Assume birthday costume. Venture forth, enter sauna, sit tranquil, see thy bodily toxins emerge on the surface of thine mortal coil, from the sauna take thine leave, lay back and gaze into the abyss, and sink thyself into the brief sleep of a guiltless infant. Awaken and repeat procedure.

This is but a condensed ve... continue reading

Grey and impoverished, a downtrodden land inhabited by dour cynics. This was my perception of Poland prior to going there.

I had been asking fellow travelers for years about Poland and all had unequivocally recommended Cracow (it's actually Krakow, but that's how I started writing it, so...). So, Cracow it was: Po... continue reading

In the summer of 2003, I seized the chance of a personalized invite to Bratislava. Upon arriving at the city's train station from Budapest, I was collected by Tómaš, a Slovakian I had met in Vancouver, who was then toiling as a tech wizard for Orange telecom. On this piping hot day, Tómaš and his high-IQ biologist wife... continue reading