Ibn Ibn Battuta

'One Frenzied Weekend in Fes' on Matador Abroad

My post "Water, Water Everywhere, No Time to Stop and Think" has been re-published here by the Matador Abroad travel site. The piece, which I consider one of my best from our time in Morocco, details the peculiar events of one very culturally enlightening weekend I spent in Fes, soon after our arrival in Fall 2008.

I sent in the piece several weeks ago in response to a call for submissions, and was happy to hear that it was published today, accompanied by several of my photos. While the editor added a new title ("One Frenzied Weekend in Fes") and shaved off my Casablanca reference in the last line, I'm very happy to see my writing reach a larger audience.

On the Highways of Abyssinia

One of a few final posts looking back on last month's visit to Ethiopia.

Amid the office towers of downtown Addis Ababa is a massive expanse of macadam - Meskel Square. The square, formed by the intersection of 12 boulevards, resembles a colossal mall parking lot, and is the heart of Ethiopia's highway network. From this hub, the country's roads extends outward in all directions, deteriorating gradually as they grow further from the capital. Paved roads peter out and dissolve - first to gravel, then to rutted dirt tracks.

Outside of Addis, many of these roads were too bumpy to allow for reading,

Spicy Fingers: Notes from an Ethiopian Eating Adventure

One of a few final posts looking back on last month's visit to Ethiopia.

I first ate Ethiopian food when I was 14, during a class trip to a restaurant back home in Baltimore. In my memory, the food was peculiar but delicious. Injera, the purplish-grey spongebread with which the food was served, had a sour taste but I gobbled it up ... and soon felt it expanding in my stomach, swelling with juices and making me feel ready to burst. (Admittedly, restraint is not my forté at the dinner table.)

Last month, having finally reached Ethiopia myself, I dove enthusiastically into

Amharic: A Language Apart from a Land Apart

One of a few final posts looking back on last month's visit to Ethiopia.

Though geographically landlocked, culturally speaking Ethiopia is an island, distinguished from its neighbors by its unique history, ethnicities, cuisine, calendar, and most of all by its language.

Amharic, the mother tongue of the Amhara (Ethiopia's dominant ethnic group) and official language of the country, is central Ethiopia's uniqueness. Though technically a Semitic language (and thus distantly related to Arabic, Aramaic, and Hebrew), Amharic seemed to me to share few roots or words in common with those languages.

The Moment You've Been Waiting For: Ethiopia Photos

Pictures are finally here! (and a few videos too!)

Now that Jacqueline and I are back home in the Land of Internet, I've been able to sort through and upload photos for all my previously posted Ethiopia entries. 

Especially for those readers without a mental image of what Ethiopia looks like, the pictures can add some valuable context to each story - check them out. As always, hover over a photo to view the caption. Start at the beginning and proceed in sequence, or view entries individually:

Mulling It Over or: I Lost My Passport in Kombolcha

Soon after our return to Addis Ababa and our subsequent decision to return to the US, I dug around for my passport so we could head to the airline offices. Not in that pocket, nor in that pouch, nor in that bag. Hmmm...

The passport, it turned out, was in a hotel room back in Kombolcha, a long day's drive northeast of Addis. The hotel promised to hand it off to a driver who was heading this way, and told me to sit tight.

So I sat. I sat for a whole day in the lobby of our hostel on Mundy Street.

The wait - in a country with such abysmal internet connections - finally provided

A Great East African Odyssey, Abbreviated

From Lalibela we drove a day to the town of Kombolcha, from where it took the better part of another full day to reach Addis Ababa. Our northern road trip was over, and it was time for Jacqueline and I to decide on our next move.

The plan, of course, was to continue south overland, to Kenya and beyond. But since our arrival in Ethiopia, Jacqueline's desire to travel had been rapidly waning, due to a perfect storm of factors.

First, Ethiopia had racked up quite a few strikes in her book: the fleas, the higher-than-expected costs, the unfamiliar and unvarying food, the shoddy hotels, and the long rides on rough roads.

Lalibela: Sacred Spaces from Another World

The Seven Olives Hotel rests on a hillside overlooking the town of Lalibela, in north-central Ethiopia. Jacqueline parked herself there for two days, relaxing and reading on the terrace beside our room, taking three meals a day at the restaurant, and generally trying to forget about her long ordeal with the fleas.

Having sworn off all further visits to Ethiopian monasteries, churches, chapels, and cathedrals, she stayed behind each morning when I set out to explore Lalibela's main attraction: the famous rock-hewn churches.

In the late twelfth century, present-day Lalibela was known as Roha, and was