A perfect day in the Alps

Last weekend, a friend took me on a beautiful hike to the Lac Blanc in the Aiguilles Rouges, mountains on the opposite side of the Charmonix valley from the Mont Blanc massif.  We were lucky to have a cool, sunny day with clear views on a weekend day in October.  The setting was splendid and the unforgiving-looking mountains across heightened my respect for the mountaineers who climb them.

Some pretty unforgiving peaks on the opposite side of the valley

View of the Mont Blanc and one of the Lacs des Chéserys

Our hike took about three hours on the way up and about two on the way down and had ladders to help  ascend/descend in some of the steep and rocky stretches.  At the Lac Blanc, which sometimes offers photogenic reflections of the mountains opposite, we had a picnic lunch.  It was too windy to get a reflection from the lake, but the setting was still stunning.

Lac Blanc, the surrounding mountains are beautiful on their own but have some stiff competition

After our hike, we met up with my wonderful Geneva hosts for a drink in Charmonix.  They had traveled up the cable car to the Aiguille du Midi that day and also had stories to share.  It’s hard to imagine a much more perfect day in such a magnificent place (though for several days after my calves argued forcefully for taking an easier route).  Thanks for taking me and I look forward to returning (and hopefully soon)!  

Le désalpe

It’s that time of year... (that is, if you live in northern hemisphere temperate latitudes) 
     ...when the days get shorter,
    ...the leaves start to change color,
    ...you can eat lots of pumpkin and squash,
    ...and the COWS come down from their mountain pastures!!

Ok, this last one happens mostly in the alps (where I’m currently hiding out), and here it’s celebrated with style.  The cows are decorated with flower headdresses and pine boughs and the goats wear leis of crepe paper flowers.  My Geneva-based friends arranged to check out the désalpe at Charmey (in the Swiss mountains between Montreux and Fribourg) the last weekend of September.  On the main street through town, an announcer called out each troupe as it passed by the keen crowds, highlighting the number of stock, the owners’ history in the region, their pasture and (for all of the groups) how their health and the quality of their pasture helps them produce such flavorful milk.  Some of the groups has been walking for hours before arriving in Charmey and occasionally were running slightly behind schedule.  A steady rain kept the crowds to a minimum but the atmosphere remained festive.  Alpenhorn players performed, as did a brass band and a group of teenagers walking with cacophonous cowbells.

Parading though Charmey

Throughout the town, there were handicraft and kitsch sellers and food stands offering sausages, local ham sandwiches, chalet soup ladled from huge cauldrons, raclette, and plenty of drinks.  The dessert on offer was merangues in heavy cream.  Most importantly, there were also quite a few local cheese vendors.  We picked up some gruyère d’alpage, tomme de chèvre d’alpage, and a fresh goat cheese.  The “alpage” cheeses are made with the milk that the goats and cows produce when they are in the summer highland pastures.  The quality of the grass makes these cheeses particularly perfumed and different tasting (even though it comes from the same animals) as compared to the milk produced when they are in lowland barns during the winter.

Soupe du chalet

After the festivities in Charmey, we stopped in the lovely medieval town of Gruyères.  The town buildings were picturesque and views out over the valley below were cloudy and misty, but usually you can see the surrounding mountains of the Gruyères region.  The désalpe (or démontagnée in France) festivities stretch over a couple of weeks around the beginning of autumn depending on the town.  Other festivals we read about this past weekend included ones dedicated to apple cider, donkeys, and cows sparring for troupe supremacy, so there’s plenty to explore even once the cows have come home.

View from Gruyères castle

Splendid Turkey

When my friend and I started planning a 10-day trip to Turkey, friends gushed about nearly every destination we were considering. Once I arrived, I understood why. People were extremely nice to us (as in over the top, give you anything you ask for nice). One hotel owner arranged for two express mail legs to help me retrieve my laptop power cord and another gave me his SIM card so that I could take a phone call for an interview (or offered to drive me to the town nearby where they were sold). I am deeply grateful to the people who made our trip so memorable, from the waiter who taught us a card game to the friends of my travel companion who took us to lovely local places for dinner and drinks on our last night. So now it's my turn to highly recommend a trip to Turkey.

It was hard to decide where to go within Turkey, as many destinations offer appealing combinations of scenery, history, and culture. We ended up dividing our trip into three days visiting ruins and the beach on the central Agean coast, three days in Cappadocia--an area of fascinating landscapes and early Christian history--and of course, Istanbul.

