"Just pretend they’re all leprechauns, and I bet it’ll start to get much better." That’s what we temporarily agreed on after our first few cold, terse encounters with Dubliners, as the light rain poured down …
July 13, 2012
Europe
An American in Dublin
Antalya, Turkey
After working in the mental health field for three years, it was time for an adventure. I purged my life of almost everything I owned, packed two old-fashioned trunks, and moved to Antalya, Turkey, with …
July 10, 2012
Beer in Bruges
At first glance, Bruges in Belgium doesn’t have a lot going on. It’s small. Tourists often outnumber locals in the summer. And in recent years it’s most famous for a quote from Colin Farrell in …
July 3, 2012
De Kulminator in Antwerp, Belgium: A Beer Odyssey
Is it possible that I've pinpointed the Holy Grail, the pied piper of beer geekdom heaven? Dare I say…the greatest bar on the planet? The recent craft beer explosion in San Diego has turned this …
June 26, 2012
Western Ireland: Don’t Drive
After planning a mother-daughter trip to western Ireland, we agreed that we would drive from one city to the next. Or rather: I would drive. My mother, nervous enough driving in America, wasn't one to …
June 22, 2012
A City Divided: Nicosia, Cyprus
Dusk. Empty street. Barbed wire. Bombed-out buildings. These are my first memories of Nicosia, Cyprus. Cassie and I came to Cyprus for the week of Kurban Bayramı, a religious holiday. We were both English teachers …
June 14, 2012
Amsterdam’s True(r) Colors
Living in the U.K. has its advantages – among them is being able to hop on a plane at a moment’s notice and arrive in a foreign country an hour later. We decided to visit …
June 12, 2012
Hopping and Crawling through Dublin
“I don’t know where they went. There are usually plenty of them here.” My Servas host in Dublin had driven me up to Phoenix Park overlooking Dublin to see the herd of deer that could …
England's Eclipse, 1999
“That’s eet, then?” With that summation, the last total eclipse of the millennium ended after 40 seconds under an overcast sky on Dartmoor for a young Manchester woman with two cranky kids. “I kood ‘ave …
May 31, 2012
Bike the Dutch Lowlands
The province of Zeeland, in the Netherlands’ southwest, is made up largely of islands and peninsulas. Crossing over the many dams, you encounter one island after another, each with its own special character. Traveling through …
May 24, 2012
Pastoral Life, Medieval History: Kilkenny, Ireland
"We have relatives in L.A., and they are amazed at how different our way of life is here than what they are used to." My Servas host elicited a chuckle out of me as we …
An Apartment in Paris
It's funny how traveling somewhere foreign changes our tolerance for things. For a month-long sojourn to Paris, my family of three rented a cramped one-bedroom apartment in Montmartre. We – who are oozing at the …
May 10, 2012
Spring Days in Dingle, Ireland
Dingle, the northernmost of three peninsulas along the southwest coast of Ireland, was annointed “the most beautiful place in the world” by National Geographic Traveler a few years ago. It had been recommended to me …
May 8, 2012
Spring in Prague's Old Town
My spouse and I just returned from our trip to Prague. We made our must-see list on the plane ride in: 6,200 miles gives you plenty of time to jot down (and agree on) all …
April 26, 2012
Doing Europe: Summer in Rome
Living in Italy was refreshing compared to living in Prague. After two summers of work in Rimini as a club promoter (or professional partier), I moved to Rome. I was eager to experience one of …
April 17, 2012