Nessebar – The Pearl of the Black Sea

Nessebar might be the most adorable town in Bulgaria. To me, it’s the Cape Cod of the Black Sea. It has a ton of charm, lots of cute little shops and is infinitely photographable. As such, this post is heavy on the pictures, light on the words. The town of Nessebar is over 3000 years…

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Varna on the Black Sea

Reunited and it feels so good! After spending the day visiting the ruins of Perperikon, I hop back on the bus to continue my journey to Varna. Maggie and her mom are waiting for me at the bus station, and it’s nice to be able to easily speak to people again. As an introvert, I…

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Thracian Ruins of Perperikon

The ancient ruins of Perperikon may not be well known, but if you have the time in your Bulgarian itinerary, they are worth half a day to see. Located on top of a hill in the Rhodopes Mountains, they are easily accessible by car from the town of Kardzhali, so I decide to take a…

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European Charm in Plovdiv

I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Plovdiv just might be the highlight of Bulgaria (Maggie would disagree and say it’s Varna, I’m sure, but she’s biased). It ends up being my favorite city in the country, and my second favorite city in all of eastern Europe (after the city where I…

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The Rila Monastery

The Rila Monastery is located about 70 miles south of Sofia, in the Rila Mountains. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to get there on my own easily, so I join a tour leaving from the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral early in the morning. I can’t resist one more picture of the cathedral in…

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Walking Tour of Sofia

After a fun weekend at Oktoberfest in Munich, it’s time for Maggie and I to fly to her homeland. I’m really excited to see where she grew up, meet her grandma’s and some of her childhood friends. As the largest city and capitol of Bulgaria, our first stop is Sofia. Our friend Todor (who I…

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Oregon Coast: Pacific City and Cape Kiwanda

When most people think of Oregon, the beach probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. The Pacific Northwest isn’t known as a tropical paradise, but our beaches definitely have their own appeal, and those who venture out here, even during the winter, are rewarded with some incredible views. One of my favorite beaches…

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Oregon Coast: Lincoln City to Depoe Bay

Do you ever just want to get away from it all? Throw your stuff in your car and drive to the beach for a few days? I did that very thing last weekend. My friend Adrienne has family friends with a condo on Cascade Head near Lincoln City on the Oregon coast, and they have graciously…

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Munich – The Capitol of Bavaria

You may (or may not) have noticed my lack of posts lately. As you probably know, my hard drive crashed a few weeks ago, and I sent it in to a clean room to extract the data. Well, unfortunately, that didn’t work. The disk is scratched and they were unable to retrieve my pictures. I’m completely…

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Spice Girls in Las Vegas

Once again, I’d like to apologize for the quality of photos in this post. These were taken waaaaay back in 2007, before I upgraded to a digital camera. How did we ever manage before we had unlimited space and we could see the shots we got, right after we took them? Confession – I didn’t want…

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UAE Breakdown and Travel Tips

I really enjoyed my time in the United Arab Emirates. Those seven days just flew by. I went into this trip expecting there to be a lot of downtime, relaxing on the beach, floating in the water and catching up on my reading. Little did I know exactly how much there is to do! We…

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Dubai Nights – Beaches, Souks and Other Miscellany

Well, here we are. My last post on Dubai, except the final breakdown tomorrow. Today I want to share with you all the various photos that I took that didn’t seem to fit with any other post so far. There are quite a few, so just sit back, relax and enjoy the show… While Dubai is…

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