By Dianne Cheseldine Travel and Transformation Gold Winner in the Sixteenth Annual Solas Awards Finding an oasis in the ancient medina of Fez. Only a small plaque indicated the entrance to my riad, Dar Attajalli, meaning House of Transfiguration. The door opened and with one steep step I entered a new world. The young employee, […]
By Marianne Bohr Stalking Cézanne and other Provençal pursuits. I was born in the wrong country. There must have been some mistake. Then again, if I’d been born in the hexagon, my passion for all things French wouldn’t exist. I’d have been raised with the language’s romantic euphony, and the fluid succession of words would […]
by Suzanne LaFetra A woman ponders irreconcilable differences on the emerald isle. “A hole is more honorable than a patch”. -Irish proverb Tooling through the bucolic countryside of Northern Ireland, it’s tough for an outsider to imagine “The Troubles” that have shaken this part of the Emerald Isle until recently. Copper beech trees splay their […]
by Beebe Bahrami She travels at the pace of her spirit in Spain, Iran, the Amazon, and France The beautiful woman who ran the bar whisked past our table, plunking down just made croquetas, something like a tater, only of white fish, rolled in bread crumbs and deep fried to that perfect mouth-feel of crispy […]
by Lucy McCauley At a pond outside of Boston, everything changes in an instant. “Perhaps the facts most astounding and most real are never communicated by man to man.” Henry David Thoreau, Walden We drove to Walden Pond that day to escape an unseasonably humid Monday afternoon in June. I knew that Fareed and Samir […]
by Julie Farrar Who’s buying and who’s selling at this market? My obsession began at a Saturday street market in Metz, France. The stalls materialized overnight in the main plaza as I slept. Like one of those mystical carnivals that populate a Ray Bradbury story, the market seemed to sneak in under cover of darkness, […]
By Mary Jo McConahay Floating in a Beat-Up Canoe Yellow-headed swallows dipped in and out of thick mist resting on the river. That fog probably followed the water’s curve for miles, I thought, maybe the whole length of Belize. I won’t see a thing from the boat. Atop a high bank overlooking the Macal, I […]
By Erin Byrne Imagine being placed at the top of the main staircase inside the most visited museum in the world. Daylight streams from above, bathing the arched walls in golden light, illuminating and exposing you. You’re there for thousands to see, but have neither head nor arms. Winged Victory stands boldly atop the sweeping […]
by Nancy Middleton As we boarded the bus outside our hotel in Athens, I took a look at my five students and wondered if we should skip the day trip to Delphi. We had been touring for seven days straightevery morning an early oneand the boys (yes, they were all boys) were visibly exhausted. Much […]
by Kathy Comstock Years ago across France one could set a watch according to the ‘vieille fille’. Dressed in black and with laced shoes supporting a stocky or painfully thin frame, she would secure her front door lock, look right then left, and head off. One withering fist hugging her shawl and the other gripping […]
