The Mystery of Bulgaria

For a dose of the red tape and helter-skelter services that plague post-communist Europe, head for Bulgaria. The average pack-a-day smoker could outrun a Bulgarian train, and maps seem to be drawn by an astigmatic drunk. Travelers risk a $200 fine for failing to fill...

Risky Business

“You come one? Bravo! Bravissimo!” the old woman said when I checked into the Malyovitza lodge. I had traveled all day on Bulgaria’s winding country roads to reach this small resort town in the Rila mountains. Sofia, Bulgaria’s capitol city, is a...

Red Rock Nation

OUR TIRES KICK up red dust from the dirt road as Arizona’s manicured world of golf courses and strip malls recedes in the mirror and my memory. A flock of sheep, bells tinkling, tiptoes into the road as a Navajo grandmother herds them across. As I look left, the...

Postcards from the North

“How delightful it is, and how it makes one’s pulses bound to get back into this reviving northland wilderness! How truly wild it is, and how joyously one’s heart responds to the welcome it gives, its waters and mountains shining and glowing like...

Lost in Las Vegas

IT’S THE OLD chicken-and-egg question: Are people fat because they come to Las Vegas, or do they come to Vegas because they’re fat? The other conundrum that plagues me in Sin City: Why am I here? More precisely, why am I — who does not like to drink...