Our man Anton lives at the pace of a cruising bike in the grand city of London England. There is something special about the pace of a free-wheeling bicycle – it allows you to float past the riff-raff, watching life roll by, almost unseen. The bike, since its invention, has barely evolved, a perfect invention […]
Much like on Route 66, prior to the days of interstate highways and big service centres, when travelers found food and gas at roadside stands, in South Africa you stop at the farmstall. These little snippets of nostalgia are a step back in time and a delight to visit. Farmstalls are generally family-run businesses set […]
There was a time period at the end of the 70’s, when rock and roll belched up 15 minute ballads sticky with hairspray, and the efficiency of a 2-4 beat and counterculture got lost in the woods and egos of stadium shows. We ended up with “Paradise By The Dashboard Light”. Fortunately punk rock and […]
Located in one of the sunniest parts of the French Alps, the small town of Barcelonnette (not to be confused with Barcelona in Spain) is home to almost 3000 souls. Barcelonnette is not only a friendly family ski town known to every ski enthusiast in the South of France (only 3h away from Marseille), it […]
A few months ago, when there were still leaves on the trees and the temperatures hadn’t yet dipped below the freezing mark, my friend Susanne joined me on a research dig around the often overlooked country of Slovenia. Together we spent ten days roaming the land and trying to absorb as much as possible. While […]
I’ve freshly returned from Havana where I spent time as an ordinary traveler. A trip on my own time, on my own dime, of my own curiosity. I boarded the plane wide-eyed, and with dance shoes and dusty Spanish in tow. I’ve been fascinated by the dance/music of Rumba, Son, Salsa, Casino Rueda for some […]
Modern beasts made from steel that hurl their futuristic shape from city to city at great speed, or rather rundown carriers of nostalgia that crisscross the countryside at a snail’s pace: trains. Manmade machines on tracks. I love them all. I’ve always had a great fondness for this quintessential way of getting from A to […]
The first stanza of Federico Garcia Lorca’s poem ‘Romance Sonámbulo‘ (‘Sleepwalking Romance’) translates: Green, how I want you green Green wind, green branches The boat out on the sea The horse on the mountain Written by the 20th century Spanish poet, the poem was arguably inspired by a European landscape and context, an azure Mediterranean sea and […]
Namibia delivers wide open spaces in a way that few other places on earth can. Dominated by a massive and ancient desert, the dominant image in people’s mind seems to be landscapes of unchanging and endless sand. While it’s true that there is a lot of sand (and I do mean a lot – I […]
Matt McClune, coffee roaster extraordinaire at St Romain Coffee Co. in Burgundy’s Côte de Beaune, approaches all his projects in life with an untiring conviction that everything benefits from more thought, more attention and more deliberation. I should know this, because I’m in a village rock band with him (we trademarked the musical genre of […]
Drop it like it’s hot, peoples – pick up them vibes, grab a wishbone, call a friend and celebrate thanks. We figured we could all use the funk to soak up some of that gravy. Here are 45 minutes of funk, rock, soul, jazz, all loosely based on the theme of that holiday we all […]
To travel is to hold smelling salts to our senses, to go wide-eyed, to become hyper observant, run on sheer curiosity. I dive into a research trip scanning for the beauty, the stories, the connections between where I am now and other places I’ve been. I pick a local caffè to hear the morning gossip […]
Here’s the thing about cider (or hard cider); it’s incredibly simple to make and anyone can do it. I have been consistently making average to disappointing cider for the last five years, but that’s not the point. You don’t need any special equipment or ingredients other than apples. You crush them, squeeze them and then […]
Lately I’ve been on the search for the perfect beach, and not because I particularly love beaches. But because I enjoy travelling with my kids, and a good beach is an ace in the hole. Grab a bucket and shovel, and the sand can bring endless hours of creativity and fun. And swimming in warm […]
Imagine Captain Cook’s surprise when, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, he stumbled upon the Hawaiian archipelago and found a thriving civilization. These Polynesian pioneers who would have sailed more than 4,000km from Tahiti, weren’t descendents of some 10th-century version of Castaway or Giligan’s Island. The Professor was clever enough but no one on […]
Ibitipoca. Tough to pronounce; hard to get to; but well worth the effort. Here goes: Ibitipoca is pronounced “ee-bitch-ee-pokah” (sounds like a palavrão I know). But it actually comes from the indigenous Tupi-guarani language in which “ybytyra” = mountain, and “pok” = burst, a combination of words the natives used to describe the intense roaring […]