London, Paris, Berlin and Udine. Yes, Udine. And let’s not forget about Grado, Salice and Trieste, most definitely Trieste. This is Friuli Venezia Gulia region of Italy, spread across the far northeastern corner of the nation. I first read about this stunning region of diverse landscapes, languages and cultures over 15 years ago and swore that someday I would see it for myself. This June I finally did.
The distinguished city of Bordeaux in southwest France with its astounding urban historical center noted as a World Heritage Site boasts a glorious buffet of sidewalk cafes and restaurants with legendary cuisine honoring French culture and their indisputably sophisticated approach to gastronomy. Dining here offers a lifetime of pleasure for the Bordealais as well as an enduring love affair with some of the world’s finest wines produced by hundreds of nearby wine chateaus.
If I asked you what was the most memorable trip or the most difficult journey you have taken, what would you say? Maybe you had a lengthy delay, canceled flights or some other challenging issue. Sometimes a dream vacation can become a nightmare. We can’t control every factor. In the dozens of countries I have traveled in I would list my “escape” from Liberia during the civil war as among the most stressful.
Ah, the lure of exotic locations. We all have that curiosity, don’t we? Over 20 years ago I took a trip to one of those faraway places. But this trip turned out very differently from anything I could have imagined.
I feel like I made it home… but in a strange way. The welcome at the airport lobby, the nauseating drive through the hills, the exhaustion of climbing up only two flights of stairs to my new living area (I like to blame it on the 10,000 ft. elevation), walking up to the roof and seeing patches of clear stars between clouds, waking up to the constant sound of dogs barking and car horns honking through the window...
My friend and I really love hot food. It was 1987 and we were on assignment in Southern India with a group called The Bible League. We had visited remote villages in the interior and had returned to Andhra Pradesh and needed a rest. This particular region of India has the reputation of having the spiciest and most deadly cuisine on the continent.
It was such a serendipitous meeting. While strolling the gilded Shwedagon Pagoda, Myanmar's most sacred Buddhist shrine, we stopped to talk to a monk. A very chatty fellow of 51, and a monk for over 25 years, he was very eager to show us the photos from his recent trip to Japan – yup, on his Smartphone. When he actually invited us to lunch at his monastery two days hence, things got even more interesting.
OK, you saw it on TV, and you saw Prince Harry and Meghan - sorry, now the Duke and Duchess of Sussex" - and their wedding as only the Brits can do it. But think about this for a minute, can you imagine what it will be like for Meghan to now be able to actually go into and be inside Buckingham Palace - not as a tourist, but a "Royal?"
Ten of us sat around a kitchen table in a tidy home in eastern Croatia. Over cake and coffee, our hostess answered questions about life in villages still reeling from the effects of a war that ended on paper more than two decades ago.
And then the rains came down, blessing this magical and sacred city of 21,321,000 million inhabitants and giving them a gentle reprieve from their bustling and productive lives. It has been said that Mexico City has a perfect annual spring temperature, making it an abundant produce belt for Mexico and the rest of the world.
