From Russia with Valentine's Love

Being a busy board member I've voluntarily spent many hours this week building a flash website for the Albany Tula Alliance. This preliminary site is far from finished though. A truly professional design firm will be hired to finish the painstaking task of organizing 20 years of partnership into a polished showpiece that all of Albany (and Tula) can be proud of.

We've even gone mainstream with a Twitter account that desperately needs some followers. Next up, Facebook, a blog and Paypal. Hey, it's 2010 - time to show the community how close our two worlds really are.

Of course, the ATA is always looking for more membership, sponsors and donations. And if you're interested in a little love this Valentines sign up for our banquet dinner at the Opalka Gallery on Sunday the 14th. The traditional Tula, Russian Dance Ensemble "Varen'ka" will choreograph a dance performance after a wine and cocktail buffet. For more information check out the events page on the website.

I'm off to NYC in the morning to toy in some of Manhattan's best kept secrets. Check back soon for highlights.

Hey Baby, How 'Bout Caulking My Tub?

Today was spent prowling around the Great Northeast Home Show with friends Mariam and Stacy. And you know? This beats bar hopping any day. There's twice as many men and they all know how to fix a leaky faucet.

Stacy fell head over heels for a kiosk called "Basement & Crawl Space" while Miriam flirted with the "Fresh Coat Painters" and I went all googly-eyed over "Solar Made Simple."

We had found HGTV-nirvana under two gigantic roofs, the Times Union Center (formerly known as Pepsi Arena) and Empire State Plaza Concourse. We toasted to our good fortune with 3 plastic cups of Chardonnay sold at the concession stand squeezed between an exit corridor and "Carpet & Flooring."

We left with as many business cards as we could realizing that, sooner or later, we'd have to whittle it down to one contractor not ten. I went so far as to even accept a free estimate maybe two.

God knows what will become of me after all my gutters are clean.

True Grit at Ten Above Zero

Trying to keep a resolution in the dead of winter is no easy task but weather is no excuse. Not even a giant blast of cold arctic air nearly knocking me over as I force open the front door is an excuse.

My feet hit the pavement for the 28th straight day of running dressed wisely in several layers. It's no easy feat but the full moon supplies me with just enough light to dodge ice patches, cars and recycling bins lost to the wind.

I prefer running at night, well, maybe not especially tonight but exercising under the stars to hit songs by Coldplay... Look at the stars, see how they shine for you... makes this grueling resolution more tolerable than it sounds.

I round a bend and my new sneaks grip the icy gravel like a 4-wheel SUV. Great traction, no slippage, I'm happy. Some mailboxes are propped open from the wind. I aim to shut them dashing past but my hands are too numb from fiddling with my I-Pod volume.

Which leads me to ask: Why did Apple engineers design the I-Pod to be used only by bare hands and not, say, someone wearing mittens or gloves? Technology like that baffles me.

I take no shortcuts or breaks. I keep moving, mostly out of fear of frostbite if I slow down. Finally, I'm home! I clock in with a most embarrassing 5K time but the resolution is put to bed in clean conscience that is until tomorrow when I run the gauntlet all over again.

Smart Trash Cans with a Small Footprint

Tomorrow is garbage day in Bethlehem which brings me to rather dirty subject... trash collection. Yes, it's a rather slow travel week for PilotGirl but my second favorite subject besides travel is the environment so today's blog is all about municipal solid waste. Hey now, don't laugh, this is very serious issue.

Did you know that on average, Americans throw away 30lbs of trash per week? Some of the neighbors in my suburban ozone look like they contribute twice that much! 30lbs a week totals 245 million tons a year. When fuel, labor and equipment is factored in it's no wonder that some city governments want to curb illegal dumping and pilfering.



Voila! The solution - the BigBelly Solar. While in Philadelphia last year I noticed these receptacles but thought nothing of their significance. It turns out that the trash cans reduce collection trips up to 80% saving the city huge amounts of diesel costs.

