Category: Contest

Sarah Kliff summarizes a recent study finding that the popular kids earn more:

As the researchers looked toward the future, they found that 35 years down the road, the more popular students earned 2 percent more than their peers. That’s nearly half — 40 percent — of the wage differential that students accrue from an additional year of education. If a student moved from the 20th percentile of popular up to the 80th percentile it would yield a salary 10 percent higher — 40 years later. This held true after accounting for a number of separate variables, including family background, school quality, cognitive ability and adult personality traits.

The researchers conclude that "traits that make a student better-liked are pretty similar to those that make one successful in the workforce." Katy Waldman adds:

I know what you’re thinking. You’re like, but what about factors like socioeconomic status, family background, school quality, IQ, human and social capital, and adult personality traits? What about the idea that more contacts in high school could spill over into more adult connections, which certainly doesn’t hurt anyone networking for a job? The study totally controlled for all that. When Slate’s skeptical health and science editor Laura Helmuth (I have such a girl crush on her) finished vetting the study, she told me, "This looks like a legitimate effect. The authors propose that the popular kids understand the ‘rules of the game’ socially and know how to gain acceptance and support; when to trust; and when to reciprocate."

A reader writes:

Heaven. It's Heaven isn't it? The blue of the sky, the picturesque majesty of the mountains, the dreamy way they meander down into the lake, the perfection of the floral blossoms on the trees. Such places don't actually exist in real life. It must be Heaven.

Another:

Wild-assed guess but it's rare that I even get to the point where I can even make a wild-assed guess. Cherry blossoms made me think Japan but the landscape looks like a fjord.  I did a search for fjord, Japan – and the Shiretoko Pennisula came up.  A couple of photos of Rausu have some of the same colored roofs in the distance, but that's all I got.

Another:

This looks like it could be the southern end of Lake Chelan, a deep glacially carved lake in the North Cascades of Washington State. This end is serviced by roads but the only way to get to Stehekin on the northern end is by boat, plane, or hiking.

Another:

Since I'm only 22, I haven't traveled as much as some other readers of the Dish, but when I first saw the picture, I immediately thought of Lugano, a city in southern Switzerland, which is a really nice city on Lake Lugano and has beautiful mountains to hike. My parents and I have been there twice to visit American friends of ours who moved to Lugano in the mid 1990s to work for a college there. Seeing this picture makes me want to go to Switzerland on vacation again: the great chocolate, cheese, multiple languages and tax shelters for rich Americans that the country offers!

Another:

Bellagio, Lake Como, Italy? I'm guessing this isn't from George Clooney's compound, as I'm sure he's right on the water.  Let's say Hotel Belvedere, third floor or something.

Another:

Damn you, Dish. In the last 48 hours, I've traced the coasts of more little merry Balkan lake towns than any sane person should. Plužine, Montenegro? I know this isn't right – not enough pines – and it's probably in Norway or something, but whatever. If I look at another fjord I'm going to throw up.

Another:

I doubt you'd have a VFYW entrant from such an iconic town, but this looks a lot like Bellagio. Could that be the town of Fiumelatte across the Lake Como on the right shore? The blooming flowers in the foreground, though, make it likely that this is in the Southern Hemisphere.

Correct on the hemisphere. Another:

I am usually terrible at these, but I'll give this one a try. Has to be Southern Hemisphere because of the blossoming tree. The architecture stumps me, but the flora (tall pines, those scrubby yellow bushes) looks similar to that in the lake region of Neuquen, Argentina.

Not the Western Hemisphere. Another:

Flowering fruit trees mean southern hemisphere, fjord-like inlets say New Zealand, so I will guess Picton, New Zealand.

New Zealand it is. Another nails the right city:

I've been absent from the VFYW contest for a few months, and I'm sure a few people will get this one, and probably more accurate than me, but here's hoping. I did get a window last year, in Ulaan Bator, so maybe that breaks a tie for me. The biggest hint for me were the cherry blossoms in front, so I knew we were in the Southern hemisphere. The mountains looked positively Middle Earth, so I decided to check out lake resort towns in New Zealand. I quickly found some lovely shots of Queenstown. Checking out the map, it looks like we're sitting on the third floor of the Balmoral Lodge, 24 York Street, Queenstown, NZ (properly pronounced "een-zid") facing the lake.

