanks or soldiers involved, simply a crisp, well-shot commercial currently running on CNN: Sights and Sounds of Serbia.



The problem is that the church which appears at around the 30 second mark is not in fact in Serbia: it is on the other side of the Danube in Drobeta Turnu Severin, Romania. What's more it wasn't the Romanians who complained, but Serbs living in Kladovo, on the Serb side of the Danube. Kladovo's residents wrote to Serb popular daily Blic, utterly disgusted that Drobeta Turnu Severin - one of Europe's most awful cities - could be used to promote Serbia.

No doubt investigations have begun at the production company...

Sofia: One-armed bandit arrested. Again

A one-armed bandit in Sofia has been collared and clinked by Bulgaria's finest for attempting to pinch a car. It's the seventeenth time he has been locked up for such one-armed robbery. (We're not sure if handcuffs were used. Probably not.)

Ananova reports that Rumen Dimitrov, 50, has clocked up 16 previous convictions for his light-fingered crimes dating back to 1973. A policeman is reported to have said "He's probably Bulgaria's worst criminal." Must be a safe country, then.

That Putin-Lukashenko Phone Call In Full

Putin:
Turn the oil pipeline back on or I will remove you from office.

Lukashenko:
Erm, OK.

Waterslide opens, causes injury, closes

Paramedics have been called to Lithuania's newest and biggest aqua park - Druskininkai Aqua Park - on three occassions since it opened on December 26. They have dealt with two traumas and one mysterious poisoning.

We're not sure about the poisoning (it was mentioned on a local website with typically scant details), but it seems the injuries were caused by a too-short landing pool at the end of the "Extreme" water slide. Ouch!

We've also heard that some people have had cuts and abrasions as a result of poor water flow in that slide. The 140m "Extreme" waterslide has now, not surprisingly, been closed. One photographer, sent by a local newspaper, copped a "good bump by the temple". Rumour has it, in the form of off-the-record comments from employees, that one builder came away with a noticeably scraped back and bum.

The rest of the park, with all manner of pools (including a wave pool, kiddie pool and a pool with an artifial beach and fake 'sunlight'), spas saunas and other aquatic mayhem, is apparently functioning well and not injuring anyone.

Being a bit rude

Pic from malias on flickr

Oh - I wish I could write a review of this hotel.

Anyway ... while we're on the subject of rudeness, Charles Bremmer, Paris correspondent for the Times (of London) suggests that Brits abroad are becoming a bit boorish:

"I wonder if others are struck as I am by the uncouth behaviour
of many British visitors to France and the rest of the continent."

Well, yes - we are often struck by this. Maybe that hotel has named itself after its customers? In any case, if Mr. Bremmer thinks what Brits are getting up to in Paris is appalling, he should have a look at what's going on in Eastern Europe. My colleagues from Riga and Prague might have something to say about that. All comments welcome.

Vilnius still smokin'

Pic: from flickr by matz-o-man

Smoking in bars, clubs, restaurants, cafés and miscellaneous dumps that claim to be any of those things has been outlawed in Vilnius since the start of the year. As many locals are quite dedicated to the dubious pleasure of fumigating their lungs (and those of anyone nearby) and as the marriage of beer and cigarettes is probably the most stable relationship in the country, many predicted that the smoking ban would lead to the death of the whole café and nightlife scene. Not so.

Nightlife in Old Town has been as lively as ever, and the only noticeable change is that little clouds of smoke with legs have appeared floating next to doorways. This makes it easy to spot the more happening venues. The few places I went to or stumbled past last weekend seemed to be doing quite well, especially considering the slumpish idling Januaryness that tends to affect us all at this time of year.

One smoker actually thought the ban was a good thing, claiming that it created the perfect excuse for a pub crawl. One could have a drink and a chat in one place, he suggested, and then, as you have to go outside to have a smoke anyway, you may as well go into another place. Vilnius is ideally proportioned for this. Most places are just one or two cigarettes away from each other.

There is a problem, however. If you smoke while wandering around the streets of Vilnius you will almost certainly be accosted. And not by some leaf-munching, gym-going, self-righteous healthy person. (That would be fine, as you could just cough a blob of wriggling grey phlegm onto them and they’d leave you alone.) You will be accosted by a barrage of bums trying to bum a smoke.

"Sig-a-reht-air… sig-a-reht-air…" they will wail, gesturing with two fingers toward their grubby mouth in case you have even less mental capacity than they have and don’t understand what they are saying.

If you’re walking around smoking and one of these grimwits asks you for a cigarette, I guess it’s best just to either give them a cigarette (and, heck, they’re cheap enough here – less than a pound for a pack of 20) or respond with a firm “no”.

