When my Canadian friend mentioned she was going to a wilderness retreat on a mountain that’s only reachable by Jeep, I was intrigued.

Among the catchy slogans promoting tourism in Slovenia, the one that resonated with me was "Green Slovenia." A country formed after the break-up of Yugoslavia in 1991, it's set in the heart of Europe at the juncture of the Alps, the Mediterranean, and the Pannonian Basin (which is part of the Hungarian plain); and it is indeed quite green.

It may sound like a ruse—leaving Geneva in the depth of winter to spend a month on the Cote d’Azur studying French—but it was language boot camp at its best; eight hours of daily French classes in a Provençal villa overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.

Photo from Unsplash

Istanbul is a fascinating city that straddles Europe and Asia and is a cultural amalgam of both. The city is replete with historical sites and museums bearing witness to thousands of years of history.

Mid-November didn’t seem like a propitious time to visit a country on the Adriatic known for its many islands. Elsewhere in central Europe—including Geneva where I was living at the time—the weather was predictably bone-chilling and gloomy.

The largest of the Greek islands seemed to have it all: quaint villages perched on hillsides above the Mediterranean, ancient ruins of historical interest, wide sandy beaches, and rugged mountains that shelter Europe's longest gorge.

We shrank into the doorway of a 400-year-old house in the dark as waves of men in brown and black robes paraded past us, intoning Gregorian chants as they dragged heavy crosses on their shoulders.