Ultralight backpackers love to have endless and tedious discussions about how to shave off an ounce here and a gram there. They’ll blow an extra $50 just to get the pants that weigh a few feathers less than another pair of pants. These idiots are so obsessed with their pack-weight that they forget the whole point of backpacking: enjoying the wilderness.

I can describe ultralight backpackers accurately, because, sadly, I am one.

Indeed, I’m cursed with this ridiculous compulsion to chop every useless gram off my gear list. My talent for doing this made lightweight backpackers more interested in my Continental Divide Trail gear list than in the excitement of being the first person to yo-yo the CDT.

As a result, some backpackers ask me to examine their gear list and advise them on how to reduce their overall weight. However, before doing that, I ask them to send me a full body photo of themselves. Why?

One of the most fun and educational activities while traveling is to have the locals give you a history lesson. Whether you have a PhD in history or whether you don’t even know their damn capital, you’ll end up learning a lot about that country’s perspective—as well as your own.

Obviously, there are some shortcomings to learning history from the locals:

1. Their knowledge of their country’s demographics and economic activity might be based on their town, not their country.

2. Their impression of their neighbors frequently had no empirical evidence, just hearsay.

3. Their recollection of history is highly selective. People remember and forget different events. They emphasize certain events while overlooking others.

Every country does this. Throughout my three years of non-stop travel in Eastern Europe, people would vividly recount both how their country came to be and the root cause to their country’s problems. I would travel 100 kilometers to another region and listen to others describe, with equal passion and zeal, the same events in a completely different way.

One of the things important about history is to remember the true history. — George W. Bush

Not exactly, George. I always believed that there was only one true, objective version of history. In theory, that might be true, but in practice it isn’t. First, even if all history books in the world said the same thing, what really matters is what the people believe, because that is what they will teach the next generation.

It is said, “victors write history.” That’s true, but the losers don’t necessarily read or believe it. Instead, they tell their children “what really happened.”

History is a set of lies agreed upon. — Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)

If you dig deep enough, perhaps you can uncover the truth, but it is often a murky and tricky affair.

However, perhaps trying to discover the truth is not that important to you. Are you a historian or an explorer?

Perception is reality; the people’s version of history is, in many ways, the history that matters. Therefore, while you travel, do your best to hear the history parents tell their children.

Even when you know the locals are wrong, you may not want to bother trying to change their minds. Instead, try to understand them, their reasoning, their beliefs, and their world view. Later, do some research to compare their view of history with “what really happened,” while recognizing that your sources (as objective as you hope they are) have their own biases. If this all ends up making you more confused than ever, wonderful. Welcome to traveling the world.

This article has been adapted from my book, The Hidden Europe. The article first appeared on A Pair of Panties and Boxers.

Throughout Eastern Europe, I’ve asked, “What can your country teach America?” I’ve documented their excellent suggestions in The Hidden Europe: What Eastern Europeans Can Teach Us.

As part of this process, Europeans often told me, quite bluntly, what they think of Americans. The fact that I’m half-European and that I have no American blood in me (I was born of a French father and a Chilean mother) probably made them more comfortable to share their true thoughts. I had often heard similar criticisms in Western Europe, which is why I'm posting this in the Western Europe section. After getting an earful, it became clear that there are a few things Americans can teach Europeans about America.

There are five themes that Europeans wail against Americans:

1. America’s foreign policy shows that we’re a warmongering, imperialistic nation (see below for details).
2. The CIA is behind everything.
3. Americans are fake.
4. Americans are ignorant.
5. Americans are devoid of culture.

There’s a lot of truth to these five criticisms. In fact, in my book I often make fun of these things. However, let’s load up the aircraft carriers and stealth bombers and blast away the five most common criticisms about Americans.

Let's start with the first one and then the other articles will address the other four, although you're welcome to jump to the one that interests you most.

Whenever worries and anxiety overwhelm your life, people tell you, “Just relax.”