Anyway, it’s nice to see that the nightlife is still quite healthy despite the smoking ban.

Hand-drawn travel guides

At In Your Pocket, we love to tell you where to go. And we reckon we're pretty good at it. Here, however, is another take on the guide book idea. Photographer Ami Sioux has created guide books that combine photography with hand-drawn maps. She asks people with pencils (and the cartographic prowess of goats, by the look of it) to draw a map that shows how to get to some place with a nice view. And then she goes there and photographs the view. She's done books on Berlin, London, Paris, New York and, most recently, Reykjavik.

It's all very charming, but probably not very practical and more likely to get you lost than get you to some nice sightseeing place. This, therefore, is a picture book, not a guide book. For guide books, we find proper maps, with grid references, work quite nicely.

BBC in Romania, again

It is not my intention to turn this blog into an anti-BBC rant-a-thon, but I spotted this today: a superb article highlighting pro-environmental lobby bias in BBC reporting of the Rosia Montana Gold Mine Project in Romania.

You can read more about the progressive Rosia Montana Project - which Bucharest In Your Pocket, as a bastion of enlightenment thinking, supports - as well as a ground-breaking documentary, Mine Your Own Business, in the current print issue of Bucharest In Your Pocket.

All MP3

I am not sure this site is entirely legal, but it is great. Based in Russia - which should send alarm bells ringing - it is too cheap to miss out on. Enjoy it until it gets closed down, or they go legit and the prices go up.

All MP3

1998, Nipple hat and Vilnius In Your Pocket

Photo originally uploaded to Flickr by Mr Pinko.

I just came across this photo on the Flickr website. It shows someone who, despite their choice of hats, is clearly an astute traveller. And a copy of Vilnius In Your Pocket from September-October 1998 (issue number 33, in case you're collecting or counting or just have an unhealthy interest in all things numerical).

So, what's changed in the past eight years? I thought it would be fun to dig out that old issue and do a bit of a then-and-now comparison of some of the listings.

Actually, there are only a few places that have survived since 1998, among them The Pub, which was then described as "a favourite for a beer and chatting on weeknights and dancing and prancing on weekend nights" and is now "as comfortable and trendy as flannel pyjamas". Read the full current review in the current issue of Vilnius In Your Pocket.

The once classic Ministerija was, in 1998, described as "a longtime favourite dance and party spot ... definitely a must". It remained a classic until late 2005 when it closed. You'll now find a new club there called Absinth Code : "We ... thought there were four people in here. But then we realised that the two corner walls behind the dance floor are mirrors, and all four people were the same person. Then we drank lots of absinth and found that all twelve of the four people were also the same person as well." Actually, Absinth Code is a decent place (as the review explains), and is slowly but surely attracting a decent crowd.

Sadly, Naktinis Vilkas (which translates to The Night Wolf) has also gone. Pity, because it was described in the 1998 issue of Vilnius In Your Pocket as "a must for out-of-towners (where) irony drips from every wall (with) velvet booths, chandeliers and Lenin memorabilia." Now a new club has opened next door, but I can't tell you what it's like because I haven't been there yet. (I've been in Australia for the past month and have returned to Vilnius with a list of places I have to check out. Such a tough job!)

Of all the current popular nightspots in Vilnius (Absento Fėjos, Briusly Kino Klubas, WOO, Brodvėjus, Prospekto Pub and Pabo Latino, to name a few) only Pabo Latino was around in 1998. Sort of. The club that was then in the same venue, called Indigo, was a bit of a front for a sex club. Actually... come to think of it... hmmm... oh, never mind.

The BBC in Bucharest: Is Anyone Listening?

While taking a look at the ever-improving Hot News the other day, I came across a very interesting link to the site of a respected media-commentator in Romania, Iulian Comanescu Romanian Media Explained. Of interest was his post of December 9, 2006, showing the most important radio stations in Romania by market share.

As a Briton proud of the BBC, I was somewhat shocked to see that the much-vaunted BBC Romania (broadcast in Bucharest on 88.0 FM) was nowhere to be seen, while the damn French over at RFI were (albeit with a minuscule rating).

Now, checking out the BBC's own figures, we are led to believe that more than 1.7 million people tune into the BBC at some stage every week. What they in fact mean - we think - is that the many local radio stations who relay the (cheap) BBC have (with the FM stations in Bucharest and Timisoara) in total, 1.7 million listeners. BBC Romania, on 88.0 FM in Bucharest, is little more than a margin of error.

Which of course begs the question: whither the BBC Romanian service? Now that the country has joined the EU can its continued funding - as well of that of BBC Bulgarian - be justified? (The BBC World Service is almost entirely funded by cash donations from the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office).

Horace thinks not. It is time for this particular gravy train to end.