Tag Archives: Mediterranean

Ashes and blue skies: a Palermo travelogue.

Posted on 01/10/2020 by awtytravels

Warm air rushes in to fill the plane. We disembark by row, adhering scrupulously to the new socially-distant orthodoxy, ditching jumpers and jackets as we do: summer might be a distant memory where we left off, washed away in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Europe, Italy, Sicilia | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 30 Comments

Coastal escapism.

Posted on 01/03/2020 by awtytravels

I needed out. Out of walls, weapons, checkpoints and people convinced of being on first-name-terms with God. I needed a place where bigots were rarer than pandas, alcohol plentiful and the attitude on weed lax. I needed Tel Aviv. Tel … Continue reading →

Posted in Israel, Middle East | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 21 Comments

Beirut people watching.

Posted on 23/06/2018 by awtytravels

Humanity is the best spectacle, in this city where gated communities rub shoulders with bombed-out, charred shells. Pneumatically-enhanced bimbos and babes driving Dodge Camaros on one end of the spectrum and ragged Syrian children tapping on their rolled-up windows for … Continue reading →

Posted in Lebanon, Middle East | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Approaching Beirut.

Posted on 06/06/2018 by awtytravels

Beirut, Paris of the East. Beirut, mother of laws. Beirut, the city that can be Rio, Miami and 1943 Stalingrad all within the same block. Beirut, the filthy. Beirut, the ironic (another French legacy I suspect). Beirut, you’ve got the … Continue reading →

Posted in Lebanon, Middle East | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 17 Comments

Leaving it all behind: a journey to Jaffa and the coast.

Posted on 15/10/2015 by awtytravels

Jerusalem on a Shabbat is as close as the initial sequences of 28 days later as it can get. Empty streets, only a few hours before riddled with busy pedestrians and erratic motorist, stretched in every direction. No buses, no … Continue reading →

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Sunset in Zadar

Posted on 03/09/2015 by awtytravels

We rolled down from the mountains, through caves and gorges, towards the sea, as if driven by an invisible force. Zadar was our goal, an old Venetian town built on a small peninsula, a natural battleship moored in a landscape … Continue reading →

Posted in Balkans, Croatia, Europe | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Two minutes of Napoli

Posted on 15/12/2014 by awtytravels

Today one of the guys who hosted me in Napoli shared this beautiful video with me on Facebook. It’s called Two minutes and is a montage of many smaller videos, a few seconds long, showing different corners of what is, … Continue reading →

Posted in Campania, Europe, Italy, Napoli, Overlooked locations | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

“À Marseille, on ne se tracasse pas” – Part II (Le Panier)

Posted on 10/12/2014 by awtytravels

Stepping into the Panier brings a certain feeling of déjà-vu and it’s easy to identify where I had all seen it before. It’s Napoli. Napoli, like Marseille, was founded by the ancient Greek as bases from which to continue their … Continue reading →

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“À Marseille, on ne se tracasse pas” – Part I

Posted on 07/12/2014 by awtytravels

That’s what the security guard at the entrance of the Musée des Civilisations de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée told me with a big smile as I was fretting over my backpack’s zippers (you can never find the buggers when … Continue reading →

Posted in Europe, France, Overlooked locations | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments