SayHi is kind of like Siri, but actually helpful and not as rude when it doesn’t understand you. The app takes the words you speak into your phone and turns them into text, then translates that text to the language of your choice and repeats the new phrase back to you verbally. I tried it with both Spanish and French, but you can choose from 24 languages and dialects that the app can understand.

There are other translation apps like this on the market, but citing my own experimentation and all of the testimonials I have read, I can honestly say that this one is as flaw free as one could possibly hope. Sure, you may have to repeat yourself once or twice on especially difficult phrases, but once the program recognizes the correct words it translates them seamlessly. Besides the accuracy of the translations, SayHi is amazing because the interpreted phrases are said back to you with impeccable pronunciation from native speakers. That’s a hell of a lot easier than trying to sound it out yourself.

Perhaps the best part about this app is how easy it is to switch between the two languages being translated, making it the perfect mediator in conversation while on the road in a foreign country where they speak a different tongue. With the tap of a button, SayHi will immediately switch its voice recognition thingamajig (that’s the technical term) to understand when the second language is spoken, then translate those words back to the original speaker’s language and display the conversation on screen like an SMS text. Cool, right?

As a fallen language buff who’s jetting off to Madrid in three months, I fully intend to dig out my old Spanish textbooks and go through a self-guided refresher course. But in the likely event that I blow that off for more amusing summertime endeavors, I’ll have this handy tool to help me out when I can remember my irregular verbs.

Although, who am I kidding, I already know how to ask “¿dónde está la cerveza?” and that’s probably all I’ll be saying.

Have you tried SayHi, or do you have another preferred app for your translation needs? Let us know in the comments!

Athens is one of the liveliest cities in Europe once the sun goes down. The locals love nothing better than having a drink (whatever night of the week it is) and each year thousands of visitors flock into the central areas to experience it all for themselves. Everyone knows the city’s reputation, but what is the nightlife actually like? Are there bars and clubs which everyone heads to for the best music, cocktails and atmosphere? Once you know the inside scoop on Athens nightlife, you’ll soon be booking all inclusive package holidays to Athens in no time:

If you like a dance…

If a good night out involves getting your glad-rags on and heading out to the local nightclub to dance the night away until the wee small hours, Athens will not disappoint. There are many areas of the city which attract the crowds, with one of the most popular being Psirri. Here you’ll find a plethora of Athens clubs, all of which will meet every single one of your requirements. Sizes vary establishment to establishment, so take a tour and find a club which suits your tastes in music and have the time of your life.

If you like music…

Is going to bars that hold live gigs and performances your thing? Athens has plenty to offer you in that case, just head down to the industrial district of Gazi. Here, many of the old factories have been converted into bars and clubs which attract bands and famous performers who set up and play in these truly unique bars and clubs. If you have never heard live traditional Greek music, when in Gazi try and find Pireos Street. This is where all of the traditional performers tend to be found and it can be a real treat to see the best of Greek music in the flesh.

If you like to drink…

Let’s face it, having a beer or glass of wine is the cornerstone of a good night out, and sometimes all you want is a good drink somewhere with a nice atmosphere and a fully stocked bar. There are many places that fit the bill, one of which is A for Athens. This is perhaps the best rooftop bar in town and offers its patrons stunning views of the Parthenon. Other highlights include the cocktail bar Tailor Made and Vrettos, which claims to be the oldest bar in Athens! 7 Jokers is a funky alternative which, despite being snug in terms of size, enjoys a big reputation.

Athens, like any big European city, has plenty of nightlife options throughout its centre and surrounding suburbs. If partying is your thing, though, you’ll be especially suited to Athens. Just find the place which suits you best and have the time of your life!

Written by Ricky Durrance for travel specialists Beat the Brochure, who can provide cheap holidays to Greece and beyond. 

Photos courtesy of Ricky Durrance

Lonely Island, the first hopeless place in a book of many.

