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The Celebration of St. Michael in Lalibela, Ethiopia
Women covered head to toe in white cotton pressed their entire bodies full-frontal into the red rock wall. They kissed it, chanted, and stood. I was trying to weave past their bodies and a cloud of more mobile worshippers. Our passage to the church was a four and a half foot tall opening in the [...]
Sacred Blessings at Lalibela, Ethiopia
“Get up there! Get up there! Quickly, quickly! ” my guide Samarawhit (Sam) urged in a loud whisper. “What? What?” I questioned back just as urgently. Quick was not a speed I was able to do easily at the moment. I was moving very slowly because I had sprained my ankle at the beginning of [...]
A Visit to Awra Amba: A Cooperative Village
There are four tenets of life in the cooperative Awra Amba village*: Religion is a choice, men and women are equal, kids go to school, and the elderly need to be taken care of in their retirement. These ideas are a part of daily life for the Western visitor, in Northern Ethiopia there is a [...]
Welcome To Ethiopia! As Told Through Interpretive Dance
She whipped her neck in all directions, slowly at first, and then faster and faster until it looked like her afro was a separate entity, spinning in the opposite direction of her neck, taking off from her body. Slower moving, pulsating dancers flanked her on each side. She was a helicopter blade, a propulsion engine. [...]
What to Do: Three Days in Florence
Florence is a museum. Yes, there are many museums in the city, but the old city IS a museum. It seemed that around every cobblestone street, there was another testament to the Rennaissance and one of its patrons – the Medicis. Piazzas, pontes, castles, galleries, and museums populate the historic city center. A and I [...]
What to Do: One Day in Milan, Italy
In all my conversations about my upcoming trip to Italy, Milan was never raved about as much as our other destinations of Florence and the Tuscany countryside. In fact, a friend who had studied abroad in Italy shared that we should “skip it.” Another friend, however, had a different sentiment – it’s a working and [...]
How to Pack for A Trip to Europe and Africa
It’s often a big tripper’s dilema – what to pack for many places on a big trip in something we carry on our backs? What goes in that pack has to accomodate a large variety of places in terms of weather, activities, and culture. Tomorrow, I’m going on my fourth big trip and today I [...]
How to Plan a Trip to Florence, Tuscany, and Sardinia
It started with a question in a dark bar. Over manhattans and margaritas, at a friend’s birthday happy hour, my friend A and I were talking about traveling. Her last international big trip was to Australia in 2011 with a group of friends, mine was to Peru in September. A few days before this conversation, [...]
Thoughts on Pilgrimage From the Book “A Sense of Direction” by Gideon Lewis-Krause
I was skimming The New Yorker and saw a review of the book, A Sense of Direction by Gideon Lewis-Kraus. The review mentioned that the author went on three pilgrimages: the Camino de Santiago in Spain, the Shikoku pilgrimage in Japan, and the Rebbe Nachman of Breslov pilgrimage in the Ukraine. I paused at the description and [...]
San Francisco A-Z: The Haight Ashbury Edition A-F 1/2
“Settling down” is often a dirty word for travelers. We view it as giving up and giving over to a more traditional, sedentary life. I like to think of my life in San Francisco right now as “settling in.” There are some roots growing, true, but the desire and need to travel is always present. [...]
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This blog is dedicated to you living your travel dreams. I've traveled all over the world on Big Trips. Now, I'm pulling the best of my Big Trips to inspire you to wish/hope/plan your own.
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Featured In
Check out my Public Spaces wanderlist featured in the June 2013 issue.
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Meet Plan Go 2012
I'm hosting this year's Meet Plan Go, which is all about getting you out on your big trip. We have 10 speakers and career breakers who will talk about budgeting, planning, working abroad, local travel, and more. Learn more >
Published Works
There’s a whole course out there to help you plan your big trip!
