A writing residency can give you a room of your own, and hopefully a desk with a view, providing a temporary escape from the madding crowd. Most writers, especially the ones who actually devote time to their craft, are not rich. So, why are residencies so incredibly pricey sometimes? Well, it’s a market economy. There […]
When I was growing up in Uruguay, my grandma always made dishes that we considered to be Armenian food. But when I visited Armenia, the food was very different. My family, coming from parts of an ancient Armenian kingdom that had been conquered by the Ottoman empire, in this case, Marash, had preserved traditions that […]
This is a strange post for this site, but since films are a great way of “traveling” sometimes, I thought I´d share a list of some of the fabulous French films I have watched over the last months. After making a conscious decision to avoid anything produced in Hollywood, I was able to discover many fabulous […]
Athens for Digital Nomads – Where to write your masterpiece or edit your film, best wifi cafes, poolside cafes & more
On many days during my stay in Athens last summer, I went out on a quest to find the perfect coffee shop to do some work on my laptop. Because August was so unbearably hot in the city, at some point the search mutated into a quest for the perfect hotel pool, one that allowed day passes. […]
I was an Athenian last Summer, and like any good Athenian, I used to take weekend trips to islands near Athens. My favorite escapade was to Hydra, The island famous for the absence of motor vehicles (you can choose between walking or riding a donkey) is extremely chic, with stylish shops and luxury accommodation. The […]
Europe à la carte – Which Type of Europe Trip is Right for You?
One of the many reasons to travel to Europe is the variety of experiences you can plan. With different countries all close together, Europe is a haven for backpacking and touring. But how do you decide what type of trip to take? These pointers can help you decide which area of Europe might be best […]
Two nights ago, I had a dream about Siegessäule, the magnificent monument made famous by Wim Wenders` Himmel über Berlin (Wings of desire) and Bono´s music clip for one of the song´s in the sequel´s soundtrack. The only difference between this and the previous times this icon has captured my imagination is that this time […]
Amazing Budget London B&Bs and Private Rooms for Under $200
Some of my LA friends are in London right now. They are there for only a short period, and thus, decided to go for some posh hotel. As I am planning my next trip to Europe, I started thinking about all the opportunities I had to go to London when I lived in Spain or […]
Don´t show me the coffins of children with that deafening orchestral scoring My sadness doesn´t need a soundtrack What do you want from me masters of montage and emotional chord strikes Don´t let me hear the Armenian tongue of my school days from the mouths of children displaced bombed their lives forever raped the familiar […]
If you wanted to see the best sunrise in Britain, where would you go?
Britain´s scenic coastline can be a marvelous place to contemplate the beauty of the rising sun. Though the British Islands are better known for mysterious fogs and ubiquitous rains, when the sun does rise in all it´s splendour, I hope you will find yourself at one of these locations. A perfect sunrise is an elusive […]
Stockholm is one of the top capitals of Europe, but it has a reputation for being rather expensive for travelers. While some tourists can afford to stay in luxury at the greatest hotels the world has to offer, dine in the top five star restaurants every night, and splurge on costly tours, regular mortals often […]
Top Ten Free and Affordable Attractions for Students in London
Although the capital is known for being an expensive place to live, there is always a variety of activities going on so you will never get bored, even if you are on a student´s budget.
The Ultimate Bucket List – From frozen waterfalls to Mars-walking
Seven exotic destinations that will captivate anyone with a desire to visit the road less traveled: Petra, the Amazon, Macchu Picchu, Antelope Canyon, the Norwegian fjords, Iceland, and Bora Bora.
Exotic weddings are very fashionable these days. Sometimes, during my travels, I randomly stumble upon open-air weddings that look like straight out of a fairy tale: everyone dressed in white, the ocean and blue skies in the background, perfect weather; an ideal setting for sheer joy and happy endings. Of course, remote venues can greatly […]
Nine fabulous things to do on a Spring Break cruise
I have been lucky to be able to do my fair share of traveling and cruising. Although I have never been much of a “tourist,” I have had many near-paradise experiences over the years. Much of my cruising was actually done during Spring Break, so, I came up with the idea of suggesting some fabulous […]
It is always a good idea to do a little bit of homework before planning a trip to London. It is a wonderful holiday destination, but you need to be aware of a few practicalities that will save you some unnecessary trouble. Here are a few important things you need to know when planning a […]
The transformation of Limerick – A prime destination in Ireland
Even visitors who are familiar with Limerick may be surprised with the fabulous transformation the city is currently undergoing. Accompanying a steady transition from old to new, stylish new waterfront developments and numerous new attractions are being added to the traditional atmosphere of Limerick's bustling bars, lively music scene and historical landmarks.
