New APP helps Travelers Navigate Medical Needs Abroad

I remember a scary time in Rome when I experienced an Asthma attack and had to seek local medical attention..another when my spouse caught a horrible cold in Amsterdam that needed attention. Not to speak of the times I've wandered into a pharmacy in Italy or France, trying to find a medication or particular healthcare product.

A new APP for the Iphone and IPod may help with such medical needs when travelling. The first app to help travelers in need of medical services when they are abroad, mPassport is now available in the iTunes App Store for downloading onto n iPhones and iPads around the world.

Just announced mPassport enables you to:

 -- Use your smart phone or laptop to find a conveniently located, carefully-selected, English-speaking doctor or dentist and request an appointment


-- Use mapping and GPS functionality to find the shortest route to convenient care


-- Translate brand names for medications and key medical terms and phrases


-- Understand health risks and access the right emergency services


"About half of all travelers who spend more than two weeks abroad get sick or injured, and we're there to help them when they need assistance," says Angelo Masciantonio, Chief Executive of HTH Worldwide. "Travelers typically do not prepare for illness or injury when traveling abroad and when they need healthcare, they often don't know where to turn. mPassport apps make it simple to get quality care when it's needed far away from home."

HTH Worldwide has created mPassport apps for these popular business and leisure destinations:
-- Barcelona, Budapest, Dublin, Florence, London, Madrid, Paris, Prague, Rome, Vienna -- Cape Town, Nairobi -- Buenos Aires, Lima, Mexico City, Quito -- Bermuda, Nassau -- Beijing, Hong Kong




Category: ..Travel Issue

Mark Twain's Bermuda -- "You go to heaven... I'd druther stay here."

Among the many places where Mark Twain wandered penning articles and books along the way was a place that continued to lure him back again and again.....Bermuda.  Having spent almost as many days in Bermuda as Twain did in his life time (between 1867 and 1910 Mark Twain spent a total of 187 days in Bermuda), I can well understand the magnetic force that caused him to visit these enchanted isles over and over.

He arrived for the first time in Bermuda as many travelers do today by cruise ship.  In  November of 1867, Twain walked from the deck of  the SS Quaker City into the sub-tropical paradise towards the end of a long cruise that took him from New York to the Mediterranean, the "Holy Land" (Israel) and back to New York with a group of religious pilgrims.   It was during this trip that Twain wrote "Innocents Abroad," the best selling of his works during his life time. 

On his first brief visit,  Twain is said to have visited many of the places where passengers wander whose cruise ships pull into Hamilton's harbor.  He joked about the  enormous rubber tree (still there) on the grounds of Par-la-Ville Park.   The park which I passed through many times myself is just beyond one of the main streets in Hamilton  (Queen Street) near the post office.   It was the Postmaster William B. Perot, who laid out the gardens of the park in the mid-1800s.  A classic stone Bermudian moon gate bedecked with blooms and vines probably was likely the entrance Twain used.  

Fairmont Hamilton Princess today

Over time Twain became one of Bermuda's most famous visitors and advocates. In recognition of this role, busts of him are still to be found ...one, as was pointed out to me by twitterer fairmontham (official tweep for the Fairmont Hamilton Princess), is located in the lobby of the Fairmont Hamilton Princess.  Shame on me for not remembering this statue that I passed many times on my visits there.  

It was Twain who helped bring Americans back to Bermuda after the American Civil War.  Few  Americans wanted to visit the island paradise in the post-war years still angered by the blockades run from there supporting the South during the conflict.   Twain reminded Americans of Bermuda's seductiveness promoting the isles not just for short summer vacations but for longer sojourns during cold and bitter US winters.  In a 15,000-word sketch "Some Rambling Notes of an Idle Excursion" published in four installments in the Atlantic Monthly from October 1877 through January 1878 he devotes two chapters to his second trip to Bermuda in 1877.  It was these articles that helped attract many affluent Americans there starting in the 1880s... and on January 1, 1885 the Hamilton Princess opened to accommodate many of these new travelers.  Mark Twain was a frequent guest.