It works like this: the sun provides the energy for a mechanism to engage inside the BigBelly and crush the garbage every time it reaches a certain limit. This allows the can to contain 4 to 8 times the trash load of conventional wire trash cans. Ultimately the increased capacity of the BigBelly mean less trips by noisy garbage trucks, hence reducing noise and air pollution as well.

Also, these smart trash cans contain a wireless device that alerts home base when they need emptying.

To date, over 2,000 BigBellies have been sold across the U.S. and in 17 countries around the world. Might Albany, Troy, Schenectady or Saratoga be in need of a few? It sure would be nice if my neighborhood trash bins could do the same.

Flight of Fancy

Are you ready for a virgin flight aboard the largest airliner in the world? The A380 is Air France's national carrier between John F. Kennedy, NYC and Paris, France and if you read my blog during my Tunisia trip I was lucky enough to board this new plane.

Read about the flight at GoNomad.com and say goodbye to claustrophobia if you plan to ride this double-decker. My economy seat gave me about 5% more room which was nice when the guy in front of me reclined his seat. I didn't have to stare at his bald spot or listen to his snores. Still, it was a coach seat and the business and first class are where you're going to want to be if you fly.

Running into Ron Houser

He's not a doctor but he plays one in his shop. In fact, he's better than a doctor. Ron Houser is a ABC Board Certified Pedorthist and, lucky for me, helped find the perfect sneaker to alleviate a painful sciatic nerve in my left leg.

After skiing Friday, Nola and I went looking for some winter sales at The Mountain Goat, a well-stocked outdoor clothing shop in Manchester, Vermont. I stumbled upon a collection of new shoes at the back of the store.

"Can I try this orange pair on?" I asked a sales person.
"Do you intend to run it in?"
"Yes, I cross train on roads and trails."
"Oh, in that case, you need this one," Ron pointed to a pair of baby blue Montrails, on sale with a sleek tread and mid-foot support for my high arch.

After that, for over 30 minutes, my feet, legs and hip bones were poked, prodded and pressed to determine how and why I have sciatica. The evaluation lead to a full and accurate description of my lower anatomy and footprint. Proof came from the insert of my overused pair of blue Merrills. My Yoga Instructor Nola listened intently to make sure that this was no sales pitch.

Ron is an athlete himself and schooled himself about orthopedics shortly after his own set of sufferings. He was able to do to me in under an hour what would have taken weeks at my HMO to learn. He went on to recommend an easy solution for stretching out the hamstring and the quadriceps muscles with a lightweight foam roller. All I need is ten minutes of time to prep the leg before and after running and no expensive PT.

Guess where I'll be buying my shoes from now on?

The Mountain Goat is at 4886 Historic Main Street, Manchester, right across from every Vermonters (mine too) favorite bookstore, The Northshire Bookstore.

Putting Politics into Perspective

Can you hear him? My politically astute pal Bob English in Saratoga Spa is beyond pissed. He's at the window now yelling “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore!” And who can blame him?

The McCain-Feingold Act is no more. Progressive radio Air America is no more. Health care reform is no more. And the sadness prevails in Haiti. But the worst news this week, brace yourself, is of a 13-year Saudi girl sentenced to 90 lashes and 2 months of detention for bringing a cell phone to school. Yes, a cell phone.

Saudi Arabia has been on the Human Rights watch list for hundreds of cases of human rights violations that include flogging, amputation, torture and beheadings.

In 2006, a Saudi teenager was sentenced to 200 lashes and six months in prison after she was the victim of a gang rape.

In March, 2002, at least fourteen schoolgirls died at a school in Saudi Arabia after religious police stopped them from fleeing a fire. The religious police maintained that they could not leave the building because they were not wearing correct Islamic dress.

And, in February, 2008 religious police arrested a Saudi psychology academic for having coffee with a female student. He faced 180 lashes for the act.

The moral of this story is when things in the United States seem out of control they aren't anywhere near as bad as in Saudi Arabia... yet.

A Literary Lion on the Big Screen

Having visited his grand Utopian estate just south of Tula, Russia, I can't wait to see the film "The Last Station," by Michael Hoffman. The movie debuts at the Spectrum in less than a week.