Library of Celsus, Ephesus

Izmir, Ephesus, and Çeşme - We flew into the lovely, modern airport at Izmir to visit the coast and Ephesus. The ruins are Ephesus are well preserved and definitely worth a visit. They are also the major tourist draw on the Agean coast, so be prepared for tourist and cruise ship throngs. Çeşme might have had this atmosphere too a week earlier, but when we arrived students were going back to school and the town felt perfectly like a resort area in the off season (with still-warm breezes and water). The Çeşme peninsula has several towns and even more beaches. We visited Altinkum (golden) and Ilica beaches and found good food and views everywhere we visited.

Cappadocia “fairy chimney” ancient dwellings

Busy ballooning morning

Cappadocia - Cappadocia has dramatic scenery with funky carved churches, underground cities, and hot air ballooning. In the beautiful tourist hub town of Göreme, many of the “cave” hotels are built into the valley walls and offer scenic views of the town. There are several valley walks around Göreme and the nearby hilltop town of Uçhisar. We visited the Göreme Open Air Museum, which contains cave dwellings and carved churches, and Uçhisar Castle, commanding a splendid view over the surrounding area. We also ventured to one of the underground cities, where thousands of people could defend themselves, living in the warren. It’s difficult to imagine what life must have felt (and smelled) like in these corridors. Taking a balloon ride was a highlight of the visit.

Hagia Sofia interior, Istanbul

Istanbul - The city is even more beautiful and interesting than I imagined. It is also huge and has a sophisticated transportation network and pretty bad traffic. The main tourist sites are concentrated in a small, walkable area of the city. I would recommend seeking out dining options outside of the Sultanahmed tourist center. The basic tourist sites easily fill several days (Hagia Sofia, Blue Mosque, Grand bazaar, Topkapi Palace, Roman cistern, Spice market, Bosphorus cruise, Galata Tower) and are beautiful and fascinating as one might expect, but we were occasionally overwhelmed by the crowds. I was surprised by how safe, clean, and organized the bazaars felt. We visited the hammam at Cağaloğlu, which was nicely restorative, but it seems its renown has undermined the need for service quality. On my last day, I visited Adalar, or the Prince’s Islands. The boat ride out showed me the extent of the city beyond the tourist center and made me want to explore the everyday Istanbul further. 

Practical information:

• Turkey’s currency is the Turkish lira, but hotel prices are often calculated and charged in euro.
• Several airlines fly a wide variety of domestic routes. We took three domestic flights with Pegasus and were pleasantly surprised to find online bookings easy, limited hidden costs (visible before you click to purchase; don’t bother to pay to select your seats), and good service on a low-cost carrier. They even let you check 15 kg of luggage. Other domestic carriers include Atlasjet, Onurair, Sun Express, and Turkish Airlines. 
• Our bus experiences were very positive, with on-time departures and great prices. 
• During high season in Istanbul, book lodging in advance. There are many small hotels, but many book up weeks in advance and you won’t want to wander around with your baggage to inquire as the museums and architecture beckon. 
• Room rates generally include wifi access and breakfast. The quality of the buffet options ranges, but all seem to offer tomatoes, cucumbers, cheese, bread, boiled eggs, and olives. 

Friends recommended Bodrum and Pamukkule to us, but we didn’t have time to make it to either place. If you’ve been to them, please share! 

More photos. 

A touch of non-fiction: cognition and construction

I enjoy mixing reading a mix of fiction and non-fiction works as each type helps me enjoy the other more.  I recently finished a pair of non-fiction books on cognition and judgment and the construction of the Panama Canal, respectively.

In Blink, by Malcom Gladwell, the author uses practical examples and provides detail in compelling ways.  To me, Blink read mostly the way pop science should: enough information to get interested in a topic but moves along quickly and offers plenty of references if you want to explore more.  The overall message of the book, however, seemed a little confused to me.  Gladwell starts off by arguing people have amazing abilities to make snap judgements, then points out that experts in many fields base their quick judgements on a wealth of knowledge that they often employ unconsciously.  His example of police officers misjudging a situation highlights the limits of our quick judgements and looks at some of the systemic and environmental factors that affect rapid cognition.  I found myself wishing for more examples that showed more of the categories or nuance of when and why snap decisions are effective (or not).  Overall, the book is a quick and easy read and each of the studies Gladwell employs is interesting in its own right.

While I was in Panama, back in November, a fellow traveler recommended The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal 1870-1914 by David McCullough.  Several days later, in a shared taxi, another traveler gave me a copy, which was coming apart at the spine.  I fixed it up with some packing tape, but had to finish it before I departed Haiti because I didn't have the space in my luggage.  It turned out to be a fascinating read, recounting the political, technical, and social challenges and realities of the canal's construction.  The first book covers the original surveying and the French attempt to build a canal.  The second book is mainly political, following the United States' eventual decision to take over the canal and Panama's assisted independence. The third book looks at the engineering, social, and medical challenges addressed during construction.  The book often focuses on the personal qualities of some of the important players, but also tries to explain what life was like for the different kinds of canal workers and how it evolved in Colón and Panama City during the canal construction.  It's an enjoyable, engaging read despite the length.

