Have you ever felt like you’re on a movie set? That somehow you've been “beamed up by Scotty”? Just to be clear, I’m not a Trekkie – but that’s exactly how I felt as Will and I sat on bales of hay in a horse-drawn carriage driven by an enthusiastic coachman a few weeks ago. [...]
Am I crazy? I ask myself this question a lot and I keep getting the same answer… but I’ll let you decide. Here I am, sitting in a youth hostel in the middle of Serbia. What exactly is a youth hostel doing in a small Serbian farming village, you might ask? Fazekas Róbert, the town’s [...]
I had no clue what the Serbian reporter was asking me. Thank goodness Oscar was there to translate the conversation. I met Oscar earlier this spring on CouchSurfing.com when we couldn't find a pet-friendly place to stay in Serbia. While we weren't exactly in the market for a couch to sleep on, I thought the [...]
The view from our apartment balcony, looking toward the Old Town of Dubrovnik. George Bernard Shaw was enchanted by this beautiful city, about which he said, "Those who seek paradise on Earth should come to Dubrovnik and see Dubrovnik”. I spent almost three months in Croatia last winter and I distinctly remember stepping out of the shower one [...]
You know that old expression, “waking up on the wrong side of the bed”? Well, the other day I woke up instantly upset. I contemplated not even getting out of bed. And, truthfully, I didn't need to. Since I’m working from Europe, no one in the U.S. would have been up for hours. So if [...]
Getting ready for the first shot of the day – Stara Moravica, Serbia You may or may not know I’m a reality TV addict. It’s my guilty pleasure. And here’s the fun news. Recently, I moved from being “just a fan” to being an actual reality superstar! (Doing one episode does make me a superstar, [...]
Subotica, Serbia (photo: InSerbia News) I had no idea what they were saying, but I was happy. You know those moments when you stop and think to yourself, how did I wind up here? Of all the possible scenarios and different ways my life could go, I’d never have predicted I’d be sitting in a [...]
Who knew my journey from Budapest to Subotica recently would prove to be such a learning experience? From the first lunge of the train, to Andreas storming through my cabin, it was an interesting ride to say the least. The trip was probably the most surreal three hours of my life. From the moment Andreas [...]
“It sounds too pink.” I had no clue what she was talking about. And it seemed completely out of context for what I was trying to communicate. What did the color pink have to do with my commitment to empower the youth of the world? Or my observation that Eastern Europe’s youth were so talented [...]
Above the old city walls - Dubrovnik, Croatia You know those moments when you’re in the middle on a conversation and something big, something important, suddenly hits you? That happened to me earlier this year. We’re all different, we know that. The world would be boring if we were all the same, right? But think of it [...]
This piece of art hangs on our living room wall over the sofa in Budapest I’m usually less than excited to receive any kind of marketing email in my Inbox. But one day, the subject “Seeing through Confusion” grabbed my attention. It might have had something to do with the fact that I actually was [...]
“We go in there to sign the papers and exchange the money,” Andrea, our interpreter, said. What? Where? In a bar? I was confused. We’d parked across the street from the municipality building in Bačka Topola, the capital for the region where we were buying our Serbian farmhouse (or as the previous owners called it, [...]
