Shout out to all my fellow cheapskate travelers: you savvy penny-pinchers have taught me so much about budget travel. In all the focus on saving money, though, the logistics of spending money during a trip sometimes get sidelined. Every traveler, even a cheapskate—make that especially a cheapskate—should have a money plan. You’ll need a combination of cash and […]
Okay, so I didn’t pay much attention during mass at the Cathedral of St. Lawrence in Trogir, Croatia. I mean, I sat quietly still and was passably respectful, but my face surely resembled that of a flounder: The reason for my flounder face? I was straining with all my power to get a look at the Chapel of […]
Each of these name plates commemorates a Jewish citizen of Frankfurt, murdered during the holocaust. There are over 12,000 names. This Holocaust memorial wall is adjacent to Frankfurt’s Jewish museum. The main synagogue of the Jewish ghetto used to stand here, before it was burned in Kristallnacht. The birthday of each victim is recorded along with the […]
Here’s my advice for visiting Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina: Don’t miss it. Spend the night. Climb a minaret. Pet the cats and avoid feral dogs. Wear practical footwear. It was early evening when Alisa, our B&B host, picked us up from the bus station in Mostar. She brought along a friend for the ride, and within minutes […]
This is me in every country: “Hello, excuse me, I am sorry I don’t speak [name of language] well. Can you please tell me where is the bathroom/supermarket/train station/cool Romanesque church? Thank you. Goodbye.” In spite of being a glamorous international traveler, my foreign language skills suck. Wait, I take that back, I can roll my […]
Dubrovnik is pretty….pretty touristy. And there’s a legit reason for that: Hordes of people come to Dubrovnik because it looks like this. Visiting in late November, we avoided the belched-out-by-cruise-ships crowds while relishing the sunny, windy weather that perfectly showcased Dubrovnik’s sparking water and austere architecture. Still, there’s a sort of dead feeling to the old […]
This majestic portrait from our guest house in Vadu Izei should be an object of religious reverence. We did the pee pee dance in Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges cathedral…. ….and the hands-up hairy man dance in the cathedral of Burgos. Don’t worry, we managed to avoid collisions with flying nuts and bolts in Split. Ah! Fond memories of the Dracula […]
Don’t you love it when art exceeds your expectations? We knew what we were looking for, having traveled to Zadar, Croatia just for this purpose, but still we were surprised as the lilting, moaning music emerged through the misty afternoon on the coastal promenade. The Sea Organ is a perfect work of art. (Or is it architecture? A […]
In the foreground, a mosque. In the background, the spire of a Catholic church. This is Sarajevo. Sarajevo is my favorite sort of town: buzzing with dynamic street life, culturally rich and simultaneously traditional and forward-thinking. Trams are gliding by, the traffic is not that crazy and the architecture ranges from Ottoman to Viennese. Drool-inducing (if meat […]
This is where we’re sleeping tonight in Split, Croatia: Up a steep flight of stairs, on the left, is our room tonight— inside Diocletian’s Palace. Diocletian–just your run of the mill nasty Roman emperor–retired here in the early 300’s AD. As a lover of classical architecture, I’m pretty stoked about it. But not as stoked […]
Picnic at the Cathedral 