Guitar cradled in front of his chest, the young man was living the dream. His heartthrob crooning filled the summer street where the evening passeggiata stroll around Bucharest was well underway. Behind him… Continue reading
The first time I came to Stockholm, things weren’t going well. Back home I’d been following all the rules, but the expression “my life is passing me by” was talking about me. Pushed… Continue reading
Abdul Hakim drove like gas was super cheap, the roads were paper smooth, and traffic almost non-existent. Granted, all of that was true in Oman, plus his engine roared with competency when he… Continue reading
The main thing tourists do in Muscat is visit the souq, or marketplace, in nearby Muttrah. Given how hot Oman gets (50C / 122F in summer) they share the latitudinal tradition of resting… Continue reading
The question we asked Cuban women that is clearest in my mind was off from the beginning. My previous partner and I had traveled to the blockaded island to ask women there about… Continue reading
The first two steps would be easy, but the third may have disturbed my sleep the night before. (Or it could have been the chilis.) Phase One was catching the bus from Sur… Continue reading
The Luxembourgians may have seen it as a free vacation. They needed one in the heady days of 2007, when the surging European Union was adding two more countries, expanding the cooperation that… Continue reading
Grand clashing tides of history shaped our world, but it’s hard to feel the normal humans within them. How do you get a feeling for Napoleon when he first woke up in the… Continue reading
On that late September day in Timisoara, summer had dumped the last of its heavy heat into the afternoon hours, like the hardest teacher who surprises you with a brutal final exam. But… Continue reading
Romanians curse a lot. My favorite of their more playful profanities is when they tell someone to go away. We might use two simple words to form an expression that makes very little… Continue reading
