Under 24? A member of Globetrotters Club? Interested in a £1,000 travel award?
Know someone who is? We have £1,000 to award each year for five years for the best submitted independent travel plan. Interested?
Then see our legacy page on our Website, where you can apply with your plans for a totally independent travel trip and we'll take a look at it. Get those plans in!!
Serious and not so serious diving news :
Great for recommendations on where to dive, equipment tests and news about new dive sites.
Trying to travel light? Shampoo is not only good for washing hair and body, but clothes as well!
Got any travel tips for the Beetle? Then e-mail them to: the Beetle
A recent report from the Great Barrier Reef in Australia: a Swedish diver had a narrow escape after a giant grouper attempted to swallow his head on New Year's Eve. The diver managed to escape with only a broken mask, cuts and scratches after being spat out.
We had a great crowd to kick off the New Year! Matt Link was our speaker and he did a fabulous job telling us all about Ghana! His pictures were amazing, and he also played Ghanaian music to get us all in the mood. Matt truly immersed us in the country and its people, who are peace loving and warm. Some highlights: Ghana is 30% Muslim, and they are very pro-American. They spoke sadly of the 9/11 attacks. Ghanaians place huge importance on education, for boys and girls. Everything gets carried on their heads, even a refrigerator!! Matt showed us highlights from villages, mosques and a real voodoo ceremony!
The 2nd of February's speaker will be Helga Smith, who will be speaking and presenting a slide show to us about SERVAS. SERVAS began more than 50 years ago, and has expanded worldwide. It is now a network of over 14,000 hosts and travellers, present in 132 countries. Helga will briefly cover the history of SERVAS, its international status as an UN accredited NGO, and explain how SERVAS works. Helga has been a host in New York for more than 15 years and a traveler for at least 10 years as well as participant at national and international conferences. She has met hundreds of SERVAS people and will talk about what the SERVAS experience means to her. Helga grew up in what used to be East Germany and left that country after the Berlin Wall was built. She has been in NYC for the last 35 years.
New York meetings are held at The Wings Theater, 154 Christopher Street (btw Greenwich St and Washington St), to the right of Crunch Fitness, in the Archive on the first Saturday of each month at 4 pm.
Need help? Want a travelling buddy or advice about a place or country – want to share something with us – why not visit our Mutual Aid section of the Website: Mutual Aid
In January 2002, we had 30 people attending our Texas Globetrotter's meeting! More than 50 different people have attended since the first meeting back in July 2001. Ron Woguus shared some of his travel preparation wisdom he has acquired after hundreds of trips. We all shared our travel goals for 2002 by saying them out loud and writing them down, which will definitely help make them happen!
The eighth meeting of the Globetrotters Texas branch will start promptly at 3 p.m. on Saturday, February 9 at the New Braunfels Public Library. We might have a slide show, we will definitely have time to share common vacation goals, and we will talk about a Globies group trip.
Meetings are held at 3pm at the New Braunfels Public Library, 700 E. Common Street in New Braunfels, Texas. The meeting ends at 5 p.m. If you would like to continue travel talk on a more informal basis, we plan to adjourn to the Hoity-Toit, a local New Braunfels establishment. If anybody would like to enquire about meetings or help Christina, please contact her on: texas@globetrotters.co.uk
From Bretislav, in the Czech Republic:
A guy is flying to London checking in at the airlines counter with 3 suitcases. He tells the lady there: “I want the first suitcase checked through to New York, the second to Paris and the third to Bombay.” The lady says, “I'm afraid that won't be possible sir.” The guy says, “Why not? That's what you did to my luggage the last time.”
Spitalfields market is the Beetle's favourite London market. It has the advantage of not being fantastically busy, like Portobello Rd market or Petticoat Lane, and it offers a surprising range of products to buy and things to look at.
It is less than 10 minutes walk from Liverpool Street tube station (get out at the Broadgate exit and just follow everyone else, or ask). It is open on Sundays from around 8am to 3pm. It dates back to 1682 and was once the largest fruit and veg market in London, before it moved location to East London.
Old Spitalfields Market on Commercial Street was the location of a medieval hospital and priory of St. Mary Spital founded in 1197. Back then, this was the outside boundary of London, and the hospital is reputed to have provided shelter to travellers, hence the name `Spital fields'. The area remained fields until Charles II founded the fruit, flower and vegetable market in 1682. Another claim to fame is that Spitalfields was the site of Jack the Ripper's first victim!
Today, you can buy organic meat, vegetables, bread and patisserie, second hand books and records, vintage clothes, gemstones, jewellery, candles, pictures, kites – all sorts! There are a couple of cafes and pubs close by if you are in need of sustenance after a hard few hours seeing what the market has to offer.
Want to tell us about your local market? Contact the Beetle: the Beetle
Next month: Borough Market, London, as featured in Bridget Jones' Diary
Meeting news from our branches around the world.