Another sends an aerial view of Queenstown that could be from Middle Earth:

Another:

Ha! I knew this was Queenstown the instant I saw this. My adrenalin is pumping now with a genuine possibility of winning the contest this week. What to say, what to say! I live in Sydney, Australia. My wife and I moved from the Boston area four years ago. She's a Kiwi and her parents have a house in Wanaka, about an hour drive north of Queenstown over the Crown Range. We now spend most of our Christmases there and consider ourselves incredibly fortunate.

The South Island of New Zealand is stunningly beautiful and hard to describe in words. If the weather is clear over Fiordland, which doesn't happen all too often, the flight into Queenstown from Sydney is breathtaking. You fly in in the afternoon and the western sun lights up the corrugated coastline with the mountains dying into the sounds. Then over the often snow capped mountains, there's even some snow in summer. Finally, up lake Wakatipu to the airport. Of the many things that stand out about this area of the world, one of the coolest, literally and figuratively, is the water. The streams are full of water from snow melt and glacial run-off and have a magnificent turquoise hue:

I'm quite certain this view is taken from the Balmoral Lodge, 24 York Street, Queenstown. I would say it is the left window on the middle floor with the wrap around wood railing in front.

Another:

This is just west of the Shire in Middle Earth, I believe. Or it may as well be since everyone now equates New Zealand with Middle Earth. Actually, it's the Balmoral Lodge, 24 York Street, Queenstown, New Zealand.

Originally I thought it was Norway, what with the fjords, but once I noticed the beautiful flowering trees, I figured it must be in the southern hemisphere. That quickly narrowed it down to a few countries I could think of with lots of fjords on that side of the globe. I checked out New Zealand first, and having never been there, just looked to see the larger towns at the end of a fjord. There aren't many. It took me about five minutes to find Queenstown, then another five minutes to find the funny red, peaked roofs in between the window and the water. From there it was pretty easy to find the building. I believe it's taken from a second floor (American counting style) room. I've attached a photo I found of the lodge with my red circle added to show my guess of the room's location:

I've correctly answered two VFYW contests before, but not in over a year. They were Ulaanbaatar and Kiev (well, Kiev I was just barely off on the address I believe, so it may not count!). I also had one of my pictures featured last year (Hofn, Iceland). Thanks again for a wonderful use of my Saturday!

There were about a dozen readers who both answered the Balmoral Lodge and who have gotten difficult views in the past without yet winning. So breaking the tie this week is very tricky. We had to resort to checking to see which of those dozen readers had participated in the highest number of contests. That number is 18, from the following reader:

This week’s view looks a lot like the previous contest view of Waterton Lake in Alberta, Canada. The flowering trees in this week’s view mean that the photo was taken in spring. I always assume that the photo was taken recently. So, that means that the photo was taken somewhere in the southern hemisphere. I know that there are several fjord-like lakes in New Zealand. After a little searching, I came upon Balmoral Lodge in Queenstown, New Zealand. The view is looking southwest towards the harbor and Lake Wakatipu. The layout of the view, and my guess for the window are shown here:

Congrats on the long-awaited win. Details from the reader who took the Queenstown photo:

We were thrilled to discover our window on the Dish.  It was taken from our window at the Balmoral Lodge in Queenstown, New Zealand where we rented a small apartment looking out over Lake Wakatipu with the cherry blossoms just beginning to bloom, as it is early spring there.  At that moment, we were using the second floor parlor room as our writing office, which was probably the best office view we've ever had in our lives.

We are an American family that has taken our kids out of school for the year (ages 9 and 13) and we're traveling around the world, currently in Xi'an, China. We're calling this our Year To Think, hence our blog ayeartothink.com, where we post short films of our experiences, observations, interactions with people around the world about random topics like their Key To Happiness and Why Maori People Have Maintained Their Culture, and even a series of posts inspired by "VFYW" which we call "WHAT WE SEE TODAY" (not necessarily restricted to window frames).  As we travel the world, the Dish is our number one link to home (literally) and we are riding the roller coaster of the election on a track built by you.  We will continue to send in views from across the world, so feel free to check out some of the content on our blog (which we can't even directly access from inside China). Thank you for everything you do.

(Archive)

You have until noon on Tuesday to guess it. City and/or state first, then country. Please put the location in the subject heading, along with any description within the email. If no one guesses the exact location, proximity counts.  Be sure to email entries to VFYWcontest@gmail.com. Winner gets a free The View From Your Window book. Have at it.

