One of the best ways to spend a day in Rothenburg is shopping. I don’t even like shopping, yet Rothenburg is just so charming, welcoming and relaxed, that it imbues with joy even one of the most stressful and tedious [for me] activities. Tiny Rothenburg is a GREAT shopping destination. But you won’t find Prada or…
Moscow City is a ghost town on weekends. It also might very well be a ghost town on weekdays too – this skyscraper city known officially as the Moscow International Business Center has entered its third decade of development, and although a number of businesses have already moved in, the complex still has a “work…
If you have been losing sleep over how to get your hands on all those amazing Russian crafts I wrote about last week, fret no more. Izmaylovo Vernisazh to the rescue! Vernisazh (derived from French “Vernissage” or a preview for an art show) is Moscow’s, if not Russia’s, biggest and best known market for all…
What kind of souvenir would you want from Russia? If your preference runs more toward traditional crafts than Soviet paraphernalia, you will probably go for one of those wooden nesting dolls, or a bright babushka scarf. Almost anyone can conjure up the images of those two objects in their mind – that’s how strongly they’ve…
What? Maslenitsa (“butter week”) is a half-Christian, half-Slavic pagan celebration of the soon-to-come end of winter that takes place for a week before Lent. Think Mardi Gras, or carnivals of Rio de Janeiro and Venice, but instead of ball gowns, beads and nudity you get traditional Russian games, folk music and dance concerts, a lot…
Can Amsterdam be done as a day trip? Only if your day starts at 6 am and ends at midnight, or if your whole plan for the city involves a stop at a “coffee shop” and grabbing a beer along one of the canals. If you want to get more out of the Dutch capital,…
My awesome Crimean vacation had to end some time and then it was back to work — and back to Moscow. Contrary to popular assumptions about the discomforts of spending the summer in the city, there are some unexpected opportunities to be found in this experience, especially in Moscow. Last month I wrote about how…
One of my favorite things about the holiday season in New York is the unveiling of the window displays of Bergdorf Goodman, the poshest and fanciest of all the posh and fancy department stores in the world. Every December I would rearrange my post-work commute so that I could swing by the BG store on…
To date, I have lived in five wonderful cities: Moscow, New York, Washington DC, Paris and Madrid. This is my take on the best things to do, places to visit and treats to try in each of them. While this is not an exhaustive compilation by any means — and a rather subjective one at…
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