This was my fourth time in Ciudad de Mexico and also the longest — five weeks. I’ve flirted with making Mexico City a regular on my list of destinations so this time around I booked an apartment for six weeks in the neighborhood of La Condesa as a formal audition. Replete with cafes, excellent restaurants, and more casual street-side taco venues, La Condesa affords tremendous value and quality for the price. For this reason, many extranjaneros make it or the neighboring barrios of Roma and Roma Norte their home away from home. I had avoided doing the same — comfort is dangerous! This time around, however, I wanted to absolve myself of logistical strains of new destinations to focus more of that time and energy on other pursuits — work and improving my Spanish. Thanks to a recommendation from my friend, Niraj, I found a great workspace to base myself on days when working from my apartment felt unappealing. I had two different morning commutes each workday. The first was to and from my gym at 6:30 AM. Charmingly simple, small, and inexpensive (75 pesos a day or 300 pesos for a 1-month membership), I learned to arrive earlier rather […]
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The fastest month I’ve spent was in Sao Paulo, Brazil. It’s been a long time since a daily routine of a morning gym session a day spent working felt so fulfilling. My first time here, I was surprised to find a city covered in trees, beautiful plants, and people. Brazilians from Sao Paulo may be the most friendly people on earth. While my attention was mostly focused on a new job I started, the rest was spent enjoying the posh neighborhood and people of Vila Olimpia, the posh neighborhood that became a real home.
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riends. What a great excuse to visit Brazil. The last time I was in Rio was 2016, I had flown from Japan to catch a little bit of Carnaval en route to Argentina. That worked out pretty well considering I was there on my own so I was excited to return for a different occasion and a large group of friends.
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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.
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Again I visited perhaps my favorite place in the world, Split, Croatia. Whenever I fly through Europe it is increasingly difficult to not stop in Split on my way through. This time was spent reconnoitering with friends during a Christmas that would otherwise be spent alone. The visit also necessitated getting a Covid vaccinated as my forthcoming entry into Brazil necessitated it.
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The last time I was in Istanbul was in 2015. I had planned to stay for five weeks but instead spent most of that time at Oktoberfest and exploring Troy, Pergamum and Ephesus. Sorry I did you wrong in the past Istanbul, let me make it up Oktoberfest and exploring Troy, Pergamum and Ephesus. Sorry I did you wrong in the past Istanbul, let me make it up to you this time around; well as much as I can in two and a half days.
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This story started the second week of March, 2020 in a Boise, Idaho public library. I arrived from New York City five days before after a week as a tourist. Since that time, news of the Covid-19 virus’ entry to the USA was spreading. New York City was locked down four days after my departure and the country scrambled to define a more cohesive, panicked response. Nearly two years later the world is still scrambling. Boise was nice and cozy. I made a habit of working from the central public library’s second floor atop a large rectangular table near the stairs. From here people ascending and descending were in my periphery and a low hum of library conversations was a welcome backdrop to otherwise mundane work. I remember one conversation in particular. A librarian was talking on the telephone to a work associate in a different library branch; the library would be closed indefinitely the next day on account of Covid. There went the old normal — my most vivid memory of the beginning of America’s Covid response. Everyone knows what has followed — government-mandated masks in public places, children prohibited from attending in-person school etc. Reductionist health protocols that […]
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Certain travel destinations attract us more than others. When I was a kid, New Zealand's remote location, geographic isolation and diversity, endemic wildlife and a friend's Kiwi lineage necessitated my interest; I visited in 2008. Similarly in college, Tierra del Fuego, the southern tip of South America, attracted my interest as a mysterious, adventurous place that I longed to visit (and did in 2005). Five years ago I wondered what Seoul, South Korea, must be like, seemingly so different from the United States. Sri Lanka though, was never a place that was on my radar.
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I had never visited Dubai or the Middle East before I had a 24 hour stop-over between Europe and Sri Lanka. Dubai is an ideal international flight hub and stop-over destination en route to anywhere. Conveniently, hotels are plentiful, inexpensive and new. There are enough activities for tourists, even during a pandemic, to stay entertained while visiting. Even more appreciated was the fact that everything is air-conditioned. I had a very efficient and jam-packed 24 hours to explore while I was there but I made the most of it. Arriving into Dubai’s airport at 1am from Sarajevo, I Ubered directly to my hotel just 10 minutes away. A 5-star hotel for just $88 a night; king-sized bed, big room. I awoke at 8AM, had a workout in the hotel gym (with a mask-blah) and then showered and headed to the mall to do errands before breakfast. Dubai has 65 malls and one of them is attached to the hotel I was staying at so it was easy to shop for the extras I needed for the warmer climates I was transitioning to: a hat, sandals and antibiotics (you can buy over the counter at drug stores in Dubai). It felt […]
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