A reader writes:

The topography in the background screams Southern California.  Though the trees in the foreground do not look native to the region, they look planted around either a business park or college campus whose architecture also scream Southern California. I’m going to say we’re looking at a corner of the University of California, Irvine business college campus.

Another:

This is clearly in the American West.  It is too arid to be Bozeman or Boise, too lush to be Albuquerque, and not hemmed in enough (no Mormon underwear joke intended) to be Salt Lake City.  I'll go with Denver.

Another:

So strange. I was trying to fall asleep at a friend's house in Denver, so I get out my iPad. Hadn't read your site for a couple days and there it is, a picture of the same view I'll be gazing at in about 5 1/2 hours, to drive back home to the mountains where I live. Well, not the *same* view; I'm further east and have a view of Mt. Evans, a 14,000 foot peak with a paved road to the top. In this picture, you can't see Mt. Evans – just some hazy foothills in the background, Green Mountain Going across horizontally in the middle of the photo (good easy mountain biking on that thar hill) and suburban Denver metro in the foreground. Where exactly in Lakewood I couldn't say, and I'm not about to Google Maps that shit 'cause I gotta go to bed! If I'm wrong, I'm going to look like a damned fool.

Another:

I am one of the many winners from the Bethany Beach, DE contest who didn't get a book. That was my first stab at the contest and I was really surprised and pleased at how easily I was able to solve it. Since then the contests have proven to be much more difficult.

I recognized this immediately as a view of Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado. I searched for hotels near the park and landed in Alamosa with some promising results, but nothing looks quite right. Perhaps Alamosa is the wrong town, but there doesn't seem to be anything else within view of the dunes. My boyfriend backpacked through the park several years ago. I'm going to see if he has any good insights. Otherwise I may have to leave this here as I don't really have time to chase this rabbit today. 

Another gets on the right track:

Based on the desert in the background, the low-rise buildings and the unmarked roads and bridges, I'm going to guess Ulaan Bator, Mongolia. Never been there, but the geography seems consistent with what I know about the city.

Another:

I haven’t played in a long while, mostly due to not having a clue when I’ve opened the photos each weekend. This photo, however, gave me an instant impression that I might be looking at a city in Turkey. For lack of any further recognition of precise location, I’m going with Alanya, Turkey because of the mountains in the background. Next time a castle in the background would be helpful!

Another pins down the right location:

Finally, I got one. This is Dushanbe, Tajikistan. The first clue was the building with the green roof is very typical of former Soviet republics – I've seen pretty much that exact same building in cities all over Russia. The mountains point to Central Asia; at first I thought maybe it could be Almaty. But the red, white and green flags on the left gave it away as Tajikistan, and a quick photo search brought up a very similar image. I believe this is take from the Hyatt Hotel, and is looking down towards Ismoili Somoni Avenue.

Another:

Dushanbe is the capital and largest city in Tajikistan, which is a former Soviet republic in Central Asia. The light pink/orange building that is a little left of center in the picture is the Ismaili Center.

Another sends an aerial view:

Another:

Spent a lot of time trying to figure out what the "CITY" billboard might mean. But googling "CITY" and billboard, even with all sorts of modifiers, got me nowhere. The tell was the flags in the bottom left. They are huge – almost certainly national colors, and consistent with country trying to show off. If it had been red, white and blue instead of red, white and green I'd have said car dealership in US, but the red, white and green suggests government facility or cultural monument of some sort. But where? Red, white and green flags:

Italy –> definitely no – absence of road markings rules out EU.
Hungary –> no for same reason.
Mexico –> arid mountains seem right, but again, architecture and lack of signs of high population density made this seem unlikely to me.
Iran –> colors are in wrong order, but geography and topicality seemed right. Didn't see any minarets, but that could just be the view. Thought the weird building in the center might be some kind of nuclear research center, but complete absence of security made that unlikely. Also didn't expect to see billboard in English.

Which left Tajikistan. Last place I checked, but everything fell into place. It's Dushanbe.

Another:

Judging from the Soviet-style apartment buildings and the boxy cars, this promised to be a city in the former USSR, somewhere in arid Central Asia. I started looking for significant details: the brown building in the center  was conspicuous, but I had no idea what it was until later. Then I spotted two details on the left:

The green-white-green trolley bus color scheme that is only found in Dushanbe, as far as I can tell, and the red-white-green flags confirmed it was Tajikistan. There aren't that many skyscrapers in Dushanbe and the Hyatt Regency matches all of the criteria: it is near water and it is facing the Ismaili Centre. I have traced the location of the window to the 7th floor. I really appreciate these weekly puzzles, and tracking that trolleybus down was quite exciting.