Having visited the Miraflores Locks, Gamboa town, and the dense, lush forest nearby increased my interest in this book, but it would be an enjoyable read for anyone curious about any of the questions raised (or answered) by the canal construction.  As a warning, it will probably make you want to visit Panama.  Enjoy!

Miraflores Locks, Panama Canal

Alaska!

I was born in Alaska; my parents lived there for nearly ten years.  I remember very little if anything at all but had heard stories and names and seen pictures while growing up.  This summer, more than 23 years after we left, I went back with my parents as tourists.  We visited longtime friends of theirs and their old houses and two phenomenally beautiful national parks.  Here's a summary of our trip with a few pictures and travel recommendations.

Anchorage is the big city with more than 40 percent of the state's residents in the metro area. The Chugach Mountains rise directly behind and continue for more than 200 miles down the coast to the east. We stayed with my parents' longtime friends who treated us phenomenally well and took us hiking in Chugach State Park and around Independence Mine.

View along the Alaska Railroad

Next, we headed to Seward via the Alaska Railroad, which also connects Anchorage with Whittier and goes north Fairbanks via Talkeetna and Denali National Park.  Current passenger railroad service is for tourists, slow, scenic, and pretty expensive.

Seward is surrounded by snowy peaks and Resurrection Bay and offers quick access to Exit Glacier and the Harding Icefield trail.  We missed the Exit Glacier part of Kenai Fjords National Park, but got to explore another part by staying at Kenai Fjords Glacier Lodge.  The lodge is on native corporation land and is beautifully built into a wooded area off Aialik Bay, approximately 50 nautical miles from Seward.  Guest cabins and the main lodge building have a view across Pedersen Lagoon to Pedersen Glacier.  From the lodge we canoed and walked to an upper Pedersen Lagoon, filled with melting icebergs from the glacier, and saw black bears and otters along the way.  Another day we kayaked to Aialik Glacier and watched it calve into the bay for hours.  The lodge was comfortable and had great good and we were extremely lucky to have three sunny days in a very weather-prone area.  On the boat rides in and out we saw puffins, sea lions, humpback whales, porpoises and seals.

Rounding Aialik Cape headed back to Seward

Lodge with reflected view of Pedersen Glacier

Sea lions diving along our ride to the lodge

We picked up a rental car on our way back through Anchorage and headed to Fairbanks, Alaska's second largest city and my (parents') former home.  We spent most of our time catching up with my parents' friends who still live there, but also got a chance to visit the University of Alaska, Fairbanks' Museum of the North and Large Animal Research Station (LARS), home to Muskoxen, Caribou, and Reindeer.  Both stops were informative and seemed like some of the more interesting things to do available in Fairbanks.

Bumper sticker at LARS, I got one to take home

Muskox at LARS

Finally, we had three-and-a-half days in and around Denali National Park.  We thought our weather luck had finally run out, but were lucky enough to get some in-and-out views of Denali's North Peak.  We rode into the park on the shuttle buses two days, which was lovely when we could see out the bus windows.  The rides were like school bus safaris, with 40 people looking for wildlife.  The prime wildlife areas seemed to be from Toklat to Eielson, which requires a 6 to 8 hour roundtrip bus ride.  One day we rode all the way to Wonder Lake, but the most spectacular stretch was up to Eielson and nearly 11 hours on a school bus (even with breaks) is a long time.  We walked from Savage River one day and to the Mt. Healy Overlook another day, both of which offered lovely scenery and were accessible by car.  I couldn't believe the scale of the landscapes in the Alaska Range or how the Chugach seemed to go on forever.

Mama grizzly and cubs in Denali NP

Denali (McKinley) North Peak

I'm hoping to visit parts of the Brooks Range and/or Wrangell-St. Elias National Park on a more adventurous future trip. 

Paris, deliciously or scandalously

In the last several months I've read three books by Americans who have lived, eaten, and adventured in Paris.  They seem to have had a lot more fun than I did while I was there and tell marvelous stories.  

A bakery in my old neighborhood

The protagonist (heroine) of Elaine Dundy's The Dud Avocado, Sally Jay Gorce, is strong, somewhat self-destructive, and hilarious.  Her adventures are far from realistic, though apparently she is based on the author's own larger-than-life time in Paris.  You hope for her to make it though and you feel her lurching from one precarious situation to the next, always off balance and always on the move.  The heroine's thoughts and actions seem all the more remarkable when you consider the book was first published in 1958.  This is a fun read and you don't need to remember too many characters or plot items to enjoy the language and tempo.

