Welcome! I’m AnneLise, a Travel and Food Writer, Editor, and TV Host/Reporter. I cover travel, cuisine, culture, and cocktails – and everything in between – for magazines (New York Magazine, Gourmet, TimeOut, Conde Nast Traveller, Wallpaper), web (HotelChatter, iVillage, MSN, Galavante), guidebooks (Rough Guides, DK Top 10 Barcelona, 1000 Places to See Before You Die), and TV/radio (NBC Nonstop, CNN, Sirius Radio, Forbes Traveler). You could say (and so I will), that I have travel in my blood: I grew up in Europe, the US, Southeast Asia, and North Africa. My mother is from Spain – Catalunya – and my father is a Great Dane, from Denmark. After a childhood around the globe, I studied at UC Berkeley – which seems fitting, as Berkeley’s sometimes a country unto itself. If you’d like to know more, visit my website: www.annelisesorensen.com.
Yes, travel transforms. No, you don’t need to eat frog legs.
And now on to the philosophy of my blog: I’ll start by cutting through the lofty rhetoric – Travel Transforms! – by saying this: Yes, travel transforms. But no, you don’t need to eat frog legs or trek Borneo jungles with head-hunters or climb Mayan pyramids or passionately kiss your lover at the top of the Empire State building for this to happen. (Though I’ve done them all, and recommend you do too.) In fact, I think it’s quite simple. The power of travel hinges on a basic premise: A change in perspective. And this can happen anywhere: In your own backyard – and beyond.
Sign up for a flamenco class; learn how to make French Bearnaise sauce at a local cooking school; share a jug of red wine with locals in a dark Barcelona bar – at 11am. In short: As you discover new cultures, you discover yourself. (Or, here’s another way to put it: Skip the therapy; take a trip instead.)
The People behind the Places
The highlight of working as a travel journalist is connecting with people from around the world. I’ve interviewed everyone from the well-known (filmmaker Ken Burns; chefs Ferran Adrià and Todd English; Van Halen musician Sammy Hagar; Irish author Roddy Doyle; environmental crusader Sebastian Copeland; New York Times journalists) to global locals, including Garifuna drummers in Belize; sassy women chefs in Copenhagen who spearheaded the Scandinavian “farm-to-fork” movement; and an aged bullfighter who cried quietly as he walked off the ring for the last time. I hope to share their – and my – insights with you on this blog – and to hear about your travel experiences and epiphanies.
A particularly lively night in Paris.
Travel Transforms: Change Your World 