Thanks, that’s wise advice, but how the hell do you do that? You’d love “to be light and free,” but that seems impossible when you’re feeling heavy and enslaved. How do you do it?

What follows are two practical, yet profound ways to let go of your worries and anxiety. Use these two skills to lighten your load and unchain yourself from everyday frustrations.

I learned these two techniques from pilgrims who walk the 2,168-mile Appalachian Trail. In their honor, I call it the Pilgrim’s Perspective.

Unless you live in the northeast corner of Europe, you probably don't know much about Estonia. So let’s review a few notable facts about this mysterious little country:

1. Estonia is small, but it isn’t the smallest country in Europe. It’s bigger than Slovenia, Holland, Denmark, and Switzerland. It’s about the same size as New Hampshire and Massachusetts combined.
2. Despite its small size, it feels big because only 1.3 million folks live here. It makes Estonia one of the least dense countries in Europe, with just 32 Estonians per square kilometer.
3. Suur Munamägi, at a measly 318 meters (about 1,000 feet), is the tallest mountain in the country.
4. Estonia’s relative flatness makes it a great place for Nordic ski training. One Estonian woman won two gold medals in Turino’s 2006 Olympic Winter Games and Estonians bought every pair of skis available at the shops the next day.
5. Out of the nearly 200 countries in the world, Estonia ranks number two in adult literacy with its rate of 99.8 percent.
6. Estonia’s forests keep getting bigger, perhaps due to the declining population.
7. In 1990, there were 22,304 babies born; today it’s almost half that amount. With the death rate increasing slightly, you can understand why the Estonian population is declining.
8. Only 46 percent of the population is male. However, before you single men book a flight to Estonia consider that the main reason for this disparity is that the men die off quickly—their average life expectancy is only 65 years.
9. Estonia is the most libertarian country in the world, according to The State of the World Liberty Project.
10. Estonia adopted the euro on January 1, 2011 with its government finances in better shape than all the other countries in the euro zone!

Estonia capital, Tallinn has Eastern Europe's quaintest and most adorable Old Town. Go visit!

This is an excerpt from The Hidden Europe that got edited down substantially. I originally wrote this article for ezinearticles.com. Learn more about what we can learn from Eastern Europeans. If you don't think Estonia is in Eastern Europe, read the Introduction to The Hidden Europe.

The Arrivals documentary is dead on arrival. The opening scene doesn't inspire much confidence. It steals scenes from The Lord of the Rings (as it does throughout this seven hour video), integrating them with Islamic doomsday prophecy. This conspiracy filled movie attempts to be serious, but ends up being comical. It's a documentary that feels more like a mockumentary.

Why did I torture myself for seven hours? I have degree in Religion and specialized in Islam. My thesis was on eschatology. Thus, an Islamic documentary about the end of days naturally interested me. However, the more I watched, the more I giggled.

The "arrivals" refers to the beings who will arrive at the end of the time: Satan, the anti-Christ, and God's army. This video attempts to show that these "arrivals" are due any moment. Don't hold your breath.

Donate & Download Day is OVER!

Although the Pay-What-You-Want Day is over, the good news is that the products are still available and dirt cheap at the WanderLearn shop! For example, you can get all the digital products that you see on the right for just $5, if you buy the hardcover. Many people donated $10-25 for those products, so they're still a steal at the WanderLearn shop.

How did the Donate & Download Day go?

It surprised me how many people were checking their computers on Christmas Day! People donated anywhere from 1 cent to $25.

If you compare the value of products downloaded with the value of the donations, then people were, on average, giving me 15% of the value of the products. That's $6.73 for $45 worth in products.

That might depress someone who has worked hard to write a book, record an audiobook, make videos, and has no other source of income. However, as I said when I announced the Donate & Download Day, it's not about the dollars. It's about the pennies! Seriously, thanks to a few generous souls, I'm happy with the experiment!

