November 24, 2018
Valencia, Bilbao & Mallorca
The case for traveling for one thing and one thing only An old lady and a dog, a businessman with a briefcase around his chest, and a mother with her son walk into a bar. This is not the set-up to an epic joke, just some observations I made while in the Café Bar Bilbao for breakfast. It’s one of the most popular local bars in the city. Each of those characters was greeted warmly by the waitstaff and pointed to a table full of carefully selected food. Their order. Likely the order that they’ve asked for years. I envision ...
August 1, 2018
Budapest, Bratislava, Vienna, Milan & Paris
Notes on solo travel It started raining as I arrived at the Vörösmarty Square for the free walking tour in Budapest. I looked around to try and remember the shop that I saw umbrellas being sold. Before I could turn all the way, a young, South Korean woman offered to share her umbrella. I took her up on it as we stood listening to the tour intro. As the rain got heavier I realized that I needed cover of my own. I told her I was going to run and buy one. She looked at me confused and said, “you can ...
February 13, 2018
Hot Air Ballooning in Teotihuacán
Ever flown in a hot air balloon? I hadn’t until a few days ago. I can only describe it as extremely practical and incredible. Practible? Incredactical? Seriously, take a look at this footage. It’s the feeling of floating effortlessly in the sky, the rhythmic throttle of hot flames slightly heating the back of your neck and pulsating in your ears. It’s the intermittent calm when the throttle is let up and an abrupt return to a hot neck and buzzing ears. But it’s also the understanding that you’re basically in a wicker basket propelled by tightly woven nylon and fire ...
December 17, 2017
Start with Your Why: My First Assignment at Remote Year
What’s your reason for getting up in the morning? What purpose does your job serve? What does the world need from you? Why are you here? These are the questions I was asked during my first week of employment with Remote Year, a startup that brings a group of inspiring professionals together to travel, live, and work in different cities around the world for a month each. It makes perfect sense to consider these questions whether you’re just starting a new job, have been at your current one all of your life, or are on sabbatical. Here’s why. In his ...
December 10, 2017
Why Fly United’s Basic Economy?
It’s the holiday season! If you’re like me, you love traveling even during the busiest of times. This means you may have also traveled so much that you make mistakes when it comes to booking flights. I reached that point last month when I accidentally booked the wrong dates for a destination wedding I was going to attend, catching this mistake just 2 weeks before the event. Since I booked with United, there was a hefty change fee of $200 to switch the travel dates. Beating myself up and wishing I had stuck with Southwest #NoChangeFees #NoBagFees, I quickly decided to ...
December 5, 2017
Bruges
Eight reasons to travel to Brugge this fall. Best of Bruges 2017. Why you can’t miss this Venice of Belgium. You can’t visit Belgium without a stop in Brugge. Don’t be Brugge-y. And all the other catchy travel article titles about Brugge… By the time I reached Belgium this October, my twelfth country to visit in the year, I was spent. I had really lost a sense of purpose in my travel after being overwhelmed with tourist activities in Prague and having a deeply enriching cultural immersion in Peru over the summer. I made a promise to myself that ...
November 26, 2017
Peru
It’s been 3 months since I’ve returned from my summer in Peru and I’m just now able to process the experience. Not that it was so heavy or deep or that I drank too much coca tea but it was a lot. Friends and family continue to ask me why I went, what I did and what I learned from the experience – all complicated questions. I wrote a full post on why I quit my job for this long-term stay abroad but the long story short is that I wanted to improve my Spanish and get living experience ...
November 16, 2017
When In 