76-Second Travel Show: "What's the Deal with Pittsburgh?" (CANCELLED)

Episode #005

E X A C T L Y * 7 6 * S E C O N D S * ( B U T * C A N C E L L E D)

A recent visit to champion city (last year's Super Bowl and Stanley Cup ribbons reside in Pittsburgh) loomed with potential.

For once we could find out:

• How do locals enjoy the three rivers?
• When two rivers meet to make a third, isn't that really just two rivers?
• Why is the Ohio River named "Ohio" and not "Pennsylvania" (where it begins) or "Illinois" (where it ends)? Seriously.
• Why is there that "h" at the end of Pittsburgh? We noticed Charles Dickens spelled it "Pittsburg" in his book "American Notes." And he's the guy behind Tiny Tim.
• The history and background of the city any good?
  
• Hey, what's a great local diner for breakfast?
• Where does one see local concerts? Preferably outdoors?
  
• While we're at it, any interesting wall art or public sculptures to see?

But Pittsburgh, and in particular country star Kenny Chesney, did not cooperate with SSTS plans for a civic look into Pennsylvania's second-biggest city.

As a unsurprising result, the producers of the "76-Second Travel Show" ban Kenny Chesney and his agent from viewing or participating in our program for three months.

76-Second Travel Show: "Halloween in Transylvania"

Episode #004

F E A T U R I N G * 3 5 * B O N U S * S E C O N D S

Transylvania is best known for a possibly bi-curious fanged creature who was concocted by a Irishman, Bram Stoker, who never visited the country. Some who visit have Dracula in mind, but it starts to dissipate around the time one sees the hokey Dracula souvenir stands outside Bran's "Dracula Castle" -- s0-called because the real-life, quite-moustached Vlad Tepes (after whom Dracula was based) may have come by for an overnighter and a steak sandwich. Or not.

The book took places in the valley northeast of Bistrita, far north. The campy (in a bad way) "Dracula Castle Hotel" built by enterprising communists in the '70s is far from the medieval flavor you'd expect. And the $1 trip to "Dracula's tomb" one-time so startled a Canadian tourist, he suffered a heart attack when a costumed Drac burst out of his coffin. It's not really worth the drive.

But TRANSYLVANIA is wonderful, weird and gorgeous, possibly the most bizarre and interesting part of Europe I've seen. With countless Saxon villages with churches and homestays to the south and the ethnic Hungarian heart of Szekely Land, including great destinations of Cluj Napoca and Targu Mures.

You can hike, ski, castle-hop you're way across the huge area between Bucharest and Hungary, but best -- if you don't mind the drivers -- is renting a car and hitting backroads, where you are the alien to most locals, who whip off mountains, over the road, and up another hill via horse cart.

Cars? Roads? Who needs them in Transylvania?

Three things I tell my friends to do in Transylvania:

1. Spend a couple nights at Mioritica, a homestay in Sibiel village west of Sibiu. It's run by a local teacher, who shares the drinks, invites clarinetists over and puts the beer in the chilly brook running by the few rooms. Email coldeasv [at] yahoo [dot] com.
   
2. Rent a car a couple days. Roads can be awful, but back roads to random Saxon villages, with churches and homestays, opens up the region's past.
3. It's fine to go to Bran Castle (the over-billed Dracula castle), but spooky castle at Hunedoara (an otherwise gray, communist town most miss) looks more the part.

This episode's footage includes a Roma (gypsy) horse fair outside Odorhieu Secuiesc, the Praid Salt Mine (I think -- maybe its the one in Turda?), the mountains of Apuseni Mountains west of Cluj, and a certain scientist from the Pharmacy Museum in Cluj. Some of it may seem a bit grim. That's on me and this Halloween theme. Transylvania is worth it.

76-Second Travel Show: "Window or Aisle Seat?"

