Short stories and photos shared with humor and love
Though I still can't pronounce it, I believe Oia (EE-ya?) may be the most beautiful city in the world. Also, I love my sister, And, I have an extremely well-developed sense of Catholic guilt. Combined, these three things led me to race a bunch of donkeys up a mountain on a hot afternoon, and to [...]
Lush beaches, fertile citrus groves and rich monuments give a gorgeous contrast to the stark political situation in Cyprus. The island nation owns the dubious distinction of having the only divided capital city in the world. A "green line" separates Nicosia's northern half, occupied by Turkish Cypriots, from the southern half, inhabited by Greek Cypriots. [...]
On Monday morning, April 27, we stood on the edge of the Sea of Galilee and looked out. To the left rose Golan Heights, to the right Galilee. All over Israel, sirens rang out and people stood still for two minutes, in remembrance of the Holocaust and its 6 million victims. We landed by coincidence in [...]
One week before Israel celebrated Yom Ha’atzmaut, its national independence day, we toured a 2,000-year old symbol of the awful sacrifice made to achieve it. Masada rises like a golden monument above the Judean Desert, its proud columns and bright frescoes narrate an elegance more than 2,000-years old. The sturdy stone walls that surround the [...]
Our pilgrimage to Israel began four years ago, following a scary diagnosis and a very specific recommendation. “You should take your daughter to the Western Wall,” my mom’s friend Sam, a retired Israeli soldier, told her, after hearing that my sister Kathy had been diagnosed with breast cancer. My mom, who lights candles in almost [...]