The Truth is in the Road

It all starts with a Pumpkin Spice Latte. I can pretend as much as I want to that the astronomical summer still has almost two weeks to go, remind myself of the upcoming heat brought by Santa Ana winds, or reminisce of the last year’s boiling November. Yet as soon as PSL returns to Starbucks menu, I know I have to bid an official farewell to the summer. This time I was postponing the moment for as long as I could. Spoiled by warm Spanish nights, I was still cherishing a hope that we could somehow squeeze the balmy Andalusian warmth into our suitcase, somewhere in between the bottle of 2010 red discovered in Granada and my new carefree dress bought in Seville, and that we’d manage to smuggle that warmth into California. Metal detectors will fail to find it, we will “forget” to mention it on our customs declaration, no one will ever now. We have a chance. During the layover in Chicago our baggage got lost. We were waiting for it till the very last bag at LAX, then spent 15 minutes ex...

Recently I've developed a hard-to-keep-secret obsession with farmers market, and I am enjoying every moment of it.  It seems that I've never derived so much satisfaction from waking up early, walking up the stairs on Arizona Avenue and entering the magical world that unfolds in Downtown Santa Monica every Wednesday morning.  I buy a few peaches and a cup of chocolate macadamia coffee and run around with my phone camera, spying on the life around me, absorbing colors, smells and sounds.  I marvel at the buckets overflowing with stock flowers and buttercups. I meditate on grapefruits, tight with juice and glowing in the morning sunlight. I peak at the big fragrant loaves bread, resting heavily in baskets covered with unbleached linen. I get lost in the deep greenery of the bundles of spinach, arugula and Roman lettuce.  Most of all, however, I revel in observing people. Thin elderly ladies carrying canvas totes filled with leeks and artichokes. Sturdy ...

I did not have any expectations of the city. I compiled a list of twenty-something items to see and experience, and tossed away the attempts to imagine how those items might manifest itself in reality. Until the very morning of the departure, I held on to the bliss of denial, and it didn't dawn on me that I was going to a different country until I was on the way to the airport.  When you have no expectations, the reality surpasses the highest of them. When you are not looking for anyone particular, you encounter the people you’ve been awaiting for years. When you let the road guide you, it brings you to the most wonderful destinations. Our road brought us to Istanbul. Istanbul welcomed us with innumerable tulips and a gorgeous sunset. It charmed us tirelessly, and we fell in for this charm without resistance. It gave us a cozy little apartment to stay overnight and countless sights to explore during the day. It woke us up at dawn with overlapping ...