Episode #003

F E A T U R I N G * 9 4 * B O N U S * S E C O N D S

Paul Brady (@p_brady) offers the SSTS* its first-ever viewer query: which is the preference, window or aisle. We've turned over the question to some travel experts: Jim Benning (World Hum, @jimbenning) Pam Mandel (of Nerd'sEyeView), Stefanie Michaels (aka "AdventureGirl"), Jessica Spiegel (Boots'n'All, and @italylogue) plus Tony and Maureen Wheeler (the founders of Lonely Planet).

Plus Pat.

...& WHAT ABOUT MARK TWAIN?
Paul also wondered about Mark Twain -- is he the most underrated or overrated travel writer?

It's an interesting question, and one I had been thinking of as I just finished Life on the Mississippi, a sloppy book that begins with Twain's reports of life during the steamboat era when the river bank moved so often that parts of Mississippi state regularly found itself on the Louisiana side of the border. Then follows his experiences years later, when he revisited well after the steamboat era was nearly over.

Parts should be skipped, parts relished -- like most of his writing.

But I can't call him overrated. Twain tends to color all his books with a fictive landscape of scalliwags, boasters and liars. Even his non-fiction. It can be distracting, but it has it place. I think Innocents Abroad, following his Europe-by-ship trip, does to Europe a bit what Bob Dylan's Bringing it All Back Home album did to the British Invasion. Kinda made fun of it.

Dylan's cover is lined with American contributions to pop music -- sort of calling the Beatles the ladle to American soup -- while Twain, and his moustache, reversed needling inspection of the Tocquevilles and Dickenses. America hadn't seen that before. And it struck a chord. In his lifetime, Innocents Abroad outsold Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn.

Plus the "is he dead?" jokes are hilarious.

So I give the guy credit. You with me?

--> The SSTS welcomes all travel queries.

*SSTS = 76-Second Travel Show

76-Second Travel Show: "Solving the Manhattan Bridge Problem"

Show #002

The "76-Second Travel Show" team has always been a proponent of secondary infrastructural sites, like the Manhattan Bridge -- beautiful and noisy, the MB of Brooklyn's hip "DUMBO", yet completely overshadowed by the smaller Brooklyn Bridge nearby. That's why we were jazzed the city was putting money into panel discussions to celebrate its 100th anniversary this year.

Only, there's a problem. And the SSTS ("76-Second Travel Show") has an answer (and 40 bonus seconds).

For show #003 we'll answer viewer questions.

76-Second Travel Show: #001

IS NIC POLO THE REAL McPOLO?
The new '76-Second Travel Show' -- featuring 10 bonus seconds this time -- professes to highlight a couple key, integral, possibly life-changing aspects of travel at least twice monthly. Letters will be read on the air (quickly) if you have any to offer.

In the premiere episode, the notion that Marc Polo is a great traveler is (quickly) questioned, and raw footage shows off the world's largest Chinatown -- that is, outside of China.

College Game Day: Boston

It's not fair, comparing college town to college town, when you add a Boston College or USC to the mix. They get major metropolises to add to their weight. I find it unfair, so I compare Tallahassee with Chestnut Hill, the west suburb of Boston.

With Miami and Cal ruining marquee matchups this week vs Oklahoma and USC respectively, ESPN's CollegeGameDay threw in the towel and stuck near to their Connecticut offices. The show goes to Chestnut Hill, Boston -- home of Boston College -- Saturday, where one gold team plays another, Florida State. Here's my ESPN article on what to do there.

(One thing you can do -- that you can't in many college towns -- is stroll up on game day and buy $37 tickets.)

The game:
Who really knows? BC has looked okay, and FSU schizo.
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Prediction:
Boston College 21, Florida State 20
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The destinations: Chestnut Hill vs Tallahasee No contest. One (Tallahastown) has a state capitol, a historic capitol and the nearby Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park -- repeat, Edward Ball Wakulla -- where The Creature from the Black Lagoon was filmed. It's home to the world's deepest freshwater spring, where you can swim and keep an eye out to the massive underwater caves below. But watch for Creatures.

Chestnut Hill is pretty, has some bars, and a reservoir -- going to a game is great, but on an anyday, Tallahassee wins as a destination, 16-10.

--> Unfortunately, the park is named for an Edward Ball, pictured, and not an Edward Ball Wakulla.