Sally Jay Gorce lives very differently in Paris than did Julia Child, whose memoir, My Life in France, (with Alex Prud'homme) also tells her fascinating story of Paris in the 1950s.  I enjoyed meeting Julia, as she introduces herself, but also reading about the drafty windows, good meals with friends, and attitudes in Paris that reminded me of living there.  Her story is one of hard work to accomplish something impressive. (I was grateful of her acknowledgement of the setbacks and discouraging moments.)  I find her inspirational for her choice of a project, for the determination to stick to it for years and for the attitude of enjoyment and appreciation she brought to observing, eating, and writing. 

In The Sweet Life in Paris, David Leibovitz recounts cultural encounters and plenty of eating in Paris.  His stories are interspersed with recipes, few of which I've tried.  His vignettes are entertaining but they aren't so unique if you've read Peter Mayle or David Sedaris' cross-cultural accounts.  I liked Leibovitz for who he is, the rather neurotic chef who makes fun of himself well and eats even better.  I prefer drooling over his blog entries, which introduce readers to restaurants and dessert shops in different cities worldwide.

Skyline from my dear friend's apartment

If you're missing Paris or looking for a cheaper alternative to a plane ticket (or time machine), you might enjoy any of the above.  All of them will make you laugh and may even help you see Parisians or their food a little differently. 

A Familiar Setting

I recently finished reading three books set in Haiti that show different ideas about and experiences of this place.  I enjoyed The Comedians the most of the set (probably because it was the most political) but I also liked the variety of voices in Haiti Noir.

The Comedians, by Graham Greene, is set in Haiti under François Duvalier (Papa Doc), written by the owner of the fictional Hotel Trianon (based on the Ollofson).  It’s a clever but saddening satire of politics in Haiti and elsewhere, but sometimes hit too close to home.  A few bits and pieces I found interesting are included below.

“Your first refugee, Excellency,” Hamit said. “I was half expecting you, Monsieur Philipot.”

“Oh no,” the young man said, “not that. Not yet. I understand when you claim asylum you have to make a promise not to engage in political action.”

“What political action are you proposing to take?” I asked.

“I am melting down some old family silver.”

“I don’t understand,” the ambassador said, “Have one of my cigars, Henri. They are real Havana.”

“My dear and beautiful aunt talks about a silver bullet. But one bullet might go astray. I think we need quite a number of them. Besides we have to deal with three devils not one. Papa Doc, the head of the Tontons Macoute and the colonel of the palace guard.”

“It’s a good thing,” the ambassador said, “that they bought arms and not microphones with American aid.” (p.131)

This excerpt represent my idea of the book; there’s conflation and the sense that political talk is often cheap and has more to do with playing a role than really addressing an issue.  Action, however, involves significant risk and is often best left to others.

“Perhaps the sexual life is the great test. If we can survive it with charity to those we love and affection to those we have betrayed, we needn’t worry so much about the good and the bad in us. But jealousy, distrust, cruelty, revenge, recrimination…then we fail. The wrong is in that failure even if we are the victims and not the executioners. Virtue is no excuse.” (p.139)

I liked this reflection.  It’s spoken by the most sincere character and seems useful for a place and time in which other structures are falling apart.  

“No, I don’t despair, I don’t believe in despair, but our problems won’t be solved by the Marines. I’m not sure I wouldn’t fight for Papa Doc if the Marines came. At least he’s Haitian. No the job has to be done with our own hands. We are an evil slum floating a few miles from Florida, and no American will help us with arms or money or counsel. We learned a few years back what their counsel meant.” (p.232)

This sentiment is repeated in other ways elsewhere in the book.  Living in Haiti, I completely agree that any solutions to Haitian problems will come from Haitians and not from foreigners.


The title of The Rainy Season: Haiti then and now, by Amy Wilentz, promises some insight into or at least reflection on the current political situation.  Instead, it captures a variety of events Willentz lived or observed while she was in Haiti in the 1980s.  I like the way she devotes significant time to ordinary people she meets along the way in addition to those with a role in Haitian history.  For me, the dinner parties or the discussions between journalists that she recounts weren’t nearly as interesting since they remind me of my own limited view of politics and developments here.


Haiti Noir is a short story collection edited by Edwidge Danticat.  Some of the stories seem predictable, others seem overly gruesome, and in still others you see the characters’ care for one another.  It’s fascinating to see what authors with a connection to Haiti imagine or sensationalize about this place to create mysteries.  The publisher (Akashic) had a neat idea of creating these collections set in all different places and although this is the only one I’ve read, I figure the fears they illustrate vary greatly.