Before the economy forced Ireland's youth to look to countries afar, Paul Martin made the decision to get out of a mundane job and 'see the world' throughout the 1990s. Thus began the adventure of a lifetime that took him 30,000 kilometers through Australia in a 1978 Ford Falcon station wagon. In August 2011 it was reported that the number of Irish people who received working holiday visas for Australia increased by nearly 50 per cent compared to the previous year. In the current economic climate, Australia seems to be the destination of choice for the many recently emigrated Irish. With their tendency to stay in main cities, particularly Sydney, how much of Australia do they really see? Travels with Bertha is the story of the real Australia. Extending a one-year working holiday visa into thirty months, Paul lived the colorful, precarious and occasionally solitary life of a 'backpacker' in various locations throughout Australia, traveling extensively through every State and Territory in Australia including a trip across the Bass Straits to Tasmania. In this and two other journeys across the continent, he traveled (and slept) in Bertha, encountering many fascinating characters (including the Queensland drug dealer-turned-miner who had blown off all his fingers in repeated work accidents; the Adelaide Aborigine whose Irish uncle, in revenge for Captain Cook, claimed the territory of Britain for Australia from the top of Big Ben; the ex-alcoholic in Tasmania who relayed that his bipolar condition could be traced back to his direct ancestor, King George III; the dying man in the Kimberleys who had witnessed a haunting aboriginal dance gathering in 1925...) and much of Australia’s hidden history and landscape. Travels With Bertha is the perfect book for not only those planning on or dreaming about visiting Australia, but also those who have returned and want to relive their years Down Under. A lighthearted travel book with strong historical content, Travels With Bertha details Paul Martin’s two years spent traveling through the startling beauty of this most fascinating of continents in a 1978 Ford Falcon station wagon. Guaranteed to give you itchy feet!

In the course of the mundane routines of life, we encounter a variety of landscapes and objects, either ignoring them or looking without interest at what appears to be just a tree, stone, anonymous building, or dirt road. But the "deep traveler," according to Hartford Courant essayist David K. Leff, doesn't make this mistake. Instead, the commonplace elements become the most important. By learning to see the magic in the mundane, we not only enrich daily life with a sense of place, we are more likely to protect and make those places better. Over his many years working at the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection and writing about the state's landscape, Leff gained unparalleled intimacy while traveling its byways and back roads. In Hidden in Plain Sight, Leff's essays and photographs take us on a point-by-point journey, revealing the rich stories behind many of Connecticut's overlooked landmarks, from the Merritt Parkway and Cornwall's Cathedral Pines to roadside rock art and centuries-old milestones.

This text narrates the travels of Rabbi Petachia, a medieval rabbi from Regensburg, Germany, who set out to visit Baghdad, Susa, and Palestine.

From Tripoli to the ancient ruins of Leptis Magna, from the slave markets to the farthest reaches of the Sahara: here is a mosaic of unknown places, handed down to us by the foreign visitors and travellers who experienced them first hand over four centuries (1550-1911). European consuls (and their sisters and wives), archaeologists, explorers, sailors and colonisers have all left colourful accounts of their Libyan experiences: the bustle of the suqs and gossip of the harem, the terrors of slavery, the endless, parched caravan marches across the desert and the characters they met along the way. Almost fifty contributors bring a fresh perspective to a country that has fascinated foreigners for millenia.

The book is a collection of eleven articles written by the author about Lord Byron’s personal and literary involvement in Oriental life and creativity. Byron’s genuine Oriental scholarship provides the platform upon which the articles are based. The authentic images of the East and the West in Byron’s Oriental tales and some of his major works, Don Juan and Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, are analyzed to expose the influences of both worlds on his personal life and career.

The present work is the travelogue compiled from the notes and letters of Eli Smith and Harrison Dwight who traveled to the Middle East to interact with Armenian Christians in the early nineteenth-century.

