One of the real pleasures of solo travel is that a solo traveler can perhaps more easily decide to, say, go to a cheeseburger joint on his last night in Paris instead of seeking out more elevated cuisine. When that cheeseburger joint is located in a cool, quiet neighborhood and is ranked #6 among the 14,446 restaurants in Paris, it’s an even easier choice. When...
Four years ago, on a tour to see the interior of a dormant volcano in Iceland, I met a couple from Poland. After they expressed their admiration for Montana (I believe Legends of the Fall was their film touchstone), I mentioned that I wanted to visit Poland someday. The two men from Krakow told me that I absolutely should, but that there was no particular reason to...
With extra days planned in Vilnius for no other reason than that Captain Ramius had spoken so highly of the city and a cheaper plane ticket to Poland if I waited, I had originally planned to spend five nights in the Lithuanian capital. While I absolutely enjoyed the city, a fellow traveler spoke highly of coastal Klaipeda and a tour guide said that I needed to spend...
My entire knowledge of the Baltic states before I arrived in Tallinn could be summed up as follows: I knew the captain of the Soviet submarine in The Hunt for Red October had fished in the rivers near Vilnius when he was a boy, I knew that one of the cities would be having a medieval festival when I arrived, and I had some knowledge from scanning over my Lonely...
I’m fundamentally a coward when it comes to the threat of physical violence. With my last fight occurring at the age of fourteen, I shy away from any situation that seems potentially hazardous. When I travel, I’m especially cautious, always mentally preparing for the need to escape a dangerous situation should one arise. Today, on a train ride from Riga to Sigulda, I...
While it’s still a bit surprising that there is a flight leaving Helena at 6:00 p.m., tonight marks the beginning of my long set of flights and layovers to my first real destination during my summer trip, Helsinki. A couple of quick overnights in Seattle and Paris down, I’ll spend four days in Finland before moving to the Baltics for two weeks. After that...
It’s possible that some people might find the idea of racing to Europe, enduring two 16 hour layovers (one on either end) and spending a week in Denmark to be the opposite of a restful spring break, but those people are wrong. Just wrong. Sitting here in the Copenhagen Airport after an excellent seven nights in this interesting, beautiful country, I find myself...
Sometimes you have meticulously planned trips with well-developed itineraries and precise schedules and sometimes you find a $400 flight to Copenhagen over spring break and don’t have even enough time to open your Lonely Planet before you leave for the airport. While I have managed to book a few places to stay and one train ticket across Denmark, I’m taking off in a...
The weather was certainly gray and snowy for most of my trip through Cappadocia, but the overcast conditions only served to make the moments of vibrant blue skies even more beautiful. The weather prevented me from experiencing one of the iconic hot air balloon trips, but I had an incredible experience exploring underground cities, thousand year-old churches...