What I’ve Learned about Photography from Taking Travel Photos
Snapping travel photos is how many people are introduced to photography. Here are several things I learned about this field the hard way, from traveling.
We Have slowly Lost Our Ability To Choose A Seat On The Airplane
En guard. The audacious practice of airlines charging their valuable customers to choose a seat is slowly spreading. The airlines, nomenclature-meisters all, call this trend “unbundling”, charging for things that used to be standard. Once upon a time, in an industry far, far away, the privileged purchaser of an airplane trip could count on the…
Visiting The Famous Cafes Where The Dead Intellectuals, Artists, And Writers Hung Out
These types of cafés and watering holes get into the guidebooks and blog posts and visitors flock there, for reasons that we shall explore. So very often, I’ve seen a place described as hangout for intellectuals, the literati, or perhaps the counterculture, usually based on the famous people who used to hang out there. I always wonder why people go there now.
Vienna’s Naschmarkt — A Permanent Street Market With Everything Including Cheap Wine And Bad Attitudes
“Hello!?” the older blonde woman behind one of the many counters in Vienna’s Naschmarkt is saying to me, her voice dripping with sarcasm in that particular manner that means, “You are not acting correctly and thus let me draw attention to your misbehavior.” We had been standing in front of her counter in the market…
Venice Beach: The Only Place In L.A. You’ll Enjoy
Not everyone likes L.A., but there’s one section where the people-watching makes it worth it: Venice Beach. The freak show on the pedestrian strip is worth the trip; you don’t need another reason to go. It’s where everyone loose in L.A. winds up.
Triumph of the Day-Tripper: Segovia, Spain
Segovia, Spain hits all the notes for a good day trip: small town just an hour away from Madrid the big city, feels utterly different, and contains striking sights one can’t find in Madrid. Segovia is hardly undiscovered, but not nearly so crowded as other day-tripper-places such as Toledo, which is so packed with tacky…
Traveling to Switzerland Without Going Bankrupt
You want to see Switzerland. We all do. The mountains, the lakes, the cheese and chocolate, yes yes. Plus there are watches and army knives involved. But the country is prohibitively expensive, and you don’t have a secret Swiss bank account to cover it. How does one travel to Switzerland cheaply?
Tourist Creep: When A Once-Native Place Changes
Tokyo’s Piss Alley and Golden Gai areas used to be very Japanese, and thus very exclusive, but a revisit five years later shows them to be now astonishingly touristy. What to think when a place changes?
Toronto: It’s not about the sights
Toronto, Canada is not a city known for its sights, or for much of anything. Its appeal comes from the varied multicultural neighborhoods. Let’s explore a few.
Tomar, Portugal: Where the Knights Templar lie, ready, waiting
Tomar, Portugal is a small town with a massive attraction–the complex of the Knights Templar. Beyond this looming draw, the town itself is a delight.
Tokyo’s Robot Restaurant – For The Teen-Age Boy That Lurks In All Of Us
UPDATE – The Robot Restaurant in Tokyo has been a victim of the pandemic and of changing times. The former version of it closed in 2023, and it sort of made a comeback as a daytime show, but not run by its former owners, and perhaps does not resemble its former self. If I make…
Tokyo’s Kabuki-cho, The World’s Most Confusing Red-Light District
Tokyo’s Kabuki-cho (or Kabukicho) is often described as a red-light district and I suppose it is, but it resembles famous ones like Amsterdam almost not at all. Kabuki-cho is not people hanging out inviting you in; in fact, you may not get in a place at all, and may not understand the system if you do.