Recent Posts

City of Bikes
Europe, France, The Netherlands

Blast from the Past – EuroTrip 2010, Part I

Sometimes considered the quintessential rite of passage, the summer InterRail backpacking trip through Europe is a dream for some, a long-lasting cultural tradition for others, and a romantic idea for most. For me, it started as a thought, quickly developed into a consuming passion and eventually became a reality. During my second year […]

Yellow card, US passport and Turkish passport
Pre-Departure Thoughts

Merging of Maps – The Intricacies of Diplomacy

Acquiring my US passport in 2009, almost 15 years after moving to the States, was a long-awaited luxury. Arriving in the mail just a few months before a backpacking trip through Europe, I was liberated from the unavoidable bureaucracy of the visa application process (and the congested queues of consulate waiting rooms). As […]

Testing out the new camera
Chicago, Pre-Departure Thoughts

Testing out the new camera

I have never owned a camera, except for the surprisingly exceptional ones that come embedded within smartphones. So in beginning my search, I had a few modest criteria to go by: compact enough to fit into my pocket, better than my smartphone, and affordable. I naïvely thought this would be enough, but […]