When he was alive, Tolstoy was of the most famous writers in the world. Even though he was a wealthy man with 13 children, his radical philosophies included passive resistance, vegetarianism and celibacy. His writings influenced Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Tolstoy's house at Yasnaya Polyana is a museum which includes his library of 22,000 volumes, his simple grave site, 10 acres of fir groves where Tolstoy gathered inspiration and the desk where he wrote manuscripts including 'War and Peace.'

Inside an Olive Oil Factory in Tebourba, Tunisia

While in Tebourba, Tunisia a few weeks ago, I shot the inside of a first cold press olive oil factory or mill as the owner calls it. His name is Abdelmajid Mahjoub and his famous olive oil company is called Moulins Mahjoub.

Bottles of his wonderful tabletop flavors (extra virgin olive oil, Mediterranean artichoke spreads and gourmet olives) can be found in high-end specialty shops like Dean & Deluca and Le Pain Quotidien.

I would have liked to have used subtitles in editing this video but I too couldn't understand each and every word Mr. Mahjoub spoke. Still, regardless, his passion and enthusiasm for his thriving olive oil business since 1993 is obvious and he welcomes visitors for a tour and taste-testing anytime.

The First Men in the Moon in 3-D

Over the weekend, I interviewed friend and colleague, Northeast producer, director and animator, David Rosler. This is, after all, a travel blog and though I've never been to the moon, David has in his newly completed H.G. Wells sci-fi classic called "H. G. Wells - The First Men in the Moon In 3-D."

PilotGirl: Hello, David!

David: Hi. Great to talk with you again. For those who don’t know, Pilotgirl did some extraordinary camera work on the film.

PilotGirl: Thanks buddy. And, you're not too shabby yourself directing this flick. For our listening audience (or reading on the blog), David Rosler lives about 2 hours north of Albany. He's been a science fiction and fantasy films fan watching works by stop-motion pioneer Ray Harryhausen since childhood. Between animation and FX assignments, he's done a tremendous amount of work in design and illustration for some of Madison Ave's largest Ad Agencies. He's here to talk to us about his latest film, H.G. Well's classic "The First Men in the Moon."



PilotGirl:Why would you want to remake this lunar classic H.G. Wells novel? First, it takes a tremendous amount of special effects and second, aren't you worried that it will be compared with other adaptations?

David:Films with the imagination that effects make manifest have always been a passion for me. I started out in animation and visual effects. As far as other adaptations, no one has really ever done the book as written until now, so I feel pretty good about our version standing up to the others.

PilotGirl:How much of the original script, including memorable quotes like "Madam, the chances of bagging an elephant on the Moon are remote" are part of this adaptation?

David:Well, we stuck to the book, and the “Madam” in the quote you cite does not exist in the book – only one film version of the book - and therefore so, too, then, does the quote not exist in our film, either, though there is a somewhat similar line in the novel. It’s a terrific novel, and it seems silly to presume to re-write something that good except for where the budget doesn’t allow something as written.

PilotGirl:How time-consuming and expensive was it to make this film? Did you run into any serious roadblocks with cast or crew?

David:Well, one never tells the budget unless it’s to try to impress people, but it took over 2 years, and this was no part-time endeavor. You have giant worms called mooncalves, a race of ant-men-like beings called Selenites, the environment, the low gravity (zero gravity traveling there) so it gets a bit complicated on a TV-movie budget.

PilotGirl:It's ironic that the BBC is now producing a 2-D version of "H.G. Wells' The First Men in the Moon". It sounds like the popularity of this genre might be coming back. Any thoughts?

David:Yes, there is a science fiction sub-genre called Steampunk that’s an artistic and cultural movement based on the retro-futurists of Victorian-era Europe, like Jules Verne and Wells, and that’s really starting to blossom. And the Steampunk people have caught onto the fact of this film and seem generally pretty enthusiastic about it, so far. The other side is we started letting the film industry know about this film about 2 months before the BBC announced theirs, so I’d say the timing is interesting.



PilotGirl:What do you hope audiences will say about your film after they watch it? Are you hopeful that it will eventually run on the Sci-fi Channel?

