Berlin is the city that makes my heart skip a beat. The historic buildings and streets define and narrate my lifelong obsession with Germany and its history like an interactive storybook. First, Berlin was the cultural center of the Weimar Republic era (between WWI and WWII) when the painters, filmmakers, musicians, architects, scientists, and great…
Tell me if you’ve heard this before: “Please allow me to introduce myself, I’m a man of wealth and taste. I’ve been around for a long, long year, stole many a man’s soul and faith. And I was round when Jesus Christ had his moment of doubt and pain, Made damn sure that Pilate washed…
A kremlin, the fancy Russian word for fortress, is not an entirely rare sight across Russia but only one has the distinction of being THE Kremlin. Moscow and its Kremlin were founded in the 12th century. Prior to the 1900s many people lived inside the Moscow Kremlin walls just as they would in any village. Soviet…
In the Heart of Transylvania is Harghita County, home of the Szekelyfold. The Szekelers are a group of Magyar/Hungarian origins who formed a battalion of frontier guards that defended the land against the Ottoman Empire in the Middle Ages.
Something bit me in Transylvania, and that is no joke. I kept a close eye on the painful new swellings and watched for any strange symptoms but they have healed, and now… I guess I’m… fine now. Before I begin, I found a video on Youtube that someone else filmed of Sighisoara that truly shows…
I was instantly excited by its wild decoupage cast of jazz and blues musicians with their instruments amidst a club scene that sprawls across an entire side of the brick building.
COUNTY WICKLOW County Wicklow is just south of Dublin, in County Dublin, on Ireland’s eastern coast. Its name comes from the Old Norse term Víkingaló which means “Viking’s Meadow” and that tracks because County Wicklow is so close to the counties that make up the Viking Triangle of Ireland. County Waterford, County Wexford, and County…
So Barry Lyndon, Vikings, Jurassic Park, and Cocaine Bear were filmed here? Say less.
The Blue Ridge Parkway is a scenic National Parkway in the US, spanning 469 miles from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park up to Shenandoah National Park, give or take a few hundred pitstops. This makes the BRP the longest linear park in our country. Its groundwork was laid in 1936 per instruction of President…
Middletown is a small town in southwestern Ohio that author J. D. Vance wrote about growing up in as part of his novel Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis. It has been referenced to as Halliday’s birthplace and the model for the virtual universe in Ready Player One. Even cooler,…
Maryville, mumbled as “Murrahvull” in local dialect, has a rich history in anti-slavery movements. The Society of Friends presence was strong there in the 19th century, and one of their core values is opposition to slavery. This was an impressive discovery for me and I have been reading up. Check out this site for more information.…
Berea, Kentucky was named after the biblical town of Veria in Macedonia. It was first founded as “the Glade” by an Abolitionist minister named Reverend John Gregg Fee in 1853, with financial help and land grants from the already famous Abolitionist, Cassius Clay. Berea College Two years later, Reverend Fee founded Berea College, the first…
To give credit where it is due, I first saw what I am using as the title of this blog on the Central Flats & Taps website many years ago. Happy Holler refers to N. Central Street from where it meets Broadway, extending north toward Sharps Ridge and the Inskip neighbourhood, and all the businesses…
My first mistake in Hamilton, Ohio was to assume it was just a small and modest town. I was pleasantly surprised to roll in knowing nothing, and to learn that it is called the City of Sculpture. Hamilton is located in Southwestern Ohio about halfway between Cincinnati and Dayton, just near the Ohio-Indiana state line.…
Louisville’s most trendy and upcoming district is called New Louisville, or NuLu for short. NuLu boundaries are east of I-65 along Main Street to Chestnut Street, and south about four blocks to Jefferson Street. It is located slightly east of downtown’s Whiskey Row/Bourbon District along a five-block stretch of East Market Street, hence its previous…
Downtown Louisville, Kentucky is located immediately west of 65 over to 9th Street, though some say it extends to 18th where it blends into Russell neighbourhood. The main street through downtown is conveniently called Main Street. It is alternately known as Museum Row or Whiskey Row, due to its large number of museums, distilleries, and…
East Tennessee’s Union County was formed in the 1850s where other surrounding counties like Knox, Grainger, Anderson, Campbell, and Claiborne counties meet. It falls within the Ridge-And-Valley range of the Appalachian Mountains and is surrounded by several notable mountains like Copper Ridge, Lone Mountain, Hinds Ridge, House Mountain, and Clinch Mountain. The name of Union…
Fernweh 