A Heatstroke in the Stone City
I sit on a stony curbside in complete darkness. My head hurts. Dogs bark in the distance. The sweet darkness of the Albanian night hugs me gently as I rub my temples, trying not to throw up. That’s not how I envisioned our first meeting, Gjirokaster. Last summer, we traveled […]
Donbas of My Youth
The train arrived at 3 a.m. We descended from the passenger railroad car, groggy and disheveled, into a dimly lit platform, the edges of which were swallowed by the night. Kolya, our team captain, silently motioned, and we marched down the platform behind him. I was 19 years old, and […]
Museum of Russian Aggression
The world is shocked by the unprecedented Russian aggression in Ukraine. But the sad truth is that it was very much precedented, by Russian aggression in Georgia in 2008. Much like Ukraine, Georgia began eyeing integration into NATO, which led to a deteriorated relationship with Russia and eventually to the […]
Слава Україні! Glory to Ukraine!
On February 24, we planned to post about El Salvador and Victor’s surfing attempt at Las Flores beach. Then, Russia invaded Ukraine, and blogging about travel became irrelevant. I was born in Ukraine, in the tiny village of Ponornytsya in Chernihiv Province, because the hospital of Korop, a slightly larger […]
Beyond the Flowers: Hiking Ruta de las Flores
If a foreign tourist does venture into El Salvador, he will inevitably come for one of two things – to surf or to visit Ruta de las Flores. As Victor is diligently working on his “surviving surfing” post, I will, in the meantime, describe one of the most magical regions […]
Searching for Crashed Planes, Helicopters and Guerillas: A Very Unusual Christmas in El Salvador
We spent the past holidays in El Salvador, and it turned out to be one of the strangest Christmases we’ve had during our travels. No, it didn’t top our Christmas in India in 2014, when on Christmas Eve we nearly lost our camera, money, and Julia’s passport and ended up […]
