Anyone Know The Whereabouts of Kirrill Stefanov?

by
Kirill Stefanov

An unfortunate thing about nomadic travel is that we tend to lose track of friends as fast as we make them.

I met Kirill Stefanov, an artist, in a hostel in Cairo.

It was March, he was friendly, his English was good and we’d talk.

He was often on the phone with his wife and children in Russia. He’d left his home shortly before the fighting started in the Ukraine to look for a place to relocate his family safely before the shooting started. He wanted a flat and a small studio where he could pursue his talent. But by then the shooting had started and he was stuck, uncertain how or when he’d be united with his family again.

I wished him luck and left Cairo in pursuit of my journey, which I felt almost ashamed to continue in light of Kirill’s plight. I lost track of him but often think about him. I haven’t had any contact with him since I left the hostel and all I can do is hope that he’s found some way home, either in or out of Russia, and that he and his family are safe.

Read more

Tensions Rise in Georgia as Russians Flee Ukraine War

by
A spectacular view of Devil’s Valley in Georgia’s Caucasus Mountains in this photo taken from the “Russia-Georgia Friendship Monument”, which celebrates the bicentennial of an 1893 treaty between Russia and Georgia.

I was in a tour van — called a “marshrutka” here — on my way to a hiking trip in Northern Georgia’s Truso Valley earlier this year when I first saw the Russia-Georgia Friendship Monument.

It’s an impressive if not gaudy decoration dominating the stunningly beautiful Devil’s Valley among the sprawling misty green Caucasus mountains. It was a joint project of the two countries, built in 1983 along the Georgia Military Road to celebrate “ongoing friendship” between what were then the Soviet states of Russia and Georgia, and the Treaty of Georgievsk‘s bicentennial anniversary.

Read more

Postcards From My Fun Working Holiday In Paris

by

I returned a week ago from a travel memoir writing workshop in Paris where a dozen participants, 11 from around the U.S. and one polite Canadian (thank you, Garrett), communed with fellow travelers, writers, and American travel writing legend and all-around good guy Rolf Potts who organized the event.

I been basking in the glow of that marvelous 6-day experience ever since.

The Eiffel Tower beams its blue light over the Seine River, where the French people and we tourists crowded its banks every night to wine and dine into the wee hours.

Read more

Ben, J-Lo, And My Other Newest Friends in Paris

by
The newlyweds looked none too pleased Tuesday at the Louvre Museum in Paris, France, (A DHB photo)

Hollywood stars Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, recently married and honeymooning in France, were spotted having lunch Tuesday at an alfresco dining area overlooking the Napoleon Courtyard of the Louvre Museum in Paris.

The courtyard features the museum’s iconic glass-and-metal pyramid, designed by Chinese-American I.M. Pei, where visitors enter the museum.

Meanwhile, I’m attending a travel-memoir writing workshop this week in Paris with travel writer Rolf Potts.

Read more

Playing With Light At New Delhi’s Lotus Temple

by
India — a photograper’s delight! Here’s one among many favorites of mine from a recent month-long stay in New Delhi, India’s capital city. The Lotus Temple, a Baha’i worship center, is named for the shape of the flower used in its unique design.

India is fascinating, a country of many stark contrasts, and the images are stunning almost everywhere you turn.

Yet the fascination comes with a jumble of mixed feelings, as in the advantage I took in shooting the scene above of the beautiful Baha’i Lotus Temple.

I was there at dusk with the setting sun, good for taking a photo of almost anything, anywhere. And in New Delhi, with the most polluted air of any capital city in the world, shooting straight into the sun like that, I was able to use the pollution like a filter to mute the sun’s rays coming directly through my lens from behind the temple to capture the scene with dramatic effect.

At least I thought so. Let me know if you disagree.

Read more

Flashing Scandal Exposed In Greece?

by
He’s clearly not amused, while she’s got a wry smile on her face, and the serpent seems quite curious.

“I have no objection to anyone’s sex life as long as they don’t practice it in the street and frighten the horses.”

  – Oscar Wilde 1854-1900

Let me take you back to an amusing discovery I made in the excellent Acropolis Museum in Athens when I was there in February.

Read more

Guides and Guidebooks: Reasons Why I Rarely Use Them

by
The massive interior of the cave church of St. Simon the Tanner in the Garbage City neighborhood of Cairo, worth seeing, unlike the mural that Lonely Planet recommended.

I’d been to Garbage City a couple of times already but agreed to return with a new friend from Sydney who just moved into the Holy Sheet Hostel where I was staying in Cairo.

“Justin” was traveling solo on holiday from his job managing a bar, restaurant and gaming facilities in Australia’s largest city.

He had a four-year old Lonely Planet guide book with a paragraph about Garbage City which mentioned a French-Tunisian graffiti artist who had created what Lonely Planet described as “one of the most astonishing pieces of street art in the Middle East” in Garbage City in the 1970s. But it could only be seen in its entirety from an upper floor of a particular building near the massive cave church of St. Simon the Tanner.

Read more

Life On The Backstreets of Cairo: Take A Walking Tour of ‘Garbage City’

by
Entire families are involved in the collection and processing of Cairo’s rubbish in the area know as the City of Garbage, a neighborhood where they live and work.

I read about this part of Cairo before even planning my trip and was intrigued with the idea that an urban neighborhood would be almost entirely committed to the business of collecting and recycling municipal solid waste for its economic well-being.

Read more