Khinkali is one example of the myriad of awesome food you can find in Georgia. Shrooms, cheese, potatoes, meat, and more are all represented in this dumpling. I ate these somewhere back in Tbilisi after hitchhiking around the eastern part of Georgia (Mtskheta-Mianeti and Kakheti—specifically in Tusheti) for a short while. I know my food photography leaves much to be desired, but my main reason besides the khinkali was to use their WiFi (next time, I’ll simply get a Georgian SIM card to not be so dependent on restaurant WiFi). Food photography aside, just believe me when I say khinkaliContinue reading
Lisi Lake + Vake Park in Tbilisi, Georgia
Back in Tbilisi, Georgia. Went for a swim at Lisi Lake yesterday where this dog ruled the territory. It’s nice to come back to this lake. Afterward, my drivers asked me if I had a place to stay in Tbilisi. So they drove me from Lisi Lake to Vake Park, where they know people with whom I’d supposedly have things in common with. I am sleeping in Vake Park in my tent. There is a small community of travelers and people who protest the building of a new hotel there. Vake Park is apparently one of Tbilisi’s last green spacesContinue reading
Tusheti Hills: Beauty and Hospitality in Omalo + Dartlo, Georgia
As you can see from this photo, the Tusheti region in the north of Georgia is pretty fabulous. I just spent a few days here at altitude in Omalo and Dartlo. To the north, the mountains form a natural border with Russia’s Dagestan and Chechnya—both places I’d absolutely love to visit. There are several hostels here and the owners of one just invited me to stay for free. That’s how huge hospitality is here. I encountered some young Georgian women here who were excited to hang out with me and show me around. They travel the difficult road to OmaloContinue reading
Welcome to Panama! A Border Crossing Adventure
Welcome to Panama! But no, this was yet again more of an adventure than anticipated (and hoped for). This picture is from yesterday’s (11th of June) border crossing from Costa Rica to Panama at the binational city of Paso Canoas. I hitchhiked into a town called David around sundown with yet another good samaritan from Honduras. It was a tight call whether I could cross, but I made it! The Panamanian immigration officer asked me for my (doctored in MS Paint) flight ticket to Madrid. And it worked! But then he asked me for proof of sufficient funds, which comesContinue reading
Getting My Yellow Fever Vaccine (+Bonus Shot!) in Trujillo, Honduras
I wrote this post in 2021 many years later after the actual events. Back in 2014, I had barely started the first iteration of this blog (Escapist) and it was basically a Tumblr. So this post about how I got my yellow fever vaccine in Honduras is based on memory and photographs. My First Medical Tourism Experience While hitchhiking from Mexico to Panama, many fellow travelers going up or down the Gringo Trail exchanged information. So basically all insights about travel and vaccination requirements came from hearsay. I was 22 years old and had freshly dropped out of university. AndContinue reading
Trapped in Paradise
There’s a place called Paradise. In fact, there are many of them, all a flight away from Home. But the people that originate from Paradise are often Trapped in Paradise. A Scene: Visitors and Locals At the club in a resort, only the adults stay behind after their children have gone to bed under protest. A day full of tanning until having perfected that lobster shade, letting their spawn wreck havoc, swimming in the hotel’s pool – located next to the sea – is over. The included breakfast, lunch, and dinner have been eaten every day for a week. TomorrowContinue reading
Schönbrunn, Vienna
Checking in on Foursquare at Schönbrunn, Vienna. A long, long time ago, I was a full-time student. In the summer of 2013, I joined two friends on a 10-day road trip through Europe. Our route was from Maastricht, through Luxembourg to Strasbourg in France. Then to Zürich in Switzerland, Liechtenstein, München (Munich) in Bavaria, Salzburg and Vienna in Austria. It was during that time that we made a stop at Schönbrunn castle in Vienna. I was 21 years old and very new to (adventurous) travel. My road trip buddies introduced me to some (by now very basic) tech skills, suchContinue reading
The Best Travel Apps
I was planning to write about ‘the best travel apps’ for a long time, and I’m finally stuck somewhere with WiFi to actually do it. So here we go. Starting with the obvious observation: The last decade has seen some incredible progress regarding technology and so it has affected the way in which we travel. It doesn’t matter whether we go to an all-inclusive resort in Turkey or go backpacking in a crap hostel with bedbugs, We, the (privileged) people who travel have started to expect WiFi and other services everywhere. We bring our own laptop (heavy), tablet (perfect) or smartphoneContinue reading
Three Days in Kyiv, Ukraine – Celebrating my 22nd Birthday
After a nightly train ride from Lviv, I arrived in Kyiv (Київ) in the early morning. I looked up a hostel near the train station on Hostelworld aptly named ‘Kiev Central Station Hostel’. It was a short stroll indeed. I asked for a bed in a dorm, dropped my stuff, and connected with a few people. I asked the hostel staff for tips on how to get to Babyn Yar (Бабин яр) with public transport. Because the bus sounded too complicated, I opted for the metro. That walk took me past Kyiv’s Golden Gate (Золоті ворота) to go to the metro stationContinue reading