I spent two very comfortable weeks living summer, urban life in Belgrade and I must say I was sad to leave when the time came. I visited Belgrade four years ago for the first time during a very short reconnaissance trip; the type I do to sniff out a location to decide whether or not I want to return for a longer period. My return was delayed due to destination obligation. Though travelers will claim to travel lightly we carry loads of obligation in terms of the places we both need to explore for the first time or return to again — a queue that perpetually lengthens. Best intentions are waylaid as new destinations appear. A slow, wonderfully inefficient heuristic for travel. Four years later, I returned. This time around I did Belgrade better by living in two separate neighborhoods for a week each. The first was one of the coolest neighborhoods I have ever lived in, Dorćol; it is a perfect place for an explorer to station themselves — accessible by walking to countless restaurants, bars, gyms. Dorćol made figuring out how to effectively live convenient and simple. Each night I took myself out to a delicious, dinner and […]
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Bora Bora is a bucket list destination that I visited for ten days after Moorea. It’s about 150 miles away from Tahiti and distinctly different from both owing to it being a luxury honeymoon destination. Not surprisingly, Bora Bora is a difficult nomad destination as the entire economy, infrastructure and lifestyle is centered around the tourist industry. Because of this it was hard to live like a local — because every local is deeply entrenched in making money from tourists. I spent seven days on the mainland of Bora Bora, right beneath the summit of its captivating, central mountain, Mt. Otemanu, in an Airbnb. One thing that was surprising is that even though the island is very small, everyone who lives here uses cars to get around from place to place. There is even traffic in the main town of Vaitape during the busy hours. Ironically, the cost of renting a car is over $100 a day. Bicycles are $20 a day. I ended up renting a scooter for a day ($70) to circle the island — which only took an hour, and then renting a bicycle for three days to get into town and to the only sand beach on […]
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I spent 10 days on the island of Moorea after Tahiti and it was an invited change of pace to move from a bigger, busier island, to one that felt more off of the radar. It’s only 20 kilometers north west of Tahiti, and about one-fifth the size but the differences between the two Polynesian islands are striking. Fewer tourists take the 30 minute ferry ride to visit Moorea; fewer visitors equates to fewer locals comparative to Tahiti which is probably because there are fewer jobs. Fewer people means fewer cars, less traffic — in the end it means that this place feels more secluded. When you are in the south pacific on an island, that feeling of seclusion augments the romanticism and mystique of the natural environment and native history. Everything feels more special. Moorea can be circumnavigated in a car in a little over an hour — which is about 1/3 of the time it takes for Tahiti. The mountainous geology, scenic ocean views and variety of beautiful things to see are comparatively more concentrated; I found the destinations more accessible on here. You can hike over the center, mountainous mainland whereas Tahiti’s is largely inaccessible. The best […]
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100 years ago in 1919, my mother’s father, Gage Frick, departed Kansas City at age 21 to live in French Polynesia for an entire year. He took a tramp steamship from California along with a chest of books that he read. He lived in a hut on beach property owned by family acquaintances. My mother and aunt have at least one photo of him on the beach of Tahiti with some topless female locals. He stayed on Tahiti for an entire year. He had family business obligations and was probably eager to start his life and career, so at some point it was necessary for him to return home. 65 years later at age 85 he returned to Tahiti. Apparently he was surprised and somewhat disappointed that the island had changed so much since his departure; he had been accustomed to riding a bicycle, and suddenly cars were everywhere. Throughout my childhood I remembered my grandfather as very old and somewhat of a curmudgeon. He was in his mid 80s when I was old enough to realize who he was. Many of my memories of him involve inadvertently vexing him by crying, taking large bites of my breakfast at the […]
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Since December I had it in mind to head to the South Pacific. I thought Hawaii would be a nice stop-over destination where I could adjust to the time zone, figure out my daily sleep and work rhythm and meet my family for a week; my nephew was on his middle school spring break and my father is retired and very into bird watching. While this year I’m doing my best to minimize time spend in the USA during 2019 on account of qualifying for expat tax benefits (only 35 in USA during a 12 month period), I figure reconnaissance of a new US destination while touching base with my family was the best way to spend a week – Dad could do some bird watching and my nephew and I could hit the beach. I found a convenient flight into Kona, Hawaii on The Big Island of Hawaii and while I had stopped there with my family on a cruise ship when I was 12 years old, I was intrigued to see what a longer visit would entail. I arranged for an Airbnb about fifteen minutes’ walk from Magic Sands Beach in Kona and figured I would awake at […]
