How we ended up at the Prophet Elias Monastery on the top of Mount Eros is still a mystery. As we crossed from Athens to Hydra by ferry, our boat tossed about like a cork in a typhoon while attendants… Read More ›
Places we’ve been
Why Eger means so much to Hungarians: Geza Gardonyi’s The Eclipse of the Crescent Moon
Mention Eger to a Hungarian and expect some amount of fawning, “You’ll love it, make sure you visit the castle.” My friend, Szabi, told me, “Julie, if you are going to Eger, you must read The Eclipse of the Crescent… Read More ›
Barnabás Fehér – The Keeper of the Mád Synagogue: Nearly 70 years later, a Catholic man honors his murdered Jewish friends
Barnabás Fehér was napping on his outdoor swing as we approached his home for our appointment to visit the synagogue. A cluster of fruit trees shaded him. Come late summer, these trees will produce a harvest from which he augments… Read More ›
The Characters of Mád, Hungary
Mád, Hungary is little more than a dab on the eastern Hungarian landscape – a tiny town among hundreds of time worn villages sprinkled across rural Hungary. We came to Mád to visit the beautiful and distinctive baroque synagogue. Little… Read More ›
A Mix of Anxiety and Freedom – Riding the Trains of Central Europe
Our trips across Central Europe always start with a train. As we head out from the Keleti station in Budapest, we move into a world where very few speak English – young and old alike. To make matters worse, there… Read More ›
The World In Between 