Balabanova All Over

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[Rome, Italy] Besides going to Galleria Borghese, I had no grand plans for today. There were many other things I wanted to see but I wasn’t sure how much energy or enthusiasm I’d have, nor where the day would take me after the gallery, so I played it by ear and it couldn’t have turned out any better! For a planner like myself, it was nice to have a less structured day…. Read More

[Vatican City, Italy] No visit to Rome is complete without a visit to the Vatican Museum, the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica. If you have only one day in Rome and have to pick between this and the Coliseum/Forum, I’d pick this (although with some planning, they are both doable in one long, exhausting day). To get to the Vatican, I took Bus 64 across the Tiber river. It was about… Read More

[Rome, Italy] Arriving in Rome was a breeze. I set off from LA on an early-morning flight to Washington, DC, where I connected directly to Rome. I slept for the majority of the second flight and when I landed at 8:30 in the morning local time, I was ready to go! My Bulgarian passport gave me access to the EU customs line. It was not actually a customs line but a series… Read More

[West Glacier, MT] We woke up to a beautiful blue sky dotted with puffy clouds this morning. We were excited to have a nice sunny day today because we wanted to finally go into Glacier National Park and try one of the many gorgeous hikes this park has to offer. Our AirBnB included breakfast, and let me tell you, having breakfast here is like eating at Grandma’s house. All the guests congregate… Read More

[Normal, IL] Going on this trip was really exciting for me. I had not traveled in over 4 months and was starting to feel antsy; I had not attended the Higher Education Data Warehousing (HEDW) conference (THE conference for the work I do in my field in Higher Ed) in 3 years; and I had not been to Chicago yet – a gaping hole in my travel experience that became more evident… Read More