With the likes of Charles Saatchi championing the new wave of Glasgow-based artists and the Turner Prize having a distinctly Glaswegian flavour in recent years, the city’s arts scene is booming. The success of artists trained at the renowned Glasgow School of Art has seen visitor numbers to the art school leap. The building itself is an architectural marvel, designed from top to toe, inside and out by one of the city’s most famous exports, Charles Rennie Mackintosh. A must see. Just next door is the CCA where you’ll find the latest contemporary talent mixing with performance art and experimental music and theatre. Also in this neck of the woods is the Glasgow Museum of Modern Art in the heart of the city, or head to Kelvingrove Museum in the West End for a taste of The Glasgow Boys and historic Scottish works.

Artist collectives are springing up all over, from the Duchy Gallery and Market Gallery in the East End, to IRONBBRATZ and further wee galleries in Merchant City area and the fantastic SWG3 Studio Warehouse in the West End – all offering you the chance to discover the freshest talent. SWG3 also host regular club nights and gigs, which brings us on to music.

This is a city with one helluvva musical history. Just Google ‘bands from Glasgow’ and wait for your chin to hit the floor. The scene’s currently buzzing with cool venues, experimental sounds, all mixing in with the art school crowd to produce incredibly inventive new ways to enjoy music – from handmade weekend festivals to the latest noise and drone gigs held in people’s basements.

Check out the Glasgow institutions that are the 13^th Note and Nice ‘n’ Sleazy on Sauchiehall Street for hipper than hip club nights and gigs; Mono and Stereo are a must for vegan eats, the hottest new local and not-so-local bands and a spot of record shopping; and head to the Captains Rest for a sweaty night out in their basement venue playing host to an impeccable alternative music bill. Dig rockabilly? Check out Blackfriars. Dig psyche? Check out the Eyes Wide Open club. Dig reggae? Get yourself down to Argonaut Sounds at Blackfriars or The Dutchy Pot at The 78.

After all that gigging you’re bound to be hungry, right? Glasgow ain’t short of delicious eats either. Head to the trendy West End for the finest culinary treats in the city. Stroll down Byres Road and you’ll find to-die-for delis like Peckhams and I Heart Buchanan, take a detour down the curry house-packed Ashton Lane and you’ll also find the (slightly pricey) local institution that is the Ubiquitous Chip. In the city itself, the Merchant City area is the place to be for Scottish food at its most modern, with swank bistros like Gandolfi dotted around inbetween the Versace and Armani stores.

If you’re looking for cheap flights and accommodation for your Glasgow trip, check out the Thomas Cook website for last minute holidays to the city at discounted rates, or check the Visit Scotland website for local B&B and hostel listings.

GPS systems don't fail. They know you're moving & relaxing on the ferry.

Recently, my husband and I were in Europe. Though I haven’t written much about the trip due to a grueling work schedule in the real world, I did notice one thing.

Ferrys are the ultimate in vacation travel options. There is something about being on the water, wind in your hair and nothing to do but relax.

It started for me as a child. Every summer my sister and I would spend the summer at my Grandmothers house in Martha’s Vineyard. Woodshole, MA to Vineyard Haven: drive the car onto the ferry, get out, go get a snack and sit up on the deck to watch the coast of your summer coming closer.

This past trip to Europe held an amazing five ferry boat rides.

The coast of Hundested, Denmark from the ferry

The first ferry was on our trip up to Hundested, Denmark. We got to Rørvig a little late and watched the small six car ferry depart. I listened to my newly found cousin tell me family stories as we waited the short 20 minutes until the ferry returned. Hundested was where my great-grandfather built his family a summer home and that’s where we were going to have lunch. The ride was short but I learned why my grandmother picked Martha’s Vineyard as her summer place – it looked like Hundested, ferry and all.

HMS Windblowey. Enroute from Denmark to Germany

The next ferry we took was leaving Denmark to go to Germany. This ferry was all business, with a proper luncheon on board, plenty of chairs on deck and duty free shopping so I could find a pair of sunglasses. The ride, about 45 minutes which saved about two hours of driving, was well worth the cost. We really didn’t have to stop to eat lunch or take a break, losing no time at all.

Imperia welcomes all back to Konstanz Germany. See a close up below.

