The Wandering Scholar(ship): College Fund

Travel, adventure, science, paleontology, archaeology, eat, sleep, repeat. Help me reach my goal and return to college and complete my education! To bring passion to the generation of tomorrow and inspire youth today.

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Interview with Maria Rochelle

What an immense pleasure it was joining fellow author Maria Rochelle in what became quite a revealing conversation… A discussion on travel, literature, writing, life, love and losing oneself in the beautiful madness of all things.

New York City and the Hunt for Turkish Shoes.

It was during my long and dusty sojourn in the Middle East, wandering collapsed,  ruined villages, haggling through ancient markets that I first encountered the yemeni, or Turkish slipper. Now, i'm not the most fashion-driven or even fashionable guy, but the effortless, dare I say, timeless cool. Travelblogger and Novelist, Nicholas Andriani takes on fashion and time honored crafts from the ancient villages of Istanbul to Manhattan New York.

On the Road Less Traveled : A Personal Essay on the Path of Most Resistance and the Adventure That is Life.

Don't be victimized by the culture of fear. Our planet is waiting to be explored, to reveal it's secrets to you, to me, to any who dare ask, it will expose you to the raw truths of life. To the quarks of distant cultures and alien tongues. To disgusting foods and delicious cuisines, to dangerous and countless blessings. Nicholas Andriani's personal essay on travel, adventure, and taking the Road Less Traveled whether that means hitting the Sahara or striking up a conversation in a coffee shop. It's all an adventure.

Sketching Sights: Istanbul, City on the Edge (Art. Travel. Writing. Islam. Architecture)

The Bosphorus splits Istanbul in two parts. A rift in the madness of Europe and Asia, drifting between bodies of fresh and salt water cooling the heated passion of a most ancient urban jungle. The hot, hot, heat of human movement generates organized chaos as this great strait, this rift, cushions the blow, keeping this …

The Holy Gorge of Agiofarago: Travel the Greek Island of Crete.

I could spend a lifetime, drunken on the sea breeze, lost among these islands of Minotaurs and Men.

2018 Reading Challenge: Reading Women Challenge

reveal yourself: what are some of your challenges, demands for 2018? I want the juicy details! let’s get through this together.

Books, Brew & Merry Christmas (or whatever you’re up to) be it naughty or nice.

Whether you’re downing books, brew, or both, I’m wishing your a wonderful holiday season and merry Christmas,

Sketching Sights: Burma

Before the world can truly reveal itself you must take a period of meditation. A time of reflection. To pre-game, to set a cosmic course of action by stating your intentions and making them manifest. This is the driving force behind Sketching Sights. To become one with the elements of each and every environment that strikes me. […]

A Breath of Fresh Air

It may be that the satisfaction I need depends on my going away, so that when I've gone and come back, I'll find it at home. -RUMI It's been a while. 160 days or so and the whole world has shed its skin time and time again in the act of revisions and the hopscotch …

NaNoWriMo : Into the Wild

Earlier this year, I set a goal to finish a solid draft of my memoir and to achieve this mission i'm going into the wild, er, offline... A MONTHLONG period away from social media, the internet, ethernet and all those nets, in an archaic approach to finish this labor of love that i'm damn excited …

The Sabah House Rules

It was nearly a year ago that I discovered the Sabah Dealer. A chance meeting on Twitter led me to this exotic, almost whimsical Instagram where I was transported to Anatolia. To the bazaars, the buskers and baksheesh and medieval villages. To a world still crafted by hand. I soon found that behind the Sabah Dealer's travels were shoes--Sabah's …

TBEX, TRAVEL BLOGGERS AND NORTH AMERICA

"Tbex is love made visible" --To misquote Khalil Gibran never felt so right Last week I participated in my first Tbex conference. This coming together of like-minded artists in the travel industry has opened my eyes to the potential we have within. From a passionate and lyrical lesson by Don George to the dynamic Dave and Deb from Planet …

Sketching Sights: Burma on My Mind

Before the world can truly reveal itself you must take a period of meditation. A time of reflection. To pre-game, to set a cosmic course of action by stating your intentions and making them manifest. This is the driving force behind Sketching Sights. To become one with the elements of each and every environment that strikes me. …

Rally For A Two-State Solution

Last weekend I took part in a polarizing protest. And, I want you to know, dear reader, before proceeding, that I hold no anti-muslim nor anti-semitic sentiments. My opinion is neither religious (for some they sure have made it out to be) nor ethnic (for some they sure have made it out to be). I'll let my …

Abbot Kinney Part II: ZenBunni

We stumbled away from Another Kind of Sunrise high on good food and despite this the lure of chocolate never wore off. I felt like a child longing for a view into Willie Wonka's chocolate factory. Knowing that what lies beyond contained the secret of cacao alchemica; that is, the transformation of cacao from plant to …

Abbot Kinney Part I: Another Kind of Sunrise

All cities come equipped with a beating heart. A cultural core that stimulates the genius in urbanites giving them a unique identity to stand apart from the rest of the world. Some cities, like Los Angeles, race to the tune of several hearts and it was on our way out of L.A. that we came across …

A case in Airbnb

There's a new craze going from town to town, calling on travelers to break the mundane and deconstruct that rigid barrier between local and outsider. This movement is manifest in vehicles such as Airbnb. If you're unfamiliar with the concept think of it as a refined, more mature approach to hosteling or couchsurfing. Which never really took …

On Arabic Sweets and the Middle East: Kunafa and the Secret Recipe!

All of these things are true... I had been in Jordan for several weeks and my love affair with Arabian sweets had reached a lofty peak. In fact, I would begin and end each day with a platter of pastries, smothered in honeys and syrups that would flood through heaps of pistachios on my plate. Then it happened... I …

Sketching Sights: Galata Tower (Istanbul, Turkey)

Like a great minaret, the Galata Tower represents so much more than meets the eye. Built in 1348 as the re-imagining of an earlier structure the tower has gone from hosting inmates, as a prison, to holding great secrets as an observatory for the astrologer Takıyeddin Efendi. What's more, Hezarfen Ahmet Çelebi the 17th century aviator... if you …