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Several years ago, I took a ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn and spent a day wandering the cobbled lanes of its enchanting old town. That brief encounter left me wanting more — to see Estonia beyond its postcard-perfect capital. This year, I finally made it happen. I rented a car in Riga, Latvia’s vibrant neighbor to the south, and began the scenic 310-kilometer drive north to Tallinn, tracing the Baltic coastline and crossing into a country I’d long hoped to explore in depth.

In April 2025, three longtime friends—me included—set out to walk the 280 km Camino Portuguese from Porto, Portugal to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. This was a follow-up to my solo Camino Frances trek in 2024, a journey of 850 km across northern Spain. This time, with over thirty years of friendship between us, camaraderie was at the heart of our adventure. The trip began with the usual chaos that budget airlines can inspire. RyanAir demanded a series of app-based steps just

I made some Romanian friends on my Camino de Santiago Walk and we agreed to meet up in Romania for a hike. When that opportunity arose, I was in the capital of Moldova, Chişinau. These friends told me to take a bus to a border town named Iaşi. It was a four-hour international bus ride that went through open farmlands. Almost three hours into the ride, the police stopped the bus and asked me for my passport. The other passengers were Moldovan. After a quick check, they allowed

Years ago, on a visit to Thessaloniki, Greece, I had rented a car and wanted to go to FYROM -t he former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, but was told that the car would be pelted by the locals, and I decided to heed the advice, and deferred my trip. Turns out, I could never finish that goal because FYROM ceased to exist, and in 2020, it was named as North Macedonia. On my trip to Kosovo, I planned to go that neighboring country and visit their capital, Skopje . It was a two-h

I had a day in Switzerland before the next flight from Zurich and also had a rail pass which allowed travel anywhere in the country. The Michelin chef Richard and his wife Yvonne Stöckli at Alpenblick Wilderswil, where I had stayed the prior night, were very friendly and they suggested going to Lugano by train and then to Zurich. They said the train route was very beautiful and went through a small town in Italy. I walked to the station which was not too far away and began th

Switzerland is a beautiful country which makes you marvel at its scenic nature at every turn. In the Swiss Alps is Jungfraujoch , a saddle connecting two major 4,000-meter-high mountains. To reach the " Top of Europ e", I went to a city named Interlaken . The colorful Swiss trains are cute, and I reached Interlaken by train from Zurich. Swiss Rails sells rail passes for different days' duration and the 5 days pass I purchased allowed unlimited travel throughout the country.

I have been aware of Oktoberfest since the early 1990s and quickly agreed to go to experience it when a friend proposed a trip. We decided to go to Munich for enjoying it for a couple of days. Late September in Munich is a time for booming business time. V isitors from all over Germany as well as the world participate in this beer festival, probably the biggest in the world. It is hard to find hotel rooms close to Theresienweise - the area that hosts the festival. To seem l

There are six micronations in Europe: Liechtenstein, San Marino, Monaco, Vatican City, Malta and Andorra. As I had just hiked the Camino de Santiago starting from the Pyrenees mountains, I wanted to seize the opportunity to see Andorra, which is nestled amongst the Pyrenees mountains, a nation that covers just 467.4km² with a population of around 78,000. Driving from Lerida in Spain, I passed through the rural green farming areas and came to the highway leading to Andorra’s c

Slovenia has a limited coastline on the Adriatic Sea on its west side and it is very picturesque. I drove towards Portorož from Ljubljana. It is a distance of about 80 miles due southwest of Ljubljana. As it was the Labor Day holiday, it brought a lot of Slovenians on the road. The mountains and houses on hills strewn all throughout the drive made for a very pleasant and scenic drive, however, when I reached the hotel for the night, I discovered it was in the old town that ha

Slovenia is a European country that was part of the Empire of Yugoslavia up until 1991 and has a lot of historical significance. Slovenia...

