The Fellowship of the Cancelled Ports

Other blog post title suggestions from ChatGPT:– New Zealand: The Cruise We Planned vs. The Cruise We Got– Sailing Past Our Vacation– When the Captain Says “Due to Weather…”– The Cruise Itinerary That Became a Suggestion– Our New Zealand Cruise: Now with 70% More Sea– Collecting Seasickness Instead of Souvenirs– We Came for Fjords, Stayed […]

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 […]

Albanian Bunkers and North Macedonian Lake

Albanian Bunkers: Paranoid former Albanian leader Hoxha, whom you learned about in the previous post, ordered the construction of 750,000 defensive bunkers to be scattered across the country, particularly in the low-lying areas, of which over 170,000 were built by the time of his death. “Starting in 1967 and continuing until 1986, the Albanian government […]

Life’s Swedish Moments

For over two and a half decades, Stockholm has been my primary overseas home away from home, though now with Sofia living in Czechia, Prague has become one of two overseas homes away from home. This year my family and I had a wonderful Christmas holiday in Stockholm together and with friends. I am very […]

Croatian Exploration

Much of my exploration time by myself or with some friends visiting from Asheville was spent hiking hills and mountains or lounging at beaches, two of my favorite activities! Some things are definitely worth repeating, such as climbing Croatia’s tallest mountain, Dinara. See this previous blog post about when I first scaled this peak back […]

Whoa-atia

Truly, Croatia never fails to amaze and surprise with its spectacular beauty. Despite all the exploration I’ve already done over the past couple of years while spending months here total, there are still plenty of Croatian destinations I’ve yet to explore. For such a small country, there’s an embarrassing abundance of travel-worthy destinations. Equipped with […]

Bless Bless

The Icelandic language retains more of a relationship to Old Norse than do other Scandinavian languages, such as Norwegian. Modern Icelanders can even read the old medieval sagas without too much trouble. Their language hasn’t evolved as much as other Scandinavian languages which were influenced by other European languages, such as French. And even today, […]

Ways Iceland Can Kill You

In preparing for this trip, I read Rick Steves’ Iceland guidebook, and in it he has a two-page section covering various ways that Iceland is deadly. Here’s how he starts out: Several times a year, Iceland is captivated by a full-scale land and helicopter search for travelers sucked out to sea by a wave, separated […]

Smoky Cove

Earlier this year, my niece Katelyn (my sister’s daughter) contacted me and said she’s long wanted to visit Iceland, and she wondered if maybe I’d like to travel there with her. With deep appreciation and excitement, I immediately answered yes, of course!! And I’m really happy I did! Katelyn is a wonderful travel partner — […]

Upper Egypt

Somewhat confusingly, upper Egypt is farther south than lower Egypt, but that’s just because of our concept of north and south. Upper Egypt is higher up altitude-wise, and logically the Nile flows from upper elevations to lower ones all the way to the delta in northern Egypt out to the Mediterranean. After Luxor and Kom […]