homo Archives - concrete and kitsch

A Slow Burn for Belgrade, Serbia

March 14, 20164 Comments

Belgrade, Serbia is one of those places I was destined to fall in love with. Everything I knew about it spoke to me on an almost primal level. It’s home to pristine examples of social realist and brutalist architecture. Serbian food is amazing – including several types of cheesy carbs. As the capital of the former Socialist Republic of Jugoslavija, it would be full of markets shilling communist shwag. I’m in love with gypsy horn music (Brasslands is an amazing documentary everyone should watch). And all of my favorite bloggers had written about the amazingness of the city – see Yomadic, Silvia at Heart my Backpack, The Bohemian Blog, and Waegook Tom have all sung its praises over the course of the past few years. december-balkans-729jpg_24297985505_o december-balkans-743jpg_24002381850_o Read more

Feeling the Communist Fantasy in Skopje, Macedonia

November 5, 20152 Comments

One of the great parts of our most recent trip to the Balkans was that it pushed me out of my comfort zone. Normally when I travel I obsessively and compulsively project manage the living hell out of the whole thing. To the point where almost every minute of every day is accounted for in some way or another. I’d attribute this proclivity to my business training, but that’d be lying – I’ve been like this forever. But anyway, being that there was only a week between booking tickets and departing on this adventure, I didn’t have the time to plan everything. And thus, I didn’t realize when we left that we were destined to fall in love with Skopje, Macedonia.

I mean, what’s not to love about all of this quirky, Yugoslav-era, “communist” architecture?

The Hippie Homo Baltic Honeymoon (+Malta)

August 26, 20152 Comments

Photo by https://www.flickr.com/photos/tonibm/

Hey friends – there’s about to be a couple of weeks of radio silence here, as I do not plan on doing any heavy blogging while I’m on my honeymoon (maybe some quick pictures here and there). So I thought I’d write up some of the details of our trip. I’ve got a list of potential posts a mile long that I’m planning from the trip, but if you have any insider tips on the destinations listed below, I would love to hear from you – either in the comments or via email at !

I’m excited as this will be my first big trip I’ve taken with intent to blog. I’ve got all my kit ready like a kid on his first day of school, and I’m really excited to share the details (good, bad, weird, funny, and clumsy alike) with you when I return!

An Istanbul to Tbilisi to Kazbegi Odyssey – Christmas 2014, Part 2

August 4, 2015Leave a comment

Where David and I got engaged - pretty perfect.

And now, the continuation (and conclusion) of the story of the longest travel day of my life… (for Part 1, click here)

Scene 5: Didube Marshrutka Depot, 9am, Christmas Day. We stumble into Didube metro stop and light is just breaking. With our bags, we trudge across the dirt lot that is Tbilisi’s largest marshrutka stop. In Georgia and Armenia, marshrutkas quickly became my favorite method of transportation – egalitarian shared buses or minivans that depart for their destination only when enough passengers board to turn the driver a profit.

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