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...
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...
I’ve gone to a great deal of trouble to visit some of the world’s forgotten corners. But sometimes you discover secret places right there in your own neighbourhood… That’s what happened to me — again — when I took a walk through the streets around my house on a Sunday excursion with the local historical society: Wirt iz-Zejtun. The town of Zejtun takes its name from the Sicilian Arabic word...
I promised to update you on this year’s olive harvest. If you read my earlier blog — Time to Harvest the Olives — you’ll know that I have 12 olive trees on the roof of my house. Each tree is a different variety; some are table olives and some are used for oil. The sun dissolved the paper tags long ago, so we can no longer identify which is which. We carefully fertilized each tree last spring. And...
I was in Belgium recently for a bit of an escape. That’s the thing about living on a small island. You’ve gotta get away on a regular basis or the walls start to feel like they’re closing in. Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy living here. The weather’s perfect, and things are easy. But an island is always a self-contained world. An extreme micro-universe. It’s necessary to get out of that setting every...
The tiny island of Lampedusa is an Italian territory lost in the middle of the Mediterranean, just 113 short kilometers from Tunisia. It’s the main island in the Pelagic group and is governmentally attached to Sicily—though the island’s 4,500 residents will tell you they see themselves as Lampedusan first and feel little to no affinity for the rest. I have a longstanding fascination with the...
I lost one of the two most important people in my life today. I’d like to take a moment to tell you about her. Dashiell first came into my life when she was 2 weeks old. I was in my third year of university, and she was so small I could hold her in the palm of my hand. We’d always had cats when I was a child, but I really had no intention of getting a cat of my own. My girlfriend at the time was...
My Spanish road trip wound up in the vibrant seaside city of Barcelona. It’s a city of tree-lined streets, busy neighbourhoods and architecture that seems to melt and flow even as you’re watching it. I liked the place because it has a cocktail culture. Residents stop for a drink on their way home from work. And classic cocktails aren’t just on the menu—they’re actually ordered. I liked the...
My Catalonian road trip continued from Andorra down to Cap Creus and the Mediterranean. The problem became how to find meaningful, marginal places on a stretch as overrun with tourists as the Costa Brava. After a long winding drive through tiny back roads in the Pyrenees, we cruised into the sudden suburb outskirts of big box stores, traffic lights, motels and rental car window stickers. We based...
Andorra is a very strange place. It’s the 6th smallest country in Europe, hidden away in the Pyrenees between France and Spain. It’s a Principality formed in 1278—but the role of monarch falls to two joint “princes”: the Catalan Bishop of Urgell and the President of France. Its people have the 4th highest life expectancy in the world, kicking off on average at the ripe old age of 82. It’s the...
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