Bulgaria – Lebanon Technically, all we needed to do at the border was to pay for our visas that had been already issued to us and to get our passports stamped. Harry and Fadi collected the money and passports and disappeared in the building. The group waited outside, and waited and nothing happened. We milled […]
Tartus, Syria, Sep 2024 Read More »
Visiting Syria was not on my short-term bucket list, far from it, but some things just happen as if they were sent to us from above. A post on the NomadMania website advertised a 12-day trip to Syria in September. Interested people should contact Harry. Having no idea who Harry was, I dropped him a
Bulgaria – Lebanon, Sep 2024 Read More »
I bought online a ticket to see the house where Nicolae Ceausescu lived with his family for a quarter of the century. There is no need to do that if you do not mind waiting 20-30 minutes. A guided tour takes 45 minutes, tours are available in Romanian and English. It says everywhere that “taking
Ceausescu Mansion, Bucharest, Romania, July 2024 Read More »
The trip to Bucharest was totally unplanned. I spend every summer in my favorite place, a small Bulgarian town of Byala, and use it as an opportunity to visit the Russian consulate in Varna to do some paperwork. This is a lot cheaper and less time consuming than to fly from Denver to Houston. Last
Bucharest, Romania, July 2024 Read More »
My summer stay in Europe was over. I took a break and went to Madagascar for 2 weeks at the end of August-beginning of September, then returned to Bulgaria for 3 more weeks. From there, I traveled to Belgium and Barcelona with a side trip to Andorra. After that, it was time to start moving
Santiago Island, Cabo Verde, Oct 2023 Read More »
The next night was again in Andasibe but in a different hotel. The afternoon was free and I went to see the town alone. The houses here were of brick and wooden planks unlike the straw and twig huts in the western part of the island. A few buildings from the colonial past stood out
Back to Antananarivo, Madagascar, Sep 2023 Read More »
Madagascar East Coast After days on the road, we arrived to a serene place, Palmarium Hotel, located by a narrow lagoon which is separated from the Indian Ocean by a barrier beach. It took 40 minutes by boat to get there. Our cottages for 2 were in a thick bamboo grove. We spent our time
Palmarium, Madagascar, Sep 2023 Read More »
Mozambique Strait The East coast is quite different from West. It is humid and even cold here. I slept under a thick blanket. Before that on the West coast, a thin sheet was enough and I kept the windows open through the night. It is a lot greener here and the population is not as
East Coast, Madagascar, Sep 2023 Read More »
Tsingy National Park We stayed in bungalows in the Kirindy Forest and watched the local wildlife. The island of Madagascar separated from the African continent millions of years ago. As a result, about 90% of all plants and animals on the island are endemic. In the evening, we reached the coast where we spent two
Mozambique Strait, Madagascar, Sep 2023 Read More »
Morondava At breakfast, we exchanged our first experiences of sleeping in bungalows. Some group members told about lemurs on their roofs that screamed all nights, others found frogs in their toilet bowls, not everyone had hot water in the shower and so on. One couple took their dinner to the bungalow and left the plates
Tsingy NP, Madagascar, Sep 2023 Read More »
