Iceland’s Secret Swimming Pool in the Valley

This one wasn’t always in the guide books or on the tourist trail, but out there in the nowhere. Iceland’s oldest swimming pool, built into the mountainside in a narrow valley, has been gathering hot water trickling down from Eyjafjallajökull (I can’t pronounce it either) since it was constructed in 1923. Today it is abandoned and covered…

The Last Movie Palaces of Yesteryear

The glowing neon marquees with readerboards announcing weekly features, the box offices not manned by machines, the stage that could have just as easily been the setting for an opera as it could your Friday night film– these are things we can rarely expect from ‘movie night’ anymore. Above: Roxy, Northampton, Pennsylvania/ Below: Tampa, Tampa, Florida Before flicking through NetFlix takes over…

Living like Luke Skywalker

Star Wars films (pre-Disney) were a big part of my childhood growing up. My brother and I would watch them again and again, and then when we had friends over, we’d make them watch the films again too. When it came to writing college applications, my brother actually wrote his essay on Luke Skywalker (I…

Check in to the Most Beautiful Insane Asylum in the World

When you picture a mental asylum, this is probably not quite the image that pops up. Stark hallways and dungeon-like holding cells is what Hollywood has taught me to imagine, but over in the rolling hills of Tuscany, flying over the cuckoo’s nest was done in style once upon a time… Photographs (c) Alex Doomer Palatial grounds,…

Muscle Beach Girl, 1954

She was dubbed the “strongest seventh grader” in the world. In the mid-1950s, April Atkins was a regular at California’s muscle beach and routinely blew spectators away with her unbelievable strength and generally kicking strongmen’s butts. If you’re looking for a little motivation to tone up for summer, these photographs I dug up in the LIFE…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. CXXV)

1. The Cliff House Boasting the best views in San Francisco, this seven story Victorian mansion built in 1896 by Adolph Sutro, survived the 1906 earthquake but was destroyed by fire 1907, eleven years after being built. Four different variations of the Cliff House have now stood on the cliffs overlooking Seal Rocks, and it has held restaurants, dance halls, gift…

The Vault

The Clandestine VIP Dinner in Paris

I once heard this is where French Presidents take their mistresses. Discretely tucked away in a backstreet of South Pigalle, it doesn’t look like much from the outside, but I think that’s the idea. The windows are veiled with curtains hung just high enough so as not to give anything away about what or who is inside… Well,…

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So now you can Travel with your own Personal Photographer

Okay, I know, it might sound a little vain and pretentious at first, like something a fashion blogger might do. But hear me out… Who else has the problem when travelling as a couple, of only ending up with a few blurry selfies together after the trip of a lifetime? Or even worse, travelling with someone who can’t just live in the…

Solving My Mystery of the Arkansaw Travelers Saloon

I found this picture on Pinterest a while ago and it’s always struck me as a little odd. Was it a real bar? First I searched “Arkansas Travelers Saloon” and began finding dozens of other photographs of people posing in front of the same backdrops. That’s bizarre, I thought with narrowed eyes… But then today I found my answer, along…

The Notting Hill Pub with a Spicy Secret

If you’re looking for a traditional English pub with a twist, I think I have something for you. I grew up around the corner from this place, admiring the flowers passing by everyday, but I was always faithful to another local pub during my Londoner years and I never even went inside to discover its secret– until this weekend that…