Travelogue

I don't think of myself as much of a traveler, but in spite of that I've somehow managed to do a fair bit of traveling.  Here are some of my pictures from various trips around the world.

San Juan River 2019  |  La Herradura 2019  |  Utah 2017  |  Leiden 2016  |  Edinburgh 2015

Vienna 2015  |  Selçuk 2012   |  Vancouver 2010  |  Mytilini 2009  |  Scotland 2008

San Juan River, Utah 2019

My brother the river guide landed a permit to lead a private raft trip down the San Juan River in southern Utah. * Pictures TBA *

La Herradura, Spain 2019

Another school trip, this time as a chaperone, for a week in Mediterranean Spain. Can't complain. 

Looking down on Granada from the Alhambra

The barracks in the Alhambra

Alhambra gardens

The fortress in Almuñécar

A farm in the small coastal town of Maro;
notice the old signal tower on the next hill over

An evening in Pampaneira

Rugs for sale in the Pampaneira town square

Looking out over Pampaneira

Utah 2017

I had to visit my brother before he and his wife left their home in Salt Lake City. We spent a few days driving all across Utah and seeing as many National Parks as we could squeeze in. Also, we listened to the Pens win the Stanley Cup on the radio.

Natural Bridges National Park

Arches National Park

Arches National Park

Arches National Park

Canyonlands National Park

Canyonlands National Park

Canyonlands National Park

Canyonlands overlook

Bryce Canyon National Park

Bryce Canyon National Park

Hiking in the mountains near Salt Lake City

Hiking in the mountains near Salt Lake City

Leiden, Netherlands 2016

 I spent a week at the Leiden summer school taking courses in Indo-European studies. I pulled through one course in Sanskrit and mostly skipped out of another course in hieroglyphic Luwian, but gave my full attention to a fantastically fun course in Greek papyrology. When I wasn't in classes, I spent most of my time bird-watching in the park.

Central Leiden

A lovely canal in Leiden

Along my daily walk to the university

My path home from the university goes through the park

A perfect moment in the park

I could almost believe this was a picture of home

Phragmites in their natural habitat

An undisturbed haven, right on the border of the bustling city

Grey herons everywhere!

Scotland 2015

In December 2015, I delivered another linguistics talk abroad, this time at the University of Edinburgh. I took advantage of the trip to re-visit some old haunts, and to see a few new places.

Beautiful light on the shores of Loch Lomond

The weather over Loch Lomond turns stormy

The Ochils in December

Stirling Old Bridge

An afternoon above Stirling

Vienna, Austria 2015

In the summer of 2015, I delivered a talk at the East Coast Indo-European Conference at the University of Vienna.  My trip wasn't long, but I did manage to spend an afternoon at the Schönbrunn Palace, which I had long admired in pictures before I got the chance to see it in person. The trip home was extremely memorable. I don't think I will ever again spend 10 hours of my birthday in a Russian airport. 

The Palmenhaus at Schönbrunn Palace

Inside the Palmenhaus

A rooftop view of the Vienna skyline, from the University

Selçuk, Turkey 2012

While I was in grad school (for the first time) in Boston, I went on a school trip during spring break to a town called Selçuk in western Turkey, which is the site of the ancient city of Ephesus.

The Library of Celsus in Ephesus

The Caves of the Seven Sleepers (near Ephesus)

The Temple of Artemis at Sardis

Ruins at Aphrodisias

The stadium at Aphrodisias

The Odeon at Aphrodisias

Vancouver, Canada 2010

I met my best friend from undergrad over our mutual love of Stargate. In the summer of 2010, we went together to Gatecon (the then-annual Stargate convention) in Vancouver, BC.  Before the Con started, we spent a few days exploring the area around Vancouver, taking a ferry and camping out. 

Mytilini, Greece 2009

After graduating with a double major in Linguistics and Classical languages, a friend and I celebrated by taking a trip to the island of Lesbos in Greece. In many ways, it turned out to be a dreadful trip, though I can't exactly recall why. Thankfully, I mostly remember just the good parts.

