Giants, Windmills, and Exercise Equipment in Spain

I am empowered in the USA

My skin shed the role of predictable, common essence of morality, and I became an energy of spontaneity. I stood, feet planted firmly in the redstone creation beneath me, I closed my eyes and was awoken. My conscious beat on heavily with every gaze swept across my new plane of unfamiliar territory. Traveling is a … Continued

Facing the Dark at the Great Barrier Reef

I have always been afraid of the dark.  I do my best to say this with as little shame and embarrassment as possible, given my age (let’s just say, “twenty-something”).  From childhood my irrational fears transitioned from monsters to ghosts to intruders in the night, with scary movies serving as fuel for my overactive imagination. … Continued

Return to the Kasbah, Morocco

Return to the Kasbah My sojourn in a land of veils, desert nights, and hypnotic drumming rhythms ended when the US Sixth Fleet was ordered to steam toward Moroccan shores to evacuate military personnel and sensitive equipment from its naval communications station. Only two years earlier I had been whisked to that secret military base … Continued

Freefalling in New Zealand

There is nothing rational about jumping out of a plane.  Freefalling fifteen thousand feet towards the earth defies all instincts of self-preservation.  With all hope to survive the plunge packaged into a piece of material strapped to your back, skydiving literally is a leap of faith. Sometimes in life we face a choice whether to … Continued

Boabdil’s Sigh in Spain

Boabdil’s Sigh Regret, defeat, anger, sorrow, dispair. Imagine a sigh deep and heavy enough to carry all of those feelings. Maybe you know that feeling. Such was the sigh of Boabdil, last Moorish King of Granada, Andalucia, Spain. He was fleeing, conquered and defeated, from his kingdom. A luxerious, prosperous kingdom. As he reached a … Continued

Bravery in Budapest, Hungary

The sky was pigeon grey and the Danube a sludgy green on the last day, the day I walked on the stone slabs beside the river and looked at the discarded shoes, and cried. A shiver of wind rippled the surface of the water. I heard about the shoes when I arrived in Budapest. My … Continued

Can You Go Home Again? USA

A number of people called me brave when I quit my marketing career of 11 years to volunteer in India. A handful more said, “I wish I could do that!” when I set off afterwards to travel solo for a year around Southeast Asia and Latin America. Maybe in their eyes, yes, and somewhat in … Continued

Dear America

Dear America   Dear America, I need to apologize to you the way an adult with kids of their own has to apologize to their parents for rebellious teen age years. I never appreciated you until I left home. Last year when I “finally” packed my bags and left the country for half a year … Continued

St. Gallen – A Swiss Vignette

St. Gallen, a Swiss Vignette Photo and Story by Annie Palovcik Crisscrossing Switzerland by rail on a ten-day Spring excursion, my husband Tom and I discover St. Gallen, just an hour out of Zurich. It is an elegant mediaeval town in a high northeastern alpine valley. Its stunning Abbey cathedral and library complex are known … Continued

We Said Go Travel