David:I hope they say, “Hey, I just really enjoyed that really good movie.” It isn’t only for sci-fi fans. There’s a moral to the tale as is often the case with Wells, but first and foremost it’s the audience being happy that matters most; pretensions and illusions of greatness are better left for Caesar aspirants. Maybe it will run on sci-fi, but it’s the distribution deal that determines such things. The First Men In The Moon certainly fits the name of the channel, however, doesn’t it?

PilotGirl:Where and when can Capital Region residents see the film?

David:We ran a rough cut for a couple of science fiction societies to make sure we weren’t angering the literary faithful, and got soaring high marks from them, but this isn’t the kind of film that will be playing in theaters. It’s TV and DVD only. So capital region viewers will be able to see it on that black box in the living room, but I can’t say when because we haven’t attempted any distribution deals yet – this one is hot off the presses and being 3-D, there are a lot of options. It’s a big world out there for well-produced 3-D science fiction right now, obviously. Your readers can, however, keep track of the film and read about the making of the film and the history of the book and H.G. Wells – and even play some online games and join the Facebook page - at the official website First Men in the Moon. And I hope they enjoy the film, truly. It’s a fun, thoughtful and entertaining story and we’ve tried to tell it in a fun, thoughtful and entertaining way, pretty much just as Wells wrote it.

PilotGirl: Just between you and me, I only scored 900 out of 2000 points on the sci-fi quiz at the website. I guess I'm not as geeky as I hoped - drats. Thanks for taking the time to talk to us, David and good luck with the distribution. We'll be watching.

Hitchhiking from Vermont to Hawaii

My little blue Mazda has been tearing up the New York Thruway all week: Manhattan, Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse. You'd think by Friday I'd give my overworked cylinders a rest. Think again.

Friday was too balmy not to escape to the Green Mountain State for round 2 of skiing at Stratton. Coming home on Route 7, Nola and I agreed to pull over and pick up a hitchhiker. Hey, it's Vermont - it's practically mandatory that locals bum rides from strangers long before their learners permit.

The pretty little thing wore long red hair in braids and struggled with a heavy black backpack. She was just hippie and alternative enough for me to deem her trustworthy and there was plenty of room for her beside our skis.

Plus, who doesn't fear the worst when they see a lone female hitcher? Better that she get an earful of motherly caution from Nola and I than a ride or something far worse from a pervert.

She had just hitched 50 miles from the capital of Vermont, Montpelier, and was destined for Hawaii but first she needed a lift to the Amtrack train station in Rensselaer. "No problem," I said. "I'll take you to the front door. Hop in."

I didn't mean to pry but hitching always conjures up so many questions for me. Who are these souls who can wander the country with limited concern for safety, shelter, food, money or direction? Lea dropped few hints in the way of answers.

In a hushed voice, she said that a friend wasn't speaking to her and that upset her enough to skip off to Hawaii. I dug a little deeper. She confessed that her parents didn't approve of her hitching lifestyle and four years studying at a top college in Maine yielded no degree and no work.

At 24 years of age there would have been no way I'd dream of doing something so carefree, uninhibited, risky, and might I dare say naive as Lea? Even today when I travel, I Facebook, Twitter, blog and email beforehand so everyone knows where, when and how I'm getting to my destination. Unlike my new backpacking buddy, I am never without an itinerary or contingency plans.

I guess that would make Lea the ultimate thrill-seeker, the bonafide adventurer, the globetrotting heroine and the brave drifter.

Once at the train station, I helped her with her bags and hugged her goodbye. "Stay away from rides from men!" I blurted. I waved goodbye, hopeful that she'd find her way to Hawaii but, still, no closer to relating to the world of a chronic hitchhiker.

World's Best Dessert Wine

Just because there's three feet of snow on the ground doesn't mean Casa Larga is closed for the season. Inside the Bella Vista events facility stands plenty of varieties to sample including the world's best ice wine.

While coming home from an assignment in Buffalo today I stopped off to see Mutti. She lives close to Rochester and we both share an affinity for Finger Lakes wine. The award-winning Casa Larga Vineyards and Winery sits, practically, in her backyard so we paid it a short visit.

