Baedekerians Being Real.

Natalia Badger is swimming in an ice-cold Swiss lake, trying her hardest to beat her family to the enormous trampoline submerged in the middle. She reaches safety and catches her breath – only to be thrown off by her cousin a few moments later. She tries again. The whole family is laughing. This is summer.

"Traveling is my favorite thing in the world,” Badger said. “When I think about things that I want and the rich life that I want to live, it all revolves around places that I want to see and people that I want to meet…

Saturday - 11:15 a.m.

The comically ‘brat’ colored green Flix-bus pulled into the 31st Street Station right on time. We boarded our neon green chariot with only the clothes on our backs and one shared rucksack. With no planning in advance, eager to see where the weekend took us…

Bunnow, County Clare, is not where I was supposed to be. I needed to get the bus in Ennis to take me to the coastal town of Lahinch to surf on the temperate Irish shore. That Ennis bus was nearby, but I couldn’t say where. I got off at the wrong stop on the right bus. My phone was dying. The next bus to the coastal town was coming soon. I stood on the corner, the wrong corner, with my heavy backpack and an empty stomach under heavy, gray skies in between rainstorms. So, I started walking towards a roundabout bristling with signs. I walked on the curb, dodging cars, and reading posts that told me I was in the wrong place, but nothing more than that…

“It can be daunting, floating in the endless dark ocean with only the small beam from your flashlight to light the way. But the nighttime ocean is teeming with all sorts of life! I danced with an octopus, played flashlight tag with the tarpon, and watched as a green moray eel stalked its unsuspecting prey…”

I had no interest in visiting Glasgow outside of entirely self-indulgent purposes. There’s a song that I love called ‘Glasgow,’ by Catfish and the Bottlemen—it sounds like an ode to a person first, and a city second. I was missing my life in New York in a way I’d never missed anything before—the people first and the city second. If I was going to be in Scotland for a few days, I figured I would grant myself the pleasure of visiting…

The chaos and ghoulish excitement of Halloween has spread virally to Sleepy Hollow, filling the quaint streets with hundreds of visitors just as wild as the monsters they dress as. After a recent spike in popularity on social media this upstate town—just an hour's train ride north of Grand Central, best known for the legend of the Headless Horseman—has become an October bucket list destination…

On the cobblestone pavement are stranded cats with their paws slowly dragging, ready to find a small corner to rest. The cats might’ve had a long day of pondering through the streets of Istanbul, but not the people. Flashes of warm orange and sunny yellow lights throughout the streets hide that it's almost midnight…

You know you’re truly in a foreign place when the country smells different to you —when it swelters with layers unidentifiable to your virgin nose. It takes time to pick these layers apart. You must sit in them, let them seep into the fibers of your clothes, and explore the corners from which they’re drifting.…

I’ve heard from many that Shanghai was just like New York City – crowded, irreverent attitudes, pretentious, decadent, and, above all, alive. For me, having lived here my entire life, what defines NYC is its art, music, and overall creative culture. So, naturally, what I wondered most about Shanghai was – what was the art/music…

As national parks go, Pinnacles is not terribly big. This central California park spans just under 25,000 acres in the Gabilan Mountains. Despite its small stature, there is plenty to do. Visitors enjoy hiking, rock climbing, spelunking, and viewing local flora and fauna such as condors and wildflowers.…

I remember looking like a sloppy tourist that day. My hair was loose and tangled between the straps of my cross-body bag and camera. My Italian flag shirt was hanging off one shoulder. At any given moment, my eyes were covered either by my sunglasses or my lens. My mom and I stood in the…

San Francisco is home to one of the United States’ most tantalizing destinations for history buffs, thrill seekers and nature enthusiasts alike: Alcatraz Island. Located 1.5 miles offshore in the San Francisco Bay, this speck of land has served as a fortress, a Native American protest site, a…

Spending a semester studying abroad at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, every day was a new adventure. A chance to meet someone, try out various foods, experience a holiday or custom, and learn something about the culture of Israel. Luckily for me, there was one place in Jerusalem where I felt I could…

A slight chill hovers in the air over Montreal, even in early August. The stone streets are still damp in the mornings and have a kind of luster that doesn’t exist on city sidewalks. When it rains at night, the stones accentuate every trace of light from…

I remember my first cigarette in Prague. Hell, I remember my first 50 cigarettes. It was a warm night earlier this year and I’d just recently arrived to the city. After stumbling around as newcomers do, we ventured in to the Prague Beer Museum, just off Old Town Square. It was…

Roaming white goats and curving streams etched lines into the green mountain valleys like lines on the palms of our hands. I inhaled the crisp, clean mountain air, absorbing a rush of energy from the altitude and feeling as if I could float. It is said that everyone should visit the…

Fifteen miles outside of San Francisco, under the rusted red doorway of the Golden Gate and through the rainbow arch of the Waldo Tunnel, lies a little town of modest renown. It is a town that is a world unto itself: a Northern Californian micro-universe with an…

I get exhausted quickly when I weave my way through the center of Addis Ababa. My legs get sore, my tummy aches, and my eyes droop. Navigating the crowded streets, I am overwhelmed by the smell of feces. On my way from the bus stop, I pass a man balancing a head full of CDs…

A little after 2 p.m. on a Monday, I find myself floating drowsily toward an out-of-sight informational film and thinking, “God, I’m in love.” I’m in the visitor center of Austin, Texas – a place that’s all wood and bolts, most of which have been fastened into the shape of the…