It’s not often after all, that you get to meet an 85 year old Cuban grandma who spied for Castro during the Revolution, have a Spanish speaking guide or to walk the streets of Havana at 4am with a bunch of newly made Cuban friends.

In the middle of Europe lies a very small but proud country, with a small but lovely capital city. The country that I speak of is Slovakia and it’s lovely capital – Bratislava. Bratislava is in part, a world divided, with half its foot in the past and the other half brightly in the future, architecturally and aesthetically speaking at least.

A city formerly divided, both figuratively and literally, by a giant concrete wall now adorned with art and graffiti from all over the globe…A city formerly divided by clashing political ideologies and philosophies…but no longer. Today Berlin is a city united both by its past and its present.

The Germans do it all and have it all. Exceptional in every way, it is no surprise that Germany continues to hold the annual record as one of the world’s most visited countries.

Panama is derived from an old Indian word meaning “lots of fish and butterflies.” It has one of the world’s most spectacular ecosystems and jungles but less than an hour away, there is the vibrant urban life in Panama City.

Our home for the weekend was the newly renovated High Peaks Resort in the heart of Lake Placid. Surrounded by the Adirondack Mountains, America’s largest protected wilder- ness, and in walking distance from downtown boutiques, High Peaks Resort is just a short three-hour drive from Ottawa on beautiful back country highways.

In a quiet corner of the Canadian War Museum, Julian Krajewski stares at a poster from the Second World War. “Yes, you boys and girls can help win the war,” the poster declared. Krajewski, a 16-year-old resident of suburban Montreal, scrutinized the poster with 21st-century eyes. “That’s actually a really good ad,” he said finally. “It hits everyone. It’s cool.”