When I tell my friends about Bali, their eyes glaze over like I’m talking about visiting Mars or Timbuktu. Bali conjures up exotic images of crystal blue waters, dancers, temples and seems so far away. Well, yes it is far away, but it’s not that expensive to get to, and once you’re there, you’ll want to keep coming back. Bali has it all. Now is the perfect time to go...
After the September 11 attacks, airline travel was forever changed by new regulations and tightened security. To make things worse, in 2001 Richard Reid unsuccessfully tried to light a bomb hidden in his shoe on an American Airlines flight. The incident spurred a new rule requiring passengers to remove and screen their footwear. Then, in 2006, a plot was uncovered in...
The church looked awfully busy for a Wednesday afternoon. As I walked through the double doors, I immediately noticed there was something a little different about this house of worship. The pews had been replaced by tables and the altar was adorned with giant beer tanks. The stained glass windows and other church decor had been left intact when the building had been...
I hear this phrase a lot: “They don’t like Americans over there”. Usually the person saying it is an American and has never been “there” or anywhere else for that matter. The world is easier to understand if you make assumptions and base opinions on what you thought you saw or read somewhere. Just apply the principles from what you learned in cartoons: The bad...
I’ve been shopping today. It’s my final day in Ethiopia and I’ve been buying everything from refrigerator magnets to an Amharic Bible that looks like a prop from an Indiana Jones film. As I have been popping in and out of various shops, I’ve seen a handful of inexperienced tourists attempting to buy souvenirs. It’s sometimes painful for...
Huey Lewis once told us the heart of rock and roll is in Cleveland. However, if you want to go to where rock and roll was born, Memphis is it. It’s the city that created Elvis, and without Elvis there would be no rock and roll. Elvis was born in Tupelo,Mississippi and moved to Memphis as a young boy with his family. He was shy, unpopular in school and seemed an...
Florence or Firenze, as its known by the locals, is an amazing city full of art, great food and architecture. It is often credited with being the birthplace of the Renaissance, and for good reason- Donatello, Michaelangelo , Da Vinci, Galileo and Caravaggio all worked and created art here. It was this city where the world changed from the Medieval flat paintings of...
I get almost as much enjoyment out of booking travel as actually being on a trip. It’s exciting to look at a map of the world and imagine the places I want to go; Unfortunately, sometimes when you plug in those exotic destinations, the browser doesn’t always show you what you want to see. Such was the case last week when I started trying to book a...
I’m a House of Cards fan and it seemed only fitting that I should make the pilgrimage to the nation’s capital with hopes of seeing Kevin Spacey driving around in a limo with a presidential motorcade. With recent visits to Boston and Philadelphia, I felt like I was missing the final element of the triad of the American revolution...
Austin is unlike any other city in Texas, or anywhere else really. The capitol city is famous for it’s music scene and artistic laid-back attitude, but places within a few hours drive have never seemed as exciting to me as going somewhere where you have to board a plane. Consequently, I have always bypassed Austin for greener pastures. When I ended up...