I have a love/hate relationship with staying in hostels.  I’ve finally come to terms with the fact that I tend to be 12 to 17 years older than most of my hostel-mates.  Hearing stories about spring breaks, or worse, their recent prom, has finally stopped giving me little embolisms.  What’s…

Nothing I can say will beat the picture, so let’s get that out of the way. Geeks, if you’re worth your weight in 10 point broad swords, you should immediately recognize the device on the Pettersen dinning room table. For those of you with recurrent sex lives, I’ll spell it…

I leave for Paris tomorrow.  I’ll do two weeks of mild, worry-free travel in France and Italy – areas I’ve been through before – and then I’ll move into a ground floor, furnished apartment on Sardinia right on the beach, where I’ll edit for four months, as a 19 year…

I kid you not.  I was in shorts just this weekend and this morning I wake up to snow!  It’s October 12th for chrissake! You may be thinking, “Yes, but Leif, you’re in Minnesota.  Derr!  These things happen.  Hasn’t 24 hour darkness set in already?  Don’t polar bears forage for…

Was there a full moon last week?  I don’t mean just one day, I’m talking the whole of last week.  Or maybe there was a once-every-million-years wacky planet alignment?  Did anybody notice if the stars rotated into a formation, forming the words “send Leif stuff, so he has to work…

Rumor has it that patience is a virtue.  Whatever jackhole said that wasn’t waiting to hear back on their book deal. Yes, it’s out there.  I may have a book deal some time soon.  Or later.  Or maybe never.  Such is the unending complexity of the publishing world and why…

I had my very first Travel Writer Rock Star Moment recently, which is similar to a genuine Rock Star Moment except there’s slightly less ear-piercing screaming, clothes and locks of hair being torn off and running for one’s life, escaping in a waiting limo with Kate Moss drunk in the…

Did I mention that I was being flown from Paris to San Francisco to attend a Lonely Planet author workshop where I’d indulge in free food and wine and be fawned over by colleagues and groupies?  Well, obviously I’ve mentioned it, but have I mention it recently? So yeah, after…

Paris was everything I’d anticipated and more. In three days, I spent nearly $200 in food and drink, gained about five pounds and took innumerable pictures of quintessential Parisian scenery like the snap below. Now before you fly off the handle and write your congressperson condemning me for being a…

Speaking of syndromes, I personally suffer from a number of maladies (real or imagined depends entirely on the eye of the beholder), a large number of which were invented/identified by me, exclusively for me, and anyone else referencing them or suffering from them is required to cough up royalties. I…