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Turkey: Religion and Politics

05/20/2012By Dallas Smith1Travel: Turkey
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Our Turkish tour guide, Mehmet, has a college degree in English literature. He spent his military service working as a translator. Obviously, his English language skills are outstanding. Having been a tourist guide for twenty years, he has visited these Turkish historical sites hundreds of times. Thus, he has refined his narratives over the years to be immensely content-rich, historically informative, and culturally aware. Therefore, besides my own reading and observations, much of the information I will recount in this blog is derived from what I've learned from Mehmet's daily cultural and historical descriptions.

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The Glory of Istanbul

05/16/2012By Dallas Smith1Travel: Turkey
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My Second Trip to Turkey. Istanbul has modernized beyond recognition in the forty-one years since my first visit. . .

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In Transit From Reno to Istanbul

05/13/2012By Dallas Smith1Travel: Turkey
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This is the first blog post of my current monthlong trip, comprised of a two-week Turkish tour, a few days in Jordan, and finally, ten days in Israel.

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Decadence: Wine Tasting in Las Vegas

05/06/2012By Dallas Smith3Travel: United States
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Throughout most of my adult life, I've lived relatively frugally. I don't indulge very often in expensive habits…Skiing is one. So it is pure decadent indulgence to fly down to Las Vegas for the Wine Spectator magazine's annual gourmet wine tasting. Indeed, this was a new life experience for me. I have my good friend Jeff to thank for the invitation and encouraging me to accompany him.

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Perspectives on Swedish Culture

04/14/2012By Dallas Smith0Travel: Sweden
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This blog post was written in April 2009, while on tour with my Swedish-Indian band, Mynta.

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Reflections on visiting Iceland

September 2009

04/14/2012By Dallas Smith0Travel: Iceland
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This blog was written in September, 2009, following my first and (up till now) only trip to Iceland.

We flew overnight via Iceland Air, leaving Minneapolis in the early evening, and arriving in the early morning after a six-hour flight. We rented a car for our island travels (which was very expensive--$560 for four days in a Subaru station wagon).

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Detroit: The Beautiful and the Ugly

04/13/2012By Dallas Smith0Travel: United States
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This essay was written in March 2008, with reflections on visiting Detroit and living in Reno, Nevada. Some images are included.

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Cruising the Danube River

04/13/2012By Dallas Smith0Travel: Europe
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This essay was originally posted in December, 2010, following a Danube River cruise from Budapest, Hungary, to Passau, Germany.

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Reflections on Europe

04/13/2012By Dallas Smith0Travel: Europe
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At the end of the cruise, there is always the “Captain’s Dinner.” The hotel manager had heard me speaking German with someone. The Slovakian captain was insecure in his English. And so, I was invited to sit next to the Captain at his dinner. On his other side was a German-born American passenger. Basically, the Captain was uncomfortable having to make speeches and schmooze in English with the mostly American passengers.

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Reflections on Southern Culture

04/01/2012By Dallas Smith0Travel: United States
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International readers of this blog may be unaware of the clichés used to describe lower class people in the Southern states of the US, those states that tried to perpetuate the institution of slavery, leading to the bloody Civil War 1861-1865. While poor Southerners have generally been more likely to hold racist beliefs, believing themselves to be on a higher social rung than poor blacks, more educated whites have used the pejorative "white trash" or "redneck" to describe this particular lower class mentality. My friends and I had quite an interesting discussion as to why "rednecks" believe the things they do and exhibit the attitudes commonly associated with them. . .

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