Chambre Ardente :: Island of Ephemera Notes

When we FINALLY raise enough money to get me over to Leiden to conduct a search for clues as to the Skin Armor’s wearabouts, I thought that I’d give myself a well-deserved break afterwards. So I’ve been doing a little research into desirable holiday destinations.

I picked up a travel brochure a few days ago for a place called Island of Ephemera. It sounds really rather nice although I am a bit worried that it might be a bit overcrowded – there’s apparently over 50 million visitors a year. However there are 128 museums – including the renowned Paper Collection and the Museum of the Future, so I’m pretty confident that I’ll be able to write it off against tax as research. Also it has a Latin motto, and I DO love a good motto. Theirs is “populus quisnam operor non lego non exsisto inquisitor,” which translates roughly to “people who don’t read can’t be trusted.”

This is what the brochure says:

A city with a rich history and an exciting future, New Ephemera attracts 50 million visitors annually from all over the world who come to find peace in the gardens, satisfaction in the gourmet selection of wine, cheese, breads and seafood, and intellectual stimulation in the renowned multilingual libraries and extensive museum collections. Transportation is easy, accommodation abundant, the air clean, and the people eager to share their city and their legends. New Ephemera exhilarates, awakening the senses to new experiences as well as to those things usually taken for granted. stroll down its cafe-lined streets, admire its monuments and great works of art, absorb the sun on its beaches. Lose your ties to the drudgery of daily life in an hour in the Honey baths or rent a bicycle to explore the outer bivouacs. There is no right way to spend your time in New Ephemera, no matter if it is your first visit or your fifth. Stay awhile and you will see why New Ephemera is called the City of Fleeting Fulfillment.

If you know more about Ephemera, if you've visited or have a Flickr site with holiday snaps from your stay, please let me know. I like to be well informed before I book anything...

Originally via BLDGBlog >>
Download the brochure >>
Read Metropolis Magazine, The Ephemeral City >>