Month: August 2026

Orheiul Vechi: the monastery cut into rock

Orheiul Vechi is not a single sight but a whole landscape: a limestone promontory carved out by a meander of the Raut, with a monastery

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Chisinau: a two day city guide

Chisinau is one of the cheapest capitals in Europe and one of the least visited. It has no old town, because the old town was

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Soroca Fortress, the circular fort on the Dniester

Soroca Fortress is one of those buildings that looks better in life than in photographs, because a photograph cannot convey geometry. It is the only

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Olavinlinna: the island castle at Savonlinna

Olavinlinna is one of those buildings that geography explains immediately. It was raised on a rock in the middle of a strong current between two

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Koli National Park: the Finnish landscape

Koli National Park is the place from which Finns built their idea of what their own country looks like. From the rock at Ukko-Koli you

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Turku: the oldest city in Finland

Turku is the oldest city in Finland and was its capital until 1812, when the Russians moved the administration to Helsinki to pull it further

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Mökki: a guide to the Finnish lakeside cabin

A mökki is the Finnish summer cabin on a lakeshore, and in Finland it is not an accommodation trend but an institution. There are around

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Paris in 3 days: a complete first-visit guide

Paris in 3 days is not enough for everything, but it is enough for a great deal more than most people manage. The classic first-visit

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Paris in 4 days: a day-by-day itinerary

Paris in 4 days looks completely different from Paris in three. With three days you tick off the sights and leave feeling you ran the

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