Category Archives: Travel

Was It A Morning Like This?

Posted on March 31, 2024 by Joel D. Hirst

There is one place that is central to our human story: Jerusalem. In about 2000 BC, Abram (to become Abraham) was instructed by God to leave Ur (south-east Iraq today) and go to the promised land, the holy land. He … Continue reading →

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My Donations Page is Live!!

Posted on January 7, 2024 by Joel D. Hirst

Hi all! So I decided to try and do something new. I set up a “donations” page on my site. Seeing if maybe I can raise some money to help grow it a little. I thought of doing a substack … Continue reading →

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Merry Christmas 2023!

Posted on December 24, 2023 by Joel D. Hirst

In what’s become a bit of a tradition, I’m again writing down some reflections this Christmas. This year has been a little nuts. The last three years have given us four globe-altering; administration defining disasters: the Afghanistan fiasco; Russia/Ukraine war … Continue reading →

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Reading My Novel While Hiking #Armenia

Posted on September 2, 2023 by Joel D. Hirst

Super excited to see Land Cruising Adventure will be reading my Armenia novel “An Excess of Nationalism” while hiking the TransCaucasian trail. It’s actually perfect because the novel is about an old writer traveling Armenia too. I’ll certainly be waiting … Continue reading →

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A Pilgrimage To Jerusalem

Posted on August 5, 2023 by Joel D. Hirst

The tinny clanging of the samovar rang against the hard stones of the Via Dolorosa in the Arab quarter of Jerusalem and up along the alley walls into the heated air above, accompanied by the angry shouting of an old … Continue reading →

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A Little About Iceland

Posted on July 1, 2023 by Joel D. Hirst

We just got back from a week in Iceland. It was our first post-COVID overseas tourist trip — time to get back on the horse! But gradually; someplace wild and beautiful and exotic, but Europe, too, after all. Iceland was … Continue reading →

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The Blind Traveler

Posted on December 26, 2022 by Joel D. Hirst

About two-hundred years ago, during the golden age of the British Empire and exploration, there lived a man named James Holman. Holman was born into the new English merchant class; his father was a pharmacist. During those days, there were … Continue reading →

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I Should Be Writing My Armenia Book

Posted on September 4, 2022 by Joel D. Hirst

This essay represents a failure, not complete for I remain optimistic but certainly a success deferred. I should be writing my Armenia novel. Each passing day, it gets a little harder. My parenthesis utopia is moving deeper into the past, … Continue reading →

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A Parenthesis Utopia

Posted on May 29, 2022 by Joel D. Hirst

One of the difficult lessons I learned from COVID and beyond (because the world won’t be the same, at least not for us) was how futile efforts at utopia are. When COVID hit in February 2020 I was living in … Continue reading →

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My Last Night in Yerevan

Posted on May 13, 2021 by Joel D. Hirst

The quiet hum of Ashtarak highway reverberates in the background; the wind rustles the trees, new leaves – excited to show them off after a long cold winter. The city, away down into the valley buzzes with life: restaurants and … Continue reading →

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