Skip to content

Photos, travel stories, reportage and random stuff from New Zealand and around the world by Peter de Graaf

  • Home
  • New Zealand
  • Pacific
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • Caucasus
  • Middle East
  • Africa
  • Weird Travel
  • Photos
  • About

Europe

Europe Featured Weird Travel 

Is this the world’s most bizarre place for a castle?

July 22, 2020December 28, 2020 pdg 3 Comments Corvin Castle, Hunedoara, Hunedoara Steel Works, Hunyadi Castle, Romania, Transylvania

It has everything you’d ever want in a medieval castle. There’s only one problem: It’s in the middle of a giant steel mill.

Read more
Europe Photos 

Former Yugoslavia in pictures

May 15, 2020September 20, 2020 pdg 0 Comments Bosnia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Budva, Durmitor, Kosovo, Montenegro, Mostar, Prizren, Sarajevo, Yugoslavia

Images of the dizzyingly diverse former Yugoslav republics of Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo.

Read more
Europe 

Cares Gorge: Is this Spain’s best one-day walk?

May 2, 2020September 20, 2020 pdg 0 Comments Bulnes, Cares Gorge, Cares Trail, Garganta del Cares, hiking, Picos de Europa, Poncebos, Ruta del Cares, Spain, walking

The Cares Trail clings to the side of a 1.5km-deep gorge in the Picos de Europa mountains of northern Spain.

Read more
Europe Photos 

Spain and Portugal in pictures

April 25, 2020September 19, 2020 pdg 0 Comments Bilbao, Picos de Europa, Porto, Portugal, Santiago de Compostella, Spain

A wonder of modern architecture, a spectacular mountain range, one of Europe’s deepest canyons, and the charming city that gave port wine – and a country – its name.

Read more
Europe 

The Girl Fair: Matchmaking centuries before Tinder

October 7, 2019September 20, 2020 pdg 0 Comments Apuseni Mountains, Avram Iancu, Girl Fair, Maiden Fair, Mount Găina, Romania, Târgul de Fete, Tinder

Long before dating apps Romanian villagers would bring their daughters to a remote mountaintop in the hope of finding love.

Read more
Europe 

Bagpipes in Bohemia: A festival full of surpises

September 7, 2019September 20, 2020 pdg 0 Comments Czech Republic, Czechia, International Bagpipe Festival, Mezinárodní dudácký festival, Strakonice

The world’s biggest bagpipe festival is not in Scotland but in an obscure, post-industrial town in the Czech Republic.

Read more
Europe Top stories Weird Travel 

The Merry Cemetery: Where folk art conquers grief

August 24, 2019December 28, 2020 pdg 0 Comments Cimitirul Vesel, Maramureş, Merry Cemetery, Romania, Săpânţa, Sighetu Maramaţiei

Anyone who tries to tell you death is no laughing matter clearly hasn’t been to Romania’s Merry Cemetery.

Read more
Europe Photos Weird Travel 

Is this the world’s strangest parade?

August 11, 2019September 20, 2020 pdg 0 Comments ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Bosch parade, Den Bosch, Hieronymus Bosch, Netherlands

The 500th anniversary of the death of one of history’s most original — and macabre — artists deserves a parade. But an ordinary parade just won’t do.

Read more
Europe Featured Weird Travel 

Transnistria: How to visit a country that doesn’t exist

July 19, 2019September 20, 2020 pdg 2 Comments Bendery, Kvint, Moldova, Pridnestrovie, Sheriff Corporation, Tiraspol, Transdniestria, Transnistria

A Soviet time warp and unrecognised breakaway state, Transnistria is one of the strangest places in Europe.

Read more
Europe Photos 

Bohemia’s bagpipe festival in pictures

April 21, 2019September 20, 2020 pdg 0 Comments bagpipes, Czech Republic, International Bagpipe Festival, Strakonice

Every two years the International Bagpipe Festival draws pipers from all over Europe — and occasionally from as far away as New Zealand — to a small town in the Czech Republic.

Read more
Europe 

Why you should visit Europe’s least touristy country

February 23, 2019December 28, 2020 pdg 0 Comments Chișinău, Kishinev, Liechtenstein, Moldova, Old Orhei, Orheiul Vecchi, San Marino, Transnistria

A lively capital, an ancient cave monastery, the world’s biggest wine cellars and a Soviet time warp await visitors to Europe’s least touristy country.

Read more
Europe 

Romania’s singing sheepdogs

August 28, 2018September 19, 2020 pdg 0 Comments Maramureş, Romania, sheepdogs, Sighetu Marmației

One of my favourite experiences during my last visit to Romania involved a chance encounter with a shepherd, a pack of singing sheepdogs and a 19th-century-style road crash involving a horse-drawn cart.

Read more
Europe 

Inside the world’s second biggest wine cellar

July 4, 2018September 19, 2020 pdg 2 Comments Chișinău, Cricova, Mileștii Mici, Moldova, wine, world's biggest wine cellar

The two biggest biggest wine cellars in the world are in … France? Italy? California’s Napa Valley? The former Soviet republic of Moldova? The answer might surprise you.

