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Reverent display — Twelve kilometers north of Siauliai, Lithuania, the Hill of Crosses stands as a testament to a people’s faith… and persistence. Repeatedly bulldozed to the ground by the KGB during the Communist era, the crosses always reappeared. Today there are thousands upon thousands of them — a “forest” of crosses of every size and material.
FIRST, FAST & FURIOUS ? The following is a sampling of reports received from ITN readers around the globe. ITN invites you to join our corps of reporters ? just drop a card in the mail while the travel impressions are fresh in your mind. To obtain your ITN Report Cards, send a self-addressed, stamped, business-size envelope to ITN Report Cards, 2116 28th St., Sacramento, CA 95818. You will receive eight cards.
Readers who are computer savvy can click here to access access the online form. Pass along your hot travel tips!
by Julie Skurdenis
Having just returned from leading a photographic adventure tour, some important issues are fresh in my mind.
Heavy rains poured down upon most of the tropics this past year; we saw numerous hurricanes in the Caribbean while Asia suffered heavy monsoons and cyclones. There has been much human suffering as a result.
During the rainy season, and for many weeks after, standing water serves as the perfect environment for mosquito larvae. As you would expect, this season there has been an explosion in the mosquito population. With increasing numbers of mosquitoes, we typically see increases in many different diseases.
STEVE, except for a JetBlue flight that leaves at midnight, there are no nonstop flights from Denver to New York’s JFK Airport, and as a traveler who is sick and very tired of flying to Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Dulles, Boston or Detroit to get to JFK (to connect with an international flight), I would really like to know why. — Ellen Jacobson, Centennial, CO
by Jay Brunhouse
To limit luggage to “carry-on” only when traveling over an extended period, I pack three shirts, three sets of underwear and three pairs of socks and wash soiled items nightly. Washing is easy, but wringing sufficient water from my wash has been a problem. I now extract water using a lettuce spinner. This method removes sufficient water to eliminate dripping when I hang the clothes to dry.
A lettuce spinner in one’s suitcase doesn’t present a space problem, as it can be filled with small items and thus uses very little more space than the small items by themselves.
The Ostheimers mentioned The Tin Shed Sheepskin Shop (Rangitata 22 RD, Geraldine, South Canterbury, New Zealand; phone +64 3 693 9416 or, free within N.Z., 0508 504 006, fax 693 9531 or visit www.thetinshed.co.nz) on the South Island of New Zealand (Dec. ’05, pg. 103). I’ll second their recommendation. The place is literally a tin shed, but they have a great selection of New Zealand woolen products.