The travel chain letter has reached my virtual hands. In case you do not know about this project, Tripbase asked travel writers to reveal their three best-kept travel secrets. I was so graciously passed the torch by Top Backpacking Destinations to share with readers my 3 travel secrets. It seems like a great oxymoron to reveal those secrets in a public posting. The funny thing about almost every place around the world is that someone has looked upon it at some point. We are never the only ones, well maybe in parts of Antarctica or in South American jungles, but that is what is so appealing Continue Reading
Where are you going? Finding Sisterly Comparisons at Hawaii’s Akaka Falls
A blond, brunette, and the ever-important redhead set out for the big Island of Hawaii. Bar jokes could ensue, but rather these three hair colors find something even more creative than a trite joke in the Hawaiian landscape. That blond and that brunette are my two sisters. Yes, we have three different hair colors and yes we are all related. Just one of life’s genetic mysteries and my family happens to posses that quintessential bar joke. One side of the big island of Hawaii is predominately covered in black lava rock. With the beating Hawaiian sun, the combination of hardened black lava Continue Reading
My Travel Fears All Meet in a Sicilian Canyon
I am standing at the edge of a 20-foot cliff. I know. Twenty feet down is not so hardcore. Some high dives at country clubs are more elevated, but I am scared. The cliff curves down somewhat into a deep pool of water, or so I’m told. My entire group with me has already made the jump. I got myself up here. I must see my way back down. I am in the middle of what many call the Grand Canyon of Sicily. Rather, I am at the bottom of Cava Grande in southeastern Sicily. Cava Grande may be the ultimate hikers’ paradise in Sicily. A 300-meter hike down can take well over an hour. The limestone carved Continue Reading
Where are you going? Crossing a Red Headed Stranger on Lago Maggiore’s Islands
I have met my match on an island in Italy. It sounds like a dream, but my match is not. The island however is. This match that I speak of totes the same hair color as myself. He is around two feet tall, but he lives in perhaps one of the most beautiful, blooming places on earth. Today, I am wandering the islands that make up Lago Maggiore in Italy. Tourists, for the most part, stop in Lago di Como for George Clooney and company all have mini palaces along its shores. The closest glimpse to their fabulous lives is by boat, but at a distance. However, Lago Maggiore is different. It is just as Continue Reading
Where are you going? Traveling by chairlift to a Luxembourg Castle
I am just minutes away from going medieval and I don’t even know it. Driving a Volkswagen station wagon, you wouldn’t even know it. I look more soccer mom than medieval princess. I am heading to Luxembourg today, a country so small many have never heard of it. Belgium, France, and Germany almost smoother Luxembourg from showing people just how beautiful it really is. The landlocked country may be small, but its castles are huge. As I drive just outside of Vianden, a one-way road leads me into the town, no highway or massive freeway. It is ridiculously green with just farm animals Continue Reading
Can You Really Go Home Again? The Foreigner Sensation In Once Lived Places
I studied abroad when I was a junior in college in Ortigia, Sicily. Ortigia is a small town, the old town center of Siracusa in southeastern Sicily. I spent over four months living and “studying” in this picturesque location. My program was smaller than the Duggar family of just 15 students. We all came to know one another, much like family. More often than not, it felt like we were on a reality show, 15 strangers living on a island. Will they survive? Ortigia was home and a little American family possessed it for a few months. I went back to Ortigia for a week around this time last year. I Continue Reading
Where are you going? Getting Lost in Bruges, Belgium
My rental car unknowingly moves through Bruges, or so I hope that is where I am. I am lost. The small streets of Bruges weave around countless canals. To say that I am confused would be an understatement. The city looks a lot like Venice, except in Belgium form with waffles, fries, chocolate, and beer on every corner. If Bruges looks dreamlike from a car window, I can only imagine how it feels without the separation of glass. I have to find my hotel. Bruges boasts a 2,000 year old history when Gallic-Romans settled here. The history of Bruges is without question centered on being a trading Continue Reading