Tbilisi – Sulphur and Searching for Peace and a Bed
The day began with a bath – not just any bath, but the kind of sulphur bath that reminds you how ancient cities like Tbilisi never forgot the art of ritual cleansing. We rented a room at the Roman Baths, a vaulted chamber tiled like a forgotten hammam, smelling faintly of sulphur and centuries. Lorena had a woman assigned to her, I had a [...]
Kars to Tbilisi – Borders, Fortresses and Amber Wine
Crossing borders on foot is a ritual that makes you feel history pressing against your ribs. You walk past the last Turkish kiosk, a sun-bleached portrait of Atatürk frowning at your departure, and then, with a few stamps and the perfunctory glare of men in uniforms, you are in Georgia. The tarmac doesn’t change, but the air does – [...]
Ankara to Kars – Into the East: The Doğu Express
There is a peculiar kind of time that belongs only to trains. On the Doğu Express — the long steel artery running from Ankara to Kars across the spine of Anatolia — time stretches, contracts, disappears altogether. You don’t so much travel as surrender. The train leaves the Turkish capital in the evening and does not hurry. The full [...]
Ankara to Kars – Bureaucrats, Trains and Unexpected Charms
Leaving Istanbul behind, I boarded the train to Ankara. This wasn’t the famous Doğu Express yet—that adventure was waiting for me later in the evening—but rather the standard intercity connection between the two capitals. Still, the experience was far from ordinary. The ride instantly brought back memories of my journey on the Balkan [...]
Istanbul to Ankara – Heat Hammams and the Long Night Train
Istanbul overwhelms in a way few cities can. It is not merely a place but a collision of histories, a palimpsest of empires where every street corner seems to whisper in a dozen tongues. Lorena and I left our bags with Radical Storage near Sirkeci, free for a day of wandering before the night train east. The city struck us first with its [...]
Sofia to Istanbul – Across Borders by Night
Sofia, in the pale light of morning, revealed itself as a city where East and West have been in dialogue for centuries. Lorena and I joined the Free Sofia Tour, an inspired introduction to a capital too often overlooked. Our guide led us through broad boulevards and intimate courtyards, unspooling stories that reached back to Thracians, [...]
Dublin to Sofia – Into the Heart of the Journey
I set out on a journey that would stitch together two of my enduring passions: the long, slow, night-bound rhythm of train travel and the raw, untamed beauty of mountain trekking in places where life still clings to tradition. This route, from the Balkans to the Caucasus, promised both — steel rails by night, high ridgelines by day — and [...]
Tracks To Trails
Tracks to Trails: From Sofia to the Caucasus Mountains An epic summer adventure combining iconic train journeys and remote trekking. Travel overland from Sofia through the wild Balkans all the way to the high mountains of Georgia. Sleep on night trains, hike through remote villages, and discover breathtaking landscapes far from the [...]