Ember Travels

Spring in Sarajevo is dreary and unbearably cold (at least when we visited in May). The city greeted us with billowing clouds ascending the surrounding mountains, and a layer of consistent drizzle pattering to the ground. It felt as if the city was in mourning.   With a weather forecast with a high of 6 degrees C (42 F) confining us inside, it was the perfect day to delve deep into Bosnia's troubled past. We trudged through the street puddles to the Museum of Crimes Against Humanity and Genocide.   The museum depicts crimes during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995. After the breakup of Yugoslavia, Bosnian Serbs started an uprising with support from the Serbian government to secure the ethnic Serb territory within the region. The war is most known for the mass genocide and ethnic cleansing that took place during the time.   Images and artefacts from victims were on display with anecdotes recounting their experiences of capture, abuse, rape, to...

Add caption In 2012 I gave up everything to set out on an itinerary-less eight month adventure treking around Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. My motto was travel until I run out of money, or until I find some place I like so much I can't leave. Seven years later, and the travel bug has struck again. Here's how it all started…   Circa 2012, somewhere over the Pacific… I once saw a United Airlines advertisement that said, “is it just us, or did the world just get a whole lot smaller?” When you can go from point A to point B anywhere on the globe in 24 hours, I can’t help but believe that this world is quite small.   I didn’t always hold this belief. With only three stamps in my passport, I spent the greater part of my life memorizing continent shapes and trying to imagine what it would be like to drink tea on a Moroccan mountaintop with Arabs or float in the Aegean Sea amongst the Greek Isles. On Saturdays I spent hours at the local bookstore, leafing throu...