Another:

The red, white, and green pennants to the left in the picture got me to Tajikistan and then once I went to Dushanbe (capital and largest city) I spotted the location pretty quickly. A couple of different sources say the hotel has 12 floors and it looks like the picture was take from 1 floor below that so I'll say 11th floor. I've attached a pic with a guess for the exact window circled. I'm guessing a lot of readers will get this one but if I do end up in the running I believe I was only one window off in the 12/31/2011 VFYW contest showing a pic from the hospital in Chicago.

About two dozen readers correctly answered the Hyatt Regency in Dushanbe, so determining a winner was tough this week. But the following reader was the only one to match the stated floor number from the photo submitter, as well as having correctly guessed a previous difficult window without yet winning – until today:

This week's VFYW contest photograph was taken from the Hyatt Regency hotel at 26/1, Ismoili Somoni Prospekt in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.  It's looking northwest from the southern 'tower' of the hotel over the Ismaili Center, which Secretary of State Clinton visited just last autumn.  I'm guessing it was taken from the 10th floor.

From the submitter:

I took this picture last week and thought it may be appropriate as either a contest or just to show on the site. Not too many Americans visit this country, I imagine, so it could be somewhat difficult. It was taken at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on the 10th floor, but I cannot remember whether it was taken from a hallway window or from my room number (1012) that night.

Another reader sends "an alternative view of the Ismaili Center at night":

One more notable entry:

I won the contest almost exactly two years ago for the week you had a picture from Krakow, Poland. But the contest is enormous fun and I can't help but participate, if only to share my thought process. For the week after I won, I was one of the few to correctly identify the correct city, which was Damascus, Syria. Two years ago doesn't seem that long ago for me, but Syria is sadly a very different place now.

This week's picture absolutely screamed Central Asia to me. I'd spent a few months there in 1997 and the wide boulevards and the ever present mountain ranges were unmistakable. The pastel buildings made me think it was Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, and I assumed those were the Kopet Dag mountains but Google Earth quickly dissuaded me of that. My next guess was Tashkent, but I had trouble seeing anything so built up so close to the mountains. After seeing the colors of the flag on the lamp posts at left, I realized it must be Dushanbe, the capital of the only country from the former USSR's Central Asian republics that I had not visited in 1997, Tajikistan. During the 1990s, the Tajik Civil War made what was awful situation in most of the former USSR, i.e. an economic contraction much worse than the US's Great Depression, into something unimaginably desperate.

I had been seriously looking into travelling to Tajikistan in either August or September of this year. My hope was to go trekking in some of the mountain ranges in Afghanistan not too far from Tajikistan's border, in an area that has never seen Taliban forces. The cheapest flights to that part of the world were to Dushanbe and since the Tajik civil war was well into the past, the best overland transport to the mountains in Afghanistan was through Tajikistan. I had thought that I really owed the Dish some quality window views if I made it there! Since I saw this I feel a bit disappointed I didn't work harder to organize my life to get to that part of the world!

The view is from the Hyatt Regency Dushanbe at 26/1, Ismoili Somoni Prospekt. Part of the building is visible from the right of the image. I'm guessing that is the fifth floor, but I won't guess a room and window. The visible body of water is Lake Komsomol.

I hope you keep the contest going; I worry that interest might flag. But I always look forward to the contest and love reading other's thought processes. It always makes me feel better connected to the larger world, something the interwebs often promise, but often fail to produce. Even more than that I enjoy how wistful it can make me feel. Thanks!

(Archive)

You have until noon on Tuesday to guess it. City and/or state first, then country. Please put the location in the subject heading, along with any description within the email. If no one guesses the exact location, proximity counts.  Be sure to email entries to VFYWcontest@gmail.com. Winner gets a free The View From Your Window book. Have at it.

A reader writes:

The rolling forested hills, mist, and giant construction project look like southern China. I'm guessing the outskirts of Shenzhen, which is still working on expanding its subway line.

