about concrete and kitsch

My name’s Nick.  I’m a bunch of acronyms – OCD, ADD, LGBT, MBA, BFD.

concrete and kitsch is my curated space for information on travel to and stories about the offbeat places I love around the world.

I’ve been captivated by other cultures and offbeat destinations for about as long as I can remember.   Growing up, my parents installed a map of the world as wallpaper in my bedroom – to which I can attribute my knowledge about second and third tier cities of the developing world.   In college, my friends would try to find countries whose capitals I couldn’t identify – spoiler alert: they never could.

I’ve been traveling independently since I was about 16, when I spent a summer in Japan going to high school in a small town about 90 minutes south of Osaka.  I studied Japanese and Chinese in college, but my interest in Korea took me there for my first job after graduation.

I eventually moved home and got an MBA from the University of Washington.  And though I took some time off from traveling in my late 20s while I was “doing grown up things” like finding a job that would give me 401k matching, my travel bug is back with a vengeance.  My husband, David, and I have been traveling nonstop since 2014, and have added quite a few countries (and languages!) to our rosters since then.

I am particularly attracted to esoteric and eccentric concrete architecture of the former Communist states, enjoy binge reading trash novels on lesser trafficked beaches, and have yet to meet a tacky souvenir I didn’t like.  Join me as I lust for travel to offbeat destinations around the world, and help me decide where I should take off to next!

You can contact me at Nick(at)concreteandkitsch(dot)com.

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