Sophie’s World

… right here. A great little town - with a really cool bookseller.

The Sydney Morning Herald Online, that little glimpse from the other side of the world, continues to feed me with inspiration and reminders – even those that have nothing to do with Oz.

Today, my eyes were drawn to an article about Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe’s opposition leader, who has just been arrested for political rallying against Mugabe.

What a sad story that country has become. I won’t go into the political bit, except to say the end can’t be that far away. So hang in there – and my thoughts are with you.

I’m happy to recall some good times in Zimbabwe, though. To me, it’s been the place where “just hanging” has meant just that. I particularly remember a day spent doing absolutely nothing but sit on a crate in Mbare market in Harare. I’m normally much too restless to do nothing for any length of time – it usually bores me silly and I just don’t enjoy it. An hour or two, maybe – but never an entire day. But that day, I just sat on that crate and watched life happen all around me. Every once in a while, someone would stop by to chat or to sell popsicles or boiled eggs. Everything I needed just came to me. It was great!

It’s been almost 10 years, but that day is still so vivid. Oddly, this is one of my fonder travel memories.

My article about Lesotho is published and can be found here. I've also submitted it for an anthology of travel stories. Cross fingers! It's been a few years since this Southern African journey. It was a great trip and I'm ... [Continue reading this entry]

is up and running on BnA - and has been for a little while. The Ancient City of Nessebar and Bulgaria's Southern Black Sea Coast