Airports are among my favorite places in the world; full of chatter, employees working purposefully, mishaps, and people buzzing at the thought of their upcoming trips. That excitement is palpable and contagious! However getting to one's departure gate is but the end of a long list of steps to tick from the to-do list. The following are musings from over a decade of travels, expressed by self-made toy brick sets.  And every great trip begins with planning! A solid three months before every flight: flights are booked, hotels are researched, tours and itineraries are mapped out, and documents such as visas and insurance are prepared. The adventure officially starts at the airport, where our tradition of packing light (and shopping heavy in our destination) makes for a hassle-free check-in. Always be kind to the check-in staff. It's not only the classy thing to do, sometimes you might even score an upgrade (three, by our count). Online check-in lines are always shorter than regula...

Creating this summary of all our adventures, for the benefit of long time friends of the travelogue and new readers. The info here is updated as of December 2024. 1. Map showing cities and sites in Europe I've been fortunate enough to explore since we started the travelogue in 2011. 2. Map reflecting data from the 1st but this time in country form. 3. My travel bucket list, in alphabetical order. 4. A list of favourite cities visited in no particular order and according to a number of factors: food, cultural experiences, historical significance, scenery, and shopping.

  Hello world, a lot sure has happened in the 5 years since we last published! We survived the great pandemic of our age. For you young-ins, that's Covid 19 (you'll learn a lot about it for sure). Artificial intelligence is disrupting EVERYTHING. As a note: this travelogue will continue to be (and will always be) written by a person; never AI. Nations are certainly going through some rather tumultuous times, to put it lightly.  Personally, your truly also went through some major life changes: Our family grew as we welcomed a son, born in the very year of the plague (2020). Read some life-changing books and listened to podcasts in the realm of philosophy (thank you Ryan Holiday, Yuval Noah Harari, Naval Ravikant) and general ways of living (thank you Tim Ferriss, Jocko Willink, Joe Rogan). What didn't change is the continuing mission to explore the world, albeit with a short 2 year pause during the height of the pandemic. Looking forward to catching up on a huge backlog of s...

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is America's largest art museum. Located along Manhattan's prestigious Fifth Avenue and right next to Central Park, the "MET" (as it is lovingly called), is home to over 2 million treasures spread out over 17 departments; comprising over 3 thousand years of human history. * And along with being the most famous art museum in the United States, the MET is the third most visited museum in the world, after the Louvre and National Museum of China.

2019 and 2020 have been challenging years for Hong Kong. Protests against the local government, general population unrest, and as of this writing, the threat of a deadly coronavirus have rendered unto this megacity several blows that might take a few years to recover from. However, make no mistake about it, Hong Kong is still very much one of the world's great cities. Located at the crossroads of the West and China, this former British crown colony is one of the world's most significant financial centers, busiest commercial ports, and home to the highest number of skyscrapers of any city in the world. All photos were taken on a trip with friends, years ago. * To get an idea of how skyscraper-dense the HK skyline is, one must head to Victoria Peak, the highest point in the city!