I spent a week in Tbilisi as a week-long reconnaissance trip stop-over on the way to Asia. As per usual, it served the intended purpose of scratching the surface of a place I’ve never visited before (but have been desiring to) and paving the way for coming back again for longer to do and see more, with a better idea of where to stay and what I will do. I had a busy work schedule while I was visting that had me glued to my kitchen table work desk more than I would prefer, but even that was a fun thing. I was staying in a very old AirBnb with very high ceilings (wood embossed), and large cracks through the walls and concrete floors. It had this dilapidated, dusty charm that I decided suited me well. Gigantic windows faced and overlooked the historic center 15 minutes walk down a hill. It was a cool place to be glued to my desk. My shifted work hours had me finishing past midnight most nights, but luckily enough there was still time for a quick ten-minute stroll down the hill to find a local restaurant still serving traditional Georgian fare. One place I […]
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I spent a week in Budapest to follow up on last year’s first visit. This time around, I had enough time to walk around the city and explore more. I stayed in the city center, an area crawling with ex-pats, digital nomads, and short-term vacationers. I wasn’t able to get as much of a local feel for how the city operates outside of these influences as I would have liked — my own fault. Next time I hope to spend more time, and outside of this vacationer bubble. I did manage to escape during a rainy weekend outside of the city to an Airbnb in the town of Pécs, which was the perfect weekend hideaway from the storm of cold, wind, and rain. Another highlight of Budapest this time around was my visit to a locally famous bodybuilding gym, which is apparently often frequented by Hollywood movie stars who spend time filming in Budapest. I didn’t see any, but there were a lot of pictures on the wall of them with Arnold Schwarzenegger, who seems to have some sort of association with the gym—there was a metal statue of a Terminator robot in the gym’s lobby. AS visiting local gyms […]
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When I was in Madrid this summer I had drinks with my friends, Adam and JP, who invited me to join them in on two islands in Greece for two weeks while we worked remotely. Of course I accepted – I hadn’t been to Greece since the 1990s, and never to an Greek island. We spent the first 5 days on the island of Kos, a small island, and then moved to Rodos, which was much larger. I had a lot of work to do while we were there, but so did the guys. We did a good job of balancing the work with exploration, beach time, the gym, drinks and conversation, and eating as much Greek food as we could. I thought both Kos and Rodos were really great. I was surprised at how delicious the food was — authentic, inexpensive and plentiful too. The three of us relished the local house wines, flavors and dishes at a local bistro whose father and son made their small homestyle operation seem effortless. We kept returning for the beef liver that didn’t taste like you always expect liver to taste — livery. Our local neighborhood didn’t have other tourists and it […]
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A week in Bratislava, for the first time. The city is underrated as a European summer destination – the streets aren’t packed with tourists and the architecture is beautiful. I attended a boat party on the Danube River which was a great way to spent an August evening.
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After visiting Prague last summer for my friends’ wedding and enjoying the city, I intended to return again to enjoy more Vietnamese food and a respite from the hot hustle and bustle of typical western European cities during the high-tourist summer. Just a week here this time in Prague passed too quickly. So I’ll return again, for more.
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I spent July and parts of August and September 2024 bouncing around Spain: Madrid x3, Valencia, Barcelona x2, Ibiza, León. Summer in Europe is exhausting! Madrid Valencia Alicante Barcelona Ibiza Leon
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I often write about my travel queue – that never-ending chain of potential destinations continually elongates. Each that captures my curiosity and I want to visit gets queued, and so do appealing recommendations others give me. New entries are consistently added to the queue, but it takes a while to dequeue them because many destinations precede them. Invitations always elbow themselves towards the front of the queue (higher priority) as long as they don’t interfere with the current yearly strategic objectives (YSOs) — yeah, there’s a loose process and ruleset, which, of course, are superseded by their own irregularities and trump cards (e.g., global pandemics). The queue never gets shorter; it always gets longer, as it is easier to collect potential destinations rather than to visit them. Anyway, that preamble served again to remind you of the proverbial Travel Queue® so I could tell you about how Florianópolis had been on it for a long time owing to its cultural significance to the Brazilians and foreign travelers who had recommended it to me (along with literally dozens of must-visit places in Brazil – what a great country). “Floripa” is actually two things — it’s the city of Florianópolis, in the […]
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[Narrated in the voice of David Attenborough] Buenos Aires believes it is a European city. Despite this fact, its close neighbors are Montevideo, Uruguay, and Sao Paulo, Brazil. The “porteños” who make their homes here in Buenos Aires belong to an Argentinian clade that identifies more with Italians than South Americans. Italian restaurants packed with pasta and pizza comprise traditional food here, along with generous portions of beef. Wine is also enjoyed on any occasion. When visiting Buenos Aires, one might wonder whether I am in Europe or Argentina. [end voice of David Attenborough]. It’s always a noticeable transition to Buenos Aires from the other places I visit in South America owing to the local Argentine Spanish accent, the distinct style of the neighborhoods I walk through, the delicious food, and the vast amounts of dog shit on the sidewalks. Every city has such similar, if distinct, charms. Among them, increasingly for me, is Argentina’s president Javier Milei, who embodies the persona of a black sheep political outsider and libertarian. His presidency is still in its infancy, but his changes are bombastic, controversial, and seemingly intelligent. Following his career and legacy will be interesting as he aims to revert the […]
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