Category Photography

We’ve been in America for quite a few months now, and that has yielded some amazing photographs that we’d like to share with you! You can see more pictures we’ve taken from across America, and the globe in our Photo Album. As we prepare to head abroad, we’re reminded of how amazing this country really is, and how much it has to offer a tourist or a local. We traveled from the east coast to the Midwest, to Texas and then to the West coast– so we’re fairly happy with how much of America we were lucky enough to experience this trip. Without further ado, here is our photo tribute to America!

This is a picture of our house cat, Spice. It was great seeing pets and being around so many animals while we were in America. You can see other pictures of America, too.

This one is of a pelican on South Padre Island, in Texas. What a GIANT dinosaur of a bird.

This one is from Beech Mountain, North Carolina. In a tiny dinner in the basement of a general store in the Appalachian Mountains.

Remember the Alamo? We did on our way through San Antonio, Texas. What an amazing story (albeit a depressing one) and how interesting that it has been preserved so well.

The original Krispy Kreeme is in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Due to horrible marketing and over saturation of the market, the company isn’t doing as well as some had hoped. Nevertheless, it is as important a part of NC history as the Wright Brothers’ first flight.

In Rockford, Illinois, there still exists a bit of the midwest like we’d all like to imagine it– covered in red barns surrounded by corn fields and orchards.

Deep in the Redwood forests in California, lies a strange tourist attraction that makes environmentalists want to cry tears of sap. Someone has hallowed out a giant redwood so people can drive through it in their cars! We fit our minivan through it. It just goes to show… not only will we bust up the air with our emissions, we’ll drive our cars through trees! Go progress!

If you think I’m taking too many pictures of nature and animals then keep in mind we’ve been living in China– where both are in short supply. We’re now fascinated by animals and plants in a whole new way. This giant turtle is from the Gulf of Mexico (although, with the recent oil spill I kind of wonder what he is up to….)

So its 2010 and to celebrate we’re looking for the top ten amateur travel sites on the internet. Help us find them!

We’re looking for competitive, comprehensive, totally awesome amateur travel sites that are more than mere narratives of people’s personal adventures overseas. We’re looking for sites with country information, maps, and relevant info and pictures on the places they have been. If your travel site matches this criteria let us know, we want to find the best, non-corporate travel sites out there!

We also support some other cube abandoning travelers on our Links page, check these guys out, they have a lot to offer.

Check back to see a top ten list once we find the best amateur travel sites on the web for you!

Baku

After a lot of hard work, Lauren has released our next newsletter.  This issue covers the Azerbaijan, The Republic of Georgia, and Turkey.  I have put it up on several areas throughout our site.  It gives a nice overview our our trip through the area as well as some stories and selected pictures all wrapped up in a really awesome looking PDF file.  I have attached a the file for those of you interested.  Best Wishes for 2010!

Mike & Lauren

Abandon the Cube Caucasus and Turkey Newsletter <———- Click here to read!

Mongol Rally Logo

Lauren and Mike landed a team in the Mongol Rally 2010! We’re in the process of picking a few team members, looking for sponsors, and planning our route. You can follow all of our progress via the blog, but we’ll also be creating a Mongol Rally page on our website soon with updates and more information.

The Mongol Rally is a charity event wherein each team (500 total) take a 1 liter car from Europe to Mongolia to donate the car to charity along with $1500 for Mercy Corps. We’re overwhelmed with glee that we get to participate in the event this year, having witnessed several teams from the 2009 rally while in Turkmenistan. It is a once-in-a-lifetime, crazy event and it’s for a good cause.

Our team, the Abandon the Cube team, is conjoined with the Not Cubists team from Yelm, Washington. We’re busy with the preliminary aspects of putting together two winning cars with one winning strategy to make it to Mongolia in our perfectly unsuitable, tiny little cars.

More information on the Mongol Rally  or for other volunteer experiences, see our “Events ” drop-down menu.

To sponsor us, or if you have ideas for sponsors please send us an email at lauren (at) abandonthecube.com or mike (at) abandonthecube.com

Camel Herd

Last weekend we embarked on a three day / two night camping trip to the ruins of Merv.  A short 30 km away from the present city of Mary, Turkmenistan; Merv has been declared an UNESCO World Heritage Site and rightfully so.  The 5 – 5 1/2 hour drive from Ashgabat to Mary and Merv trailing along the Kopet Dag Mountains was littered with ancient ruined walls and fortresses.  We stopped and one, which was not even in our guide book, “Warved Galaky” or something that we immediately started calling Warped Galaxy – a fitting term for most things in Turkmenistan, and climbed up the walls.  The ancient fort had been inhabited by the Greeks, we found out later, and was scattered with pottery shards recently exposed from an unlikely rain in the desert.  The fortress had a dried up mote bed still visible after centuries, and it has been said that you can still find Greek coins in the ruins here as the people of Warped Galaxy crafted coins into the C.E. after Christ.

