We are walking through a winding courtyard which, as far as I can tell from all the monks moving quietly around us, must lead to a temple. “Here it is!” my friend calls out to me in my reverie, so I turn. Ah! The coffee shop. In my meditative state, I’d walked right past it. […]
An early embedded memory for me is the black and white haze of the 1934 film Babes in Toyland. It aired often during the holidays on various channels. Not that there were many channels. In those days, in our house, we had 3, and that weird UHF channel thing that had the clicks and lots […]
Norway is a place of abundance, where luxury comes not in form of five star hotels (with a few noteworthy exceptions) but in striking natural beauty at every turn. I’ve been lucky to have visited this magical world of fjords and trolls, glaciers and waterfalls many times, but there was one place that always eluded […]
Cariocas like the Carioca way of living. So the last thing you want to do in Rio is look like a gringo, or seem lost in the multitude of social interactions and signs so particular to this city. You’ll want to mingle and feel part of it, sure that Cariocas will be very welcoming and […]
It’s not lost on me that it’s easy to become a bit “over-churched” when travelling through Europe. As beautiful as all those architectural wonders can be, after a week or two they often have the tendency to merge into one another. However, to my tastes, there is one church that defies this trend, and one […]
If you’re anything like me, you’ve read somewhere that Japan consists of four islands and you’ve assumed that’s the lot. If so, you’re short by about 14,121. Yep, you read that right. Japan has more islands than Greece, revealing unexpected and enticing facets of the culture. So when a friend in the Land of the […]
It’s 6:30pm in Rabat. The sun descends below the horizon. A cannon blast ricochets across the city, followed by the rising chorus of a hundred voices from a hundred minarets calling out the sunset prayer reverberating in the streets which magically have become bereft of cars and people. The call to prayer dies down and […]
Have you ever looked at a dog’s nose? I mean really studied it closely. It’s cold (most of the time), wet (generally) but the most fascinating thing about it is the texture, a kind of ‘scorched earth’ granularity. Go get your dog, if you have one and stare at that snoot… Now, what does it […]
Some 500 years ago when the Portuguese began settling Pico island in the Azores, nobles, merchants and farmers found rocky, inhospitable terrain that nonetheless was rich in the typical nutrients found wherever one finds volcanoes. Olive and wheat production was initially a failure, so this shifted to growing timber, vines, and fruit trees. If you’re […]
A trip to Japan is always a promise of culinary adventures. The country is home to arguably the best fish and meat in the world, some of the most ludicrously pampered fruits you’ll ever lay eyes on, and a culture where cooking is elevated to an art form. It’s also a place where food safety […]
In a world where fast fashion and mass production dominate, there are still places where tradition, patience, and artistry thrive. Oaxaca is one such place. Here, generations of artisans have preserved techniques that date back centuries, creating extraordinary works with their hands, their hearts, and the natural world around them. Visiting these maestros is not […]
There are many things I look forward to when visiting Belgium, but without fail, the first thing I want to check off my list is sitting down at a brasserie table to eat stoverij. Also known as stoofvlees or carbonades Flamandes, in its most basic form it’s a beef stew made with beer, slow-cooked until […]
In a sea of gondolas and fast motor boats, the Eolo — a fully restored Venetian bragozzo, or flat-bottom fishing boat, painted with the classic black and white decorations — proudly unfurls its trapezoidal rust-red sails to the winds: quite a proclamation, visually and conceptually, even from afar. Irreverent, you might think, yet very much […]
Most folk arrive into Iceland in the early morning after an overnight flight, the dreaded red-eye, and so it’s a good idea on arrival to take it slow and easy. However, many trips to Iceland tend to be quite short, so there is a counter tendency to want to hit the ground running. On balance, […]
At over 3,172 kilometres in total, Ireland’s coastline is the longest per head of population in Europe. That’s a lot of sheltered, stony coves, and blustery, sandy strands for not a lot of people. Growing up near a seaside village where others flocked to on holiday, the most important question was often: “which beach should […]
On a recent research trip to Panama, a local described it to me as the 1000 island country, something I hadn’t previously imagined. Nicaragua is the land of volcanoes, Guatemala the land of the Maya… I’d been used to thinking of Panama primarily as the jungle-rich country surrounding the canal. But islands? Running down its […]