Is there anything better than a waterfront tangled with masts and flanked by tree-clad hills? Barely! On Week 2 of the Journey, I hit Fethiye, a relatively tiny town tucked into Turkey’s southwest Mediterranean coast. Let’s pause for a moment and reflect on Week 2 of said Journey. I was […]
I’ve been called a glutton for hammam punishment, and perhaps I am. But who can resist, I ask, when absurdity, nay, downright DANGER lurks behind each scrubbing hand? Now, perhaps friends and family will remember my Moroccan Hammam experience (dirt roads, cement floors, Abu Ghraib-like room, naked North African women […]
Call me “Old One-Shoe, Brokeback Val.” Really, you can. And I dig it. Because that’s the short of my story in Fethiye. And because of the short, I’ve come to understand a good, long lesson. Arriving in the seaside town of Fethiye, I exhaled a sigh of relief on a […]
Today’s mantra: This is not a vacation. This is your life. And that’s a really good thing, trust. That said, I’m growing to realize that wrapping my head around this entire experience, and truly understanding it as my new reality will take a bit of doing — in a good […]
After packing up my apartment and moving into a storage unit, battling a virus that I can only imagine felt quite similar to the plague, and flying 8 hours next to perpetually screaming toddlers … I’ve arrived. First stop of the long-awaited trip is Istanbul, and thus far, the city […]