I've never drunken alcohol in my life, but I'm drunk all the time. That, at least, is the conclusion I draw after reading The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives.

The book argues that we vastly underestimate how our lives (and most things around us) are a product of chance. Although we know that luck is important, we don't realize just how important it is. By the end of this book, you may end up believing that randomness is the most important factor in life.

Leonard Mlodinow's Drunkard's Walk gets a bit heavy at times, which may turn off people who don't want to hear about the math details or about the obscure history of randomness.

All highly accomplished people ought to read this book for an ego-check. Successful people (and their fans) think they're brilliance made them successful. Reality: luck played a much larger role than you realize. That's a humbling thought.

The book's biggest weakness is that it's a bit short on solutions. Mlodinow advises us to "be aware" and "conscious" of how important randomness is.

That's nice, but should I even try writing a brilliant review for his damn book? Is it pointless to try to write such an insightful review that it will land on Obama's desk? Then Obama learns about me, buys my book, and puts me on Oprah. Or not. So why bother trying if life is so random?

He does give one bit of useful advice in the end: "Have more at-bats." In other words, since randomness is so important, those who eventually do well often just rolled the dice more often. If you keep pulling the proverbial gambling lever, you will hit a jackpot eventually. If you keep swinging at baseballs, you'll eventually score a base-hit. Even untalented people will get lucky if they try enough. So step up to the plate today and swing away. Keep doing that and even a drunk guy will hit a homerun.

BOTTOM LINE: 4 out 5 stars.

P.S. Although I've never purposely drunken an alcoholic drink in my life, I did get drunk when I was eight years old. My mom put rum on strawberries and I secretly ate them all. How's that for random?

This article was first published as Book Review: The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives by Leonard Mlodinow on Blogcritics. I've expanded it slightly for the WanderLearn readers.

Have you ever been caught in a vicious, windy, cold rainstorm? It can more dangerous and less comfortable than being in a snow storm. What if your rain gear and/or umbrella isn’t providing enough protection in such conditions? 

Unless your rain jacket is thick and not breathable, moisture is going to find a way through your rain gear during an intense, long-lasting storm. If you don’t do anything, you’ll risk hypothermia.

That’s when it’s time to pull out your tarp! Not to camp, but to wrap it around yourself like a poor man’s poncho! The tarp will provide three benefits:

• A layer of protection from the wetness: now water has to sneak through two layers (your tarp and your jacket).

• A quasi-backpack cover: provides an extra layer for moisture to fight through.

• A layer of insulation: although tarps aren’t breathable, because you’ll wear it as a poncho, there will be enough ventilation so you don’t get wet from the inside and it will trap a bit heat to warm you up.

Once you warm up, slow down your hiking pace so you don’t start sweating. When I was yo-yoing the CDT, I carried about 5.5 pounds (2.5kg) of gear, so I didn’t have insulated clothes. On my southbound journey through Colorado, this strategy helped keep me drier and warmer than I would have been otherwise in a couple of rough, cold rainstorms.

One last advantage: when finally decide to camp, you’ll already have your tarp out of your pack, so that’s one less thing to unpack! 

I first wrote this article for Gossamer Gear's Tips and Tricks.

In the southwest corner of Finland is one of Europe's oddest places: the Ahvenanmaa archipelago (Åland in Swedish). It has about 6,500 islands (about 80 are inhabited). Ahvenanmaa is roughly between the Swedish mainland and the Finnish mainland, but it officially belongs to Finland. But you wouldn't know it when you visit.

That's because if you want to speak Finnish on this Finnish island, then you should take a boat back to the Finnish mainland. We only speak Swedish in this part of Finland.

How did this turn out? In 1921, the League of Nations (the precursor to the UN) said that these islands belong to Finland. However, the island’s inhabitants lobbied the Finnish Parliament to pass the Autonomy Act in 1951 (and amended it in 1993), which granted this archipelago unusual independence: