#12 on top of the world, meteora

taken: 7-8 May 2015

it's funny how after all has been said and done, all that remains is - not facts; not details - is the memory of how you felt at that moment.

and in that moment, i felt: the growing bruise in my toes, from hiking in cheap shoes; the heat radiating off the pink skin on my face; the beat of my heart pumping and my lungs expanding to keep up.

most of all, in that moment, i felt on top of the world.

#11 cappadocia

taken: 18-19 May 2015

the thing about travel is: just when you're exhausted from an overnight bus ride ending at 4am, in need of a shower and a warm bed, feet aching, and starting to ask: why? -- the answer reveals itself. always.

in this case, it appeared in the form of slowly rising balloons in the crisp morning air, backlit by the golden sunrise.

#10 snowy hokkaido

taken: 10-16 Dec 2013

hokkaido in december is a blanket of snow. it reminds me of this quote by heather wolf: "kindness is like a warm blanket of snow, softly covering and gently touching the heart." when i first saw the quote, i wondered: how can snow be warm? but perhaps the sight of snow, contrarily, warms the heart as it transforms the landscape into a pure-white sight. it is the feeling of watching snow flakes lightly dance with the wind, before falling and forming one more stitch in the blanket.

of course, no trip to hokkaido would be complete without sampling their food - king crabs bigger than your face, creamy orange uni, fresh sashimi, and red-as-blood strawberries.