“There are vampires. They are real, they are of our time, and they are here, close by, stalking us as we sleep…”- Bram Stoker, Dracula, 1897. The forest stirred to the sound of banging metal. Whomp. Whomp. Whomp....
YABLANITSA, Bulgaria— Three decades ago, no westerner could see this view. The Balkan Mountains lay before me. The sun, still lingering in the early summer air, cast a marigold glow as cool mists rose up from the valley below....
In 1828 Washington Irving arrived in the foothills of a forgotten Spanish city to an unimaginable sight. There, towering over the white washed, stucco houses of Granada, he laid eyes on the great, red walls of the Alhambra:...
“You’ve learned a lot in the past week. Now, we think it’s time you put that knowledge to use with one final test.” Rico, our guide, raised a glass. “You’re going to be making your own cosmo. None...
The bottle spun through the air headed straight for my head. I ducked just in time to see it shatter into a thousand brown pieces on the sidewalk behind me. Then the truck sped away. I left the...
The sun broke over the Baltic Sea in a soft, orange glow. Inside a beachside hotel room, I woke in a groggy blur. “What just happened?” An hour before sunset, the bus rolled to a stop at the...
I could hear the wave roaring towards be through the pool “Johnny Utah. Be Johnny Utah,” I told myself. After almost an hour of beatings, I’d taken enough punishment from the waves. Time after time, I’d paddled hopefully...
“This used to be a boys school. The headmaster was murdered here. That’s the legend anyways.” – Lynda, The Portcullis Hotel, Stirling Scotland. “Do you want to have a look?” The bar under Stirling Castle had been our...
A rusty rapier, a red guitar, and record collection lay strew about the chapel in various states of honor. A turntable sat on the pulpit, backed by an aging Led Zeppelin poster and belting the sounds of Pink...
I gasped as the car skirted the edge of Loch Ness. Leni looked over and cracked a joke, “Did you see the monster?” I wasn’t sure. For a second, I’d seen something through the trees. I know what...
