Congressman Juan Vargas and his staff are getting ever more familiar with Germany, thanks to repeated free trips there provided by the German Marshall Fund of the United States and Robert Bosch Stiftung, two big …
November 11, 2015
Go Abroad!
Juan Vargas, international hipster
Hidden Lisbon
The slightly dirty tile sidewalks welcomed us as we left our hostel to begin our first day in Lisbon. The magic in this city was palpable from the get-go. As we followed the trail of …
November 6, 2015
"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
Qamea, Fiji: paradise + misadventure
Nadi, Fiji, is a 10-hour direct flight from LAX. It’s ideal for travelers – especially ones who sleep soundly on planes, as I do. The flight leaves at 11:30 p.m. via Fiji Airways and arrives …
September 26, 2015
Salvadoran grower visits Bird Rock Coffee
Local coffee enthusiasts got a rare glimpse into the supply side of specialty coffee when a farmer from El Salvador paid a visit to Bird Rock Coffee Roasters for a pair of Meet the Grower …
September 9, 2015
Who says you can't do Paris in two days?
Arriving in Paris without your luggage might seem like a huge damper for the start of a mini–Euro trip. But with the sights and sounds of the City of Lights, all thoughts of my lost …
August 28, 2015
A glimpse of old Burma on Yangon's Circle Train
Nyein Sanda works in an office not much larger than a closet in the central train station in Yangon, Myanmar. His ticket booth on platform 7 hosts a constant stream of tourists looking to ride …
August 22, 2015
Bloody pleased with Stone in Australia
Back in 2010, Stone Brewing CEO Greg Koch described the problem of gray-market beer being sold to foreign markets during a video interview with Australia's Brews News website: "Unethical retailers or wholesalers here in the …
August 11, 2015
Art meets nature in the Canaries
The island of Lanzarote, part of Spain’s Canary Islands off the west coast of Africa, is for many budget tourists synonymous with cookie-cutter resort towns and all-inclusive holiday packages. The truth is that the island’s …
August 9, 2015
Beijing & the Great Wall explored
Check out Derek's e-book How to Travel On the Cheap (...and Even for Free!): Turn Your Travel Dreams Into Reality, available in the Amazon Kindle store. “We Chinese people eat everything. Everything in the sky …
Seoul bump
The second week of July, members of the Facebook group Seoul Brew Club started posting photos of Stone IPA and Ruination 2.0 to their community page. In this way, the group of homebrewers and beer …
July 18, 2015
Absorbed in history-rich Berlin
Berlin was always on our list of places to go someday, but the timing just never seemed right for one reason or another. As it turned out, May 2015 was the 70th anniversary of the …
Juan’s foreign affairs, cont’d
Fresh from an April junket with his wife in the Bavarian Alps paid for by nonprofit foundations backed by German industrialists, House Democrat Juan Vargas embarked alone on another free foreign journey in May, thanks …
July 1, 2015
France's Haute-Savoie: not the Riviera
On a steep narrow country road 3,700 feet above sea level, my travel partner accelerated the engine, heading toward the sound of alpine bells. As herdsmen rallied the cows to graze on the undulating pastures …
June 27, 2015
In search of Romeo and Juliet
Lamb’s Players fine production of West Side Story raises a question. The musical based Tony and Maria on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. But where did the Bard’s star-crossed lovers come from? And were they real? …
June 25, 2015