à la carte spirit by ilona fried
travel
Goldilocks and the Three Lodgings
Goldilocks (whose hair is actually brown and silver) decided to visit San Francisco in early January to check out a different Feldenkrais program. After carefully considering whether to go or not, she didn’t have much time to arrange housing. Goldilocks has a highly sensitive nervous system, meaning she is more influenced by the environment than the average bear and, therefore, needed to … Continue reading
Panic Attack as Spiritual Smackdown
“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and will be lost.” – Martha Graham Towards the … Continue reading
Road Trip as American Camino: Finding “Finisterre”
Finisterre means “the end of the earth”. This town in Galicia, perched on a rocky outcropping, overlooks a seemingly eternal ocean. To explorers, it must have seemed like the end of terra firma, and it marked the terminus of my pilgrimage along El Camino de Santiago in Spain. At the Finisterre lighthouse, pilgrims burn a personal item from … Continue reading
Road Trip as American Camino: A chance to “shunpike’
The word “shunpike” just crossed my radar. From “shun” and “turnpike”, it originally referred to avoiding toll roads, but can now mean preferring lightly traveled country roads instead of highways, whether fee-based or not. El Camino de Santiago and a road trip offer a choice of “way”, both in terms of the different types of surfaces, and also … Continue reading
The Perils of Travel (and Food) Snobbery
Comparison is the thief of joy. – Theodore Roosevelt As a fairly well-traveled person with an educated palate, I once took pride in having sampled authentic cuisine in dozens of places around the world. Too much pride, at times. Having tasted what I thought was “the best” or “the truest”, I couldn’t comprehend how many Americans enjoyed meals that … Continue reading
à la carte spirit by ilona fried 
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