A Little Romance
For some reason, I’ve avoided Paris since I was twenty-four, a trip punctuated by my peeing the hotel’s feather bed after a night of too many beers. This time, though, couldn’t have been more different and without any urinary mishaps. The past three days captured the light and the love this city always promised. While […]
Thailand
Chernobyl
More than 24 hours after the explosion of Reactor 4, the people of neighboring Pripyat were going about their daily business when three thousand buses arrived on the morning of April 27, 1986 and loaded everyone into them. The citizens were told it was only for a short period of time, only take what you […]
Whitney
Warsaw
While the people are warm, the city is shadowed by a tragic history. Those I’ve talked to seem to hate the Soviets more than the Nazis, though both left a grim legacy. Eighty-five percent of this city was leveled, kind of like an Alabama town after a tornado, but nature had nothing to do with […]
Tbilisi
This city is beautifully shabby, the people are warm, the shops beg for more tourism, and tomorrow is the national celebration of the Republic of Georgia’s independence from the Soviet Union (edit: tomorrow will honor the 100th anniversary of Georgia joining the Soviet Union when things “were good,” according to my last taxi driver) with […]
Tahiti
Sydney
Seoul
This is the most difficult city I’ve ever visited, a place that refuses to bend the knee to the Roman alphabet and a frown is the state expression. The Joint Security Area portion of the DMZ tour was canceled with no notice, a whim of the North or the South. Who knows? No explanation given. […]
Bruce Springsteen
