Macedonia, of course, is part of Greece, yet I have decided to classify it apart. – Strabo Rounding out our tour of the southwestern Balkans, Robie and I visited North Macedonia in July. Though the country lies on Albania’s eastern border wedged between Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia and Kosovo, no one we met had been to … More North Macedonia: the overlooked Balkan state
Kosovo is a small country, but it has a lot of riches granted to us by God. – Ibrahim Rugova In May Robie and I visited Kosovo, the newest Balkan country. Located between Albania, Serbia, North Macedonia and Montenegro, landlocked Kosovo is mountainous with high plains, rolling hills and freshwater streams. The country was part … More Kosovo, the newest Balkan state
Autumn is a second spring where every leaf becomes a flower. – Albert Camus Timing is everything, and that’s especially true for travel. When prices plummeted in the wake of 9/11, Robie and I snagged a great deal on a cruise up the Nile. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, we wandered around Prague … More Is there an off-season on the Camino?
Golf is a game whose aim is to hit a very small ball into an even smaller hole, with weapons singularly ill-designed for the purpose. –Winston Churchill As we stand by the first tee of The Old Course at St Andrews I am in awe of my surroundings. Behind me is the Royal and Ancient … More A Duffers Dream: playing golf at St Andrews
You’re not Albanian if you don’t have a Nokia phone, a Samsung TV and a Mercedes-Benz. – local saying If Dante wrote The Divine Comedy today, the first circle of Hell would be reserved for Albanian drivers. While Italians can’t keep within the lanes, Chinese cabbies don’t know how to read and Mexicans run red … More Where old Mercedes go to die
The part of the Adriatic Coast belonging to Montenegro is the purest part of the Mediterranean. – Jacques Cousteau In April Robie and I visited the tiny, mountainous country of Montenegro. We stayed in the port city of Kotor and reveled in the towering cliffs that plunged dramatically into the bay, enjoyed a boat trip … More Green doors (and cats) of Kotor, Montenegro
The next great European war will probably come out of some damned fool thing in the Balkans. – Otto von Bismarck If you’ve followed my travel book reviews so far, you may have noticed something disturbing. One reader did. After posting the last review of Peter Mayle’s Toujours Provence, I received a note asking why … More Albania: A Narrative of Recent Travels
Life is a combination of magic and pasta. – Federico Fellini When Robie and I set out from Albania to enjoy a week-long getaway in Italy, we were looking forward to exploring the baroque architecture of Lecce in the southern region of Puglia. But when March showers left us taking grey, overcast pictures of the … More When it rains in Lecce, eat pasta … and cheese
It was a strange city, and seemed to have been cast up in the valley one winter’s night like some prehistoric creature that was now clawing its way up the mountainside. – Chronicle of Stone by Ismail Kadare, born in Gjirokastër, 1936 While staying in one country for seven months seems counterproductive to our mission to … More Gallery of Gjirokastër, Albania
It’s your road and yours alone. Others may walk it with you, but no one can walk it for you. – Anonymous I didn’t know much about the Camino de Santiago before attending school at the University of Salamanca. To prepare for the semester in Spain, I read Michener’s tome Iberia, a book that details … More A chance encounter on the Camino
