A day in Granada with tinto de verano

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When I told my friend Cristina that Lauren and I would be visiting Spain, she got very excited, telling us that we had to visit Granada, the Alhambra, and drink lots of tinto veranos. During her semester-long study-abroad program, she…

Summer ghost towns of southern Spain

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In the Real Alcázar gardens | Art by Todd Berman We’ve found that half of Spain is on vacation, and another one-quarter of it is under construction. After an overnight stopover in Córdoba – where we wandered amongst poorly lit…

Strolling the streets of Fes

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Outside Fes’ Medina | Art by Todd Berman As soon as the sun sets, everyone in Fes takes to the streets for a walk along the wide roads through Ville Nouvelle, or New Town. They’ve eaten at home already, or…

Riding the camel train

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Humping through the Sahara, Morocco | Art by Todd Berman Riding a camel through the parched Sahara dunes is like riding a mechanical bull that has a banana seat, though a bull that moves in slow motion. Your one-humped ride…

The post-apocalyptic streets of Casablanca

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Mosquee Hassan II, Casablanca, Morocco | Art by Todd Berman All advice said “Get out of Casa as soon as you get in.” It wasn’t that bad, but it didn’t offer much beyond decaying Colonial and art deco architecture and…

In Brooklyn, Big Dawg is king

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Waiting for Food in Red Hook | Drawing by Todd Berman As a gravelly, authoritative disembodied voice boomed out over the loudspeakers, the hundreds of Brooklynites swimming at Red Hook public pool fell silent. “Big Dawg sez yous got two…

Chi-town’s abundant meat tubes

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Wrigley, Cubs 3, San Francisco Giants 1 | Art by Todd Berman Much love from Chi-town, home of abundant meat-tubes, be they bratwurst, hot dogs, or polish sausages – they are served with love.

PhaNam cheesesteak fusion in Philadelphia

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Philly Fusion | Photo by Lauren Girardin There is a genius at work on the border of Philadelphia’s Chinatown and Old City. I wish I’d been hungry enough to eat at Cafe 900 where the signature sandwich of Philly has…

A room without a view, my last day as a San Francisco substitute teacher

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Mike in Summer School | Art by Todd Berman I’m writing these words in pencil, old-skool style, sitting in a windowless room in a fog-shrouded building perched near the top of Twin Peaks. Throughout the next five hours I get…

Does God give hyphy dancing lessons?

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Art by Todd Berman Follow the travel advice in the pages of any Lonely Planet book, and you’ll have days filled with stunning architecture, charming landscapes, and museum after museum of iconic imagery. Yet, you’d be tracing the same thoroughly…