I began writing my Travel Letters during the summer of 2001 while on holiday in The Balkans. My intention was to document the trip and share some experiences with my family and friends. Since that summer I have mailed more than two hundred letters from Asia, Australia, Europe and South America.
Quite unintentionally, the letters have evolved into more than simple documentation and entertainment. Do they educate just a little? Since I am a teacher, this evolution was inevitable.
Soon after I purchased my Lonely Planet Argentina travel guide, I wrote a strong letter to the editor. I told him I was disappointed that the front cover, the spine and the inside cover neglected to indicate any reference to Uruguay. The small Uruguay chapter is at the very end of the book and appears to be just an afterthought.
The editor responded with some silly explanation but will consider my recommendation for the next edition. (I checked. The latest addition is modified per my comment.)
Forty years ago, in 1972, my father Otto decided to draw a Polatschek Family Tree. He wrote to his sister Ida Kiewe in London and to his cousins around the world to gather information.
I’ve just returned to Miami after a five day excursion to the South. Of course, Miami is in the South of the United States. But with the large population of Latin Americans and hordes of retirees from colder cities, Miami feels more like “Northern Havana or Southern New York.”
I visited the real South – the South of biscuits and gravy and sausage patties and buttery grits for breakfast, Bar BQ pulled pork and pecan pie for lunch, and a Golden Corral (monstrous) buffet dinner – steak, fish, salad bar, vegetables and side-dishes of every description, soft serve ice cream with all the toppings. The pièce de résistance is a tower-fountain of free-flowing chocolate sauce.
Forty years ago, in 1972, my father Otto decided to draw a Polatschek Family Tree. He wrote to his sister Ida Kiewe in London and to his cousins around the world to gather information.
