From Cologne I rented a car to explore some of the scenic country of the Rhineland and make it over to Bonn en route to meeting my friend who was on the other side of the German border in the Dutch town of Vaals. Bonn was just a short two nights but I was surprised at all the photo opportunities. Just exploring nearby Drachenfels castle overlooking the Rhine river was enough to pique my interest and intent to return again for a longer stay. I was most delighted to find references to the Nibelungenlied completely by accident in a small attraction outside of Bonn. Three years ago I read the Nibelungenlied (translated into English of course) and it instilled a curiosity to discover more of the geography and diverse culture of Germany. To find it here again after doing so was immensely fulfilling — it felt as though the universe was reminding me that I was following the proper path.
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While I was in Cologne, three different times, strangers approached and started conversations with me — a huge surprise. Europeans just don’t do that — and certainly not Germans! I had expected that people in Cologne were friendly, open-minded and warm as that was the driving factor for wanting to visit; Europe is nice but it’s typically much harder to meet new people as an outsider. The most interesting person I met was the manager of a hotel I stayed in who was family friends with the Kennedys, spoke seven languages and was somehow curious about me. We spoke for half an hour — Mathias left an impression and I can’t help but thing the universe was urging me to stick around and explore his city further. The second most interesting person I met while in Cologne was a woman about 60 years old who had invested in Apple stock in 1999 — we were admiring an Apple computer on display from the period (inside a design museum); she told me that because of that wise decision today she’s “almost rich” — in German terms I understood it to mean that she is. Cologne felt like a great place to […]
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I had eight days that I didn’t know what to with after leaving Croatia and before Thanksgiving happened back in the USA so I decided to explore the German Rhineland for the first time. It was a great fit because Split has direct flights to Düsseldorf (one of only four cities during the off-season). Conveniently, Cologne is just 20 miles south of Düsseldorf and was the main draw to me this trip. Bonn was tacked on at the end and facilitated en route planned meetup with my friend Ben who I had seen just weeks before in Bremen. Düsseldorf was an exciting destination because I had no expectations ahead of time. As luck would have it, I arrived the night before the annual one-day Carnival celebration; while the normal Carnival celebration is in February, on November 11th each year there is a one day Carnival event with street celebrations and people partying in costumes. It’s like the precursor to what follows three months later. Imagine my surprise to unexpectedly wander into a cohort of Germany cheerleaders line dancing and throwing each other in the air in front of a local pub. I took some fun photos of the festivities across a few […]
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For the fourth time in three years I returned to Croatia to work, swim and be barefoot. The waning Indian summer of October served as a re-calibration to the internationally-remote lifestyle I had set aside during 5 months living in Denver, Colorado; as such, I focused on walking everywhere, eating healthier and undoing the harm of rigid routine staying in one place always brings me. I did do a couple of touristy things during my first week in Split — a tour of the ship building yard and an excursion to a nearby cave (click link to see photos from each). Other than that though I focused my 5+ weeks more on living a healthy, happy and comfortable life along the sea and developing the daily routine to support it. My apartment was near the beach and afforded a beautiful view of the ever-changing sky between dawn, dusk (here are some highlights). The irony of escaping Denver, only to reinvent a routine elsewhere is a funny pattern I always repeat. My Split routine is really great; in the morning I walk to the gym, only two hundred meters from my front door. Afterwards I walk down to the sea, 300 meters […]
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My friend Ben had sent me a calendar of beer festivals in Germany this autumn. Neither of us had been able to visit Oktoberfest this year and were keen for a mulligan. Ben wanted to meet me in Stuttgart for the second-largest beer festival after Oktoberfest. I had just arrived into Split, Croatia however, and was decompressing from my time in the USA and quite enjoying it — I declined the invitation. Fast-forward a few weeks and it turns out there will be a different festival happening in Bremen the last weekend of October. We booked it – my first weekend adventure for quite some time. I had never been to Hamburg or Bremen and this reconnaissance trip was shorter and easier than Havana and Mexico City in terms of logistics — two nights, 48 hours. Short trips like this afford the freedom to be picky on what you do with your time because with so little of it, you are unencumbered by standard tourist obligations; you can curate what is most convenient and “best” without being obliged to visit a museum that other people feel is important. I had not done a trip like this one for a while […]
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After waiting nearly twenty years to reach the Azores, I visited twice within a four month period. I was on the islands of Sao Miguel and Terceira back in July and returned again for just a day to Sao Miguel while aboard a cruise ship crossing the Atlantic. Though I only had five hours in port from the town of Ponta Delgada I managed to revisit a few scenic places from before, tour a pottery factory as well as the town of Ribeira Grande, the second largest town after Ponta Delgada on the island of Sao Miguel. With seven more islands left to visit in the Azores I am determined to return again; not a motivation I recall having for many other places in the world. Trust me — get here as soon as possible! In 2018 direct flights will be added from NYC which I imagine will open the tourist floodgates to this pristine, unique and special place. Although I myself arrived on a cruise ship so maybe the natural and cultural charms of the Azores will still persist! I hope so.
