Topics

Oct

Discoveries: Serenity in Cities

by Joyce McGreevy on October 10, 2016

The Culture of Urban Quiet

Marit Krogh's "Seated Girl with Headphones" in Oslo, Norway exemplifies the potential discoveries in urban peace and quiet (© Joyce McGreevy)

In Oslo, Norway, Marit Krogh’s “Seated Girl with Headphones” evokes sound and silence.
© Joyce McGreevy

Ah, the quest for urban tranquility. “No man should live where he can hear his neighbor’s dog bark.” That’s how ardent ruralist Nathaniel Macon admonished city dwellers.

Macon was born in the 1750s, when 3 percent of the world’s population lived in cities. He also said those words while active in what some consider a major source of annoying noise, the U.S. Congress.

A sign for Quiet Street in Bath, England is one of the more whimsical discoveries in the quest for urban peace and quiet (© Joyce McGreevy)

Finding quiet is easy in Bath, England.
© Joyce McGreevy Read more...

Joyce McGreevy 1 Comment

Crossing Cultures/Discoveries/Worldwide Sites

Sep

So Far, So Fab, Sofia!

by Joyce McGreevy on September 6, 2016

Alexander Nevsky Memorial Church is one of the most popular sights in Sofia, Bulgaria. Image © Joyce McGreevy

Russian-inspired and relatively new (1924), Alexander Nevsky Memorial
Church has become the most recognized landmark in Sofia.
© Joyce McGreevy

Wanderlust Leads to Sofia

If you visit Sofia, Bulgaria, prepare for the inevitable response.

“Bulgaria? Bul-GAR-ia? Where IS Bulgaria, exactly?”

The only European country never to change its name, Bulgaria is in the Southeastern European peninsula known as the Balkans.

Balkan means “a chain of wooded mountains,” and Bulgaria epitomizes this. One-third forested and teeming in biodiversity, Bulgaria borders the Black Sea to the east, Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, and Greece and Turkey to the south. Read more...

Joyce McGreevy 15 Comments

Art of Travel/Crossing Cultures

Aug

WWOOF’s Homegrown Education

by Eva Boynton on August 22, 2016

Two women on a tractor at a WWOOF farm where they learn new skills and may develop into a global citizen. (image © Lizzy Eichorn).

From Traveling Farmer to Global Citizen

“Evvvvvvvaaaaaaa, tea time!” my New Zealand WWOOF host would sing to me each day at noon. It was time to return from the garden for a full plate of fresh garden yummies. And so our days on this organic farm progressed to dinner followed by guitar and accordion melodies from a French couple, WWOOF volunteers themselves.

WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) is a global work exchange program. Volunteers work on the farms, and WWOOF hosts offer food, lodging, and an organic education. You get to meet up with people from around the world and, together, you might do anything from A to Z: Read more...

Eva Boynton 4 Comments

Crossing Cultures/Nature Discovery/Worldwide Sites

World Views: