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Category / Don’t Be A Tourist

A Compendium of Vintage Postcards from the Great American Road Trip

The annual weekends of sparklers, parades and sending your neighbours smoke signals is soon upon us, and there’s no other way I wish I could be spending the 4th of July than on the great American open road, visiting the weirdest and kitschiest roadside attractions America has to offer… However, since I’m a (half) American in…

Meet Me at the Wigstock Festival: Remembering NYC Summers in Drag

It was the drag world’s biggest block party. From the heat of 1980s New York, equal parts glitter and grime, the “Wigstock” festival exploded onto the streets as a place for queens to hold court when no one else would have them. Today, watching jaw-dropping drag is as easy as going online or turning on…

The Sheer Excess of the Green Vault: Europe’s Overlooked Jewel Box

They call it the Green Vault, said to be the world’s first public museum (disputed by the Vatican), holding a veritable treasure chest of toys and amusements for Saxon royalty since the 18th century. Some 3,000 chef d’ouvres are exhibited in nine spectacular rooms inside Dresden’s Royal Palace, including bedazzled goblets fashioned from gilded ostrich eggs, the…

Buried under a Bridge in Paris: The Misfit Mausoleums of Montmartre

At the foot of Montmartre under a heavy wrought-iron bridge that skims the tips of blackened mausoleums, forgotten souls are spending their after lives in perpetual darkness– not exactly what they might have had in mind when they reserved the best plots in the house for their final curtain call… Cemeteries are usually curious places to begin…

My Secret Paris Toy Shop

Strolling through the 11th arrondissement, wandering in and out of boutiques on the Rue de Charonne, I noticed an open cobblestone passageway calling my name. I crossed the street to take a closer peek down the scruffy dark corridor leading to something a little bit special… Waiting for me at the end of the rabbit hole is…

Hungover at the Abandoned Strip Club in a Tiny Japanese Village

I opened my inbox today to find a note from my favourite urbex photographer over in Japan updating me on his latest find. You might recall his surreal visit to Japan’s rather inexplicable abandoned American Cowboy theme park, and this time, Shane Thoms has really outdone himself. Rotting away on a lonely road side in a…

The Hidden Antiques Village of the Marais, Paris

On a Sunday stroll from the river Seine to the bustling Marais, take the Rue Saint-Paul, a street lined with medieval archways leading to hidden passages and secret treasures… Sneak through residential courtyards from one passage to another, all the while imagining which apartment windows would be yours… Enter through the secret backstage entrance to Saint Paul…

My Secret Paris View (vineyard included)

There are very few spectacular views in Paris that we don’t have to share with a lot of other people. The tourists have claimed the Eiffel Tower and the steps of the Sacré Coeur, while most Parisians will swear by the panoramic views from the Parc des Buttes Chaumont. And while their local instinct for…

My Little Portobello Road in Paris

“Stoooop!”, I howled from the backseat of the scooter as we whizzed through the side streets of Gare de Lyon. I had just caught a glimpse of something in the corner of my eye; something strangely familiar, something that no matter what, we were going back to explore. And as we rolled the wheels of…

Last Night a DJ saved my Life in a Secret Bomb Shelter

So this weekend, I partied in an abandoned bomb shelter. Thirty meters below the streets of Paris, in a 1500 square meter labyrinth built to withstand an atomic blast of the Cold War era, awaited a night to remember… Thundering down the boulevard in WWII jeeps and tanks, our military escorts arrive at the secret…

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