Holiday Travel Diaries: Sofía Sánchez Barrenechea, Claiborne Swanson Frank, and more

If, like us, you had visions of African beaches and Shanghai sunsets dancing in your heads this holiday season, then consider those visions realized—virtually at least. In our second installment of holiday travel diaries, some of our favorite adventurers share pictures from their enviable winter vacations. Biking along beaches, touring temples—and meeting an elephant!—were all on the itinerary for art director Sofía Sánchez Barrenechea, while entrepreneur Hannah Bronfman and vbeauté founder Julie Macklowe both made the proverbial (but enviable) pilgrimage to St. Barth’s. Vogue.com Contributing PhotographerClaiborne Swanson Frank opted to take it easy in sunny Naples, Florida, a trip surrounded by family and topped off with a decadent birthday cake, but it was back to the ranch (and back in the saddle again) for Vênsette founder Lauren Remington Platt,

Bucket List: Visiting Park Guell in Barcelona

Hi Bucket List Nation, Letizia of Letizia Barcelona here. Today I’ll be a complete tourist, I’m taking you to Park Guell, one of my favorite places in Barcelona, even though it’s always crowded! I’m always impressed by the beauty of the garden complex, the crazy architecture of the buildings and each time I discover some new detail I hadn’t noticed before. Park Guell was supposed to be an ideal city, designed by Antonio Gaudi and commissioned by Eusebi Guell, a wealthy businessman who wanted to create a super stylish park. At the end, the cost was so high that the final project -maybe too ambitious- was abandoned and the park is now property of the city of Barcelona. The entrance is free.

Let’s see the photos now

Living the Bollywood Experience

Hey BLN, Letizia here of Letizia Barcelona. I have already shared some of my experiences in India visiting the poor man’s Taj Mahal and Ellora Caves, but I haven’t told you yet about my Bollywood Experience!

Oh I wanted to be a part of the Indian dream so bad!

We had arrived in Mumbay for 2 weeks, and I had already heard about other European people who got the chance to make a small appearance in an Indian movie, and I just couldn’t live Mumbay without visiting the Bollywood studios.

Weekender: Hidden LA

{Lake Hollywood is my favorite new find. You can walk across the bridge and get a perfect view of the Hollywood sign.}

Living in a big city has its advantages; everyone is always discussing the hidden gems that make Los Angeles such a quirky place to live. A friend from Dallas was visiting this weekend, and we decided to plan an entire day of finding hidden/unique things in the city. We explored Lake Hollywood, tried gourmet popsicles, shopped for exotic spices, and even managed to carve out a few hours for a makeover.

Photos from Syria

Syria

nd so we had our first Syrian bus experience. Needless to say, we can't read the bus signs or much on the bus ticket because it is all in Arabic script. At least the time and seat numbers were in Latin numbers. Martin said it was interesting watching them fill out the ticket - writing part of it in Arabic from right to left and the rest of it (the part we could understand) from left to right.

Pouneh happened to be on our bus. She was heading back to Damascus and will be flying from there back to Cairo.

The land seems fairly flat here, the soil much redder than Turkey. We noted many rock/marble quarries and the silvery green leaves of olive trees.

Syria has a population of 17 million, 90% of whom are Arabs

Archeological Dig (Apaema)

. (I was also told that there are 20 million Syrians living outside the country!) The remaining 10% consist of Bedouins, Amernians and Turks. We were surprised to see so many people here with red, red hair, fair skin and freckles. I was under the misconception that all Syrians are dark complexioned.

The President of Syria is Basher al-Assad who inherited the post from his father. We've seen their photos frequently here, even though we've only been in Syria for two days! Al-Assad is western educated (he's an opthamologist) and there are high hopes for him being able to bring Syria into the modern age. If the technology is an indication (e.g., computers, ATMs - we saw one being installed), he's well on his way.

One of the questions we had to answer when filling out our visa applications for Syria was whether or not we'd even been to Israel or planned to go there. Syria has tense relations with Israel, mainly due to Israel's presence in the Golan Heights and Syria's resistance in keeping Hezzbollah in check. Israel is not popular with most Muslim countries; it is often best to ask that your passport not be stamped if you go into Israel, particularly if you think you may be going to any Muslim countries in the near future.

Beduoin Tent

Hama, located about two and a half hours south of Aleppo, is the third largest city in the country and, purportedly, one of the most attractive. Located on the Orontes River, it is famous for its "norias" or huge wooden water wheels used for irrigating farmland via a series of aqueducts. They norias make a horrendous sound - "mournful groaning" as our guidebook called it; to me to sounded a some strange exotic musical wind instrument or a huge creaking wooden door. Martin said it sounded like "wood on wood". He has no imagination!

There are many beautiful parks along the river's edge (though the gates of most were locked when we were there for some reason) with lots of trees and flowers: roses, zinnias, marigolds, calla lilies and rhododendrons. These areas look like wonderful places for families to come on a weekend (weekends are Fridays and Saturdays here); Mom and Dad can watch the children from the park benches and there are plenty of playgrounds for the children. The only thing spoiling it all is all the garbage - and the river is polluted and smells of sewage. We've certainly seen more garbage by the roadsides here than in Turkey.