I have only been to Istanbul and Kusadasi, two coastal, tourist spots that are hardly representative of the complexity and diversity that is Turkey. My Armenian family comes in fact from a region called Marash, which is part of Turkey today, but was in fact once Armenian territory. My knowledge about the “real Turkey” comes […]
My favorite London band is actually the curently LA-based Purple Melon, so, I decided to commission this article from Rebecca Felgate, who is much better informed about the London music scene of today. Happy listening! London has always been celebrated for its enormous ability to house upcoming and diverse music. With notorious bands such as The […]
Men’s vs Women’s Holiday Habits Exposed – Johnny Depp’s wife will not be thrilled…
I’ve heard it’s been raining heavily in Britain during late Spring and early Summer. Apparently, it has been the wettest June on record, and forecasts for July are not very promising either. This made me curious about what Brits were doing to escape their disagreeable summer. I was actually planning to write about favorite destinations […]
Liverpool has really put itself on the map in recent years. When it was hailed as the European Capital of Culture in 2008, a lot of investment went into the city, with new hotels and venues popping up all over town. I moved to Liverpool from Scotland at the beginning of 2008 and left in […]
GUEST POST BY BEN GALLIVAN, OUR MAN IN BERLIN There is a big misunderstanding of music that comes out of Germany – it isn’t all techno, opera and Rammstein (although there is a lot of that about too!); there are plenty of different styles of live music being played out nightly, especially in Berlin. The […]
The math is pretty simple, when there is an economic crisis, people do anything, in order to close sales. Spain is not the exception to the rule, and, on top of all the beauty and relaxation this beautiful land has always offered, prices today are really convenient, when compared to other summer holiday destinations in […]
Romantic escapades – Fabulous places to fall in love
Lake Como “This shore of the lake is one continued village, and the Milanese nobility have their villas here. The union of culture and the untameable profusion and loveliness of nature is here so close that the line where they are divided can hardly be discovered.” Percy B. Shelley A favorite spot for the most celebrated Romantic […]
I heard a lot about Cyprus growing up. I went to an Armenian school, and I would often hear about Cyprus, mostly in history class. The population in Cyprus is mainly Greek, but there is also a small Armenian community, and the Armenian language is considered one of the minority languages of the island. Like […]
Fascinating Gibraltar: Mysteries of a Mediterranean beauty
As things are, I am probably the only person I know who has been to both Gibraltar and the Falkland islands. These two special places have one interesting thing in common: they are much contested UK territories outside of the UK, people are bilingual Spanish-English in both of them, and they seem to have a […]
When I went to Finland to shoot my film RAUL, as it was impossible to book a hotel during the Master´s Athletics´ Championship, I used couchsurfing to accomodate me and most of my crew. The experience lead to some deep most likely everlasting friendships with a fabulous Finnish family. However, couchsurfing is not for everyone. […]
The first time I was in Athens, I wanted to see and do everything. I was coming from Korfu, which I had reached via Bari. I have told many times before on this blog the story of how it was Henry Miller´s THE COLOSSUS OF MAROUSI, in a German edition, read under the delicious Ibiza […]
I have already talked about my delicious experiences in Istanbul extensively on this blog. Yet I have only recently come across these photos of one of my best Istanbul nights ever. This was the night we had dinner at the top of Galatha Tower, from where our random new best friends came to pick us […]
Firenze from the Duomo – A perfect day´s (fairy) tale & video blog
One of the greatest pleasures of traveling is being able to see friends from different parts of the world. Nothing compares to meeting a friend from Spain you haven´t seen in years at the top of the Eiffel tower or running into an old German friend you met in Uruguay while strolling the streets of […]
The South of Spain is a place you can visit year-round. When I lived there, our winter consisted of a couple of rainy weeks, nothing more. The region is still beautiful in the fall, without the crazy throngs of tourists everywhere. I spent a lovely week there during the Huelva film festival in November. I […]
Nothing beats that old world charm of Europe with its majestic ancient buildings and museums full of wonders. I have many favorite places all over Europe. Here are some iconic images from some of them. When I think of Portugal holidays, unlike most travelers, I think of the bucolic relaxation of Sintra. In Spain, I´d […]
As soon as I saw the sunflower fields far as the eye could see, I knew we had entered Tuscany. No other place could be this beautiful, so green and inviting to all the pleasures of the world.
