Old cemetery in Prague’s Jewish Quarter[/caption]Its my junior year of college, and while my peers are headed to party in Amsterdam, or find their soul-mates in some handsome young Italian, I find myself bound for Prague. Curiosity got the best of me, so there I was off to explore in the land of Kafka, Dvorak, and Pilsner beer.   Designed to give students a broad cultural, political and historical view of Czechoslovakia, the gem in this course load would be History: A Personal Perspective. This elective came highly recommended and taught by 90 year old professor, […]

The post Terezin appeared first on Dave's Travel Corner.

It was sometime in early 2011. I was having a chat with a couple of friends centered on a quote from the Tom Cruise starrer ‘Knight and Day’. Not exactly the kind of movie to throw up quotes worthy of discussion or much thought. But surprisingly, it did have one particularly special quote– moving, thought-provoking, enigmatic and slightly frightening if I may say so. “Someday. That’s a dangerous word. It’s really just a code for ‘never’. “ So many of our dreams and desires revolve around the distant but sweet […]

The post ‘Someday’ – When Europe called appeared first on Dave's Travel Corner.

Freshly off a sweltering, barely-running bus, I’m poised at the entrance to Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, or as it’s known to most visitors, S21. This was a former schoolhouse turned torture prison from 1975-79 during the Khmer Rouge’s notoriously brutal, merciless, yet hasty, reign of Cambodia. I hand over the small entrance fee, and am instantly clouted by the deceptively pleasant grounds. Aromas of freshly planted flowers punctuate the insane humidity. The recognizable deep green flora of South East Asia acted as a remarkable foreground to what looked like, essentially, a […]

The post Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, Cambodia- What to Expect appeared first on Dave's Travel Corner.

Wine, camera, action! Luscious wines and innovative independent movies in enticing venues on a gorgeous fall weekend in the Napa Valley? The Napa Valley Film Festival gets two thumbs up from my husband (“Mr. TWS”) and me! As film buffs and wine enthusiasts with a special affection for Northern California wine country, Mr. TWS and I indulged our senses at the third annual (but our first) Napa Valley Film Festival, which ran from November 13 – 17, 2013. Setting the scene Napa is beautiful any time of the year but the […]

The post On Location at the Napa Valley Film Festival appeared first on Dave's Travel Corner.

Krakow is a significant cultural and historical center; there is much to see in and around the city. A visit to Auschwitz requires a full day, including the main camp and then minutes away by a free shuttle, Auschwitz II-Birkenau. During the hours of 10-3pm you must pay to join a guided tour (given in a variety of languages). Human genocides do not get any bigger than this and a visit here is a solemn and moving experience. Exhibits showing huge piles of shoes, suitcases, shaving materials and human hair […]

The post Visiting Auschwitz, Krakow Poland appeared first on Dave's Travel Corner.

(MAY 2010) – Over 2,600 American volunteers are credited for helping write a prosperous new chapter for Polish students through an innovative English teaching program. Working in service teams of 10 to 15, for two or three weeks at a time, volunteers from states across the nation lent their conversational skills to rural classrooms in central and southern Poland out of friendship. Siedlce Governor Zygmunt Wielogorski wants the country to know thousands of Polish children and young adults speak English now because of the American volunteers, and their futures are […]

The post Polish People-to-People Partnership Celebrates American Roots and a 20-Year Run appeared first on Dave's Travel Corner.