Georgia Trip

From mountains, to fresh tomatoes, to cows in the street, to crazed marshrutkas, to over-generous hosts, to eggplant, to breakfast wine, it was an eventful two weeks. Here are the pictures.

Tbilisi

First Tbilisi dinner

Tbilisi’s old town/puppet theater

Walk to the TV tower

Hostel Visitor

Mestia/Svaneti

First evening in Mestia

Outside Nana’s Guesthouse

Start of the trek

Mountain and river view

Villages in the valley

Up the hill

Root steps

Goats seeking shelter during the rain

Our hosts

Kutaisi

Kutaisi fountains

Botanical garden

Botanical garden

Kutaisi food market

View from the dam

Signagi

Our street

Loza’s Guesthouse

Restaurant and dog from the dinner

Rokia around the World

For Hanka,

Tsaritsyno Park, Moscow, Russia

Russian train from Petrozavodsk to Murmansk

Petrozavodsk, Russia

Petrozavodsk, Russia

Red Square, Moscow, Russia

Mayakovskiy Square, Moscow, Russia

Alyosha Acrtic Statue, Murmansk, Russia

Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia

Patriarch’s Ponds, Moscow, Russia

Puppet Theater, Tbilisi, Georgia

Stepansminda, Georgia

Mt. Kazbek, Georgia

Ananauri Fortress, Ananauri, Georgia

Mt. Kazbek, Georgia

Pertozavodsk, Russia

Petrozavodsk, Russia

Mountains, Villages, Wine, and Cat-Humans: My Week in a Nutshell

TBILISI MOMA

GUDAURI, GEORGIA

GUDAURI, GEORGIA

KAZBEGI, GEORGIA

THE TRAVEL CREW

NICE WARM BREAD

COOL DUDE, SIGNAGI, GEORGIA

TBILISI AT DUSK

DRY BRIDGE MARKET, TBILISI

TBILISI OLD TOWN

TREES ARE NICE

SIGNAGI, GEORGIA

SIGNAGI, GEORGIA

SIGNAGI, GEORGIA

A GREAT SELECTION

IMPRESSIVE MUSTACHE STATUE

My Odd Photos of March

Long overdue, here is my newest edition of my travel photos of the week! I should probably change the nae since I only come out with about 2 or 3 of these per year, but for now, I’ll leave it as such. These pictures are from Ireland and Georgia as the winter thaws into Spring, starting my 2019 year of travels. Please enjoy.

Street Cats of Tbilisi

Kutaisi, Georgia

Kutaisi, Georgia (city center)

House in Kutaisi

River Liffey, Dublin, Ireland

Ireland after the rain

$1 homemade wine

Apartments in Tbilisi

Tbilisi neighborhood

Awesome Graffiti, Tbilisi

Tbilisi from a balcony

Hiking trail up to Tbilisi TV Tower

2018 in Pictures

Another year has gone by and whether you found it to be great, terrible, mildly amusing, or a mixture of the three, it did ultimately give me a few exciting photographs (including one with a monk that had an epic beard). Therefore I have compiled several of my personal favorites from around the world… and by ‘around the world,’ I mean around a couple sporadic countries in the world. Anyway, I hope you enjoy and they inspire you to do something fun like quit your job or buy a cat. Please enjoy.

Tusheti, Georgia

Yerevan, Armenia

Antigua, Guatemala

Dingle Peninsula, Ireland

Dartlo, Tusheti, Georgia

Gobustan, Azerbaijan

Truso Valley, Georgia

Lagodekhi, Georgia

Central Armenia

Mt. Kazbek, Stepansminda, Georiga

Baku, Azerbaijan

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Old Town, Baku, Azerbaijan

Lake Bled, Slovenia

Dingle Peninsula, Ireland

Waterfall, Armenia

Cork, Ireland

Southern Armenia

Digne les Bains, France

Warsaw, Poland

Tbilisi, Georgia

Connecticut, USA

Lago de Atitlan, Guatemala

People Pictures

Southern Armenia

Khor Virap, Armenia

Mt. Kazbek, Georgia

Gobustan, Azerbaijan

Mediterranean Coast, France

Newgrange, Ireland (If you look closely, you can see my ‘wonderful’ editing)

New Almaty Photos

Friends, if you have been following this blog for the past year, you might remember my posts last summer about my trip to Kazakhstan. If you enjoyed those (as you absolutely should have), you're in luck because here are some new photos of the country's biggest city: Almaty. Just to clarify though, I am not there right now. These photos were taken by top contributor Daniel Gandini as he's making his way across Central Asia. Please enjoy.

Animal Encounters

Over the past three years of travelling, I've met some pretty awesome animals, domestic, wild, and stray. Without fail, each one has brightened up my day, and unlike people, they've never bothered or infuriated me. Now it is time to give them a bit of the spotlight.

