Sigmund Freud, apfelstrudel and Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss clinched my decision to honeymoon in Vienna. When you think about it, psychology, food and art are not the worst foundation for a good marriage. Oh, and Before Sunrise, the movie where Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke spend a day in this romantic Austrian city falling in love. Famous for being the center of the Habsburg dynasty in the 15th century, Vienna used its newfound power for good, at … [Read more...]
Learn the Ropes to Cruise the Waterways of France
When I first went to Paris, I was struck by the beauty of this city. I was also amazed at how many boats I saw. Before I went I read about its history and about the things to see, food to taste and museums to visit. But being one who has spent a lot of time on boats, I was really surprised that I had not seen anything written about, or photos of, all the boats. Walking along the Seine I saw numerous vessels and wondered where they all came from. … [Read more...]
How to Brave the Budapest Baths
Spa guy John M. Edwards feels frigging fantastic! If you're in Magyarorstag (Hungary), do as the Daubians do: Say goodbye to "bliss" and splash around au Naturale in the "eau de vie" of a real thermal spa, with a Red Bull in Hand... When you first arrive in Budapest for both (clandestine) “business and pleasure”-- feeling like a dumb foreign doppelganger soaking with sweat and stinking of brimstone--say no to the Four Seasons Hotel showers and … [Read more...]
Cuisine Minceur: Eat, Pay, More
John M. Edwards explores the popular Foodie movement of “Cuisine Minceur” (small food), invented in Les Landes, France, wherein gullible gourmands counting calories get much less food for much more money. . . . I feel sorry for the people who use the term “FOODIE.” It is a term less about the ends justifying the means and more about just being mean. Whenever I hear the euphemism, I flinch involuntarily, as when your PC (“pretend … [Read more...]
Beirut in the Baltics
John M. Edwards is drawn into the Wild Wild East of “Europe Minor.” After the collapse of communism in the USSR, inflation in the freshly minted Baltic republics of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia rolled up the ruble into the cheapest toilet paper around, so I decided to go East and stock up. I needed a cheap place to wipe my ass because I was then unemployed, and an Orwellian year of freelancing in Paris had left me as restless … [Read more...]
The Secret of Happiness: London (UK)
On Shakespeare's "Sceptr'd Isle," in London, John M. Edwards is confronted by an Aggro Cockney near Hyde Park's Free-Speech Forum: "Speaker's Corner" I once came across a swarthy gentleman wearing a sign around his neck emblazoned with the words, “The Secret of Happiness." Obviously a palmed pound coin could loosen the red rascal’s lips. Even if the “secret” was passed down generation to generation by word of mouth within a Da Vinci … [Read more...]
Top 5 romantic things to do in Paris
Paris is one of the most beautiful and romantic cities in the world. The streets and monuments of this magical French city ooze romance. From beautiful gardens and poetic parks to world class restaurants and breathtaking panoramas, every couple enjoys the mesmerising beauty of this city. Needless to say, the time around Valentine’s Day is most popular for most couples, though you can visit this city throughout the year and enjoy the time of … [Read more...]
Brr-cold in Barbes-Rochechouart: Christmas in France
In Paris’s Muslim quarter, Barbés Rochechouart, John M. Edwards finds ho-hum Christmas cheer, but no champagne or beer. . . . Back when I lived in Paris, one of the most comically incongruous things I saw as a temporary expat was a pathetic Pere Noel with a guelle de bois (“face of wood” = hangover) peeing in the snow, with an excessively painful grin, on the legendary Boulevard St. Germain (namedropped ad infinitum in Hemingway’s elegy to the … [Read more...]
Lourdes on 25 Prayers a Day
The Lowdown on Tacky Souvenirs and Christian Kitsch - Hautes-Pyrenees France I think it was Goethe who said that the imagination was man’s “deadliest enemy,” but how could that be so when all of us have dreamed up so many fabulous places to visit, celebrity people to admire, and unique pleasures to seek out. Even so, nightmares notwithstanding, we are all vaguely astonished when legend becomes reality and we actually arrive in a place we … [Read more...]
Cap Juluca, Anguilla
Sitting on the most comfortable lounger ever, watching fat white clouds scuttling by in the seriously blue sky above Cap Juluca on the Caribbean island of Anguilla, I’m wondering why I’d ever want to get up. I suspect the rich and famous who visit here, like Liam Neeson, Denzel Washington, Jennifer Aniston and other cinematic superstars, don’t want to get up much either. This is one great beach, St. Maarten and St. Bart’s on … [Read more...]
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