Having led three Global Builders teams to Romania, I decided to give their only other European outpost a try. I’d heard a lot about this particular project in Tadim, a six-unit apartment renovation, but also about many a volunteer’s love for the accommodations at Domus House. It’s a unique setup. Continue reading
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PORTUGAL | Revisiting Porto
Porto was the first stop on my first visit to Portugal in 2015. I’m happy to report that almost nothing has changed, it is as perfect and pretty as ever. This is how I spent three days with my friends. Continue reading
SLOVAKIA | Blood of My Blood
My nine-day journey throughout Slovakia begins in its capital. Bratislava is quite beautiful, especially the old squares and their landmarks. Once the Hungarian coronation city on the Danube, with its castles and palaces and summer resorts of Austrian nobility, the city retains its charms, even it never was grand. Continue reading
GERMANY | An Unexpected Layover in Freising
On our way to Sibiu, Romania my friend and I now had an entire day to kill in Munich. Obviously although we are dog tired after our delayed overnight flight, we are NOT going to stay in the airport. Enter the Internet. After a brief search and a few questions posed to the lady at the Information Desk in the airport, we locked up our luggage and headed for the Number 635 Bus to Freising. Continue reading
4 Days in the Georgian Capital | Tbilisi
Arriving in Tblilisi from the north of Georgia, with two of our friends departing that evening, we made the most of the time we had left together and walked along charming cobblestone streets toward the Kura River, toward the Bridge of Peace. A bow-shaped pedestrian bridge made of steel and glass that links the Old City to Rike Park, it’s an easy landmark to spot… Continue reading
BULGARIA | Stealable 10-Day Itinerary Starting in Sofia
[This post is part one of a 10-day driving itinerary that includes Sofia, Melnik, Plovdiv, and Veliko Taranovo, which each have their own post.] I’d never visited Bulgaria, which is usually reason enough for me to go somewhere. Before meeting my Global Builders Team in Cluj, Romania in mid-April, I decided to give myself ten … Continue reading
Global Builders, ROMANIA | Cluj-Napoca
Hoping a flight from Amsterdam to Cluj-Napoca on LOT through Warsaw, I continued to make my way east, the furthest east I’d ever been on the European continent. I had no idea what to expect, only what I’d read and heard from others visiting Romania’s second largest city, the unofficial capital of the Dracula-famed Transylvania. … Continue reading
6 Days in Cuzco, PERU
After finishing another successful volunteer house build with The Fuller Center for Housing, I was fortunate to extend my stay in Peru. If you plan to visit Machu Picchu while in Peru, most likely your jumping off point will be one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the Western Hemisphere and the former capital … Continue reading
Habitat Global Village NICARAGUA | What to see in Estelí
Nestled among the mountainous hillsides of the central highlands near the Honduran border, Estelí feels like an honest blue-collar city, a sports town with devoted fans, a place where locals worship and shop the huge Saturday produce market, where students learn and where expats can buy sunscreen and lattes alike. Dotted with language schools, tobacco … Continue reading
3 Days in ‘Auld Reekie’ – Edinburgh, Scotland
With the US dollar stronger against the British pound than it’s been in a long while, it was a good time for Americans to visit the United Kingdom. Scots are extraordinarily friendly, even helpful, making it all the easier to fall in love with Scotland. Although they speak English, incline your ear to listen carefully, … Continue reading