Lovely objects still turn my head, even long after I’ve become a minimalist.
This surprised me at first. Shouldn’t I be over all those shopping urges by now?
Three Questions to Resist the Call of Beautiful Things
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Curating Your Travels
I had a good conversation with a dear friend of mine on the phone the other day.
“How are you finding Marrakesh?” she asked.
“I love it,” I said. Then I paused. “The truth is, I’m choosing to love it. I’m curating my experience.”
Continue readingGouverneto and Katholiko Monasteries–A Great Hike Near Chania
Hello, hikers–yes, of course you should do the famous Samaria Gorge hike, but find time in your visit to Crete for this amazing hike–two monasteries and a fabulous sea cove on the peninsula northeast of the city of Chania.
It’s rugged and the scenery is outstanding. You won’t have it to yourself, but you’ll see far fewer fellow hikers than on the Samaria Gorge. Bring along your swimsuit and take a dip in a perfect little cove of clear blue-green water, just the right temperature in the middle of a sunny, sweaty hike in early November.
Continue readingThe Public Bus Guide to Hiking the Samaria Gorge
If hiking is something you enjoy, you’ll want to hike the Samaria Gorge–a 16km, unique hiking experience on Crete. Any online searching for things to do on Crete will quickly uncover this scenic, iconic gorge–it’s the second most visited site on Crete (after the Palace of Knossos). Justin and I hiked it on a beautiful October day and we highly recommend it to you.
It’s multi-step, all-day excursion. The journey forms a triangle: travel south from Chania to the gorge then hike to the sea, take ferry east along the coast, then travel north back to Chania. You may be led to believe, as I was, that it’s difficult to get there. Site after site tried to steer me to guided tours, rental cars, and even taxis. But you know what will work equally well but will cost a great deal less?
Continue readingWhy Bulgaria? (Part II)
I started writing this on a train from Plovdiv to Sofia, kept on writing on a plane, then on a balcony in Athens overlooking a tangle of other balconies. I spent a month in Bulgaria, and now that I’m looking at it from another place and culture, I’ve finally reached a kind of answer to that question, often posed before we came.
Which is that it’s a terrible question.
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The first section of our nomadic lives was driving around the US. We had our streamlined nomadic luggage, but we also had stuff in the car–food, extra clothes, spare shoes, all kinds of this and that.
So the real test has been these last two weeks in Sofia and Plovdiv, Bulgaria, when we each have a carry-on suitcase and a backpack and that’s it.
Continue readingWhy Bulgaria? (Part I)
We get asked this question a lot.
In fact it’s rare that–when we mention that we’re on our way to Bulgaria–the response is something other than “Why Bulgaria?” We’ve come to refer to it as The Question.
If you were asking The Question, I could give you a list of reasons, such as these:
Continue readingA Countable Number of Things
No Side Bar just published a piece I wrote called Transforming Stuff Into a Countable Number. Many thanks to the editors there! I’ve found a lot of wisdom on that site and appreciate having my writing alongside pieces I’ve admired. Go see why I put an image of the ocean here, then come back to comment if you’d like.
Snakes (and other needs for courage in my nomadic life)
We’ve been full time nomads for 2 ½ weeks now, which makes us nomad infants, squinting at our new lives. We’re goofy with joy, given to big grins at each other. In our tent in one of the beautiful national parks we visited, we gestured grandly at the nylon roof and exclaimed, “Honey! Right now, this is our HOUSE!”
We feel as proud as artists whipping the tarpaulin off our marvelous new work, this handcrafted, crazy thing we’ve labored to create: our new nomadic lives.
Continue readingAnd We’re Off
The stuff is sold off or given away. The U-Box is packed and shipped with the few possessions we still own. Our carry-on suitcases are packed, the house is rented, the friends are hugged, the kids are grown, the two beloved, ancient little dogs have both lived out their long lives.
It’s time to go.
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