Globe Corner Blogs

French Quarter - photo by Jess

Too broke and too busy to travel abroad, I instead took three small trips around the country this summer.

The subtitle of this post should be “24 hours driving, 24 hours there.” In early August I drove 24 hours, almost straight, to New Orleans, and had about the same amount of time in the city itself. The term “road trip” may suggest a fun, leisurely drive with numerous pit stops to see America’s eccentricities – the world’s largest rubber band ball, the country’s best apple pie, or the largest state fair, for example. But make no mistake, this road trip was strictly business – get to New Orleans! (I did, however, stop off in South Carolina for Chick-fil-A and Atlanta for Chipotle… yum.)

My time in New Orleans was unfairly short and I feel like I only had time to do about seven things… But, of those seven things, some stood out as winners. Here’s what I’d recommend:

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Lonely Planet Thailand

The food does not take me back. Pad thai here is not pad thai there. And only rarely, if the chef is generous, can you get khao neao gap som tom (sticky rice with papaya salad). In DC I had a chef so excited that someone wanted it he brought the generous portion out himself. But it’s just not the same in a sit-down American restaurant. Sometimes the orchids in vases on a restaurant’s clean white tablecloth take me back to the early mornings in Thailand. Walking to my meeting room, raincoat hood dripping over my nose, I stared at the gracefully curving stems and regal flowers growing in hanging gardens in people’s backyards. One basket hung on each limb of a wooden stand, like impatiens or geraniums, but orchids. And misted to some kind of dewy perfection.

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Bellagio from the Ferry on Lake Como - photo by Cecilia

Finally we arrive in Italy, where we will spend six days at Lake Como. As soon as we are on the Italian side of the Alps, the weather magically changes. It’s no longer that gloomy, drizzly day we saw while enjoying our last morning in Basel. We drive only fifteen minutes through the St. Gottard tunnel, and the warm and bright day that is waiting for us at the exit of the tunnel seems to belong to a different season.

We drive to the town of Cadenabbia di Griante in the Tremezzina region, located in the central region of the lake of Como. Griante is a small town, from where we can visit and explore some of the towns around in the mid-lake region.

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Colorful Albanian building--photo by Lisa

Last year when I was trying to figure out how I was going to go from Dubrovnik to Albania, I found that it was very difficult to do. Maybe not very difficult, but time consuming to say the least. This year I found that it was very simple to walk into a tourist agency and book a one day excursion to see the “Colors of Albania” via the shiny new high-speed catamaran that departs form Dubrovnik every Wednesday.

It only took three hours to speed down the Adriatic Coast and arrive in the historic port of Durrës, Albania. We were then whisked away to our assigned guides and herded onto buses to make the trek to the capital city of Tirana. The short distance took a very long time to cover as the entire highway seemed to be a parking lot of Mercedes, Hummers, and other flashy cars. Our guide told us that Albania has the highest number of Mercedes per capita and Albanians helped “clean” Germany of their Mercedes. Everyone on the bus just raised their eyebrows and nodded.

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Dancer and Mask--photo by Lisa

Last week I had the rare opportunity to leave rainy Boston and head to sunny Seattle. Thankfully the weather was perfect for my family, friends, and me to take a cruise to Blake Island State Park in Puget Sound. Our main objective was to go to Tillicum Village for a traditional Northwest Native American Potlach.  Traditional Potlachs are ceremonies practiced by Native Northwest Indigenous Peoples where the tribal leaders would gather guests for a redistribution of wealth; they usually included dances and feasts. We went to see the tourist-friendly modified show.

Potlach Dinner--photo by Lisa

Blake Island is a beautiful island that is only accessible by tour or private boat. Among the many attractions are hiking trails and a long house that was built in 1962 to help showcase Northwest Native American Culture for the Seattle World’s Fair. Today the long house still serves as a showcase and there are tours of it during the summer. Boats leave from Pier 55 and there is a narrated hour-long cruise through Elliot Bay into Puget Sound all the way to Blake Island. We were greeted with a cup of clam nectar and then led into the long house for a “smorgasbord-style” salmon dinner. After the dinner the lights dimmed and the dancers began to demonstrate different dances from the region. The masks were impressive and one even weighed more than 55 pounds.

It was a great way to spend a sunny Sunday afternoon and the views of the Seattle skyline were picture perfect. I was so surprised to return from Seattle with a tan.

View of the Potomac--photo by Nastia

First woman (very slowly): He called to say that they been in the sun for three hours… He said they’d be like lobsters!
Second woman (in the same manner): Well…Some people like lobsters!
(Overheard on the Potomac River beach)

For those of us who appreciate history, sun, beaches, and wine but aren’t heading to Côte d’Azur, Greece, or Croatia this year, I highly recommend visiting…The Commonwealth of Virginia.

