To Travel is To Live

Somewhere throughout my life, I have developed the impression that a luau in Hawaii would be this large group of people mingling on a beach, the centrepiece a huge bonfire.  Hula girls would be dancing and men would be playing ukeleles, with people singing along to traditional Hawaiian music.  I pictured a big party with people dancing and laughing, just enjoying the warm evening air, lounging around on a dark, secluded beach. Kalamaku has the reputation as the best luau on the island of Kauai.  Random people we have met along the way have stated this, as did our personal concierge for the house we are renting.  Driving up to the site, a few of us were clearly a tad disappointed that it wasn't taking place on a beach.  The building is huge, with an open-air architecture.  There were tables set up all around a stage that looked on the small side.  A band plugged into the amps was set off in one corner, and people tried to keep us entertaine...

It’s that time of year again, when the days of December run out and turn into the first few hours of January, marking the end of one period and the beginning of another.   It also tends to mean celebration and parties, so much so that people feel obligated to ‘do something’ each and every New Year’s Eve.   Surmising this tendency, I decided to look into some of the New Year’s Eve celebrations that are common in the locations I’ve either traveled to or plan to visit in the near future.   Here in Calgary, the traditions are common with other Canadian cities – people drink and drink a lot.   Sometimes there is dinner, sometimes dancing, but there is always a lot of liquor.   Every pub and nightclub realizes this and offers the same type of party that occurs on a typical Friday or Saturday, only for a vastly inflated cover price and maybe higher priced drinks.   For people looking for something a bit more special and unique, though, Calgary offers some...

My favorite Christmas movie is the original A Christmas Carol, and I am always filled with warm, fuzziness watching or reading Christmas stories where big families get together in one house for a few days, lounging cozily around the fire, drinking wine, and exchanging a simple, single, thoughtful gift with one another.   I am completely turned off by what Christmas has become in this era – everyone expecting extravagant gifts, people spending so much money that the next 4 months are just depressing and stressful.   North American Christmas has become so commercialized, and focused on big box stores and high-end electronics.   When I dream about what would be the most ideal Christmas, I imagine traditional ornaments, friends and family gathering (and that simply being enough), big dinners, and lights, so many lights.    For people who know me well, I have in my heart a tie to the Victorian era, so it’s not surprising that something traditional such as th...

Yesterday I came across an interesting gallery of photos on the Calgary Herald iPhone app that immediately caught my attention.  It seemed like Halloween all over again, but something even more sinister seemed to be happening in Austria.  Krampus is the evil partner of St. Nicholas, the European Santa Claus who brings gifts on December 5th.  Krampus has been around for centuries, since 2000 BCE, to punish naughty children with whips and chains.   The Night of Krampus occurs traditionally on the eve of St. Nicholas but often the celebrations occur earlier.  Donned in outright sinister, disturbing renditions of this classic beast, men, women and children traipse through city streets terrifying those around them.  One look a the pictures in the gallery, and you will see why!   This tradition is becoming more popular in other European countries as well as in North American cities.  People are dressing up and partying the weekend before Decem...