A magical place, filled with ‘Fairy Chimneys’, ‘Cones’, and ‘Pigeon houses’. As the sun sets behind one of the many hiking trails at the Rose Valley, its name becomes so elegantly clear and descriptive. 
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The echoes of the call to prayer reverberate throughout the city leaving you wıth a weak warm feelıng of piety. The cacophony of taxis honking horns, the haggling of store owners every two feet, vendors on every corner selling every snack you could imagine–side by side wıth edify that have born wıtness to much of the history of the modern world unwind. The fiery sun sets behind the Bosphorous, the great river dividing Asia and Europe, while riding the ferry back to the Asian sıde where I stay after a long day of sightseeıng ın ancient Sultanmet; the cool breeze gıves lıfe after a scorchıng hot summer day. 
Really not too much to say here as I only spent one night in the country: one day in the capital Sofia, and one night and day in the Southern city Plovdiv.
After a week plus of traveling through Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, and Bulgaria, its now time to hop on that overnight train to Istanbul.
So, it is time to clean the ol’ digital camera, here are some of the better photos, including some that I failed to post earlier from the first few weeks of travelling…
After about two and a half weeks of On the Road, from the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and now Slovenia, I have finally managed to get around to writing a post. I do apologize for the long delay; a string of slow computers, an overabundance of castles and Synagogues/Cathedrals, and too many beautiful and kindly Eastern European folk have made it difficult to divvy up time and spend the necessary adequate hours sitting in front of the computer and waiting for all the photos to download on all these historic computers that I’ve been using. Hopefully this photo of new friends Martin and Charlie might begin to make it up to you…
The Setup
I met a friend in MaiLiao, Taiwan that had some preconceived notions of Americans . . . he was asked me, “Why do Americans not like to see an animal before it’s butchered?”
“Because we prefer to believe that meat comes from the supermarket, not from animals” I replied.
The next day he mentioned that “Taiwanese people eat dog. Would you eat dog?”
Pics from the land of ‘la pura vida’–pure life–Costa Rica trip in 2005. As with Barcelona, Costa Rica is one of those places that you just fall in love with and vow to return to for an extended period of time. They both breath life–you can just feel it in the air, the positive energy just all around–which gives rise to huge ex pat populations.
Three years have past since I first stepped foot in Barcelona and fell in love with this majestic city and promised to make a move over here; almost one year has passed since making that move; now, time is fast approaching to make yet another move onwards, leaving behind this place that has meant so much to me.
Welcome to Tim Witting’s Nomad Diaries, where I’ll be detailing my wanderings around the world for the next half a year or so. Before I begin, first let me give a big Thank You to Pat and Sosten for setting up this blog enabling me to communicate with all of you. As of now, the scheduled itinerary of the trip starts from the smoke-filled coffee shops of Amsterdam, through Central and Eastern Europe down to Turkey, where I hop on a plane to Japan, then continuing through inland China and zig-zagging through Southeast Asia going down to probably Indonesia, possibly Australia.