Giant snail: Tubingen, Germany

Pigeon in Moscow, Russia

FRED!!! Tbilisi, Georgia

An awesome pig: Stepansminda, Georgia

Friendly cat: Tbilisi, Georgia

Shy cat: Tbilisi, Georgia

Very loud sheep: Stepansminda, Georgia

Amazing goat: Almaty, Kazakhstan

Cat family: Tbilisi, Georgia

A young bull that has definitely seen things: Mestia, Georgia

Goat Family: Mestia, Georgia

Суздаль (Suzdal)

Digging up through the archives of my distant past (two years ago), I give you pictures of a historical Russian village on the Golden Ring. While the landscapes were pretty amazing, nothing will top the several liters of mead I bought from a babushka on the side of the road. To this day, such a beverage has not been topped (a challenge to all of you out there). Needless to say, I'm rambling. So please enjoy these photos.

Top Cartoons

As you can probably tell from the stories, I like making cartoons. I feel like they offer much more humor and creativity than those lame, abominations called photographs. Cartoons keep the imagination alive and allow me to use more hyperbole and exaggeration when constructing a narrative. Pictures just show the bland state of reality. Therefore, without further ado, here are some of my personal favorite images I've made on microsoft paint. Some of them come from stories already on the blog, while others were just the result of my own random free time. Either way, please enjoy!

A wonderful pet during my college years

Break out of the cubicle!

A standard fantasy

Selfie sticks be damned

Ramazan, the ski instructor

Ima be famous!

A casual chat with a cow.

Tash, the camera finder

Feelin' alive!

Yeah, I occasionally take other people's ideas.

Lake Baikal: Summer 2012

5 1/2 years ago, when I was a young fool, I went on my then first big solo trip to Siberia (Lake Baikal in particular) to help dig a trail system. Little did I know it, this kickstarted my urge to wander off to bizarre places that normal people wouldn't dare go. So without further ado, here is a nostalgiac homage to that adventure.

The coast.

The camp!

Four awesome people.

Baikal and all its glory.

Lakeside village. I think I had lunch here once.

The crew. Hair and beard... so short. So short. Why?!?

Entering a lakeside village

Either taken at dawn or dusk. I forget.

Best tree photo ever!

2017 in Pictures

These are my arbitrary top landscape (and goat) photos of the year. I shall take you on a journey across Europe, into Central Asia, and along a mountain range that rides between the two. And all people have been removed from the foreground due to my personal disdain of selfies. That said, please enjoy.

Black Sea, Georgia

Tatarstan, Russia

Patriarch's Ponds, Moscow, Russia

Red Square, Moscow, Russia

Kazan, Tatarstan, Russia

Kazan Kremlin, Tatarstan, Russia

Volga River, Samara, Russia

Karakol, Kyrgyzstan

An Awesome Goat, Almaty, Kazakhstan

Mt. Kazbek, Georgia

Almaty, Kazakhstan

Karakol, Kyrgyzstan

Svaneti, Georgia

Tubingen, Germany

Kolomenskoye Park, Moscow, Russia

Mestia, Svaneti, Georgia

Borjomi, Georgia

Red Square, Moscow, Russia

Svaneti, Georgia

Midnight, St. Petersburg, Russia

Russian Winters

Here are some of my top pictures of Russia during the winter. Most of these are from a road trip I did with a friend from Moscow down to the Caucasus in 2016, but there are also a couple from Moscow itself as well as Vladimir. (Photos taken in 2016-2017)

June 24-30 (Patriarch's Ponds/Патриаршие Пруды)

As a temporary farewell to Moscow, I took all these pictures at one of my favorite spots and the opening scene for the book Master and Margarita: Patriarch's Ponds/Патриаршие Пруды (which is actually a misnomer since there it only one pond). Anyway, Enjoy!

June 17-23 (St. Petersburg)

SECOND EDITION

The first few are cityscape shots of St. Petersburg, Russia during the White Nights period in June (where it never gets fully dark outside). The remaining ones are of Polosaty Hostel in St. Petersburg and a most unusual statue of Yuri Gagarin in Moscow.

Photo taken at 11:30pm (23:30)

Church of the Spilled Blood

Inside the church

Photo taken just at 1:00am. Approximately the darkest the city gets during this time.

Photo taken at midnight.

Park in St Petersburg

Entrance to Peter and Paul Fortress

Common Room at Polosaty

Photo taken at 11:00pm (23:00)

Gagarin. Space Man.

Token family photo

Week of June 12-17, 2017

First edition. The first three pictures are of Tsaritsyno Park in Moscow on a nice, sunny day. While the park is mostly know for the palace/museum and the ornate fountains near the entrance, the back half is almost entirely a forest with some really nice walking trails (and far less tourists)

The next two pictures are an opposition protest against Putin and political corruption in the Russian government that broke out on Russia Day (12 June). Although I don't usually get political on this blog, I have to give credit to the protesters. Police came and broke it up three times and each time, a new wave came to fill the square. And on top of that, they formed a congo-line at one point in defiance. Gotta hand it to them for the bravery.

Tsaritsyno Park

Tsaritsyno Park

Protest against Putin and political corruption on Tverskaya Street