But what happens when the dreamy islands of our imagination don’t turn out to be so idyllic in real life? This is one of the many themes that German cartographer Judith Schalansky explores in the amazingly emo-titled book “Atlas of Remote Islands: Fifty Islands I Have Never Set Foot On and Never Will”. The atlas won the award for Germany’s most beautiful book after it was released in 2009 thanks to Schalansky’s beautiful hand-drawn maps, but the real triumph of the book is how it effortlessly breaks down the allure of an island and replaces it with a deep-down feeling of loneliness and dread.

I told you it was emo.

Schalansky sets up her thesis right in the title of her introduction: “Paradise is an island. So is Hell.” She starts by admitting the magnetic force of islands, which seemingly await discovery by brave explorers looking to find (and claim) something otherwise unknown to the world:

The island seems to be in its element, still in its natural state, unchanged since the beginning, paradise before the fall from grace, innocent and unblushing.

And then she gets real:

A remote island makes a natural prison: surrounded by the monotonous, insurmountable walls of a persistent, ever-present sea, far away from the trade routes which tie overseas colonies to their mother countries like umbilical cords, they are well-suited as places in which to gather everything that is undesirable, displaced, and digressive.

The fifty islands she showcases all have stories of death, destruction, or crippling loneliness that Schalansky took the time to research and transform into haunting prose. Through all these tales of exile, disease, rape, murder, and cannibalism, Schalansky paints a picture of the “island” as a place where man goes to live out his best intentions and, in turn, ends up destroying the land and himself:

There is no untouched garden of Eden lying at the edges of this never-ending globe. Instead, human beings travelling far and wide have turned into the very monsters they chased off the maps.

How dark! I love it. And you will too. If the subject matter seem’s a little too macabre for your liking, remember that each depressing story is counterbalanced by a beautiful map. After all, the most basic form of travel literature is the picture book known as an atlas, so this fresh take on the old art of map making deserves a place on every traveler’s bookshelf.

Maybe don’t read it before your next trip to Hawaii, though.

 Photo courtesy of wanderlust.co.uk

For us, food is as much a part of the travel experience as visiting cultural points of interest or debating with an airline clerk about whether your checked luggage is over fifty pounds or not. It’s nearly impossible to stay on a diet while on the road, and for good reason: the local food you find on your travels is so entwined with the culture of the place that you can’t help but sample every regional delicacy and literally ingest a foreign part of the world. While we at Travel Freak are dedicated to showcasing examples of culinary culture, there’s a blog out there called Eat Your World that has us beat by a landslide with their coverage of the food travel realm.

Run by travel writer Laura Siciliano-Rosen and photographer Scott Rosen, Eat Your World is online guide that introduces readers to locations via the food and drink consumed there. We’re not talking about the best Big Mac in town or the tastiest Italian restaurant in Paris — these two globetrotting foodies have a taste for distinct local foods and a passion for encouraging others to follow their taste buds around the world.

And when they say local food, they mean local:

In this context, “distinct foods” also includes those that are locally grown, sourced, or made, as local soils, waters, and climates are likewise inextricably linked to local foods, traditions, and the people consuming them.

While this biomolecular take on world cuisine may seem like the best way to fully get a taste of a new destination, the husband and wife duo dig even deeper into the foods of their host cities by focusing on the preservation of “esoteric dishes” — foods that are knit so tightly into the history of a place that eating them is an act of anthropological discovery. An Aztec delicacy in Mexico City and a lunch item popular in 18th century Philadelphia are just two of such dishes they list.

And like the Adopt a Museum project we showcased earlier this week, Eat Your World is not only great for travel research and inspiration but also because readers can become active participants in the culinary exploration. Laura and Scott share their personal food travel stories (they just recently got back from a food-filled trip to Africa), but the site also acts a forum for other travelers to submit their recommendations on the best ways to experience world culture through food. Readers can upload pictures of local foods and beverages into the site’s database, or (if they’re feeling chatty) write about their experiences with food travel and traditions.