Whichever form of the paradise may fit your taste, the island of Ibiza, famous for its discos and pumping party scene, remains a paradise for all. An account of my trips and evolving perceptions of it from 1997 till today.
My Berlin is a Wendersness. It is an existential black and whiteness where Bono and Lou Reed are singing a song on streetcorners and Nick Cave is crooning hypnotic tunes in some run-down basement
I arrived in Paris on a charter plane from Ibiza after sunset one summer. I wanted films, interesting conversations about cinema and books, moonlight walks by the Seine, museums with fabulous art and everything the city had to offer.
Messina, Sicily is forever linked in my memory with a rather peculiar character I met there. To add to my list of " random people met on trips" meet Carlo.
The Greece I found; after a train to Bari and a ferry to Korfu, was different from Miller´s untrodden paradise. Still, I fell in love with it forever; I fell in love with its musical language, its delicious food, its people, its traditions, and the sheer beauty of its perfect little white towns overlooking the blue Aegean sea.
Formentera: once a hippie paradise, still a killer vacation spot
She would always speak of crystal-clear waters and untrodden paradise beaches, but, somehow, though we lived only a few kilometers away from the port of Sant Antoni in Ibiza, where one could take an inexpensive boat ride to the island, over 10 years went by before I saw Formentera with my own eyes.
Anyways, after this colorful ride, we were in Herculaneum. The differences with Pompeii are directly apparent on arrival. This is like looking at a whole city from above, only the roofs have been removed. Buildings here are much better preserved than in Pompeii, as Ercolano inhabitants were killed by the tremendous heat, and not by the ashes.
Herculaneum used to be a beach resort for rich Romans, so the ruins, located below ground level, are looking at an imaginary sea, as the water has long ago retired. Pompeii is huge, while Ercolano is rather manageable and, provided you have a good guide, you can get a pretty clear picture of it in one day.
It is very hard to connect the images of charming little Dubrovnik on the Dalmatian coast; with its cliffs overlooking blue seas and the perfect beige buildings with their orange roofs scattered across the hills, to Croatia´s violent past.
Making wine and building mansions hardly seem to be activities to carry out next to a time bomb like Vesubius, but, since this type of volcanoes can stay calm for a couple of thousand years, people tend to feel safe there, and so did I, as you can see in my video.
(Top photo by Kris de Curtis)
Venice is a labyrinth of canals. It is easy to get lost on its narrow meandering streets, no matter how many maps you are carrying. The good thing about Venice is that getting lost there is a bliss.
The Med is one of my favorite places on the planet. Since Europeans decided to switch to Euro and the dollar went downhill, European travel has become very expensive. Coming from Uruguay, some of the local prices seem outrageous, considering the exchange rate with the Uruguayan peso. In any case, I have been around the […]
I see Lisbon through your eyes I wanna live in Lisboa I want to walk across the bridge over your Tejo to find you there waiting for me to show me something to tell me stories of conquerors and ravens of magic birds and vinho verde When you sing for me driving in your car […]
There are some places we fall in love with, even before we have even been there. Lisbon had been in my heart long before I met the wonderful person who would lure me into its dreamlike world.
One place I will never tire of seeing in Rome is the iconic, if anything was ever iconic, Trevi Fountain. Eversince Anita Ekberg dipped her feet in the fountain´s green waters in Fellini´s “La Dolce Vita”, everyone who comes to Rome wants to see the place.
The Wander Life The Wander Life is a blog from the heart. Over the next weeks, months, and, who knows? maybe years, I will unveil the tales of my travels to all the corners of the world. It is my wish to make you travel with me. Wandering is something that can be done with […]
