53 articles found
Georgia's Street Cats: The Beloved Felines of Tbilisi and Beyond
Walk through Tbilisi's Old Town long enough and you'll notice them, they will be lounging on sun-warmed stone walls, drifting between café chairs, sitting in the doorways of ancient churches. Georgia's street cats are not strays in the ordinary sen...
Micronesian Culture: Ancient Traditions, Stone Money, and Island Life in the Pacific
The Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) — comprising the four island states of Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei, and Kosrae — is a nation of 607 islands spread across more than 2.6 million km² of the western Pacific. Each state maintains its own distinct langu...
What It's Actually Like to Be an American Walking Around Iran: Culture Shock, Hospitality, and Everything In Between
You land in Tehran. You walk out of the airport into a country where Western travel advisories urge extreme caution, where geopolitical headlines depict perpetual tension, and where government propaganda murals adorn city walls. You're nervous. Yet...
Estonia: 7 Things That Might Surprise You
Estonia is easy to overlook since it is a small, northern Baltic country, tucked between Latvia and the Gulf of Finland. Estonia is, however, a destination that has something for everyone. It's a wonderful mix of history, nature, and modern convenien...
Cuban Culture: Music, Art, and the People Who Make Cuba Unforgettable
Ask anyone who's been to Cuba what they remember most, and the answer is almost never a beach. It's the music pouring from a doorway at 2 p.m. on a Tuesday. The old man rolling a cigar who tells you his life story in rapid Spanish. The couple dancing...
Puerto Ricans: Who Are They and How Do They Feel About Americans?
Puerto Ricans call themselves Boricuas — from Boriquén, the name the Taíno Indigenous people gave to the island. It is a term of deep cultural pride, used in music, in political speech, in everyday conversation. When Bad Bunny performs at the Super B...
Tajikistan: 10 Facts You Didn't Know About the Roof of the World
Tajikistan is located between Afghanistan, China, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, and is one of the least-visited and least-understood countries on Earth. It is a land of towering peaks, ancient Persian culture, and one of the world's greatest road trips....
Kevin Costner and Colorado: Why the Yellowstone Star Keeps Coming Back to the Centennial State
Kevin Costner has spent four decades building one of Hollywood's most distinctive careers, from Bull Durham and Field of Dreams to Dances with Wolves and the global phenomenon Yellowstone. Throughout it all, one thread has remained constant: a deep, ...
The Tuareg People of Algeria: Meeting the Blue Men of the Sahara
If there's one experience that defines travel in Algeria's deep south, it's encountering the Tuareg — the Amazigh nomadic people who have crisscrossed the Sahara for millennia. Known as the "Blue Men" for the indigo dye of their traditional robes tha...
The Real Story Behind Budweiser: Did the American Beer Steal Its Name from the Czech Republic?
Walk into any bar in the Czech city of České Budějovice — known in German as Budweis — and order a Budweiser. You'll get a crisp, full-bodied Czech lager that has been brewed here since 1895. It has nothing to do with the American beer you might know...
What Does 'Poor' Mean in Luxembourg? Wealth, Inequality, and the Reality of Europe's Richest Country
Luxembourg has the highest GDP per capita of any European Union member state - approximately €125,000–140,000 per capita, roughly four times the EU average and about twice Germany or France. It is a country of 680,000 people on 2,586 km² (slightly ...
Uri, Switzerland: The Country's Most Historic Canton and Gateway to the Alps
Switzerland has 26 cantons, and most international tourists visit a handful: Geneva, Zürich, Lucerne, the Bernese Oberland, Zermatt and the Matterhorn. Uri - the small, largely German-speaking canton at the center of the country, around the southern ...