In a State of DeNile

First, allow me to express my deep gratitude for having such a wonderful and unforgettable travel opportunity with my father! I don’t take it for granted. He’s an excellent travel partner, up for nearly anything, and having amazing travel stamina, almost always getting up in the morning before I do, ready for exploration and new […]

Cairo, Part One 🇪🇬

After an almost eight-hour wait in the Munich airport, during which we took long power naps in the quiet terminal, we finally arrived in Cairo, exhausted but excited. We had flown EgyptAir from Munich on a modern plane with a feature-rich seatback entertainment system which offered a travel prayer from the Quran prior to takeoff. […]

Czechmate

This nine-week trip is winding down now, with just a few days left. Prague is the only city I’ve visited during these weeks where I wish I had more time. Everywhere else I’ve felt sated, and comfortable to move on. That said, I’m excited to return to Asheville, mainly to be able to see Colleen, […]

Incoming Sea

On Monday I took an afternoon trip out to suburb resort towns Cascais and Estoril, which are on the Atlantic Ocean. In walking between the two along a beachfront promenade, I was surprised to see how high the seas were and how the waves were often crashing over the promenade itself. It wasn’t windy or […]

Lisboa

Lisbon is not my favorite Portuguese city. Certainly there are some cool attractions and interesting history and beautiful viewpoints. But I much preferred Porto and Sintra, and now that I’ve been in Portugal for over 1.5 weeks, I’m mostly seeing the same Portuguese things again like azulejos, pastel de nata, cod, canned fish, port wines, […]

The Best Country to Visit?

Happy Halloween! 🎃 Conde Nast Traveler readers voted Portugal the best country in the world to visit for the second year in a row. I can see why – it’s got a lot going for it. What’s even more interesting to me is to see that the rest of the top five countries are all […]

Azulejos

Azulejos are the tiles which decorate many structures around Portugal, including on and in dozens of buildings in Porto. Some examples are shown below. They help brighten up this otherwise grey granite-heavy city. While there are plenty of majestic buildings in Porto, many structures are worn down and look as if they are from a […]

Porto, Portugal

First I should say that Porto is a very different place than all those eastern and central European cities I visited earlier on this trip! Architecture, people, climate, and more are all notably different, as would be expected. It feels quite unique and very old. It’s been raining off and on continuously since I’ve been […]