Inside, Kelly was pouring samples for a few highbrow customers. It would have been delightful if she could have topped off the glass that Mutti and I shared. For $5, we ended up splitting roughly four tablespoons of the 2005 vintage that won the prestigious Best Dessert Wine at the International Wine Spirits Competition in London last year.

It carried a hint of honey and peach, pineapple, apricot and even butterscotch, super sweet and delicious.

Ice wine or Eiswein as it called because it was first made in Germany costs dearly because it's very difficult to create.

The optimum level of sugar and flavor in the grapes means waiting for extreme temperatures between 9°-14°F to freeze the harvest before picking by hand. Sometimes it takes an entire vine to make a single half bottle of ice wine. If the grapes are picked too early the texture and subtle flavors are lost. Afterward, the Riesling grapes go through several weeks of fermentation followed by months of barrel aging.

The award-winning bottle we sampled retails for $35 while the ruby red Cabernet France Ice Wine will set you back $75. Mutti and me stuck with the sample and licked our lips dry. Kelly offered us a champagne chaser with a wonderful crisp finish to make up the difference.

More Ways to Cut Travel Costs

In the Sunday NY Times, the Practical Traveler (author Michelle Higgins) lists 10 steps you can take to cut your spending on resorts, airlines and car rentals.

Things like traveling off-season or considering other airports (Albany vs. JFK, Laguardia and Newark) or using sites like priceline and lastminutetravel.com are popular ways to cut your budget.

But there are other alternatives I didn't know about. Like, who knew that airlines would refund you a voucher if the price of your flight dropped after you bought it? A site called Yapta.com tracks fluctuations in prices and alerts you via e-mail if you're eligible for a refund from an airline or a hotel.

I was also surprised (and happy) to see that AirBnB.com made the list. It connects budget travelers with locals who offer up their spare bedrooms for a small price.

I can understand that not everybody is comfortable with welcoming strangers into their homes and generally this option only works in big cities like NYC and Boston but my friend Jennifer has had tremendous success with it. She lives on 56th and 8th in NYC, in a 4-story walk up and rents out an extra bedroom/bathroom for $100/night. She's made friends with travelers from all over the world.

Lastly, this tip was not included in the list but I think it's important to know. There is a site called Academic Ambassadors that provides discounted hotel and rental car rates for academic and other non-profit travelers.

Like their website says: "So, if you work for or are otherwise associated with any non-profit (as a volunteer, congregant...), you are now eligible for pre-negotiated discounted rates at selected hotels around the country."

The service has been around for seven years and comes highly recommended by users including Beth from Virginia who says, "I have gotten the best rates and the best treatment at hotels I've booked through Academic Ambassadors. I've received room upgrades on a number of occasions and VIP treatment. I'm thrilled to have found this resource and will always look here first when I have to travel."

A Millionaire's Market at Stratton Mountain

Can't be that skiers at Stratton Mountain are feeling the same financial pinch as the rest of us because new spacious mountain homes are still going up.

One of the parking attendants told me that the newest gems cost in excess of two million dollars. Wow! Skiing alone is expensive so who in the world has the money to afford a colossal mortgage getaway that gets used only a few months a year?

Nola and I jumped for joy having our photos taken for our seasons weekday ski pass. "Smile," said the cashier. "Gladly," I said.

In May 2009, the 2010 season passes went on sale for a limited time. We agreed this was the way to go to save some bucks. For the first time, we ponied up $299 for a Monday-Friday ski pass and promised ourselves to brown bag it every time we skied. We also limit our apres-skiing cocktails to a hot chocolate at each others houses to save money.

While skiing Sunrise Express, I stopped for a closer look at "The Tamaraks", the newest collection of ski-in, ski-out homes. The website says that of the 12 exclusive properties only three homesites are left. From the lift I watched construction crews hard at work shaping the great rooms with beautiful stone fireplaces, large decks with private hot tubs, gourmet kitchens and cathedral ceilings. Over 45 homes have been sold since June 1.

Stratton, Vermont is the new Aspen, Colorado.