The Southeast of the United States still remains for me a largely unexplored area, and although I have been traveling to the Richmond area of Virginia regularly, there is always something inspiring, curious, and quite often endearing to see and experience.

My latest trip turned out to be a delightful journey, relaxed and peaceful. The good times started in Colonial Beach, and specifically at the Wilkerson’s Seafood Restaurant, where I tried a seasonal dish: soft shell crabs. After the meal my friend and I headed down the Potomac River to find a quiet spot on the beach and watch the waves. The town of Colonial Beach is tiny, so tiny in fact that if you want to get around and do not have your own car, you can rent a golf cart. You are bound to see a lot of those riding around carrying kids, or an occasional older police woman patrolling the area.  Make sure you disembark and take a close look at Alexander Graham Bell’s house (now a small hotel), because it indeed looks like a candy house. I bet staying there for a couple of days is a thrill!

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Classic Switzerland--photo by Kate

Notes from Zürich:

I have one serious recommendation for visitors to Zürich: eat as much chocolate as you can. Since waking up to a Toblerone on the empty seat next to me on the airplane, to the Swiss chocolate ice cream I just had at the Mövenpick, to the shared café mocha from this afternoon, every taste has been simply amazing. Take every opportunity you have to eat this stuff. They really know what they are doing here in Switzerland.

Also recommended: checking out the Freitag flagship store, located just past the hipster Züri-West neighborhood. Made of stacked shipping containers to create a 7-story building, after browsing their awesome bags, you can climb up to the rooftop. Enjoy a great view of Zürich and an even better glimpse of the Alps through the binoculars provided.

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Downtown Lich--photo by Cecilia

Two years after our last visit to Germany for Christmas, we are back again. We got to the Frankfurt airport at 5:30 am, our family waiting for us already, and we drove home to Lich in the state of Hessen. Lich is a small and nice medieval city about 45 minutes from Frankfurt that was founded as a small community around 790 A.D. A castle was erected in the 12th century and the town gained the right to be called a city in the year 1300. You still can see the history on a short stroll through downtown in its beautiful half-timbered houses and the castle. If all this is not enough to make one to visit Lich, knowing that this city is home of Licher Bier, one of the best known beers in Hessen, will do it.

This time, we are there in spring and we notice already on our way from the airport that everything looks so green and seems fresh and colorful. The colors come from the flowers and vegetables we see in the fields. And among them, I can see what makes me think of spring in Germany as “Spargelzeit,” literally “asparagus time.”

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The Lazarus Project - by Aleksandar Hemon

Love and Obstacles, the new book of short interlinked stories by Aleksander Hemon, arrived just in time for me to browse it before I went to hear him speak at the Harvard Bookstore. These stories are linked by a common character: a young Bosnian from Sarajevo who leaves for the United States right before the war in Bosnia erupted in 1992 and ends up sort of stranded abroad. The narrator is a familiar voice, and it is very similar to characters’ in Hemon’s previous books, The Question of Bruno, Nowhere Man, and current Globe Corner Bookstore Staff Favorite and highly acclaimed The Lazarus Project. The books are not autobiographical, but Hemon’s biography and the character’s share many common traits so I kind of felt like I knew him–I was very curious to see what he was like.

I was a little shocked when he first came to the podium, as he looked a bit different from the author photo on the back page. But, soon I was laughing along with the crowd as he read the witty dialog from the final story, The Noble Truths of Suffering. I became completely charmed if not completely smitten with him. As he was reading a passage describing “his” Sarajevo (one of my favorite places in the world) I was lulled into a dreamlike state and started to think of one of my most favorite places in Sarajevo…the cevabdzinica. The sausage shop.

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Lonely Planet Georgia, Armenia & Azerbaijan

Last year, I was so inspired by some photos of Laos in the New York Times Travel Section that I bought some mosquito repellent, packed my bags, and spent three months in Southeast Asia and several glorious weeks in Laos. I think I am going to name my first child Luang Prubang, regardless of gender, and the next one will be JoMa, after the amazing Lao bakery of the same name. I guess that’s more of a girl’s name.

Well after this morning’s weekly perusal through the Times’ Travel Section, I’ve decided to go to Tbilisi. Apparently, it’s in Georgia. The country, not the state. And it looks amazing. So, who’s with me? We can drink wine at cafes in the Old Town and stroll across the medieval bridges over the Kura River. Later, we will listen to Ossetian folk music and drink vodka.