Mischa Altmann

Because I’m in a travel mood but can’t for the moment, here’s three relatively unkown websites that really should be huge!

• hospitality club (aka HC) - become part of the travelling community and enjoy a friendly bed wherever you go. And if you’re lucky you can even get a tour of the local city/lake/mountain…
• unearthtravel - a pretty professional site with mapping capability to share your thoughts and knowledge about sites and travelling in general. I should really sit down and pour out my Paraguay experience… mind you, the Vienna entry is pretty vacant. Shame that good sites often don’t make it due to lack of publicity (=funding).
• travelfusion - a good place to compare flights and other modes of travel.

Which reminds me to add HC to unearthtravel. Unfortunately I only rarely get HC requests which really is a shame as I’d love to put you (yes you!) up for a few nights There’s nothing like “relying on the kindness of strangers” (mmmh, that’s Almodovar’s Todo sobre mi madre).

It’s International Towel Day to commemorate Douglas Adams (Author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy). There’s even a cute website. While Mr Adams wasn’t the best author ever, reading his Hitchhiker’s Guide was superbly fun: all that useless technobabel and the idea of flying (well, missing the floor)… truly fantastic.

Apart from MySpace there’s a few other places to get your music from:

• !K7 - the label that I discovered via Kruder & Dorfmeister
• Thievery Corporation - they may have gone a bit bonkas (or probably have always been) but that doesn’t stop them from producing some tunes to worry your neighbours…

The Eden Project (Cornwall, UK) must be among the most amazing places I can imagine. I can’t believe I didn’t visit it when I spent a few weeks in Cornwall with family and friends.

Quite apart from its stunning architecture and its sustainability agenda, it’s also the host to a wide variety of events. Recently, it hosted the first-ever Sexy Green Car Show - shame I missed it. (Not that I actually want to own a car or have a use for one.)

The Eden Project also hosts a series of concerts dubbed the Eden Sessions. Among the lineup are the following two

• Lily Allen - thank you for some superb tunes while browsing the (bad) news today. The mixed tapes are fantastic and I laughed my head off during Knock ‘Em Out.
• Amy Winehouse - I think I know when to come down to visit the Eden Project (July 17th). Finishing a long bicycle tour at a great concert in a beautiful environment should be quite an experience…