Europe
Learning to Think Outside a Parisian Box
by Kate Crawford
It was Paris, I was young and in love, with life and Paris if not with Alain Chausse. Or was that Chausse Alain? I never knew, until the morning I became Madame Chausse. Read more >>
Ylli’s Gifts
by Jann Huizenga
“Your name.” I say. “What…is…your…name.” The goatherd’s chocolate-chip eyes register confusion… Read more >>
All About Me
by Erica Jacobs Green
My days begin with pitch-dark, five a.m. wakeups from bright-eyed little people. Stumbling downstairs, I find our living room littered with crayons and Mr. Potato Head parts, headless Barbies, and wooden train tracks… Read more >>
Schultz and Finkelstein
by Margaret O. Capozzolo
Travel lust is a major component of my genetic make-up, inherited from my mother’s side of the family. Poppop King was a railway conductor and, in his spare time, a homing-pigeon breeder; so you can see that travel was both his vocation and his avocation… Read more >>
Me Big Fat Belfast Wedding
by Jill Paris
I’m off to a “fancy do” in one of those lovely homes I’d viewed from on high. But, there’s one tiny hitch to this imagination come to life. I am to attend the wedding reception of two people I’ve known for less than forty-eight hours… Read more >>
Everything Under the “Midnight” Sun
by Allison Grenewetzki
There is no better country to test your commitment to eating meat than taking a culinary tour of Iceland. Not a destination necessarily known for its cuisine, traditional Icelandic food offerings include such “enticing” specialties as rotted shark, smoked puffin and roasted whale meat… Read more >>
Layers of Identity in Prague
by Cynthia Carbone Ward
It is the last morning of our five days in Prague and I am in my transit mode. It is the morning that does not count as a real one, the morning that is entirely about being packed and ready and getting to the airport, and yet I cannot help but notice the sound of a pigeon’s wings in flight past the window above the bed, and the whiteness of the sky… Read more >>
The Return
by Mara Gorman
When we got off the train the air was warm, more like spring than November. The station looked the same as I remembered it; unlike everything else in Florence, it is spare and modern. The light was a sheer golden curtain, making even the cement pillars that lined the platforms into gleaming sculptural shapes… Read more >>
A Rare Blend
by Erin Byrne
James and Marcus howled with laughter. Ann and Jack, heads crushed together, pored over photos. Nick gestured wildly, indicating precisely what it is about Bordeaux that spills into his soul. Balash, international party boy/philosopher, snatched and drained half-empty glasses… Read more >>
World Is Crazier and More of It Than We Think
by Cynthia Carbone Ward
First I must learn the art of waiting. It is what we seem to do here in this Neapolitan town. We walk, and we wait. We congregate, and we wait. There is always someone missing whose presence is essential, some preordained time that has not yet arrived, some inexplicable sequence of events that must unfold… Read more >>
Sailing to Hades
by W. Ruth Kozak
The boat cuts a silent swathe through the jade colored water of the narrow river. I imagine crocodiles lurking in the shallows. And surely those tangled boughs that dip into the murky surface shelter coiled serpents ready to strike… Read more >>
The Indelible Danièle
by Kimberley Lovato
When I first approached the 700-year-old farmhouse of Danièle Mazet-Delpeuch, I wasn’t sure I’d come to the right place. The address she gave me when I first called to set up an interview was simply… Read more >>
This Ain’t Venice Beach
by Jan Burak Schwert
English was rarely spoken in Cinque Terre, but when I needed help, a handsome traveler spoke my language… Read more >>
Lost and Found in Prague
by Jan Burak Schwert
Ron and I had just arrived in Prague and needed a room for the night. We parked our car and walked for more than an hour, looking for a vacancy… Read more >>
Finding Franz
by Jan Burak Schwert
A man walked in and my jaw hit the floor. I’d never seen the man before. It was my husband… Read more >>
A Roman Holiday
by Rachel Ward
On Christmas Eve I sat on steps outside the Roman Coliseum. I opened my new yet already worn Italy guidebook to study a vague map… Read more >>
Semana Santa: A Sacred and Secular Celebration
