71 days

I went kayaking in Svalbard. We had drysuits.

Aug 27th

 The world’s northernmost bust of Lenin, in the mining...

Aug 27th

 Longyearbyen, in Svalbard (not Liverpool)

Aug 27th

Liverpool

1) I can read all the advertising messages around me. 2) I can speak idiomatically to people in...

Aug 27th

well, that was exciting

To tell the story in time sequence, as opposed to the way I figured it out this morning: last night...

Aug 21st

more from St. Petersburg

Very good city for touristing, St Petersburg. Day before yesterday I walked down Nevsky Prospekt,...

Aug 21st

St Petersburg

Here are some things I like about St Petersburg, from my first four hours here. * smoked and cured...

Aug 18th

photos

new photos on flickr up through Istanbul, if you haven’t looked recently….

Aug 18th

onward from İstanbul

I had a good relaxing time in İstanbul. I saw beautiful mosques on a spectrum from tourist-centric...

Aug 18th

halfway point

Today is the middle day of my trip. It’s hard to summarize what I think about that.

Aug 13th

when you step into the Aya Sofia, you just kind of rise up...

Aug 13th

onward

Had a great day in Samarkand yesterday—wandered the hillside where the ancient city used to be...

Aug 12th

medressa in Bukhara

Aug 10th

Samarkand

I’m in Samarkand. It’s a bigger city than Bukhara, and additionally the grand monuments...

Aug 10th

stray news from Uzbekistan

* I can access my blog again, so the paragraph breaks are back! * Yesterday I took a taxi across...

Aug 8th

Uzbekistan

I’m at an unstable dialup connection in northern Uzbekistan (isn’t that just the king of...

Aug 6th

Mogao caves

Wow. The Buddhist caves at Mogao, near Dunhuang (where I still am, contentedly eating melons)...

Aug 4th

astronomical wonders

I just saw the Milky Way above the sand dunes behind my guesthouse here in Dunhuang. I like...

Aug 2nd

the great wall of you-know-what

Aug 1st

old men of Linxia

Aug 1st

eclipse in 3.5 hours

I’m in Jiayuguan. I have 1) fried fava beans to eat (which actually is something I eat in...

Aug 1st

noodles

Aug 1st

Yangyang (aka Rachel) and our fish ball variety pack

Aug 1st

You know! For kids!

Aug 1st

chairlift over the Yellow River in Lanzhou

Aug 1st