A few weeks ago I sent you an email about the end of the Palazzo Years. And I shared some photos of the amazing 400 year old house I was renting in a village called Zejtun in the south of Malta. As it was prophesied, so it has come to pass. The Palazzo Years have ended, and I’m now looking out over the rugged valley of Wied ta’ Isperanza from the terrace of my new place. But we were able to toast...
Well, we’ve finally reached the 200th blog here on Ryan Murdock’s Road Wisdom. And I’ve been struggling to think of an appropriate way to mark the occasion… Should I come up with some sort of special “anniversary” article? Something nostalgic where I reminisce about how I got started, why I decided to blog, and all the gin-scented sweat I poured into it? Should I do a flashback episode? Or...
I’ve got a cool video to share with you today. It’s of a passenger jet taking off at Gibraltar Airport last week. Voice from another room: “What’s the big deal about that?” Well, I had just finished walking across the runway, which is also the main road… Gibraltar is unusual because the runway is so close to the city centre — right next to it, in fact. And it also intersects the main road...
I’ve been on the road in Spain for the past couple weeks, exploring a small corner of Andalusia. It’s not a magazine trip or anything like that. I just needed to get off the island for a little while. And I’m always scouting out potential locations to use as my next base. I’ve developed a pretty clear set of criteria when it comes to finding my “ideal” place. And I’ve learned what to avoid —...
Last week I had an opportunity to visit a historical site here in Malta that isn’t open to the public, and I’d like to share a few photos with you. It’s right around the corner from where I live. I drove through it many times on my way to and from Birgu, but I had no idea what it was apart from its name: the Notre Dame Gate. This massive baroque gate, decorated with a bust of Grand Master...
I wouldn’t do that for all the tea in…. Taiwan? That’s right. Taiwan grows some of the best teas in the world. Tea cultivation only really began there in the mid-19th century. But it spread like crazy, thanks to strong domestic demand. Taiwanese teas are also greatly sought after by foreign tea connoisseurs. I recently spent a week on the island, and I took a day to tour around one of the...
Istanbul is a city of memory. The past permeates every street, shop, iconic edifice and passing face. As I walked through its streets and explored its buildings, I began to detect the city’s dominant themes. The theme of Topkapi Palace is seclusion. A graduating depth of shadows. Deeper shades of obscuring darkness. Privacy nestled within privacy like Russian dolls, visible in the layers of...
It’s been a little while since I posted a new blog. I’ve spent all of 1 week at home in the past 5 weeks, and I’ve got a lot of travels to fill you in on. Let’s start by talking about the Expedition Skills course I attended last week in England’s Lake District. If you’re planning a journey beyond the farthest fringes of the map, then you really should have this stuff in your toolkit. I first...
Know what shocked me the most about my trip home last Christmas? It wasn’t the snow or the miserable cold, or the strange local accent I thought I’d forgotten. It was the fact that my friends kids sit inside all day and play video games or watch TV. All of their activities are organized for them. And they frequently complain of being bored. I don’t think it’s any fault of theirs, necessarily...
The theme of “finding hidden places in my own backyard” continued. But this time I was traveling the local scene with an actual explorer… I met Mark Borda in Khartoum, Sudan. We were both on the same expedition to Jebel Uweinat, deep in the Sahara desert. But it was only after we returned to Malta that we realized he lives in the same building as my landlord’s father, and that he’s known...