The Real Story in Tskaltubo
The healing water has been famous for 1400 years and the buildings are relics of the 20th century’s greatest geopolitical tension, but the history I felt most keenly in Tskaltubo happened in 1993.… Continue reading
Category Archive: outside the comfort zone
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Sorry Tripadvisor
After weeks in Vietnam, talking too much with other tourists, I jumped at the invitation to join a local for dinner. I was the only identifiably foreign face in the crowd gathered around… Continue reading
What Covid did to Travel: the Good, the Bad, and the Better
English teachers call it a “feedback sandwich.” A discouraged learner might disengage, so you wrap the hard part between two tastier layers. At the end of the first tourism year after two rough… Continue reading
Ukraine and What to Do About It
My friend in Kiev sounds exhausted. Her family lost everything when Russia invaded the Donbas, and she was just getting back on her feet when this current round of menace began. “Just a… Continue reading
Taking a Moment
A former tour member and friend (the latter invariably follows from the former) just asked me how difficult my Romania tour will be. I started my reply with the medieval cobblestone streets, gentle… Continue reading
To Romania, during covid
It’s been true for a year and a half now, but I had never felt it as acutely as I did on the flight from Amsterdam to Bucharest: this is a very awkward… Continue reading
Lessons in China
The restaurant seemed to be staffed entirely with 18 year olds, but how often do you get to eat at “Let Your Mouth Dance”? We went in. The impressively earnest hostess showed us… Continue reading
Two days away
My next tour starts in two days, and I know what the hardest part will be. A tour is an odd blend of likelihood and happenstance, earned probability and inevitable surprises. Will we… Continue reading
Ghosts in the grocery store
Waiting in line at the grocery store made me think about torture and secret police. Around me shoppers huffed their indignation at slow cashiers, one of whom looked ready to cry, but my… Continue reading
The undesirability of heroism
Hearing Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) discuss fungal infections, abscess scars, and which diseases merit treatment was a trip in itself. But it took me a day or so to realize these are far… Continue reading
