Best Blogs of the Week & What in the World?

It’s been a while — quite a while, in fact — since my last post of this sort. I was off in New Zealand for a couple of weeks, and am now feverishly trying to catch up on things. My apologies. But Best Blogs of the Week & What in the World is back at last! Get excited. (Come on, don’t hurt my feelings; I’m serious about the excited part.)

Best Blogs of the Week

I read a lot of travel blogs every week. Every day, even. Since I’m constantly coming across good reads, I’ve decided to highlight some of the best and most interesting posts, photos, videos and general blogging gems from all over the web that I’ve discovered in the past week.

Though I try to read a diverse sampling of things, there’s no way that I can possibly get to it all. So, if you have an interesting post that you’d like me to check out and consider for next week, please let me know in the comments! Who knows? Maybe I’ll fall in love with it. At the very least, I’ll leave you my two cents in a comment.

What I’m Reading

Is the American Dream Holding You Back? at Twenty-Something Travel

This post resonated with me SO MUCH because I was constantly having this conversation with people in New Zealand. It’s a fact that Americans travel a lot less than most other cultures, and part of this is because we view travel as frivolous and hard work as the only way to success. This often means we set our dreams aside “until retirement,” and spend our lives slaving away for money. But you know what? Money won’t comfort you on your deathbed. I love Steph’s point about forgetting about the “American Dream” and focusing on your own dreams instead.

Serendipity: A Legal Nomad’s Love Story at Legal Nomads

I love “small world” moments, and this is a really unlikely yet lovely one. Find out how a photo posted on Jodi’s site led to an interesting moment of serendipity (and a really cute story).

Children of Nepal Photo Essay at Ordinary Traveler

I’m always impressed by people who can take really great portraits of people they meet while traveling. They’re usually beautiful and colorful and really tell a story about a place or culture. This photo essay is especially great because it focuses on kids. And, come on, who doesn’t smile when looking at photos of cute kids?

The 5 Most Challenging Destinations I’ve Ever Visited at Cumi & Ciki (guest post by Jason of @DigiDrift)

Jason shares five of the most challenging destinations he’s traveled to. Learning about the things that challenged him is not the only cool part though — this guy has also traveled. From Zaire to Iran to Cuba, his challenges are unique in and of themselves, and definitely worth reading about. Plus, I learned some things I didn’t know about some of the less-touristed places he’s visited.

New Zealand’s Spectacular East Cape at Finding the Universe

I know I was just in New Zealand, but not in this part! And “spectacular” is exactly the right word to describe the photos Laurence took here. They’re stunning! They make me want to turn around and head right back to NZ straight away.

More than words: Time-lapse video of Bangkok, Thailand at Runaway Juno

I’m always impressed by time-lapse videos; I know how much work they take to make. This one is really fun, and illustrates a day spent in Bangkok.

What in the World?

Here’s a look at what’s going on around the world this week:

The Middle-East

Even though I’ve been gone for a few weeks, things in the Middle-East have remained largely unchanged. Gadhafi’s forces are still battling the rebels in Libya, there’s still unrest in Yemen, and the violence in Syria has escalated so much that now the powers that be are fearing another situation like Libya.

The U.S.

Mother Nature must have loved Osama bin Laden. That’s the only explanation I can come up with in regards to the crazy, scary weather we’ve been having here in the States lately. The Mississippi River is gobbling up whole towns, the Midwest has been dealing with severe storms and damaging hail (followed by some scorching weather), there are raging wildfires in Texas, and the South continues to be plagued by tornadoes. Just last week and massive tornado ripped through Joplin, Missouri, killing at least 150 people.

In lighter news, the U.S. celebrated Memorial Day on Monday. Here’s to all our veterans!

Also on Monday, Ohio State head football coach Jim Tressel resigned amid an ongoing investigation by the NCAA into some scandalous business involving OSU team members selling things and getting freebies at an unsavory Columbus tattoo parlor. Tressel is accused of knowing about it and trying to cover it up, which is probably worse than him pleading ignorance. Meanwhile, Michigan fans rejoice.

Europe

Germany has announced that it is going to abandon nuclear energy by 2022, after the stark reality of the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima plant in Japan really hit home. The country had always kind of talked about going non-nuclear, but the Japan crisis has really lit a fire under Chancellor Angela Merkel. The Germans plan to shut down all 17 of their nuclear power plants over the course of the next 11 years, turning instead to renewable energy sources like solar, wind and hydro. It won’t be an easy task, since roughly 23 percent of the country’s energy now comes from nuclear plants.

The Caribbean

According to an as-yet-unreleased report commissioned by the U.S. government, far fewer people died or were left homeless by the 2010 earthquake in Haiti than originally claimed by Haitian officials. The report estimates the death toll between 46,000 and 85,000, far below Haiti’s estimate of 316,000. It also estimates the number of those displaced by the quake and those still living in tent cities to be substantially lower than Haiti has reported. If the numbers have in fact been bloated this much by Haitian officials, it could challenge the central premise behind a multibillion-dollar aid and reconstruction effort.

Canada

The newest Royal Couple is planning a grand tour of Canada as their first big trip abroad as a married couple. Prince William and Princess Catherine (that’s what they’re calling Kate now, right?) will be touring Canada and California later this summer for about a month. Who knows, maybe they’ll be visiting your city!

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As always, if you have a post or news item you’d like me to consider featuring next time, leave your link in the comments below!

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