BRIAN O'CONNELL'S ROUND-UP OF TRAVEL BLOGS
• Michael Lewis, who covered Hurricane Katrina for the New York Times magazine, blogs at http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com
"An unsettling visit to an empty New Orleans" is how he titles a trip to his sister's abandoned house just as Hurricane Gustav made landfall last week. The wind, he tells us, was "sufficiently violent to hold your attention but not so violent to cause you to dive into the cellar".
But it's not so much the storm that had him rattled as the anticipation. "If you didn't know what was coming it would seem just another sweet storm to sleep to," he writes. "Waiting for hurricane winds must be a little bit like waiting for an invading army. The skills being acquired by New Orleanians these days will come in handy if, say, Guatemala ever launches a surprise attack. We'll be the world's leading evacuators; anyone who dares invade us will find only an empty city. They won't know what to do next."
A day or so later Lewis's second blog from the city carries a sigh of relief - and news of maintenance to be carried out on the property. "When the storm finally passes and the wind ceases to blow, the only evidence of property damage for many blocks around us is in our front yard. A part of my sister's white picket fence has fallen out onto the sidewalk. I call my brother-in-law who says that his fence does that all the time."
Not everyone was entirely happy with the storm's no-show. "After what little there was of the storm passed, we had a bit of rain. As it began to drizzle you could almost hear some poor ABC News producer, desperate for weather drama, leaping to his feet and hollering, "Charlie, get outside to shoot, before it stops raining!"
• Travel writer and broadcaster Rick Steves, who spends 120 days a year travelling through Europe, blogs at www.ricksteves.com
By his own calculations, Steves has spent a third of his adult life living out of a suitcase. In his current blog he looks at what makes for a successful travel experience. There are three things you should never leave home without, he tells us: "A laptop (with an extra battery), iPod, and a little something to help [you] sleep."
Of course, life's little luxuries also help. "I love my Moleskine notebooks. I feel like a human lint brush."
• Jackie Steves, Rick Steves's daughter, making her first trip outside the US, is blogging at http://www.ricksteves.com/jackiesteves
Jackie Steves has just finished high school. Like her brother and father, after her high-school graduation she will continue a family tradition and spend a summer travelling in Europe - her first trip alone. "Last week, I marched across the quad with my class of 120 to be handed my high-school diploma. I survived high school, but will I survive the next month?" she asks, before embarking on her month-long tour.
• Have you news you want to share via your blog? E-mail goblog@irish-times.ie