Surfing the Basque Country
While protesters rallied in the rain for the release of Basque prisoners (see post), hundreds of surfers gathered down the coast for the annual ZarautzPro. The six-star ASP professional surfing event drew surfers from around the world for the competition, momentarily infusing an international mix of visitors into the sleepy beach town. My friend Griffin … Continue reading
Deja Vu: Buses & Hitchhiking Across Aragon
This morning I decided to leave Barcelona and head north to visit my good friend Griffin in the Basque Country. I felt listless in Barcelona. It had been over two weeks since I’d stepped off the ship, and I’d been bouncing around Italy and Spain ever since. In Barcelona I’d been in a 6-bed dorm … Continue reading
Adios, siesta
August in Europe is the month of rest. In Spain, while the big-box stores remain open, mom and pop businesses everywhere are closed as families take off for a few weeks of relaxation. Even here in a big city like Barcelona, owners scrawl a note on the window, draw the shutters, lock the door and … Continue reading
The Anarchist Bookshop of Barcelona
There is a little anarchist bookshop in the Raval neighborhood of Barcelona, just off Las Ramblas. It is an anachronism of a bygone era. It sits beneath towering tenement houses on a road so narrow that the laundry drying from the fifth story balconies almost totally blocks the sun. I felt like I was wandering … Continue reading
Review: “Exit Through The Gift Shop” @ San Sebastian Film Fest 2010
Exit Through the Gift Shop Country of Origin: USA Director: Banksy Starring: Banksy, Shepard_Fairey, Space Invader, Thierry Guetta (aka Mr. Brainwash) [Warning: Spoiler ahead] My favorite film by far. This movie is as mysterious as it’s director, the world’s most notorious anoynmous vandal – Banksy. It’s hard to comment this film – no one knows … Continue reading
6 Books to Help you Start Your Journey
Ever dream of traveling the world? College tells us plenty about how to get a job after graduation, but very little about alternative lifestyle choices. When I decided to pursue my dreams of traveling and working around the world, I got almost no help from the traditional sources of advice. Parents, teachers, and career counselors … Continue reading
11 Lessons from a Year in a 6,000 Pueblo
I learned a lot this year, almost all of it the hard way. Stripped of most of the things that make me happy, I learned the value of what we take for granted. I was alone with very few friends in a stagnating village, unable to change my scholarship, unable to move to another city … Continue reading
Asia in Retrospect – Final Post (Beijing, China)
And now, it is my last day in Beijing; I am finally ready to leave China, finally ready to go to Mongolia, to Siberia to Moscow on Trans-Siberian Railroad. I have my tickets in my hand, my visas in my passport, and my plane tickets back to the US are already booked. My journey across … Continue reading
I discuss Freedom with Athena (Great Wall of China)
I the train journey from Lhasa to Beijing took two days. The train traveled across all of China, from the Tibetan Plateau to the mountains of northern China, past the terracotta warriors in Xi’an and onwards to Beijing. The Beijing municipality is roughly the size of Belgium, so it took a while to get to … Continue reading
I Ponder Zen & Motorbikes (Central Highlands, Vietnam)
Zen. What is Zen? We use the word constantly in an abstract manner, but do we even know what it is? We define it more by what it is not, than by what it is – we think Zen is anything that is not stressful. We name trendy coffee shops Zen This, ambient chill-out music … Continue reading
Marko Polo Travels 