Author: Ms. R.

This stucco and stone exterior feels visually out of place with its colonial surroundings in Panama City‘s historic Casco Viejo neighborhood. The reason for this is that the church is actually from the much older city of Panama Viejo, and was transported from its ruins. Located 12 kilometers away from Panama‘s historic city center, Panama Viejo is the oldest city established by European settlers in North America, dating back to 1519. Panama Viejo was destroyed in 1671 during an……

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About a mile from Walt Whitman’s birthplace is Jayne’s Hill, located in West Hills County Park in West Hills, Long Island. Although Whitman only lived in the house where was he born for the first four years of his life, he frequently returned to the area, where his family had roots for more than a century. On his visits, he enjoyed wandering the grounds of what is now the park, climbing up to what is the highest peak on……

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Literally in the middle of the woods, you come across this tiny bookstore just off a road that overlooks Acadia National Park. Contained in a tiny shack, you walk in to see shelves filled with books and simply leave your payment in a tin on the table. It was created by Bill Henderson, the founder of independent publisher Pushcart Press,  who dubbed the Sedgwick, Maine, outpost “the World’s Smallest Bookstore.”…

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The death penalty is outlawed in most of the world these days, and has been for so long that many people can’t remember the times when it was not. In Sweden, this was 1862. The gallow hill was the main punishment site of Stockholm, dating back to sometime in the 17th century. (Before that there was another site.) It is about an hour’s walk away from the city center and back in the day death row prisoners would walk from……

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Gandantegchinlen, or Gandan as locals and visitors alike refer to it, was once one of the only permanent buildings in this city of tent-dwelling nomads. It served as the main Buddhist temple here until the communist era when religion was suppressed and most Buddhist temples in Mongolia were destroyed. The monastery was originally established in the early 19th century outside of Khüree (now known as  Ulaanbaatar). Its name translates as ”the great place of complete joy.” The monastery complex is……

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Years ago, in a bombed-out museum in La Plata, Argentina, I was offered yerba mate by a complete stranger. A winter chill whistled through the front wall left exposed by a tank, whilst a woman continued to warm water into her mate and offer it to those in the room. The hot burst of bitter liquid drew an invisible line connecting everyone in that gray, somber space. Mate is a caffeinated, tea-like infusion made from the dried leaves of……

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You may have heard about the Normandy American Cemetery in France, where 9,388 U.S. soldiers are buried for their sacrifice to help liberate France. But in Virginia, at the battle site of the Siege of Yorktown (1781), there is a grave of some 50 French soldiers who lost their lives in that fight that resulted in the independence of the United States. Around 8,000 French soldiers joined the colonial soldiers fighting in Virginia, and along with 29 French warships,……

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