"I am going to Iceland to see the Aurora Borealis," I said confidently. Everyone was envious. Which only egged me on. "Yeah, it’s the right time of year, and I’ve just got a feeling." Digging myself a whole trench full of trouble. Everyone knows the Northern Lights are capricious at best, downright elusive the rest of the time. But since childhood I’d wanted to see them. So here I was in Iceland. This was my chance.
Continue reading...19. November 2009
The 2010 Passion Play in Oberammergau, Germany, is a once-a-decade event that takes over, consumes, and essentially overwhelms the entire town of Oberammergau. Once every 10 years, more than half of this Bavarian village's 5,000 inhabitants take part as actors in the world-famous Oberammergau Passion Play. This may be the world's most famous play... that you have never heard of!
Continue reading...17. November 2009
So you’ve travelled and taken lots of digital photos. Now you are now home, pining for the next adventure. What to do? Why not dust off your travel pictures and have some fun? You could show them to your friends and family again, but apparently that is boring (note to self: why aren’t people more interested [...]
Continue reading...17. November 2009
I arrive for my Rome catacombs tour early and so sit in the last of the October sun munching on a suppli (a Roman snack containing a deep-fried ball of rice and mozzarella). Aptly our first destination is the catacombs of Saint Calisto – one small part of a huge network of catacombs in Rome.
Continue reading...12. November 2009
It wasn’t easy dragging myself out of the hot thermal waters of the Polynesian Spa in Rotorua on that cold winter night. Birds were rising from the lake, heading home to roost as steam rose in the dying light of Saturday. As I forced my relaxed muscles to work, cold air hit skin: this traditional Maori Hangi dinner better be worth it.
Continue reading...11. November 2009
Before the arrival of the euro, Madrid was well known as one of Europe’s cheaper destinations. These days, as on the rest of the continent, you can go through money like water if you don’t come prepared. You need to plan ahead, and go with the local flow, to make Madrid achievable on a budget.
Continue reading...4. November 2009
I'm not originally from the northern hemisphere. But now that I live up here, only now do I realise just how idyllic my native southern hemisphere was. Is. Growing up in the southern hemisphere, each year my mother sent me to the family dairy farm in Golden Bay, at the top of the South Island of New Zealand, for a two-month summer holiday.
Continue reading...30. October 2009
This month, Atlas Obscura leads us through the dark alleys of Highgate Cemetery in London, St. Sebastian’s Cemetery in Salzburg, and Merry Cemetery, Romania. Happy Halloween!
Continue reading...27. October 2009
Dubrovnik, in Croatia, just keeps pulling me back in. For starters it’s beautiful; for another thing there are a few different ways to experience it. In the past I’ve always stayed in or near the old town (Grad). The walled old city is so spectacularly beautiful that to wake up in the morning and look out the window at all that history is magical.
Continue reading...23. October 2009
Reykjavik (Reykjavík), despite its tiny population, is a very cosmopolitan place for being tucked away in distant Iceland. The nightlife in Reykjavik is legendary. And when the sun is out, the mustards and crimsons of its corrugated houses sit in happy contrast with the Nordic blue of the summer sky. Reykjavik is an awfully pretty town to meander through.
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20. November 2009
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