The last time I was in Istanbul was in 2015. I had planned to stay for five weeks but instead spent most of that time at Oktoberfest and exploring Troy, Pergamum and Ephesus. Sorry I did you wrong in the past Istanbul, let me make it up Oktoberfest and exploring Troy, Pergamum and Ephesus. Sorry I did you wrong in the past Istanbul, let me make it up to you this time around; well as much as I can in two and a half days.
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This story started the second week of March, 2020 in a Boise, Idaho public library. I arrived from New York City five days before after a week as a tourist. Since that time, news of the Covid-19 virus’ entry to the USA was spreading. New York City was locked down four days after my departure and the country scrambled to define a more cohesive, panicked response. Nearly two years later the world is still scrambling. Boise was nice and cozy. I made a habit of working from the central public library’s second floor atop a large rectangular table near the stairs. From here people ascending and descending were in my periphery and a low hum of library conversations was a welcome backdrop to otherwise mundane work. I remember one conversation in particular. A librarian was talking on the telephone to a work associate in a different library branch; the library would be closed indefinitely the next day on account of Covid. There went the old normal — my most vivid memory of the beginning of America’s Covid response. Everyone knows what has followed — government-mandated masks in public places, children prohibited from attending in-person school etc. Reductionist health protocols that […]
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Certain travel destinations attract us more than others. When I was a kid, New Zealand's remote location, geographic isolation and diversity, endemic wildlife and a friend's Kiwi lineage necessitated my interest; I visited in 2008. Similarly in college, Tierra del Fuego, the southern tip of South America, attracted my interest as a mysterious, adventurous place that I longed to visit (and did in 2005). Five years ago I wondered what Seoul, South Korea, must be like, seemingly so different from the United States. Sri Lanka though, was never a place that was on my radar.
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I had never visited Dubai or the Middle East before I had a 24 hour stop-over between Europe and Sri Lanka. Dubai is an ideal international flight hub and stop-over destination en route to anywhere. Conveniently, hotels are plentiful, inexpensive and new. There are enough activities for tourists, even during a pandemic, to stay entertained while visiting. Even more appreciated was the fact that everything is air-conditioned. I had a very efficient and jam-packed 24 hours to explore while I was there but I made the most of it. Arriving into Dubai’s airport at 1am from Sarajevo, I Ubered directly to my hotel just 10 minutes away. A 5-star hotel for just $88 a night; king-sized bed, big room. I awoke at 8AM, had a workout in the hotel gym (with a mask-blah) and then showered and headed to the mall to do errands before breakfast. Dubai has 65 malls and one of them is attached to the hotel I was staying at so it was easy to shop for the extras I needed for the warmer climates I was transitioning to: a hat, sandals and antibiotics (you can buy over the counter at drug stores in Dubai). It felt […]
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While I was living in Split, Croatia, my friend Helena Lovrić and I stumbled upon a group of ladies playing the sport of bocce. In Croatia, bocce is not a sport that women play and so we felt inclined to talk to them and ask what the story was. It turns out that these sixty-something women have started a sort of feminist movement doing weekly activities typically reserved for men!
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When departing Croatia I wanted to segue to a destination within Europe that 1) I had never visited 2) was not conspiring in Covid regulatory policies inhibiting happiness. I had a handful of options throughout the Balkans that fit these criteria: Albania, North Macedonia, Kosovo, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. While I hope to visit all of these places eventually, the convenient option and availability of a short bus ride from Split to Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina simplified the logistics greatly. Traveling is fun when the next destination seems to volunteer itself for your consideration in such a way that you feel inclined to trust its judgement. I find that being ignorant of the geography, history, language and culture of the destinations that I visit sets the stage for efficient learning. By this I mean that unburdening oneself of the presuppositions of knowledge allows us to become empty slates upon which to record. For instance, being unable to pronounce “Herzegovina” prior to my arrival set a low bar of expectations of what I might learn from my visit; assuredly in my vacant, dry-sponge mind, this trip would be a success if afterward I had solved this single mystery. When I […]
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There is a lot of content on this website covering my visits to Split. It’s one of my international homes, and prior to 2020 when governmental Covid-19 restrictions inhibited international movement, I was in Croatia perennially five summers in a row. However, my streak ended in 2020 and that made me mad; so much for being a no-mad. I did manage to break free of the USA in mid January, 2021. Any port in a storm and Split is a most fitting port — having been a port city welcoming foreigners for over two thousand years. It was a great decision and I’m very glad to have returned after over a year away. The Dalmatian coast is known for the rocky beaches of the Adriatic sea, island life, sunshine and pomalo summers — but even in winter during a pandemic, unable to do my daily swims or beach-basking, Split felt better than the black hole of fear, anxiety, divisive politics and caustic media that has come to define the United States of America. In previous visits when asking Croatian friends what winter was like in Split, I was led to believe “very windy, very cold, but sunny.” Maybe I lucked […]
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Seoul is a great city to explore owing to the beautiful architecture, temples and endemic culture that is preserved amidst a modern, economic boom. The food is my world-wide favorite (sorry Lima now you and ceviche are now #2) — spicy, savory barbeque and lots of fermented vegetables — it is as if someone calibrated my palate to be magnetized specifically toward traditional Korean cuisine. I’ve been trying to return to Seoul for the past four years after visiting in 2015. It took a while because of all of the other places in queue (at least thirty, I think) — this time around I squeezed two weeks in before returning to the USA for Thanksgiving. It was long enough to sate my cravings for Korean food but not long enough to be ready to leave Seoul again. I secured a well-located Airbnb in the district of Songa-pu which besides being conveniently located via hyper-accessible transportation to nearby Gangnam had a lot to experience and explore in its own right. I joined a gym that I absolutely loved and the people were very kind and friendly. One of my favorite parts was the exercise uniforms they provided each visit; absolving my […]
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This summer I spent three months in Split sandwiching a two-month trip around eastern Europe (Belgrade, Kiev, Odessa, Krakow, Warsaw, Minsk, Latvia). But before that, in June, my vacationing sister and her family met me in Cavtat (where I spent a month back in 2015) and Dubrovnik before returning to Split. In June I visited one of the islands off of the Croatian, Dalmatian coast, Vis. A small island only a few miles across with two towns. I rented a scooter and explored it for a day. Surprisingly, even though Vis is one of the most photogenic destinations I have visited, it was almost vacant of foreign tourists. In September, when I returned from my eastern European sojourn, I was happy to have a respite from changing destinations each week, and focused on work, yoga, swimming and fitness for the month. I made new local friends and it became our habit to congregate on Saturday nights for homemade thai cuisine, gin and tonics, and a marathon of competitive cooking shows and American television. One weekend I hosted a meal and cooked macaroni and cheese, orange chicken (my favorite recipe) and even a chocolate cake for my friend Dado who had […]
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