Boats bobbed outside my window on the Bay of Kotor. In between the noise, flashes of light periodically lit up the sky. It was the only light that night, other than my cell phone flashlight and a glowing forest fire on the hill opposite my water view. We sat in the dark for a while, hopeful that the power would return to the town of Perast in Montenegro. We waited and waited, resolving, as my grandmother used to say, that things would look better in the morning. Any yet in the morning, we were still in the dark. I never really had an urge to visit Montenegro. When we decided to visit, it Continue Reading
Ruined Ruins: The Trouble with Knossos
“Handmade, you see?” He knocks a vase with an innocent dolphin on the side against the counter top. “See, it will not break!” The gray haired man behind the market stall of mass produced pottery has a hard sell on his hands. He continues to slam his own product against hard surfaces to show me how well made his pots and vases are, ones that are no doubt produced in factories and not in some local potter’s kiln. A theme I would later discover at the archaeological site Knossos, I understand his imagination is far different than mine. He is selling me a lie, but I can imagine it to be something Continue Reading
Extra Passport Pages and The Instability of Stability
I scurried out to the mailbox and there it was, my new passport and all of the potential in its blank pages. This book would become my travel companion and confidant for the next 10 years. When I ponder 10 years from now, I hope to stare back at a book filled with decorated stamps and stories. As I submitted my renewal application, I had the option to automatically add more pages to my book. I checked the box casually, but this was in fact a grand decision. In those extra pages was a hope of travel. And the day my passport arrived in the mail, my life seemed to change with it. After getting Continue Reading
Choose Your Travel Partner Wisely, Wishfully and Wonderfully
By definition, the word “appreciate” means to recognize the full worth of some person, place, thing or situation. It is an understanding of value and cost. The other day, a friend of mine commented to me that she only wanted to travel with someone who appreciates travel. It was a simple text message, but I found her message to be overwhelmingly profound. With my wedding just under 40 days away, I can’t help but think about travel partners and just how important it is to find someone to travel with who appreciates travel, someone who recognizes the full worth of the experience. Without an Continue Reading
Travel on Hold: When Life Gets in the Way of Wandering Priorities
When I was 18, I sat in the Atlanta Airport, waiting to board a flight to Milan. I was bound for a study abroad month in Sorrento. As I sat with a bundle of nerves and excitement over my first travels abroad alone, an elderly Italian woman mirrored my emotions. She appeared nervous about the impending flight, confused over the announcements in English that she clearly did not understand. Yet, she seemed excited, thrilled about the prospect of returning to a land that speaks her language in more ways than one. She innocently offered me some sort of Italian candy. I know we are told at a young Continue Reading
The Sicilian Love Story
“These were my conversations in Sicily, over three days and their respective nights. They finished as they had begun. But I must note that something else happened after the end.” –Elio Vittorini, Conversations in Sicily All across Sicily, from dinner plates to the flag, you will see the Sicilian Trinacria. The ancient symbol features a less frightful head of Medusa surrounded by three legs. Its meaning is somewhat muddied. Some say the symbol represents the shape of Sicily, used by the ancients to distinguish the island. Others say it refers to the Phoenician god of Baal, god of time. The Continue Reading
Travels With Grandma: A Lesson on Respecting Elderly Travelers
I’m waiting on a plane to Branson with a group of those with white hair and walkers. Mostly I see gentle smiles and kind eyes, those eager to get to Branson. I also see lots of confusion. So often I complain about the fatigue of travel. As a twenty something looking at lot of eighty somethings I recognize just how ridiculous my complaints are. The gate agent gets on the intercom saying, “I know a lot of you haven’t flown in a long time or this is your first time flying so listen up to how we do things around here.” This is air travel at its most confusing, when you haven’t flown in decades or Continue Reading