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GC Columns

Curated, expert insight and advice to help make the most of your travels.


THIS MONTH

Letter from the Founder

TRAVEL TIPS

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SOCIAL MATTERS

GC Faves


 BLOG ROLL

Browse our latest articles and discover stories to fuel your travel passion.


This Month, Social Matters Fran Glaria This Month, Social Matters Fran Glaria

A Very Important Road Right Outside My Door

The sound of the group was much quieter and there were only jokes at night around the campfire. I personally started to enjoy walking by myself in silence. I started to appreciate the sound of the warm summer wind, I never realized that the wind sounds different in the cold of winter. The tweeting of the birds would guide me on each step. I loved how nature was whispering into my ears.

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This Month, Travel Tips, GC Faves Susan Brown This Month, Travel Tips, GC Faves Susan Brown

Scotland’s Pilgrimage Route That You Might Never Have Heard Of

Scotland is home to a pilgrimage route that is up there in terms of importance with the better known routes to the popular disciple destinations of Rome (St Peter) and Santiago de Compostela (St James the Great). Why ? Well, the town of Kilrymont, or St Andrews as it was renamed, was home to some of the relics (bones) of St Andrew, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus and brother of St Peter.

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Social Matters, GC Faves, Arts and Culture Fran Glaria Social Matters, GC Faves, Arts and Culture Fran Glaria

The Extraordinary Life of Saint Francis Xavier

Ignatius had sensed the generous soul and great potential of this young man. He wanted to bring the best out of Francisco. In the end, Ignatius convinced him to join in and help create the Order of Jesus or The Jesuits. All the strength and vitality that Francisco showed for worldly life, he poured out when he joined Ignatius and began his spiritual life. The man who would become a saint embarked on great journey to the East to spread the Good Word of God.

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Arts and Culture Fran Glaria Arts and Culture Fran Glaria

The Royal Holy Mary Cathedral of Pamplona

Gothic cathedrals such as this were built with the purpose of trying to reach God and to let the light of God embody your soul. This temple achieves this beautifully. Inside, you will find a very elegant and slender cathedral illuminated by the sunlight coming through stained-glass windows. It is almost mystical.

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Social Matters Liz Lister Social Matters Liz Lister

Centuries of Communities on Iona

Iona is a small island lying off the west coast of Scotland. Measuring just four miles in length and one mile at its widest point, this is a special place. A spiritual place. A liminal place where the veil between the spiritual and the material world is thin—a threshold.

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Travel Tips Fran Glaria Travel Tips Fran Glaria

The Road to Santiago

The Camino de Santiago is above all, a personal experience. No matter if you walk with your friends or with your partner, the rhythms of walking are different and there will be many miles where you bounce along with your thoughts. The Camino will change you for life. Do it for whatever reason inspires you, religious, spiritual, tourist, sports…regardless of how and why you start it, you will end it as a different person.

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Arts and Culture Roberto Bechi Arts and Culture Roberto Bechi

Is Rebirth Utopian?

Being a guide, I am also curious about the idea of rebirth in history. Almost everyone in the Western World studies the Italian cultural and artistic Renaissance, which of course has at its root the word for rebirth. Historians, though, do not tend to love the term, because although there is a clear cultural movement during that period, no cultural idea “dies”—nothing is reborn.

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Arts and Culture Fran Glaria Arts and Culture Fran Glaria

Saint Ignatius of Loyola

He discovered a dimension of the world that he had never noticed. He saw how his previous motivations were vain, mean, and absurd when he placed them in front of the greatness of God. Those earthly pleasures and honors, even if intense, were momentary, while spiritual ones endured. He concluded that God was giving him a new opportunity. He rethought his life and became Ignatius.

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Arts and Culture Reid Coen Arts and Culture Reid Coen

Balinese Cremations

A cremation day is characterized more by fun and laughter than mourning. The community is helping to achieve their sacred duty: liberating the soul of the departed and freeing them to reincarnate. In Bali’s unique form of Hinduism, the body is only a shell—the vessel of the soul.  After death, the soul lingers near the body until being liberated by fire. Through cremation, the soul is released to be reborn.

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Arts and Culture Jorge Roman Arts and Culture Jorge Roman

Spain’s Semana Santa

These days, the public journeys through the streets with dedicated volunteers hoisting the weight of ornate floats on their shoulders, carrying the religious figures through crowds of the faithful followers to their local parish. Those who want their sins forgiven must pay respect to their saints of devotion, parading behind the floats on their respective days of the week, depending on the cofradía they belonged to. 

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Arts and Culture Roberto Bechi Arts and Culture Roberto Bechi

Faith: An Unceasing Celebration

The word “celebration” has its origin in the latin Celebrò. We can translate that as “gathering together” or “an assembly,” both of which are precisely the type of activities that Covid-19 is preventing us from doing! This prohibition inspired me to reconsider the subject of celebrating from an alternative point of view—religious celebrations.

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Arts and Culture, Social Matters Liz Lister Arts and Culture, Social Matters Liz Lister

Clootie Wells

As you travel around Scotland you may spot a very strange sight that is likely to stop you in your tracks: hundreds of strips of cloth—or cloots as they’re known in Scotland—tied to the branches of trees. These are called Clootie Wells and are places of pilgrimage that link us to Celtic ancestors over countless generations. 

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Arts and Culture Reid Coen Arts and Culture Reid Coen

Magic in Bali

One of the most interesting and alluring aspects of Bali is the authentic place of magic in Balinese life. The root of this reality is found in their Hindu-Animist religion. Stone age Balinese Animism—the worship of the spirits of nature and ancestors - has changed little even down to the present day.

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Women, Religion, and Politics in Egypt

As a woman, I cherish the hard-earned rights, freedom, and respect that my gender enjoys in America and throughout the Western World.  We've come a long way in the last century, but we still face challenges and work diligently to hurdle them.  And because we recognize the value and contributions of women, no matter where they live, we want all women to savor the same opportunities we have.

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