Two Lands, One Lens

Today’s focus is on photos captured in Albania and Kosovo. I took a day trip from Tirana to Kosovo (to its two largest cities of Prizren and Pristina), Europe’s youngest country, but one currently recognized by only about half of the United Nations members. Many nations such as Russia and Spain can’t stomach acknowledging a […]

From Toilets to Temples: Revealing Japanese Surprises

Never before for this blog have I struggled so mightily to choose from so many options of what to write about for a trip. Japan is such a startlingly unique (and fun) destination, with many unexpected aspects, so I decided to highlight just some of these for you here, and I’ll definitely provide more in […]

Konec (The End)

So this is it, the final post for the nine-week trip around Central/Eastern Europe and Portugal. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading the posts as much as I have enjoyed writing them, and thank you for following along on this adventure! I’m signing off for now, though perhaps I’ll come back to this blog one day […]

Missile Lane Knee Us

Before I sign off tomorrow, I thought I’d share some stories today in this penultimate post. Unintended consequence Back in Budapest, on the day I visited the mineral bathhouse, I minimized my possessions for the subway trip up there from my apartment so as to minimize any potential losses when I stored my valuables in […]

Pick Up the Czech

I’m back in Prague! It’s hard to believe that I was gone for over seven weeks. A lot has happened since I said goodbye to Colleen when she left Prague to fly back to NC! I got to meet Sofia on Friday evening for dinner! It was great to catch up with her again, and […]

Around Lisbon

As I got my bearings better, I found myself enjoying Lisbon more, especially after finding additional good food options and not walking through the worst areas of town. As it turned out, near my apartment was a great collection of diverse restaurants, and not just Nepalese! Though I ate Nepalese four times (two different restaurants, […]

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 […]

Uncommonplace

One of the aspects of Zagreb I enjoy is that it is so quirky, especially for being in Croatia, known for being a fairly conservative and traditional place. It’s as if most Croatian artists move to Zagreb (they probably do). The following brochure is an example of the kind of surprising things you can find […]