I’m travelling around the Congo – or rather around both Congos, the big ex-Belgian one (Democratic Republic of Congo) and the smaller ex-French one (Congo Republic, aka Congo Brazzaville). I started in Lubumbashi and continued to the capital Kinshasa. Next stop took me across the river to Brazzaville, the capital of Congo Republic. The Congo River is 3km wide at this point, so Kinshasa and Brazzaville are the two closest national capitals in the world.

This is the public ferry across the river, I took the faster and more expensive canot rapide, It may save some time, but more important it saves an awful lot of hassle and that’s a very important thing in Congo. Even

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The sun is out, the rivers are running, the fish are biting… Yup, summer has landed and we here at Away.com HQ are living from weekend to weekend with plans to hike, bike, and paddle our way to Labor Day. For those of you who dream of getting outdoors but find time’s too short or budget constraints preclude you from ticking off the next of your Life List adventures, we present the newest arrival to the Away Network’s extensive suite of travel-planning tools: Introducing Quick Escapes from AdventureFinder.com, which will help you find a day trip, weekend getaway, or short escape in your neck of the woods.

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Since our contributors around the world often post about their countries on their own blogs, we thought you might be interested to read what they have been writing. So heres the first in a new series on Blogs of the World where we round-up our favourite contributor posts.

From Romania: Bucharest, a permanent construction site.

Under Construction, by Carmen

From Poland: A half-emptied bucket of paint, most of its former contents splattered on the pavement, marked the entrance to the alley connecting Ul. Ruska and Ul. Sw. Anthoniego. The nameless passage – officially dubbed the Nameless Passage – was filled with artists.

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NEW YORK It’s the ultimate travel bait and switch.

You book a ticket on a non-stop flight but the airline cancels it a few weeks later, leaving a computer to automatically rebook you. Your new itinerary includes a layover, turning a five-hour trip into an eight-hour journey.

“You are at the mercy of the airline,” says Anna Stinson, 40, of Minneapolis

In May, Stinson bought tickets for a trip to North Carolina in the middle of August. She is traveling with her four-year-old son and picked Delta because it offered a nonstop flight.

Then as part of system-wide cuts, the flight was eliminated. She was rebooked with a connection in Atlanta.

“I’m frustrated,” Stinson says.

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Recently we were nominated by Inspiring Travelers to take part in the 7 Links Project started by Trip Base. I actually first saw this exercise at ProBlogger and thought it was a great idea. I did my own 7 Links about a year ago and since it is midway through the year, I thought it would be a good time to do another.

THE GOAL of The 7 Links Project

To unite bloggers in a joint endeavor to share lessons learned and create a bank of long but not forgotten blog posts that deserve to see the light of day again.

THE RULES

1)     Blogger is nominated to take part 2)     Blogger publishes his/her 7 links on his/her blog – 1 link for each category. 3) Blog

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