Portugal’s path to becoming a world power started in Porto, an outpost of the Roman Empire, on the Douro River in Northern Portugal, and the origin of the name “Portugal” …
Lisbon Was Our Introduction to Portugal
Joseph Campbell, the mythologist, introduced us to the idea that most myths share a common pattern — the hero’s journey — a hero who goes on an adventure, and in …
A Side Trip to the Republic of Georgia
Almost two years ago, when we started to plan our trip, the Republic of Georgia wasn’t even a faint blip on our radar screen — I barely even knew it …
Santayana Was an Optimist
We really liked the Baltic States and found the people we met to be among the nicest, warmest, and friendliest we have met during our travels, but we were troubled …
The Baltic Way
titleI have only a few memories of growing up during the cold war, and one of them is a scene from one of the cold war propaganda films I saw …