There is something magical about Lake Michigan - it looks like the ocean, without the salt. I've swim in Lake Michigan my whole life - and it can be cold, and sometimes (though rarely) warm.
Sometimes in travel you meet a local who shares his soul with you, who paints evocative images of a place and time and invites you to see it too, even if only through words on a page. In January 2004, thanks to a kid selling pirated books on the streets of Hanoi, Vietnam, this happened to me.
I would never meet Bao Ninh in person. But through his first novel, The Sorrow of War, I met him nonetheless. Born in 1952, Ninh served in the North Vietnamese army. Of the five hundred men in his brigade, only he and nine others survived the conflict.
"Che cosa hai mangiato per la prima colazione?" (What did you eat for breakfast?)
I don't know if this is a set-up for a joke - but all eyes eagerly await this answer, every time we are asked! With smiles growing as we start with "umm..cereal." Which is true I am a cereal lover, that and our daily cappuccino & fresh squeezed OJ.
Just over the hills from us & into Tuscany, in the tiny town of Montisi you can experience Italy like no other, flying high in the sky - hot air ballooning over the Tuscan hills!
One of our travel guides partners, Not For Tourists, has several unique offerings for travelers on their website this week. Check out the following highlights from their Philadelphia correspondents this week...
"Che cosa hai mangiato per la prima colazione?" (What did you eat for breakfast?)