If the mere thought of this foodie overload fills you with the post-binge feelings of bodily shame and intense sleepiness, have no fear: Laura and Scott are also big fans of exercise and comfy accommodations, so besides describing a city’s culinary wonders they’re also keen on telling readers about the best ways to burn off their meals and, subsequently, the best places to hit the hay.

Food has always been an intermediary force in bringing people of different cultures together, and with Eat Your World this force is brought to your fingertips. We hope that what you find on the site will encourage you to get out and discover a new destination while stuffing your face, and if you’re lucky enough to have experienced food travel yourself we encourage you to share your photos and stories with others.

Go break some bread!

Featured Image courtesy of exfordy via Flickr
Photo via Eat Your World 

Whereas most New Yorkers board planes, trains, and automobiles to escape the city for one last summertime hurrah, we’ll only be traveling on the subway up to Randall’s Island where the 3-day festival is being held. Sandwiched between Manhattan, Queens, and the Bronx, Randall’s Island provides the perfect escape from the concrete jungle with open fields and expansive recreational areas — most of which will be devoted to DJs and the concertgoers who love them come Labor Day weekend.

Started in 2009, Electric Zoo has quickly become a premier event for dance music in New York and the United States as a whole, catering to a diverse crowd of music lovers whose main interest is dancing like there’s no tomorrow. And dance they will: this year’s lineup includes heaver-hitter acts like David Guetta, Diplo, Tiësto, and Skrillex, all of whom are known to deliver beats infectious enough to get even the most inept dancer moving to the rhythm.

While we’re excited for the festival, we’re also excited to see a part of our home city that we otherwise probably wouldn’t visit. Having never been to Randall’s Island, we consider Electric Zoo an opportunity to explore the big backyard of New York that we frequently neglect. There are countless spots in and around this city that go unnoticed by visitors and residents alike because they are out of the way or less heavily trafficked, but it always pays to get to know your home a little better — and that’s what a staycation is all about, right?

If you’re interested in attending Electric Zoo (as a staycation or a full-blown getaway) head over to the Made Event website and pick up your tickets. For out-of-town guests they even offer a travel package complete with lodging. And if the price tag makes you wince, keep in mind that the people behind the festival have been known to put some of that money back into programs on Randall’s Island. So come on, dance for a good cause, people!

We’ll be covering the event after we get back from our two-week trip to Spain in August, but while we wait, tell us about your staycation experiences! Have you ever done something to rediscover your hometown or see it in a different light?

Featured Image courtesy of weeklydig via Flickr

People travel for many reasons, but paramount among them is the desire to become better acquainted with another culture. This is evidenced by the fact that the majority of tourists make a stop at some sort of museum in each of their destinations. We here at Travel Freak are big fans of the smaller, niche museums around the world because they are oftentimes more palatable than giant culture houses like the Met or the Louvre when it comes to cultural absorption — and by the looks of Museum 140‘s Adopt a Museum project, we aren’t the only ones.

The idea behind the project is simple: let people know about great museums around the globe that are unappreciated by the masses. The method of doing so, it turns out, is even simpler: provide a forum for like-minded museophiles to sing the praises of their favorite collections of world culture. At the risk of annoying y’all with a gigantic pull quote, I’ll let the Museum 140 team explain the concept further:

As the name implies, the idea it that people ‘adopt’ a museum that they would like to champion. Of course, it’s not a real adoption, there’s no money or other official sponsorship involved, think of it in the sense of being an ambassador. On a regular basis (we’re aiming for weekly, if enough people get involved), the ‘Adopt-a-Museum’ website will feature a new museum for you to discover, and if it’s a museum you’re already familiar with you’ll be able to add your own stories via the comments.

