Atlas

A Winter Escape to The Gambia – Part 2

Once upon a time — say, the 13th century — the land we now call The Gambia was home to Wolof, Fulani, and Malinke tribes. Fast-forward a couple of centuries: Portuguese explorers stumbled upon the Gambia River in 1455 (as explorers tend to do), and by the 1600s, British traders had settled in. Today, Gambia is a cultural patchwork quilt, stitched together with tribes and tongues. Mandinka is the largest (38% — they helped build the Mali Empire), followed by Fula (21%), Wolof (18%), Jola (4.5%) — even the (now ex-) president hailed from this tribe. Read more

Atlas

A Winter Escape to The Gambia – Part 1

For years, I had a dream: to welcome the New Year not wrapped in wool and sipping mulled wine, but barefoot in a bikini under the palm trees. There was just one catch—I’m a Christmas-at-home kind of woman. So, that left exactly eight days to jet off somewhere warm during my daughter’s winter break. The rule? It had to be sunny, not too touristy, and no more than six hours away by plane.

Enter: The Gambia. Read more

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Atlas

China – Lost in Translation, Found in Shanghai – Part 5

Shanghai is the glammed-up, cosmopolitan cousin of Beijing—sleeker, shinier, and with enough skyscrapers to give you instant vertigo. It’s a city that sweeps you off your feet whether you like it or not: luxury hotels, a riverside promenade steeped in colonial history, and a skyline that looks like a sci-fi movie set. You don’t visit Shanghai—you surrender to it.

With over 24 million people, Shanghai is the most populous city in the world. For perspective: Romania’s entire population in 2013 was 21.7 million. Shanghai is basically a country in itself. I remember waiting at a crosswalk to cross a street with five lanes in each direction, staring at the human tsunami on the other side, imagining my tiny self being trampled in the urban stampede. Walking in Shanghai feels like playing human pinball—and that’s on a good day.
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Atlas

China – Empress Cixi, Concubines & a Marble Boat – Part 4

Our final day in Beijing (and its imperial outskirts) was reserved for a dreamy escape to the Summer Palace — or, as it’s poetically called in Chinese, Yihe Yuan, the Garden of Nurtured Harmony. If the Forbidden City was the emperor’s winter residence, then yes, you guessed it: this was the royal summer retreat. And what a retreat it was! Read more

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Atlas

China – Chasing Buddhas and Blizzards on Beijing’s Great Wall – Part 3

I could hardly wait to see the Great Wall of China! As a child, I read about it, and now here I was, just a few kilometers away from something that once felt like a fairy tale. Isn’t it fascinating how we humans are capable of both incredible self-destruction and jaw-dropping greatness? The idea that someone started building this colossal structure thousands of years ago, without cranes or concrete mixers, seems completely mad—and yet here it is.

As you’ve probably figured out by now, Day Two in Beijing began with our chilly journey to the Great Wall.

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Atlas

China – Beijing, Forbidden City – Part 2

Post-Christmas, Beijing-Style (AKA: How I Froze, Found Mao, and Touched Heaven)

The day after Christmas—though truth be told, this year it was more of a non-Christmas—we kicked off part two of our China adventure: three days in the frosty heart of Beijing. Armed with neatly packed notes, camera in hand, and enough curiosity to power a bullet train, I was ready for a cultural marathon in sub-zero temperatures.

The flight from Shanghai was a breezy two hours, and when we landed in Beijing, our local guide Jack was already waiting for us at the airport. Jack wasn’t really “Jack,” of course. Like many Chinese guides, he picked an easier-to-pronounce name for European tourists—because let’s be honest, even after he repeated his real name three times, I still couldn’t get it right. Read more

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