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This expat-friendly beach destination is popular with surfers, Canadians and Europeans owing to the strength of their currency here. My international-friend group has been in my ear for the past year about it. After a short romance with CDMX last autumn, I decided that it was time to make time to explore Mexico so what better place to start than Puerto Escondido. I made a week-long recon trip to get my feet on the ground and get a taste of what it had to offer. It was great. The food was that classic Mexican fare that gringos like me envy and wish their mothers made them when they were children. The guacamole that I ordered beach-side, while supine on a restaurant-adjacent hammock facing the ocean one Tuesday afternoon came with flower petals on top. I learned that you can order not just micheladas but cheladas that are the equivalent to a michelada in Colombia — beer, ice and lime juice. I drank a few of them due to the scorching daytime heat. Even though it was early spring the mid-day temperatures along the water made seeking shade and a cool beverage requisite for those of us of fairer complexion.For ease […]
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I began 2019 with the goal to vastly improve my Spanish and what better place to improve it than Bogotá, the Colombian capital generally regarded as harboring the most-neutral accent. I already intended just how to do it too — three years ago when I first visited Bogotá a woman named Nataly approached me while I was working from a Starbucks cafe in Zona G to solicit Spanish classes. We exchanged contact information, she emailed me and, well, I was busy with other things and never responded. Actually, I did respond, it just took me three years. But when I did respond I knew it was her who I wanted to learn Spanish from — in the city that I grew to love so much in the interim spacing my reply. The universe had delivered me a teacher (this is how I like to make decisions — by following the path serendipity lays before me) and of course I felt compelled to oblige. I purchased 80 hours of Spanish classes and facilitated class three days a week over the lunch hour and set to work on the challenging task of learning a first, second-spoken language. As someone who studied Latin […]
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The tiny Colombian island of San Andrés lies within the Caribbean sea off of the coast of Honduras, northwest of the Colombian mainland. San Andrés is a popular vacation destination for Colombian mainlanders to escape to during holidays and weekends as the airfare is cheap, less than $100 each direction from the capital city, Bogotá. I visited mid-week for three nights for a good deal on accommodation; it ended up being a smart decision as the island was mostly empty of tourists. The AirBnb that I was at was about 100 meters from the shoreline and offered a scooter rental that was ideal for exploring the island. It only takes about an hour to circumnavigate the circumference of San Andrés and really, you don’t want or need a car for that. A popular alternative is to rent buggys – sort of two-row, suped-up, open-air golf carts and we saw many vacationers travelling around as two pairs of couples in this fashion. I was working while there and the internet was certifiably terrible, some of the worst and least-reliable of anywhere I have travelled. Restaurants and cafes don’t have accessible wifi for their patrons and even that which was provided in our accommodation was […]
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Three years ago I visited Shaman Winston in the Peruvian Amazon for an eye-opening ayahuasca experience; at that time, many happy discoveries within myself had me anticipating an inevitable, future return. This time around there were fewer surprises and a little more adversity, yet again I feel better afterwards for having done it. The trip entailed two nights in the jungle removed from electricity, wifi yet accommodating in ample supply of mud and biting flies. It took a plane from Lima, a car, a boat and a short hike crossing a river twice to reach the Shaman’s compound. I was barefoot and shirtless the entire time (the native flies were well fed) — the two weeks subsequent itching a fond reminder of my time spend mostly naked and unafraid. The low point of the weekend adventure was the afternoon of arrival — enduring a preliminary “cleansing ceremony” which wasn’t a part of my initial experience two years prior. The intent of the ceremony was to remove toxins and emotional restraints that would otherwise prohibit ayahuasca’s intended lessons. People who eat unhealthy diets, drink excessively need to be purged beforehand so that the plant can work its magic, so it was […]
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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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