In the historic Sultanahmet district of Istanbul, in that open space between the Aya Sofia and the Blue Mosque, I have many memories. My first time backpacking — a three-week trip through Turkey and Greece in 1997 — ended here. So did a 14-month trip from Beijing to Istanbul in late 2004. And in between […]
My Parents Met On An Airplane
Milenka, age 35: My parents met on an airplane. They are both from Chile. My mother was a flight attendent and my father was traveling for work. The flight had a problem and they had to stop overnight in Brazil to fix the plane. Anyway, they got married in 1976, when the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet […]
The Emptiness Aboard Lufthansa #586 to Cairo
Lufthansa was flying a larger than normal aircraft on the Munich to Cairo route this morning, February 1, 2011. Still, there weren’t many people — maybe 30? — sitting at the gate for flight 586 when it came time to board. The small group consisted of prominent journalists (Katie Couric and David Muir), tight-budgeted freelancers (e.g., Joel […]