For the curious: I had wondered about the gargoyles in front of a building but nobody I asked knew what they were about. It was only when I met a Finnish traveler in Serbia that I learned what they depicted. These are characters from the Finnish epic poem Kalevala, compiled in the 19th century from … More Postscript to: In the Northern Reaches
Tallinn, Estonia Aug 12, 2025 They may sound like the lead characters of a fairytale, but they are actually the names of a pair of defense towers. Twenty-six towers once studded the encircling wall of Vanalinn old town. Today we know the town as Tallinn. Heavily bombed in March of 1944, much of the walls, … More Fat Margaret & Tall Hermann
Wroclaw, Poland July 11, 2025 December of 1980 saw martial law being imposed in Poland with tanks and paramilitary units being deployed on the streets to curb dissidence. With it came censorship of all media and correspondence, wiretapping of phones in public booths and state institutions. Forbidden travel between cities without permits and intensified food … More From Dark to Whimsical
Wroclaw, Poland July 9, 2025 Gray skies, spitting rain and blustery wind accompanied the bus ride from Berlin into Wroclaw. It may not be the best for travel, but flip side is using the fleece and rainjacket I have been carting around for a month and a half. A large town like all the others, … More To Market to Market
Istanbul, Turkey July 23,2023 This summer was planned as a journey through Mesopotamia, or more precisely, a route tracing the beginnings of civilization through lands of the Fertile Crescent. The dream of a lifetime, it has been fantastic! Although not a part of this trip, I have been to other parts of the Fertile Crescent … More Closing the Loop
Sanliurfa, Turkey June 30, 2023 A few miles from Sanliurfa, among the intensively cultivated farmlands is a hill called Gobekli Tepe in local parlance which translates to bellied hill. It is here that an astonishing discovery was made almost sixty years ago, upended the then-held views on ancient megalithic structures. Excavations that followed unveiled a … More Mysterious Gobekli Tepe
Erbil, Kurdistan June 16, 2023 The distance from Baghdad may not be all that much but this feels like a different country. There are broad streets with multiple lanes of fast traffic. Tall buildings line the roads, slick and modern with its glass and chrome. Glitzy shops and malls crowd the pavements. Erbil is new, … More Arrival in Kurdistan
Borsippa or Birs Nimrud, Iraq May 31, 2023 I had read of the ruins of ancient Borsippa, a sister city of the more famous Babylon. It is close to the town of Al Hillah and of course was eager to go there. Abu Mustafa, the taxi driver who had helped me find a hotel in … More Ziggurat of Nabu
New York April 22, 2019 I have had a long-standing dream that entails traveling from Pakistan to Afghanistan to Turkmenistan and then across the Caspian Sea into Azerbaijan. Not the easiest places to travel in, and therein lies part of the attraction. But also not the easiest to get visas. But mulish stubbornness is a … More Shivers of Excitement
Berlin, Germany Jan 4, 2018 The rain that had meant soggy days in Porto followed me dutifully and I was treated to more of the same for the entire week in Berlin. But this side trip to Berlin was mostly to visit friends that I haven’t seen in a while so it hardly mattered. In … More A Week in Berlin
ITCHY FEET TRAVELS 