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Our next round trip ferry ride was on a day trip from Konstanz, Germany over to Meersburg. If your like most Americans, you may be questioning where is that? It’s Lake Constance, aka the Bodensee, in southern Germany bordering Switzerland and Austria. This ferry ride was a quiet and somewhat crowded ride lasting about an hour each way and provided a nice rest from all the exploring of both Konstanz and Meersburg.

Our last ride was a find. After driving around Lake Constance, we had dinner in Lindau and drove a little bit and took the car ferry from Meersburg back to Konstance. We hadn’t planned it, but it saved some time and was just so nice to be back on the water.

Ferrys are coo, relaxing and fun. You’re putting miles behind you as you’re just enjoying the breeze blowing through your hair, just a great way to travel. Try it sometime.

And hey, Detroit/Windsor area. Get one. It would be used, I hate taking the tunnel.

That’s how Amanda ended up in Italy, hoping to get a semester’s worth of credit, learn a little Italian and be an ocean away from her parents. (Just like any other 20 year old.)

But Amanda’s real education began with the murder of Meredith Kercher. Amanda and her boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito say they were together on the night Meredith was killed, which means the murder is still free.

And the sensational original trial may have taught Amanda what happens to foreigners accused of killing. (Meredeth was British.)

On Monday morning, before the case went to the jury of two judges and six jurors, Amanda got a chance speak.

“People always ask who is Amanda Knox? I am the same person I was four years ago. But I have lost a friend. I have lost my faith in Italian police. I am paying with my life for something I have not done. Four years ago I didn’t know what suffering was,” Knox said.

“I did not kill. I did not rape. I did not steal,” she added. “I was not there.”

This time, her Italian was flawless.

Nuhaven, which means New Harbor, is a beautiful place for lunch. The harbor was created so ships could get closer to merchants some 500 years ago.

around.

At 1000 years old, there’s no wonder it’s such an amazing place, filled with rich architecture, amazing sights and those rewards around every corner. We would highly recommend anyone going to Copenhagen spend a day or two walking around this rich city that was a cultural and merchant hub for centuries.

As we walked around, we found ourselves in that wonderful moment of being comfortably lost in that travel sense of the way. It’s that point where you kind of know where you are but kind don’t. Plus, Copenhagen is such an easy city to find yourself on a map, you’re really not that lost anyway.

Sure, we may have started out with the Little Mermaid, but in a way that was a great way to start — it was a little disappointing, but our spirits were still high, as we looked across the harbor Vikings once rowed. After that, everything was fantastic. Cobble stone courtyards, beautiful buildings, and extremely nice people.

It was a spectacular day.

But as we were mapping out our walking tour of the city for the one day we were going to spend in Copenhagen, we included stopping along the harbor and checking out the Little Mermaid. Of our Danish friends and family asked the simpliest of questions: Why?

Maybe the answer should have been Disney? Or, we’re victims of consumerism and felt some odd sort of obligation to check out the bronze beauty.

But as you approach the throngs of people snapping off pics, you’ll quickly find yourself saying: What the fuck?

The 98 year old statue is small — about five feet — and not particularly impressive. And the story, the one by Hans Christian Andersen, is actually a miserable tale and very unlike the one by Disney. (The Little Mermaid dies on land, alone and in extreme pain, the price she must pay to walk.)

Perhaps the most interesting part of the statue is its long history of people trying to destroy it. See, I think it’s because the Danes are actually embarassed that so many tourists come to their great city and then giggle behind their cameras lens at the Little Mermaid. There’s so many great things to see in Copenhagen — this is just not one of them. Then again, it’s so disappointing, you’re almost obligated to see it, just so you can claim how disappointing it is.

We heard of some of the attempts on the Little Mermaid’s life, including two decapitations. Then I found this list on Wikipedia (so naturally all of it’s true).

Attempts of destruction by the Danish Resistance and other lovers of art.

