Category: Travels
All about places I’ve been to, and how they’ve struck me. Includes misadventures and lessons I’ve learned or unlearned from them.
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Reflecting on an encounter with a Warhammer enthusiast on the road The piece below is a version of a post that appeared in my Facebook page on December 13, 2023. I remembered it recently as I was thinking of the interesting people I have encountered in the course of my travels. I am not normally…
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Six years ago, the COVID-19 virus choked the world and brought it to a standstill. Governments and the world’s health care systems were unprepared to handle a pandemic of such magnitude. Millions of lives were lost, millions more fell ill, businesses shut down, people lost their livelihoods. I was spared in 2020, but the virus…
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(This is a long overdue follow up to the previous post. My bad. Personal and professional commitments got in the way. ) I am picking up on that air travel thread of baggage problems. At the outset, I have to say that most people go through their flights without a hitch, but once in a while…
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Many travelers put a lot of thought into packing, to the point they often overthink and overpack. I am one of them, and I have many times in the past overestimated things, thrown good sense to the wind, and departed with heavy luggage. As a result, I have found myself exhausted in strange and not-so-strange…
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It was freezing that December in Belgium and the only place to offer warmth and a seat without me having to buy anything was the Catholic church, and so I quickly dashed into it, hoping to also light a candle and say a prayer. The church was a cavernous Gothic structure designed to make you…
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When I planned my short side trip to Poland in October 2023, it was with fear and anxiety, but also a little bit of excitement. I had never been there, knew no one from there or anyone who had been there, except for an old friend of Polish ancestry previously based in the UK and…
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My trip to Berlin and Krakow in 2023 took all of a week, but the backstory and the side stories that came with it made it seem much longer and left some lessons for travel. At that time, I wrestled with the decision to take a trip abroad, mainly out of guilt that I was…
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On Jan. 27, 2025, the world marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the day the United Nations General Assembly set aside to remember the victims of the Holocaust. The U.N. chose that date because it marked the day in 1945 when Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau from the clutches of the Nazi. Auschwitz-Birkenau, located in Poland, was…
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It’s the season for Christmas parties, reunions and get-togethers and also a season for hyperacidity due to the ingestion of caffeine, wines and spirits. Hyperacidity also due to stress, as we struggle to fulfil various commitments before yearend. Hyperacidity sufferers like me are glad there’s Tums, an antacid med, two bottles of which I recently received…
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I just returned from a trip to Bali, my second this year, and my third in all. To be honest, it felt like an obligation, something I was forced into because my officemates wanted to travel and needed me to meet the minimum number of persons required for a promo price (super low airfare +…
On the road 