Throw a cat in the air, it will always land on its feet. But what happens when a cat lands on water? I’m that cat in the water. I’ve realized since moving to Spain, no amount of freestyle will keep me afloat when learning the language. Turns out, it...

Singapore is a melting pot of culture, a happy marriage of East and West, roaring with unfathomable energy and a new sense of identity.   From the balmy Friday afternoon rush hour, the occasional tropical breeze whiffs in gently. A welcome relief as I walked, dripping in sweat, along the bustling...

Bulgaria's capital is a city steeped in a layered past, a contemporary urban cool with its sights firmly set on the future.   A t magic hour, when cotton clouds roll in and drape a cool shade over the land below, a girl lights a candle at the St. Nedelya Cathedral. Military...

Famous for its cuisine, medieval ramparts, and opera, Lucca is Tuscany's best-kept secret that makes for a different kind of Italian drama.   A ugust is coming to a close in Lucca, a masterfully preserved medieval Italian city situated some 50 kilometers to the west of Florence and a short 15-minute drive...

Hamburg - part grit and part chic, why this German city of the north keeps on surprising.   It was August, and the world smelled of roses – of dreams – of summer. When Ted Macauley first visited Hamburg in 1970, a decade had passed since the Beatles performed live in August...

Vienna was Freud's perfect place for his theories on the human psyche. Austria's pulsating capital can also be every traveler's waking dream and art aficionado's nirvana.   Otto Ernst Wiesenthal does not need a palace. He is happy in his thriving cosmos in Vienna’s 7th district, not far from the former...

While the temptation of regenerative treatments flow abundantly in the Austrian Alps, visitors look the other way and seek out a new kind of healing.   At age 68, with a voluminous coif in a shade reminiscent of a melting snow, Ike Ikrath is overflowing with energy. So much so that...

It’s the scruffiness that turns you off. It’s the realness that turns you on. ‘Berlin ist arm, aber sexy’ as the saying goes, which translates to ‘Berlin is poor but sexy'—and if there’s a neighborhood that best represents that idea, it’s Kreuzberg.   Throughout the years of self-shame and retrospection, Berlin...

Malaysia’s storied capital is teeming with contrast - from its jarring mix of ethnicities, cultures as well as beliefs all adding to its irresistible charm and intrigue.   The early morning call from the muezzin at the nearby Masjid Negara, Malaysia’s national mosque in downtown Kuala Lumpur reverberated in the silence...

Postcard-perfect Lisbon with its dramatic scenes and slopping terrains, there's no better place to experience all that Portugal has to offer than its capital.   Lisbon is in no hurry. It takes its time. The city wakes up when it wants to and sleeps only when it needs to. Slow. Like the...