What more patriotic way to celebrate the 4th of July then to pack up and head to Canada for the weekend? TheExpeditioner.com will be in Montreal for the 2009 Montreal Jazz Festival, poutine, and the Sunday Tamtams. You know, the typical 4th of July kind of things. Postings will resume on Monday.

Find yourself haggling at Starbucks? Get taken aback when you hear English on the streets? Miss having hordes of children follow you down the street? You may be suffering from traveler’s withdrawal, a very real and understandable affliction suffered by those who have returned to the numbingly comfortable and familiar surroundings known as their home after traveling for an extended period of time.

Travel enthusiast and sometimes TheExpeditioner.com contributor Lucy Corne names the 9 surprising things she misses about travel after returning home. From the surprising — Montezuma’s revenge, dingy bathrooms — to the understandable — being treated like a celebrity — the hard part is boiling it down to 9.

The surprising thing that I miss would have to be exhaustion. When traveling I love feeling completely drained and worn out after a hectic few days of moving around. It’s like a physical reminder of all that I’ve done.

This video was taken in May, during the wet season, one of the best times of the year to visit Victoria Falls (plan now!). Check out the unforgettable views from the helicopter at 0:48 if you want to become completely enamored with the thought of traveling there.

As if you needed more proof why the French are just so much cooler than the rest of us, Air France announces the introduction of new in-flight wine glasses. Designed by sommelier Olivier Poussier, the new stemless glass, with their sleek, curved appearance, enhance the wine’s flavor and improves the adherence capacity of the tannins on the glass surface by providing a large oxygenation surface, which helps aerate the wine.

In related news, Delta announces the introduction of the Dixie Cup for in-flight use, perfect for getting your own water from the lavatory or enjoying the fine aroma of your Canada Dry.

Think it’s a little strange to invite yourself to a wedding? How about if that wedding is in a remote mountain village in India? Don’t worry, it just happens to be the next step in cultural tourism: immersing yourself in the everyday workings of a local culture.

And contrary to perhaps other weddings you may have attended lately, you’re actually welcome at this one, as recounted in this article over at the Guardian.

“I was assured my presence would be a source of pride to my hosts, who interpret the attendance of a guest from out of town, never mind another country, as a mark of the event’s significance.”

For your own wedding experience, check out Village Ways. Mental note: pack tux for next trip to India.

With over 50,000 apps already for the iPhone, figuring out which ones are the best for the intrepid traveler is the hard part. Lucky for you Travel + Leisure’s naming their top 11 travel apps, ranging from the basic — unit conversion, voice recorder — to the truly necessary — where’s the closest free toilet? And you were just using it to play solitaire. Pshaw.

UPDATE: I’ve been alerted by inside sources of another list of travel apps, this one coming from National Geographic, and it has 20, which is way more than 11. Which is better? You do the math. Here’s the list.

This week the Frugal Traveler attempts the impossible: Paris for cheap. And he succeeds! Through a little hotel-slumming, twitter restaurant advice, and the reliance on the all-important French institution that is the picnic.

“The picnic is the great democratizing institution of summer, when Parisians spill onto riverbanks and bridges and into parks and gardens, chasing away the memories of winter and rain with baguettes and bottles, sandals and sundresses.”

Follow Matt (his definite articleless title) as he makes his way around the former Jewish quarter, the Marais, one of his favorite haunts for shopping and lazy weekend wandering. Next on the zero-euro list, he heads to the Museum of Hunting and Nature, one of the many museums that are free on the first Sunday of every month (as are the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay).

For a little shopping, the Parisian flea markets and the A.P.C. surplus store in Montmartre, where clothes that have been on the shelf for over 6 months are 50% off, are a must for any bargain hunter or budget travel writer.

And what’s Paris without squirming your way into the restaurant of the city’s hottest chef? In this case, Spring (check out the live kitchen cams at the site!), the tiny, hyped joint where Matt takes advantage of the no reservations policy on Saturdays. And it’s all done on the cheap. Save your Euros for the next trip.

How much about Cuba can you discover by traveling through the Viñales Valley on a bike? Turns out, quite a lot.

By Luke Maguire Armstrong

Moments before my plane touched down in Havana, an Australian had turned to me to ask me why I was going to Cuba. I guess I was not exactly sure myself. As an American, I am not supposed to travel to Cuba, but there is something about a forbidden fruit that makes it tastier than the stuff you can buy at the grocery store. Remember how drinking alcohol lost something once we became of age? Exactly.

After a short stay in Havana, gravitation and my Lonely Planet guide lead me to the relaxed town of Viñales. My guidebook tells me that in 1999 the valley was declared a Unesco World Heritage Site. I make a mental note to Google what such a declaration actually entails.

Walking through the slow streets as I make my way to the Cubanacán travel office to rent a bike, a young man rides up flashing me his yellow bike. “You want to rent my bike?” he asks. “Best bike in all of Cuba. Try it out if you don’t believe me”

I give his bike a spin around the block. The gears change and the brakes squeak to an eventual halt. It seems as good a bike as I will find anywhere else and the fake shocks give the impression that the rider means serious bike riding business. I give him five pesos to use it for the day and he tells me to look for him around town when I come back to return the bike. “If you can’t find me just ask anyone where José is.” (more…)

Having finished off “Fast Food Nation” just last night, it was more than a little disheartening to come across this article over at Slate chronicling McDonald’s’ slow takeover of the gastronomic interests of the French. As is revealed in the piece:

“The company was pulling in over a million people per day in France, and annual turnover was growing at twice the rate it was in the United States. Arresting as those numbers were, there was an even more astonishing data point: By 2007, France had become the second-most profitable market in the world for McDonald’s, surpassed only by the land that gave the world fast food.”

This is so wrong on so many levels: nutritionally, culturally, economically. Is there anything more sad then when you’re traveling than stumbling across a McDonald’s? As was summed up at the end of “Fast Food Nation,” there’s only one way to change things: with your stomach. Don’t eat there, don’t bring your kids there, don’t order those Shamrock Shakes no matter how tasty they are. It’s the only way to tame the monster.

When I lived in Boulder, Colorado, with eight of my friends, people would be surprised when they encountered the homeless guy that often called our porch home. I could’t understand their confusion. Welcome to Boulder, I used to tell them.

If you’ve only spent time in Colorado during the winter then you’re really missing out. Sunny days, zero humidity, and spectacular opportunities to enjoy the outdoors are only a few reasons why the summer months can rival those of the winter’s in the Rocky Mountains.

One of the state’s best towns, Boulder, a short distance north of Denver, has a huge biking population (almost one to one ratio between people and bikes), excellent restaurants, and plenty of other activities, as outlined in this article over at National Geographic. And if you happen to walk by my old place and see Leroy out front, say hi to him for me. Hopefully his new roommates are treating him well.