Never a "Board" Moment at ATA

I'm officially a board member of the Albany Tula Alliance. I've never been "board" of anything so this is a wonderful opportunity to learn how a successful not-for-profit advances relations with an old nemesis.

A couple years ago Benita Zahn invited me to join her and the Alliance in Tula, Moscow and St. Petersburg. We shot several health and education-related news stories for WNYT-13 and WMHT-11 with interviews from doctors, politicians, business owners and everyday Slavs. The series went on to win a NY State Emmy nomination presented at a large banquet dinner in NYC.

This week I've begun collaborating with many active community organizers and creative entrepreneurs to put ATA in the forefront of people's minds again. Some people ask if the ATA is still around. We are and happily gaining momentum as one of the most active sister-city organizations in the country.

Hopes are to reveal a new website and newsletter soon as well as plan something special for the sculpture dedication in Troy's Tricentennial Park by June. Meetings continue every week where I'm hashing through dozens of marketing, advertising, fundraising and best of all travel ideas for 2010.

Did you know that Russia boasts 23 UNESCO World Heritage Sites?

Fit of Fury at Charles de Gaulle

I'm back from Tunisia but it wasn't without complete and utter frustration at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. I told myself I wasn't going to blog about this because, frankly, it's rather trivial and terribly embarrassing.

However, after listening to callers vent to the Director of Homeland and Airport Security on WAMC's VOX POP yesterday, I thought, why not mention my own fit of fury with airline travel.

My return trip home started out badly with a little boy kicking the back of my seat for three hours from Tunis to Paris. I was so tired. Twice I turned around to give the tot the evil eye and implore the parents to curb their kid but my pleas were met with indifference.

Finally, our plane lands at Charles de Gaulle airport. We had 1.5 hours to get to our connecting gate in the same terminal. Sounds easy, right? Wrong.

Having been to Paris twice and flown through this airport dozens of times, I can attest that Charles de Gaulle is not a friendly environment, in fact it's a downright miserable place to connect. It's too big, lacks direction, is always hot and noisy, has filthy bathrooms and the waiting areas are fixed with armrest chairs that prevent you from lying down.

But beyond all these inconveniences are security personnel that play favorites. Nepotism dominates this hub.

When I travel alone I'll spend hundreds of dollars more to avoid flying through here. This time I was on assignment and had no choice.

Security began hounding everyone for passports the second we landed. We went onto experience eight, yes eight, security passports checks including two metal detectors checks before boarding our connecting flight to JFK.

This much security is definitely not typical however the attitudes of the French TSA who poke, prod and humiliate you is. Because of the Detroit bombing attempt on Christmas day everyone accepts the resulting aggressiveness of checkpoints and long lines. It's a necessary evil that hopefully guarantees our safety.

Our gate was in terminal 2E with other waiting aircraft leaving for cities in Northeast America: Dulles, JFK, Chicago and I think Logan. We had already been through an intense security checkpoint earlier so we were confused meeting up with two new queues.

Nobody could see that security was repeating itself, this time patting down jackets, berating you with questions, sifting every bag, parcel and backpack with a fine-tooth comb. But you had no way of knowing this until you reached the front of the line and this time it mattered if you were flying business, first or economy.

My journalist friend and I queued up in the wrong line (there were no signs) and didn't know until 10 minutes of waiting. Then I made the innocent mistake of asking security what we should do.

"Go to the back of this line, now" she demanded.

"But, we've already waited in this line for 10 minutes, it was an honest mistake and our flight is boarding right now" I said.

"Doesn't matter, back of the line, now!" she repeated.

My friend and I looked at the growing economy line and asked a group of six women if they would mind if we squeezed ahead of them. They didn't mind so we did. Big mistake. The control-ridden pit bull of a security girl saw what we did and tore into me.

"I told you to get back! You will go to the end of the line now or I'll call the authorities," she scolded.

"Well, if I go to the end of the line then my friend is coming with me," I said. After all, we were together.

"What friend? I didn't see anybody else with you" she said. "You butted into this line and you alone will go to the end of it!" she yelled.

