In 1981, I went to Spain with my school for a ten day tour. While we were there, a classmate named Annette was obsessed with getting a pair of shoes that she could say were from Spain. At every stop, she skipped the souvenir shops and headed straight for any shoe shops she could find. Continue reading “Travel Shorts – France”
Month: July 2013
Travel Shorts – Moscow, Russia
In June 2010, I did a train tour of Scandinavia that ended in Russia. For my departure, I made the mistake of booking a very early flight and the airport in Moscow is over an hour outside the city.
Unless you had my taxi driver.
Yup. It was three in the morning, pouring rain and the road was more like a back country secondary road than an interstate. And my taxi driver was in a bigger hurry than I was.
He did 160 kph all the way.
I was too afraid to ask the driver to slow down. I didn’t want to distract him.
He made the trip in forty minutes. Continue reading “Travel Shorts – Moscow, Russia”
Never Forget Srebrenica
Our calendars are filled with anniversaries. For the most part, they are dates set aside to celebrate or remember a specific event. They are also an opportunity to educate.
Thursday, July 11, 2013 is the eighteenth anniversary of the Fall of Srebrenica. On that day in 1995, the Bosnian Serb army invaded the town and subsequently murdered more than eight thousand men and boys. More than 6800 have since been positively identified through DNA and 5657 have been buried at the memorial site in Potocari (as of July, 2012). This week, four hundred more will be laid to rest in Potocari.
Beaumont Hamel Day
Today is Canada Day.
In Newfoundland, July 1st is also Beaumont Hamel Day. So, in addition to waving the Maple Leaf and popping off fireworks, we also remember a battle that shaped our identity as a people. Continue reading “Beaumont Hamel Day”