The Nice Thing About Strangers

Creative Non-Fiction Short Stories. :) Travel, Oldsters, Love, and Compassion.

Mostar

I’m going through notebooks from my first trip to Bosnia-Hercegovina so I can use some of it in a novel I’m trying to finish. There’s something very humbling about re-reading my detailed record of … Continue reading

September 30, 2015 · 14 Comments

On The (This Isn’t A) Road

Trying to get back to the chapel, I find a sign that points vaguely at two different roads. Perhaps it’s Robert Frost’s eyebrow-raise that points me to the red rocky … Continue reading

March 5, 2014 · 14 Comments

Five Reasons To Travel Alone

After several requests for tips or hints about solo travel, I’m breaking a bit from the usual quick tales for a Five List. Feel free to let me know if … Continue reading

January 17, 2014 · 29 Comments

The Impatient Italians and the Fighting Irish

In Medjugorje, there’s a crowd of people entering the church, praying at the grotto, climbing steep hills in prayer. It’s a place of retreat, usually quiet, usually peaceful. This morning … Continue reading

December 6, 2013 · 21 Comments

Cheers.

At the border crossing from Croatia into Bosnia, my bus pulls to a stop next to a bus parked and pointed in the opposite direction. There’s an elderly couple in … Continue reading

November 6, 2013 · 10 Comments

Packs of Blondes

Originally posted on The Nice Thing About Strangers:
Granted, it was a small sample, but from the Turkish TV dramas I’d  watched in passive attempts to learn the language, all…

October 14, 2013 · 4 Comments

Places I’ve Gone on Account of a Book

I read a book one day and my whole life was changed…Where were the kindred spirits with whom I could talk? Where was the country in which I’d find the … Continue reading

October 11, 2013 · 12 Comments

Just Enough

Post-fender-bender, the two men pull into the bus station parking lot to inspect the damage. Those of us waiting for buses watch with delight any activity that may pass the … Continue reading

October 7, 2013 · 10 Comments

Can we (at least) slow the pace of disappearing?

This moment, he thought, would not be remembered by anybody but him, and one day it would vanish from his memory too. -Aleksandar Hemon. Nowhere Man. (Book finished in Südbahnhof, … Continue reading

November 26, 2011 · 4 Comments

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.