Upon a recent visit to the German Rhineland cities of Aachen and Cologne and the surrounding area, we realized there’s a lot to experience and unpack — that is, to comprehend the full picture of what we’d seen and how astonishingly complex history can be.
Audrey Scott
Travel to Rwanda: First Impressions
Rwanda. A country where the first thing that comes to mind when people hear the name: the horrific, tragic genocide of twenty years ago. When we mentioned that we were looking forward to visiting Rwanda, we weren’t entirely surprised by the confused looks and cocked heads: “Why?”
The Ancient Rock-Carved Churches of Lalibela, Ethiopia
The story of the rock-carved churches of Lalibela goes: almost 900 years ago in Ethiopia there lived a visionary king named Lalibela.
Lalibela traveled far and wide, including an extended pilgrimage he took to Jerusalem, after which he brought back home to Ethiopia all he'd seen and learned.
When Muslims conquered Jerusalem in the late 12th century and it became too dangerous for devout Ethiopian Christians to make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem itself, Lalibela fashioned a work-around: to build a New Jerusalem in his home country.
But this New Jerusalem was no ordinary holy place.
Up Next: A Journey to East Africa
Our journey to East Africa, just about underway. What follows includes not only our itinerary and a call for your recommendations, but a personal note and a couple of back-stories including $100 given to us with a purpose on a ship in Antarctica.
As you read this, we're on our way to Ethiopia to begin a six week journey through Eastern Africa. We expect the journey to take us from Ethiopia to Uganda, Rwanda and finally Tanzania.
Being Present in Travel: 6 Reasons Why, 4 Ways How
Travel is like a good, challenging book: it demands presentness—the ability to live completely in the moment, absorbed in the words or vision of reality before you.
– Robert Kaplan
10 Ways Travel Helps You Let Go
Travel. It places us in situations we couldn’t otherwise imagine. It often spurs us to do things we thought we couldn’t do. It provides perspective on our lives and our place in the world.
Amidst all this, travel also offers freedom. Among those freedoms, the greatest freedom of all: the freedom to let go.
Sounds about right, doesn't it? But what does “let go” really mean?
How to Motivate Yourself: 9 Steps from Doubt to Doing
Have you ever told yourself that you weren’t able to do something? That you couldn't motivate yourself? Then one day you just got up and did it? This is that story. It shares how I motivated myself to run and changed the narrative in my head. However, these nine steps can be applied to anything you want to motivate yourself to do that you've been resisting getting started.
Ireland Road Trip: 7-Day Itinerary
Interested in doing a road trip around Ireland, but don't know where to start with creating a 7-day Ireland road trip itinerary? You're in the right place. We share our itinerary, as well as all the details and recommendations on things to do, where to eat, and places to wander from our 7-day road trip in Ireland.
Dune Climbing in the Namib Desert, Namibia
It’s just past dawn and as the sun begins its arc, the Namib Desert sand dunes turn from tinted pink to deep orange. The contrast between the cloudless blue sky and the dune's edge becomes a clear line in starkness. In this early morning, there's a narrow window of time until the angle of the sun and the heat of the desert strip away the crispness and the vibrance in one of the world's oldest deserts.
On the edge of that window, we arrive at Big Daddy Dune.
24 Hours in Johannesburg and Soweto
To suggest that one could experience Johannesburg and Soweto properly in 24 hours is almost patently absurd. But you do what you can, you make the best with the time you have. That's what we did. And here's how we did it.