Myfirstencounter with the contraption was a few years ago at the 15th-century Convento Do Espinheiro in Portugal, where the toilets represent only a small portion of the area's charm.
Gustav opened a door that ultimately led me to a desk where I would spend five years on a novel, attempting to capture some of the wonder I felt upon myfirstencounter in Stockholm.
Myfirstencounter with North Africa was as a child, when my father told fascinating, if unnerving, tales from his wartime stops in Casablanca, Algiers, and Oran in 1943, courtesy of the U.S. Air Force, but I had never been there myself.