This is a story about faraway places and our relationship to the somewheres we dream of visiting. It’s also about the fact that we fly to New Zealand next Monday.
Some places on our planet seem to lend themselves to the imagination, that is to the image of the mind, to putting eyes closed and attempting to place yourself somewhere you’ve never been. Think about it: there are endless beautiful places on Earth that evince all manner of beauty, but among them, there are a few special places whose reputation so precedes them.
One of those places: New Zealand. Continue Reading »
This is a story about making peace with a squishy edible ball of sheep innards, and a song I rewrote to help me through the process.
I have a confession to make. I was afraid of haggis, almost deathly so. You could say I harbored an irrational fear of the stuff. Yes, haggis. Continue Reading »
If dreams really do come true, you could say that the Scottish Highland castle of Eilean Donan is proof.
Aye, the story — it goes something like this. Continue Reading »
Never let the facts get in the way of a good story.
– Mark Twain said it. Scottish storytellers live it.
This is a story…about story. Or rather, the importance of stories to the Scottish Highlands.
“There was an unwritten rule in the Scottish Highlands,” Chris, our driver and guide, explained. “If someone came to your house seeking shelter and food, you must welcome them.” Continue Reading »
In a typical European medieval town, its castle lay at its heart. In Edinburgh, however, its castle is its head — the head of a fish, to be more precise. The Royal Mile, the main thoroughfare of Edinburgh that spills from the castle forms a sort of spine of the fish to which many closes (alleys) are connected.
And although Edinburgh has evolved over the centuries, much of the Old Town looks like one imagines it might have centuries ago, like something you might have even seen in Harry Potter. Continue Reading »
Mystical and shrouded, Edinburgh Castle in winter afternoon light
Celebrations in the shadow of the Winter Solstice. They help us abide darkness and emerge from the shortest day of the year so that we may carry ourselves through deepening cold and, oddly enough, lengthening days until spring returns a few months later.
In this context, the measure of a place coming forth from this seasonal inflection might in fact be its celebration of the new year, and not only the energy with which it tackles this task, but also the tools it packs to do so. Edinburgh, and its new year’s celebration, Hogmanay? No different.
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Filed Under:
Travel by Daniel Noll
This is a year-end journey of appreciation and reflection. Of lessons and learnings. Of people and places.
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Filed Under:
Motley Mots by Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
As Christmas and the new year approaches, we’d like to wish you and yours a very happy holidays from what was a snowy Berlin (damn you, warm front!).
Before we go offline for the next couple of days, we have a couple of announcements for you: our upcoming New Year’s celebrations at Hogmanay in Edinburgh and a giveaway featuring some of our travel photos.
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Have you ever returned to a country and felt you were visiting for the first time, the experiences and locations so utterly different than before? That was our recent visit to Nicaragua. Continue Reading »
We just celebrated. An anniversary. Six years. On the road. Why am I addicted to sentence fragments?
Celebrating our 6-year anniversary on the road in Nicaragua — with a break, a bench, a sunset.
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