My OAT trip leader said that the real beauty of Khiva can be found inside the buildings. But I can’t agree. It’s true that entering many of the monuments reveals glorious, colorful tile work. And most of the exteriors are dull, monochromatic, adobe-like, and mud-colored. But for me, I’m not sure I didn’t appreciate the cityscape…
Even though Bukhara is filled with tourists and the things tourists love, it also ticks all the boxes for me as a lover of travel. It’s a delight to wander around here. The old town is beautiful, and its newest buildings blend perfectly with the historical ones. Bukhara was a major hub on the Silk…
We left Samarkand yesterday (now I’m in Bukhara). I started to think about writing this post two nights ago, but I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to say about Samarkand. I’m still not sure, but I can delay no longer.
As usual, I’m too busy doing stuff to write a lot about what I’m doing, but here’s a rundown of two days in Tashkent, the first stop in my tour of Uzbekistan.
I don’t have much to say about Khujand. The best part of visiting this uninteresting city was the scenic drive from Dushanbe on the M34 highway.
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.
