A thick drizzle soaked me one Saturday afternoon in Pago Pago, American Samoa. (Pronounced something like “Pango Pango.) But the drizzle was a welcome relief from the Deluge of Heaven that had just raced across …
February 18, 2014
Go Abroad!
Pago Pago, American Samoa
Münich's surfers
Sitting near the base of the Alps in southern Germany, Münich's nearest coastline would be where Venice slowly sinks into the Adriatic some 300 miles away. But while one might make the case a gondolier …
February 16, 2014
Hidden Bruges: Bonifacius Bridge
Bruges can easily be called one of Belgium's greatest tourist traps. Loads of expensive restaurants, hundreds of surely overpriced hotels and many, many tourists. Thanks to a great guide, though, I experienced an idyllic moment …
February 9, 2014
Saarbrücken, Germany
Saarbrücken, the capital of the German state of Saarland that’s right on the French border, was part of an independent nation-state created after WWI. It changed political control back and forth: at times it was …
January 25, 2014
Addis Ababa: escape from ordinary
“Ethiopia?!” cried my mother, her eye wide shut. “Why are you going there?” It’s not on everyone’s “to go” list, for a variety of reasons, but for anyone with a devil-may-care attitude to travel, this …
January 23, 2014
Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia
The landlocked (and usually overlooked) country of Bolivia in South America is home to the largest salt flats in the world, visible by astronauts in space. The Salar de Uyuni is 25 times larger than …
January 20, 2014
Essential Budapest
Few people are aware that Budapest is actually two cities, Buda and Pest, situated along the banks of the Danube River. Most visitors stay in Pest – it's got more to offer in terms of …
January 16, 2014
Down under collaboration for Karl Strauss
Twenty-five years ago, Chris Cramer had an epiphany when he entered an Australian brewpub called Sail and Anchor and drank one of its house beers. The concept of brewing beer on-site blew him away, leading …
January 13, 2014
Bullfight in Zapote (video)
Even from the bleachers, a safe distance from the corral, the bull looked dangerously close. A sea of young men surrounded the bull, and every time the animal flinched, waves of contestants rippled away in …
January 7, 2014
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
A lesson in Vietnamese road culture
How I ended up in Hai Phong, Vietnam, with 10 other teachers is somewhat of a mystery. Being the only tays (meaning “Westerner” in Vietnamese), we were pseudo-celebrities in this small town. It was not …
December 22, 2013
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
Playa El Espino, El Salvador
Call me a spoiled Southern Californian, but until I visited Playa El Espino I had never been forced to walk through a herd of milling cattle (left) to get to the ocean. This small fishing …
December 14, 2013
17 travel tips for Thailand
1) Leave your rolly luggage at home. Wear a backpack and only fill it ⅔ full. You will shop – if not for yourself, for your friends. Most of all, make sure that your bag …
December 12, 2013
Luxe Stuttgart, Germany
Stuttgart isn’t as frantically busy as many other cities in Europe and even in Germany can be, but it’s lively and thriving. With luxury auto manufacturing, palaces and wine, the city is a place to …
December 9, 2013