• Is It Safe to Travel Dagestan? Or Stupid?

    Every time I told a new person that I planned to travel Dagestan during our school holidays, I had to digest their expression and ask myself, again, “What’s the difference between being stupid and being brave?” It…

  • The Truth about Solo Female Travel in Georgia

    Solo female travel in Georgia is a mixed bag. There, I said it, and I know I risk riling some people. Georgians are renowned for their hospitality – which is completely true. They are some of the…

  • How to Choose Your Next Expat Home

    The snow pants were presenting a problem. As was my Little Red Riding Hood pea coat, my cozy and fluffy sweater shawl, and my snow boots. Leaving Kyiv and moving to Tbilisi in the middle of winter meant…

  • Rethinking Solo Travel in Ureki, Georgia

    I’m sitting in the reception area of a hotel in Ureki Georgia, with bedding and other random hospitality debris piled high around me, and there’s one thing for certain. I am definitely traveling alone. I know this…

  • The Cable Car in Khulo, Georgia

    I knew I had made a good choice when my hostel mom’s eyes light up. “Ah, Khulo!” she said, with the most enthusiasm I had seen in my four days in Batumi (barring when I struggled to…

  • What Happened in Tbilisi

    You know how when you show up in a new place, with no friends, no job, no place to stay, you have the chance to reinvent yourself entirely? No one knows anything about you – this is…

  • How to Get to the Tunnel of Love in Ukraine

    You’ve seen the pictures. A lush tree canopy over a train track, stillness and peace radiating from your computer screen. A leafy tunnel that looks like it leads to Narnia or Titania and Oberon’s realm or at the…

  • It’s Not About the Castle, Vladimir.

    I was walking alongside the road, in a Ukrainian village I couldn’t have pointed to on a map before this trip, when I met Vladimir. We had been riding on the same bus, but he discovered I…