Sport

An Effervescent Summer in Bucharest

No time to be bored in Bucharest this summer! The only problem is to have enough time (and sometimes money!) for all the interesting things that happen in our capital city.

For tourists looking to have fun in Bucharest, Bucharest inhabitants with no holiday money or highly monopolizing jobs, pensioners, children in the summer holiday, grandparents with grandchildren or any other interested person, Bucharest has something to offer. Festivals, concerts, sport events, workshops for children, good vibes and spirits, we had them all.

From the many events, I‘ve chosen for you a few representative examples:

So, there was Street Delivery, campaigning for a city where pedestrians are given the same importance as other road users and trying to determine the cultural authorities to create a pedestrian route in Arthur Verona Street area (City Center).

Therefore, for three days a year, Arthur Verona street close to cars and opens for people.

Bucharest - Street Delivery 2011 - Arthur Verona Street

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It’s Not Summer Till You Camp

Canada is the second largest country in the world, but there’s a relatively small population.  What does this mean? A whole lot of empty space to go camping!  Many of us do not consider it summer until we have been surrounded by trees, we smell like smoke, and we have eaten a s’more -or two.

The vast space, wilderness, and endless forests are definitely taken for granted here in Western Canada.  I would recommend trying a night camping on a different continent, so one can come home and truly know what it means to be Canadian. (more…)

Catching the Tour de France in Brittany

Tour de France Dinan-Lisieux stage on 7 July 2011

The Tour de France is one of the most popular sporting events in France.

First staged in 1903, the annual cycling race covers over 3600 km in 21 days.

Departure Dinan-Lisieux stage

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The Best Commute in the World

It starts early in the week when I type an appointment in my work calendar for 4:30 p.m. Friday: “Bike ride home.”  Just the act of typing those words puts a smile on my face because I’ve just blocked that time from any meetings and I’ve got all week to look forward to a glorious bike commute home over San Francisco’s famous Golden Gate Bridge.

On the commute home via the Golden Gate Bridge

Friday morning I get my gear ready: the bike pants, the windbreaker, the gloves, the iPod, the helmet, the Camelbak, and the sunglasses.  Since I live 25 miles away in Marin County and there’s no shower at work, this is only a one-way commute. I jump on the bike-rack enabled commuter bus in the morning and head southward towards The City by the Bay with all the other gas-guzzling suburban commuters. (more…)

Bicycle culture (and subculture) in the USA

Abroad, a lot of people conceptualize America as a “car-culture”. And they are, in large part, correct. It’s estimated that as many as 1 of every 6 jobs in the US is either directly or indirectly related to the auto industry. America’s rise to global economic stardom can be tied to the auto industry as well, along with the fossil fuel, agricultural, and arms industries. It’s hard to say for certain which came first, Americans’ propensity towards ultra-individualism, or the car, but they definitely are a marriage made in heaven.

Something that doesn’t get a lot of press internationally is the growing number of people in the USA who don’t own cars at all. Especially in larger cities, where public transportation is available, the combination of higher gas prices, parking fees, maintenance fees, inevitable parking tickets, road rage, and environmental impact are making it more and more attractive to explore non-auto options for transportation. As of 2009 35 million people in the USA took public transportation of some kind every weekday, not including people who walk or bicycle. Bicycle commuters in the USA are becoming a larger and larger demographic. In fact, in Portland Oregon, over 5% of commuter trips are taken on a bicycle. In the city of Chicago, where I reside, the number is much lower (1.15%) but that’s a 129% increase between 2000 and 2009, and all indications are that the number keeps going up.

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The Challenge of Climbing Chirripó: The Highest Peak in Costa Rica

Excitement. Tiredness. Astonishment. Those words describe my journey to Chirripó. Climbing the highest mountain in Costa Rica, with an altitude of 3,820 meters, is something I longed for my entire life, and I can dare to affirm it is in every Costa Rican’s adventurous soul.

Los Crestone seen from far away

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