On Thursday, I was destroyed by a ballet. Michelle and I stood in the dresses we’d dug out of our backpacks, watching the well-dressed patrons of the Vienna State Opera house from the balcony vantage point allowed by our 3-Euro standing tickets. We had already taken pictures, wandered through the chandelier-lit drawing rooms, and mentioned […]
Michelle and I flew into Oslo last week with a backpack stuffed with pre-purchased pasta mix, ramen, and oats, and very few plans. Finding ourselves in Norway, one of the most expensive (and safest) countries on earth, we knew there was only one way we could travel: hitchhiking. We splurged on a pastry at 7-11 […]
If you want to know a place quickly, take a ride on its public bus. I stepped out of the Florence train station and immediately started walking towards a dome. My backpack creaked behind me: hot weight. Pizza from a bakery provided my lunch as the wind twirled pigeon feathers down the dome’s steps. A […]
“It feels like someone sang a song, and that song turned into stone, and that stone became a city,” I said, as we walked out of a heavy stone church into the chalky morning light of Salzburg, Austria. I still carried the feel of the inside of the church within my shoulders — the empty […]
I am sitting on a bus as it eases its way through the countryside between Prague and Salzburg, Austria. We pass a thick green pond; yellow leaves catch a corridor of sunlight as they spiral down. At the front of the bus 11 red analog lines trap the time – 9:17 am. Prague has caught […]
