What the… I’ve been back in the US for one year already? Holy crap! What happened to all that time? All I did was leave town seven times (four internationally), write four guidebook chapters for two countries, write nine travel magazine articles, write 55 buyer’s guides for MSN, write countless…

I’m often reverently described as a modern Renaissance Man, to which I always answer, ‘Damn straight, mom!” So in case any of you were curious about what the 2008 version of a Renaissance Man looks like, I present you with the following evidence. First, going straight to Renaissance Ground Zero,…

If you’ve been watching the election news coming from the US this past month, unsure whether or not the shenanigans you were hearing about vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin were true or just some silly political trash talking, I have some sad, horrifying news for you. Yes, it’s true that…

So as a few of you may have noticed, last week I went straight from being cloistered in my condo like a masturbating food critic to a balls-out invasion of NYC. Oh man, it was crazy. The parties, the half-naked flirting celebrities, people throwing money at me, it was completely…

Hello from New York City. I’m having a fantastically productive and enjoyable time trying to make the word a better place through literary genius and drinking excessive quantities of wine. I’m about eight working hours away from being done with the Romania and Moldova guidebook project that I’ve been picking…

There have been few moments in my life that I was more proud of myself than last week when I was denounced and attacked with unimaginative insults by Altermedia, Romania’s neo-Nazi online misinformation delivery vehicle. Having lost representation in Romania’s parliament due to their dwindling numbers (roughly 12), it seems…

At 10:30 the next morning, I was still full. In 38 years of enthusiastic binge-eating, that has never happened. Beware Fogo de Chão. Despite the absence of the usual morning void in my stomach, I was looking forward to my 11 o’clock brunch date at Cosmos inside the Graves 601…

You wouldn’t know it to look at them, but unicyclists are total badasses. These unassuming people, with careers ranging from engineers, to musicians to kindergarteners, have the athleticism of gymnasts, the fearlessness of suicidal ninjas and the indestructibility of a goat’s colon. I’ve always wanted to go into a room…

I woke up Friday morning, the first full day of my staycation, 10 minutes before the nice lady arrived to measure my windows for new blinds. Misinterpreting my raging cider hangover as naivety and my unconscious humming of Sha Na Na tunes as mild brain damage, the lady cunningly tried…

I view international travel as one of life’s greatest pleasures. I’ve visited over 40 countries, I’ve lived abroad, I speak Spanish, Romanian and Italian, and my epic passport was just commissioned to be re-printed as a coffee table book, with forwards written by Nelson Mandela and Bono. Just a few…