At Home In The Wasteland Travel Blog

Speaking of Texas, how amazing does this sound?: Concessionaire Allan Weiss is offering up Zesty Fried Guacamole Bites, a variation on the Fried Avocados he created last year. The bites are a scoop of guacamole, breaded, fried and served with ranch dressings or salsa. “The Fried Avocado went over so well, and I think people [...]

I’m sitting at George Bush Intercontinental whatever airport waiting for my connecting flight to the Great State of California, where I’ll be spending a few days at the beach. I’m really just thrilled to get the hell out of DC. I returned home from work yesterday to discover that the power on my block was [...]

Apparently for “environmental reasons” (where have we heard that before?) The government of Kazakhstan suspended environmental permits on Monday for a consortium of foreign energy companies developing a potentially huge oil field in the Caspian Sea, threatening to slow development of the largest oil find in the world since the discovery of Prudhoe Bay off [...]

I guess it was inevitable: Starbucks, the world’s largest coffee-shop chain, will open its first cafe in Russia next month after a decade of delays that included losing its trademark rights in the country. The first store will open in September in the Mega Mall north of Moscow, a Starbucks spokeswoman, Kate Bovey, said last [...]

If you haven’t seen the Kremlin’s latest event posting, with Putin’s excessive display of machismo, you’re totally missing out. It’s like the dude just stepped out of the latest Bass Pro Shops catalog: (And if you, too, would like a body like Putin’s, be sure to pick up Wednesday’s issue of Komsomolskaya Pravda, which details [...]

The NYTimes reports on a topic familiar to anyone who has spent time in Russia during the summer months: a lack of hot water. For all its new wealth and aspirations, spurred by a boom in oil and other natural resources, Moscow remains saddled with an often decrepit infrastructure. Around now, an apt symbol of [...]

Finished uploading the photos from Poland: A few Poland-related posts on the way.

The alternative could land you a seven year prison sentence: A Chilean graduate student at the University of Missouri-St. Louis has been detained in Russia for more than two months after customs officials found several Soviet medals and currency she bought from a street vendor. Roxana Contreras, 29, faces up to seven years in prison, [...]

I’m accumulating a rather impressive collection of head scarves due to my travels throughout the former Soviet Union. It’s not that I actually collect head scarves, or even wear them, but I always forget to pack one and am thus forced to purchase yet another before heading into an Orthodox cathedral/church/monastery/whatever. While visiting the Monastery [...]

I love Eastern European apartments. Where else would you find such an awesome bedspread? (Except, of course, perhaps in a certain genre of movies produced in the San Fernando Valley during the 1970s?) Yes, I slept here. If you are looking for a place to stay in Kiev, I’d recommend checking out kievapts.com. The apartments [...]