SerendipitySo often, finding the best things means leaving life’s easy chairs and going as far as you can, on the off-chance that it will be worth it. When we set out to see the far islands of Scotland, we didn't expect that the highlight of our trip would be on a remote island in a remote archipelago so far north that the sun is never far from the ( Read more... )

The Heart of Neolithic OrkneyEver since Dairena Ní Cinneide told me about the word "dúchas" in Irish, I've been obsessed with it. It's defined as "heritage," "patrimony," or "birthright," but for me, it is that sense of rootedness and connection I felt when I put my hands on the house where my grandfather, and his father were born, and walked away ( Read more... )

I don't think I've ever planned a trip in as much detail as I did this one. I've been to sea, and I know the most basic truth of cruising: if you forget it, you do without it. So we did ok, thanks to REI, and backup systems for everything. Well, Matt only brought one pair of sunglasses, which are absolutely essential in Antartica. And of course, ( Read more... )

We are at El Fin del Mundo, which is what the local people call Ushuaia, Argentina. It is the capital of Argentine Patagonia, and the jumping off point for excursions of every sort in Patagonia and the surrounding ocean. Adventure travel is advertised on every street. Even though it's well into summer here, it's cold, and rain or hail spatters down ( Read more... )

Behind the counter at Kokush deli, Mikhael, who has a heavy Noo Yawk accent, says something to a colleague in Hebrew, then tells a busboy in Spanish to get some glasses. It feels like Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn, but it's actually the Once district of Buenos Aires, the center of Jewish life in this city in which one in fifteen occupants is Jewish. ( Read more... )

Matt and I went hiking on the Maclehose Trail yesterday. Navigating public transit without much guidance or any Cantonese was something of a struggle, but in the end it worked out really well. On the way to the trailhead we ran across a local street market not listed in any of the tourist guides, and were able to buy a Calvin Klein watch for only $ ( Read more... )

I'm in Hong Kong, in Fresh Cyber Cafe, suite 2C, looking down through the plate glass window to Lockhart Street below. This is a nice little cyber cafe, in a filthy, run-down tenement that looks like people should be shooting up in the hallway. My kind of place. We had to punch in "2C" at the security door and get buzzed in. The cafe itself is very ( Read more... )

We spent the last five days wandering around the Flinders Ranges of South Australia, and now we're in Melbourne again, wrapping up our time in Australia with a touristy bus ride down the Great Ocean Road. It should be beautiful and of course, we don't have to drive, which is extra good. There wasn't much screaming on this trip when we had the ( Read more... )

We are in Adelaide, Australia now. We arrived yesterday, after a week in Tasmania. Tasmania does not have a whole lot of the things that I'm used to. As the absence of blog entries indicates, network connectivity was approximately zero. You could log in on "pielink" for 15 minutes with a two dollar coin. It typically took several minutes for a web ( Read more... )

I've been back from China for a week now. I didn't post while I was in China because livejournal is now banned in the PRC. On the other hand, the geocities webpage that I use for work is now unbanned. Since I was working, that was probably better than having livejournal. Better, but I missed the opportunity to gather my thoughts ( Read more... )