by Matthew Allison | Mar 16, 2018 | Europe
March 2018: As part of a larger one-week Eastern Europe trip, I flew into Vienna on a day long layover with my friend Frank to join another friend Jimmie in Vienna. Together we explored the old city of Vienna, once the capitol of the Austria Hungarian Empire before...
by Matthew Allison | Mar 14, 2018 | Europe
March 2018: Sleeping in Dracula’s Castle A Mission of Superstition, Shadows, and Sheer Stubbornness I returned to Romania with one goal: to spend the night in Dracula’s Castle. Back in 2005, I had missed my chance during my first trip across Transylvania—a journey...
by Matthew Allison | Mar 13, 2018 | Asia, Europe
Crossing into Nagorno-Karabakh: A Journey into a War-Torn Republic March 2018 – While traveling through Armenia, my friends Jimmie, Frank, and I decided to venture into the disputed and conflict-ridden breakaway republic of Nagorno-Karabakh (NKR). At the time, the...
by Matthew Allison | Sep 26, 2016 | Europe
Quick Glimpse into Northern Ireland September 2016: As part of a trip that included Scotland, Paula and I flew into Belfast, rented a car and explored for two days. I had previously visited Ireland and I wanted to see how Northern Ireland was different from its...
by Matthew Allison | Sep 24, 2016 | Europe
A Road Trip Through the Scottish Highlands: Castles, Whisky, and Untamed Beauty September 2016: Decades of watching romanticized films about kilted warrior clans battling against the stuffy British to the south had instilled in me a deep curiosity about Scotland. The...
by Matthew Allison | Nov 16, 2015 | Europe
Prague, Czech Republic: A Fairytale City with a Dark Past November 2015: As part of a whirlwind long weekend adventure—one that also included an overnight stay in a former Nazi SS castle in Germany—my friend Kevin and I hopped a train to Prague. I’d heard countless...