Climbing Mount Kinabalu: overcome with good fortune

Climbing Mount Kinabalu: overcome with good fortune

For a few years in my early twenties, I worked for a travel agency and had access to travel brochures and guidebooks galore. The term ‘bucket list’ didn’t cross my mind but during that time I compiled a lengthy one. Blackwater rafting the Waitomo caves, hiking to Everest base camp, diving in the Galapagos Islands, climbing Mount Kinabalu, taking a train across Australia, meeting the Masai Mara in Kenya, watching

Kronborg Castle, home to Hamlet and Holger the Dane

Kronborg Castle, home to Hamlet and Holger the Dane

“If you can, stay a night in Helsingborg and cross over to Denmark to see Hamlet’s castle.” This came as advice from a friend about how to use my limited time in southwest Sweden. With a BFA in theatre who once had the nerdy high school habit of reading Shakespeare by candlelight, it’s hard to believe that the idea hadn’t occurred to me in the first place. It had been

Flåmsbana: The most beautiful train journey in the world?

Flåmsbana: The most beautiful train journey in the world?

With a change in elevation of 863 meters (2831 ft) over 20.2 km (12.6 mi), running between the end of a fjord and a small mountain town, Norway’s Flåmsbana makes for one scenic ride. The track passes multiple waterfalls, goes through 20 tunnels, across one bridge, and is doubled in only one spot so that trains traveling in opposite directions can pass one another. The rest of the way, there’s

A Hike up Preikestolen

A Hike up Preikestolen

Having spent more time outside of the U.S. than in it over the last 3 years, I’ve become accustomed to life without safety railings and liability waivers. If you’re crazy enough to hike along or stand atop a sheer cliff edge, then you should know that all could go terribly wrong and you’d have no one to blame but yourself. Or the person who knocks you over the edge when

Hiking in Namibia

Hiking in Namibia

“This can’t be right.” I’m pushing my way through grass so high there are seeds at the base of my neck. A moment before, I was certain I saw a path there but doubt is creeping in. Is it time to turn back? Shouldn’t the path be veering to the right to loop back? Didn’t the staff say this was an easy trail to follow? And what happened to the