On Beautiful Places in Kyrgyzstan: Hiking in Shamsi Gorge There are countless beautiful places in Kyrgyzstan – I often feel like every new valley and every new gorge offer some new and incredible view – and of course not all of them can make it onto your Central Asia backpacking […]
Terezin Concentration Camp: Visiting the “Model Ghetto” History isn’t always pretty and so, by extension, with travel. There are so many dark parts to our collective pasts, whether you happen to be in Prague or America or Cambodia or… anywhere really. Learning about these things in a book, at school, […]
Aynalikavak Pavilion – The Ottoman Sultan’s Garden Much like the magnificent Beylerbeyi Palace on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus, the AynaliKavak Pavilion stands as a forgotten reminder of Ottoman power in the middle of an otherwise quiet neighborhood on the Golden Horn. While places like the Topkapi Palace and Hagia […]
Klosterneuburg Stift: The Vienna Monastery you SHOULD be Visiting. Like most wine-drinking religion-enthusiasts, you’ll probably visit some sort of historic monastic abbey if you’re spending more than just a few days in Vienna. They have religion and culture, after all, including the sort of culture that leads to fermentation and […]
Wachau Valley Bike Tour: Austrian Wines and Crumbling Castles Vienna is not, on the face of it, Europe’s most active or adventurous destination. My average day in the Imperial City involves exploring lots of traditional coffee houses and the historic Old Town, and only very occasionally something like a bike ride through […]
Czech Beer and Bars in Prague: An Absolute Beginner’s Guide As I imagine many of you are already aware, beer in the Czech Republic is kind of a big deal. They didn’t quite invent it (an honor ascribed to the Sumerians around 5,000 years ago), but they have done a […]
Hey there! I'm Stephen, this is my travel blog, and that's me in the poofy hat.
I'm a photographer / writer traveling since 2008, and I've been doing my best to visit amazing places.
My current focus is Central Asia, because for a hiking and camping enthusiast it's as good as it gets.