Europe

Dog-sledding in Svalbard, Norway

After a late night wandering the streets of Longyearbyen, under the midnight sun, I was up early. Waiting in the crisp Arctic morning air, my breath visible despite it being June, I could see the tour van driving towards the guesthouse that I was staying in. This was...

A Hidden Concert
in a Berlin Warehouse

It is a chilly Sunday evening in Berlin. Late October and the trees have shaken off their leaves. I shuffle my feet through piles of golden yellow and approach two steel doors with graffiti scrawled on them. Two smokers huddle in the cold, shifting from one foot to...

Quiet Corners in the West of Wales

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance. Even if you tour Europe, you’re probably not going to go here.” These were the words, spoken by my mother, that enticed me to take a break from my busy Los Angeles life to join my parents on a trip to Pembrokeshire and its coastal...

Snowshoeing & Snowblind at Switzerland’s Aletsch Arena

But I Digress… This is the third and final installment in the series about my January journey to the Matterhorn Region, in the Swiss canton of Valais (or Wallis), which has 45 summits at Switzerland’s highest areas for skiing. After boarding the Glacier Express at St....

Driving the White Villages of Andalucia

Andalucia and its White Villages Driving Southern Spain Driving in a foreign country can intimidate the best of us. My first time driving in Southern Spain, I worried about mysterious traffic rules and weird signage – all of which would be in español! How would I get...

The Omphalos of Tuscany in Castelmuzio

Everyone tells me that they simply love touring Italy. I do too. The food, the wine, the undulating roads lined with emblematic cypress trees. Beginning with the Etruscans millennia ago up to today’s Republic, it's rich history and beauty have earned a place in my top...

Marooned Near the Matterhorn: Escape from Snowed-In Zermatt

Murdered on the Glacier Express to Zermatt In January I planned to take an eight hour ride via first class coach with panoramic windows from Switzerland’s most luxurious center in its southeast to its poshest outpost in the southwest. But my train trip from St. Moritz...

A Stranger Roadtrippen’ in a Strange Land – How I Learned to Road Trip Abroad

Friends often call me a NASA-TV nerd. I watch transfixed by late night filler video of an earth rotating below the orbiting International Space Station, and in the same way I' m fascinated at how Google Earth maps depict the earth from space. I've found it to be my...

Feeling Good at Leukerbad, Switzerland’s Thermal Pool Village

If you have the hots for hot springs, Leukerbad is the place to hot tail it to. In January I boarded the Glacier Express from St. Moritz at southeastern Switzerland and rode cross country to Zermatt, where the Matterhorn is located in the Alpine nation’s southwestern...

The Secret Side of Santorini

“Santorini would not be what it is without Pinterest.” As my Greek taxi driver maneuvered the twisting turns around the volcanic mountains, the island was laid out below us: scattered farms, lush, vibrant plains of fields, the occasional church with its snow white...

Van Life in the South of Spain

Van Life Everywhere I looked online, van travel was stylishly portrayed. Elegant people draped over beautiful hand-made bedspreads; friends laughing, beers in hand and the soft golden light of dusk illuminating the happiness that only life on the road can bring. Vans...

A Garden in Fiesole

Fiesole, Italy The Sights in Florence I sat soaking up the sun in a small walled garden. Tumbling geraniums held the moss-covered stones together as they did most of this hillside town. The drone of bees left the air heavy. Once formal garden paths weaved through one...