October 2010

When people ask me about the scariest situation I’ve ever been in, I think back to a taxi ride I took to the Moscow airport in the early ’90s. A no-neck guy who looked like a classic Russian mafia thug picked me up in a beat-up old car and drove for an hour down puddle-filled alleys and past derelict apartment buildings. All I could think about were those movie scenes where the good guy is taken down to the riverbank to be shot. Instead, the no-neck pulled up to the airport, shook my hand and said, “Have a good fly.”

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In Rome, after a $28-million renovation, part of the Colosseum’s underground system of tunnels and galleries was opened to the public late this summer for the first time in decades.

Small groups of visitors, accompanied by a guide, now can enter the underground complex through the Porta Libidinaria, the gate that gladiators once walked through to meet their fate.

A brand-new House of Waterford Crystal (The Mall, Waterford City, Ireland; phone + 353 [0] 51 317000, fax 351937), with a visitor center and retail store, offers tours on which visitors can observe factory workers blowing glass and engraving crystal items.

The flagship factory, in Waterford City’s Kilbarry area, was shut down in early 2009. Its 1,000 workers were fired along with about 500 at an ancillary factory. The new factory employs about 100.

The 18th annual World Buskers Festival takes place in Christchurch, New Zealand, Jan. 20-30, 2011. More than 35 musicians, jugglers, acrobats, comedians and other acts from eight countries will provide free entertainment on city center squares and streets plus indoors. Performers accept donations.

Among artists in 2010 were the Daredevil Chicken Club from the USA and Cirque no Problem from Israel. For a schedule, visit www.worldbuskersfestival.com.

Users of Google’s free e-mail service Gmail, with accounts registered in the US or Canada, now can make free or low-cost calls. (Log in to your Gmail account and use the “call phones” button on the left side.)

The service allows free calls to the US and Canada as well as rates as low as two cents per minute to landlines in France and the UK and six cents per minute to India, etc.

Credit can be bought in increments of $10 via a credit card, and calls are conducted through one’s computer’s microphone and speakers. For more info, visit www.google.com/chat/voice.

Starting in mid 2012, the Mauritshuis Royal Picture Gallery in The Hague, Netherlands, will be closed for about a year as part of a four-year, €22-million renovation that will nearly double the exhibition space.

Much of the collection will remain on display in other locations in The Hague, but 40 works — including Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring” — will travel to Japan to be shown in museums in Tokyo and then Kobe.

Nineteen people died and more than 300 were injured on July 24 in Duisberg, Germany, when a crush of people panicked during the annual Love Parade.

Billed as the world’s largest techno music party, the Love Parade was first held in 1989. With about a million people attending this year, officials closed off one end of an access tunnel to the site to avoid overcrowding. The press of thousands of people entering the tunnel was not diverted, however, and a stampede resulted. The festival will not be held again. 

Mexicana Airlines (including Mexicana, Mexicana Link and MexicanaClick) suspended operations suddenly on Aug. 28, stranding some travelers. Those holding tickets not yet used must book flights with other airlines. Call 888/882-9994 or visit www.mexicana.com.

Adventure Eye Video Systems (42354 Deluxe Plaza, Ste. 13, Hammond, LA 70403; 866/558-2387) offers rentals of four types of digital video cameras: standard; high-definition; wearable POV (point-of-view), and snorkel mask cameras. Including shipping both ways, rental of each costs $100 for 14 days (upon receipt) with a full damage waiver or $75 without waiver. A 4GB memory card is included.