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Getting Acquainted with Trogir, Croatia
“To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world.” Freya Stark If there’s anything we’ve learned from mostly living on the road these past 15 months, it’s that travel can be disorienting, but in a lovely sort of way. One week ago, we left our winter wonderland…
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A Love Lesson from a Moroccan Wall
“The love we give away is the only love we keep.” Elbert Hubbard On a salmon-pink back alleyway in Marrakech, Morocco, I discovered a tribute to love’s enduring nature. Its medium was white chalk. The hand that drew it undoubtedly belonged to a child. Its canvas was a rugged wall. That spring, as I explored…
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Fasching Festivities, German Style
For the ten years I called Heidelberg, Germany home, I was lucky to have a bird’s-eye view when Fasching festivities took the university town by storm, as I’m sure they did today.
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A Vietnamese New Year’s Reminiscence
When I unpacked the paper ox ornament last week, it reminded me why I love travel: serendipitous happenings, cultural immersion, and the opportunity to mingle with “citizen diplomats.” With today being the Lunar New Year (called Tết in Vietnamese), it seems fitting to reminisce on a special memory that I made while visiting Hanoi, Vietnam back in 2009.
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Angels, Busts, and Saints Dressed in Snow: A Wintry Visit to Oberammergau’s Cemetery
Perhaps it is a bit macabre, but I find cemeteries – particularly those in foreign locales – to be fascinating and fitting spots to reflect upon a place’s culture and history, and upon life itself. When my husband and I last visited Paris, we spent several hours strolling through the city’s famous Père Lachaise Cemetery, passing headstones of…
