Category: People
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The Path with Heart: A 70 mile epic across the volcanic spine of Armenia in the Gegham mountains
(July 13th – 21st, 2026) Mt. Ararat, the fabled mountain where Noah’s Arc came to rest after the biblical Great Flood, rose regally above the western horizon as the morning sun lit it up in glory. Kate and I had similarly marveled at its stature from the overlook above Yerevan’s storied Cascade Complex the evening…
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Tragedy in Paradise (Shovi, Georgia)
(July 6 – 10, 2026) The packed marshrutka, a transport minivan of varying degrees of quality typical in Georgia, raced through the winding forested foothills rising above the Imereti plain, a central fertile agricultural basin of Georgia. As it climbed higher into cloud forests, I kept an eye on the GPS to signal to the…
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Looking up (Batumi, Georgia)
(July 2 – 5th, 2026) I am a man of the mountains. The only times I have ever lived near the sea was as a young child in Virginia, which I hardly remember; during my university years along the frozen shores of Finland; one spectacular bohemian summer bumming around Homer, Alaska; and my two-year stint…
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Keeping an open mind in Türkiye
(June 25th – July 2nd, 2026) -“So first we wash in the fountain of ablution as an act of wudu, which is a ritual cleansing the hands, face, and feet with water before prayers.” Ibrahim, my local contact introduced to me by my affable innkeeper Ensar of the Ziyagil Kongi hotel, instructed me on proper…
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Surprising Sofia and Piety in Bulgaria
(June 21st – June 24, 2026) On cue, I roll off the bus from Niš, Serbia, to Sofia, Bulgaria, in the late evening of June 21st and in the midst of searching for the entrance into the Metro station underground I fell gravity towards Latin fusion rock rhythms emanating from an open courtyard adjacent to…
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Serbia: Yu-Rock, River Fortresses, and Graffiti Wars
Late my first night out in Novi Sad, I walked along cobblestone streets back towards my hotel a few blocks off the central plaza. Serbia is pretty rough around the edges, but old town Novi Sad is generally as polished and charming as any European city. As I near the last cross street a tall,…
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A Pub Called Heaven (Menny) – Budapest, Hungary
(June 15 -17, 2026) The bus doors open and I step into the busy streets of Budapest, backpack weighted over my shoulders and guitar in hand, keen to find my hotel and settle in for an evening on the Danube before continuing my travels onward the next morning. After all, I had been to Budapest…
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Life is precious, don’t let it slip away (Tatras, Slovakia)
(June 12 -14, 2026) –dadadadadadadadadadadadadada!…….daa-daaa-daaahhh!….indecipherable Slovak lyrics follow… “So, what is he singing about?” I ask my new acquaintance, Vlado, a jolly, broad shouldered man leading an outdoors group from his region of Orava on a trip to the Zelene Pleso hut, as we bask in the golden hour light illuminating all of the natural…
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Taming the Tantalizing Tatras (Poland)
An enveloping fog slowly gripped to the jet black precipices above me while I kick a step into the seemingly supportable, but not entirely firm, receding snowpack. Instilling within me sufficient trust to continue, I then debate using the cold steel chains bolted into the mountain wall as climbing aides or simply scrambling along the…
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Ah, das schöne Berlin! (Oh, beautiful Berlin!)
(May 29 – June 8, 2026) I met Bastian my second year living in Finland, as he moved into my old apartment when I transferred out of the first-year furnished room into the long term unit across the hall. Born to a German dad and Finnish mother, he grew up in West Berlin until he…
