So far in 2013, I’ve been to 8 countries. Some of them – hi, Argentina – multiple times. I’ve spent more hours than I care to add on planes, and I’ve lost track of how many beds it’s been (get your minds out of the gutter!).

Please don’t hear this as a complaint. I’ve explored Moscow, met up with friends in Boston and New York and attended a family birthday party in England – all on the company’s dime.

The downside is that in spite of all this travel, I’m spending less time than ever travel blogging. Part of it is that I don’t think you really want to hear about the Holiday Inn Montevideo (a little run down, the one in Bogota is nicer) or my dinner at a chain restaurant. But part of it is that I don’t feel particularly creative after days packed with meetings and nights spent on planes.

Right now, I’ve got Athens and England in the backlog, and I want to do them justice. So instead of a half-hearted post with poorly chosen photos of the Acropolis, I figured I’d check in on a more personal level.

Life is good! I love my work, travel and all. Lola is adorable as ever, and Rodolfo’s not too far behind her. When we’re actually in Santiago, we’re going out as usual, but the camera has been staying home. Much as I enjoy touting the best of Santiago, I also enjoy a night off.

I’m hoping to take a real vacation later this year – and I know how spoiled I am to have to distinguish between travel and vacation. I’m not sure anything will top Cuba, but if Rodolfo and I can sort our schedules out long enough to pin down a free week, we’ll certainly try! There are a couple spots we’re thinking of, but I’m always open to a good travel daydream, so tell me…

where are you going (or hoping to go) in 2013?

El Ateneo bookstore in Buenos Aires is one of those places that shows up on lists of “World’s Most Beautiful Bookstores” (yes, there are lists for that). This converted theater is of course a place for porteõs to pick up a little reading material, but it also serves as a tourist mecca.

Sadly when I visited, I didn’t have time to linger on stage with a coffee, listening to the live piano music. But considering my fondess for both lattes and a good book, I can see how El Ateneo would be a very pleasant place to spend an afternoon.

What caught my eye even more were the boxes either side of the stage. Once available only to the richest theater-goers, they now serve as reading nooks for us regular patrons. It seems like you might have to show up at opening time to get a spot though, since during the time I wandered the store they were all full of people who showed no signs of relinquishing their seats.

While  at first I did feel a little weird stalking a bookstore for photo ops, I quickly realized that it’s expected. I mean, you can hardly have a ceiling like this and get precious when people want to capture it for the inevitable “make all your friends jealous of your trip to Argentina” Facebook album.

Ever since I was little, I’ve found bookstores that little bit magical. I resisted getting a Kindle forever because I couldn’t quite give up on the book buying experience. But until El Ateneo, even I never knew just how magical a bookstore could be.

It’s hard to think Russia without thinking communism, USSR, Stalin (and vodka, of course, but that doesn’t go with today’s topic). I realized at during my Kremlin visit that I really knew only the very basics of Russian history, and although capitalism is booming in Moscow these days, I wanted to understand at least recent history a bit better. So on my last night in Moscow, I signed up for a Communist Moscow walking tour.

To get there, I took the metro. Moscow’s metro is famous for its marble and chandeliers and was intended to make the Soviet public grateful for this gift from Stalin. Some stations are particularly renowned for their beauty, and while I didn’t have time to visit them, I did catch up with Lenin on my way.

This tour starts just outside ex-KGB headquarters, formerly home to an insurance company. Turns out when you stage a revolution and set up a government out of the blue, there aren’t too many government buildings lying around, so communism found itself setting up shop in ornate structures that had until recently housed private companies. In the past year I’ve visited two “communist” countries, and in both Russia and Cuba, past and present, I was left pondering the duality between capitalism and communism.

Some of the most interesting stops were a secret KGB prison/trial facility across the street, linked to headquarters by a secret tunnel. Then to bustling Tverskaya Street, home to the fabulous Soviet gourmet grocer Eliseevsky Gastronum, which looks more like something out of The Great Gatsby than a supermarket. We also visited the building where Soviet curricula were determined. To me, it sounded like Catholic school communism-style, with mandatory classes on Lenin, Marx and how to be good little Soviet communists on top of standard subjects.

Honestly, I didn’t love this tour. A lot of it was me – it was really cold, and I’d already walked a lot on previous days around the same general area. Some of it was my guide though. She was very friendly and enthusiastic, but she didn’t know how and why exactly Stalin took over from Lenin. As I said, I’m no Russian history expert, but this seems kind of important. That said, I did learn a lot and for the price of €24 for what turned out to be a private tour, I don’t regret it.

More in this series:
MockBa
A whirlwind Moscow tour
The Cathedral of Christ the Savior
The Moscow Kremlin
Beautiful Saint Basil’s Cathedral