It took me at least a month of deliberation to decide to launch myself out into the world during a global pandemic. Decision made, I’m embracing it as a new type of travel adventure. I just hope it doesn’t turn out to be a broke-my-foot-in-Bosnia-type adventure or an abandoned-in-a-dingy-Slovakian-train-station-at-night-type adventure. Trying to figure out the […Read more]
In travel, not all toilets are created equal. Some are much less equal than others. Of course, I am referring to the squat toilets found in many parts of the world outside of North America. Some can be gleaming porcelain fixtures, while others are nasty holes in the ground (and lots of variations in between). […Read more]
It’s no secret that I love to travel. I love exploring new places, absorbing the culture through its foods and music, hanging out in sidewalk cafes and watching the people go by. But I also love that I live in a place that makes me feel like I’m on vacation every day. This weekend, I […Read more]
I had a moment of travel discomfort last night. I met a colleague for dinner at our hotel in Dakar, and when I mentioned my plans for today included looking for a museum and roaming about a bit, he looked at me intensely and asked, “Did you have your security briefing?” I had. Our internal […Read more]
“I don’t speak the language,” seems to be the most often expressed fear people have about traveling to another country. But to me, that’s always seemed a very limiting way to look at travel. Most of us don’t speak more than one or two languages, so if you restrict yourself to countries where those languages […Read more]
I spent last weekend with some friends in Palm Desert, a little respite from the fall rains sweeping into Seattle. But as I sat soaking in the sun by the pool, gazing up at the dramatic outline of the mountains surrounding this desert oasis, my mind drifted back to my recent trip to Ukraine. I […Read more]
I should have patented it. When I first came up with my jet lag prevention scheme, there seemed to be great debate about how to prevent jet lag. Drink alcohol to help you sleep on the plane. Don’t drink alcohol on the plane. Eat lightly on the plane. What you eat doesn’t matter. Take a […Read more]
Like a flamingo in a flock of baby chicks, you just can’t miss the typical tourist walking down the street—confused look, big map, too many things hanging around their necks. But visiting a new place does not doom you to stand out as a tourist. When I’m asked for directions on the streets of London […Read more]
It’s amazing how easy it is to slip back into life in Greece. Even when I’m walking streets I never walked 22 years ago when I lived there, they feel familiar. It’s instinctive to watch for uneven pavement, or to look left, right, sideways, behind me when I cross the street. I’m confident in the […Read more]
People often seem surprised that I don’t mind traveling on my own. And of course, I’m the first to agree that having a good travel companion to laugh with and who likes to explore the same things you do is probably the most fun way to travel. But when I’m in the situation of having […Read more]