Clean Corners in Copenhagen
Everything works in Copenhagen. Corners are 90 degrees. Metro trains are every 4 minutes. Cyclists use proper hand signals. After all the delightful quirks and imperfections of Albania, Tunisia and Turkey, it’s relaxing and pleasant to be in a place where the quirk is to make sense. We are here in Denmark to visit Zekiah…
Albania’s Small Towns
We could easily spend our entire 7-week Albanian stay in the capital Tirana. Comfortable, friendly, safe – it lets us settle into Living instead of Travelling. But what a shame it would be to not take advantage of easy access to gorgeous Albanian countryside and fascinating smaller towns. We recollect how glad we were to…
Lessons in Authoritarianism: Albanian Ghosts Dance in the White House
Much has been written about how Trump (and his Maple-MAGA admirer Poilievre in Canada, if he gets the chance) is following Hitler’s playbook to destroy democracy, but Albania offers a much more recent example. Learning the horrors of Enver Hoxha’s 41-year authoritarian reign has been emotionally draining as I see the parallels to current affairs…
Weekend in Kosovo
One reason we chose to set up camp in Albania for 2 months is the easy access to several other countries we know nothing about. With a half-day drive one can cross the border into Montenegro, Kosovo, North Macedonia or Greece, and the outer ring of Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria and Italy…
For Americans Wearing Canadian Flags
At a bar the other night I met yet another three Americans who laughingly admitted to wearing a Canadian flag when travelling. Here’s what I wish I’d said to them. What part of you can possibly think that’s okay?! “People treat us better,” is inevitably your reason. Sometimes hiding behind a “We don’t like our…
You Can’t Paint Over Poverty
Everything I wrote in my “Extreme Makeover Tirana” post was true – for me. The murals and painted buildings make every walk an adventure, and the brave new architecture is literally fantastic. But fading rainbows and optimistic green arrows can’t mask the continued hard times for the average Albanian. The young woman in the photo…
Extreme Makeover – Tirana, Albania
Grey – I couldn’t imagine any colour but grey. We have come to Albania because the only image I could conjure was rows of bleak featureless communist-era cement buildings. Populated by grey, emotionally-flattened post-Communist-era people. My Western cold-war propaganda indoctrination sunk in deep. Antiquated propaganda-based assumptions are inevitably wrong, as they thankfully are here. The…
Cold ASS, Warm Quakers and a Hot Vicar – Alderney
Our first exposure to Alderney’s ASS occurs at the Nunnery. The venerable Alderney Swim & Soup club has kindly invited us for a polar plunge that they do every morning. Though not every morning has 30mph winds blowing the 4 degrees air over the 6 degrees water. And no-one told us that they all wear…
Hike Around Alderney (all 10 miles of it)
The sweet and salty are swirled together. Beauty framed by tragedy, today’s Peace tinged by yesterday’s war, carefree days more poignant after last night’s nightmares. Alderney is a yin-yang paradise of light layered over a heavy, dark past. On a warm (10 degrees) sunny (ish) February morn we set out to walk around the entire…
Walking with Jane Austen
North Waltham is “a village and civil parish in the borough of Basingstoke and Deane in Hampshire, England.” With one school, one store, one church and two pubs, it is a very ordinary and properly-proportioned English town (except that neither of the pubs show live soccer matches!) What distinguishes North Waltham is that one of…
Speaking English in London
For the past 6 months we’ve been functioning primarily in French & Spanish while trying to decipher Turkish and Arabic. Does that sign say Open or Closed, Push or Pull? Is this baking powder or baking soda? Is the yoga teacher telling us to lock our knees or clench our bums? It’s been exciting to…
Feelin’ Easy-ahh in Tunisia
We chose Tunisia rather randomly – the cheapest nearby country to fill 2 weeks before our upcoming UK housesit – and very ignorantly worried that it might just be a continuation of our Moroccan experience. More mosques, more North African landscape and culture, more medina market peddlers and walled old cities and offers of camel…
2024 – A Review and a Rewrite
