Tamgaly, Kazakhstan Sep 2019
Today we head to Tamgaly gorge about 3 hours drive northwest of Almaty in Kazakhstan. Tamgaly means “painted place” in Turkic language and is a petroglyph site dating back to 1500BC. Most of the petroglyphs here are from the Bronze Age though there are also some from the Iron Age as well as later times. […]
Hronsek Church July 2019
About a 40-min drive northeast is the wooden articled Hronsek Church made an UNESCO World Heritage Site together with seven other wooden churches of the Slovak part of Carpathian Mountain Area. An articled church means that to build a Lutheran church during the rule of the pro-Catholic Austro-Hungarian times, a specific list of guidelines based […]
Banska Stiavnica July 2019
This morning I headed east to the medieval town of Banska Stiavnica, often called Silver Town, about 2 hours drive from Bratislava. Bankska Stiavnica is located in the middle of a caldera created by the collapse of a volcano in central Slovakia. Its history has been closely linked to the mining of silver ore since […]
Mostar & Pearls of Herzegovina July 2019
Early in the morning, I headed southwest towards Mostar which is about a 2-hour drive from Sarajevo. Mostar is probably the best known city in the Herzegovina region of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The name Herzegovina literally translates to mean a duchy or land ruled by a herzog or duke. Although the larger Bosnia region includes […]
Bled, Predjama, Skocjan July 2019
Lake Bled, located in northwest Slovenia, is one of the most photographed places in the world known for the church standing on the small island surrounded by the lake. Bled Island, in the middle of the Lake Bled, houses several buildings with the main one being the Church of the Assumption of Mary built in […]
Ohrid July 2019
I have always been curious about Ohrid, the city nicknamed the “Jerusalem of the Balkans” and so since I am only about 2.5 hours away in Tirana, Albania, I decided to do a day trip to Ohrid in North Macedonia. The Republic of North Macedonia is one of the successors of the former Yugoslavia from […]
Berat, Albania July 2019
About 2 hours drive from the capital Tirana is the city of Berat which in old Slavic means white city. It is also referred to as the City of the Thousand Windows. The city is believed to be an Illyrian settlement in the 6th century BC and later in the 3rd century BC became a […]
Naqa & Mussawarat Mar 2019
Other than the pyramids, two other sites, Naqa and Mussawarat, together make up the UNESCO archaeological sites of the Meroitic Empire. Naqa is one of the largest ruined ancient city centers in Sudan with the remains of two important temples, Temple of Apedemak and Temple of Amun. The Temple of Apedemak was dedicated to the […]
Pyramids of Meroe Mar 2019
We arrive at our home for the next several days, Meroe Tented Camp, located in the remote desert land in Sudan. Meroe Tented Camp is owned and run by the same people as the Nubian Rest House in Jebal Barkal and is the only decent place to stay in the area. It is a permanent […]
Old Dongola & Jebel Barkal Mar 2019
Bright and early we leave Khartoum to head towards Karima about 6 hours drive north. We journey through the flat Western Desert before reaching Wadi Muqaddam for a pitstop break. A wadi is a valley bounded by relatively steep banks which in the rainy season can become a water course. Wadi Muqaddam is a dry […]
Lalibela Part 1 Oct 2018
Lalibela is a town in northern Ethiopia famous for its monolithic rock-cut churches sunk into the ground and built between the 7th and 13th centuries. These churches are one of the nine UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Ethiopia. What makes them different is that they were not constructed stone by stone, instead they were constructed […]
Omo Valley Part 5: Konso Village Sep 2018
From Turmi, we drove for about 3 hours north to reach Konso where we stayed at the Kanta Lodge. The Konso Tribe is known for their fortified settlements and their Waka totem poles and is one of the nine Unesco World Heritage sites in Ethiopia. These wakas or totem poles are carvings created in memory […]
Painted Monasteries of Bucovina July 2018
After our time in Translyvania, we headed northeast towards the region of Moldavia specifically to see the Painted Monasteries of Bucovina. The drive from Brasov took almost 6 hours. We based ourselves in the small town of Guru Humorului which is very close to two of the four main monasteries people visit: Voronet and Humor […]
Sighisoara July 2018
After about hour and half on the road from Brasov, we arrived to the fairytale-like fortified city of Sighisoara. I noticed I have been using the term fairytale a lot lately but that is really what these towns are like, they exist in a different time. There are a total of seven walled citadels in […]
Rila Monastery July 2018
Rila Monastery is about 2 hours south of Sofia and is the largest and most famous Eastern Orthodox monastery in Bulgaria. It was founded in the 10th century and named after the hermit Ivan of Rila, also known as St John of Rila. St Ivan actually lived in a cave not far from the monastery. […]