• 24 April 1964 – the statue’s head was sawn off and stolen by politically oriented artists of the Situationist movement, amongst them Jørgen Nash. The head was never recovered and a new head was produced and placed on the statue.^{[citation needed]}
• 22 July 1984 – her right arm was sawn off. The arm was returned two days later by two young vandals.^{[citation needed]}
• 1990 – another attempt was made to cut her head off, which resulted in an 18 cm deep cut in the neck.^{[citation needed]}
• 6 January 1998 – she was decapitated again,^[3] the culprits were never found, but the head was returned anonymously to a nearby TV station, and on 4 February the head was back on.
• Red paint has been thrown on her several times, including one episode in 1961 where her hair was painted red and a bra was painted on her.^{[citation needed]}
• 11 September 2003 – the statue was blasted off its rock, possibly with dynamite.^[4]
• In 2004, it was draped in a burqa as a statement against Turkey joining the European Union.^[5]
• March 8, 2006 – a dildo was attached to the statue’s hand, green paint was dumped over it, and the words March 8 were written on it. It is suspected that this vandalism has something to do with International Women’s Day (which is on March 8).^[6]
• March 3, 2007 – the statue was again covered with pink paint.^[7]
• May 2007 – the statue was covered with paint by vandals.^[8]
• May 20, 2007 – it was found draped in a Muslim dress and head scarf.^[9]

In a move to appease transgender citizens, Great Britain is planning to eliminate sex from its passports, according to the Daily Mail. This means the entire country will become sexless travelers.

The passports will still have a spot for “sex” but everyone will just get an X. (This is because international law requires the sex of every citizen be included in a passport.)

The changes are almost as outrageous as when countries started allowing wives to get their own passports instead of simply having their name inserted in pencil on the husband’s passport along with the other things the man owned.

If you don’t know anything about art or Van Gogh’s work, here some pointers to make sure you sound like you’re the founder of the Vincent Van Gogh fan club.

Van Gogh (pronounced Van Gof) was born 1853 in Holland. It was only in 1880 as a late 20-something hipster that Van Gogh decided to become an artist after several failed attempts at conventional careers.

In the 10 years that followed, Van Gogh produced over 900 paintings, with the most famous works only coming out in the last two to three years of the decade. By age 37, he was friendless, relatively unknown and dead. But like many artists, he needed to die to get people to notice.

His legacy was created by his sister-in-law who, unlike Van Gogh’s mother, did not burn his works for heat in the winter. Instead, she bequeathed Van Gogh’s work to the city of Amsterdam to create a museum in honor of Holland’s most important Post-Impressionistic painter.

The Influences
The Dutch influence shows clearly in his early body of work. Dark scenes of every day life, “The Potato Eaters” is probably his best known work during this period. Dark browns, dark reds, dark drab colors. It’s a direct contrast to his later works when he discovers the color wheel in Paris.
Many experts like to point to the explosion of color midway through his career as a direct influence from the Impressionism Movement, discovered upon his move to Paris. Yes, there’s a distinct shift to light, color and movement that brings to life the Van Gogh we all admire. Van Gogh is a Master of Movement using each brush stroke to bring to life each subject.

However, this is not true. Actually, all of Van Gogh’s work is extremely colorful — however, Holland only had four colors in the 1800s, as most people were unable to afford blues and reds, much less the luxuries of yellow– they ate a potato for dinner every night, they weren’t rich. Life was gray and drab in The Netherlands, Van Gogh’s Dutch paintings were extremely colorful, but in the brilliant grays and blacks of his time.

The Works
“Skull of Skeleton with Burning Cigarette” is an early Van Gogh work. Small, compact and using black, white only a few shades in between, this painting seems simple, but it’s not. This is a study of the human form with a small twist, a little private joke of Van Gogh railing against the system.

“Sunflowers, 1889” shines brightly with hues of yellow. This painting is one in a series of 12 sunflower paintings used to decorate the room in which Paul Gauguin was to stay when he visited Van Gogh. In this particular painting, Van Gogh took one color and gave depth using tones within the color. Not a wasted motion, each time brush met canvas, it was an agonizing effort to capture the fleeting life of the subject.

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Self Portraits. You’d think that Van Gogh had an ego issue with all the self portraits. But understand, painters often use themselves as models. Take a walk through Van Gogh’s life by viewing the self portraits, it’s an interesting look at the man. Plus, what artist isn’t a little narcissistic?

The Man
Van Gogh wrote, sketched and painted. A lot.

