I always bring a deck of cards with me when I travel. This was my uncle’s suggestion. He told me on more than one occasion, “The most important thing to bring is a deck of cards, because if you get…
Why I Always Travel with Cards
Author: Zachary A. Marx
Zachary Marx is currently living and working in Munich, Germany. He graduated with a degree in Political Science in 2006 from the University of Tennessee, and continues to bleed orange. So far, his vagabond lifestyle has brought him to five continents, and twenty-eight countries, with extended stays in China, Japan, and Korea. He started 80couches.com in February of 2011, with the ultimate goal of using it as the premise for couchsurfing around the globe. Your feedback and suggestions are welcome. He can be reached by carrier pigeon, smoke signals, telegram, and via the Interwebs, at zachary.marx@gmail.com.
“The Interview”: How to Lose at Poker to Terrorists
I love poker. It’s a game that reveals the inner-workings of the human mind better than any, and the small battles that take place on the felt translate directly into the real world. Legendary poker psychologist Mike Caro says the…
Lessons from Nowhere: Of Borders and Bananas
Border crossings are at best tedious and at worst terrifying. More often than not they’re quite boring, waiting in long lines to have some border guard give your passport the briefest of glances before stamping or not stamping it on…
Quirky Iceland
There’s something fundamentally different about the way Vikings see the world. The Nordic people always rank among the happiest in the world, all landing squarely in the Top Ten in last year’s index, with Iceland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark coming…
Working to Live: Creeping Black Friday Edition
This piece is a continuation of my thoughts on Working to Live. If you’ve not read the previous posts, it’s basically the philosophy that life is too short to spend it unnecessarily grinding away at work instead of doing something–anything–that…
Iceland: The “Ice” Part
For a country that prides itself on fire and ice, there is certainly a great deal more of the latter at any given moment, than the former. Sure, there are upwards of 130 volcanoes in Iceland, and a great deal…
Iceland Preview
When the time came to finally decide how to best use our remaining vacation time in November, Iceland wasn’t really anywhere on our radar. The criteria were: 1) Somewhere we’ve never been, and 2) Somewhere warm. Imagine our surprise as…
Strange Places I’ve Called Home: Part 6, Paju, Korea
This is my latest in my “Strange Places I’ve Called Home” series. The rest can be found here. My first time up to Paju came two weeks before starting my new job at English Village. The first thing I noticed…
Chaos Theory of Travel
Exactly two years ago today, Christine and I were robbed in broad daylight on a Saturday afternoon in Buenos Aires, Argentina. What unfolded from that point forward was an unforgettable, life-changing trip. Was the robbery a low-point in our adventure,…
Strange Places I’ve Called Home: Part 5, Seoul, Korea
You can read about the other “Strange Places I’ve Called Home” here. In early spring 2007, I was at a strange place in my life. Nine months into my stay in Japan, and I was essentially told my services were…
The Strange Places I’ve Called Home: Part 4 (Continued), Nagasaki, Japan
This is the second half of my piece on Nagasaki. Part 1 can be found here. My other posts in my “Strange Places” series include Milwaukee, South Florida, and Knoxville. Many places have pest problems, but nothing could have prepared me for…
The Strange Places I’ve Called Home: Part 4, Nagasaki, Japan.
Author’s Note: When I set out to write this piece, I didn’t think it would take so long to fully convey my complex feelings about Nagasaki. As such, it has become a series within a series, divided into two parts.…