A view of Hamilton Harbor from hilltop overlooking Hamilton, Bermuda

Twain returned for many longer sojourns in the "Bermudas" often making back to back trips in his later years. He resided most of the time at Bay House, at 4 Old Slip Lane, at the end of a private access road off Pitt's Bay Road in Pembroke Parish only a short distance from Hamilton. The house, still there, is on the coast facing the waterfront of Hamilton Harbor with views of nearby small islands. 

While on Bermuda,  Twain would frequently meet up with other prominent guests of the isles.  He chatted on one visit, for instance, with Upton Sinclair, the author of The Jungle (1906), which had just caused a national sensation in the US at the time.  And on another, he played minature golf and lunched with President Woodrow Wilson.  

While I am sure Twain's Bermuda,  the Bermuda of 100 plus years ago was much more tranquil than today -- no cars (he was instrumental in keeping them out of Bermuda for 30 years) or mopeds, fewer tourists, no industry to speak of.  But no matter,  many of the qualities that drew him there continue to bring me to Bermuda again and again, if not always in person, in spirit, to it's subtle suggestion of Britain, it's unparalleled serenity, it's breathtaking vistas,  it's many hidden, enchanting little nooks, it's warmth not only in climate but in it's only-to-be-found-on-Bermuda people with their amazing polite manner and lovely clipped version of English.  Twain encountered something very special from his first visit and went back to seek it there to the very end of his life.  “You go to heaven if you want to,” Mark Twain wrote from Bermuda in 1910 during his long last visit, one hundred years ago, “I’d druther stay here.”

More information on Mark Twain in Bermuda:

Books:

Mark Twain and the Happy Island. Wallace, Elizabeth. 1913. Chicago, McClug. 139 pages. Illustrated.

Mark Twain In Paradise – His Voyages to Bermuda. American writer Donald Hoffmann. The special relationship that Mark Twain had with turn of the century Bermuda. University of Missouri Press, 2006.

Websites:

http://www.bermuda-online.org/twain.htm

2010 is the Year of Mark Twain -- Great time to visit Twain Places

The year 2010 marks the 175th anniversary of the birth of Samuel Langhorne Clemens known to us as Mark Twain.  It is also the 125th anniversary of the publication of Twain’s seminal work, the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and the 100th anniversary of his death which falls on April 21. Nationwide, places where the author lived or spent significant time or had other major connection to Twain and his works including Berkeley, CA Elmira, NY, Hannibal, MO and Hartford, CT will be celebrating this vibrant author - and perhaps one of the first pre-internet travel bloggers - with special events.

Since the red carpets are being rolled out, it's a great to visit some of the Twain's sites. There are two major museums dedicated to this quintessential American author....not surprisingly one is in the Northeast in Connecticut, the other right on the Mississippi in the Midwest, which is the one more associated with the author -- in Hannibal, Missouri. In addition, other sites dedicated to Twain are a major bookstore and museum in Virginia City, Nevada, his former study and final resting place in Elmira, New York, and the Archive of Twain's Papers and Works at the University of California, Berkeley. There is also the site of his birthplace in Florida, MO, but this is temporarily closed.

Here's some information on the major sites: 
 
The Hartford Connecticut Museum

Courtesy of Mark Twain House website

The Mark Twain House and Museum (Hartford, Connecticut) was the home of Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens) from 1874 to 1891. The Victorian-style house is a 19-room gothic mansion. It was the place where Twain wrote most of his major works including The Gilded Age, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Prince and the Pauper, Life on the Mississippi, Huckleberry Finn, A Tramp Abroad, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. The Twain House, which is open year–round for guided tours, attracts more than 60,000 visitors annually from every state in the U.S. as well as from more than 70 countries around the world.  The Mark Twain House and Museum is located at 351 Farmington Avenue in Hartford, Connecticut.  For more information on visiting call (860) 247-0998 or visit the website at www.marktwainhouse.org.


