Jan 24th, 2013 at 10:00AM: In the Foreign Service, it's easy to calculate who your best friends are. They're the people who will come visit you in places like Khartoum, Yekaterinburg or Bujumbura. Diplomats who get posted to London, Paris, Rome and a handful of other cushy places find themselves running informal bed and breakfast operations, as marginal friends and distant relatives come out of the woodwork to claim a free ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
Balkans posts
A Traveler In The Foreign Service: A Guys Road Trip To Transylvania
Jan 24th, 2013 at 10:00AM: In the Foreign Service, it's easy to calculate who your best friends are. They're the people who will come visit you in places like Khartoum, Yekaterinburg or Bujumbura. Diplomats who get posted to London, Paris, Rome and a handful of other cushy places find themselves running informal bed and breakfast operations, as marginal friends and distant relatives come out of the woodwork to claim a free ...A Traveler In The Foreign Service: Europe's 'Most Beautiful' Women And Other Reasons To Love Bulgaria
Oct 15th, 2012 at 10:00AM: I had to go to Bulgaria just to see if Bill Bryson was full of crap. In his book, "Neither Here Nor There," published in 1991, Bryson wrote, "Sofia has, without any doubt, the most beautiful women in Europe." I was in college when I read the book, and at the tail end of the Cold War it seemed like an improbable assertion. We'd been led to believe that women behind the Iron Curtain were ugly, and, ...Vampire Skeleton On Display In Bulgaria
Jun 16th, 2012 at 10:00AM: Last week we brought you the story that archaeologists had discovered two vampire graves in Bulgaria. Now one of those skeletons, complete with an iron spike through his chest, is going on display at the National History Museum in the Bulgarian capital Sofia.
The medieval skeleton will be revealed to the public this Saturday. No word yet on how long it will be on view.
Museum head Prof. ...Souvenirs: Anatomy of a prized possession from the road
Feb 19th, 2012 at 9:00AM: Souvenirs are difficult for travel writers. We travel too often to be slapdash with souvenir selection, for one. Some frequent travelers focus on a particular thing: snow globes, pens, local magazines, liqueur, rugs, candy.
Others ignore the self entirely and redirect the impulse, choosing to make souvenir purchases for their friends, family, and neighbors.
Me? I like beach towels. I'm ...A Traveler in the Foreign Service: Ciao macho man (or how to help Albanian breakdancers win a grammy)
Jan 13th, 2012 at 12:00PM: I was standing on a stage in an auditorium in front of about 500 people frozen in terror at Nota Fest, which is like the Grammy awards for Macedonia's ethnic-Albanian community. The organizers of the event had invited our Ambassador, Larry Butler, to present a lifetime achievement award and when he, and several other more important people at the embassy declined, the duty was punted down to me, a ...Uncornered Market Q&A: Audrey and Dan on Iran
Dec 8th, 2011 at 11:00AM: Uncornered Market is one of the most popular travel blogs out there. A quick gander will demonstrate why this is the case. Audrey Scott and Dan Noll's labor of love boasts some of the most arresting travel photography around. The subjects the two take on are of broad interest as well--from reflections on cultural traffic to recipes, to reflections on the importance of diplomacy on a personal ...Weekending: Sofia
Oct 5th, 2010 at 2:30PM:
Since moving to Istanbul, I've gotten the chance to travel to a lot of interesting destinations, from Beirut to Bosnia, that are much easier and cheaper to access from Turkey than America. For my first long (more than a weekend) trip, I went to Bulgaria for a week over US Labor Day and Turkish bayram (end of Ramadan holidays). Over the week, I traveled from the capital city Sofia to medieval ...Weekending: Sarajevo
Sep 15th, 2010 at 11:00AM:
Istanbul's unique position straddling two continents affords a lot of travel opportunities, with quick direct flights throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. As an American living in Turkey, I try to explore as often as I can, particularly to less-traveled destinations. While my last weekend trip was to Prague, for this trip, I ventured to another Eastern European capital with far fewer ...
