Travel Philosophy
Lost in Bosnia
A friend once said to me, “You’ve traveled so much, I bet you don’t even know how many countries you’ve visited.” I shrugged and pretended she was right. But I knew. I knew exactly. As I suspect is the case with many other compulsive tourists, I keep a list of the countries I’ve entered. I […]
Pedaling Around Expat Expectations in Zimbabwe
Vehicles with drivers seeking an early start to the weekend jammed the intersection. I gingerly approached the mayhem, weaved through traffic and took a sharp, two-wheeled left onto the sidewalk. I left the bottleneck behind; however, I still can’t steer clear of criticism for not owning a car in Zimbabwe, an apparent affront to the […]
What’s So Bad About Falling In Love On The Road?
“Whatever you do, don’t fall in love.” This is the advice my resident advisor gave me when he found out I was heading to England to study abroad for a semester during my senior year. It has stuck with me ever since, not because I thought it was a good bit of wisdom, but because […]
How Many Americans Have A Passport?
How many Americans have a passport? This was a question a British friend had asked me a few years ago, probably based upon the assumption that much of the world has about Americans, which is that the majority of Americans do not have passports. I had no idea what the answer was, so I decided […]
The 5 Ways to Read The Directions to Happiness by Bruce Northam
At the not-very-tender age of 35, travel writer Bruce Northam hitchhiked America from coast to coast one more time to bring awareness to the fact that it could still be done in spite of the negative P.R. the practice was receiving in the ’90s. By that time, Bruce had already been hitchhiking for two decades. His […]
Luggage Lost, Soul Found: What Traveling the World Taught Me
There are countless reasons not to travel: lost luggage, delayed flights, aggressive hawkers and taxi scams, to name a few. And so it was that logistical hassles, fear of the unknown and the tyranny of the status quo – not to mention the cost – all conspired to keep my wife and I grounded in […]
The Buried Life Is Helping You To Start Crossing Things Off Your Bucket List: Here’s How
Eight years ago, three friends and I (The Buried Life) made a “100 Things to Do Before You Die” list and decided to help people we met cross items off their own bucket list. We borrowed an RV, bought a camera on eBay, made matching t-shirts and hit the road for a two-week road trip. […]
Slavoj Zizek On Starbucks And The Hidden Price Of Consumerism
The following is a transcript from the above excerpt from my favorite part of The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology, the 2012 British documentary featuring everyone’s favorite Slovene philosopher and psychoanalyst, Slavoj Zizek, and which was directed by Sophie Fiennes (of the Joseph and Ralph Fiennes clan). I somehow missed the movie when it was released […]
What’s It Like To Drop Everything And Sail The World? This Man Decided To Find Out
Life on a boat, does life get any sweeter than that? I recently came across this great short documentary about Canadian sailor/expat/dropout David Welsford called “Twenty Eight Feet: life on a little wooden boat,” which takes a look at Welsford’s decision to give up the luxuries of land in search for happiness and adventure on […]
10 Ways To Improve The Flying Experience Outside Of The Plane
On my way to a recent flight, while I was frantically putting my shoes back on among a pushy crowd in that tiny space past the scanning machine, my mind began to wander from its immediate train of thought (which, at that moment, included a fantasy involving my shoe coming into contact with the person’s […]