Sometimes it’s easy to select a representative photo of the place I’m visiting to put at the top of my blog posts. This time, not so much. Dushanbe has many fascinating things, but no one of them captures the feel of the city. Perhaps that’s because this city is really just 102 years old. When it…
I had six days in Budapest, and I filled the first five with tours and musical events and museum visits. I purposely left the sixth day open, and I still had some things I hadn’t yet done in Budapest. But it was a beautiful day, so I decided to take a train ride to the…
Normally I write about what I’m doing in each place I visit, preferably while I’m doing it. But for a change, I’m going to skip over a daily rundown of my activities in Budapest, and instead I’m going to share some of the things I learned in the last six days. Of course, some of…
The trouble with Budapest is it’s too beautiful. Wherever I go, I see a building that dares me to pass it by without taking a photo. I’ve been here two days and already taken far too many photos. I’ve also had conversations and experiences I must share about, but I’ll save that for a later post.…
My visit to Romania is about over. I’m writing this in the airport in Bucharest, waiting for my flight to Budapest. (It’s 5:30 am now, and my flight departs at 7:40.) Our group stayed the three nights in Brașov before heading back to Bucharest for a final (very short) night. Here’s a rundown. Since I’ve…
We finally got a bit of a break from the rain! In fact we even got some sunshine yesterday afternoon. Sibiu definitely looked better under clear skies. But this morning, as we get ready to leave, the sky is grey and overcast, and the forecast for our next destination, Brașov, is rain, rain, and more rain.…
It’s two days since we left Bucharest, and I’m finally getting around to writing something about it. Bucharest was rainy.
Egmont Pușcașu was fifteen years old in December 1989. Yesterday we met him and he shared his story.
We had just one full day in Veliko Tarnovo, and just like Sofia and Plovdiv, it felt like one day too few. Here’s a quick rundown. But first, of course, some history.
Before this trip I’d heard a lot about Plovdiv when I read about places to visit in Bulgaria. But I had no idea what I would discover here. It turns out that everything I did discover was a delightful surprise. I’m mostly going to let the photos do the talking, but it wouldn’t be me…
Yesterday we drove from Sofia to Rila Monastery, about two hours’ drive south of Sofia. I think I have neglected to mention that it has been very cold. Walking around Sofia was brutal. And walking around the monastery was also brutal. I didn’t pack for really cold weather. I have layers (sweater and sweatshirt), but no…
In my previous post I wrote about the two days I had in Sofia prior to the start of my OAT tour. I wasn’t really thinking, though, because the tour only had one day in Sofia. We did a walking tour in the morning and then had free time before our group welcome dinner. And…
