Travel
An Eastward Exchange
In the Fall of 2017, I departed for Europe on an exchange program with Rotary International. I spent a year in the Tatra Mountains of northern Slovakia, learning about Slovak culture, teaching myself photography and blogging. Traveling the Europe, searching for things to document on my blog; that experience taught me the skills I am now putting to use as a journalist.
Featured Posts
Hello, Slovakia.
A surreptitiously taken photo of the inside of my first European cafe in years. There's a table in the back corner of a cafe, lit ...
The Great Venetian Scavenger Hunt
Rotary ended our 2-week journey through Europe with a grand adventure. Our bus pulled up to a seaside hotel on the Italian coast outside of ...
Červený Kláštor
Just setting foot within the first courtyard of Červený Kláštor (the Red Monastery) it is evident why this place inspired legends. The orderly cobblestone underfoot ...
Slovenský Raj
Waterfalls are abundant in the Blue Ridge Mountains of my home, but our paths force hikers on long detours through the forests to circumnavigate them, ...
A Week of Skiing at Jasná
My breath wet the mask through which it passed, quickly freezing and collecting flakes from the densely falling snow, glued even harder by the rushing ...
The Tatras’ Symbolic Cemetery
Every so often a day will pass when circumstance conspires to bring you adventure. So it did for me one snowy winter morning not long ...
Viennese Christmas Markets
The size of the Viennese Christmas markets is not what makes them exceptional. If that was so, any shopping center with a half-a-theme could compete ...
All Posts
Nitra
Nitra is the oldest city in Slovakia and boasts some of the nation's most important events. Once seat of the Great Moravian Empire, it was in Nitra that the brother Saints Cyril and Methodius established their bishopric and brought Christianity to the Western Slavs. It was their belief that everyone ...
Pompeii
(A preface: As I was cleaning my computer, I accidentally lost photos from Pompeii. Therefore, this post uses images from other photographers. Featured image credit: Paul Kelley from Merrimac, MA, United States, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons) How surreal it is to stand on the threshold of one ...
Esztergom
The paddy cap rested haphazardly atop my face, failing to completely shield my eyes from the sun. I shifted into new positions in the uncomfortable passenger's seat, then moved the cap, then my body again. This restless effort to sleep was my failing attempt to make up for the rest ...
The District Conference 2018
The biggest event in our Czech and Slovak Rotary Multi-district is the District Conference in May. There, hundreds of Rotarians from all corners of the Czech Republic and Slovakia gather to discuss their projects, catch up with distant colleagues, bestow awards for exceptional service and meet the year's exchange students ...
More From Rome
Pantheon The Pantheon is a magical structure and to this day the largest concrete dome in the world. It's rotunda converges on a perfect circle, called an oculus, open to the sky above. From there, a shaft of light, seemingly from Heaven itself, pierces the space and illuminates the exquisite ...
Rome of Antiquity
The sun had set on Rome by the time our bus pulled to a stop in front of the hotel. Orange tungsten bulbs and the occasional white flash of passing headlights lit the street, reflecting off pavestones slick from recent rain and casting a dim monochrome haze over the shadowed ...
Other Adventures in Barcelona!
Joyce "What you are thinking I am...I am," the tour guide at the head of our bus introduced herself. She had large glasses, a long dull-colored dress and a mass of messy hair spiraling down from the top of her head. She looked something like a cross between Harry Potter's ...
Barcelona and Guadí
Of all the cities we visited, Barcelona was one of the most touristy, yet the crowds were a cinch to escape. Swarms of these tourists and gimmicky vendors crowd the city's main promenade, La Rambla, and flow down the larger streets of the Gothic District, but a quick step off ...
Skanzen Bardejovské Kúpele
I have discussed the villages of Vlkolinec and Pribylina in prior posts, but it is worthwhile to compare Bardejovské Kúpele to the city from which it gets its name (which I discussed in the previous post) and the historic divide that existed in Slovakia between urban lifestyles and demographics and ...
Bardejov
"How far these city walls have come," I thought, gazing from the battlements of Bardejov, over sprawling development, towards the green pastures beyond. The fortifications of Bardejov's historic center were erected in 1300s to deter invaders after the city's great wealth—wealth accumulated from its lucrative trade position between Hungary and ...
La Tour Eiffel
The iconic iron-wrought structure had been present for my entire stay in Paris, peeking over a building or down one of the many streets we explored over the previous two days. Yet, the Eiffel Tower only became our destination on the last morning we spent in the city—and what a ...
Monmartre
Set on a hill outside of Paris' center, folk legend states the the location got its name when the bishop, Saint Denis, was executed by the Romans there for his christian faith (accordingly, "Mount of the Martyr"). Supposedly, after the executioner's blade fell, the man stood, picked up his decapitated ...
The Palace of Versailles
The beauty of Versailles is not contained to the world-renowned palace, in fact, it begins long before you reach the chateau itself. After departing from the hotel on the second morning of EuroTour, our bus traversed over a chaotic highway towards the outskirts of Paris. Eventually, the many graffiti covered ...
The Heart of Paris
After a twenty hour bus ride, we arrived in Paris just after dawn. The tour buses squeezed through the small roads of an outdated commercial district, pulling in front of a relatively attractive accommodation by the name of "Ibis Hotels". Unloading our things, we all expected to enter into cozy ...
EuroTour Summary
What makes an adventure? To me, it is exciting and unfamiliar experiences, a little bit of hardship, and good companions to help you through it all. By that definition, EuroTour was certainly the biggest adventure of my exchange. We battled sleep deprivation and illness, getting by on food of sporadic ...
Červený Kláštor
Just setting foot within the first courtyard of Červený Kláštor (the Red Monastery) it is evident why this place inspired legends. The orderly cobblestone underfoot and the warm hues of the tiled roofs and crumbling walls gave the impression of sanctuary against the wild green chaos around. Even though many ...
The Three Kings
My most recent trip with my host family took us to the border of Poland, however, not by the normal highway. We cut instead through the village of Ždiar, descending, on steep and twisting gravel roads, the northern side of the Tatras, opposite of where I live. This country road ...
Spring in Bratislava
As I write this, the trees on the Tatra slopes around my home are just budding. Their verdant hues now filling a landscape I had, quite frankly, forgot could be anything but dismally grey. However, this isn't my first taste of spring. A few weeks ago, my host father explained ...
Pribylina
Tucked into the hills of the Liptov region, the open-air museum of Pribylina offers a glimpse into what the lives of the majority of Slovaks looked like up until the early-twentieth century. This agrarian lifestyle still lives in the memory of many people here. My host-father, only in his forties, ...
Slovenský Raj
Waterfalls are abundant in the Blue Ridge Mountains of my home, but our paths force hikers on long detours through the forests to circumnavigate them, keeping everyone a safe distance from the potentially treacherous cliffs. This safety precaution is likely wise, yet, it is completely disregarded here in Slovenský raj ...
