New or Re-emerging Nations

-This month, the Global Travel Writers team takes your readers to some countries just now emerging from years of war, dictatorship, foreign occupation and/or civil strife. For your other travel editorial needs, search our database now!
Newly re-emerging Nations Thomas E. King visits Vilnius, capital of Lithuania and European Capital of Culture 2009, and finds a stylsh city with a baroque heart trimmed with amber. The intrepid sportsman also roams around a host of new and exciting golf links of Lithuania.	The GTW Team Fiona Harper Glenn A. Baker Graham Simmons Karen Halabi Paul Dymond Philip Game Sally Hammond Sheriden Rhodes Thomas E. King Tricia Welsh Brazil gets the Games! After years of oppressive government, Brazil has bounced back under President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. One of the rewards will be Rio de Janeiro's staging of the 2016 Olympics. Check out this video of Rio's preparations for the Games . EMAIL US
Sheriden Rhodes follows the glitterati and movie celebrities to the beaches of new global hotspots Croatia and Monetenegro
East Timor is not exactly super-ripe for tourism, says Philip Game , but the friendliness of the people helps to overcome any hardships of travel.
Fiona Harper follows in the wake of James A Michener, finding the cruising ground of her teenage dreams in Vanuatu.
As Cambodia emerges from three decades of horror, Sisowath Quay in the capital Phnom Penh is emerging as one of the world's great promenades, reports Graham Simmons.
With ex-President Fidel Castro's health failing and President Raul Castro now turned 78, "now is the time to visit Cuba -- and soon!" says Tricia Welsh
As Scotland gets its first Parliament in 300 years,Sally Hammond visits The Shetland Islands , which consider themselves more Norwegian than Scottish.
For more stories, check out the Global Travel Writers list of articles by Country
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Journeys - March 2009

March 2009 - Trails of Great Writers The award-winning Global Travel Writers team follows Robert Louis Stevenson through Samoa and the remote Ardèche region of France; discovers a bookworm's heaven nestled in the verdant valleys where England meets Wales, and continues on into South Wales to find the legacy of Dylan Thomas very much alive; we pursue the ghost of Robbie Burns through the Scottish Highlands and unmask Shakespeare's Venice.
-= J O U R N E Y S =- France : Samoa : Wales : Scotland : Venice Samoa's Teller of Tales: On December 3, 1894, a "cloud of gloom" drifted over Samoa. As news spread that its most respected resident had died, a revered chief paid a glowing tribute and then in a ceremony normally reserved for royalty, Robert Louis Stevenson was laid to rest. [Thomas E. King]	The GTW Team Fiona Harper Glenn A. Baker Graham Simmons Karen Halabi Philip Game Sally Hammond Sheriden Rhodes Thomas E. King Tricia Welsh GTW Trivia: The life expectancy of a Galapagos tortoise is roughly equivalent to the combined experience of the Global Travel Writers team. EMAIL
By fork and glass through the Ardèche: In his classic By Donkey through the Cévennes, Robert Louis Stevenson introduced the world to one of the wildest regions of Europe. A historic and scenic eye-feast without peer, the south-west of the French département of Ardèche is an integral part of the Cévennes. Today's traveller has it easier than Stevenson, with classic accommodations and fine dining along the trail. [Graham Simmons]
Bookworms make Hay: Hay-on- Wye is a bookworm's heaven nestled in the verdant valleys where England meets Wales. Even the town's crumbling medieval castle has been turned into one of thirty or more bookstores. Further north along the Welsh border lies St Deiniol's, the private library of the magnificently eccentric Sir William Gladstone and today, arguably, Britain's finest residential library. [Philip Game]
Shakespeare's Venice Unmasked: The masks of Carnevale personify Shakespeare's Venice, a fantasy city whose real life is hidden behind a tourist veneer and hardly ever revealed to strangers. Venice is like a stage and the triangle between Rialto, San Marco and Accademia like a revolving play. The setting for Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice and Thomas Mann's Death in Venice, the city has drawn many a writer, poet and filmmaker under its romantic spell. [Karen Halabi]
Royal Treatment "More coffee?" A waiter hovers at my elbow... It's tempting, but my Arbroath smokies (smoked haddock) are coming. I have already done justice to a big bowl of oatmeal laced with the chef's secret ingredient. What is it? I ask. The waiter bends towards me, "Highland whisky liqueur," he whispers. We are travelling aboard the Royal Scotsman, rattling past one of the best breakfast views on earth. Beside us lies Loch Carron with the white houses of Plockton (setting for the TV series Hamish Macbeth) just blotching into the distance. This is the land of Robbie Burns. As the Royal Scotsman clicketty-clacks over the countryside he knew so well, it's hard not to hum Auld Lang Syne. Determined that 'old acquaintance should not be forgotten' Scottish Tourism has designated 2009, the 250th anniversary of his birth, Homecoming Scotland. [Sally Hammond]
Finding Dylan Thomas in Old South Wales You don't have to go searching for Dylan Thomas in Old South Wales. Quite the contrary - Dylan Thomas will come looking for YOU. Through exhibitions, museums, festivals, statues, cafes, pubs, street names, paintings, posters and snatches of words still hanging in the salty air. [Glenn A. Baker]
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