I am planning a trip to Manhattan in June. I have not visited your island for 40 or so years. Friends have informed me that Manhattan is now very gentrified and has lost it edge, and I should concentrate on Brooklyn. What is your take on this?

I am planning my first trip to Italy. I want to see Rome, Florence and Venice. I plan on arriving in Milan. Friends have told me to quickly bail out of Milan and use it as a place to head out to more historic places. Should I ignore the city and go on my way? --- Susan of Portland, OR

Magellan's story is one instance where the old adage "the victor gets to write history" rings true. The PBS History website and Spanish movies like "1898: Our Last Men in the Philippines" depict the Filipinos as uncivilized thankless primitives. From Western perspectives, the Spaniards were the cultured benefactors who came to save the Filipinos from their ignorance. From the Filipino's viewpoint, the Spaniards were the oppressors. The Spanish monks sworn to celibacy were notorious to have families on the side.

This installment of our advice column comes to you from our Icelandic-American, Mr. Kelly Hughes; a man whose no stranger to the Land of Fire and Ice. Spread across 39,817 sq. miles of spectacular landscapes and progressive cities and villages, this small island nation sits in the middle of two tectonic plates; where the North American plate features a terrain of fiery volcanoes, while the Eurasian plate is known for its 269 icy glaciers. Iceland is noted for its retainment of the world’s oldest recorded parliament (‘Althing’) still in existence, founded in 930 by 39 local Nordic chieftains.