The stamp on his passport that he’s proudest of:
Nicely, the toughest one to get in all probability was Somaliland. There’s not numerous locations you’ll be able to even get a visa to enter Somaliland, as a result of it is not acknowledged as a rustic by most different nations. A good friend and I made a decision we needed to go to there, and needed to discover their consulate in Addis Ababa to get the visa, which got here within the type of a stamp, after which went in by means of Djibouti on a Somali airline. So when it comes to the hassle it took to get a stamp in my passport, that is received to be the winner.
An American place he thinks is underrated:
I’d say northern Michigan, my new house. I did not know a lot about northern Michigan till I met Chasten, although I lived and grew up only a few miles away from the southern Michigan state line. It’s unbelievably lovely! You’ve turquoise waters that look nearly Caribbean, huge sand dunes and forests—it is simply an amazingly lovely American coast, proper within the Midwest, that I feel lots of people do not find out about.
The vacation spot he may journey to one million instances and by no means tire of it:
My father emigrated from Malta, and so once I was rising up, each two or three years we’d get to go over there and see household. It is a tiny nation, however it’s infinitely fascinating. Not solely do I like, after all, being with members of my household there, however it is stuffed with unbelievable historical past. It is house to a few of the oldest freestanding constructions on the earth, prehistoric temples, and due to its strategic location within the Mediterranean, it bears the marks of affect from Greeks, Romans, Venetians, Moors, Arabs, Turks, crusaders, after which in the end a interval of English colonization and now independence. It is so wealthy in historical past and really bodily lovely. Actually, it is typically been used for movie units for every part from the movie adaptation of The Odyssey to Sport of Thrones. So on this little nation that is no greater than St. Joe County, Indiana, the place I grew up, you simply have infinite issues to take a look at and luxuriate in.
What he recommends to guests of South Bend:
The meals alone would preserve you fairly busy, from numerous good eating places which have opened just lately, to an important brew-pub scene, to wonderful avenue tacos on the largely Latino west facet. You might eat your approach by means of the town. Individuals know in regards to the campus in Notre Dame, which is gorgeous, however I feel numerous essentially the most rewarding locations to see are proper within the coronary heart of the town—together with one of many issues I am proudest of [while] being mayor, which is the River Lights. The way in which they lit up with sort of energetic art work, the waterfall that sits in the course of the town that was initially constructed for industrial functions—now it’s simply a focus for the guts of our metropolis. They have nice parks. You possibly can kayak down the primary artifical whitewater rapids in North America, which was put in within the Eighties. No scarcity of issues to do there in South Bend!
The lodge amenity he cares rather a lot about:
The iron. It is so necessary, and it is wonderful to me how accommodations do not at all times get this proper. Very first thing I do every single day, if I am on the street, is iron my shirt. If that iron’s received some sticky stuff on it or it is not working correctly or it is spitting out rust once you flip the steam on, that is a foul day. I might say greater than anything, I must know that the lodge room’s received an excellent iron.
