Your Mattness: Who decides what are continents? Why is Greenland not a continent? It is bigger than the island/continent of Australia and has more people than Antarctica. How can Europe and Asia be one continent? …
February 2, 2006
If You Get My Continental Drift
Dubrovnik, Croatia
"I hate Dubrovnik," my friend Amila hissed. "We go there every year. To us Bosnians, it's boring. All the tourists. Too expensive. I hate it." Perhaps. But to this American, no place is more epic, …
November 30, 2009
A City Divided: Nicosia, Cyprus
Dusk. Empty street. Barbed wire. Bombed-out buildings. These are my first memories of Nicosia, Cyprus. Cassie and I came to Cyprus for the week of Kurban Bayramı, a religious holiday. We were both English teachers …
June 14, 2012
Bulgaria in Translation
“Wind of Change” by the Scorpions was on Bulgarian radio again. I listened while staring out the window at Sofia’s graffiti-speckled buildings on the taxi ride back to my downtown apartment. The next song sounded …
December 14, 2012
Georgia (the country)
Google “Georgia,” and you are much more likely to get recipes for peach pie than to learn about the unique ex-Soviet republic where wine was invented and a special language and culture survived a thousand …
December 19, 2013
Wild, traditional Faroe Islands
Most Americans probably don’t know where the Faroe Islands are. They’re a small island chain between Iceland and Scotland, speaking a language derived from Old Norse and Western Norwegian dialects. If anyone's heard of the …
December 31, 2013
Helsinki, Finland
Helsinki, Finland, is considered by many to be the “gateway to the East,” dividing Scandinavia from Eastern Europe. Indeed, it spent time as both as part of the Kingdom of Sweden and as part of …
March 2, 2014
"For a remember of Sarajevo"
It was 38 degrees Celsius (100F) when we arrived in Sarajevo. The soaring minarets that mark the Islamic world were ubiquitous. It also happened to be a national religious holiday in Bosnia – Ramadan Bajram …
October 9, 2015
What brings you to Kosovo?
1/18 UPDATE: see this link on travel safety if visiting Kosovo. Travel to the north of the country is currently not advised, other areas are relatively safe. "What brings you to Kosovo?" In most countries, …
October 22, 2017
Reykjavik: less like a tourist, more like a local
Though it was not my first time in Iceland, it was my first time single and, for most of the time, without any travel companion. It turned out to be a fine thing. You can …
February 24, 2019