‘Tis the Yuletide season once again, but while some may have visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads, I’m thinking about fire, pageantry, sheep and the winter solstice in Portugal’s hinterland.  It’s been something of a hobby of mine for a few years now to get up to the Tras-os-Montes and Alto Douro regions […]

For two days in mid May each year, Sri Lanka turns into a be-laterned island of colour and food, music and gifts. Vesak is a wonderful Buddhist festival that commemorates the birth, enlightenment and passing away (parinivarna) of Gautama Buddha. It’s observed at the full moon of the lunar month Vesakha, which generally falls in […]

Don’t worry.  I’ve not gone off the deep end (yet). The title is a rough translation of the hymn to San Sebastian, aka Donostia, aka one of the Coolest Coastal Towns in Spain.  It’s also much more readable than the original Basque: Sebastian bat badu zeruan, donosti bat bakarra munduan. But Basque aside, I’m not hot […]

I write from a noisy, jam-packed café on the waterfront in Spetses. A small island, only an hour or so from Athens by boat. Tonight, in commemoration of  the famous warrior princess Bouboulina, a small boat will symbolically be set on fire in the harbour. As far as I can tell, the entire city of Athens […]