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This year I have been experimenting with living in single cities for longer periods of time. Each time I return to the United States I feel noticeably unhappy; not a typical reaction to returning ‘home’. Aspects of of American society that are incompatible with the way I now want to live my life are frustrating: the cost of living, traffic, public transportation but also cultural considerations like politics, media, news and the collective, schizophrenic personalities comprising the ethos of the USA. Increasingly it is a struggle to locate the parts of America to which I feel a shared set of values. To such an effect that it feels a misnomer to refer to myself as an American. I wanted to try living in Split, Croatia where I visited last year for the first time for three months to see how it would feel staying in one place. It turned out to be the best summer of my life. I was barefoot all day, and got plenty of work done in the amazing co-working space that I was a short walk from the apartments I lived in. The accessibility of the Adriatic sea being only 150 meters from the office was […]
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After two previous Oktoberfests in a row (1, 2) the wheels came off. I was in Munich for four nights this year — and it turned out to be long enough. Long enough to replace a disappeared pair of lederhosen that seemed to have walked away sometime during the past year (really I think the hardened exoskeleton of chicken grease, potato salad in absence of napkins and hand washing afforded to them this ability); in their place a darker, tighter, more rigid and less-flattering pair and take on Reid in leather. It started out innocent enough; Martin cooked us a traditional Bavarian breakfast in the fraternity house (I take pride in having been a guest here four times). But after that things went down hill pretty fast. My mobile phone committed mobilecide from the apex of a most maniacal, twisty, spinning carnival ride. The presumably shattered body nor SIM card were ever recovered — may they rest in pieces. Subsequently without access to Google Maps I didn’t trust myself to navigate back to my apartment in a state of post-festival reverie. Instead I ended my nights on the carpeted floor along with other friends at Hannah’s apartment. Trevor snored and […]
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I met my sister, Tracy, and her family in Paris while they were vacationing for four days of wandering and site-seeing. It was my first time to Paris and it was great exploring with her because she studied in Paris for a year in college, knows the city and speaks very good French which took the stress out of ordering croissants. I was surprised to discover that no one I encountered in Paris wanted to speak in English which without my sister made everything incredibly awkward and embarrassing for this tourist who didn’t want to speak French. In this city – the local Parisian hipsters out-hipstered me — English is apparently too mainstream. Living up to the hype of Paris is no easy task. Since the 1940s, American popular culture has oozed idolatry of the romantic café culture, art, historic architecture, food and “Frenchness” of everything: elegance, sophistication, history and glamour. When expectations are so high, living up to the hype is almost an impossible order and I expected to be underwhelmed; but I loved my time in Paris. It helped a great deal that my sister played the role of French-speaking tour guide who explained the significance, history and […]
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After visiting Lisbon I wanted to explore more of Portugal. I flew to Porto for three days which felt like a less-touristy, smaller version of Lisbon. Porto is the progenitor of Port wine. Afterwards I drove through the Douro Valley wine region and continued north to the border of Spain; from there travelling south to the southern coast where sand and sun draw tourists from all over Europe. During the summer many of the locals are also down south vacationing and things slowly transition from vacant and peaceful to busy and energetic as you near the southern coast. Portugal is a great vacation destination owing to its small size that allows for transversal of its multiple regions in a relatively short amount of time. The landscapes vary between vineyards and olive orchards and cork trees (Portugal is the largest international supplier of cork); everything I saw was mostly dry, sunny and hot in the south, with more temperate climates towards the north. The people in the central north of Portugal have a reputation for being very friendly and hospitable, even among the Portuguese which my experience as well. Beyond polite formalities people seemed genuine when they greeted me with a […]
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