D Travels 'Round

Daily Wanderlust: St. Mark’s Basilica

Just beyond the two pillars marking the entrance to Venezia, or Venice, is the glorious St. Mark’s Basilica. Containing the remains of St. Mark, this church is considered to be one of the most important places in both Venice’s past and present.

Located next to the Perisan-influenced Doje’s Palace along the lagoon of the city, the Basilica, also known as Basilica Cattedrale Patriarcale di San Marco stands very different, boasting Italo-Byzantine architecture and gold mosaics dating back to the 1200s.

I’ve been to Venice before, but this was my first look at the gorgeous and magnificent church during my Walks of Italy St. Mark’s Basilica After Hours.Continue reading “Daily Wanderlust: St. Mark’s Basilica”

Escape of the Week: the Church of Bones

What to do with exhumed skeletons of more than 14,000 bodies from the time of the Black Plague? For woodcarver František Rint, the grisly task was his to handle the bones nearly 300 years after a half-blind monk unearthed them.

The result? The Sedlec Ossuary, or the Church of Bones.

Located about an hour train ride from Prague in the quaint town of Kutna Hora (a UNESCO World Heritage site), today the Sedlec Ossuary is one of the town’s biggest draws.Continue reading “Escape of the Week: the Church of Bones”

Eternally happy in Tel Aviv

We sit, tucked into a little patio just east of Ben Yehuda Street, and down the road from Gordon Inn in Tel Aviv, where I am staying for the night. Across from me is one of my best friends in the entire world, Ron, who was a major part of my life in Chiang Mai and, even though he is not there at the moment, continues to be one.

“I cannot believe I am here. I. Am. In. Israel. Can you believe it?!?” I keep asking him, needing someone to pinch me as I overflow with excitement.

Its only been a few months since our last time together, in sultry Chiang Mai. To be here, in Israel, a place I love with all of my heart, and with him, makes my blissfully happy.Continue reading “Eternally happy in Tel Aviv”

This time will be different

“This time Israel will be different.” I tell everyone who will listen to me, not really for them, but to remind myself how much I have changed.

“This time, I’m going for different reasons.”

“This time, I won’t be miserable. I won’t cry into my too expensive glass of wine each night, wishing away my time here. I won’t sit on the beach and close my eyes and feel like I am sinking, sinking, sinking into the soft sand. I won’t wander the holiest city in the world and only see it in one dimension. This time …”

A sidewalk in Tel Aviv

It’s been eight months. That’s it. Eight months since I last landed in Israel. Eight months since I last wandered Ben Yehuda in Tel Aviv, hopped on a motorbike and checked out the flourishing street art scene in Tel Aviv. Got so drunk, I cried myself to sleep. For three nights.Continue reading “This time will be different”

Watching Your Back: Being Streetwise in Los Angeles

Watch a movie set in LA and you’ll see that it’s an action packed place to be. There’s all sorts going on and it attracts people from all over to jump on flights to Los Angeles for a taste of the action, or at least to see if it’s all true. Land in Los Angeles and there may be all kinds of fun sights and events going on around you. Sometimes you can get so caught up in the glamour that you don’t realize the sneakier elements up to dastardly tricks.

Here’s a little guide to being streetwise so you can enjoy that fun side of Los Angeles and avoid any nasty incidents:Continue reading “Watching Your Back: Being Streetwise in Los Angeles”

The lure of Prague

There is a history in Prague — and the rest of Europe — which suspends these places in time. Freezes them in moments only my brain can whisk me to.

The view from the airplane of Prague

Old communists blocks in Eastern Europe, bombed out buildings in the former Yugoslavia which wear their pock marks like badges of honor, of a reminder of the dirty past, hopeful future and the cruelty and beastly tendencies of man.

Here, in Prague, the former capital of Bohemia (it even sounds so whimsical), the winding Vlatava River etches its vein through the city. Graffiti sprinkles crumbling brick; old apartments with grand chandeliers hang in the entry ways to apartments where people who have their own stories and will never meet live; the contrast between what goes on under the veil of darkness and the light of day is apparent and beautiful.Continue reading “The lure of Prague”

Daily Wanderlust: Prague’s Wenceslas Square

It’s cold. And dark, even though it is nearly 11 a.m. in Czech Republic’s capital city. We’ve walked from the Muzeum tram stop in Prague down through the Wenceslas Square, one of the main (and absolutely magnificent squares) in the old town of Prague. Where we are going, we don’t know. But, we are drawn to this square, to the beauty it emits, and we’re in no rush to leave. Even if the damp hanging in the air chills our bones and the threat of rain drops looms over our heads.

This is Wenceslas Square, home to some historic moments in Prague’s long history.

In the Middle Ages, it was a horse market. Later in its existence, the proclamation of independence for Czechoslovakia was read here in 1918. It has been used for Nazi demonstrations, has been a victim of destruction during the Prague Uprising in 1945, has seen tragedy (a student set himself on fire to protest the Soviet Union’s invasion in 1968), triumph (it served as the place for celebration when the Czech team defeated the USSR in the ice hockey world championships in 1969), and so much more.Continue reading “Daily Wanderlust: Prague’s Wenceslas Square”

Daily Wanderlust: the Bangkok Bathtub Edition

Bangkok. That never-ending skyline which spreads in all of its sky-scraping glory across the horizon. On descent into the capital of Thailand, most days those buildings fade into the gray of the smog which normally sits stale over the city. But, this past weekend, I could see the city, mainly because I was basically enveloped in it.Continue reading “Daily Wanderlust: the Bangkok Bathtub Edition”

‘Twas the night before Europe

“You won’t make it a month …”

Those ominous words echo in my mind, 12 years after I took my first longer-than-a-vacation jaunt to Europe. People were actually rooting for my failure. My lack of ability to travel solo for any length of time.

They were right. I didn’t make it a month. But, not because I couldn’t travel that long, but because I was in a place in my life where I had no business traveling. I was escaping and using a month in Europe as that ditch plan. Needless to say, when the sole purpose of a trip is to run, it doesn’t work out well.Continue reading “‘Twas the night before Europe”

What to pack for a month in Europe

What to pack for a month in Europe -- a complete packing list.

Confessions of a packer

I am a horrible packer. Like, the worst ever. I claim I am good, nay, great, at packing, but that is because I can manage to squeeze the most amount of crap possible into a backpack, each garment carefully and strategically rolled tight, sit on it, forcefully zip it, and then bitch and moan during my trip about how ridiculously heavy said backpack is.

Oh, and not only am I a horrible packer, I am a horrible packer with zero sense of style.Continue reading “What to pack for a month in Europe”