Art in New York: The Gramercy Park Hotel Has a Cool Blog

Just one more reason to love the Gramercy Park Hotel: a fabulous blog which gives all kinds of insider tips for exploring Manhattan (and the city's dynamic art scene).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A luxury trip to Machu Picchu

Image
24th July of this year marked 100 years exactly since Yale man and National Geographic explorer Hiram Bingham puffed and sweated his way up to the jungle-covered ruins of Machu Picchu. A century later, travelers who want to take in this true wonder of the world arent limited to explorer-style bivouacking; rather, there are now a wide range of accommodations, dining experiences, spas and adventures that rival the best in the world. So, in honor of Machu Picchu, Hiram Bingham and the incredible cultural patrimony of Peru, I would like to show you what a luxury trip to Machu Picchu looks like today. Most visitors begin their journey in Lima. A short stay allows you to soak in the glorious colonial past of Limas central plaza. Palms, tropical-yellow buildings with exquisitely-carved wooden balconies and Spanish palaces sweep you back in time. Before becoming too nostalgic, head for the modern and very hip Miraflores district. Hugging the green cliffs, Miraflores offers visitors an incredib...
Keep reading

Guide to Swahili street slang in Stone Town, Zanzibar

Image
All photos by author. Mambo! Its the classic street slang for whats up? in Stone Town, Zanzibar and in most of urban East Africa. It literally means, things or issues? The upbeat term is often paired with the word vipi (how) as in, Mambo, vipi? How are things? There are at least 20 ways to answer the popular question that I never learned in formal Swahili classes. The gap between school and street could not be wider than in Stone Town, Zanzibars capital city, a UNESCO World Heritage site, that nearly 400,000 residents call home. Here, the lugha ya kisasa slang or lugha ya mitaani street language changes by the minute, mostly by young people who flip or shine an old word, or fashion a completely new one, inspired by hyper-local contexts, meanings, and realities. I thought I knew Kiswahili. Id earned an advanced certificate at the State University of Zanzibar. The program prides itself on teaching a kind of Swahili described as sanifu (standard) or fasaha (clean). It was rigorous...
Keep reading