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Elvis Standing By
 
We nestled into our flat and grew to feel at home with its coziness, its simple furnishings and well-equipped kitchen. We enjoyed evenings at the pub, the Abergavenny Arms, and got to know a few of the villagers. By our third stay at Deep Thatch—it was 2004—we were regulars and our arrival was like a homecoming.
 
Alice Lowe

 

The Eye of the Shadow
 
There is no sound quite like the wail of an approaching gale as you sit at anchor, but if you imagine standing in a dark subway tunnel and hearing the rumbling approach of an invisible speeding train as you stand on the dark edge of the tracks, you'd be close; it rushes at you from afar, a distant wail at first, and then it closes quickly, filling the air with a rumbling roar that consumes all of your senses.
 
James McV

 

Lithuania: Filtered Light
 
On the tour's first full day, we meet dark-haired Simonchik. At 27, with a degree in finance, he has turned down lucrative business opportunities to help sustain Vilnius's 5,000 Jews. He ushers us into a soup kitchen, where 25 or 30 elderly Jews, Holocaust survivors, sit at tables, more interested in their food than in gawking visitors.
 
B.J. Yudelson

 

El Gran Cacao
 
"They speak of mad dogs and Englishmen," he says, smiling proudly. "But I think a Venezuelan can also have this illness."
 
William Reese Hamilton