The scene of the crime I had narrowly avoided massacring a dozen newly hatched chicks in a box, whose chirping had accompanied us up from Qax. Stumbling backwards as the rusted-out Soviet-era bus corkscrewed us deeper into the Caucasus, I instead tumbled into the lap of heavily mustached Georgian-speaking shepherd. He didn’t smile… Writing in…
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. As I watched my kids search for a free space in the kiddie pool so that they could practice their newly acquired skills the other day at the Ciudad Deportiva outdoor…
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. After the last class before the summer break the other day, a group of students and I went across the street to the bar to celebrate what was…
Just when you thought you were getting the hang of the way Spaniards lisp their Cs, they go and change the language on you. More discreet than their more famous Catalan, Basque, and Galician cousins, speakers of Mañego in this hidden green valley have been ‘falaing’ (falar=hablar=to speak) their curious mix of Spanish, Latin, Gallego,…
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. A few years ago, shortly before the outbreak of the neverending civil war, I found myself in northern Syria tracing the footsteps of the sixth…
For many this was the end of the line, a place at the end of Africa to get lost in purple hazes and naked lunches. But long before Burroughs and Hendrix added their hipness, a local boy took the Tangerine brand far beyond the Levant. A medieval gap-year wanderer who saw it as a beginning…
Perched high above a patchwork of olive groves and cork forests, a holy mountain juts 758 meters (2486 feet) from the surrounding plain. It’s a sacred playground overlooking neighboring villages where naughty gods once used huge granite boulders as their croquet pieces, and left them scattered, forgetting to clean up after themselves. Over the centuries…
Let’s face it, summers are rather hot in Spain… but where can you escape the heat if sand, elbow-to-elbow towels and the built-up coasts don’t appeal? Go West! Trace the spine of the central mountain system as far and deep as you can get before you turn Portuguese and you’ll find the answer. In the…
Take a drive from the shores of the world’s biggest lake called a sea, through rice paddies that wouldn’t be out of place in Southeast Asia, and end up in a Central Asian village in mist covered mountains? It’s not teleportation, but the trip to Masouleh might be the closest thing. Up from the Caspian, a…
The only thing bizarre about Kashan’s bazaar is that it isn’t overflowing with tourists. The adobe beauty of this covered market screams out for travelers, but in reality ends up calling the locals to do their daily business. Cooling mudbrick domes filter in shaped beams of light, illuminating everything from carpet wool to dates. Laid-back…