Another:

Lilongwe, Malawi? The Chinese have made and are making enormous investments in the infrastructure of African nations, on a scale that should be alarming to the West.  In these no longer isolated parts of the world, quality modern urban design updates and enhances the European fabric from another era. Stade des Jeunes, home of the Civo United Football Club, is one example of such contributions, and its current renovation seems to have produced one of the better looking stadiums.  This window view of the construction site could have come from the seventh floor of the nearby Crossroads Hotel.  The one problem is that the area around the stadium is more densely urban and developed than your photograph suggests, but perhaps more buildings are merely obscured by the fog.  I can't be certain because I haven't set foot on that continent in 40 years.

Another:

I believe that's the Nissan International Stadium Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture we are looking towards from across the Tsurumi River.  But from which building?  Even Google Maps seems to have only Japanese names for the buildings. 

Another:

This is a view of Wörtherseestadion in Klagenfurt, Austria, with fog shrouding the Alps in the background.

Another:

Arena Recife under construction for World Cup 2014, in Recife, Brazil?

Another:

Perhaps the Stockholmsarenan/Tele2 Arena? The balloons outside the window are Sweden's national flag colors. From there a quick search of "Sweden stadiums, retractable" gave many lists. There are several. This one looked most like your picture. Sorry no time this weekend for further research. This will have to do!

Another nails the correct city:

Ljubljana, Slovenia? I got there by recognizing the obvious – that this is a soccer/football stadium (or something similar), likely in a eastern Europe (from the architecture of the building from which the picture was taken). Staring at the image a bit, it's clear that the stadium would not have a big enough capacity to justify all the parking spots around it unless it was sunken. So I googled "sunken stadium" and pretty quickly ended up with this stadium. I'm going to work some more on the exact location within the building, but I wanted to lay down a marker in case I get too caught up in work. I'm still smarting from not considering Vanuatu two weeks ago – the only island in the world I didn't look at (I'd passed it over since I thought it was flat) – so it's nice to get one.

Another:

This week's VFYW was a toughie, but I lucked onto the answer within about half an hour. The image clearly shows a soccer stadium with some kind of building or other concrete structure surrounding it. Page 6 of the results of a Google image search for "football stadium concrete plaza" included this picture, a smallish stadium with an unbroken rectangular canopy and light posts. The picture came from this story on the new Stožice Sports Park in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, and I knew after a couple of exterior shots and the description of the adjacent "multi-purpose sports hall" that I'd found it.

Google Maps shows all the features in the photo: the soccer stadium, the "cutouts" in the sports hall, the garden allotments, and the curving junction behind, with the photo showing a view from the southwest. Based on the alignment of elements, it appears the photo was taken from the complex of high-rise buildings at 75 Vojkova Road – specifically, the northernmost building of the four. From the height, I'll guess a 9th-story window.

Slovenia is the most prosperous Balkan country, owing in part to it having the earliest and most bloodless break from the former Yugoslavia, and are full EU Eurozone members. I mention this because it makes it all the more surprising they would build such a hideous concrete monstrosity for their national sports complex – the stadium and arena (barely visible in the left edge of the window) host the Slovenian national soccer and basketball teams, as well as the capital's major professional clubs. It looks as though Tito built it forty years earlier!

Another:

So I googled "sunken stadium" and pretty quickly ended up here:

It's a view of the sunken Stožice Stadium in Ljubljana, seen from roughly the 17th floor of the building shown on the following images located along Vojkova cesta, probably at #77 (hard to get the exact address – the pictures below are much more accurate)

I got there by recognizing the obvious – that this is a football (soccer) stadium. I initially thought, because of the overall height on the structure and the unfinished look of the surrounding area, that it was in the middle of construction, which made me think immediately of Brazil and all the stadium construction they're doing for the 2014 World Cup. But a quick inspection of those venues did not match anything. So I looked at the image more carefully and concluded that it was more likely in eastern Europe (from the architecture of the building from which the picture was taken) and, more importantly, that the only way the stadium could be big enough to justify all the parking built around it, while being so apparently short was if it were sunken.

