Turku and Helsinki: A Tale of Two Cities in a Young Republic By Sony Stark It isn’t everyday that a tired passenger steps off a cramped trans-Atlantic flight into a refreshing pool of frothy suds and cool mineral water. But saunas here are meant to decompress a stiff spine and marinate a sleepy head, especially […]
Smugglers’ Notch Has Everything a Skier Could Ask For By Sonja Stark It’s midnight and everyone is sound asleep to a beautiful cacophony of nocturnal creatures. Hard-working snowcats and snowmobiles are out in full force, dancing circles around steep pistes, whistling, rumbling and scraping up dreams for an eventful tomorrow at Smugglers’ Notch resort in […]
Greenland: Island of Melting Traditions By Sony Stark Greenlandic is an Inuit language that fewer than 60,000 people speak. It’s a language with a large lexicon of words influenced greatly by Greenland’s ever-changing weather patterns. For example; there are 49 words alone for snow and ice that most West Greenlandic people use to communicate. Before […]
Ancient Bones, Fine Wine and Fairy-Tale Castles “Racing around circular stone staircases and wooden tunnels atop the Bastille, envisioning heretics and horsemen attacking from the other side, that really struck a nerve in my travel soul.” by Sony Stark Unhurried pleasures and fairy-tale photography await you in Carcassone and the Languedoc-Roussillon region of Southern France. […]
By Sonja Stark Foreign travel fuels the soul and lights the imagination, and nowhere is this truer than in Lincolnshire, England. The Northeast is home to incredible secrets and romantic adventures. Lincolnshire Blue Badge Guide Vic Hughes sums it up nicely. “It’s the center of the universe… It’s absolutely one of the most exciting places […]
Argentina’s Iguassu Falls: Niagara’s Big Brother By Sonja S. Stark One hundred million years ago the product of a gigantic volcanic cataclysm created one of the world’s most beautiful sights in South America: Iguassu Falls. Straddled on the southern border between Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, Iguassu is a traveler’s favorite eco-destination. This place makes Niagara […]
By Sonja Stark Many reminisce fondly of their first trip to the world’s country music mecca known simply as “Music City”. Incorrigible vets like my own Dad wax poetically about dancing with Miss Kitty at Ryman Auditorium and raucous bar brawls in Printers’ Alley. “I bet you’re a honky-tonk-loving country music convert now!” Dad insists, […]
By Sony Stark The seasons are reversed in Argentina but that hasn’t stopped travelers from flocking to the fabled ‘Paris of the South’ or Buenos Aires. The devalued peso, good for us – bad for them, is burgeoning a whole new boom in travel destinations throughout the country. Wander aimlessly to the pulsating rhythms of […]
Montana’s Wildest Winter Resorts By Sonja Stark Moonlight Basin, Big Sky, Bridger Bowl and Red Lodge, in that order I braved the elements and skied my way through Montana’s wildest winter resorts, restaurants and races. My video camera did the lion’s share of the work capturing the charm and big-hearted spirit of some of the […]
Sonja Visits Vietnam By Sonja Stark Even though it’s a Communist country, modern day Vietnam welcomes tourism and capitalism and is flourishing under a blend of ultra-liberal economics and ultra-conservative politics. Sixty-five percent of Vietnam’s population is under the age of 30 and many are too young to remember, or don’t want to remember, how […]
Lives of the Dalits: Crushing Poverty and Inspiring Beauty By Sonja Stark Nobody warns you that when you visit India, your mind stretches and never returns to its original size. It’s happening to me now. I saw and did so much in such a short time the impact is just starting to take root. Crushing […]
Visiting the Untouchables of India – Page Three By Sony Stark Abhorrent Conditions I am mortified at the abhorrent conditions of the poor, but worse is trying to understand a culture that accepts it as retribution for past sins. The problem seems too overwhelming to fix, so Hinduism washes it all away as God’s will. […]
