I'm finally exploring some of the Silk Road, I dream of mine for many years. I've had some tastes of the Silk Road in Xi'an and in Turkey, plus I've checked-out some old wiklalas (caravanserais) in Cairo which are not related to the Silk Road, but were used on Trans-Saharan trading routes. But for me, this trip is the real thing! Samarkand is unmatched when it comes to a name representing something isolated, mysterious, and forbidden. And that was in the good old days. Today's version presents as many difficulties for the modern-day traveler. Getting a visa to travel there is [View Full Entry]

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Now that I'm done summarizing the past, I would like to write a little bit about what the future holds. I think that the reason I was inspired to summarize 15 trips in one day (I've been typing for about 9 hours straight now) is because I have so much to look forward to. At the end of this month, I will travel to Uzbekistan. The preview of that trip will follow this post. In October 2007, Raluca and I will spent two or three weeks in Romania, possibly via Rome if Raluca's brother is still working there. For three months [View Full Entry]

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4/07-5/07 After our move to Boston, our first (and only up to this point) trip was to Scandinavia. Besides a brief few days in Helsinki back in 2003, I hadn't been to the birthplace of my passion for travel in seven long years. What I found there was quite shocking. Prices were high back in my heyday, but now they had gotten even higher. A hot dog in Norway costed $5. Two metro tickets to go three stops in Stockholm was $10. Using the bathroom costed $2. We spent double on this trip then we expected too, but we were [View Full Entry]

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11/05-12/05 Like I said in the last entry, 1.5 years had passed since I had gone overseas. My wife saw my suffering and offered me some relief in the form of a trip. I decided on China. I wrote I decent review of my trip on www.eurotrek.net which I will cut and paste here... CONTENTS 1. China- Basic Information 2. Chinese Cities 3. Hong Kong 4. Tibet 1. CHINA- BASIC INFORMATION People- The people in China are very friendly. Other than aggressive touts trying to sell you everything under the sun, you're unlikely to have many problems. There are two [View Full Entry]

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6/04-8/04 I spend three months in Romania with Raluca in the summer of 2004. I missed my connecting flight in Boston on my to Bucharest, so I had to spend the night there. Boston turned out to be much nicer than I thought. In fact, it was so nice that I took Raluca there for a trip after we got married. She loved it too. A year later (in 2006), we ended up moving to Boston and that's where I'm typing from now. All because of a missed flight! I was rerouted through Frankfurt and got to spend a few hours [View Full Entry]

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12/03-01/04 The purpose of this 3 weeks in Romania was to spend time with Raluca, my new girlfriend. We spent most of the time in Iasi, her hometown. I fell in love with Iasi while I was there. Iasi's dramatic skyline features the neo-gothic Palace of Culture (my favorite building in Romania) and hills topped by monasteries. The center of town is dotted with early 20th century neo-classical structures including the university building, a hotel designed by Gustave Eiffel, and the theatre. The churches are what is special about Iasi, though. The Church of Three Hierarchs, Golia monastery (pre [View Full Entry]

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6/03-8/03 In the summer of 2003, I was back to my old summer traveling habits. For some reason, I was still not done with Europe. I had pretty much given up on Western Europe due to the expense, but Eastern Europe still offered everything I wanted, including a special surprise in Romania. I flew into my former hometown of Prague and went from there. Here are some blurbs of what I did in each country. Czech Republic- Prague, Benesov. My grand return to Prague was cut short by the temptation of going to new, undiscovered places. Germany- Dresden. Checking in on [View Full Entry]

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12/02-1/03 This 3 week trip had two purposes: to visit some of my Eastern European friends and to finally go to Belarus. I was successful on both counts. I flew to Budapest, but immediately went Kosice in Slovakia to visit some friends there. I went back to Budapest after that to spend New Year's with Attila my friendfrom when I was studying in Prague. I then took a train north to Warsaw to spent time with my friend Radek and to arrange a visa for Belarus. I spent the next 8 days in Minsk, Europe's only dictatorship. Since the town was [View Full Entry]

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9/02 2002 was the first summer since 1997 that I hadn't spent in Europe because I left England in May to go back to the USA. This was very depressing for me, so I decided to let fate decide on whether or not I would return to Europe in the fall. Newcastle's group stage draw for the Champions' League was held in August. I decided that if they drew a Ukrainian or Russian team, I would go. Fate told me loudly to return to Europe when Newcastle drew Dinamo Kiev and then laughed at me by making Newcastle's match at Dinamo [View Full Entry]

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12/01-5/02 I flew back to Ohio for one week after my semester in Prague. I celebrated Christmas there before heading right back to Europe. For some reason, my mom bought be a roundtrip ticket from Prague, so I spent an evening there and flew to London the next day. I had a six month British work visa through the BUNAC program and spent the next five months living in London. I lived at the BUNAC hostel in the West End, right around the corner from the British Museum. My first job was as a waiter at a restaurant called Le Metro [View Full Entry]

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