Berlin is the city that makes my heart skip a beat. The buildings and streets define and narrate my lifelong obsession with my ancestral home (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,…
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…
You have a Bucket List, right? Most people do, and most people who have told me about their Bucket List have a hot air balloon ride on there somewhere. Recently, one of my best friends planned our trip to Phoenix for my birthday and we gleefully marked this item off our list. Rainbow Ryders was…
Desert Botanical Gardens, without question, is my favourite place near Phoenix, Arizona. The gardens span 140 acres in the Sonoran Desert with 55 acres currently under cultivation. More than 25,000 documented/monitored species are available to view in over 50,000 plant displays, representing 100 plant groups and over 4,200 individual taxa that make up its living collection. …
Sedona, Arizona is known for its natural beauty and the “soul” of the landscape, so it makes sense that a lovely Buddhist stupa would make a home there. Stupa, the Sanskrit word for heap, is a prominent and ancient type of sacred Buddhist architecture that predates Buddhism itself. These sepulchers are for burying spiritual artifacts,…
From Bat Cave, North Carolina, get yourself a jug of apple cider from a roadside stand and sip it all along NC-9 North and Bat Cave Road. Follow it right into Old Fort. Old Fort is a tiny town of less than 1,000 residents located halfway between Black Mountain and Marion, and halfway between Bat…
Charlotte North Carolina’s Plaza Midwood neighbourhood is located less than a mile from Uptown, Charlotte’s city center. Plaza Midwood runs along Central Avenue from Hawthorn Lane to Eastway Drive, though locals may cut it a few blocks short of Eastway Drive. The neighbourhood also has a locally-designated historic district in its westernmost part, a four…
As it may become obvious with these upcoming blogs, I really, really love Boston. I have been a couple times now and I can not wait to go back and explore even more of its neighbourhoods in-depth. Boston played a huge role in early American history from the moment pilgrims arrived in Plymouth Rock and…
Boston’s North End District refers to the northeastern tip of its downtown area, or everything east of Washington Street/US 93. The waterfront community is on a peninsula surrounded by the Massachusetts Bay on three sides, and is accented by the scenic 43-mile Boston Harbor Walk. North End is a hub for significant Revolutionary War and…
Boston’s Historic Chinatown Neighbourhood is located southeast of Boston Common, nestled into the curve of Surface Road/US 90, framed by Washington Street to the west and Essex Street to the north. The Chinatown station is located at the corner of Essex and Washington. Walk one block south down Washington, turn left and walk two blocks…
In the Old North community of Dayton, Ohio, you can visit remnants of a prominent Hungarian labor community called the Kossuth Colony. This is one of 18 historic districts in northeastern Dayton and it has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1979. The main road is Leo Street where it runs between…
Crossville, Tennessee got its name by being widely known as a place of crossroads; of Avery Trace, Walton Road, and the Kentucky Stock Road, connecting various toll areas like Johnson’s Mayland stand and Kemmer’s stand. Travelers often referred to it as the way to somewhere else. Avery Trace was the original route, blazed by a…
Cookeville is located in middle Tennessee, about an hour from Nashville and an hour and a half from Knoxville. The small city spans about 22 square miles and is the “micropolis,” meaning the largest city of, Putnam County and the Upper Cumberland Plateau. Cookeville was formerly Cherokee land, taken over by white settlers in 1805.…
Ellijay, Georgia is a tiny town of less than two thousand people in a little over 2.5 square miles. It is halfway between Blue Ridge and Jasper, just 75 miles north of Atlanta. Originally Cherokee territory, Ellijay also takes its name from the Cherokee word Elatseyi meaning “many waters.” Ellijay is located near the confluence…
Fernweh 