let's get lost: ohrid

lake ohrid, in macedonia, is close to my heart. i had an idyllic three weeks there in the summer of 1995, which led me to return on a fulbright in 1997. a time which changed the entire course of my life for the better (and ultimately enabled me to live the entire bush administration outside the US). if you want unspoiled beauty, great pizza, some lovely (but inexpensive) local wine and to feel history under your fingernails, visit ohrid.

st. clement of ohrid

st. jovan kaneo on the horizon (where you can get a glass of raki at 10 a.m.)

enjoying the lake

not really at ohrid, but at a little hotel near tito veles (also in macedonia).

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these photos were taken in macedonia in july 2007.

let's get lost: istanbul

i love so much about istanbul....the food, the markets, the maps, the books, the coffee, the pomegranates, the wine, the bread, the rooftops, the history, the basilica cistern, the breakfast...if i type it all out, i'll just get sad and probably go book tickets, so just enjoy these photos....

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these photos were taken in istanbul in august 2007.

let's get lost: klaipeda

SAS once had a points deal to some rather...um...obscure...destinations. one of those was palanga. it sounded a bit like an exotic island somewhere warm, but it turns out it's on the baltic coast of lithuania.

it also was a thoroughly charming place. sadly, i went with a very low battery in my camera (pre-DSLR days) and only got a few photos at the castle - which was wonderfully restored and which we had very nearly to ourselves. and where oddly enough, i just discovered some of these very photos on their website (crediting me, thankfully).

the town of klaipeda was full of charming little galleries and restaurants where you could eat nice meals for a song. we came home with art and ceramics and a great woven linen scarf that i still wear frequently.

we went to a charming little blacksmith museum and saw an outdoor market (where people were selling little piles of fresh forest mushrooms).

we visited an aquarium with a reasonably good dolphin show (camera had died by then). i remember a baby dolphin that you could observe through an underground tank with windows and that it seemed really taken with sabin. she thought that was pretty cool.

on the way home in one of those Dash-400 planes which SAS had so much trouble with, i recall the crew on the phone with copenhagen, getting tech support to get the plane up and running. i think we may have even had to stay an extra night.

by warming up the battery, i squeezed one last picture out of the camera before it completely died. it was of sabin when we rode in a horse-drawn carriage to catch the little ferry back from the island where the castle and the aquarium were. she was so cute and little.

it was an undiscovered, unspoiled place and i don't really know why we haven't been back.

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these photos were taken in klaipeda, lithuania in september 2006

let's get lost: ljubljana

the wanderlust continues...

i long for strange and violent sculptures casting shadows in the midday sun on the side of a building.

i long to paddle again in a free canoe down the ljubljanica river, seeing the reflections of the city from another vantage point. 

and i long for a blue ice cream, eaten by a blue-eyed girl wearing a blue dress.

it was on this trip, when we stayed in an old school that had been transformed into a hostel, that sabin, age 6 at the time, declared when she saw the rather basic dorm-style room, "i'm not sleeping in here" and then promptly asked to go to the restaurant in the lobby for some sushi, as if we were staying at the manila peninsula.  definitely one of those, "oh dear, what have we done?" parenting moments.

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these photos were taken in ljubljana, slovenia, summer 2007.

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let's get lost: thessaloniki

i told you i had wanderlust. now, i'm pondering thessaloniki.

i love how it's quite a modern city, plopped right on top of an ancient one.

and how the ancient one pops up all over the place.

there's something of the inevitability of time's march in it for me.

the fish market doesn't hurt either.

nor does sitting outside, eating lovely fresh food on a warm summer evening.

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these photos were taken in thessaloniki, greece, in july 2007.

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let's get lost: constanta

wanderlust is hitting me hard. i find my thoughts turning to all manner of european backwaters. devoid of tourists. filled with enigmatic ruins. crumbling decay all around, but treasures tucked in here and there where you least expect them.

charming buildings. rickety balconies. charmingly chipping paint. rugs hung out to air. tangled power lines. old cars hanging together with tape and a prayer.

tucked away in the courtyards, lively restaurants filled with music, balkan wine, laughing people, the smell of grilled meat. but on the streets, empty parks with unlabeled displays of ancient grandeur.

a mix of modern and old. left up to the beholder to assign meaning. on display yet seemingly abandoned in the middle of it all.

that's where i long to go and imagine my own stories.

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these photos were taken in constanta, romania in june 2006.