After finishing the European bike trip through Austria, Italy and Slovenia, we all took a shuttle van to Venice Italy where we spent three days and two nights exploring fun and interesting things around town. I have only been to Venice once before, when I was fifteen years old, on a school trip and this time around I got a better sense of what Venice is really like thanks to Costanza who patiently explained, guided and accommodated me across the various islands. She made an appointment for us to visit the island of Murano, where famous glass art is crafted, to have a business meeting to investigate sourcing materials to her Los Angeles design company. She let me tag along and accompany her as I stood wide eyed with my hands in my pocket making a concerted effort not to break anything. Murano glass is apparently world famous — they produce chandeliers for retail locations of major Italian fashion designers and prices there I saw were over $50,000. One of the head salesmen of the company greeted us when we landed on the island from the free boat he was kind enough to send for us (well really for Costanza). […]
Read More
When someone invites me to do something somewhere in the world, my default is yes. Well I’ve had to re-evaluate that position since meeting Costanza – a woman whose sense of adventure and desire to travel and explore new places vastly outshines my own. She was doing a bike trip through Europe (Austria, Italy and Slovenia) for 7 days that her friend had organized and invited me to join alongside five others. So I reorganized my itinerary (sorry Vancouver, some other time). A cool thing about the bike trip was since I was in the central European time zone (which was about 7 hours behind in the USA timezone I work within) I didn’t have to take any time off work. Each morning we started biking with an early start to avoid midday European summer head and then arrived at the next destination in the afternoon which allotted plenty of time to attend my remote work meetings and grind on client work. The best part though was that the project I was currently working on during the trip got canceled half way through it, so I didn’t end up working at all during the entire six days, which was great. […]
Read More
In 2004, I took my first solo, international trip to Tierra del Fuego, Patagonia, to fish for sea-run brown and rainbow trout on the Rio Grande River. At the time, I was a financially constrained, post-collegiate individual. I quickly learned that fishing access in Argentina was only possible if you paid thousands of dollars to stay at large, private estancias (similar to Brush Creek Ranch in Wyoming or A-A), catering to wealthy foreigners who wanted to fish. I thought that couldn’t be right. Surely, there would be local public access for ordinary people to fish, just like in every other country in the world (presumably). However, I couldn’t find any information online, and even inquiries on the TripAdvisor web forums (lol TripAdvisor) yielded no results. Nonetheless, I ventured forth to figure it out upon arrival, and what an adventure it turned out to be! It involved, among other things, an abandoned, post-apocalyptic hostel, a ghost ship named DESDEMONA, a run-in with authorities, and help from local children. Eventually, I did locate local public fishing access and caught some truly enormous trout on salmon flies. I updated my TripAdvisor question with the fact that I figured it all out: there was […]
Read More
I tend to avoid hyperbole, so when I claim that the Isle of Skye, Scotland, is the most picturesque destination I have visited, I’m not exaggerating. It was too difficult to pick just ten photos for the customary Instagram post I make for each destination, so I ended up posting a lot more. The selection I have here includes some of my favorites. Really, my two weeks on the island didn’t do the location justice, nor did my photos—I was so busy with work that most of my time there was spent behind my computer. When I did have time to venture forth and explore, it was limited; I would have taken more photos if it weren’t for that gosh darn obligatory need to earn money. Skye has its own distinct culture and history within Scotland. I was attracted to it by my lovely friend Michelle, a native of Portree, Scotland, who encouraged me to visit during the best time—summer. Initially, I wanted to come in September, but she said that would be too late as summer would be over—crazy, right? So, I carved out two whole weeks in July for the trip instead. I’m glad I allotted extra time—typically, […]
Read More
I had never visited the Netherlands. My family did have a Dutch foreign exchange student my freshman year in high school but I was never interested in visiting the country, maybe for that reason. I figured I could delay a visit to Amsterdam until I was 85 years old – presuming that it would be the easiest place in the world to travel to, and probably the safest. After all, it’s flat, full of bicycles and Europeans; no point on rushing there, I can tackle when I have entered my “boring travel” mode. But then something crazy happened — I visited Amsterdam twice in the same summer. I stopped in Amsterdam for five days on the way to Scotland, the city is a convenient stop en route to the rest of Europe too and then again traveling from the USA en route to Austria. My time visiting was so great that I plan on making it a regular entry and exist destination to and from Europe, when possible. Well, as everyone else already knows, Amsterdam is a pretty great place. It has a youthful, energetic and cosmopolitan energy to its personality and its no wonder that it attracts people all […]
Read More
Mi Czech friends, David and Marketa, invited me to their wedding in Prague on was was my 43rd birthday, July 7th. Even though I was planning to stay in Brazil for the summer, I changed my plans and ended up celebrating my birthday at their wedding. It turns out that’s a pretty smart thing to do — you get a catered event with lots of people who want to party. I didn’t even have to pay for anything, and there was a champagne truck. I hope David and Marketa get married again soon have have a wedding on my birthday again.
Read More
After Croatia, I spend three days on the naturist (naked) island, Île du Levant for three days. Afterward, after a road trip through Bourgogne, Baune, and Dijon (highlight: I ate an entire bottle of dijon mustard — delicious — using a gas station sandwich) I settled into Reims, France, the capital of the Champagne region of France. I was supposed to stay 10 days before heading to Paris, but I ended up extending my stay on account of a heavy work schedule, an ugly sinus cold, and the happy, healthy routine I fell into in Reims. I worked from my Airbnb rental apartment that had the best city view of any I’ve had so far: a view of the cathedral and a beautiful fountain with a golden, valkyrie-looking woman on top. My gym had an oyster stand out in front of it and I made a habit of visiting each day after exercising. A local boulangerie owned and operated by a very sweet woman and her daughters captivated me — my daily breakfast order came to be “duex crossaints s’il vous plaît” as well as the only French that I spoke. Nevertheless,, the locals were gracious and made it a […]
Read More
I’ve been traveling to Split so often, and documenting my visits here each time, that this will be the last time I write a website entry about it; what was once an exciting international destination feels unremarkable after many years of habitual visitation. This was the first time I was able to visit Split during the summer since the pandemic. Being unable to swim in the sea during the past few years has been really, truly difficult. I’m sure it must sound odd that plunging in the Dalmatian sea is a sort of ritualistic, self-baptism that I need to do from time to time. As I am enveloped in the dark water, I feel immediately purged and restored. That initial two-second chill after submersion (the heat escaping my body) is whatever dreadful spirit has accumulated within me, dissipating into nothingness. Being unable to release that from my soul had forced me to carry that extra weight inside me for too long. This time around my friends David and Marketa invited me to accompany them to the islands of Brač and later to Hvar (follow those links to see photos for each), during their customary island adventures. They also fed me […]
Read More
I first visited Madrid in February 2017 for just a couple of days. I remember enjoying the food, culture, and architecture -- it was the first time I had visited Spain; my instinct told me Madrid is a city that matches my style. It seems that the universe also desired that I return to Madrid. While living in the Maldives last year, I met many friendly Spanish vacationers who passed through the resort I was living on. Surprising to me, the Maldives is a popular destination for tourists living in Madrid and Barcelona owing to travel promotions from their international airlines.
Read More
