#30. Norway.
A Lost Journal This post is about Norway, but it begins in Egypt. As with most of what I write here, it started as a stream of thought, spilling from my mind into a notebook. Dangerous. I felt inspired; it all came together somewhere between Amsterdam and Cairo, only for that notebook to vanish on […]
Portugal: Porto, Madeira and Overtourism
https://youtu.be/3KkNEvkCkJI A Growing Problem Anyone following international news these days may be acquainted with the wave of backlash in many European places in the face of overtourism. It’s a phenomenon that as a destination marketer in my prior life I was always baffled by. How could you have too many tourists? They bring money, boost […]
#29. Turkey
https://youtu.be/XkK0OGbWB8A The Journey Begins That damn clock. The happy chiming cut the silence of the night at three past midnight. I have no love for the thing, but for this day to work it was a necessity. I quickly got ready and I met the driver outside, on my way to SAW airport, the “second” […]
#28. United Arab Emirates
https://youtu.be/STP525pSnpQ Striking Out I didn’t know what to expect on my first trip overseas. Outside of trips to the East Coast or to Florida to visit my grandma, the prospect of getting on a plane and flying to the other side of the ocean was… well… foreign to me. I recall the excitement and the […]
#27: Luxembourg. The Fortress.
The Enigma A country like Luxembourg, to an American at least, is at once perplexing. Such a small slice of land, sandwiched between two world powers which have often played the lead role in major events of world history. Luxembourg often has seemed merely collateral damage in the bigger stories we read in the history […]
The One Where We Went on a Christmas Road Trip
https://youtu.be/xZ-DPCJACYs In the winter, the people of the Netherlands for good reason generally seem to seek someplace warmer. Our neighbors went to the Canary Islands. The French Riviera is popular. Some even fly all the way to the Caribbean and pass the days laying on a beautiful sandy beach in America. So naturally, when our […]
#26: Honduras
Wanderlust When I transformed this blog from a policy and politics focus into a travel blog over seven years ago, I set out with the goal of recounting a short reflection from each of my travels around the world. It took a few years (and is still ongoing), but it was an enjoyable and rewarding […]
Going Off-Script in London
https://youtu.be/x2Z7bVPjX-s?si=fbuRzETeEnpWUM5r Getting There The short walk from Trafalgar Square down to Big Ben was fraught with many tears, comments that walking was not an acceptable form of transportation, and demands that an Uber must be called immediately under the threat of a meltdown which was already partially underway. This walk, a mere few blocks, was […]
Part VI – Acquafondata
https://youtu.be/IO9DZCKf-bc Preface: The small municipality of Acquafondata lay high in the mountains at the nexus of the Winter Line and the Gustav Line, the fortified Axis defensive lines where Generalfeldmarschall Albert Kesselring’s Army Group C made their stand against the US 5th Army as it pushed towards Rome. This tiny handful of less than a […]
Unfiltered: Bambinos in Italia
https://youtu.be/ruAy6FiXX88 The Journey Begins Again I’d like to think that Jenn and I are fairly experienced and efficient travelers. We breeze through airport security, know how to pick the right seats on the plane, take advantage of points and perks offered on travel credit cards. We find a good balance, leaving parts of trips open […]
