Just off France’s northern coast sits a little island, Mont Saint-Michel, atop which is a lovely old monastery. Surely, you’ve seen the pictures. It’s an amazingly beautiful spot. When I say, “island,” that is true most of the time, though the most days the tide is low enough to walk there. In fact, it was…
Hard at work
Reason 742 Why I love Morocco: It’s difficult to find an audience for complaining. The general consensus is “everything is as it should be.”
The other day, it was 110°F/45°C. As I went about doing my errands suffering and complaining to locals about the temperature, every response was, “Thank God for the heat.”
Moroccan butcher in Agadir
Reason 933 Why I love Morocco: Despite the rapid move toward modernization, especially in the massive metropolis of Casablanca, there remains a culture of trust and goodwill that permeates informal relationships.
The latest of innumerable examples: My local butcher, who’s known me only a week or so, sent me away with my purchase, even though I’d forgotten my money, and told me I could pay when I able. Incha’Allah.
Sunday, while walking through the hills, we heard the commencement of the afternoon call to prayer from one of the mosques ringing through town. Soon, dogs and other animals joined in creating a lovely chorus of sound.
One of the definite advantages of living and working in southern Morocco is that any trip north toward greater civilization, be it for leisure or work, generates an opportunity to be creative with the route by which one arrives there. On this particular occasion, being needed in Rabat, I took the opportunity to swing around to the right…
West of downtown Lisbon, along the shores of the famed Tagus River, in an area of town called Belém, lies even more wonderment. Three sites in particular bear witnessing, all three of which are mentioned briefly in this video by UNESCO. Jerónimos Monastery Followers of of Saint Jerome, known as Hieronymites, himself an ardent follower of…
The last two nights we were in Selcuk, a town similar in size to Ayvalik (yes, I still miss Ayvalik and seem to want to compare everything to Ayvalik). Selcuk is the gateway to the Ephesus (Efes) ruins. We stayed at a great place called Atilla’s Getaway, which is run by Atilla, a Turkish-Australian gentleman who…