The adopted museums are just as varied as one would expect out of this submission-based platform: in the past month alone, museums in Arkansas, Germany, and Ireland have been featured, and there are currently 37 entries to peruse. Any traveler who has stumbled upon a goldmine of a museum can make good use of this site by sharing their knowledge and, in turn, learn about a must-see site that they never knew existed. They’ve even gone ahead and compiled a map of all the cultural destinations so travelers can include them in their journeys.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the Adopt a Museum project is how it has brought the often stuffy world of museum promotion into the interactive world of social media — Museum 140 runs active Facebook and Twitter pages, and the tag #adoptamuseum can be used to search out Tweets about the year-old project.

Do you have a favorite museum somewhere in the world that doesn’t get the respect it deserves? Tell us about it in the comments, but more importantly, head over to the Adopt a Museum blog and “adopt” your little guy today.

Featured Image courtesy of digital cat via Flickr

The party island of Ibiza is better known for its bacchanalia than for its natural beauty, but if you can look past the pendulous breasts of that topless party girl shimmying on the beach, you’ll find a scenic environment worth photographing. So I hope you enjoy these photos of Ibiza, because they’re probably the only ones that are appropriate enough to be published on the internet. The others, well… let’s just say they shouldn’t be seen by the general public, let alone my sister and infant niece who follow Travel Freak religiously.

But really, that is neither here nor there. Have a happy Friday, and remember to follow us on Twitter!

It’s been a while since we’ve featured an alcoholic drink from somewhere around the world, and for good reason — we were worried that we were starting to be seen as the Lindsay Lohan of the travel blogosphere, and no one wants to be slapped with that reputation. But here we are, back to responsibly drinking our way from one country to the next. This week’s beverage is from south of the border, just in time for every American’s favorite faux-Mexican holiday of Cinco de Mayo. Actually, with its similarities to a Bloody Mary, the michelada might be more of a May 6th drink.

Known in Mexico as a potent hangover cure, the michelada takes the basic ingredients of a Bloody Mary and mixes them with tasty Mexican beer instead of vodka. Combining beer with other ingredients (especially spicy ones) is actually fairly common in Mexico where the resulting cocktails are called cervezas preparadas – “prepared beers” in the literal translation.

As with most cocktails, there are several variations of the michelada that include everything from soy sauce to slices of chili pepper. If you want the best remedy for your post-Cinco de Mayo tequila burps, however, look no further than this recipe that we generously translated into lingo your hungover brain will understand:

Travel Freak’s Michelada Recipe

1 12 oz bottle of Negra Modelo (a dark Mexican beer — trust me, you’ll like it)
1 hearty splash of tomato juice
2 taps of a bottle of Worcestershire
1 sprinkle of your preferred hot sauce (I like Cholula, on pretty much everything)
1 delicate squeeze of half a lemon
1 tiny pinch of cayenne pepper

After mixing the ingredients, serve on ice (no one likes drinking warm beer the morning after a bender) in a tall mug with a salted rim. Maybe even throw some more of that cayenne pepper onto the rim as a spicy punishment for your uncouth behavior the night before.

Have you ever tried a michelada, as a hangover cure or otherwise?

Featured Image courtesy of referenzia via Flickr

I’ve eaten a lot of cheeseburgers in my day, but I can hardly call myself an expert on flame broiled beef patties and their accouterments. I can, however, fill you in on where to get the finest cheeseburgers in New York. So, according to my taste buds, here are the five best burgers in NYC (in no particular order, because I don’t want to hear any backlash if a reader’s favorite spot isn’t number one):

Shake Shack

I guarantee that the moment you bite into Shake Shack‘s signature ShackBurger, you will have such an intense mouthgasm that you won’t even care about the stream of meat grease and special sauce oozing between your fingers and down your forearm. Opened in 2004 by famed restaurateur Danny Meyer in Madison Square Park, Shake Shack has branched out to other locations all over New York to bring their burgers, fries, and frozen custards (all made with fresh, local ingredients) to the hungry masses.

