Articles from this Category
September 14, 2017
“They carry on as though they are part of the old USSR,” said Alex, our Moldovan guide from JayWay Travel. “Transnistria has repeatedly asked to join the Russian Federation.” Unrecognized by the United Nations or any other sovereign nation, Transnistrians could not care less. In spite of being one of the poorest places in Europe, […]
March 15, 2017
“It doesn’t matter where you’re from – or how you feel… There’s always peace in a strong cup of coffee.” ― Gabriel Bá, Coffee in the United States has become somewhat of pop culture. Get in line, order the most complicated, tongue-twisting combination of caffeine on the menu, and drink it from the paper cup […]
February 8, 2017
Full transparency: I’m not a foodie. I’m an adventure traveler. So when our JayWay tour guide said we were going to take a cooking class while traversing Macedonia, I was not thrilled. I anticipated boredom. I was wrong, very wrong. Lake Ohrid We started out from our hotel on glorious Lake Ohrid where we’d spent […]
January 5, 2017
Albanian wine is no stranger to Europe. Archeological evidence near the capital of Tirana indicates traces of tannic acid, which produces the bitter taste in wine, dates back to a 6,000-year viniculture, making Albania arguably the oldest winemaker in Europe. Albania, a small country bordering Greece on the Adriatic Sea, has four separate wine regions, […]
January 3, 2017
It’s no secret that the Greek Islands rank high on the list of “must-do” destinations. But which one to choose? Each island has its own magnetic charm, but I submit that the Corfu beaches and activities make it difficult for anyone to resist the Greek island’s pull. Corfu Island is the second-largest island in the […]
December 28, 2016
The Azores is one of the best places in the world for whale watching, with a strong cultural connection to whales. While there are some 25 species of whales in the archipelago, the mammoth sperm whale – forever immortalized as “Moby Dick” – is the most common. We chose to go out to find whales […]
August 22, 2016
When people think of Prague cuisine, they most often think of Czech goulash – chunks of beef heavily laden with gravy and served up in a bowl of thick, coarse bread. But Sophia Smith has been working hard to change that perception. A British expat who moved to Prague sixteen years ago, Sophia brings a […]
July 7, 2016
Whenever I bring up the Azores in a conversation, most Americans say, “Hmm, I’ve heard of it, but where is it exactly?” The Azores is actually an archipelago (cluster) of nine volcanic islands in the middle of the northern Atlantic Ocean, 850 miles west of Portugal and 2,561 miles east of New York City. They […]
September 23, 2015
As our tour bus steeply ascended toward Montserrat’s summit, the odd, otherworldly peaks of the mountain began to pierce the periwinkle horizon. Bizarre-looking rounded rock pillars — formed by thousands of years of wind, rain, and frost — indicated our destination was imminent. Getting to Montserrat “Are we still in Spain or are we orbiting […]
September 20, 2015
When I was a child, I would envision images of magical medieval cities as my mother read nighttime stories to me. The Dubrovnik walking tour on top of Dubrovnik’s Ancient City Walls was like stepping back into that enchanted past and was beyond a doubt the highlight of my visit to that history-filled medieval walled […]