A quick look at Google Maps made it clear that the photo was taken from this block of apartments overlooking the park to the south of the stadium:

As to exactly how high, it looks like it was taken pretty high up. I tried various ways to estimate the height and always get it somewhere around 15-20 stories high. So I'm going to go in the middle of that and say 17 stories up, or around three stories from the top, or this window:

Another also guessed the 17th floor of the Vojkova Apartments. But the winner this week, by the skin of his teeth, was the reader who guessed the floor closest to the exact one – the 15th: 

Just heard about your contest last week, and have spent a hundred hours on looking back at games 1 through 50 so far.  My wife is now upset, but she is the one who told me about the contest.  This is generally really really hard. I found this stadium while searching for Brazilian soccer stadiums and a picture of the Stozice sports complex came up in Ljubljana Slovenia.  The hard part was deciding exactly which building and what floor.  The building has to be one of the towers of the Vojkova cesta complex of buildings.  Either 75 or 77, I'm going with 77 which is the far right building looking from the stadium.  It is a window just to the left of the balcony and I'm going to guess 14 stories up.

Hopefully winning the book prize will make her less upset.

(Archive)

You have until noon on Tuesday to guess it. City and/or state first, then country. Please put the location in the subject heading, along with any description within the email. If no one guesses the exact location, proximity counts.  Be sure to email entries to VFYWcontest@gmail.com. Winner gets a free The View From Your Window book. Have at it.

A reader writes:

Everything about this photo makes me think Korea: The fog, the rolling hills in the background, the mixture of small shop buildings and high-rise apartment towers, the long line of taxis, cars on the right side, evergreen foliage, and what appears to be a fried chicken restaurant just to the right of center. The city of Gangnam? It's what's missing that makes me think I'm wrong: not a scooter bike in sight. 

Another:

I believe the picture is in Acapulco, Mexico. The landscape looks Mexican – a mixture of poverty and affluence. The style of that commercial strip at the bottom of the picture is also something you see all over the country. Why I am pretty sure it is Acapulco in particular are the taxis in the photo, which are blue and white – very distinctive. As far as I know, these taxis are only found in Acapulco.

Another:

This is the first time I have really tried to attack a picture I knew nothing about.  Blowing it up, I couldn't find anything super unique, but googling the shape of the street signs that are at each cross walk in the foreground intersection match Italian crosswalk signs. Italians drive on the right, and the general impression of the architecture, car styling, and plant life seems consistent with Italy. The weather, peaked roofs and general impression make me think northern Italy. For some reason Torino comes to mind, as fitting the more industrial, hilly, northern Italian city.

Another:

Is it Poland? Looks like my Motherland. Soviet-style block buildings, (failingly) cheered up by colorful paint. Itty bitty cars. Gloomy, rainy autumn weather.

Another:

Well, at least it's not a shot of another beautiful beach and/or exotic locale that sadly 99% of your readers will never visit. O, to be part of that 1%! My guess: Bratislava, Slovakia.

Another nails the right country:

The signs, cars, and weather are European; the shabby architecture and tiny open-air market say Eastern Europe. The Coca-Cola logo is in Latin script, which eliminates Russia, Ukraine, Serbia, and a few others. I'll guess Romania for the country. The city is hilly enough that it has to be in the north or west, so I'll take a stab with Ia?i, the old Moldavian capital.

Another:

I confess I am one of those participants who is way, way too lazy to ever get on Google Earth to figure out window angles and stuff like that, but having lived here for over six years now, this photo absolutely screams Romania! (The sad thing is I've probably driven down that damn street at one point or another.) The rising hill in the background says its likely a Transylvanian city like Cluj and the pine trees also say 'north of the Carpathians'. I am going to go with Brasov since the streets are wide and there's that hill in the background, but if it's Cluj or Baia Mare I won't be surprised.

Indeed it is Cluj. Two readers correctly guesssed the northwest Romanian city:

Based on the road signs, the shack in the front, and the crappy lamp posts, this is my native Romania :-). The city is hilly, there are mountains nearby, and some level of orderliness is present, so my bet would be on one the Transylvanian cities. Cluj would be an obvious bet, as it is big enough to have Dish readers, but it is most probably too far away from the mountains.

The other isn't much more confident:

First time participant so forgive me if my answer sounds like a joke! I searched for pictures of red taxis (I think that's one in the bottom right corner) and found this (note that the car behind the red and white taxi looks like the white car in the bottom left of the image you posted).  Then I looked up blue crosswalk signs and I think they have those in Cluj-Napoca? I really don't know. I'm not exactly worldly but I always wanted to try one of these contests.

Both Cluj entrants are also first-time participants, so there is no real way to break the tie. We'll just have to award two book prizes this week. Details from the submitter:

I've just moved back to my country, Romania, after living in Canada for a while, and it just occured to me that I don't remember having seen views from Romania on your blog. So here's my view (from the 6th floor of an apartment block similar to the one in the picture): Cluj-Napoca, today September 20 at 14:25 p.m.

