After having seen Athens and Corinth, I couldn't resist visiting one of the other great city-states of ancient Greece: Sparta.
Sparta needs no introduction. It's a star player on the History and Discovery channels and that schlocky pseudo-historical film 300. While I ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
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Sparta: Greece's ancient warrior city
After having seen Athens and Corinth, I couldn't resist visiting one of the other great city-states of ancient Greece: Sparta.
Sparta needs no introduction. It's a star player on the History and Discovery channels and that schlocky pseudo-historical film 300. While I ...The Athens War Museum
This is a Heckler & Koch MP5 9mm submachine gun with gold plated parts. It was given by the Defense Minister of Kuwait to former Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou, probably as a thank you for his nation's help in liberating Kuwait during Operation Desert Storm. ...Adventure travel with a purpose in Israel's Negev Desert
Travel can be such an incredible, life altering, experience, both for us, and the people that we interact with on our journeys. But seldom is that more clearly defined than in the case of an upcoming special trip from an organization called Bustan, which works closely with ...Trek the Colombian Andes in El Cocuy National Park with Mountain Madness
Acclaimed Seattle-based adventure travel company and guide service Mountain Madness debuts its newest trip on February 4th: an excursion to Colombia's El Cocuy National Park. Although Colombia is often characterized as being mostly tropical jungle or coastline, the Andean ...The Acropolis: Greece's most famous monument weathers the crisis
Visiting Greece and not visiting the Acropolis is unthinkable. Set atop a high rock overlooking Athens, the temples here were built primarily to honor the city's patron goddess Athena in all her attributes. The buildings here are some of the best examples of Greek ...Stand up paddling with stingrays in New Zealand's Murderer's Bay
Though Captain James Cook was the first European to set foot on the islands of New Zealand in 1769, he was not the first European to "discover it". That honor would belong to Dutch explorer Abel Tasman who sailed past the country while navigating the Southern Ocean for ...Athens day trip: Acrocorinth, one of Greece's greatest castles
Greece is justly famous for its ancient monuments. The Acropolis, Delphi, and other Classical sites are the reason most history lovers come to this ancient land. The medieval period, however, produced many equally impressive monuments and it's a shame they're so often ...Greek museums face the economic crisis
It's not easy being the caretaker of Greece's heritage these days. Greek museums are facing budget cuts, strikes, reduced staff, even loss of visitors due to riots. The National Archaeological Museum had many rooms closed during the peak tourist season last summer due to ...Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: From steel town to scenic city
While many people still visualize Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to be an old steel city, the hilly town has certainly changed a lot in the last 30-40 years. My first impressions when arriving were that the lit up hillsides, public art, modern architecture, colorful bridges, ...Paris postcard: Savoring the subversively seductive splendors of the Marais
French star architect Jean Nouvel once gave me a ride home from his studio in Paris' edgy 11th arrondissement. I chuckled to discover that the guru of transparency, glass and steel lives around the corner from me in a 1600s building on the Rue des Francs Bourgeois, the ...Vagabond Tales: Is sandboarding better than snowboarding?
Contrary to what you may believe, the ocean in Peru is not very warm. In fact, it's not warm at all. It's freezing.
Other than desert outposts in the northern reaches of the country where it's still possible to surf in boardshorts (Mancora, Vichayito, etc.), the ...New series: Our past in peril, Greek tourism faces the economic crisis
This is a sculpture of a fallen Greek warrior from the temple of Aphaia on the Greek island of Aigina. Made in the 5th century BC, it's an important example of Early Classical Greek art. This was a time when Greek artists began imitating life with realistic poses and ...Kaikoura, New Zealand: Surfing, seals, and seafood
"The chowder isn't the type you have back in the States" I am warned.
The brunette woman working the oceanfront seafood cart has detected my accent and is concerned I won't like her steaming bowl of mollusks.
"There isn't much cream, just freshly made broth mixed ...Never forget: Holocaust museums and memorials around the world
Here at Gadling, our goal is to introduce readers to travel ideas that are relevant. While we strive to find the new and the cool, we realize that some journeys must occasionally lead us to confront difficult episodes in our past, whether on a personal or global scale. ...How to visit the Taj Mahal
"No, madam. I am sorry. Taj Mahal is closed today."
"But," I thought, as I skeptically squinted at the guard delivering this bad news, "this is the Taj Mahal. The TAJ MAHAL! It's one of the most recognizable structures in the entire world. How could it be closed?"
...Bowermaster's Adventures: Finding civilization in Antarctica
Port Lockroy -- If there is a human population center along the Antarctic Peninsula, this is it. While there may be hundreds of thousands of penguins, tens of thousands of seals, whales and sea birds that call this remote stretch home, few people do.
But at the height of ...Franz Josef glacier: Big icy tongue of the rainforest
"The Franz Josef Glacier is so singularly beautiful, so beautiful indeed, and centered amongst such vivid, exceptional, and picturesque surroundings that if it were situated in any other country than New Zealand it would have long ago been acclaimed 'The Most Beautiful ...Richmond: America's most underrated city?
As the former capitol of the Confederacy, Richmond has long been one of the premier destinations in the country for Civil War geeks. But as I discovered on two recent visits, it's also a young, vibrant city with architecture treasures, stunning parks, walkable neighborhoods, ...Sunken British warship to be raised, mystery solved
In 1744, a mighty British warship sank off the Channel Islands, killing more than 1,000 sailors and carrying an estimated £500m worth of gold coins. Now, plans are being made to raise the ship and solve one of seafaring's greatest mysteries.
"HMS Victory was the ...Are there lost pyramids in Bosnia? Probably not.
For several years now, European archaeologists have been in a furor over a supposed lost civilization in Bosnia that built the biggest pyramids in the world. Scholars have dismissed the claims, made by Bosnian-American businessman Semir Osmanagic, as pseudoscience, yet ...
