And the Stockings Were Hung
The Stars Are Stacked Against You
One of the chores I had to do before I left in October was to find a place to store my car. I found cheap storage in a pallet making factory on Cleveland’s East side. Figuring out how to pick it up weighed heavy on my mind the final few days of my trip. For […]
You Drop A Bomb On Me
After 2 days in Transylvania, I still had all the blood I arrived with. Not wanting to push my luck, I decided to head on to my last new country for this trip. Serbia. Belgrade in particular. I did my travel research and came up with a big fat no on a direct route to […]
The Bats Have left the Bell Tower
Once I found it, Brasov’s old town is really nice. I generally get tired of the European old-towns and Brasov is probably no different, It is pretty much just a long pedestrian walkway with some side alleys but it was big enough and enough variety to hold my interest for the couple of nights I […]
So Far Away
It was an easy walk to Bucharest’s train station from the guest house since I already did it the day before. From there, it was an easy trip to the Transylvanian city of Brașov, about a hundred miles north. A pretty little town once you get out of the non touristy section. Which I found […]
Just Too Friggin’ Old
The overnight bus to Bucharest, Romania wasn’t quite overnight. It dropped me off in the city center long before sunrise and Bucharest is not a 24 hour town that I was finding. I definitely was not rested because the first thing I really remember was being the first customer at coffee shop on an otherwise […]
Kosovo
I heard that Kosovo is still very pro American so I was eager to see what that felt like. I caught the next ride out of Skopje’s bus station and settled in for a few more hours. I arrived just as the evening was falling. There wasn’t much to see so I made use of […]
Balkans Whirlwind
I really enjoy the Balkans, (AKA the countries formerly known as Yugoslavia and the neighboring countries that also kind of sucked in the middle 20th century). I can.t really put my finger on what the attraction is but I just like walking around their cities. They are a bit rough around the edges for sure […]
Runnin’ Up That Hill
Aside from the scammy underbelly of Istanbul, I liked it. It is a great walking city, good food and plenty to keep me busy. The fact that I got out of it with out buying a carpet is a bonus. But they tried. There aren’t many ways to get to my next stop, Athens. There […]
Across The River
After my expensive adventure the night before, I needed to tighten up my budget for a few days. I decided that it was going to be a self guided tour of Asia on the shoe leather express. Luckily, in Istanbul, Asia is just across the strait of Bosporus, a metro train stop away from Europe. I popped […]