Read more
Africa Europe 

Best and worst hotels

June 29, 2018September 19, 2020 pdg 2 Comments Axum, Chișinău, Dire Dawa, Ethiopia, Harar, hotels, Kibuye, Moldova, Muscat, Oman, Picos de Europa, Romania, Rwanda, Spain, Tiraspol, Transnistria

My pick of best and worst accommodation ranging from a flash eco-resort to a chicken coop.

Read more
Europe Featured New Zealand 

The far-reaching wake of the waka

May 27, 2018September 19, 2020 pdg 0 Comments Leiden, Museum Volkenkunde, Netherlands, Te Hono ki Aotearoa, Te Papa, waka

What makes a group of Dutch students so passionate about Māori culture that they travel halfway around the world each year to take part in Waitangi Day festivities?

Read more
Europe Featured Weird Travel 

The strange case of the giant underpants

May 26, 2018September 19, 2020 pdg 2 Comments Czech Republic, Czechia, Miloš Zeman, Prague castle, underpants, Ztohoven

How I ended up with a piece of the Czech president’s flag.

Read more
Europe 

A pilgrimage to the birthplace of beer

May 23, 2018September 19, 2020 pdg 0 Comments beer, brewing, Budvar, Budweis, České Budějovice, Pilsen, Pilsner Urquell, Plzeň, Plzeňský Prazdroj, Václav Havel

A 19th century uprising against bad beer, in what is now the Czech Republic, led to the invention of the golden lager we know and love today.

Read more
Europe 

God’s brewers

May 21, 2018September 19, 2020 pdg 0 Comments Achelse Kluis, beer, Belgium, Trappist

Belgium’s Trappist monks make some of the best beer in the world – but forget trying to watch these pious brewers at work.

Read more
Europe New Zealand 

Hundertwasser in Holland: ‘Your loss is our gain’

May 20, 2018September 19, 2020 pdg 2 Comments Hundertwasser, Kindervallei, Netherlands, New Zealand, Valkenburg, Wellington, Whangarei

How a ‘New Zealand monument’ designed by eccentric Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser ended up being built in Holland instead.

Read more
Europe Weird Travel 

The love boat

May 19, 2018September 19, 2020 pdg 0 Comments Black Sea, Istanbul, Moldova, Odessa, prostitution, Turkey, Ukraine

The author accidentally finds himself on a ship shuttling Eastern European sex workers to the brothels of Istanbul.

Read more
  • ← Previous

About the author

Kia ora and welcome to Ramblings, a random collection of travel yarns, stories and photographs by Peter de Graaf. I’m a reporter and occasional travel writer based in Kerikeri, a small town in New Zealand’s Far North. Read more...

LATEST

Top news photos of 2020
New Zealand Photos 

Top news photos of 2020

January 2, 2021January 2, 2021 pdg 0

A global pandemic, iwi-led Covid checkpoints, Waitangi Day festivities, politics, record-breaking rainfall, floods and fires — 2020 had it all.

Armenia in pictures
Caucasus Photos 

Armenia in pictures

October 10, 2020December 28, 2020 pdg 0
Laos in pictures
Asia Photos 

Laos in pictures

September 27, 2020October 1, 2020 pdg 0
Azerbaijan in pictures
Caucasus Photos Top stories 

Azerbaijan in pictures

August 9, 2020December 28, 2020 pdg 0

WEIRD TRAVEL

Is this the world’s most bizarre place for a castle?
Europe Featured Weird Travel 

Is this the world’s most bizarre place for a castle?

July 22, 2020December 28, 2020 pdg 3

It has everything you’d ever want in a medieval castle. There’s only one problem: It’s in the middle of a giant steel mill.

The Merry Cemetery: Where folk art conquers grief
Europe Top stories Weird Travel 

The Merry Cemetery: Where folk art conquers grief

August 24, 2019December 28, 2020 pdg 0
Is this the world’s strangest parade?
Europe Photos Weird Travel 

Is this the world’s strangest parade?

August 11, 2019September 20, 2020 pdg 0
Transnistria: How to visit a country that doesn’t exist
Europe Featured Weird Travel 

Transnistria: How to visit a country that doesn’t exist

July 19, 2019September 20, 2020 pdg 2

PHOTOS

Top news photos of 2020
New Zealand Photos 

Top news photos of 2020

January 2, 2021January 2, 2021 pdg 0

A global pandemic, iwi-led Covid checkpoints, Waitangi Day festivities, politics, record-breaking rainfall, floods and fires — 2020 had it all.

Armenia in pictures
Caucasus Photos 

Armenia in pictures

October 10, 2020December 28, 2020 pdg 0
Laos in pictures
Asia Photos 

Laos in pictures

September 27, 2020October 1, 2020 pdg 0
Azerbaijan in pictures
Caucasus Photos Top stories 

Azerbaijan in pictures

August 9, 2020December 28, 2020 pdg 0
Georgia in pictures
Caucasus Photos 

Georgia in pictures

July 5, 2020December 28, 2020 pdg 0
Copyright © 2021 . All rights reserved.
Theme: ColorMag by ThemeGrill. Powered by WordPress.