Category: When In
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 ...
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
Miami
Remember when we used to pass notes in grade school? We sketched our best friend’s name or I love so and so or acronyms for every new and made up phrase (lylas, ttyl, bffe) all over sheets of blue-lined notebook paper, folded it into some indistinct shape and passed it from desk to desk hoping not to get caught by Mr. Smith. We’d communicate in style, glitter pens on paper in bubbled or graffiti letters, saying just as much with the fonts we created than with the words themselves. It’s a lost art. A friend of mine who teaches middle ...
November 7, 2017
Prague
Prague wasn’t my idea. It was Veronica who first suggested the Eastern European city when we agreed on a trip to Amsterdam after I raved about my first visit in the fall of 2016. We had a bunch of recommendations from friends, family, and our Airbnb host, but the ultimate plans lay in the hands of the infamous Google Doc. Y’all are familiar with it. It’s that printed out document that includes the itinerary planned down to the minute. If you don’t know what I’m talking about then you’re probably not the Type A planner to build one out or even ...
September 22, 2017
Cartagena
I almost didn’t make it to Cartagena. Missed my flight from Peru to Colombia and spent an extra night in Cusco wondering if the trip was really meant to be. If the universe was conspiring against me. If the expectation of a good time in Colombia was destined to be unmet and the reality of my situation was a better bet. But it always works itself out. It was an awkward ride from the airport in an Uber. Uber is illegal in Colombia but the app still functions, so it works? If asked by a cop what I was doing ...
September 12, 2017
When In 