Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

Visiting Seville’s butcher stalls can be a real eye-opener. When I first moved to Seville, I was taken aback to see whole rabbits, fur intact, hanging by their heels in the butcher’s stall. “Are you supposed to skin them yourself?” I asked incredulously of an American friend married to a Spaniard. “No, they do it…

With kids in college and slender savings from their careers (she was a web designer, he was a musician), Veronica and David couldn’t afford globetrotting in grand style. “When we first set out,” David recalled, “we were in a 1983 Chevy motor home that we found on eBay for $3,200. Obviously we were doing things…

There is a wonderful moment at the start of every train journey when you arrive at the station to discover what the next short chapter of your life is going to look like. Will it be this? Or this? Or this? As regular readers of this blog know, in 2013 I traveled 6000 miles, mostly…

Blarney Castle steps. Photo: Joseph Mischyshyn I probably don’t need to tell you that I have kissed the legendary Blarney Stone , officially the Stone of Eloquence, which is said to confer the gift of gab. To get there, you climb up and down narrow, winding stone staircases deliberately engineered with small distortions to trip…

Not long ago, I was shocked — shocked! — to discover that a movie-loving young friend had never seen Casablanca . “I’m just not into black and white,” she told me. I’m hoping she’s simply a late bloomer. Because no one should miss out on the pleasure of watching what the New York Times called,…

Visitors arriving in Seville usually love the idea of tapas but are easily confused by the traditional tapeo . I explain it’s an evening spent visiting a series of tapas bars, nibbling small portions of food and ordering a round of drinks in each one. While guests always express enthusiasm for the concept, the plan…

Ever taken a photo like this? Of course you have. Everybody does. A passing stranger offered to take a shot of us in this picturesque corner of Transylvania, and there Rich and I are, standing stiffly in the center of the foreground, trying not to look self-conscious. My unkempt appearance and Rich’s plastic bag do…

A map from a Buzzfeed poll in which Americans failed to dazzle. When it comes to geographic literacy, we Americans tend to score embarrassingly low. In a poll involving a world map and hundreds of 18 to 24 year olds, six percent couldn’t find their own country, two thirds couldn’t pinpoint Great Britain, and seventy-five…

MARCH 29 to APRIL 5, 2015 It is the best of times, it is the worst of times. You may have heard about Seville’s spectacular celebration of Holy Week, the run-up to Easter during which dozens of ancient statues of the suffering Jesus and weeping Mary are carried through the streets day and night, surrounded…

“How about taking the night train to Lisbon?” Rich said last week, as we were mapping out an upcoming trip to Portugal. “Didn’t they make a movie about that?” I asked. They did, and we watched it as part of our trip research, hoping to see what kind of accommodations and scenery we could expect.…