When it came time to write the traditional Family Christmas letter, I was stuck. After 61 blog posts, was there anything new to say? So I took a deep breath and re-read every post, beginning to end, Minnesota to Morocco. While there wasn’t much to be added, there was an arc, a development or evolution…
Morocco through fresh eyes (and professional lens)
One of the most humbling and joyous achievements of parenthood is watching your children get better than you. I have been quite good at lot of things, then watched my own flesh and blood do them even better. Zekiah blasts past me in soccer, logical thinking, even professional networking these days. Galen’s fingers dance beyond…
Just the Two of Us (in Morocco’s Blue City)
We don’t know what to do. Our boys have left us – off to Portugal for four days of Bro Time (our Christmas gift to them) then back to their real lives – and we’re feeling once again the Empty Nesting Blues and trying to get our travel mojo back. Morocco has been great for…
Parenting, Still (and Joyfully) in Fez
“Papa, hold me!” My little boy would look up at me plaintively, arms upstretched, wide teary eyes, clearly and unabashedly expressing his need for comfort and connection. I vowed then and there to always respond. Once in a while the response had to be a deferral to a later time that I would be careful…
RELAX! It’s just the Sahara…
Africa is embedded deep within me. A childhood of African dreaming after cousin Sharon came back from Peace Corps with drums and jewelry and tie-dyed cement-bag robes. Backpacking through Egypt-Kenya-Uganda-Zaire after college grad. Seven years there with Habitat for Humanity then another four back&forth to Kenya with ACCES. But of course, Morocco ain’t Zaire, and…
Christmas in Casablanca
With two of us in Turkey and one child (Zekiah) flying to Europe anyways to start a semester of Urban Design studies in Copenhagen, it was cheaper and wilder to bring the boys here for Christmas instead of us flying back across the pond. After much deliberation, we agreed to give them their first taste…
Ignorance is a Miss – Cyprus
This isn’t the first time I’ve gone somewhere in complete ignorance. Sitting on an airplane in 1989 on my way to Costa Rica I couldn’t find it on the airplane magazine map – I thought it was an island (and didn’t know they spoke Spanish, nor how to find a hotel when we arrived at…
Cappadocia – Fairy Chimneys and Cave Churches
Remember those drip sand castles we used to make at the beach? Let some very wet sand dribble through your little kid fingers to form little plop chimneys. Well, imagine valley after valley filled with those chimneys, and you’ve got Cappadocia Turkey. Now remember that God uses a much bigger sand bucket, and was smart…
Only one “n” in Istanbul
Four weeks living in the Turkish capital and I still sometimes spell it Instanbul – like it’s an Add Water & Stir cow mix. Four weeks in a place where Rick Steeves recommends 2-4 days, and I’m still discovering and reaching and wondering. Where have all the churches gone? After a month on the Camino…
Here’s to Crazy Aunts (and Rock-Solid Uncles)
Everyone deserves a crazy aunt. The one in the movies who pushes the boundaries, buys outlandish presents and wears outlandish clothes, travels to exotic places, drinks with flair, and uses the word “Sex” in everyday conversation. I was blessed with two. Aunt Sally Aunt Sally, whose laugh was as full and real and nourishing as…
Winter Swim in the Black Sea
Stimulating or overstim? After 2 weeks of Istanbul delights and Turkish markets, our souls are crying out for fresh air (today’s air quality index is 71: “The air quality is generally acceptable for most individuals. However, sensitive groups may experience minor to moderate symptoms from long-term exposure.”) We hastily pack an overnight bag and head…
Turkish Markets
Today I’m going to take you on a photographic tour of the many markets we’ve enjoyed around Istanbul. Each outing includes a long walk there and back where we stumble upon other sights and discoveries about Turkey. Fish Market Just 10 minutes downhill from our AirBnB, winding through steep narrow streets filled with electric lights…
Currently in...
Sackville, New Brunswick (Canada), celebrating Galen's college graduation
Heading to...
Canadian maritimes till mid-Sept. Please share any sites, people or ideas by email.