travel – Page 9 – Casteluzzo

Philippines, Part 15: All’s Well that Ends Well (Manila and Home)

March 11, 2011January 14, 2017Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Here is the long-awaited ending to the story of the summer we spent traveling in the Philippines, baby in tow. If you are just joining us, or have missed a previous episode, you can find them all right here:

The Rip Van Winkle of Tunisia

February 23, 2011April 11, 2011Sarah Bringhurst Familia

I haven’t yet finished telling you about my birthday trip. When we awoke the next morning, Tony tried to track down a 4WD vehicle so we could drive out to some of the more inaccessible Berber villages. The hotel employees told him he actually didn’t need one. And more to the point, they didn’t have one and couldn’t find one. So we set off slowly and carefully, to visit the village of Chenini. Even when one is not visiting an actual Star Wars site, that part of southern Tunisia looks a lot like Tatooine. The sandy brown color is exactly right, and there are all sorts of little dwellings that look like they might harbor jawas or sand people.… Read more

In Search of the Jedi

February 21, 2011December 15, 2011Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Despite our generally-kept resolve to lay low and work on the business (for both productivity and safety reasons), Tony surprised me on Friday with a birthday trip extraordinaire. We were going down south to visit Tataouine (nope, I didn’t misspell it. George Lucas did), which Lonely Planet describes as “the spiritual home of Star Wars.” So we packed a couple of bags and a guidebook, and set off into the backwoods of Tunisia. Have I told you yet what a charming and varied country this is? Tunisia in February is already deep into the heart of spring. In between the evergreen olive groves, we passed fruit orchards in full bloom, and bright green fields covered with a sprinkling of tiny white and yellow flowers.… Read more

Female and Foreign in the Middle East

February 16, 2011April 11, 2011Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Today I had been planning to write a funny, lighthearted, slightly mushy late-Valentine’s Day post about my most useful accoutrement these days: my husband. I’ve been noticing lately that the difference between walking around as a single young woman in the Middle East and walking around on the arm of your husband is pretty significant. I have to say that I vastly prefer the latter. But my playful mood evaporated when Bridget’s blog alerted me to something truly stomach-churning that happened last week.

If you are female and foreign in the Middle East, regular harassment by the opposite gender is a fact of life.… Read more

The Longest Distance Between Two Points

February 1, 2011April 11, 2011Sarah Bringhurst Familia

When last I wrote, we were still a little jittery about flying into Tunisia less than a week after the President flew out. By now though, we’re pretty pleased with our good sense in moving to Tunisia just after a revolution rather than to Egypt just before. Impeccable timing, don’t you agree? In all seriousness, though, I wish the very best for the Egyptians in their political journey, and hope that this will be a new dawn for them and their beautiful country.

Our apartment, when our actually quite nice taxi driver dropped us off, was as beautiful as the pictures we’d seen of it on our latest favorite website, No Marmite in Tunisia.… Read more

Getting to Tunisia

January 29, 2011April 11, 2011Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Although we came here with reckless abandon in the wake of a revolution, Tony and I did at least have the decency to feel a little jittery on our arrival in Tunisia. After the exhilaration of finally getting on the train, and the beautiful ride over the mountains from Italy to France, our first really bad moment was in the Nice airport. Our flight had been delayed for a couple of hours without explanation. So we sat for a long time at the departure gate, entertaining our tired but hyper children and vividly picturing any number of disastrous events that could very plausibly be suspected of delaying our flight.… Read more

Our Next Great International Adventure

January 25, 2011April 11, 2011Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Apologies for my recent silence. I hate to leave you all without suitable reading matter (although there are always my voluminous archives). But as usual, I have good reasons. I’m writing this from Tunisia! So, we’re not out manning the barricades or marching in the streets, but still. We’re in Tunisia. Remember last week when I blogged about the Tunisian revolution? Well, my obsession with recent events in Tunisia was more than a little motived by the fact that we had plane tickets to land in Tunis on Saturday, January 15th, less than 24 hours after the President fled the country.… Read more

Philippines, Part 14: Trouble in Paradise (Malapascua)

January 13, 2011January 14, 2017Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Good morning, and welcome back to our Friday in the Philippines. I hope you’ve enjoyed the new header photos, which come from the Philippines. I’ve noticed a lot of extra pageviews, and I suspect my faithful readers of refreshing the page to look at the pictures rather than to read my clever words. Shame! Last week we kissed neither tarsiers nor bats during the Bohol Choco Tour. If you missed that episode (or any others), links can be found here:

Philippines, Part 13: The Chocolate Hills (Bohol Again)

January 7, 2011January 14, 2017Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Last week we had our first monsoon and were almost marooned on a desert island. Check out that and other past adventures here:

Philippines, Part 12: If You Were Stranded on a Desert Island . . . (Panglao)

January 1, 2011January 14, 2017Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Last time we destroyed Tony’s personal luggage and discovered a serious case of Travel Guide fraud in Philippines, Part 11: Nuts to the Huts (Bohol). If you’ve missed a previous episode, you can find them here:

From Bohol’s capital of Tagbilaran, we took a long, hot, slow, noisy, bumpy ride on a motorcycle sidecar to little Panglao Island, which is connected to the main island of Bohol by a land bridge.… Read more

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