While you don’t have to be a foodie to love this day in the colorful city of Kuala Lumpur, it does involve a lot of adventurous eating – though the meals are all balanced by quite a bit of walking (so no guilt about the food consumption)!
Continue ReadingLost in Salzburg and Finding Music in Every Step
Salzburg is one of those cities that utterly befuddles Google Maps, sending unprepared wanderers – like me – into helpless follow-the-blue-dot circles. More than once I took a narrow lane or a steep staircase thinking this can’t be right, only to have the little passageway empty into a sprawling square or a surprise beer garden.
This is why I decided early on to ditch the maps and get impossibly and delightfully lost in Salzburg. That and the fact that the massive fortress at the top of the hill – visible from nearly everywhere in the city – pretty much guarantees that, as long as you know where you live in relation to the fortress, you won’t be lost forever.
A Canal Walk in London
When I booked a one-way ticket to Europe, I thought I would write and write and write. And, while I have written, it is not, as expected, a slew of blog posts that I’m putting on paper. Instead, it is the book that I have talked about writing for years that is suddenly pouring out of me. In the meantime, this blog is getting a bit dusty.
The fact is, fiction is easier for me than the real stuff right now. So, instead of staring at an empty page, I’m going to skip the beginning of this story and the reason that I am here in Europe. That will come later.
For now…I’ll write about the joy of connecting with one of my best friends in one of the greatest cities in the world: London.
Perfect Day: Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia
Anyone who lives in Chicago takes pride in being fluent in neighborhood-ese, the geography, jargon, best bars and BYOBs in the diverse and distinct neighborhoods that spiral out from the city center (“the Loop”).
So, I shouldn’t be surprised when another city slaps me in the face with a neighborhood that simply kicks ass. But, somehow, I always am. Continue Reading