I walk down the stairs and hear the familiar sound of the Berlin Ubahn arriving on the tracks below – I instinctively pick up my pace and start to race down the stairs, around the corner, down a final set of stairs and slip into the Ubahn before the doors slide shut! It’s days like [...]

The man looks at me shyly, and then looks away. I smile politely and go on talking to Lisa while holding on to one of the handles in the Ubahn (Berlin’s subway system) as the subway car jerks around I sway with the movement. Soon the young man stands up and says ‘Excuse me’ with [...]

It should have been simple – I plugged the address into Google maps on my phone and the Strudel Factory was immediately identified. I zoomed in and realized that it was close by so I grabbed my camera, packed my backpack and went out to get some strudel and hopefully sit and enjoy the ambiance. [...]

Sometimes I feel like I’m one of those people living in the US for 20+ years and they still don’t speak English – yet they somehow get by. I used to look at them and wonder how that was possible. How can the old woman in China Town get through each day without really knowing [...]

I looked around the table and wondered – how did this happen? How is it that at 43 I’m the youngest one on this hiking trip AND I’ve got the dullest stories? For the first time in my travels, my travel and adventure experiences are overshadowed by the people around me. I eagerly ask them [...]

I’m not a huge fan of science.  In fact I made it all the way through college without taking a science class with a lab component – I focused on physics and astronomy instead.  But for my next travel adventures I will be adjusting my nerdy glasses, dawning a ‘virtual’ lab coat and grabbing a [...]

I had seen those people before – the ones with the duct taped boots or better yet the people who left their torn up destroyed boots on the trail as an offering to the hiking Gods. I always thought, “What idiots!“, I couldn’t understand how these people could be so horrible at planning. How could [...]

To my right is a glacier, in front of me are mountains covered in dark, moody clouds, evergreens dot the ridge line in front running down into the fjord, snow capped peaks are in the distance, and I see Spanish writing in front of me. I breathe in and really consider what I’m looking at. [...]