Tag Archive: traveling

A Day Driving in Romania

Today was a day of missed photographs, passing too quickly outside the window of my rental car. Tradition seems mostly held by women in this world, and Romania has so many moments of… Continue reading

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

My Friend Across the Table

The only language he and I shared was smiling. And food. So we did a lot with those. The backyard table was piled with freshly baked bread, homegrown vegetables harvested minutes ago, eggs… Continue reading

Different Holiday, Same Message

My favorite part of Thailand’s Loy Krathong festival wasn’t the enormous street market the first night, though the long rows of artwork, clothing, and sparkly souvenirs that filled the core of Chiang Mai’s… 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

Answering Questions in Kazakhstan

After the mountains of Kyrgyzstan, the grasslands of Kazakhstan felt like another world. Snow and stone were remote memories, replaced by a deep vista of rolling hills and stretched plains painted with Van… Continue reading

Kyrgyz Trek – Day Six: Going Back, Going Forward

Walking those last hours of descent back to pavement and electrical outlets was a time of comfortable contradictions. Steps tentative with battered ligaments, but perhaps a tiny bit of swagger after traversing the… Continue reading

Kyrgyz Trek – Day Five: Looking into the Abyss

That first hot cup of tea was glorious after a long cold night, and when I tipped my tent to dry in the morning sun and panes of ice cracked and fell off,… Continue reading

Kyrgyz Trek – Day Four

It was the best of campsites, it was the worst of campsites, but first we had to get there. Day Four started in another perfect mountain valley, whose light green-blue river of melted… Continue reading

Kyrgyz Trek – Day Three

I awoke surrounded by monsters. Their growls, snarls, and roars made Jurassic Park sound like a petting zoo, and I was very aware that I could see no further than the fabric of… Continue reading