I’m enjoying my 33rd country visited – Canada. Vancouver is as they say – very liveable, very comfortable, and a real relief after three days in the unwalkable LA. Strangely enough, entering Canada was more difficult than entering the US. I was asked various questions, including how I know my friend I would be staying with. This was in addition …
North America trip day 4: Silicon Valley
Having the luck of knowing someone who works in the Silicon Valley, I spent a day in Palo Alto and around. Palo Alto is famous as the site where the famous Stanford prison experiment was conducted.
North America trip day 4: mountains of California
I was pondering over the choice of transportation between San Francisco and Los Angeles for a while and eventually decided to opt for the bus. I wanted to experience space and distance instead of forming a pointilistic understanding of the West Coast. On the way, I saw various views of rural California, its silky yellow fields and impressive mountain ranges. …
North America trip day 5: UCLA sculpture garden
This horse is a part of the Murphy sculpture garden on UCLA campus. Its author is Deborah Butterfield. Believe it or not, the horse is made out of metal, beautifully made to look like wood. The garden’s patron wanted to create a space to appreciate beauty from the most abstract to the most detailed forms. The garden also includes four …
North America trip day 3: Grumpy sea lion and farmers’ market
San Francisco is hyper urban, but the main tourist attractions are bisons and sea lions. The family I was staying with told me a story that pier 39, where sea lions rest, used to be a private pier for boats. Sea lions started assembling there after the great earthquake, and the people who were using the pier were driven away …
North America trip day 2: buffaloes and hippies
The second day in San Francisco was super interesting. We started from a hipster cafe called ‘Phil’s’, where local hipsters hang out. I noticed that hipsters in Europe dress by far more colorfully than in the US. The coffee was really good for americano.
North America trip day 1: the Mission
I’m doing an American-style ‘eurotrip’, but in the US. I learned about the concept of ‘doing Europe in 7 days’ in high school English class. Now I’ll try to ‘do’ the US in two weeks. I started with observing the legendary murals in the Mission, San Francisco. Surprises so far: some advertisements are in Spanish only, and the ubiquitousness of …
Dubrovnik – the expensive urban and natural paradise (II)
First part . Outside of the Old Town, a picturesque fortification attracts not only tourists, but also the theater and cinema industries. It is also used for rock diving. On it, the official motto of the former republic, ‘freedom can’t be sold for the whole gold in the world’, is inscribed. The republic’s nobility (men only) elected their representatives to …
Dubrovnik – the expensive urban and natural paradise (I)
Visiting Dubrovnik for the first time got me asking why I never thought about going there before. I am not surprised why it attracts so many people – there is everything for every taste… except, perhaps, budget travel. The popular Croatian city rests on the remainders of the once-prominent Republic of Ragusa, which was known for its vibrant economic and …