I am not the most technologically apt blogger out there, but when I was approached by the editor of Rama Tours to prepare a culinary tour for the iPhone, I took the opportunity to grab a foothold in the mobile world.
I decided to focus my tour on Nazareth – in terms of the quality and variety of eating experiences it offers, and the relatively compact and walk-able area around the old city – Nazareth lends itself perfectly to this medium. And now, after many months of development, the tour is available to guide visitors in Nazareth to some of my favorite eateries – with instructions how to get to them, photos and descriptions of what to order, and a phonetic explanation of how to order them in Arabic.
With GPS to guide them through the picturesque stone alleyways of the city, visitors are invited to taste musab’ha – that sublime, warm, creamy version of hummus, and katayef – delightful, aromatic pancakes filled with chopped nuts or mild white goat and sheep cheese, carefully prepared by gracious Abu Ashraf – among other local specialties.
As we sit back, dazzled by the whirl of these new technologies whizzing by us, there is a very important change that is taking place that it is important to recognize. I am about to publish my own book – a process made possible through the sea-change in the publishing world driven by innovations including virtual bookstores and print-on-demand technologies. Any tourist – or writer – or musician, or artist – is now able to mediate directly between themselves and the world, through their ingenuity, curiosity and their keyboard. Power to the people!
Download the Rama Tour on http://bit.ly/iTunesRama.
This sounds great, Abbie. Nazareth is still undiscovered and I bet you found a lot of amazing places to eat.
I did indeed – just get out your iphone and you can find out!