The fastest month I’ve spent was in Sao Paulo, Brazil. It’s been a long time since a daily routine of a morning gym session a day spent working felt so fulfilling. My first time here, I was surprised to find a city covered in trees, beautiful plants, and people. Brazilians from Sao Paulo may be the most friendly people on earth. While my attention was mostly focused on a new job I started, the rest was spent enjoying the posh neighborhood and people of Vila Olimpia, the posh neighborhood that became a real home.
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riends. What a great excuse to visit Brazil. The last time I was in Rio was 2016, I had flown from Japan to catch a little bit of Carnaval en route to Argentina. That worked out pretty well considering I was there on my own so I was excited to return for a different occasion and a large group of friends.
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I first visited Madrid in February 2017 for just a couple of days. I remember enjoying the food, culture, and architecture -- it was the first time I had visited Spain; my instinct told me Madrid is a city that matches my style. It seems that the universe also desired that I return to Madrid. While living in the Maldives last year, I met many friendly Spanish vacationers who passed through the resort I was living on. Surprising to me, the Maldives is a popular destination for tourists living in Madrid and Barcelona owing to travel promotions from their international airlines.
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Again I visited perhaps my favorite place in the world, Split, Croatia. Whenever I fly through Europe it is increasingly difficult to not stop in Split on my way through. This time was spent reconnoitering with friends during a Christmas that would otherwise be spent alone. The visit also necessitated getting a Covid vaccinated as my forthcoming entry into Brazil necessitated it.
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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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