We picked up our rental car in Dubrovnik and headed northwest towards Bosnia. Our plan was to visit Medugorje for a few hours and continue on and overnight in Mostar. A word of caution: Do not trust Google maps in the Balkans. Seriously, our running joke now is to point at the most impossibly inclined […]
Unlike some destinations that are flush with foreign visitors, Dubrovnik is absolutely ready to accommodate the traffic. There are plenty of comfortable places to stay inside or right outside of old town, ranging from cheap hostels to high-end hotels. The place has so many densely concentrated tourist attractions, it’s easy to forget that it is […]
After heading west from Shkoder, the landscape begins to change a bit. The countryside gets a little rougher, the small towns a little poorer. Dark mountains begin to rim the horizon. At the Albanian border crossing, big posters are plastered everywhere condemning corruption and bribery while a border guard goes car to car not-so-subtly shaking […]
According to one of our guides in Bulgaria, once you get past 50 countries visited, you’re an “intermediate” traveler. On that same scale, respectively, 100 & 200 countries make you “advanced” and “expert”. Yeah, tough scale. Well, we’ve picked up the pace on our traveling these past few years and now, by that metric, we’re […]
I must admit, the idea of a prominent statue of Bill Clinton and a major road named in his honor struck me at first as a little humorous or even kitschy. In the case of Kosovo, after catching up a bit on the relevant (recent) history, it does make sense though, I think. However, Kosovars’ […]
Before visiting Macedonia, I had a rough understanding that there is a bit of an issue between them and Greece. I think I’ve got a slightly better handle on one of the main contentious topics, although I’m probably a little biased hearing it from the Macedonian perspective. Anyhow, as briefly as I’m able, here’s why […]
We touched down in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, after a couple of uneventful connections. Thus begins a tour of nine countries in a little over three weeks. The airport in Sofia is small and a short drive from the center of town. We booked a cab at the airport counter and weren’t far outside […]
“So where is your next trip? Iraq? Syria?” “No, we’re taking a cruise to the Bahamas.” Our travel has been an eclectic mix at times. In some cases that has been intentional (like following up Somalia with Seychelles), but most of the time it is just incidental to our goals. So as fun as it […]
On the last couple of visits to Japan, our exploration has narrowed in on a few specific stomping grounds. A week in Tokyo can blast by fast… As you’re getting ready to go, bags stuffed beyond capacity, you realize you have taken very few pictures, slept very little, and had an absolutely amazing time. You […]
Beach resorts haven’t been our usual destination, but this wasn’t our first visit to one either. Our trip to Thailand five years ago ran a circuit through Bangkok temples and included a visit to play with tigers in Kanchanaburi. This was our first visit to a Thai beach. The steps to arrive at Koh Phangan […]
If you work your way from Bangkok, through Siem Reap and Phnom Penh, and onward to Saigon, you’re likely to see some of the same faces: at ancient ruins and museums, on buses and trains, on the street and in restaurants, and finally at youth hostels and guest houses. Many of the youth hostels share […]
Bangkok… Paris… Dubai… and then, a bit further down, just ahead of New York, is Istanbul, holding up the fourth spot of most visited cities in the world. I don’t know what the security situation was like a few months ago in the tourist section (Old Town) of Istanbul, but there is some pretty heavy […]
Iran is not Iraq. It’s also not Afghanistan or Syria. That should be obvious enough, but the constant stream of tragic news from this region depicted in western media can easily blur some basic realities when viewed without proper context. Prior to our trip here, we received questions from a number of people about ISIS. […]
Our 4-year-old niece accompanied us to the airport when departing for this trip. At this point she has what I guess is a pretty age-appropriate understanding of our travels. With video calls and such, it probably never seems like we’re particularly far away. We just hop on a “Hair-Plane” and the next time she sees […]
Getting to Bucharest wasn’t exactly a direct connection for us on this trip. Admittedly, this stop was a bit of an afterthought that we squeezed in after everything else was booked. We arrived after about a 24 hour transit from Jax to DC to Munich to Istanbul to Bucharest. We’ve gotten a little better over […]