Dale Raven North here. I started this blog in 2007 as a way to keep friends and family updated about my adventures and I’ve kept it up for most of my trips abroad since then. (My trips pre-2007 still live in old journals.) These are not sponsored travel pieces; these are end of a long day tales about what I’ve done and seen and it is my hope that even for those who don’t know me that you might find something here that will help you in planning your travels or inspire you to go somewhere new. I try to provide some useful information when I find it lacking elsewhere.
I usually travel alone, but sometimes with my mother who is my favorite companion. I travel on a budget, staying at hostels and budget guesthouses, taking public transportation, and eating from markets, but I’ll spend money to have a special experience that cannot be done cheaply. I love markets, museums, sketchy neighborhoods, buskers, history, cemeteries, graffiti, subways & buses, maps, street vendors, wandering through narrow streets, sitting in squares, exploring, trying and failing to speak foreign languages, getting lost, meeting people, and generally having adventures.
Random trivia about me: I live in Canada, but I’ve also lived in Miami Beach and London. My favourite country that I have visited is Egypt. I’m a vegetarian. I’m a lawyer. I smoke cigars, so there are a lot of mentions here about smoking in countries around the world and the people I meet while doing so. I’ve slept in hostels, fancy hotels, a kibbutz, a yurt, a grass hut, a park bench, a convent, a bamboo hut on stilts, a cave, a sidewalk in Beersheba, and on top of a moving freight train in Mauritania. I am constantly planning my next trip and trying to figure out how to juggle time and money to make it work.
Anyway, thanks for checking in, whether you know me or not. Hopefully there is something here you will enjoy. If you have questions about a specific place, feel free to email me or find me on Twitter or Instagram.