The present volume is the travelogue of Eduard Sachau, who visited various sites throughout the Middle East in 1879-80. Sachau focuses primarily on issues pertaining to topography and geography.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner examines how specific types of food were prepared and eaten during feasting rituals in prehistoric Europe and the Near East. Such rituals allowed people to build and maintain their power and prestige and to maintain or contest the status quo. At the same time, they also contributed to the inner cohesion and sense of community of a group. When eating and drinking together, people share thoughts and beliefs and perceive the world and human relationships in a certain way. The twelve contributions to this book reflect the main theoretical and methodological issues related to the study of food and feasting in prehistoric Europe and the Near East. The book is introduced by Ferrán Adrià, considered to be the world's greatest chef. Famed for his "molecular gastronomy", he invented the technique of reducing foods to their essence and then changing how they are presented, for example in the form of foam. In 2010,he was named Best Chef of the Decade by the prestigious Restaurant magazine.

For thousands of years travellers wandered to, and spread out through, Egypt and the Near East, seeking trade, adventure and knowledge. For centuries travellers to - and from - the Near East carried knowledge with them and then carried home the new knowledge acquired in the region. And knowledge, as the Arabic proverb states, is light. The travels which are the subjects of these nine papers continue to represent the work of The Association for the Study of Travel in the Near East, which was set up to follow, study and record the experience of travel and travellers in the Near East. The book features travellers of great character. John Covel was in Constantinople in the 1670s where he became Chaplain and took away in his little-known diaries an extraordinary account of what it was like to be an Englishman in late 17th-century Greece and Asia Minor. James Rennell came to be considered as "one of the first geographers of this or any other age". He spent thirty years researching classical and modern sources on the geography of the Near East, including his splendidly intriguing study of the rate of travel by camels to establish distances.

Like her presentation of French medieval cuisine, including the famous Viandier by Taillevent, and the famous Mesnagier de Paris, Josy Marty-Dufaut now shares her interest in Catalan medieval cuisine from the beginning of the 14th century. Le Libre de Sent Sovi is one of the first culinary manuscripts of Europe written in vernacular Catalan.Medieval Catalonian cuisine is one of subtle flavors; the combination of sweet and salty, sweet and sour, all exquisitely nuanced. It carries with it an identity which is uniquely Catalonian, with its own culinary techniques that are still being used today: la picada, a pâté made with almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, herbs and spices that have all been crushed together, and le sofregit, a compote made of onions, garlic, herbs, which have simmered for hours.Catalonian Language

Contrary to the Hollywood-style romanticism of popular novels and films, the Second World War was more than courage on the battlefield, plucky defiance and doomed love affairs. Family and civilian life had to go on. In the midst of black-outs, road-blocks and austerity, households had to feed and clothe themselves, to travel, to decorate and furnish their homes. In this meticulously researched and lavishly illustrated account, Mike Brown and Carol Harris draw on contemporary sources including government advice, periodicals and books to provide an authoritative, entertaining account of life in the time of air-raid sirens and rationing.

A survey of Egypt by the distinguished English student of Arabic. Six steel engravings, and over a hundred wood-cuts are used to illustrate Egyptian culture, society and inhabitants shortly after the English conquest.

Encyclopaedic account of seventeenth century Ethiopia from contemporary sources, includes later commentary and both appendices. Copiously illustrated.

Encyclopaedic account of seventeenth century Ethiopia from contemporary sources, includes later commentary and both appendices. Copiously illustrated.

Written by one of the most scandalous figures in the beau monde and published just prior to the French Revolution, A Journey through the Crimea to Constantinople (1789) transported readers to the most exclusive courts of Russia and the Ottoman Empire.

In the early years of archaeological excitement in the environment of the biblical world, Merrill traveled through what is today Jordan on an extended journey and wrote this engaging account of his travels and explorations. Copiously illustrated with line drawings and etchings of the monuments and notable sights he encountered, his descriptions still retain their compelling voice. An historical account of travels around an area that would soon blossom into an archaeological haven, this journal is worth exploration for its contribution to a new discipline.