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Jun

Wanderlust in Waiting

by Joyce McGreevy on June 29, 2020

People walking in Piazza Trento e Trieste, Ferrara, Italy, a vibrant place recommended for a visit in the author's travel planning tips for Italy. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Have you had to walk back your travel plans?
Above: Piazza Trento e Triste, Ferrara, Italy.
© Joyce McGreevy

Travel Planning Tips for Italy (& Other “Delayed Gratification” Destinations)

You can take the girl out of the travel, but you can’t take the travel out of the girl. Like many people today, I’ve put international travel plans on pause, but that hasn’t changed my love of journeys. My wanderlust for Italy is simply waiting in the wings.

Make that on the wings, whether those of a spacious Dreamliner or a petite Britten Norman Islander, a plane so small you basically wear it. Read more...

Joyce McGreevy 2 Comments

Art of Travel/Italy/Language & Culture

Jun

On a Wing and a Dare

by Joyce McGreevy on June 15, 2020

A flight attendant and a passenger keeping an air travel diary during the pandemic wear face masks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Planes are flying again, but are passengers?
© Joyce McGreevy

An Air Traveler’s Diary in the Pandemic

I love flying. As a pilot’s daughter, I’ve always felt at home in the sky. But airline travel in a pandemic? Opening my travel diary, I scrawl something I’ve never felt before: I dread the airport.

Ballyshane, Ireland

When the world went into lockdown, I was pet-sitting in Ireland. I had a guest cottage, the solitude writers crave, and nature’s beauty. Who’d leave that to fly on a wing and a dare?

But I missed my family, which had grown by three since I’d left the U.S. Read more...

Joyce McGreevy 16 Comments

Ireland/Life Lessons/Rides (Land, Sea, Air)/USA

May

Cultural Sayings or Quarantine Quotes?

by Joyce McGreevy on May 26, 2020

A gate in Istanbul evokes the Turkish proverb, "Kind words can unlock an iron door,” a reminder that in the context of the pandemic, cultural sayings have take on a new relevance as quarantine quotes. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

“Kind words can unlock an iron door.”—Turkish proverb
By doing our best for one another, we’ll get through this.
© Joyce McGreevy

Old Proverbs Help Us Cope with the Pandemic

Anonymous, that endless font of wisdom, once said, “There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full.” This contemporary proverb appears in busy workplaces and hectic households, wherever humans gamely endeavor to keep life on track—even in crisis.

Anyone experienced a crisis lately? A calamity that’s disrupted your schedule for months? Raise your hand. Oh my, 7.8 billion of you? I thought it was just me. Read more...