My blog has migrated to a new host and is being painstakingly reconstructed here. Please bear with me as I iron out wrinkles, hammer out the dents, and apply enough spit and duct tape to hold it all together.— Karen
When I was a young girl, it seemed every Italian restaurant had paintings and/or murals entitled “Views of Palermo.” Often done by the spouse, mistress, or cousin of the owner, these works tended (at best) to look like this. Naturally I grew up thinking of Palermo as having faded colors, blurry edges, and not…
“If we don’t find something open soon,” I said to Rich, “I’m not going to have much to write about on my blog.” We were standing in front of the massive locked doors of the cathedral in Cagliari, Sardinia , which an online search had assured us was open continuously from 7:30 am to 8:00…
“When it comes to adventures,” I wrote in a 2013 blog post, “the only thing you can really count on is the unexpected. You go on an ordinary high school field trip and get bitten by an irradiated spider, giving you special powers. You’re running for shelter from a tornado, and the next thing you…
Ever since Rich and I announced our intention of traveling for four to five months without a fixed itinerary or end date, people have been asking us, 1) “Why?” and 2) “How?” and 3) “Are ya nuts?” The why part is easy. Years ago, Rich and I decided that we didn’t want to spend this…
There is a very, very good chance that Rich and I will soon be heading out on another long, nomadic railway journey , with minimal luggage , a couple of Eurail passes, and only the vaguest idea of our itinerary and possible trip duration (maybe four to five months). But if we’ve learned anything, it’s…
“Welcome to Arizona,” say the locals, “where summer spends the winter — and hell spends the summer.” It’s true! I had a business trip to Phoenix one August and felt like I’d died and gone to Hades in the 110-degree heat. I developed a keen appreciation of Mark Twain’s story about an Arizona sinner who…
When your boat breaks down at sunset on crocodile-infested waters in a trackless jungle, there’s ample time to ponder whether or not you’ve made the right travel choices. For instance, Rich and I felt our honeymoon definitely called for independent travel, yet when both our hungover young boatman and his ancient outboard motor conked out…
In just the short time since I posted this, some regulations affecting Americans have changed. Here’s an update on US-Cuba travel. Thinking of going to Cuba this year? You’re not alone. That small island nation is attracting huge attention as newly relaxed regulations make travel easier, especially for Americans. This is thrilling news for people…
If you’ve been in the Havana airport lately, you’ve no doubt heard the legend of the stranded tour group whose travel arrangements were messed up so badly, over and over again, that they were forced to bed down for the night in a bus in the airport parking lot. Yep, that was us. Funny thing…
The thing I love about the Balkans is they’re not for everybody. If you’re looking for cookie-cutter experiences in predictably charming places where every waiter speaks English and all the food is familiar, you’ll have better luck elsewhere. The Balkans are consistently unpredictable. No one can even agree precisely which parts of roughly 13 countries in…
CELEBRATING GOOD NEIGHBORS These days I’m writing about Good Neighbors, exploring how the people around me are working to help each other get through these challenging times. My weekly posts appear on Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on my travel and research schedule.
THIS BLOG IS A PROMOTION-FREE ZONE. As my regular readers know, I never get free or discounted goods or services for mentioning anything on this blog (or anywhere else). I only write about things I find interesting and/or useful.
