Category: Traveling

Solo Travel

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If travelers have styles, mine is solo. No luxuries, no must-sees, no hard routes, and no invitations rejected by committee. Just an open mind and an open schedule. Sounds whimsical—and it is—but dropping the companions and traveling by yourself may well lead to the most rewarding experiences you’ll ever have.– Robert Young Pelton, for National Geographic

I am a big fan of traveling solo. As, it would seem, a lot of people are.  There is a thriving industry catering to solo travelers.  Why the boom in solo travel? Not just because more than 50 percent of adult Americans, Britains, Scandanavians and Japanese people live alone, but also because it gives people space to discover things about themselves as well as make personal connections that could not else wise be made.  A single person is much more approachable (this can be positive and also occasionally negative) than a large group.  Continue reading “Solo Travel” →

May you be well every year.

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Pippa the Partyplanner, in her regular column for Waitrose – a British lifestyle magazine , has been hitting on several cultural events/holidays.  Her first “Friday Night Feast” was Asian themed in time for the Chinese new year, and one column was Wimbledon based – let the people have their Pimms! Presumably, her July column covered Bastille Day. Despite coming under criticism for the column, the editor of Waitrose has compared her to Yotam Ottolenghi, the Cordon Bleu trained chef and author of Jerusalem, the cookbook. Continue reading “May you be well every year.” →

Sign That You’re in A Good Restaurant?

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Hopefully not the last supperA table full of priests in Noto, Sicily.

In Islam, it is haram to take pictures of people without their permission.  Ideologically, it is tied to frivolous or indulgent pursuits and should not be displayed.  So you could take a picture of a significant event to preserve the memory, but it should not be displayed on the wall for others to see.  I had to shoot this over the shoulder of another person, because of the people I was with, we were split as to whether or not it was taboo to take a picture of a priest.  (Hijab to Wimple to Clerical Collar?) But we could find no reference to anything saying a priest should not have his photo taken, nor a nun for that matter. As a side note, I learned a solid life lesson – don’t google taboo and nun, it’s really disturbing.

Not all those who wander are lost

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Eight states, over 800 miles and all covered in only two days. The journey had me thinking about both the “Not All Who Wander Are Lost” line and also Nowhere Mag’s entomology of the word Wanderlust.  The quote, not just from pillows, posters and inspirational prints, is actually from a J R R Tolkien poem in The Lord of The Rings, a book about logging some serious mileage. Continue reading “Not all those who wander are lost” →