Home > User profile
Close Map
Profile
Change Images
  • V!VA Travel Guides

I am a Bay Area writer, songwriter, and college English teacher, and believe that writing helps us see and understand ourselves and our surroundings -- and, by extension, share ourselves and the world with others. This is why I read and write when I travel, and why traveling enriches my reading and writing.

  • Hometown

    Berkeley, Ca., US

  • Location now

    Albany, Ca., US

  • Work published

    Travel writing: Intravelmag.com, matador.com, travelerspen.com

     

    Music writing: eastbayexpress, radiance magazine

     

    Poetry: hardpan, Grecourt Review, Green Age Review, seedhouse, beyond definition

  • Travel philosophy

    To keep my mind open and keep myself fully aware, I keep a pen and notebook always nearby, and I never shy away from a chance to talk with locals (as much as language allows!).

  • Craziest place

    I don't know if any "place" is crazy in itself -- it's what's going on there that makes it crazy. Watching romantic Paris turn into an all-night urban version of Burning Man during Nuit Blanche last October was pretty crazy!

  • Bizarre experience

    Feeding marshmallows to alligators in the Louisiana bayou. America is a country of many cultures, and it's possible to feel like you're on another planet when you're right here in your own backyard, practically.

  • Advice

    Try to be prepared for anything, and as opportunities arise, be open to everything! (Well, almost everything. Foreign prisions are no fun).

  • Dream destination

    Almost anywhere I haven't been! But especially Greece, and northern Europe (places whose art I studied in college).

  • Traveled before

    48 out of 50 U.S. states, Canada, Mexico, France, Spain, England, Poland, Israel, Japan.

  • Going next

    Cleveland. *sigh*

Toby Bielawski's Guide Book Entries

V!VA List Articles

V!VA World

Get the book

book
Buy V!VA Book

Direct or on Amazon.com

Top Places to go in Latin America - as rated by V!VA Members