 I don't have an exact
count of just exactly how many different places Sydney has been
since the show began. Suffice it to say, it's been a lot. If you're
planning on sending your spies someplace, make sure you research
that place. It will help you come up with details to include in your
writing, and lend an air of accuracy and legitimacy to what you
write. I find that looking at pictures of a place also helps me get in a
mood to write something set there.
general sites
CIA World Factbook: Something this good and useful, you really
should have to pay for. Of course, I guess since it's a government
publication, a lot of us are. Anyway. It contains information on, I
believe, every country there is, as well as images like maps and
flags. Great if you need to pick a country, or get details on a
country you've chosen.
Expedia: You can substitute
another travel site in here, but these guys are important. You can
use them to look up maps (say you need Syd and Vaughn to meet in a
specific place in L.A.), as well as study plane trips (I think it's
good, especially if your characters are going to be taking a
commercial flight, to actually look up a flight or 10 from your
point A to B...it will give you a good idea of how long they'll be
traveling).
metroPlanet: A site
that covers metro/subway systems on just about every continent.
Great if you want your spies to take the subway and you need some
details. The
European Railway Picture Gallery: Site features pictures of
European rail systems, both above and below ground. Great if you
want to see just what a subway or train is going to look like.
Quicktime VR Website List: Gives links to a variety of Quicktime
VR sites, many of which are sites for different cities.
A View on Cities: Site
dedicated to "unique" cities contains pictures and information on a
number of cities around the globe.
geographic coordinates
Political Divisions: Lists geographic coordinates of some
cities, but it's a sample of a larger product (which you have to pay
for). Also check
World Wide Cities from the same site.
CIA World Factbook Geographic Coordinates: Geographic
coordinates of just about every country out there.
los angeles City of
Los Angeles: Official city site includes a multimedia gallery
and maps. Los Angeles Times:
Major newspaper in L.A. area.
L.A. Daily News: Another L.A. newspaper, and supposedly Will
Tippin's former place of employment.
UCLA: When Syd actually went to
class, she went here.
LAX: Site for Los Angeles International Airport.
Los Angeles Kings: Official
site for the team. LACV: Los
Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau, includes travel information
and a photo gallery.
TimeOut: Los Angeles: I like the looks of this guide. It has
pretty extensive coverage of the sorts of places you'd need for a
fic, like bars and restaurants, shopping, coffeehouses, etc.
Streets of Los Angeles: A
great photo site that aims to capture the "real" Los Angeles, and
seems to succeed. LAPhotos.com:
An extensive site full of pictures of the city. Perhaps a little
more touristey, but its breadth and organization can give you a good
feel for the city.
berlin
Berlin: A
grungier look at the city, mostly images, which I think is useful,
since spies don't tend to frequent the tourist establishments that
comprise most city sites.
Berlin for Trendsetters: A tourism site that tries to gear
itself more towards "trendsetters," and includes sections like the
Berlin club scene.
Berlin Travel: A more general and brief tourist guide that
covers the basics of the city.
Clubs in Berlin: Site covers the Berlin club scene by district.
metroPlanet Berlin Germany: Covers U-Bahn and S-Bahn lines in
Berlin (subway/metro).
European Railway Picture Gallery Berlin: Contains pictures of
both U-Bahn and S-Bahn trains.
Berlin-VR: 360 degree
photographs of a number of different areas throughout Berlin.
bloomington Yes, Bloomington, Illinois. But I think it
serves as a good example for the types of sites to look for,
especially if you're doing a witness protection fic (which is what
this was for) and the city isn't very splashy. Plus I can't just let
these links go to waste.
Bloomington-Normal
Area Convention and Visitors Bureau: A nice portal into the
Bloomington-Normal area with basic facts and links to other sites.
About the City: A nice set of facts and background on
Bloomington.
Illinois State Clubhouse (ESPN): Stats and info on local college
sports. Pantagraph.com:
Site for the local newspaper; particularly useful was the
Sesqui! section which includes a much-needed (for me, anyway)
shot of the downtown area.
st. petersburg and russia
NEW:
History of Russia: A ton of links to different resources on
Russia.
NEW: Societ
Union: A Country Study: From the Library of Congress. Crazy
amounts of links and information.
NEW: Travel Kiev:
Okay. Not really Russia. But former Soviet Union, so close enough.
NEW:
The
Trans-Siberian Railway: Covers routes, history, and cities along
the routes.
NEW:
Map of the Former Soviet Union: I had a hard time finding one.
Here it is.
NEW:
Soviet Union Population Density: Who knows why in the world I
needed this. But if you would happen to, here it is.
CIA World Factbook, Russia: Maps, geography, background and
history, people, transportation, economy, communications and
military, to name a few. A very good general resource on the
country.
Clickable map of Russia: Geography and other information
on the different regions of Russia.
The Fresh Guide
to St. Petersburg: I have great love amounts of love for this
site. It gives descriptions and information about the down-to-earth
sort of details you need to write a city. It's designed for
tourists, but the coverage is realistic, and the details are sharp
(and highly useful). Coverage includes history, language,
transportation, money and nightlife.
St. Petersburg Region: Satellite photo coverage of the St.
Petersburg. Rest of site has coverage of other areas of Russia.
St. Petersburg Metro: Site
on history of metro in St. Petersburg. It's in Russian, but it's got
lots of great photos of the stations.
USSR Railway
Picture Gallery: Pictures of trains and metros from across the
former USSR.
metroPlanet
St. Petersburg: Map of the metro lines.
Wandering Camera: An
extensive photo album of St. Petersburg and suburbs.
St. Petersburg
in Pictures: This looks like someone's personal Web page with
vacation pics, but sometimes those are the best for writing stories
(the tourism sites tend to take tourismey photos of tourismey
places...real people, if you're lucky, will venture off the beaten
path and take some pics there).
St. Petersburg (All Pictures): This is a tourismey site, with
tourismey pictures. But they do seem to really capture the more
spectacular parts of the city.
Traveller's
Yellow Pages - St. Petersburg Edition: A yellow pages site that
breaks down businesses into fairly small, detailed categories.
St. Petersburg Region Forests:
The actual title of the page is "Land Cover and Forest Structure in
the St. Petersburg Region of Russia: Integrating Landsat with Forest
Inventory Data." And yes, it sort of scares me that I have that in
my bookmarks.
normandy
SEINE-MARITIME Interactive map: Interactive map of Normandy.
D-Day
Invasion (About.com): Links to various sites about Normandy,
with a tourism focus.
Britannica.com
Presents Normandy: An extensive site about the Normandy
invasion. For an invasion map, go to Above map from:
http://normandy.eb.com/normandy/maps/onormay030m4.html. To find
Fleury, try Expedia. |
