International Trips

“What is that feeling when you’re driving away from people and they recede on the plain till you see their specks dispersing? – it’s the too-huge world vaulting us, and it’s good-bye. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies.” ― Jack Kerouac, On the Road

Homecoming: On the Limits of Travel

Much of what I have written here, and what many others have written about the experience of travel far more artfully than I could, centers on the transformative power of seeing the world. While I may never reach the level of epiphanies experience of my friend Lindsey, it’s fair to say that travel, and this lengthy trip in particular, has changed me. I suppose that’s...

A Few Passing Strangers From my Journey

Let’s be honest here: among my “gifts” in life is a powerful ability to discern a person’s most annoying characteristic rather rapidly. That gift is accompanied by a corresponding curse that makes me a little less able than most to let things go, especially when I am tired or frustrated, feelings that occasionally arise when one is traveling. Those characteristics...

Start with What is Right…

On my first day to Bratislava, I took a free tour of the city conducted by Free Tours Bratislava, and when you visit the city, I can’t recommend it enough. Our guide was excellent, not only discussing the landmarks and history of the city, but providing an excellent history of Slovakia’s complex political evolution from its origins through the Velvet Revolution in...

Thoughts on Prague: A Raid on the Inarticulate

Especially after ending my trip on a lovely, late, moonlit stroll through a park and a neighborhood filled with bars and cafes, punctuated by the deeply disturbing image of gigantic babies appearing to climb a 216 meter TV tower and the appearance of the Giant Rats of the Žižkov District, I find trying to summarize my visit to this beautiful, complex, and...