And what a jewel it is. Probably the best known Croatian city by Western culture, you dont have to blink twice to get it from the moment you first lay eyes on it. Just a few little facts as you peruse this gorgeous gem.. Dubrovnik was it’s own Republic for quite some time. It has an amazing storied history of both success and domination and war. Seems they all do in these parts. But this city is definitely different. It has always been successful city which is probably why so many have tried to get it, all the way up to the 90s seige by the Serbs and Montenegrans. But the city has thrived and survived and now it flourishes as much as ever. Our 4 hour ride down went through some amazing and beautiful coastlines and included the 10 kilometer sliver of Bosnia Herzegovina that you enter and exit. We … Read More

If you have ever been set up on a date… You know, THE DATE.. with the hottest, most popular, insanely sexy person you ever saw… and on top of it, you had checked out their profile, saw who they knew, checked out what kind of food and movies and music they liked, and on top of that, all your friends who knew the person said you were gonna love them… Well, there you go… welcome to our date with Croatia! Talk about serious expectations and options for letdowns. You just never know how someone is until after you’ve had a chance to spend some time with them in person. So for over 10 years Croatia has been on our bucket list ( seriously since Matt Lauer came here in 2005 on the Today show), but because of this or that, it just hasnt materialized. This trip was really about Croatia, … Read More

Just finished our first 24 hours in this spectacular metropolis. Truly this was a totally unexpected feeling. Out of EVERY new city we have visited in the world, Shanghai has evoked the BEST immediate reaction of them all. There is a feeling here that has transcended language and cultural differences to give us this incredible infusion of excitement. Of course this should not be that big a surprise as we love the big cities, but Shanghai appears to check all the boxes; from old school, to futuristic, to cultural, to accommodating international expectations. Almost makes me want to start learning Chinese…Almost, but I think Spanish for now will remain the focus. Took this picture a short moment ago while sitting on the Bund watching thousands of people stroll one of the greatest waterfront promenades in the world. Will be breaking the city down into different sections for future postings. The … Read More

All in all a successful trip to the capital of The People’s Republic. We finished our visit today with a continuous 6 hour walk through the city streets, touring a number of neighborhoods including the CBD ( downtown) and Sanlitun, a hip diverse neighborhood. Amazingly did not encounter a single rundown area, leading us only to believe, overall Beijing is quite well off as far as cities of 18 million go… We had a wonderful dinner with our friend Ray again tonight and tried to really get a feel from his perspective. After all, being a US citizen who comes home often, yet has lived here for 13 years, gives him a fantastic perspective of everyday life and living trends. I’ll wait till after Shanghai to make any tourist generalizations that we tourists like to do, but for now, let me say Beijing is worth the visit for many reasons. Our … Read More

Although a visit to the Great Wall was not the reason we came to China, it has been on the bucket list for a long time. If nothing else, when filling out those “Places I’ve visited” on FB, we get to check off another. No but seriously, since childhood, if there was a place in another country you heard of, The Great Wall has to rank right up there among the biggest. One thing that Tommy and I are both allergic to is endless tours full of filler stops and ” shopping opportunities”. So thanks to our friend Ray, we hired a private driver to take us there and bring us back. Fantastic experience! Our driver Sam spoke english and was able to answer my incessant random questions about everything we went by and just life in general. Biggest random takeaway was the fact that 15-20 years ago, these Audis, BMWs, … Read More

Beirut has far exceeded our expectations. We really had no idea it would be as warm, welcoming, and safe as it was. We went out of our way to start conversations with many people in an effort to get a more local outlook. No matter who they were, they all said the same thing. Beirut is safe to walk, low crime, and people are welcoming. The only true danger we felt was from the crazy drivers; and really, we are already conditioned by having Buenos Aires as our second home. We felt as comfortable here in the neighborhoods as many of the big cities we’ve traveled too ( Barcelona, London, Buenos Aires, Santiago, and Paris to name a few). Aside from some animated car honking and a waving of the hands in good middle eastern manner, we didn’t see any form of aggression. Maybe it just was that way for … Read More