The man churned out over 900 paintings in a ten year period. He also wrote a kabillion letters, mostly to his brother, both filled with studies of paintings he was working on and stories of what was going on. His letters are considered some of the best pieces of correspondence by an artist, filled with passionate explanations of his upcoming works and life around him.

Van Gogh studied and hung out with many of artists you’ve probably heard of – Monet, Toulouse-Lautrec and Gauguin. In the artist world, you can’t get much better than that. Imagine the boasting, competition and admiration in that group.

Van Gogh did do all those crazy things – yes, he cut his ear off after a fight with Gauguin and he did end his life with a shotgun. He had some issues, but out of the chaos, he created some of the most beautiful paintings that are most revered and admired today.

The last ditch effort
If you’re cornered and can’t remember details, just say “I love his work from the late 1880′s” and you’ll sound like a pro.

Easter bunny? Probably.

A city of 25,000 sex-mad lesbians living in the woods of northern Sweden? Who are we to ruin the dream.

Ever since the Chinese new service Harbin News reported on the mythical town of Chako Paul City, the Swedish Tourism Board has been slammed with calls from China demanding to know more about these resbian ruvers.

Why exactly are men even thrilled by the thought of a woman-only city of 25,000 women in the woods is beyond us. Unless they’re selling Birkenstocks or flannel shirts, the city would have no use for any of them. But as far as the myth goes, the city was founded 150 years ago by a man-hating widow. (No details on whether she was a man-hater before or after the death of her spouse.) The last time the Chako Paul rumor circulated was after Ingrid Bergman reportedly mentioned visiting there in 1951.

If men try to approach the city, they are beaten and left for dead, according to the Chinese wire service.

Naturally, the Swedish government denies that the city exists. But you expect that from the Swedish government. There are currently no tours planned to the city and other than a short mention of the forest city in Wikipedia, the city does not exist.

The closest thing to it is the Girl Seeks Girl mixer at the PiedBar in Provincetown tomorrow night.

HTG is actually on vacation: This story is from our best of files.  This story originally ran Oct. 14, 2009.

Here are a couple of things we noticed while we were there:

Smoking

It’s not allowed indoors in Holland — at least cigarettes. It’s legal to smoke a joint at your dinner table, but not tobacco. (Though we found plenty of places that thought the law was dumb and allowed smoking in their establishment.

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Parking

If there is some to attach a bike in Amsterdam, people will do do it. So it’s not uncommon to see lots of No Parking signs in the city. As you can see, lots of people don’t always listen.

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Drugs

Because some recreational drugs are legal, lots of people have to remind you not to do them in specific areas.
Perhaps some people like to sit on a dirty toilet and smoke a joint, but we think there should be separation between bowls.

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Peeing standing up

It’s the No. 1 rule in some pubs and cafes.

We thought this was a little extreme, but rules are rules in Amsterdam, so sit down, shut up and pee.

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A kind of paddle boating

While we didn’t see people pumping paddles around the canals, it is perfectly legal to do, however, when we came across this particular sign, we weren’t sure what kind of ride this really was.

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Women in windows

Sure, you’re walking along the Red Light District and you want to snap off a few pictures of the women standing in the windows. However, they don’t particularly care for that — in fact, if you hold up a camera, many will try to duck behind a curtain or shout at you. And of course, there’s a chance their friend will pay you a visit. So don’t.

HTG is actually on vacation: This story is from our best of files.  This story originally ran Nov. 9, 2009.

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(It started after police shot and killed a man, yes, Americans aren’t the only ones with a police force running around shooting people.) However, in London, when the police shoot someone, it’s still a big deal, so a group of peaceful protestors set to it, organizing marches, vigils and whatnot.

That’s all a small group, likely members of project mayhem, needed. This group started burning police cars, double decker buses and then buildings in Tottenham. Over the weekend, police arrested more than 160 people and specifically pointed out that the vast majority of people protesting were not protestors.

“We believe that certain elements, who were not involved with the vigil, took the opportunity to commit disorder and physically attack police officers,” Commander Adrian Hanstock, from London’s Metropolitan Police Service told the Wall Street Journal.

So what does this mean for for tourists? Not much. You’ll be fine. Tottenham may have a London dateline but that’s about it. It’s not like Big Ben is right around the corner and its even less likely that you’ll go there, or even join the protest, which have evaporated now.

Check out this video if you want to learn more.