Before we were married, my wife, friend & I flew to Stavanger, Norway (which is unbelievably expensive if you have another currency in your bank account) and did 2 famous, epic hikes: Preikestolen & Kjeragbolten. We had originally thought we’d sleep out at the hikes, but the weather forecast when we arrived called for…
View More
After visiting Berlin, we picked up a hitchhiker and dropped him off in our mutual destination: Prague. Since we had a car, we asked our hotel where to find free parking. She incredulously couldn’t believe we hadn’t seen the free parking ‘everywhere’ and drew me a map. We found no free parking and had to…
View More
I’d been interested in Belarus for a while and for several reasons: I’d heard it’s still stuck in the 60s / USSR times My mom went to Minsk as part of a business coalition after the fall of the USSR, going to several cities to teach business skills to people I was blazing through former…
View More
I was surprised how many people asked me if I was crazy and/or scared about going to Chernobyl. I was nothing but intrigued. I took a group tour that left about an hour after my train arrived overnight from Odessa, so the timing was good. The only downside to this tour was that I was…
View More
En route to Odessa, we passed through a place that has different names, depending on your viewpoint. The breakaway republic of Pridnestrovia / the state of Transnistria in Moldova is a former war zone and up-in-the-air situation. Because they don’t think they’re Moldova, they don’t stamp your passport going ‘out’ as you leave for Ukraine….
View More