TRAVEL STORIES
BELGIUM
Antwerp, Belgium, Friday, February 22, 2013
At night, it is like everyone left Antwerp for somewhere warmer. As I cross a square towards an Italian Restaurant, only a few people are within eyesight at any given time. It is mostly me and the cold.
Except for two stumbling drunk men in their fifties, harassing a couple of well-dressed Asian girls. All four of them are headed the same way. The Belgians are improbably tall. The girls look Thai or maybe Malaysian, their high heels clicking with every dainty step. One of the guys says something to them in Flemish. I didn’t understand a word of it, but it isn’t good, like he is belting her with his words. His buddy has a look on his face of feigned shock and pride, like it is too funny to bear. Leaning toward them, he says a few more things, the girls try not to look and huddle their clothes around themselves just a little tighter. The loudmouth closes the distance. This time his insults are nearing a shout, and his friends laugh has settled into a sinister smile. I think that they are going to get physical with the girls. I had been walking the opposite way, but I do an about face so I will be behind the ass clowns.
They touch those girls and I am stepping in, I thought, so what if I am outnumbered.
EGYPT
Giza, Egypt, November 20, 2023
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That night, after the long day of museums, I leave the hotel just at dusk. I want to go walk for a bit, but I can’t seem to go 50 feet without someone wanting to sell me something.
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“Where are you from?” the guy in front of the souvenir shop says.
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“Let me guess,” he says “Mexico?”
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“I’m not from Mexico,” I say.
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“My boss lives in Mexico, come on in.”
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What else do I have to do?
KOREA
Suwon, Republic of Korea, 1998
Heroes can be a flash of bright light, something that burns like striking a match, like lightning in the sky, everything is transformed and then becomes inert and much like it was before. They aren’t spectacular because they are otherworldly or different, but because they are people just like us, transformed for a moment into something bigger and better, something fantastic that recedes into the everyday. Sometimes we have a problem with our concept of heroes, we see them as eternal but they aren’t a constant. Often heroes are made in a moment, but that moment can define who they are and how they are seen, like how just one good idea can transform someone’s entire life and fortune. In some cases, in that moment of heroism, they save themselves.
COLOMBIA
March 13th 2009, Villa de Leyva, Colombia
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I rappelled down a raging waterfall. Right down the middle. In Colombia, they call it Torrentismo.You could say that the equipment wasn’t state of the art. I paid a couple of Colombians to take me out into the hills (OK, it sounds like a bad idea already) and rappel with me down the waterfall. They do it all the time. Just before we went over the edge, I found that they also smoke a lot of marijuana. Disconcerting. Their English was bad, but I could understand them. One of them had long hair and his buddy had a buzz cut. He was referring to the rope that you hold in your right hand when you rappel. I have been repelling before and know that the tension on that rope is what keeps you from falling down a cliff. Keep the tension and you can control how fast you go down the cliff. Let go and…​
MONGOLIA
May 8, 2018, Gorkhi Terelj National Park, Mongolia
I came up with a plan last night, to walk from the Ulaanbataar 2 Hotel to the Aryapala Initiation and Meditation Center. It should be a few miles SSE, and I will have to climb over a small mountain. The good news is there is no snow this time, the bad news is that when I asked the head receptionist if they had hiking trail maps she laughed at me. I don’t think there is a trail, so I will have to use my compass, a screen shot of a google maps satellite photo, and my sense of distance to get there. I know that there are bears in this park. Are they brown bears? Or like black bears in the USA? I don’t know. I hope not to find out.
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LEBANON
Beirut, Lebanon, April 20, 2010
Beirut was anticlimactic. Not to say that there weren’t moments of excitement, like when police with machine guns stopped me from taking pictures of new buildings, or when they searched my small backpack for bombs on my way to the pedestrians-only downtown area. But despite the scars of war on a few of the buildings, and the occasional shock of a light armored vehicle guarding a government facility, it was much like any other Mediterranean city.
I had a good time just walking around. After a lousy getting ripped off on a cab ride a couple days before, I resolved not to take another taxi in Lebanon unless there was no other way...
ARGENTINA
Buenos Aires, Argentina, April 3, 2000
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Dusk in Buenos Aires, air pollution thick and brown, a fascinating hue. As if all of the buildings and cars were filtered through colored glass, or I had my shades on. I was in the San Telmo neighborhood, its cobblestone streets, antique shops, chipping paint, and murals to the tango give a feeling that the people there are more proud of what happened than of what is happening, but that is not true. The Argentines love who they are, their culture, and their city. Much of what makes them confident may be in the past, but it invigorates their present spirit...
TRANSNISTRIA
Chisinau, Moldova, June 23 2017
I like how when you are somewhere for even a couple of days, and started taking routes around town, that soon you are able to feel your way, unthinking, back to the same places. I have stopped each of the last to mornings to get something to eat at a small restaurant. Along the way I see the same things, a couple of construction guys standing around a concrete truck, an old lady with a scarf around her head, sweeping the street with a broom made from branches and leaves. A clean white and brown dog watches her.
SWITZERLAND
Geneva, Switzerland, August 20, 2008
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Translation isn’t just moving between languages. It is creation.
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We all sat around a computer screen, Joan, his friend Adèle, and I. They were graduate students at the University of Geneva, taking an Advanced MA in Conference Interpretation. Adèle needed to translate a presentation from French to English, due the next day. It detailed the Swiss system of government and police authority for a delegation of the Iraqi police, in Geneva for training. They needed the information in a common language, English.
GERMANY
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Grosslittgen (Großlittgen), Germany, August 17th, 2008
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Rebecca and Steffi are doctors, working in Cologne. I met them in Guatemala in 2006 while I was on vacation. I took a trip to Europe in the summer of 2008 and planned a visit with them into my itinerary. It was nice to see them again. I stayed on Steffi’s couch for a few days, and since Rebecca had time off, we looked around Cologne and Dusseldorf together. Germany is usually far too expensive a country for me to visit, so it was nice to actually get to see some of it. When you see a country with local people it is the difference between looking at a house from the outside and being invited in.
SYRIA
Damascus, Syria, April 15, 2010
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The driver was an Arab with the expressionless face of a Russian, not angry, nor sad, not even bored, just blank. He drove with his foot to the floor, the white lines of the highway zipping by as we passed cars that seemed to stand still, even though they were moving along at a normal pace. We raced down the highway at 110 miles an hour in a Mercedes taxi, a Servees, a cab that went straight from one destination to another for a set rate. Faster, but more expensive than a bus, it cost me about 13 bucks to get from Amman, Jordan, to Damascus, Syria.