Category:  Culture & Festivals

 Valentines Day, the day when everyone who is single wishes they were with someone, and everyone who has a significant other doesn’t understand why they need a holiday (in addition to birthdays, anniversaries, and Christmas) to profess their undying love to each other.

It seems like only yesterday that I was in Budapest Hungary, receiving a rose shaped box with a lovely pair of thong underwear stuffed inside, (complete with the gigantic set of lips right near the you know what) from a guy I had met at a bar a few days earlier. If that doesn’t scream romance, I don’t know what does! What I failed to mention was it actually was supposed to be an apology for his rather stalker-like behavior a few days before (on Valentines Day) when I told him that I was working and couldn’t go out with him.

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It’s always interesting when a festival or holiday takes place while visiting a new country. I look at it as an extra window to view new customs and traditions, opening the door for a cultural exchange not even the best tour company could arrange for you. Lighting a torch in Scotland during Hogmany, counting down Lent and dressing up for “Carnival” in Holland, collecting a hat full of candy on St Nicolas day in Poland, and most recently experiencing Eid Al-Adha (or sheep festival) in northern Morocco. (more…)

Yesterday I turned 31. Wow, that’s hard to write (even harder to say) and it reminds me just how fast life really passes by. When I was younger, I couldn’t wait to get older, and now that I’m getting older, I am afraid (or maybe just not quite ready) to finally grow up. I hope to always keep that child-like spirit, but there’s this nagging clock ticking in the back of my head telling me that maybe it’s time to start thinking about putting the suitcases away and go back to a “normal” life. For anyone that has traveled as I have (and I’m not talking about a vacation, but actually living out of your suitcase for months on end and making the world your home) maybe you can relate to the feeling of no longer knowing what “normal” is. Traveling is “normal” for me, and maybe it means sacrificing other things now (a permanent home, a family, a dog maybe) but I know in time, life will let me know when I’m ready to take on that next adventure. As I look back on this past year since turning gulp…. ”30″  (more…)