I’d take a day trip to Poland every other week to look at some cultural sights, see an afternoon play at the opera house, and buy tax-free groceries. Mainly just to buy tax-free groceries, but I’d tell myself I’m also going to engage in cultural activities just so I can Read more…
Close your eyes and imagine a serene environment. The icy Appalachians hide the rising golden sun in the distance, the foreground is occupied by the Dakotan badlands with bales of hay rolling across the wilderness in the wind, and everything in between the plains and the mountains have been taken Read more…
I’ve actually landed in Hong Kong since it was part of the British Empire and was granted permanent leave to stay by Her Majesty’s Hong Kong Government (hence the title of this post). This is the city I called home for more than a decade of my life, but yet Read more…
John F. Kennedy famously proclaimed the words “Ich bin ein Berliner” during a speech in West Berlin. In his speech, he described how Berlin was at the forefront of the battle between the ideologies of East and West. What he meant to say was that he was one with the Read more…
Shakey was my cat in Berlin and oh I loved her so! I got her the first month I was there and just after another month of being with Shakey, I’ve absolutely fallen in love with her. Being able to train her to be polite and respectful around the house Read more…
Very close to Shanghai and less than an hour away by high speed rail, Hangzhou is a beautiful place gifted with stunning natural scenery and fertile soil. It is the land of my forefathers and hence my father would bring me there to visit the place my grandfather called home Read more…
One of the placed I’ve lived in and grown to hate (but later appreciated) was Shanghai. It’s hard to imagine that the place 6-year-old me lived in was so different when I visited at 17 and 19 years old. Back then, the Shanghai metro consisted of just two short lines Read more…
During my research of national socialist architecture in the 1930’s and 40’s I travelled to many places in the German-speaking world including places of historical significance in Austria and Germany. One of my more unexpected finds were in Czechia where I met a former Czechoslovakian border officer in the border Read more…
What better way to celebrate Einheitstag on October 3rd in Berlin than a long weekend of Rotbratwurst mit Brotchen and basking in the sun with an ice cold Paulaner’s? Less than one generation ago, the Berlin Wall fell and the image of a divided German people still haunt our memories. Read more…
Called “Tag des offenen Denkmals” in Germany, I discovered this gem by pure coincidence. I was itching to visit the Berliner U-Bahn museum at Olympia-stadion Station in the west end of Berlin. The museum only opened every second weekend of the month so I thought the second Saturday of September Read more…