After we went through the city of Mary, we arrived at Merv.  The whole area, about 80 ha was all fortress and ancient city on top of ancient city.  Merv has been referred to as a drifting or wandering city.  This means that over time, water supply and changed course and therefore, you have one ruin from 300 BC and another ruin from the 1st to 3rd century C.E. overlapping with opposing and expanded fortress walls.  What makes Merv so unique is that you have several distinct historical periods in different garden patches, if you will, waiting to be excavated and discovered.  Luckily our friends had a 4 x 4 and we were able to drive right into the old compounds.  After an hour or so scoping out the best camp area, we stopped by an ancient Buddhist stupa for camp.  The stupa had been created on an opposing wall of the oldest fortress – proving social strife between the diverse compound ethnicity and religions.  There were Greeks, after Alexander the Great, Nestorian Christians, Tar Tars, Buddhists, and Sassanians all grouped together.  There were mounds of earth surrounding us of what once used to be mud huts or buildings.  The stuppa had noticeably melted significantly after each rain that brought new artifacts up to the surface.  We found a nice soft secluded area to pitch our tents, had a few beers, talked about how amazing it was that were were sleeping on the ruins which dated back as far as 3000 B.C.E. and that Alexander the Great could have been standing or setting up camp right where we were.  It was invigorating and made it difficult to sleep because of all the excitement.

The next morning we climbed up Erk Kala, the olded fortress, which Alexander had concured and renamed Alexanderia Margiana.  As we climbed over the rain and errosion melted fortress wall we were in awe of the spectacular preservation of the central portion of the compound, as well as two towers, dating back over 2000 years.  The ground crunched as we walked as it was completly littered with pottery shards.  It was really disturbing to even be walking around on the ground with thousands of years of history below your feet.  It is beyond me why universities do not have professors and student volunteers out here excavating and preserving theses sites.  Then again, Turkmenistan is not exactly an easy country to come in and get these types of permissions with.   Little did we know that this was a the beginning of a long day of exploration of the entire Merv Complex, which is host to a variety of antiquities.

example

In September I was given a new camera for my birthday, the Canon Rebel XS (or 1000D). Its been an amazing camera and has far exceeded my expectations. I feel like the bionic man with how often I have this camera attached to my person, and I feel incomplete when I am without it (but, I have not yet taken to sleeping with it as a security blanket).

Changes in quality
With this new camera I can see a drastic improvement in my photography . Its elevated my ability to contort and control what I see through the viewfinder into something I’d want to see enlarged and hanging on my living room wall.

Features
With the Canon 1000D I took what used to be a minor hobby and have made it into a technical art form (I’m nor bragging, I’m just saying the camera is that good!) I have control over what is in focus. I have control over distances and blur. I have the ability to turn any mundane object into art with this camera by playing with the settings and features.

Confidence builder
I’m also more confident with this camera. Whereas before with a point and shoot I was shy to approach people to snap a meaningful image. Now, with a larger and more authoritative camera I feel like an artist and not just someone breaking privacy laws.

Check out our photo album, you can see a clear line in quality and creativity between my old point-and-shoot camera and the 1000D.

An Invitation to My Elevator Speech

Always looking for a way to improve the site, Abandon the Cube Travel Journal will be participating in a 31 day free online “Blog Optimization” seminar.  The elevator speech is the first section of this seminar and as the organization of the posts & goals of the site have been blurry over the last few months, this will hopefully help ATC (Abandon the Cube) and its readers understand what exaclty can be found here on the site and what will be available over the next few months.

[clearing of  throat noise awkwardly heard] An internet reader and the Abandon the Cube author uncomfortably exchange glances as the elevator doors close.

“So……,” Says the Internet Reader.  “What exaclty are you trying to do here?”  [Annoying elevator music heard in background] The ATC author, taking a deep breath, says:

Have you ever sat at work and dreamed of  abandoning your cubical and traveling the world?  We are living that dream so come live vicariously as we perpetually abandon our cubes.  The Abandon the Cube Travel Journal tells the stories, experiences, histories, methods, and costs of the adventures of Lauren and Mike.  They are quitting their jobs, again, and traveling until they find the next place they would like to live.  Abandon the Cube will contain a brief history and summary  of each country they visit, as well as their travel recommendations, tips and guides to follow the same roads less traveled.

Please also see the newly updated About Us page – contains the same information.

In the future the seminar will not be mentioned, but hopefully over the next month, readers will begin to see significant improvement.  We would like to invite you to contribute to this as well by leaving comments or recommendations in the comment section below the post.  Please let us know if there is anything that we should add, which would make the site more beneficial you (our readers).

A quick plug as well – if you have a blog and are interested in participating in this free seminar to optimize your blog, please go to: www.problogger.net.

Canon

Lauren got a new camera a few months ago and has been relentlessly learning the ins and outs of using a Canon 1000D, or in the States, a Canon Rebel XS.  Our friend Tim, who could be a professional photographer, showed her some new tricks and she has taken to the streets, and Japan, to collect some prized photography.  We will be updating our website, as well as our flickr photo album as frequently as possible.  For the latest photos, please visit our album or subscribe to our RSS feed for blog updates.  Moreover, please see Tim Stelzer’s gallery for some amazing shots from a recent bike trip from Lhasa, Tibet to Nepal.