Over the past six years the Dish has actually featured four VFYWs from Romania – here, here, here and here. Update from a reader:

When I saw the name Cluj it rang a bell straight away, then I remembered that's the name of the obscure Romanian team I've heard mentioned in all the sports bulletins today as they play Manchester United in soccer's Champion's League tonight.

Was this a deliberate move by a soccer aficionado on the team? Or just one of those odd coincidences that the VFYW throws up every now and then?

The latter.

(Archive)

You have until noon on Tuesday to guess it. City and/or state first, then country. Please put the location in the subject heading, along with any description within the email. If no one guesses the exact location, proximity counts.  Be sure to email entries to VFYWcontest@gmail.com. Winner gets a free The View From Your Window book. Have at it.

A reader writes:

The cove, the brightly colored buildings and lush foliage makes me think we're looking at a scene from Zihuatanejo, down in Mexico.

Another:

Fort George, Falmouth Harbor, Antigua? Even if I'm way off, I would like to extend to you my most sincere appreciation for the two hour Google Earth virtual-vacation you just provided me on this fine Saturday afternoon while exploring the bays and harbors of the Netherland Antilles. If it had been a typical, soul-sucking Monday at my desk, however, you be receiving four letter words instead of thanks.

Another:

In the hours I spent obsessively searching Google Earth for this VFYW, I probably could have traveled to the location in person. The way I see it there are only two options as to the origin of this VFYW submission: either a gloating, vacationing Disher; or more likely, the property owner himself, in which case he should be commended for his ingenius use of free advertising, courtesy of the Dish. In fact, this view and the villa that comes along with it can be yours for under a low, low rental price of only $10k/week. Does that plug get me a discount? If not, I'll settle for the win and the book.

Another nails the correct location:

Tough puzzle, but with one very useful clue almost smack in the middle: there just aren't that many four-masted, blue-hulled sailing yachts in the world. 

A Google search led me to the yacht Phocea, which is supposedly based in the Mediterranean.  Somehow the terrain didn't look right for the Mediterranean.  I briefly considered the Cayman Islands since the yacht is registered there, thinking the location might have current political relevance, but no luck there either.  So back to Google (with my daughter searching this time) for the yacht's current location, and bingo! – Port Vila, Vanuatu, in the South Pacific.

The photo was taken from The Reserve Bank of Vanuatu facing the Rue Mercet.  The bank comprises two large structures.  The contest's photo was taken from the smaller, western-most structure, specifically at the southern end of the row of windows on the top floor.  The low wall at the southern end of the balcony appears at the left edge of the photo.  I have attached a picture of the bank with a circle drawn around the window:

I've never been to Vanuatu, nor have I sailed on the Phocea, so I have no story to tell, but I do love the Dish.  The weekly contest is just icing on the cake.

Another sends an aeriel view:

A previous winner writes:

One thing you have to love about the VFYW contest is that a picture taken in Minnesota (last week's shot) can prove far more challenging to locate than one taken in the middle of the south Pacific. This week's view shows the harbor of Port Vila, Vanuatu, the country's capital. It was taken from a window at the Vanuatu Reserve Bank looking roughly west-southwest above the World War I and II memorial.

On that note, another writes:

In the bottom right of the picture you can barely see the top of the WWII Memorial that sits across from the Federal Reserve building.  The attached picture shows the window I think the picture was taken from:

The winner this week is the only Vanuatu entrant who has correctly answered a difficult view in the past without yet winning:

The key to this VFYW contest is the four-masted sailing yacht moored in the bay. There are few, if any, other large yachts rigged like this one, the Phocea. Ocean-going yachts like this one move around a lot and could be in any number of tropical bays that look something like this. The Phocea, however, was seized by the government of Vanuatu over customs violations and the story has widened into a scandal involving several government ministers and all sorts of allegations of skullduggery. In light of this, hope the picture was snapped on International Talk Like a Pirate Day last week.

The view is of Vila Harbor. Based on the locations of the buildings with the yellow, blue and green roofs between Kumul Highway and Rue de Paris and the railing in the foreground, my best guess is that the picture was taken from the older, west wing of the Reserve Bank of Vanuatu building. The fenestration of the building makes it difficult to count windows (I think it’s third from the left on the top floor), so if I need to be that precise I’ve attached a picture with an arrow.

(Archive)