On Thursday, September 18, 2014, Scotland will vote on whether to declare independence from the United Kingdom. As an American of English, Scottish and Irish ancestry, I have been following the debate. I’ve never...
You don’t often hear people talk about the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, at least not here in America. But even though the United States was not a direct party to this pact, the Treaty of...
You’ve never seen London Bridge, even if you grew up in London. You may have seen a bridge called “London Bridge”, but it’s not the famous bridge of verse and song. The real London...
Borders can cause a lot of problems. I’ve already talked about how shifting rivers can create odd little enclaves on the landscape. But borders can be tricky even when there aren’t rivers involved. This...
If you’ve ever been to Barcelona, you might know that they don’t speak Spanish. It comes as a shock to many first-time tourists, but the language spoken in Barcelona isn’t Spanish. It’s Catalan. I’ve...
It was my first day in Spain. After an unexpected date, I met up with my friends and we checked into our hostel. After dropping off our luggage, we took a walk around the...
Jamie and I got off the subway and walked back above ground. I was expecting a large expanse of grass, but instead I saw a dense urban streetscape. “I thought you said we were...
I once had an unexpected date in Madrid. It started when I got to Barajas Airport six hours before my friends did. It was a long time to wait, so I decided to check...
Have you ever visited the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona? The Sagrada Familia is my favorite building in the world. As the masterpiece of the eccentric architect Antoni Gaudí, this church has a look unlike...
