It only took a few hours for Istanbul to become my favorite city in the world. It’s massive, vibrant, crazy, old, beautiful, smelly, historic, dirty, confusing, mysterious, exotic, crowded, and fascinating. […]
Bucharest surprised me. It was bigger, dirtier, and more chaotic than I expected, and that made it a fun and interesting place to be. The city had a unique feel to it and I wish I could have stayed longer, but here are some photos from the two days I did spend there. […]
It’s been a great few weeks here in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. The city is nicer and more pleasant than I expected, and I’ve been very content to just work at home and explore the city when I wanted to get out. I haven’t felt the need to venture outside of the city. But as I realized that my time in the country was coming to an end, I decided I should get out of Sofia and go see something else. And then I thought to myself, “Why not climb the tallest mountain in the country?” […]
Along with Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia, Transnistria is one of those breakaway regions in the former Soviet Union that has de facto independence but limited international recognition. It’s officially part of Moldova but has been independent since 1992. It has its own currency, its own government, and its own passports. […]
I spent a couple days in Brasov, Romania, after a 7-hour overnight bus ride from Chisinau, Moldova. Brasov is in the heart of Transylvania, and the old part of the city is a charming place. It definitely felt more like a central or western European town than the Soviet towns and cities I’d been used to seeing. Brasov had a heavy German presence for several centuries, and that’s reflected in the town’s architecture and overall feel. […]
I hadn’t heard many good things about Moldova before going there. It’s apparently the poorest country in Europe. I’d been told that it’s also the saddest, that it’s the hub of sex trafficking in Europe, and that it’s thoroughly and hopelessly corrupt. […]
I arrived in Chernivtsi from Kiev after a stiflingly hot 13-hour overnight train ride. Chernivtsi is a city that I lived in for 3 or 4 months back in early 2006, so I was excited to be back. […]
I went on a day-long tour of Chernobyl this last time that I was in Ukraine, and it was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. […]
The original plan before I got to Georgia was to spend a month in Armenia after the planned two months in Georgia. Once I got to Georgia, I shortened that planned month in Armenia to just a week, thinking that Armenia would pretty much just be the same thing as Georgia. I was wrong. […]
It was weird to be in Kiev for two reasons. […]