[Picture: Me looking for food in Berlin.]
The name’s Luna… Dave Luna. I’m just your everyday computer scientist with the itch to get away from his desktop computer and travel the world… with his laptop computer. I am a software developer in the greater Philadelphia area, and I sit in a cubicle under a fluorescent light. Though, when it’s vacation time, I get excited because there’s a whole world out there teeming with life… and culture… and, well, natural sunlight.
Here’s a little background: My parents took me and my brothers to Busch Gardens every year when I was a kid, so I grew up innocently thinking the world was exactly like the theme park’s odd caricatures of Germany, France, and Italy. Years later, I flew to Germany and was a little shocked that men didn’t wear lederhosen everyday and Busch beer didn’t flow like the mighty Danube. I still loved every minute of it, though. (Even though European light rail didn’t have the white-knuckled loops and the hair-raising drops like the roller coasters I’d loved.)
I realized after that trip that I had a fever, and the only prescription was more travel. Since then, I’ve crossed strange lands on cramped overnight trains, overbooked discount planes, and superheated public motorcoaches just for fun.
I hope to bring my bizarre perspective on travel to the great Gadling.com, and I’ll probably sneak in some nerdy technology stuff along the way. (Though, if I somehow get into a lengthy essay on optimizing itinerary efficiency, please do tell me to shut up.) There’s a large community of wanderlust-filled nomads out there with whom I can’t wait to share and collaborate, so let’s get started!
Cheers!