Q: What’s the proper way to greet family you’ve never met before?
A: In Argentina: with kisses, warmth — and a heck of a lot of steak.
Earlier this year, with a visit to relatives in Argentina only days away, I received my first email in Spanish from my grandmother. This may not sound noteworthy, but the fact that she wrote it in her mother tongue transformed it for me from a simple letter into a welcome to a part of my family I hadn’t known before: the Argentine side.
These days, gadgets and flashy digital toys steal the limelight. And I'd be lying to you if I said we didn’t enjoy ours. But sometimes it’s the low-tech items that literally save the day.
From the dollar store to the health food store, we go old school for a moment and highlight some simple, non-gadgety stuff in our backpacks that we’ve come to know, rely on, and in some cases — love.
We'd like to think of ourselves as rather savvy when it comes to Italy, having married in Tuscany and having visited a dozen times throughout the last decade. But when a friend recommended we visit the Maremma region during our 10th anniversary trip to Tuscany this past autumn, we were intrigued. Maremma? Seen it on maps, never really paid it much mind.
Names like Pitigliano, Sorano and Manciano don’t usually roll off the tip of one’s tongue when talking Tuscan hill towns. Same goes for wines and cuisine from Maremma.
But that's what motivated us to visit – unknown, hidden, maybe even a little bit wild.
Check out the audio slideshow below to find out what we found:
I don’t think I’ve ever told anyone this before, but this journey of ours actually began with a frozen pork butt.
Sunday was one of those days when misfortunes were set aloft and misdeeds adrift.
That is, in Bangkok at least.
It was Loi Krathong, a Thai holiday where young and old come out in force. They send their wrongdoings afloat on colorfully adorned lotus leaf rafts down the Chao Praya River and they fire up paper lanterns to carry their misfortunes into the sky.
Then they party like it's 1999.
Istanbul is like Kreuzberg, but less Turkish.
— A Berlin cabbie puts the city's Turkish neighborhood in perspective.
Take a walk down any street in Kreuzberg, Berlin and you'll find scads of döner shops offering shaved, spiced meat (usually lamb) served inside rolled flatbread or in a bread pocket. At a distance, all döner shops look similar – meat sears away on a giant spindle, colorful salads await, and a few guys of Turkish origin zip around putting it all together.
Over the weekend, we alluded to the fact that we had been selected as inaugural members of the G Adventures Wanderers in Residence program. We were introduced on stage, we called it out on Facebook and Twitter, people congratulated us.
Then the phones started ringing. The back channels lit up. So did the front channels. Everyone was asking: “Sounds cool. Now what does this mean again?”
As autumn advances, the sunflowers fall, the golden soil is turned for the winter. Grapes, too, are ready for harvest. People celebrate.
Tuscany's poetry is packed in the fields, the hills, the history, the food, and the people who make it all possible.
Have you ever wondered which UNESCO World Heritage site is the least visited?
When we heard a rumor calling out the Jesuit ruins in the towns of Trinidad and Jesus in Paraguay as the least appreciated UNESCO World Heritage site, we figured they were worth a visit.
Andy has been a street performer for over fifteen years. He’s originally from Britain, but he’s called Berlin his home for the last four of those years. We watched his show at a festival in Berlin’s Westend neighborhood this past weekend. In his performance, Andy combined juggling, balance and slapstick – all suffused with his dry British humor.
His finale: fire juggling on a tightrope held by members of the crowd.
While I enjoyed the wit, the feats, and the crowd reaction, it was a post-performance chat with Andy that really left an impression.