On The Write Path

All of August's Awffering

A1 Buda and Pest 🇭🇺

Hungary's defined by plains of horsemen, and Buda and Pest, squeezing the Danube between them, one a majestic city on hills created for the powerful, the other by workers who built them both: imperial grandeur looming over centuries of inequity.

A2 The path of sweets. 🇵🇹

I wonder as I wander. Sweet or savory pastries? Lisbon offers both along black-and-white cobbled streets. Portuguese brought bread to Asia and left their word 'pão' behind. I chose 'pasteis de nata' that grace pastry cases of Taiwan and Thailand.

A3 Awe in Å i Lofoten 🇳🇴

The road from the ferry in Moskenes ends Å. That's clear. So clear that Fata Morgana herself lures one to non-existent distant shores. Not all one sees is reality. The clarity and non-polluted breeze invites one to linger and ponder this.

A4 Loggia dei Lanzi (Firenze) 🇮🇹

Does pain teach us to avoid the dangers and unpleasantries of life? Without it could Giambologna have sculpted "The Rape of the Sabine Women". Yet, across the square, "David", belittled for his small penis, gazes at women screaming with pain.

A5 Grenada 🇳🇮

Grenada would be the prettiest city in Costa Rica if it didn't hug the shores of Lake Nicaragua. Colonial beauty, horse buggies and bugs at twilight. Streets where doors open up to courtyards beckoning us to rest awhile or stay.

A6 There 🇺🇸

Yes... I grew up "there" when it was a great place to live; but, the failure of that factory town, unable to be flexible in a time of change, made it impossible to thrive. I survived. I'll never go back.

A7 Bless your heart 🇧🇪

If I ever tell you a place is 'nice', go somewhere else. If I say "bless your heart"... run. Bruges is 'nice', in its own fake way, unless you know the place. I didn't stay long enough to find out.

A8 White Town 🇷🇸
Beograd's tough. This nitty gritty shitty dirty city with a zoo of albino animals surrounds a fortress guarding the Sava and the Dunav. History fought here; but, I loved the people, their insanity, the food, even its bombed out ruins.

A9 Comiche 🇫🇷

Paris attracts garbage, tourists, and pick-pockets. I took photos of garbage in the canal, toured Versailles with tourists, but didn't see any pick-pockets. A young man, immigrant?, gifted this famished old man two pears. I was grateful. I was charmed.

A10 No smiles 🇪🇪 / 🇷🇺

Why go to a place where people can't smile? The twin towers of Narva and Ivangorod stare at each other across a scrawny river an arrow could cross. War drums plan and wait for the worst. I don't tarry long.

A11 Red white and grey all over 🇵🇪

The bus broke down near Abancay in the middle of nowhere. I missed my appointment and was stranded in Lima. Ay-ay-ay-ay, Peru, I reckon I could've learned to love your red and white flag, the grey dust that covered everything.

A12 On The Way To Šiauliai 🇱🇻 / 🇱🇹

I feel like I've been here many times before I arrive in Šiauliai. I've driven through golden fields, as flat as a pancake, ripening with promise. So similar to the Kansas of my youth, golden hair blowing in the breeze.

A13 Lost in Luang Prabang 🇱🇦

A classic Citroën sat in front of the historical wat proud of its maroon paint job ready to be waxed, eager to whisk us away to when the French colonized Lan Xang and baked baguettes, a place lost in time.

A14 April in Luxembourg 🇱🇺

I saw beauty wrapped in wads of money, tasted potatoes fried into fritters (Gromperekichelcher), and inhaled April festooned with cherry blossoms. Unfortunately, the stone from which it's carved, upon which it stands, isn't as hard as the over-worked worn-out people.

A15 Disculpe 🇨🇷

In Costa Rica take the freedom to "do as you want". Lie if you must, but always smile. If you happen to hurt someone's feelings, or run over their dog, remember that "disculpe" means "I'm sorry." That should fix it.

As always.. which did you like best... and why.