4 EuropeBulgariaDaily Notes

Arrival @ Plovdiv, Bulgaria, June 7, 2019

Arrived in Plovdiv, an ancient Roman city in Southern Bulgaria. It feels surreal that within hours of driving from here now I can reach Turkey or Greece, two countries that I have long considered ‘far and far away’. But my plan is to drive north, in the direction of the Baltic states. For the time being, I’ll soak up Bulgarian culture. @ Plovdiv, Bulgaria, June 7, 2019
4 EuropeBosnia and HerzegovinaDaily NotesWhat I Had Today (Food)

Bosnian pot and Cevapi @ Bosnian Steak House, Sarajevo, May 30, 2019

This restaurant is in the center of the touristy area in Sarajevo, but I went inside nonetheless, because the vibe was good near the busy street, and it was fun to watch people. And the server turned out to have great photo-taking skills. Bosnian cuisine uses a lot of meat, which doesn’t annoy me. The Bosnian Pot (Bosanski Lonac) tastes almost what it looks like. It’s a heavy stew with tender and moist meat and vegetables. I’d say that this kind of stew is found in...
- TRAVEL DIARY4 EuropeDaily NotesPoland

Auschwitz @ Auschwitz concentration camp, Oświęcim, Poland, May 10

Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp consists of over 40 concentration and extermination camps and was operated by Nazi Germany from 1940 to 1945. Around 1.3 million people were sent to the camp, among which 1.1 million people died. And 90% of them were Jews. I learned that Auschwitz was much more of extermination camps rather than labor camps or otherwise. Essentially, it was designed to annihilate a large number of people each day, by other prisoners who were chosen for the labor. I tried to imagine what...
4 EuropeCroatiaDaily Notes

Arrival @ Zagreb, Croatia, May 17, 2019

I continue zigzags through the Central and Eastern Europe. Today, almost after 10 months since Uruguay, I experienced a ‘formal’ border crossing procedure with Hungarian officials with suspecting eyes on the car, its license plate, and my overall trustworthiness. After an hour, I was let go. Now I’m in Croatia while having a break from the ticking Schengen clock. @ Letenye, Hungary, May 17, 2019
- TRAVEL DIARY4 EuropePolandWhat I Had Today (Food)

Pierogi ruskie @ Pierogarnia start Mlyn, wroclaw, Poland, may 14, 2019

Pierogies are filled dumplings and are one of the most liked food in Poland. One traditional Polish pieorgi is pierogi ruskie, which is often mistranslated as Russian pierogi, but it actually means Ruthenian pierogi. The stuffing contains minced potatoes and fried onions. Potatoes and fried onions cannot go wrong, but I enjoyed the dough more, which was chewy and moist, a quality that tell pierogies apart from empanadas in Latin American cuisine. Pierogi ruskie, USD 4.7 Vegetable soup, USD 2.5 @ Pierogarnia start Mlyn, wroclaw, Poland,...
- TRAVEL DIARY4 EuropeMoments Together (Friends)Poland

with Liwia and Sebastian@ Jelenia Gora, Poland, May 7, 2019

with Liwia and Sebastian If you are one of the few who followed my travels closely, you’d know that I am excited about meeting people again in different places. And it was more special to catch Liwia and Sebastian again in their hometown because we all were pan-american travelers and we shared the anticipation and the anxiety of shipping vehicles across continents. And now it is encouraging and inspiring to have ‘colleagues in the same journey´, where we share our thoughts on what all that means...
- TRAVEL DIARY4 EuropeGermanyMoments Together (Friends)

The luxury of meeting people again

The luxury of meeting people again Long-term traveling has many perks and frequently I realize that they are not what I had imagined earlier. One of them is the sheer physical possibility of meeting people again as I can show up in many places around the world. Thanks to SNSs, we live with the impression that we are connected with others who are far away, but meeting friends again in person is still a special experience to be appreciated. So I am grateful that I can...