Midway through Anton Chekhov’s first trip to Western Europe, after he’d been blown away by Venice, pictured above, he started to get a case of homesickness. I immediately recognized this as “that mid-trip feeling”. “I’ve seen everything and dragged myself everywhere I was ordered,” Chekhov wrote in a letter home. “When I was offered something [...]
Archive for the ‘Geographies’ Category
Chekhov is Homesick – Perceptive Travel/USA Today
Posted in Alison's Portfolio, On History, Travel to Europe on April 6, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Chicago Hotel Stories – About.com
Posted in Alison's Portfolio, On Places & Travel, United States Travel on April 6, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Most travelers book one hotel per destination and stick with it. It’s certainly easier not to change hotels each night, but writers don’t always get to make the easy choices. (I know, I know, your tears of sympathy would fill Lake Michigan.) I stayed at three different hotels on my recent trip to Chicago. All [...]
The Joys of Chinglish – Perceptive Travel/USA Today
Posted in Alison's Portfolio, Asia Travel, On Places & Travel on March 15, 2012 | 1 Comment »
The small print says this: Welcome you to visit Mutianyu Great Wall. For your and others’ security, Please pay attention to the following items: 1. Please don’t carve arbitrarily on the Great Wall. Protect one brick and one stone consciously. 2. For your personal safety, Please don’t climb crenelated wall. 3. Please walk carefully on [...]
Is Travel Narrative Bullshit?
Posted in Alison's Portfolio, On Culture & Trends, On Places & Travel, On Writing and The Media, United States Travel on March 5, 2012 | 2 Comments »
Las Vegas, as a city, has long been a reliable creative irritant to the sensibilities of travel writers who work in a genre called “literary”, “narrative”, “nonfiction-creative”. The city’s shiny surfaces candy-shell over a variety of social cankers, plus real people live their lives there, and any of these conditions alone, or all of them [...]
Eat, Drink, Smoke in Denver – About.com
Posted in Alison's Portfolio, On Food & Drink, On Places & Travel, United States Travel on March 3, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
A new feature package on About.com which covers eating, dining and eating your smoke in Colorado: Craft Beer in Denver Denver Dining Picks Marijuana Edibles in Denver The Cruise Room at The Oxford Hotel Food Festivals in Colorado Ski Country The Westin Riverfront Resort & Spa in Beaver Creek
Canadian Honey — About.com
Posted in Alison's Portfolio, Canada Travel, On Food & Drink, On Places & Travel on February 3, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Honey, slowly spooned into a bar glass — could there be anything quite so lovely? From my perch at the pounded metal bar at TOCA at the Ritz Carlton, I could not think of a serious competitor for the beauty of that backlit pale amber syrup. While the smartly dressed clinched their coats and whooshed [...]
Hawaii – About.com, Perceptive Travel
Posted in Alison's Portfolio, On Places & Travel, Travel to Islands, United States Travel on February 1, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Sunset from the cottages at Travaasa, Hana, Maui, Hawaii, the Pacific Ocean, the United States. This was the last trip of 2011 for me, and it was a very good one. Many more stories are coming from this trip — in the works, a story of a mule that hated me, and a love affair [...]
Nothing to Envy: Some Thoughts
Posted in Asia Travel, Daybook, On Books, On History, On Places & Travel, On Politics, tagged books on January 4, 2012 | 1 Comment »
I read Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives of North Koreans over the holiday. It’s been on my list of books to buy for a long while, but it was only acquired during an early December raid on Powell’s — which turned out to be great timing because, unrelated, the death of Kim Jong-Il soon followed. [...]
The Politics of High Heels, a Romance with a Hat, and other Toronto Stories
Posted in Alison's Portfolio, Canada Travel, On Culture & Trends, On Design & Art, On Food & Drink, On History, On Places & Travel, On Politics on December 13, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
There’s still time for you to enter to win an all-expense paid to trip to Toronto. Perhaps you’ll want to pack a shoe trunk, like this one that’s on display at the Bata Shoe Museum? Or perhaps you’ll pack more sensibly. Either way, start planning by reading a selection of my recent Toronto stories: The [...]
36 Hours in Finger Lakes Wine Country, About.com
Posted in Alison's Portfolio, On Food & Drink, On Places & Travel, United States Travel on November 16, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
A food diary, from 36 hours in the Finger Lakes, mostly spent on Seneca Lake. I was especially excited to visit Finger Lakes Distilling, the birthplace of my favorite craft gin.
