New York- In this vlog I return from deeply troubled Ukraine to the safety and security of Schengen Europe. All the while not sleeping in a hotel, just powering through from one leg of the journey to the next.
My Journey from Ukraine to Santorini
Category: Europe
Fabled City Episode 6 Dropped
Beirut- The last part of the Cyprus segment of my Fabled City video series is now up. I take the viewer along the ethnic-Greek side of the UN buffer zone, the ‘Green Line’ that cuts the Cypriot capital of Nicosia…
Fabled City Episode 5 Is Now Live!
Beirut- The 2nd segment of my Cyprus series is up on my Fabled City channel is online . If I do say so, I’m really happy with how this is going so far despite it not taking off like a…
Fabled City Larnaca Episode Is Up!
Beirut- Just dropped the early part of my Cypriot adventure on my Fabled City channel I’m trying to get going. So episode 4 is done and episode 6 is in the can ready to go but I still have to…
Fabled City Episode 2 Now Up!
Beirut- I’m starting to speed up my Youtube creator workflow here a bit to where I can hopefully start cranking out episodes for my Fabled City channel faster/more efficiently. I’ve come up with a nutty little workaround to make the…
From Rome to Ruins
Nicosia- After exhausting myself in the best possible way covering the presidential election here, I was back at the hotel up very late merely thinking about the story I was planning to write the next day ie today for Australia-based…
Landed and Lost in Larnaca
Larnaca- After my hyper brief visit to Athens described in the previous post, I landed in the EU’s southeastern extremity and eastern Mediterranean’s closest thing to stability. In the damp, cold night I somehow found the apartments I had stayed…
A Ukrainian Night
Kyiv- Spent a whirlwind less-than-24-hours in the much talked about of late Ukrainian capital the other night. Kyiv. or Kiev is you prefer the Russophone transliteration more common to Westerners, struck me as a magnificent city. Walking around town is…
The Heartbeat of the World
Thera- Having come to Greece, or the Hellenic Republic as it’s actually called in English or Hellas more colloquially, for over two decades, I have a deep attachment to the place. But my personal history and relationship is a very…
The Island of the Unfinished Temple
Naxos- I’ve just spent the last ten days on an island in the heart of the Cyclades that for decades I’d either passed by or stopped briefly to change ferries. I hadn’t intended on visiting this splendid place at all…
A Stoic Island In the Middle
Larnaca- I spent three very tranquil days on the southern Cypriot coast where I didn’t do much other than walk around in the rain and sample savoury vegan cuisine as the hours rolled by. I’d longed for years to visit…
A Freudian Slip
Vienna- I went through the former multi-imperial capital at the crossroads of central Europe as part of this gradual journey eastward toward the orchestrated chaos playing out in the Levant. Part of why I chose to visit the Austrian capital…
Santoriniana
“A man who has been through bitter experiences and travelled far enjoys even his sufferings after a time”-Homer, The Odyssey Thira- Back on Santorini after two months in Barcelona doing some long form writing and not near the bustle of any…
Moldova Navigating Between East And West
New York- I recently interviewed Ambassador Vlad Lupan, Moldova’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, here in his Manhattan office for IHS Jane’s Intelligence Review (subscription required). Though the finished product was a succinct summary of the present day challenges…
A Decade of War and Peace
Barcelona- Partly out of boredom and partly out of the itch to simply create something new out of old, I threw together this photo montage over the weekend. In this era of digital photography where one shoots thousands of frames…
“From the Third World Countries to the Second and the First”
Barcelona- The above title is a line from the remix of M.I.A.’s Paper Planes single with Bun B and Rich Boy. It kind of capture’s my day today in a way. Sitting in the First World which seems at points…
Halfway Around the World
Istanbul, Köln, & New York- It’s been a while since I’ve been able to do an update after about three weeks of nonstop travel and work. I’m just going to post a mishmash of backlogged things of no particular importance.…
My France24 Interview
Before Sunset
Paris- It was an extraordinarily busy week in the French capital to say the least. Before heading back to Aeroport Charles de Gaulle, I managed to make a mad dash to the famous Shakespeare and Company bookshop on the Seine…
Midnight in Paris
Paris- Took a long, brisk walk around the 5th arrondissement tonight after another red eye transatlantic trip leaving me in a daze. After a falafel and a Delirium Tremens, I got lost on my way back to Hotel le Demeure…
Automne à Paris
New York- Taking off from the Big Apple in a couple of hours to head to Paris on behalf of the State Department on a three-day speaking tour. My first event will be held at L’Institut de Recherche Stratégique de…
The Futility of Battling Ideology at War’s End
New York- I saw one of these living, contrasting images on the subway here the other day where I wonder if I am the only one observant or nosey enough to notice these things. An older man boarded the train…
Sunrise on Thira
From Paris to Piraeus
Paris & Athens- Firstly I want to thank Jean-Luc Marret and the staff of his Fondation de la Recherche Stratégique for hosting me and allowing me to speak at their global terrorsim conference yesterday. The title of my talk was…
Daylight in Paris
Paris- I will be speaking at Maison de la Chimie tomorrow for the Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique’s conference entitled “Dix ans après les attentats du 11 septembre 2001: bilan et perspectives de la lutte contre le terrorisme.” I will…
Retracing Mohammed Atta’s Footsteps in Catalunya
Tarragona- I went delving into Mohammed Atta and Ramzi bin al-Shibh’s mysterious doings in July 2001 here in Spain’s fiercely autonomous Catalunya region. After taking a RENFE train down the coast to the ancient Roman city of Tarraco (Tarragona), I…
War’s Antidote
Barcelona- This hilarious article came out in the Daily Mail about show jumping rabbits here in Europe, something I never knew existed. So as not to get overly exercised about certain frustrating geopolitical constructs, one need only to picture Snoopy…
Degrees of Separation From Assange
New York- I got a list email last week from Vaughan Smith, the head of London’s Frontline Club (a journalism event space in central London) that he and his club were offering full support to Wikileaks’ Australian guru Julian Assange.…