Category: Destinations
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Day 119 – Cologne (Köln), Germany
I have long had a fascination with this German city. Kölsch is my favorite beer and I have a deep fondness for German style pub food, especially the kinds you can find in Köln. Truth be told I came here to eat and drink. That’s pretty much as far as I had thought it…
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Day 119 – Cologne (Köln), Germany – Exploring traditional Kölsch cuisine in the brauhäuser (brewhouses) of Köln.
I’ve been trying to get to Cologne for many years and I wasn’t going to miss my chance to experience all of the yummy goodness the city has to offer. Kölsch is my favorite beer. After spending my younger years enthralled by heavier stronger beers, this is what makes me happy now. Light, easy…
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Day 107 – Spotlight: the Canta LX (and other tiny cars of Amsterdam)
I love tiny cars. A fact that becomes painfully obvious if you’re ever tried to walk past one with me without me taking a picture. It’s not an obsession, more like a deep lust that mostly presents itself when I’m in the presence of a sexy ass micro car parked precariously across a sidewalk.…
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Day 107 – Amsterdam, the Netherlands – You sexy minx.
Amsterdam is a lot like Burning Man if everyone decided to put their clothes on. Everyone rides around on bikes or funny little “cars”, the smell of weed and booze is in the air, and there’s a general collective bent towards revelry and good will. And it’s expensive and mostly white. But you can’t…
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Day 101 – Cappadocia, Turkey – Underground cities, fairy chimneys, and hot air balloons.
After nearly 4 months of travel Cappadocia was the first place actually on my list of travel goals. It’s a magical area in Central Anatolia about 6 hours northwest of Syria. The unique volcanic landscape left geological formations that were easy enough to carve with tools but withstood erosion. This allowed the inhabitants to…
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Day 91 – Next level street food and the truly amazing cuisine of Istanbul, Turkey. (part 4 of 4)
Istanbul is the center of worlds, the relentless meeting of east and west, and the cuisine is no less complex. Influences from all over the world combine to create something truly new and exciting to me. Outside of poor imitations this is my first experience with Turkish food and I can’t wait to try…
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Day 91 – Visiting the mosques, palaces, and antiquity of Istanbul, Turkey. (part 3 of 4)
Aside from the endless neighborhoods with their shops and food there are things to see in Istanbul. Big amazing things. Ancient things. The history of the city is almost impossible to comprehend. Layers on layers on layers. And some of the most famous structures in the world can be found here. Being both the…
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Day 91 – From Taksim Square to the Hagia Sophia: Walking Istanbul’s city center neighborhoods (part 2 of 4)
Istanbul is enormous. It has over 15 million people. That’s almost double the largest city in the United States. And it would take a few lifetimes to actually see it all. In my two weeks I barely scratched the surface on the city’s central neighborhoods (there are 936 neighborhoods in the Istanbul province). But…
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Day 91 – Istanbul, Turkey – An introduction (part 1 of 4)
It’s New Year’s Eve and I’m sitting around a makeshift table in a hidden little fourth story bar on a backstreet in the Tarlabaşı neighborhood of Istanbul. I’ve just proven to my skeptical table mates that you can in fact do two shots at the same time. The beer is flowing and the music…
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Day 90 – Day trip to Brașov and the Castles of Transylvania
With time running short, we decided to book an experience off of AirBnb to see the central area of Romania and Transylvania. We chose a 14 hour tour with George because he seemed like a relatable guy and his reviews were great. It turns out we made an excellent choice because George was exactly…