Life in a Medieval City: A Day in Provins, France Sometimes you just don’t get it till you get there. No matter how much you hear about a place, how many adjectives are used to describe its appeal and beauty, you just can’t picture it without actually having seen it. […]
Recent Posts
Trianon Palace: Be Sure to Try the Cake!
Historians largely believe that the apocryphal “Let them eat cake!” quote was never actually said by Marie Antoinette, but in seeing her lifestyle at the Trianon Palace one can certainly see where the common Frenchman of the 1700’s might believe her capable of such a statement. Le Grand Trianon and […]
Lost in the City of Shopping Malls – Dubai
Lost in the City of Shopping Malls – Dubai You want to know what is, at heart, the thing I find strangest about being a tourist in Dubai? There was this one time I took a guided tour of a mall. (By choice!) Dubai shopping malls are known across the globe […]
Rustem Pasa Mosque: Beautiful, Iz’nik?
Rustem Pasa Mosque Another of the greatest buildings in Istanbul that I’d never quite gotten around to visiting, the Rustem Pasa Mosque is tucked just between the Spice Bazaar (tons of tourists) and the Suleymaniye Mosque (lots of tourists) yet gets only a tiny fraction of the visitors of either of […]
The Gardens of Versailles: My Favorite Escape
The Gardens of Versailles Perhaps two instances of an event is a bit on the early side for calling it a ‘tradition’, but spending an afternoon doing a lot of nothing in the Gardens of Versailles has been one of my favorite memories of both trips I’ve made to Paris […]
Istanbul Archaeology Museum: Of Dead Kings and Weeping Women
Istanbul Archaeology Museum I’ve probably walked past one of the best museums in Istanbul over a hundred times without going in. Right in the heart of Sultanahmet, ticked between the Topkapi Palace and Gulhane Park, is the Istanbul Archeology Museum. Actually, thats a misnomer. This is actually the Istanbul Archeology […]