I’ve been staying busy with classes at the Smithsonian and wandering around DC with my camera.

My summer trip plans so far have me leaving the first week of June and escorting my parents to Bosnia, where I was born. I’m really excited about this part of the trip because I have so many relatives there that I haven’t seen in many years — it makes me excited and nervous at the same time. It’s like loving someone from afar.

I’m especially happy to be escorting my parents, who haven’t been back since before the war. This will most likely be their last trip to Bosnia, and it’s my first trip back with both my mother and father.

After visiting with relatives in Bosnia, I’ll make my way to the Adriatic coast, and plan on stopping on the island of Korcula (birthplace of Marco Polo) in Croatia, before going on to Montenegro.

Then comes the tricky part.

Surprisingly, there really isn’t a direct means of getting to Greece from the Adriatic coast — no boats from Croatia or Montenegro. I would actually have to take a ferry from Croatia to Italy — going in the wrong direction — and then take another ferry from Italy to Greece.  Or I could take a bus from Montenegro to Macedonia, throw in a side trip to Lake Ohrid, and then take an excruciatingly slow train from Macedonia to Thessaloniki. I know the train is excruciating because its how I got to Greece many years back, and I swear it traveled around 30 mph.

I could travel to Albania from Montenegro and then take a bus into Greece, but I’ve been told this is not the best option, so I’ve nixed it.

I’m hoping to have a travel epiphany while on the beach in Montenegro.

© 2010, Ithaka Bound. All rights reserved. Photos and text are copyright protected.

For most of the year, DC is either too hot or too cold with unbearable humidity, but nature gives us a reprieve in April and October.  It’s cliche, but the two weeks of the Cherry Blossom Festival really are the best time to visit.

The District takes on a surreal hue of bright pinks and vibrant blues.  You’re greeted with flowering canopies and streets are perfumed with falling petals. It’s like being in a dream you had as a child.

The festival commemorates the 3,000 cherry trees that the Japanese gifted to Washington in 1912.

Over the years, cuttings were taken from the original trees, so that the entire city, and parts of Maryland, are decorated with the beautiful blossoms.

This past week, temperatures soared to 90°F/32°C, so the blossoms came and went in a quick blaze of glory.

Most people who visit DC during the festival head straight for the Tidal Basin, near the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials. because it holds the greatest concentration of trees.  While this is true, those who venture into the neighborhoods of Northwest DC will be treated to a sight they won’t find at the Tidal Basin — giant weeping cherry trees:

President Obama has a Magnolia tree in his front yard:

If it gets really hot, you can duck into the National Cathedral for a cool break.

Me, I just wanted to practice using my new fisheye lens.

© 2010, Ithaka Bound. All rights reserved. Photos and text are copyright protected.

With all the brouhaha over cherry blossoms in DC, the most beautiful blossom around always gets overlooked.

The magnolia, people, the magnolia.

They’ve been in flower this past week, and the peak of their glory has already passed.  What a travesty that such a beautiful blossom should have such a short lifespan.  And with everyone rushing around the tidal basin snapping photos of cherry trees, the magnolia comes and goes without so much as an “Oh look at that”.

Can you tell I like magnolias?

Next time you’re in DC admiring the cherry trees (more on that in the next post), head up to the intersection of Wisconsin and Massachusetts Ave.  You’ll find a grove of magnolias there, in Bryce park —  big flowering trees that perfume the whole block.  As you sit on one of the benches reading a book, or just taking it all in, petals will be falling all around you, landing on your head and between the pages of your book.  I dare you not to be completely charmed.  When you return the next day (and you will), 70% percent of the petals will already be on the ground, carpeting the green in pink and white

The park is named after a former British Ambassador who “delighted in the parks of Washington”.

© 2010, Ithaka Bound. All rights reserved. Photos and text are copyright protected.

Praise the spells and bless the charms,

I found April in my arms.

April golden, April cloudy,

Gracious, cruel, tender, rowdy;

April soft in flowered languor,

April cold with sudden anger,

Ever changing, ever true –

I love April, I love you.

– sweet April poem by Ogden Nash.

Happy Easter to all who celebrate.

© 2010, Ithaka Bound. All rights reserved. Photos and text are copyright protected.

After the winter we’ve had in DC, I’ve decided that, in fact, I don’t want to participate in winters any longer.  I don’t want to hibernate like a big ole curmudgeonly brown bear.  I don’t want to break my butt slipping on ice patches.  I don’t want my skin to get so pale it glows in the dark.  I want to live in perpetual spring and summer.

I must devise a plan to bring this to fruition…

© 2010, Ithaka Bound. All rights reserved. Photos and text are copyright protected.

To utter a curse out loud was considered one of the most heinous things a person could do in ancient Greece.  A curse spoken was a curse given life and set on it’s course.  To the ancient Greeks, the spoken word carried a lot of power as it spun through the universe, gaining momentum, taking form, and becoming reality.

There seems to be verifiable proof that this ancient belief was in fact true — to a lesser or greater degree — and it’s something I’ve been pondering lately.  It started when I went to the midwest to visit family in January.  I was going through a closet filled with the remnants of my youth when I ran across some mementos from my first trip to Greece.

I was struck by the similarities between that first trip and the trip I took last summer.  Both trips were over approximately a four month period; my modes of travel were basically the same; and the accommodations I used were more or less equal.

There were also some glaring difference between the two trips, as one would expect from a separation so many years.  During that first trip, I was a college student who had worked part-time making less than $100 a week in order to finance the trip.  Last year, I had many years of professional work experience behind me, and, when employed, I made much more than $100 a week.

Greece was one of many European countries I visited on that first trip; I also went to Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria and Yugoslavia.  Last year, my trip was confined to Greece, one of the cheapest (and most beautiful) countries in Europe.

How, I asked myself, was I able to afford a four month trip through Europe while still a college student earning about $75 a week, with the same ease with which I traveled years later?

Do we will such things into being simply by stating our intentions out loud?  Is that how we breathe life into our wishes and desires?

I’d like to think so.

Travel is an honorable intention and a great teacher.  We can learn about art and architecture standing in Italian churches and Palladian villas, and have an epiphany on the equality of all religions while looking around a hindu temple in Malaysia.   Borromini can teach us perspective, and Caravaggio can show us how to master extravagance.  The Thai’s remind us of the beauty of good manners, and Middle Easterners can give us all lessons in how to treat a guest.

Happy travels.

© 2010, Ithaka Bound. All rights reserved. Photos and text are copyright protected.

There’s something so awesome about seeing Mother Nature fulfill her destiny this way.

And snow always seems to bring out the best in Washingtonians.

It purifies things.

And for a few hours at least, people have domain over the streets again, not cars.

© 2010, Ithaka Bound. All rights reserved. Photos and text are copyright protected.