Sometimes I think it might be nice just to pay the extra and let a tour guide take care of everything. This time our luggage didn't show up for the first three days in Istanbul. We walked the streets ragged and dirty, prey to every enterprising rip-off artist. A nickel here, a dime there, it doesn't matter. They even try to do it on behalf of their government, charging you a little bit extra to ride the public transit system. In Istanbul, every third ...

If you have you're heart set on visiting a bizarre urban adventureland, we Torontonians have one almost at their doorstep. Just a short three and a half hour drive takes you to the city of Detroit. There you'll find a Twilight Zone, scary city, without rival. Cruising downtown Detroit at 10:00 a.m. reminds you of the movie Vanilla Sky - the part where Tom Cruise jumps in his car to go to work, and then realizes there's no one else around. In Detroit t...

When I was a boy my uncle used to tell me baseball stories. He would also vividly describe the greatest Major League ballparks. When other five year olds went to bed dreaming about Winnie the Pooh, Mickey Mouse and Daffy Duck I dreamt of hitting homeruns at Ebbett's Field in Brooklyn, chasing down fly balls at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh or simply selling popcorn at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. My Disneyland, or I guess fantasyland, was going back in time to th...