After a whirlwind week of road tripping from München to Bad Kötzting near the Czech Border, then along the Alps to Schloß Neuschwanstein, I was ready for a solo retreat to Heidelberg. Heidelberg’s official song “Ich Hab’ mein Herz in Heidelberg Verloren” translates to “I Lost my Heart in Heidelberg” and was first recorded in 1925 by Fred Raymond.…
Köln (Cologne) lies in Western Germany near the Dutch-Belgian border. It is the fourth largest and most populated city in Germany, and number one in the North Rhine-Westphalia region. First thing first in Köln, you must visit the Kölner Dom Cathedral. Take the Bahn to the Hauptbahnhof and when you exit the station, it will not…
I started my tradition of buying strawberries at the Viktualienmarkt the very first time I went to Munich. Traveling overseas can leave you in desperate need of grounding and this simple ritual helps me shift from hectic to feeling at home. Viktualienmarkt is an open air market spanning almost 250,000 square feet around several city…
When I found out Bauhaus would be playing within a few hours’ drive, I immediately bought a ticket without thinking of any details. Seeing them live has been a dream since, oh… the late 90s, and I would not abide another missed chance. My song for this entry is “Double Dare” by Bauhaus: …
There is something wonderful about visiting a place that holds so much intense energy and excitement, whether you are a sports fan or not. We low-key took a self-guided tour inside the Allianz Arena, home of the famous FC Bayern München football team, and strangely there was not a single other person inside the stadium.…
Take an hour’s drive from Knoxville to Sweetwater, TN and you can find yourself at the The Lost Sea Adventure. The site is part of the historic Craighead Caverns and is America’s largest underground lake. My song for this entry is “Swing Tree” by Discovery because the chorus is about being at sea. The…
My day job comes with a lot of perks, and one of them was having the privilege of working remotely from a medieval Scottish castle. Except this castle is only half an hour from our office in Tennessee. Our crew had been working there for some time and we were so excited for the opportunity…
There are aspects of every trip that do not fit in with other blog entries and that lack the substance to fill out an entry of their own. Many of them are goofy and have nothing to do with the trip or the country I am in, they are just kind of a universally comical…
“Do you not know that a man is not dead while his name is still spoken?” -Terry Pratchett I began this series with my first entry Venerate Your Dead: The Americas while planning a menu for a Samhain Sabbat / Day of the Dead dinner party. Feel free to read that blog for a better…
Most holidays now revolve around Jesus, drinking/eating too much, and lighting shit up.
I never imagined that I would spend the turn of my third decade in Moscow’s Red Square, until it happened. Visiting Russia had long held a top spot on my bucket list but always seemed out of grasp. When I earned my TESOL/TEFL certifications a few years ago I started tutoring in English and German…
(TL, DR: Enjoy this Russian Rap Playlist, suckas. Through my travels, I have fallen privy to unexpected information and earned some unconventional badges of expertise. It may come as a surprise, but for better or worse, I know my way around the core Russian rap scene. A few people have laughed and been dismissive about the…
