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A small hotel in upstate New York suddenly found itself in a media maelstrom (and a flood of bad online reviews) on Monday, and all for what it says was a joke. The Union Street Guest House in the Catskill Mountains in Hudson, New York, got slammed by bad online reviews after a story in The New York Post stated it had a policy of charging customers $500 for each negative online review posted by wedding guests after they stayed in the Greek Revival establishment, built in 1830. As of early morning Monday, the hotel's website did have a policy statement in its weddings section that stated: "If you have booked the Inn for a wedding or other type of event anywhere in the region and given us a deposit of any kind for guests to stay at USGH there will be a $500 fine that will be deducted from your deposit for every negative review of USGH placed on any internet site by anyone in your party and/or attending your wedding or event. If you stay here to attend a wedding anywhere in the area and leave us a negative review on any internet site you agree to a $500 fine for each negative review. (Please NOTE we will not charge this fee &/or will refund this fee once the review is taken down)."

The US embassy in Berlin has issued a travel warning for Americans visiting Hamburg after a police crackdown on leftist protesters in the German port. Americans are advised in the warning to avoid demonstrations or public gatherings in the areas affected, which include the main nightlife district. They are also urged to carry ID because of police stop and search powers. After some of the worst rioting seen in Germany in years, police declared parts of Hamburg "danger zones" on Saturday. The unrest has centred on the eviction of an anarchist community centre, the Rote Flora, which was set up by squatters in a former theatre nearly 25 years ago. Thousands of demonstrators turned out for a protest on 21 December at which dozens of people, including police officers, were injured in clashes. On 28 December, masked rioters pelted a police station with bottles and stones. Three policemen were injured, at least one of them seriously. 'Not that bad' Police now have special powers to stop and search people in the gefahrengebieten, or "danger zones", which are in force 24 hours a day and cover the red light district of the Reeperbahn, the Old Town, St Pauli and Altona Nord, where Rote Flora is located. "If stopped without proper identification, persons may be detained by police without further justification," the US embassy warns. Since the "danger zones" were declared, leftist bloggers have accused the police of effectively imposing "martial law". The travel warning for Hamburg, Germany's second biggest city and one of the wealthiest and most dynamic towns in Europe, was greeted with some incredulity by Germans. "The US called a travel warning for my city of Hamburg!?" wrote one blogger on Twitter. "Honestly? That sounds like we were living in a civil war area. It's not that bad." "Travel warnings from the US embassy for South Sudan, Libya and the Hamburg Danger Area," another tweeter quipped.

With each trip I take, I make it a point to bring home cultural souvenirs - gold nuggets of experiences I'll remember all my life. Whether it's sitting and talking with a Muslim at the Great Mosque of Granada in Spain, waving a flag at an Irish hurling match, or getting naked with Germans at a spa in Baden-Baden, it's experiences like these that give each trip that extra sparkle. Whenever I'm in Turkey, I make it a point to see a whirling dervish. This is not a performance, but rather, a religious ritual done by the Mevlevi, followers of a 13th-century Muslim mystic named Rumi. Dervishes whirl while praying in a meditative trance. A dervish once explained to me: "As I spin around, my hand above receives the love from our Creator, and my hand below showers it onto all of his creation. " One night, while walking through Istanbul, I came upon a big patio filled with tourists, enjoying a single dervish whirling on an elevated platform. My immediate reaction was negative, as I have a bad attitude about dervishes doing their whirl for tourists, who have no idea what's going on. I prefer seeing the real deal at a place like the Galata Dervish Monastery or the Foundation of Universal Lovers of Mevlana. But on that night, I buried my bad attitude and simply enjoyed the beauty of his performance there in the Istanbul night. In Barcelona, it's a joy to join in the sardana dances to celebrate Catalan culture. Locals of all ages seem to spontaneously appear in the cathedral square. Everyone is welcome. Participants form a circle, hold hands, then raise their arms-slow-motion, Zorba the Greek-style - as they hop and sway gracefully to the music of the band. The rest of Spain mocks this lazy circle dance, but for me, it is a stirring display of the Catalan region's pride and patriotism. Good things come to those who participate. All of my Protestant life I've watched hardscrabble pilgrims and frail nuns climb Rome's Scala Santa Holy Stairs on their knees.