London’s Wrenaissance

For most Londoners their city is entwined with the artwork of Christopher Wren. When London was ravaged by the Great Fire of 1666, it was Wren who rebuilt the entire city, searching for a way to bring elegance and tenderness to a burgeoning metropolis. It is this humanity about Christopher Wren’s architectural designs that speaks to me. This is why, every time I visit London, England, I make a beeline towards his ultimate masterpiece, St. Paul’s Cathedral. Perhaps it is the seamless way Wren mingles eastern curves with western straight symmetry. Perhaps it is the way the interior of his constructions play with innovative designs borrowed from the classical Romans. Perhaps it is the way he blends refinement and gaudiness for a look that is purely English. More likely it is a summation of these qualities that not only makes me an admirer of Christopher Wren’s talents, but also endears the city of London to me.

Food Etiquette

You can’t make an omelet without cracking a few eggs. In the spirit of broadening our horizons, we’ve made plenty of cultural faux pas, especially when it comes to food etiquette. Such as the time we ordered a cappuccino for lunch in Rome, Italy. Or the lunch in Paris where we started munching from the bread basket while waiting for our meal. Then there was a trip to Thailand where we attempted to eat rice with a fork. While we’ve made countless more dining mistakes during our travels, we don’t regret a single one of them! Why? Because, each of our mistakes helped start a conversation that eventually helped us gain insight into a unique and diverse range of cultures. Etiquette isn’t something to be scoffed at, simply because it isn’t your etiquette. The rules usually exist because they represent thousands of years of cultural beliefs, interesting folklore, or a very practical if hidden reason. In its own way, food etiquette embodies the personality of a destination in its strange and rigid tenets. So, while we will continue to break food etiquette in many more towns, villages, and cities, we look forward to having them corrected by a smile, a shake of the head, and an explanation of why people do things the way they do.

What food etiquette rules have you broken?

The New and Improved Bespoke Traveler Website

The Bespoke Traveler team has been working hard to create a new website that clearly defines who we are and what we are all about. We spent months agonizing over a lot of the details of the website, and we hope our readers and fans will love the new site even more than they loved the old one. If you’re looking for travel tales, traveler interviews, and stories about how the way we lived connects with the way we live now, visit our website and take a look at our digital books and journals.

Let us know what you think. Cheers.

The History of The English Language in Ten Minutes (Video found on YouTube)

Reblogged from Sojourning Abroad:

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I found this video by The Open University on YouTube.  It is awesome and hilarious.  Me and Christian recently got into a conversation about the origin of English and this video is awesome!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rexKqvgPVuA&feature=player_embedded

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I also found this cool picture showing a timeline of the english language.

Learning about the english language this week thanks to Sojourning Abroad and The Open University on YouTube.