Sunbaked in Albania is the third part of a running series of recollections from adventures in the Balkans. You can read the previous update, about a Roman city that stands in ruins mere footsteps away from the modern capital of Montenegro, here. How to build a road in Albania Things just haven’t been making sense […]
storytelling
Balkan Tales – Solitude in Doclea
This piece is the second in a series of recollections, in no particular order, from my travels in the Balkans. You can read the first one, about a peculiar encounter in a Slovenian ghost town, here. I set this story in Montenegro, but it just as easily could have been told elsewhere amongst the myriad […]
Balkan Tales – An afternoon in Slapnik
This is the first in a planned series of recollections and stories from my adventure in the Balkans. I pulled the SUV onto the gravel shoulder. Across the narrow one-lane-wide strip of asphalt was sharp turnoff onto a gravel path that descended steeply into the brush below. It looked as if I would need to […]
Reflections on Place: Yokkaichi Honmachi
Sometimes you come across a place that looks like it was born directly from your own fantasies and imaginings. A place that looks, feels, and even sounds like a place that you had visited before, but only in your dreams. I found one such place in Yokkaichi, Mie last week. For the vast majority of […]
Conversations in Japan: Big Drama in a Small Town
This post is an attempt to recapture and preserve a few, short exchanges I had in Japan this summer. Interjecting my own descriptions and interpretations for context, I nonetheless hope to focus on what the individuals with whom I spoke had to say about their lives, the challenges they face, and their hope for the […]