Category: Destinations
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Day 795 – Chiang Mai, Thailand – Kingdom of a Million Rice Fields
Northern Thailand. There is something haunting in the mist covered mountains and emerald rice fields surrounding the city. Something that I connect to. A reverence for the spirits of trees and nature. Of something beyond our earthly pursuits. A kindness that permeates the people, a resilient joyfulness, and a welcoming disposition. It’s something that…
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Day 754 – Istanbul, Turkey – Going native in Kadıköy on the Asian side.
It is impossible for me to walk through the streets of Istanbul and not ponder chaos theory and particle swarm dynamics as a system of organization. The symphonic madness. The rivers of kinetic energy. The ancient flow. When I first came to Istanbul, my western eyes could only see the discordant mash of unrelated…
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Day 748 – Santiago de Compostela, Spain – The end of the Camino.
The Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain was believed to house the remains of St. John the apostle and in the 10th century became one of the three great pilgrimage sites of the Catholic church (Rome and Jerusalem being the others) where one could earn a plenary indulgence for the journey. There are…
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Day 731 – Porto, Portugal – There’s no place like Porto
Porto. I’ve been here before. The once familiar caress of an old lover. The ghostly remembrances of younger explorations. Embarrassingly inexperienced. Ridiculous notions of what to do. Fears. Words left unsaid. A gnawing regret for not doing things right. And now, under the cloudy dark skies, you get another chance to do it right. You…
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Antiqvvm – October 13, 2021 (Porto, Portugal)
Antiqvvm with its one Michelin star is the creation of Chef Vitor Matos, raised in Portugal and trained in Switzerland. He has received many awards for his cooking but I haven’t been able to find much about him personally online. Antiqvvm sits within a museum complex including the Porto Municipal art museum and several…
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Day 701 – Vienna, Austria – Beethoven, Marie Antoinette, and Rococo
I didn’t know what to expect from Vienna. One of my favorite movies, Before Sunrise, paints a painfully romantic version of the city that I didn’t hope to be a true experience. But I have to say, the place is beautiful. You really do find yourself wandering through majestic gardens and down dark and magical…
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Day 687 – Krakow, Poland
I had no idea what to expect in Krakow. My polish food knowledge comes mostly from Chicago and I haven’t had many reports from fellow travelers. I came with an open mind, and what I found was a vibrant, very cool city full life and magic. Secret sparkling hidden cellar bars, laid-back hip coffee…
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Day 684 – Northern Ireland – Belfast and the Giant’s Causeway
Understanding Northern Ireland is in many ways understanding Ireland. In fact, the existence of Northern Ireland is a story that dates back before 1601 and you need at least a passing understanding of that history to understand what happened in Belfast in the 1960’s which grew into what they call The Troubles, a sectarian,…
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Day 682 – Cork, Ireland – Kissing the Blarney Stone
We only stayed in Cork for one full day and most of that time we spent in Blarney visiting the castle but we had a couple of nights walking around and enjoying the town. Cork was quite a bit larger than the towns we had been visiting along the west. Second only to Dublin…
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Day 680 – Portmagee, Ireland – So close to Skellig Michael yet so far away
When we first arrived in Ireland we were both excited to visit Skellig Michael, the island in the extreme southwest of Ireland used in the new Star Wars trilogy where Luke Skywalker was hiding. But movie location aside, it’s a spectacular place to behold with an ancient monastery built 600 feet up sheer rock…