Issue link: https://bluemagazine.uberflip.com/i/24995
TE "Psst buddy want a. 7';' THE BELLY OF THE BEAST Text: Amy Goldwasser You can know a city's after-hours scene intimately, the best place for pierogi and how to wriggle into muse ums without paying entrance fees, but there's nothing like a snaky subway system to humble even the savvi- est tr �veler. Build your c�nfidence in t�e underground with the �dy. Subway. (http.//metro.jussleu.fr.10001/bin/c ities/ english). It helps ou beat the transportation sys . tem in more than fifty cities, from the usual suspects (New York, Paris, London) to more obscure metropo lises (Helsinki, Sapporo, Bilbao). Just punch in your desired departure and arrival stations, and the site will tell you where you will need to transfer, oftentimes complete with detailed maps. If you're not starting with even that much information, you can call up a list of the city's stations and work from there. It's all there (musicians and homeless people excepted), so you'll never be shamed by your awkwardly unfolded map and finger-pointing communications again. Now if only there were a career-path site that did the same .• FOREIGN CULTURES TO AVOID: THE CENTER FOR DISEASE CONTROL TRAVEL INFORMATION Turn to your buddies for preventive health-care recommendations and you're likely to leave for Laos with little more than condoms, Advil and a false sense of security. Because the old as-Iong-as-you-have-your health adage is equally true when you're far from home, get the facts firsthand from the official Center for Disease Control and Prevention international travel site: (www.cdc.gov/travel/travel.html). The Atlanta-based government agency's online resource offers current and complete news on disease outbreaks and preventive practices as well as exceptionally useful and specific geographic health recommendations. Call liP the region or country you're visiting to find out about necessary vaccinations and precautions and to learn what kind of havoc the local critters can wreak. For the morbidly curious, the site offers plenty of gen eral ickiness abroad. Filariasis, for example, is an unpleasant parasitic roundworm' found in parts of Central and South America, Africa, Asia and the Indian subcontinent that is transmitted through mosquito bites and "lives in the lymph vessels and tissues. Blockage may cause marked enlargement of the legs or other extremities (elephantiasis). No vaccine is available." Not only is the CDC site an invaluable resource for the world traveler, it should also make those with desk sentences feel better about staying home. Airlines us various online resources to inform travelers quickly and cheaply about what's available. Getting a list of possible destinations is pretty inspira tional. It's ea y to start thinking, "Whose couch can I sleep on in Seattle, Santa Fe or Sao Paolo?" or for those really great offers, "What sort of excuse can I use for missing work Monday?" If the online destinations aren't sufficiently exciting, or you need more time to make plans (you can't call in sick every Monday), check out Expedia (expedia.msn.com/daily/Home/default.hts7). Microsoft's travel site lets you type in three destinations, and they'll e-mail you back when cheap fares that you can book in advance become available. Sometimes the net isn't so dark and mysterious after all avJgatoJ;; PICURIOUS TRAVEL (travel.epicurious.com/travel/ c_planning/02_airfares/ intro.html) makes it all easy. They describe the d.ifferent programs and even ' link to the air lines so you can sign up for mailing lists. The only ones Epicurious missed were Reno Air (www.renoair.com) and Valujet{www.valujet.com/netY .html). Epicurious also. lists "the deal of the week," -for example, a recent trip to Palau that included airfare, five nights accommodations.--just about e�ry thing but the diving for $995. If you want all the information consolidated and dropped in your mailbox once a week, then subscribe to TraveIGram(news.travelgram.com/travelgramf). For $25 a year this mailing list will deliver all the fare specials to you. HAPPY TRAILS Text: Barry Zeger No, it's not a recipe page for yummy, fat-laden trail mix com bos. GORP (Great Outdoor Recreation Pages) is arguably the web's most complete resource for adventure travel news. Information ranges from thti Martha Stewart-esque-how to dry your own food and how to cook it while ca m pin g (www.gorp.com/g 0 r p /fo 0 d / fall_har.htm)-to an interactive paint-by-numbers where you click and color the Grand Canyon's various strata (WWW.gorp.com/gcjunkies/straႀ䊉 .htm). GORP also takes you on trips and tours with comprehensive pages covering national parks, wilderness news, hiking, skiing, camping, climbing, fishing ... basically anything and every thing you need to feel inspired to tackle the great outdoors. It even runs contests where you can win a bag of GORP for sustenance you when you get there. www.americanair.com:80/aa_home/neLsaavers.htm For International Travel: www2.amrcorp.com/cgi-bin/intaans TWA's fare sale online: www.twa.com/TWႀ䊉irlines/flights/faresale.htm Northwest's fare sale online: www.nwa.com/nwa/flight/promos/hub/shtml Continental's email list: www.flycontinental.com/index.html Cathay Pacific email list: www.cathay-usa.com!register-simple.html US Air email list: www.usairways.com/travel/esavers.html