by Jan Burak Schwert
“Thrump, thrump” beat the drums, followed by trumpets blaring. A parade, I thought. But where was it coming from?… Read more >>
The Colors of Anogeia
by Angela D. Stancar
Anógeia, on the Greek island of Crete, is a town shrouded in the color black. It is a widows’ town, haunted by the absence of men. Near the end of a week vacationing on the island with my husband and both sets of parents, we had met a British expatriate who recommended Anógeia… Read more >>
Out of Our Comfort Zone
by Jan Burak Schwert
“I am proud to announce the visa requirement for the United States has been lifted. Welcome to Ukraine!” declared President Viktor Yushchenko on the official Ukrainian website… Read more >>
Memento Mori
by Charlotte Chester
I hand my two coins to the man at the gates and step gingerly through. After descending the spiral staircase, I continue along a gritty tunnel, which darkens and narrows as it twists deeper under the earth… Read more >>
Riding the 341
by Mara Gorman
There was a time when I used travel as a way to experiment with glamour. When I went to Paris, or New York, or London, I sipped 10-dollar glasses of chardonnay in industrial-chic cafés and bought swanky little purses that held only a lipstick and a credit card… Read more >>
Check, Please
by Kay Vail-Hayden
My friend and I were a couple of weeks into a European trip, and our clothing had achieved a level of stiffness that made us look like we were always standing at attention… Read more >>
The Tiny Red Kettle
by Jan Burak Schwert
“Sarajevo is ready for tourists,” read the article in the London Times. Pictures of red roofs and snow-capped mountains leapt off the page. Bosnia had emerged from the 1990’s war and rebuilt its infrastructure, but tourists had yet to discover the country. It was time to visit… Read more >>
Shopping for Dirndls
by Jill Paris
“Jilly, look at this one,” my friend Simone says, stroking the fabric of a pale, pink dress. We’ve just entered a weird little Viennese storefront and I’m having a Laura Ashley flashback circa 1973… Read more >>
Tears from Turkey
by Stephanie Elizondo Griest
I once prided myself for having tear ducts of steel. I was the only kid on my block who could watch “Bambi” without bawling; “Beaches” made me snicker. Graduation. Weddings. Break-ups. Disappointments. I endured it all with neither a sigh nor a whimper. Until, that is, I went to Turkey… Read more >>
Parisian Neighborhoods
by Rita Borges
Paris owes both its development and much of its visual appeal to the Seine River, which weaves through its heart. Each bank of the Seine has its own personality; the Rive Droite (Right Bank), with its spacious boulevards and formal buildings, generally has a more sober and genteel feeling than the more carefree and bohemian Rive Gauche (Left Bank) to the south… Read more >>
Bonfires of Valborg
by Lola Akinmade
Rain poured out of dark overcast clouds in an ironic twist. Monochrome umbrellas dotted the landscape with an occasional red or striped one breaking up the sparse but steady flow of people towards Skansen. The streets seemed barren… Read more >>
Walk Like a Parisian
by Rita Borges
There is nothing better than exploring the city on your own. As the old song say, Paris is at its best in springtime, even if it is sometimes a little wet. In winter Paris, has all sorts of cultural events going on, while in summer the weather is warm and lazy, sometimes sizzling… Read more >>
Catacombs of Paris
by Susan R. Norton
Some come to Paris for the The Louvre, The Eiffel Tower, some for the food and wine, but this time I came, strictly for the BONES, those belonging to the more than 6 million French men and woman who were deposited in the caves and tunnels of the Catacombs, twisting some 300 kilometers or 40% under the streets of Paris… Read more >>
Not So Picture Perfect
by Debra Borchert
“Before you even attach a lens or focus a photograph, take the time to pay attention to where you are.”… Read more >>
Coasting Beyond Boyhood
by Erin Byrne
When you take your child out into the world, there is a risk that forces will be unleashed that coast them beyond your reach… Read more >>
Avventure in il Palio
by Taryn Rimland
It all started out as an ordinary day, much like any other Sunday, but ended with weeping in the streets of Siena… Read more >>