As a foodie, I had heard about San Sebastián for a long time and wanted to visit it. The Camino de Santiago also goes through it, if one is walking the route Camino Norte. After my Camino De Santiago walk by the Camino Frances route, which I finished 9 days faster than planned, I took the opportunity to visit San Sebastián. It is about a five-hour drive from Madrid. As I neared the town, I came across the iconic city gates which are two on each side on the river Urumea . They

Today was the final day of the long walk, and I woke up by 5AM. Aaron and I had decided to walk together, and we headed out at 6AM sharp. It was dark outside and the path was very steep at various points. Over the 31km walk today, a climb of 1900 feet was expected. We were walking pretty fast and there was no one on the path. Before dawn, we missed a marker and walked about half a kilometer before realizing and course-correcting. The dawn started with beautiful colored sky. T

Knowing that I was at least 10 km behind Aaron, I got up before 5 AM and was walking on the path by 5:15AM. The Argentinian fast walker had also been up and I left while he was still getting ready. The path was dark, my headlamp battery was fading, and soon I was almost in a ditch by the roadside. As I righted myself, I saw the Argentinian walk steadily behind me with his headlamp shining brightly. Aaron was up and had texted me that he would start a little bit later in the d

Sarria is the starting point of hiking the trail for majority of the people as it is 115km away and that is nearly the minimum distance one has to walk in order to get a certificate showing they walked on it. With my long walk of 51km yesterday, I started the day a bit later than usual. I was surprised to see Aaron, the young fast walker from England to be at the same Albergue as me, and we both saw each other as we were starting out. We were out on the path at 7:30AM and saw

I was amazed at myself to get on the road by 4:45AM. It was a dark, starry night. As I walked in the cloudless sky, I pulled out my Sky Tonight app and could see many constellations, including the Ursa major as well as Leo. It was quite a hilly climb right from the start today. At least 3600 feet climb was expected in the 44 km I had planned for the day. Walking 5km, I reached the highest altitude in the area, and the low lighting made the picture above look quite interesting

Today’s goal was a 37 km walk with about 5000 feet climb so it was surely not a trivial one. The temperatures were getting higher and mornings were in the high 40°F. No rain was predicted for the next several days. I got a 6 AM start while it was pretty dark, but quite peaceful and the headlamp was enough to illuminate the path. Passing by the ‘Santuario de nuestra señora de las Angustias’, I took a picture and proceeded. The dawn was again quite amazing with the slow illumin

Many of my photographer friends have shown me pictures of the Milky Way and I am always amazed at their fantastic photography. I personally have never been able to take such beautiful pictures. Mostly because I just use my iPhone all the time which does not have that level of capability. I started walking and found the full display of stars in the absence of light pollution. I was happy to take one picture where at least some stars are visible. Today, the path was very hilly,

I started walking at 7:45, after spending over 11 hours in bed and really getting a great night's rest. A half hour in the walk, the sun was rising, and the sky turned into beautiful colors. It was a great sight to see the sun peak out from the horizon. Another pilgrim came from behind me and started talking to me, I recognized him as my bunkmate from a couple of days ago in Léon. It was beginning to be quite steep, and I kept walking up the relentless hill. At the crest was

Today it was 32°F, which is 0°C, freezing, and I started walking at about 6:45 AM. Right off the bat, I stubbed my toe three times in a row and lost my way a couple of times. Luckily, the Buen Camino app was my rescuer and eventually I was on the right path. Last night, the municipal Albergue which had one room with 12 bunkbeds, had a lot of activity. The pilgrims were a little noisy, snoring, waking up multiple times in the night, making it a little hard to get continuous sl

I started by 7:15 AM from the Albergue and had a plan to walk 37 km, not too much and not too little. The destination was Léon and that is one of the biggest towns on this Camino. Today, the next town from start was at a 13 kilometer distance and that signified an over two hours of walk to finally get the caffeine fix. As I stopped to admire and take a picture of the crucifix, I saw two people walking in front of me and another walking in front of them. It was raining and mis