Tucson with a Toddler: An Exercise in Not Overthinking It
Tucson’s children’s amenities are as ruggedly punk as the city itself. Continue reading Tucson with a Toddler: An Exercise in Not Overthinking It
Tag: budget travel
How I Spent $7,634 to Travel the World in Four Months
FINALLY GOT AROUND to calculating my trip costs this weekend. I may have discovered a secret fetish for spreadsheets. A quick glance at the chart below tells the whole story: the later the month, the more expensive the country I travelled. As such, even though the total amount spent per month doesn’t change drastically. (With the exception of when I had to hop an emergency plane back … Continue reading How I Spent $7,634 to Travel the World in Four Months
The Many Cons and Mighty Pros of Iceland in December
THE FIRST THING TO GIVE UP in Iceland’s December is the sun, and with it the loss of humanity’s very conception of time itself. Darkness shrouds the jagged island for 20 hours a day; the sun peeks out only briefly between 11 and 3 o’clock, which forces locals to reconfigure “morning” as a painfully taunting three-hour sunrise. Rising at daybreak—that very primal notion that dictates … Continue reading The Many Cons and Mighty Pros of Iceland in December
A Brief Guide to Some of London’s Lesser-Seen Museums
LONDON IS ONE OF the great museum capitals of the world, and whereas the Tate Modern and National Gallery may be obvious choices, there is a surfeit more whose aim is so peculiarly niche that I’m a little surprised anyone sporting only a vague interest would bother to pay the admission fee. Then again it is that same vague and disbelieving curiosity that brought me, … Continue reading A Brief Guide to Some of London’s Lesser-Seen Museums
Frankfurt is a Great Place to Go Somewhere Else
I HAD BEEN IN FRANKFURT three hours when I met up with my friend and host. Have you seen the Old Town yet? she asked. I said I had. And the church? Yes. And the other church? Yep, that too. And the River Main? Well, sure, I said; it’s just down the street. She laughed. “I think you have already seen all of Frankfurt.” Berlin … Continue reading Frankfurt is a Great Place to Go Somewhere Else
In Berlin: A Tale of Two Museums
STANDING ALONE IN THE HOLOCAUST TOWER, by some uncertain primal instinct, I drew my arms around myself and shuddered. I don’t remember thinking about it. It was cold, as cold as Berlin gets in November, and without a jacket or scarf or direct sunlight I hugged myself immediately, shrinking up. The Holocaust Tower is an enormous and empty stone triangle that shoots up from an … Continue reading In Berlin: A Tale of Two Museums
Budapest Will Swallow You Up and Look Very Serious About It
THERE IS NO SUCH THING as small in Budapest. In Chiang Mai, V and I stumbled across a closet-sized nook called “The Tiniest Bar in the World”; this could never exist in the Hungarian capital. There are no nooks. Its central downtown is made up of row after row of elaborate Gothic apartments, all towering in the same tightly bound order, shadowing their courtyards hidden … Continue reading Budapest Will Swallow You Up and Look Very Serious About It
On Travel Beards
I DECIDED LONG BEFORE this journey began that I would not shave until this trip is finished. It was a silly and useless oath, but something to hold onto and a barometer of progress beyond simply maintaining this blog and tracking how much money I bleed. Each day I do not cut my facial hair is one more day I can claim to have lived … Continue reading On Travel Beards
Serbia’s Gen-Yers are Black Comic Geniuses
THESE SERBIANS HAVE SEEN SOME SHIT, like NATO bombs falling from the sky and exploding their neighbourhoods and the collapse of an entire global political structure. I don’t want to generalise after spending only a single night with a few liberal-arts types (excuse me as I do anyway), but it seemed to me that they have internalized all the ridiculous conditions of their upbringing—the wars, … Continue reading Serbia’s Gen-Yers are Black Comic Geniuses
Stories Left Behind in Asia
I WRITE THIS FROM the last frontier of Asia, Turkey’s eastern half, before flying over the divisive Bosphorus River into what is securely the First World, and the second half of this four-month journey. I have a few thoughts leaving Asia, where V and I spent the last two years living and travelling; mostly I wonder if I will miss it (and the solid income) … Continue reading Stories Left Behind in Asia
A Long Way Back 