Any Excuse to Travel

Stories from travels in

September 2014

Patience – an undervalued virtue

I’m as guilty as anyone for undervaluing both my own work and that of others. I tend to overlook the time it takes to do

Comments and their consequences

Dining out alone one evening lately, I got into conversation with a couple of Canadian tourists who were on a driving holiday through the region.

What makes an Irish pub Irish?

I’m fussy about my pubs. I’m even fussier about foreign pubs that claim to be Irish. They need to be Irish owned with at least

The uncomplicated joy of being

I was reintroduced recently to the joy of simple living and reminded that the value of simplicity is something we’re in danger of overlooking as

A history of unrest

Not that long ago, the hive of activity that is Taksim Square in the European part of Istanbul was in the news all over the

A fish out of water

I’ve never been more aware of the fact that I am partial to a glass of wine or two than when I was in Istanbul.

The coffee commitment

There’s a saying in Turkey that a cup of coffee commits you to 40 years of friendship. That’s some commitment. I grew up with instant

Talked into it

I detest shopping for myself. I hate it with a passion that is so unwomanly I occasionally wonder if I was a man in all

Ostrich eggs and spiders

I thought the Golden Horn was a piece of land, not a body of water. I never knew that Istanbul straddled two continents. And I’d

Shoeshine scam

Way back, many moons ago, in my first year at university, I came across two guys I knew from third-year Engineering debating which word best