Category: Travel
-
a russian train, and peter the great
Around Moscow, the country rolls gently up from the rivers winding in silvery loops across the pleasant landscape. Small lakes and patches of woods are sprinkled among the meadowlands. Here and there, a village appears, topped by the onion dome of its church. –Peter the Great: His Life and World, Robert K. Massie midafternoon, and […]
-
poem from the train to bukhara
dusty, dry, golden the fan mountains silhouette a line of white chevys, blue soviet trucks a level crossing then dushanbe, and afghanistan after. vestiges of trade routes that criss-crossed this land like vines creeping up trellises, along shanty warehouses, next to a dwindling river carving a ribbon of jade through the desert. in some other universe there is a caravan packing […]
-
travelling outside your age (or, an ode to my cool aunt and uncle)
my aunt jane and uncle dave are legends. they grew up in the 50s and 60s and have a million stories from high school in pasadena, california. surfing, playing in bluegrass bands like the smooothies, the heady early days of the rose parade, smoking in the mountains, seeing steve martin with an arrow through his […]
-
old friends and the wild atlantic way
this weekend, i have been enjoying a few days in ireland’s west with an old friend over visiting from boston. in addition to trying (perhaps unsuccessfully) to recreate the types of travel adventures i got into on my very first forays abroad to ireland in my early twenties, we did get down to the business […]
-
the nomad soul
the nomad soul craves a dust lining for nostrils. dust from a petrol station along some highway in the earth’s heart that nobody ever saw. the nomad soul seeks fellow nomads linguistic anomolies those who know dipthongs from alveolar stops those who find the forgotten corners of byzantine churches. the nomad soul loves deeply yet […]
-
found in translation
my favourite film of all time is lost in translation, sofia coppola’s alternative rock-infused slow burn starring bill murray, scarlett johannson and the neon streets of tokyo. lost in translation released in august 2003, a pivotal summer of my life for many reasons, and i guess it soaked in pretty deeply, as i must’ve seen it […]
-
rediscovering new england (trip report, part 3)
in the first two parts of this series, i have revealed a few things. in part 1, we learned that megan had another life as a horse trainer. in part 2, she revealed the dirty secret that she is part texan. here is the revelation for part 3: many years ago, i was a resident […]