I graduated from college in 2009. Since that time, I have built up a travel writing career, a life of doing what I love. When I graduated from college, I was off to Italy to be an au pair. This wasn’t exactly my dream. It was merely a means to an end, a way to be in a country I loved without the red tape needed to actually work in the country. After just two sleepless nights of living in a hallway and a chilly welcome from my host family, I left the au pair job and began traveling instead. I could only take two nights of being unhappy before I broke. I wanted to be a travel writer, not an au Continue Reading
Suzy Stumbles Over Travel: Week of May 28, 2012
On Memorial Day here in the U.S., I bring you this week’s Suzy Stumbles Over Travel. In case you are new to this site, each week I ask bloggers/writers and readers to submit their favorite travel posts of the week. This can be from your own site or another writer’s piece. I read each submission, comment, tweet the article on Twitter, stumble the piece using Stumbleupon and post a link to the article on my Facebook page. The following week I select my five favorites submissions to be featured here and the stumbling begins again into the next week. Just a few things to keep in mind, please Continue Reading
Fort Pulaski, Georgia Wishes You Were Here
“We were absolutely isolated,” Confederate commander, Col. Charles H. Olmsted said of the bombardment on Fort Pulaski in Georgia. I muttered to myself the same as I approached this 19th century fort on Cockspur Island, around 15 miles east of Savannah. A glassy moat surrounding fortified bricks only furthers those feelings of being very much alone. Fort Pulaski doesn’t seem inviting based on its outward appearance, moat, drawbridge and all. The construction on Fort Pulaski began in 1829. It would take $1 million dollars, 25 million bricks and 18 years to build. Many believed it to be Continue Reading
My Living Denver
When a study abroad friend came to town for a conference, he admonished me for not writing anything about where I live on my site. When you live in a place long enough, you are living in it. You aren’t seeing it as a tourist might. And when he asked me, “Isn’t the 16th Street Mall the place you go in Denver?”, I shook my head and grabbed the nearest slither of paper. I needed to pen those spots in the city I would want a tourist to see, from the perspective of someone living Denver rather than traveling its limits. I don’t claim to be an expert on a city I have always called home. The local Continue Reading
Suzy Stumbles Over Travel: Week of May 21, 2012
On another Monday in May, I bring you this week’s Suzy Stumbles Over Travel. In case you are new to this site, each week I ask bloggers/writers and readers to submit their favorite travel posts of the week. I read each submission, comment, tweet the article on Twitter, stumble the piece using Stumbleupon and post a link to the article on my Facebook page. The following week I select my five favorites to be featured here and the stumbling begins again into the next week. Just a few things to keep in mind, please only submit one post per person each week. Your submission must be travel Continue Reading
The Basilica of St. Stephen in Budapest Wishes You Were Here
A robed man waits for a couple to shell out their “donation”. While every guidebook will tell you entrance into the Basilica of St. Stephen is free, the holy might have a different notion. I pay my forced donation, lending the couple without change a giant sigh of relief. Now the unidentified ticket agent has change to give the duo so they too can enter the largest church in Hungary. The neoclassical cathedral might need all of the donations it can get for it took over 50 years to build. The dome caved in in 1868, destroying the structure. It would be rebuilt from Budapest’s floor up and Continue Reading
The Dream of The Unplugged Vacation
When I tell someone where I’m going next, statements follow such as, “How fun!” and “I wish I got a vacation!”. The trouble with these sentiments is maybe they don’t know how I have to travel, not necessarily how I want to travel. I arrive to a new place and immediately feel guilty if I waste a minute napping or hanging out in the hotel. I have to get busy sightseeing, tweeting or snapping photographs. I am forever mindful of the story I am there for, the one I need to keep afloat. Travel for me is not unplugged, leaving my home and work life behind. It is much more chaotic, hurried and Continue Reading