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…
Since the 1800s, Dayton, Ohio has been to innovation, mechanics, and engineering, what New York City is to music, art, and film. There were more patents per capita in Dayton by the start of the 1900s than anywhere else in the country, earning it the name “Invention Capital of the U.S.” Wright, Patterson, Kettering, Deeds,…
Ohio’s third largest city, Cincinnati, is enormous. I still have not entirely wrapped my mind around the full layout, and there are several downtown neighbourhoods I have not even began to explore. Most of my time in Cincinnati has been spent chasing murals and wandering the Over-the-Rhine neighbourhood. Click the links above to read my…
Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine district was once known as the most dangerous neighbourhood in the United States, far worse than the legendary City of Compton. Far, far worse. Much of this reputation was earned after the 2001 riots which were the climax of decades of growing civil unrest, but there is more to it. Like most of…
Cincinnati, Ohio is known for so, so much. Fiona the Hippo has been capturing the hearts of followers around the world with her life and daily antics at the Cincinnati Zoo for the past few years. The John A Roebling Suspension Bridge connecting Cincinnati to Covington inspired the Brooklyn Bridge design, and the Empire State…
Dayton, Ohio’s Historic South Park neighbourhood is one of the city’s several historic districts. It was first platted out by the Perrine family in 1870 and later developed by John H. Patterson, the owner of the National Cash Register (NCR) company. Patterson and his wife opened up the NCR in what was called Slidertown back…
St. Anne’s Hill is the second oldest of Dayton’s historic districts. It is located immediately east of the Historic Oregon District, with the Historic Huffman District at its eastern border. St. Anne’s Historic District was designated as such in 1974, and has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1986. In the 1800s,…
Dayton, Ohio’s Huffman Historic Area is a historic Inner East neighbourhood, located just a mile or so east of downtown. Its borders are roughly 3rd Street to the north and 5th Street to the south, running west to east between Terry Street to Linden Avenue. Be sure to walk, bike, or drive down June, Ringgold,…
Miamisburg, Ohio is considered a suburb of Dayton. The first white settlers here were the Hole family and others from Virginia by way of Pennsylvania in the late 1790s. It became an official town in the 1920s and covers a little more than twelve square miles. Miamisburg is also called Star City, allegedly after a…
Germantown, Ohio is about 15 miles southwest of Dayton, in area called Twin Creek Valley of the German Township. After defending my beloved southwestern Ohio against endless jokes and well wishes to “have fun in the corn field” I actually found myself in a literal corn field. Imagine that. See, this part of Ohio is…
Covington, Kentucky is bound to the north by the Ohio River that flows above the city and to the east, and its confluence into the Licking River flows south. Tucked into that right angle is the Licking-Riverside Historic District, Covington’s most well-preserved historic district. Licking-Riverside comprises eight city blocks within 4th and 8th Streets, between…
Covington had become the second largest city in Kentucky by the 1900s, functioning as Northern Kentucky’s financial center and home to both First National Bank and German National Bank. It was incorporated in 1834 but the city could not keep up with Cincinnati’s river commerce directly across the water, due to having shallow banks that…
Devou Park is a gorgeous 700+ acre tract of land that began as the William P. & Sarah Ogden Devou family farm more than a century ago. Their children donated the property to the City of Covington in the early 1900s, though they continued to live in the old farmhouse until their deaths many years…
Fernweh 