And don’t worry, no one will judge you if you lick that stream of burger fluid off your arm.

Featured Image courtesy of Rex Roof via Flickr
Photo courtesy of  scaredy_kat via Flickr

On the next page: Let’s get organic.

]]> http://www.travelfreak.com/2012/05/02/5-best-burgers-in-nyc/feed/ 1 http://www.travelfreak.com/2012/05/01/10-best-travel-games-to-take-on-the-road/ http://www.travelfreak.com/2012/05/01/10-best-travel-games-to-take-on-the-road/#comments Tue, 01 May 2012 22:26:04 +0000 Steven http://www.travelfreak.com/?p=2155 Whether by plane, train, or automobile, being in transit on your way out of town can be mind-numbingly boring depending on the length of travel time and the ease at which you are entertained. With that being said, we should all be thankful that we live in a world where stationary board games can be transformed into travel games by simply shrinking the pieces and stuffing them into portable sacks.

You may be asking, “But Steven, why do I need to pack a travel game when I can easily download fun apps on my smartphone?” My answer to that is twofold — first, because the most fun games like Words with Friends and Draw Something don’t work on airplanes (unless you keep your phone off airplane mode or pay for in-flight wifi, neither of which I recommend), and second, because I don’t think we should put too much trust in all these newfangled apparatuses lest we wish to one day be ruled by malevolent robot overlords.

But enough chatter about my distrust of technology — here are Travel Freak’s top ten travel games to play with a buddy on your journeys:

10. M.A.S.H.

M.A.S.H. is not technically a travel game, but it makes this list because of how easy it is to take with you on the go — all you need to play this game of divination is a pen, some paper, and a little bit of imagination. The acronym stands for Mansion, Apartment, Shack or House, and when these living options are combined with categories like spouse, job, location, and number of children, the result is a fictional future for you or the person you’re playing with. If you never played M.A.S.H. in grade school against some bully who always stuck you in a shack married to the ugly Backstreet Boy, you can find out how to play on this site.

9. Uno

Anyone who knows what colors and numbers are can play Uno, which makes it the perfect game to bring on a solo trip to a country where you don’t speak the language. No more lonely nights in that hostel in Moscow playing solitaire if you pack Uno in your carry-on. All you have to do is make eye contact with the hip looking Russians in the common room and suggestively hold up a deck of Uno cards and a bottle of vodka, and you’ll be playing game after rousing game until the sun rises over the Kremlin.

Uno: breaking the language barrier, one “wild card” at a time.

8. Travel Mancala

World travelers will be especially interested in this game, which has roots dating back to ancient Ethiopia. You can even see centuries old Mancala boards carved into stone in Axum, the former capital of the once-great Aksumite Kingdom of Ethiopia. Hey, who knew a game that entails moving beads from one hole to another could be so riveting?

7. Old Maid

Full disclosure: I have absolutely no idea how to play Old Maid. Someone tried to teach me once on an 11-hour Amtrak ride to Montreal, but then the dining car opened and I got distracted by a surprisingly delicious microwaved cheeseburger. I may not have learned the rules, but that doesn’t mean you can’t — find out how to play the (surprisingly easy looking) card game here.

And if you need solid proof that Old Maid is a quality travel game, there’s an episode of Sex and the City titled “Luck Be an Old Lady” in which the game plays an integral role during the ladies’ bus trip to Atlantic City. If that doesn’t make you want to run out and buy a deck of cards, I don’t know what will.

6. Trivial Pursuit Singles

Let’s face it, avid travelers can be real know-it-alls. I mean, we’ve been everywhere and seen so much that we naturally know more than everyone else, right? That’s why this pared-down version of Trivial Pursuit is a great option for the gamer on the go. The bulky board has been removed, and the best part is that each pack contains only one of the six classic Trivial Pursuit topics so you can select your strongest subject and show off to whoever has the misfortune of sitting next to you on the plane.

Go on to the next page to see the top 5 travel games!