Partial week to end this wonderful journey. Day 1 Lazy start of the day to have one last Polish Pork Knuckle Took a long walk along the river bank to the beer festival in town. Quick dinner at a Vietnamese place Day 2 Back to the Train station again to take the fast train to… Continue reading Sabbatical Week 30

Bittersweet, this was my last full week of travel before heading back home. It’s probably a good time for me to enjoy American summer without thinking about work. Day 1 Travel day to Slovakia. I feel bad for only spending a day in the country. It’s just all hotels were completely booked past Sunday and… Continue reading Sabbatical Week 29

Finally made it to the proper Europe this week, but also felt a bit tired. Perhaps, it’s finally summer now and it’s time to go home. This was perhaps the first week I actually looked into how to get back home. Day 1 Last day in Belgrade, first was to get some food from a… Continue reading Sabbatical Week 28

Fishing up Bulgaria and headed to Serbia (another country that shared some of the complex history and the best known for as the center of the Yugoslavia) Day 1 Started my day early from Plovdiv to visit this ancient fortress out of town called Асенова крепост The ticket was only 4BGN with 1BGN for the… Continue reading Sabbatical Week 27

Bulgaria! What a little country that fills with history, and it fell onto the wrong side of the history (namely supporting Nazi Germany and Being part of the USSR) and yet it’s now a thriving country in the European Union and is on track to join Schengen and Euro zone. It’s fascinating to see the… Continue reading Sabbatical Week 26

Day 1 Woke up early (4:30) to do the all infamous ballon ride (220euros) Time have flown quite fast for 45min and we landed safely on a truck bed With a brief rest at the house to get my coffee and breakfast, we started our last journey in Cappadocia which was to hike up to… Continue reading Sabbatical Week 25

Intro Turkey! It is exotic. It is the link between Asia and Europe and yet its people consider themselves more or less Mideastern. Turkey is vibrant. Turkey is everything – the instagram pictures and youtube videos you watch, the disaster and its politics. Of course, its all notorious scams (or yes, it’s a 3-pager and… Continue reading Sabbatical Week 25

This week was a lazy week to plan for my European trip. Day 1 We have decided to take the jeep down to end our trekking early. I had lunch at a local village (300NRP for a buff Dal Bhat). Absolutely the best) and unfortunately due to the time rush, I didn’t get time to… Continue reading Sabbatical Week 23

Day 1 We got up just at around sunrise to ensure we could reach to our destination around midday – highest chance to avoid any potential bad weather We were about to teach Manang, a village that’s situated at around 3,500m and where we’d stay for 2 nights to acclimatize to the elevation before we… Continue reading Sabbatical Week 22

This week marks the starting of my Annapurna Circuit trek (click on the link to see the rough trail) for a total of Length 136.7 mi Elevation gain 60,456 ft with highest crossing at 5,416 m Day 1 Booked my 15day trekking with the help with my hostel for $415 ($431 with the credit card fees)… Continue reading Sabbatical Week 21