This isn't the article I wanted to publish today. Today was supposed to feature an incredible look into Serbia by Sam Spector. But the events of the last twenty-four hours a) need to be responded to, even by a small travel community, and b) leave me in no mood for a normal day. I warn…
Today, I turn 40. (Well, today when you read this, not today when I write this, as it's a few days prior. Anyway.) The big 4-0. An age that, while it doesn't sound old, no longer really sounds young. It's as good a time as any to pause, to reflect, and to examine where things…
At the beginning of 2019, I made the decision to become a full-time nomad. Over the prior decade, my mental health had deteriorated to the point I had to stop working, and even join an intensive outpatient program to work things through. In putting my life back together, travel was one of the things that…
First off, don't worry. I don't have the coronavirus - COVID-19 - at least not yet. I am writing this from Barcelona, a week into my stay in this stunning city. By the time you read it, I will be back home in Los Angeles. So what changed? I was supposed to be here another…
This is always one of my favorite posts to write each year. As the year comes to a close, it is a great excuse to think back on all of the amazing places I went, all of the incredible experiences I had, and reflect before moving ahead with the following year. In 2019, I became…
This morning, in a private no-frills ceremony at the Consulate General of Germany in Los Angeles, I got to do something that most Jews have only dreamt of. I got to - in my own small way - give the middle finger to the ghost of Adolf Hitler on behalf of myself and my family.…
The rolling plains of Iowa are covered in cornfields, just like a scene out of Field of Dreams, broken up by the occasional silo or windmill. It is beautiful, if redundant after the first 30 or 40 miles. But it's not the reason I'm in Iowa. Welcome to Iowa! In Des Moines, I visit the…
The first half of 2019 has just flown by! I can't believe June is basically over, summer is here, and so many trips have come and gone. (Fortunately there are still a ton coming up to keep me excited.) So let's take a brief look at what has happened so far on The Royal Tour…
I only have two weeks left in my three month France adventure, and it's a sort of scary thought. This trip has been everything I could have asked for, and I will be returning home a different, more confident guy than I was when I left. I'll write more in detail over the next several…
Camp des Milles isn’t exactly the image one has in mind of southern France. A former tile factory just minutes from the center of Aix-en-Provence, the complex was requisitioned by the French government during World War Two, first to house those suspected of fascist sympathies and later, after the fall of France, as a depot…