Mink Machine

"Since the toilets were locked during the seven hour stop, we had to bribe the provodnitsas to use the facilities."

"As expected, the ride actually ended up with a car crash, making a big dent in my passenger door."

"I tried my best to sneak across the building, but the floor revealed me each time. I suppose I would make a lousy ninja."

"We drive through the Ukrainian countryside, with Radioactivity by Kraftwerk as soundtrack"

"It’s every National Geographic photo ever seen, but better, because now I was sweaty, sore, and standing in the middle of it."

"We race back to the car, turn the air condition to eleven and drives west through Jubilee Pass."

"I love getting lost in the labyrinth alleys, navigating on random while surrounded by staring old men, pointing their crooked fingers at the tall stranger."

"There are still traces of rune inscriptions made during the Viking age by Varangians, an elite guard made up of Scandinavian immigrant warriors."

"I would not recommend other travelers to do a casual stroll through the dodgier parts, such as the quarters near Juma Masjid."

"The 4x4 jeep was pushed to its limits but continued stoically onward through an endless number of hairpin turns of rock and gravel."

"Anybody past these signs will be arrested, no questions asked, and probably receive an alien probe somewhere as well."

"Compared to stern Santiago, Valparaiso looks like a drunken cousin who spent a year in art school and now lives in a maze of color-splashed alleys and rusted funiculars."

"The ancient cave dwellings hacked into the limestone look like the set of a biblical epic, where people have lived for 7000 years."

"I walk along the alleys in the old Medina, under the watchful gaze of old men sipping their tea, blending in like Moby Dick at a Nine Inch Nails concert."

"There's a feeling like I've stumbled into the forgotten corner of a Cold War postcard."