Diving into southern English life for a weekend is like being tossed from white water into a lagoon. Unhurried locals stroll down mossy lanes, gliding through an all-consuming marine layer with relaxed expressions and friendly eyes. Smiles, chimneys, cobblestones and roads embrace their natural crookedness to a comical degree. If Kent had a county sport, it would certainly be ‘meandering.’
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I flicked myself again on the neck, just under the chin. Thumb and forefinger, like I’d seen the locals do daily — still unsure of what it meant. An attempt to…
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“Here’s where they train the stupid police,” our taxi driver informed us in angry, broken English. It was 3am and still dark. We were tired but curiosity and good manners won…
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Stretching between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains are in a blurry category of their own, with complex ties to Europe, Asia and the Middle East, but fully reflecting none of the…
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Rollie backpack: nerd Monogramed luggage: princess REI pack: American Jack Wolfskin: German Lafuma: Frenchman Black suitcase: vacationer 55L rucksack: low-budget traveler Stereotyping sucks, but all of us do it — from…
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When choosing between a vacation in August and no vacation at all, the latter can sometimes feel like the lesser of two evils. It’s monsoon season in India and Southeast Asia, the…
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1. Pick Your Battles “You are so not American.” It’s supposed to be a compliment, but I’m never quite sure how to respond. I’ve heard women complain that as soon as they were…
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A breeze even for the solo backpacker, Laos should be Southeast Asia’s welcoming station. While it lacks the highs of the greater region — Thailand’s cuisine, Cambodia’s temples, Vietnam’s coast and Myanmar’s authenticity — Laos…
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Croatia: home of lazy, fish-fed cats, orange roofs and game-of-thrones-worthy coastlines. All of which we experienced on a mid-June boat trip from Split to Dubrovnik.…
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I stared up at the ceiling as the howling laughter intensified around me — demonic cackles, warm chuckles and everything in between. Should I run? This was nuts. The girl next to…
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Journey to a place where music is a daily given, where sheep strike a pose and where green rules. Guinness flows like water, and conversation does too. Here, books are older than…
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In Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, 45-minutes from the Kazakh border, lies a compound run by a Japanese family whose gates only open to those at a crossroads. Travelers who find themselves within its…
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What happens when two nations half-heartedly volley a region back and forth for centuries? A mutt is born. In this case, Alsace, where the food is not quite German, not quite French. Same goes…
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At the age of 12, my best friend and I had a serious conversation on the school playground that led to a decision: we would go on a trip, someplace far…