This past weekend, I attempted to look at a small piece of the world from a high vantage point. A muddy road and my friend’s car did not mix however and I never received that vision of a great height. There are countless high points everywhere. This happened to be in the middle of America so I doubt I missed much (sorry to any mid-western I just offended). As we moved like a slow-moving, bumpy rollercoaster through an endless stretch of squishy dirt, the notion of actually not making it there set in and we turned the wheels towards lower and drier ground. Even though I missed the view, I 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
The Saints of Travel Drive Three-Wheeled Carts
When you are traveling in a place outside your zone of familiarity and comfort, you are bound to get lost. I don’t mean just actually getting lost, but also that panic, that oh no, I cannot find where my hotel is and they will give my reservation away any minute. You stand in the midst of the unfamiliar as those that live this unknown world daily whiz past you. Some bump into you. Others do not even make eye contact. They do not even notice you are there standing on a corner with a map and face in disarray. “Please help!” you want to scream but you don’t. You are trying not to be that tourist 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
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
Where are you going? Crossing off countries by stopping in one of the smallest, San Marino
When you travel with someone crazily intent on knocking off all the countries in Europe, you can bet even San Marino is on their list. My traveling companion today is that said person, almost unhealthy focused upon having his feet stand in every country in Europe. Most people have never even heard of the Republic of San Marino. It is easy to see why. San Marino is the third smallest state in the world. You could miss the country and not even know it, being only 61 square miles in area, only one-third the size of Washington D.C. Landlocked by Italy, San Marino’s foreign policies align with Continue Reading
I found Papier-mâché Paradise at Carnevale in Viareggio
A woman with a plunging neckline welcomes visitors to Carnevale in a Tuscan town. As if her dress does not showcase enough free spirit, her billboard hands flail in the air, hinting at the mandatory carefree atmosphere that surrounds. Confetti covers La Passeggiata, a long stretch in the seaside town of Viareggio. Papier-mâché floats conquer this stretch throughout January and February as people come from all around the world to dress up in outrageous get-ups. Shots ring out. These are not gunshots but rather quite the opposite, innocent shots of silly string. Children and adults with silly Continue Reading