Hannibal, MO 


Hannibal, MO is a pleasant little town to visit in its own right.  Situated (not surprisingly) on the Mississippi, there are lots of activities within Hannibal dedicated to Mr. Clemens, including their own resident actor who brings Twain alive for visitors.  But the main reason to visit is the properties of the Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum which include: the frame house known as the Mark Twain Boyhood Home constructed around 1843 or 1844, where the John Marshall Clemens family lived  until leaving town in 1853, the John M. Clemens Justice of the Peace Office, the Becky Thatcher, Pilaster House/Grant's Drug Store, the Huck Finn House, the Museum Gallery and Gardens.  The museum is well worth the time with its interactive exhibits from five of Mark Twain's books and memorabilia from Mark Twain's life,. The gallery includes 15 original Norman Rockwell paintings created in 1935 for special editions of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.


Elmira, New York

In Elmira, New York, which lays claim to being "Mark Twain Country," you can visit the Mark Twain Study and roam the beautiful area where Twain spent his summers.

Mark Twain Study

Twain  and his wife spent summers in Elmira with his wife's family. The family built him a study in their home to give him space to work, which was later moved to the campus of Elmira College and is open to the public. You can see the study during the summer months and admission is free for everyone. The address for the study is 1 Park Pl., Elmira College, Elmira, NY 14901 (607-735-1941).

A fun Twain tweep to follow is twaintoday.
There is also MarkTwain and TwainHouse.

Traveling Solo in London

Recently reading a blog from Isabelle's Travels (@isabellestravel on Twitter) on traveling alone in Paris caused me to reflect on some solo travel of my own.  Perhaps the city I have spent more time alone in than any other in the world outside the US is London.  Having had several jobs that took me solo to London and then later accompanying a spouse who had business there..... I have wandered and discovered much of the city on my own on travel there.

True having a companion to share discoveries with is part of what I love about traveling.  But I also love the undistracted and totally self-directed momentum that touring and exploring a destination unescorted gives me.  Decisions on whether to stop at a cafe or take the tube here or there are totally mine.  Time spent in a museum or not totally up to me.  Taking photos with abandon without disrupting a companion's experience is ok.

For that reason while I had objectives for my touring days of London,  i.e. some target destinations, I generally was loose about it leaving room for discovery or lingering where particularly intrigued.   One of my favorite things to do would be to have an early breakfast..... I loved a cafe...which now has many locations throughout London.. Patisserie Valerie.  They serve the most incredible scrambled eggs with toast or croissant and coffee.  There I could linger over my travel books and plan the day.... in the quiet ambiance of the place.  Or, if I were staying at a B&B which I frequently did, I would take the typical English breakfast and perhaps chat with another guest.

I took my notebook and made my plan...carrying it with me during the day to jot down observations.  As a aside,  no matter where I am, I always have a notebook and a camera.  Even if you're not a writer or blogger carrying a notebook especially when alone gives you the opportunity to jot down impressions that you can relate to friends and family later on.  It also acts in a way as a substitute companion.... gives you a sense of being on purpose... and not as self-conscious about being alone.  

My solo journeys through London in addition to all the obvious places took me to spend time observing a session of Parliament, to sip afternoon tea and munch on delicate sandwiches especially at Browns, to wander through the Tate Museum for hours and  gaze at the Turners, to visit the Courtauld, an exquisite gem of a museum with an excellent impressionist collection, through Covent Garden and to Portobello Road for antique shops and much more.

But the solo experience that stands out for me above the rest is that of going to the theatre by myself.  The first play I saw in a theatre on my own was in London.  The theatre was packed... I had a seat way up in the highest section of the balcony and was cramped in amongst other Americans who had gotten terrible, last minute seating.  It didn't matter.  For the first time here was this incredible cast singing their hearts out "Can you hear the people sing..." and the rest of the audience, the humid air of the old building, the uncomfortable seat, even the distance from the stage were shut out.  I could only hear the singing and see the colorful staging and costumes. This magnificent performance was just for me..... and I loved it!