Scotland 2008

I spent the spring semester of 2008 studying abroad at the University of Glasgow. It was my first time ever on a commercial airflight, and I went away totally on my own for 5 months. That's the way to do it! I probably didn't spend as much time traveling around as I should have done, but I truly did appreciate just being there and taking it all in.

Although I saw many more epic and memorable sights over the course of the 5 months I spent in Scotland, scenes like a humble canal path take me back there the most. I spent a huge part of my time just walking from place to place and getting to know the city like the back of my hand. My ten-minute walk to Tesco's followed this canal path. During the 45 minute walk to some of my classes, I learned to silently recite Lepanto by G.K. Chesterton in its entirely. There's no better marching poem in the world.

During orientation with the other students from abroad, I won a 3-day trip to the Isle of Skye by doing the best...ahem...Loch Ness Monster dance. In other words, by being the most willing to totally embarrass myself in front of a huge crowd of strangers. An uncomfortable two minutes in exchange for a three day tour of the north and a lifetime of memories? Utterly and eternally worth it.

When we got to Portree, the rest of my group spent our lunch hour cooped up in a pub. No doubt they made more friends than I did, and their lunch most likely tasted better than the apples and stale peanut butter sandwiches that I had packed for the purpose, but that hour was probably my favorite part of the whole trip. I hiked up to the high point in town, where I had the most fantastic views of the port and the chance to feel the wind in my hair and the dirt beneath my feet.

We went home by way of Fort William, at the bottom of Loch Ness. The light was amazing. I also saw my first-ever oyster catcher (albeit a dead one) as I strolled along the ramparts.

I took a bus up to Inverness with a few friends over a weekend. I probably annoyed them to no end by spending hours wandering through the maze-like ruins of Urquhart Castle, long after they were ready to leave. I don't blame them. It's not a very big place and they got bored quickly. But I could have spend a week there, especially if I'd had a good book to curl up with on a crumbling castle wall.

When my brother came to visit for a week, we took a trip to Arbroath where our grandmother's family supposedly hails from. Neither of us really had any idea what to expect, as it was more about the whim of tracing family roots than about visiting a tourist site. So we were very pleasantly surprised by the gorgeous scenery that we found when we got there. We spent a long, leisurely afternoon hiking miles along the coast of rocky cliffs and smuggling coves.

Without a doubt, the highlight of my semester was a solo trip that I took to the Isle of Staffa just as my time abroad was coming to a close. On the way, I spent the first night in Oban. The train ride to get there, through flowering hillsides and loch-filled valleys, was like taking the Polar Express in springtime. When the train pulled into the station at twilight it was like wading through a fairy city in a dream.

To get out to Staffa, we had to cross Mull and Iona. The abbey on Iona was in the middle of reconstruction, but I didn't mind missing out on the tour. It was all about ambience. Bright sun on the water and fresh, still-crisp spring air rolling in from the sea.

After Iona, I took a second ferry up to Staffa. The much-vaunted Fingal's Cave (Scotland's more intimate version of the Giant's Causeway) was the first stop. It was, admittedly, very cool. But after we visited the cave for the obligatory photo-op, then we were set loose to roam the island at will. I clambered up top and viewed the cave from above, and ran around the grassy knolls of the rolling island with bare feet.

It was still early enough in spring that going about in bare feet was *almost* chilly, but the sun had warmed the dewy grass and shallow puddles of sea spray. It was the first time I had gone barefoot after a long, dark winter. The warm breeze blowing in from the shining sea was exhilarating. I felt the ultimate joy and freedom of being on the edge of the world. As we only had an hour to explore, I never did make it to the other end of the island, where (so I was told) I could have seen puffins on the sea cliffs. Instead, I spend all my precious time just breathing it in. Aragorn's words in Lothlorien came to mind, unbidden: "Here my heart dwells forever."