Marrakech, Morocco

In Morocco, where the language is Arabic, they are called babouches. Where do you find them? In the souks. What are they made from? Morocco. What kind of an answer is that? Consult Meriam-Webster. [2010]

Valetta, Malta

If Malta is the "land of honey," then these are honey bees. But, their honey is Cisk, the nectar of the island nation, now with an export market, but penultimately Maltese. Cisk: lager beer since 1928. [2009]

Valetta, Malta

Don't discount the role of food and drink in nation-building. Malta doesn't. For indigenes of the archipelago, there is a preferred alcoholic beverage: Cisk. And, there is a preferred non-alcoholic beverage: Kinnie. Devotion to Cisk and Kinnie define what it means to be Maltese. [2009]

Suomenlinna Island, Finland

In Finland but in English: "Passport Control." Small countries struggle to maintain their identity, linguistically and otherwise. Even the Suomenlinna fortress in the background tells of Finland's struggle to survive. It was built by the Swedes to keep Finland from being taken by the Russians. [2005]

Antalya, Turkey

"Wait till my ship comes in!" Is that what these casuals are thinking as they watch the boats entering and exiting Antalya's harbor? The black-pants dude, though, is going to miss it entirely if he doesn't get off his cell phone and fix his eyes on the horizon. [2014]

Cardiff, Wales, UK

Places often use literature to make their genius loci feel at home. That's what Cardiff has tried to do by replicating John Masefield's "Cargoes" on its waterfront. Seen here: 'a cargo of ivory and apes,' trade in which we today deplore. It's an example of dialectical tension between past and present. [2005]

Canillo, Andorra

In times past, Pyrenean shepherds wandered up and down the Valls d'Andorra tending their flocks. Today, snapshots from that bucoloc past have become identity stones of Andorran nationhood. The formerly feudal fiefdom has transformed itself into a modern urban nation, but the rural past continues to feed the memory, as it does here in Canillo. [2005]