Winter 2014

I hobbled out like a hungover sailor shaking out my sea legs. And there I was, in Dharamsala, India—a cluster of brightly colored restaurants and guesthouses all stacked up on top of each other like a patchwork quilt—something between a city and a village nestled on the green mountain ridges, a place in transit, a sanctuary for the homeless, the country-less. The street was packed with maroon-clad monks and dreadlocked, tattooed hippies, Tibetan seniors waving their canes at oncoming traffic as they tried to get to the Dalai Lama’s temple, and then the occasional dazed traveler.

“But young lady, do you not realize that there are miles and miles of beach and starfish all along it? You cannot possibly make a difference.” The young woman listened, paused and then bent down, picked up another starfish and threw it into the sea, saying, “It made a difference for that one.” —Loren Eiseley

Vibrant reds, indigo blues, goldenrod yellows, creamy whites, and earthy browns connect into wavy bands, angular diamonds, and terraced pyramids in sharp geometric detail. Working thread by thread, the weaver sits cross-legged in front of her loom. The vertical white, woolen warp strings are strung from a beam above, cascading gently to the slowly emerging patterns of color.

By Mary-Celeste Lewis

“I’d read in our guidebooks that Sipi Falls was beautiful, but nothing could have prepared me for the heart-stopping moment when I woke up after our late-night arrival to find that I’d been sleeping on a cliff, only a few hundred yards from the most expansive and beautiful green valley I’d ever seen.

Most countries take soccer―or football, as it is known in most nations―very seriously, and Brazil is no exception. This year, Brazil will host the world’s most renowned and important soccer competition: the FIFA World Cup. With five World Cup titles, Brazil stands as the number-one team in the world in terms of wins. The fierce competition that will no doubt come from the teams competing will be accompanied by fierce celebration among players and fans alike.

In 2008, Jodi Ettenberg of Montreal, Canada, made the drastic decision to take a year off of working as a lawyer in New York City to travel the world—an adventure that has yet to end. Five years later, she is still traveling and documenting her stories on her popular travel website (legalnomads.com). Ettenberg’s experiences and writing have allowed her to rethink what happiness means to her and to pursue a career as a travel writer. She has even published a book, The Food Traveler’s Handbook, on how to eat safe, inexpensive, tasty food while traveling. Stowaway caught up with Ettenberg between locations in India and Bangkok.

Thinking about the Germany of days past conjures up images of a lederhosen-wearing, beer-slinging, sausage-consuming folk. In Bavaria, the most southern of the German states, such scenes still pepper the countryside. Bavaria is also one of the most beautiful German states with its forests, rolling hills, and the Alps mountain range gracing its southernmost border. Capitalizing on Bavaria’s beauty, enterprising travel agents in post-war Germany created the Romantischestraße out of an old medieval trade route. Known in English as the Romantic Road, this highway stretches 221 miles through Bavaria and leads from Würzburg in the north to Füssen in the deep south.

Cheesesteaks exist as an edible symbol of the working class, a paragon of democratic virtues all stuffed inside an authentic Amoroso roll. Nothing makes a Philadelphian madder than a misrepresentation of the cheesesteak. So how can an avid hoagie-consuming tourist find a decent cheesesteak?

Although most people try to plan workouts into a trip, some tourists plan trips around their workouts. These competitors learn that athletic excursions can expose new ways to exercise—and new ways to travel. Whether it’s a weekend stop to participate in a race or a two-month vacation to bike across countries, destination athletes are finding ways to make exercise their motivation to travel and travel their motivation to exercise.

During one of the hottest and most humid months of the year in Bangkok, Thailand, Nikhita Bhatia sits in the back of a truck in heavy traffic while the merciless sun beats down upon her head. Beads of sweat slowly drip down the side of her face. As the truck comes to a brief stop, she is bombarded with buckets upon buckets of ice-cold water from the passengers in a neighboring truck, instantly cooling her down and giving her goose bumps from head to toe. But without missing a beat, Bhatia picks up her own water bucket, armed and ready to fire back.

“I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance than I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn.”—Henry David Thoreau

It’s tough to find a souvenir that encompasses the life-changing experiences, memorable people, and indescribable sights that only travel provides. A few Google searches before your trip will help you avoid on-the-spot thoughts like, Maybe I’ll just buy a snow globe or an “I love Moscow” T-shirt—even though both gifts were probably made 14 time zones away. Here are some tips for taking home a piece of the places you visit and eliminating the stress of souvenir shopping.

Walking into the restaurant, guests are immediately greeted with a whiff of onion, garlic, and cayenne pepper. Their ears fill with Louis Armstrong’s scatting. Dimly lit lamps tinted with vibrant colors hang low over the café-style seating. Guests might as well be in New Orleans—all that’s missing is the humidity.

Finding and paying for gas can consume time and money that could be better spent on hotels, food, and sightseeing. GasBuddy is a free app that helps travelers in the United States and Canada earn rewards and find the cheapest and closest gas stations so you can focus on your destination.