Suddenly my so-called friend who is impossible not to notice - he's very tall, thin, bald and smiles a lot - was nowhere near me. "Don't pull me into this" was the last thing I heard him whisper before managing to surreptitiously separate himself from the looming cat fight.

The emotional and stubborn Scorpio in me held my ground.

"Arrest me if you have to but I refuse to go to the back of line without him," pointing to the coward who pretended not to know me. "It's not fair."

This was about principles not the stupid line. This was about partiality, control and dominance and I alone did not want to be an example of this young girl's obvious bias. The confrontation and tempers grew.

Be it a combination of sleeplessness, quarreling with a stranger or loss of a friend, all of it got the best of me and it was inevitable that I cry.

Yes, shamefully and disgracefully and without boundaries, I began to wail and bellow like a four year old child. It was a scene straight out of a soap opera. The shackles and handcuffs were minutes away and missing a flight home was not worth defending my position.

So, I tucked my tail between my legs and bowed my head in defeat and lumbered to the back of the line. While waiting for two hours (our plane was delayed because of security) I was humbled to hear dozens of stories of senseless and cruel treatment that has happened to others in airports. The days of airline equality, decorum and courtesy have obviously left the hanger.

Underground Works of Art at Bulla Regia

Machiavelli said that Roman emperors who succeeded to the throne by birth were all bad while all were good who succeeded by adoption. Hadrian was adopted and one of the few good emperors who strengthened the Empire from within by improving infrastructure as opposed to conquering or annexing perceived enemies.

It was in Bulla Regia, an archaeological site in northwestern Tunisia, built during Hadrian's reign between 117 to 138 AD, that I learned about Hadrianic-era semi-subterranean housing. Moreover, it was what was inside these ground-level, two-story structures that I stood shocked at the best preserved mosaics in Tunisia.

This photo is from the house of Amphitrite and represents Venus sitting on the back of a Centaur. A Centaur is a mythic creature that's half-human and half-animal. The Greek creature is holding a shell, has crab claws and lobster-like antennas on his forehead. Historians say he might be Neptune, the Roman God of the Seas.

Other mosaics include Cupid riding a dolphin with a bridle, a portrait of a young unidentified man, sea shells, urchins, eels and even a North African bear. The mosaics at Bulla Regia were unlike anything I had seen at Dugga or Carthage or Sbeitla.

Like the colors of a rainbow the mosaics come to life when a little water hits the surface. Being subterranean or underground, the miniature tiles keep their luster and sheen because of the damper environment. This helps preserve their polished veneer.

The Powers that Be in Tunisia

It's impossible not to know who the President of Tunisia is, his face is everywhere: the vegetable market, the cafes, the festivals, even sitting behind dish detergent on the shelves of grocery stores. At the Sahara Desert Festival the crowd chanted his name during the opening ceremonies.

Zine El Abidine Ben Ali is 74 years but you'd never know it from photos that portray him as a young, vibrant, dynamic leader. In October he was re-elected by a majority vote continuing his term of 22 years in office to perhaps life.

His political party is called the Constitutional Democratic Rally and many credit the safety and economic stability of Tunisia to Ben Ali. Others claim it comes at a price, specifically freedom of the press.

The one thing you'll notice here is that security is extremely tight, especially in the Capital of Tunis. On street corners you'll see police authorities checking drivers for proper registration while others question media presence.

Our NY-based camera crew were trying to videotape the Tunis clock tower landmark when we were stopped repeatedly. Patience is critical when dealing with the police but more important is having a respected tour guide to translate the language and show the proper video taping permits.

Censorship of the internet is another control that the government routinely uses. I couldn't access popular video-based websites like YouTube and Dailymotion and was told that even social websites like Facebook are routinely blocked. The main news media is also managed by the government directly.

Fortunately, the BBC is available and much appreciated, especially by news junkies like myself.

Still, Tunisians are "free" in every other sense of the word insists my travel guide. By the looks of things she might be right. Tunisians share a fabulous health care system, a thriving tourism sector, good roads, fabulous cuisine and a deep appreciation for all religious and ethnic backgrounds. Equality and opportunity among genders is also improving.