Top Spot Travel

August 2, 2012 by jfalbelda

My Weirdest Travel Experience: The Black and Kenyan White Supremacist

Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya

The Following is a guest post from Will Wolf

I’m about 7 months into a 2-year round-the-world trip, and to date, I’ve done and seen a couple of things. I’ve line-danced through gypsy parties in Buenos Aires, almost drowned in Class-5 Nile River in Uganda, and paid a man named Mohammed to dig Abdullah and I’s SUV out of the dunes of the Dubai desert. I’ve still got quite a bit of traveling left to do, but if and when it is all over, the people will have questions–superlative questions. When it’s all over, they’ll ask me things like: “What’s the best thing you did?” “What was your favorite country?” “What’s your craaaziest story?” “How many times did you think you were going to die?!”

So far, I don’t have many answers–there’s much more travel to go. However, there is one question to which I do believe I have the answer–one bout of utter bizarreness and confusion which will likely not be bested. After 7 months of travel, here is the single weirdest thing that has happened to me. Continue reading →

July 27, 2012 by jfalbelda

The Route to My Roots

This is a guest post from one of my favorite people, my Aunt Randy. She not only loves travel, she loves going cool and off-the-beaten places, like this past month when she headed to the town in Spain where we think our family might have come as our last name is the same. Check out her adventure to find the elusive, speck-on-a-map town of Albelda, Spain.

My name is Randy Albelda. Not only am I Jeremy’s aunt, I am also the family historian at this point. My parents were born in Bulgaria and were Sephardic Jews — meaning that their ancestors came from Spain at around the time of the Spanish Inquisition (the late 1400s/early 1500s). That was when the Spaniards brutally expelled their Jews and Muslims. Bulgaria was a likely spot for Sephardic Jews to end up by the mid 1900s since it had once been a part of the Ottoman Empire that welcomed wandering Continue reading →

July 23, 2012 by jfalbelda

Travel Bliss in Prague

The following is a guest post from D.S. Amar. She writes about one of those experiences she had abroad that all of us perpetual nomads long for and feed off of – pure in-the-moment travel bliss.

A disappointing sign on the door read: Otevreno: 19:00/Zavreno: 24:00. My limited Czech did not hinder my understanding that we were simply too late; it was 23:55 after all. But outside the cold numbed my face and I was desperate to get into the warmth, and though iron shutters covered the windows and the door told us to go home, I opened it anyway. I had been here once for coffee and small talk during the first few blurry nights in this new country, but it was blurry and I was so new. This time I was really there.

Walking in together to hear the familiar sounds of Bob Dylan lilting throughout the spacious room, my friend and I immediately felt grateful for our spontaneous decision to come to Shakespeare & Sons. It is a quaint bar and bookshop hidden between boring buildings a few blocks from our dorm on Machova. “Tambourine Man” filled the space with rhythm and even more soul. The music did not fade into the background, as it sometimes must, it resonated and passed through the lips of the people standing around, between sips and smiles. Continue reading →

July 18, 2012 by jfalbelda

Knife Wielding Rapists in Turkey: My Craziest Travel Experience

I’m no stranger to the hostel. Although I’m pushing a quarter century in the next couple of weeks, I still find hostels to be one of the best places to stay as a solo traveler, maybe just more in a private room these days than in the past.

My craziest travel experience begins where east meets west, in the ancient city of Istanbul, Turkey. I decided to make the 10 hour flight from Miami as it was always one of those places on my travel bucket list that has intrigued and attracted me.

My arrival into Atatürk International Airport was flawless and my first couple of days were great, but it’s when I decided to check into the Moon Star Hostel in the Sultanahmet neighborhood (right behind the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sofia) that things began to get weird, crazy and at the end scary. Continue reading →

July 14, 2012 by jfalbelda

Top 5 Most Expensive Hotel Suites in The World

Nothing says “Welcome to the good life” like splurging on a baller hotel room. The following mini palaces offer adorned, immaculate interiors, high tech creature comforts, fully stocked bars, jaw-dropping views and service that will make even cutting your own food a preposterous proposition. Check out five of the most expensive hotel suites in the world! Continue reading →