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Prague Could be the Best City in the World, If Everyone Didn’t Know It
I MET A POLISH COUPLE at The Beer Museum, a pub renowned for serving more than 30 specialty Czech draughts. The man, an architecture student with floppy blonde hair and a zip-up wool sweater that he...
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Stories Left Behind in East Europe
I HAVE STARTED SPEAKING TO FEWER PEOPLE for longer, as a result of having more contacts in Europe than anywhere else outside of Canada; this means more drinks with semi-strangers, more venturing...
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The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Traveller
I HUGGED V GOODBYE under the scolding gaze of an unpleasant pear of a woman in Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport. The Pear had advised her, after she had arrived three hours early and been forced to empty...
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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...
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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...
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Luxembourg is a Weird and Beautiful Place
LUXEMBOURG IS, IN EVERY WAY, a mishmash of other countries. Its ads are mostly French; its language sounds German; its radio mostly Luxembourgish. Even the just name “Luxembourg” sounds like a...
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What Happens to a Tiny Luxembourgish Commune in the Winter
THERE ARE SOMEHOW SIX HOTELS in Berdorf, Luxembourg, a commune with a population of not quite 900. Most of them were closed. I stepped into an open one, the Famille Defive, for a coffee. Everyone knows...
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Notes From a Paris Cafe
WATCHING PARISIAN WAITERS is watching an angry, anxious modern dance where things break and crash and no one ends up happy. Two young men will determinedly stare ahead and chug towards each other...
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What Parisian Landmarks Are Today
1. The Arc de Triomphe A short man bent over in front of me as I was sitting on a bench slathering goat cheese on a piece of brown bread for lunch. The Arc de Triomphe stood brightly in the sun behind...
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The Incredible Hipness of Edinburgh
I WROTE A FEW WEEKS AGO that “there is no such thing as small in Budapest.” If that is true, then the opposite must be said of Edinburgh, where everything is small, and cute, and surrounded by a proud...
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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...
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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...
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Notes From the End of the World
“I BETTER TAKE MY PHONE,” the redheaded farm boy said. “In case we get stuck out there, to call someone to pull us out.” He had done this before. He searchingly patted the pants he'd hung up in the...
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I’m Writing a Book
BASED ON A FEW REQUESTS and the desire to spend these next few months quasi-usefully, I’ve decided to write and self-publish a travel book based on this four-month round-the-world trip. It won’t be...
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The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is Travel Propaganda at Its Worst
IT ISN’T RIGHT TO SAY Ben Stiller has created a love letter to ambitious travellers everywhere with The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, though he obviously tried very hard to do that. The...
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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. Before I left Korea, I found it useful to research the practical costs of...
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In Defence of Malaysia: Don’t Let MH370 Be Your Last Impression
MALAYSIA’S BEEN BESMIRCHED in the media lately, and for pretty unfortunate reasons. First the shocking vanish itself of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370; then the rumours about Iranian terrorists, stolen...
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An Independent Traveller’s Anecdotal Guide to Trekking Colca Canyon, in 11...
1. Appreciate silence. Near the end of our six-hour bus ride from Arequipa to Cabanaconde, three awful, young French people boarded the bus, standing near our seats. The loudest wore a backwards cap...
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Searching for the Amazonian Jews of Peru
THE BIGGEST PROBLEM facing the only synagogue in the Amazonian city of Iquitos, Peru, is that nobody knows where it is. Hotel concierges won’t know what you’re talking about; tell a moto-taxi driver to...
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In Photos: Reasons to Love Northern Chile
IF YOU’RE BACKPACKING through South America, you’ll likely pass through Northern Chile—after all, the northernmost city, Arica, marks the only route to Peru. But it would be a mistake to truck through...
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