Today I met a Greek ultrarunner. Coming down a dirt fire road, I was approaching the back side of the low mountain I had walked to the top of the previous evening after arriving inRead More
When I entered the country on 17 June, Serbia was doing really well, but shortly before I arrived the government had relaxed controls and the Covid-19 infection numbers started rising again. I was worried notRead More
As I approached the three cottages strung in a row along the dirt vehicle track at around 1050 metres above sea level, 7 km into my run, my body’s yearning for caffeine took over myRead More
For the first time in seven months I am fully alone. The owner of this apartment lives three-plus hours away in Kraljevo, I know no one here, and I am in a sparsely populated neighbourhoodRead More
There are two main layers, so to speak, to how I choose where to go. The first is practical: 1a. Which country: in or out of the Schengen area? a country I feel at homeRead More
Downtown Raška was bustling. I hadn’t expected this. I had become so accustomed to the quietness of life atop Kopaonik in the un-season — post ski season and pre summer — this sudden flush ofRead More
I opened my eyes. Often when you wake for the first time in a new place, it takes a few moments before the brain figures out where you are. Not this morning. The instant IRead More
As I explained to my father and brother and sister-in-law and my oldest nephew (the only one of the four who’d stuck around for our family video call) last February, it was as if IRead More
Italian is like English with prepositions: appartamento in affitto, flat for rent, but German dispenses with the preposition and efficiently squishes together the nouns: Mietwohnung. “Oh, how nice,” my landlord says when I tell himRead More
Italy came the answer from a part of me that hadn’t spoken up in twenty years. Where in Italy? I asked. Northern Italy. In the mountains. Barely able to suppress the thrill of energy thatRead More
The weather app on my phone told me it was 80°F (27°C), a typical temperature for an early summer’s day. Upstairs in my small apartment on the rural outskirts of Healdsburg, California, I was sittingRead More