Just back from a weeklong drive around Finland. Maitohorsma is in full bloom all over Finland, and the scenery is incredibly pretty, although a bit repetitive. Trees, trees and a whole lot more trees, dotted with lakes and more lakes. One of the biggest challenges to traveling in Nordic countries is that in most smaller [...]

The region of Modena in Emilia Romagna is home to the alchemists who make gold out of musty grapes. I have been to Modena exactly once, spitted out from a slow commuter train, missing a vital connection back to the unlovely student summer apartment I shared with two Czech biznes student girls in a mildly [...]

Harlem is gentrifying like crazy. Crime is down, so brownstones are going, going, gone and craggy old warehouses are being converted to condos for yuppies as we speak. All this is so inevitable that of late even the crunchy socially conscious granola-eating, Subaru-driving community activist types on my block seem to have given up organizing [...]

It’s good to back in New York. My New York, the unsung Uptown, where I’m enveloped by the golden vowels of Antillean Spanish and the throb of bachata and reggaetón from passing cars. The ribbon of park along Riverside where strangers smile and greet each other every morning. Bodegas where air fresheners are so strong [...]

When visiting New York before Christmas, my cousin Thomas brought us authentic Nürnberger Lebkuchen. Lots and lots of them, in fact ;) Today, I realized that although the holidays are long gone, the last three of those German Christmas cookies were still lingering in the cupboard. I am by no means a sports fan, but [...]