This page contains information about my previous and upcoming travel. Last updated: 04 Dec 2025.
Guatemala (Nov 2025): From Nov 28-Dec 1, I took a quick personal trip to Guatemala where I spent time touring Guatemala City, Cayalá, Hobbitenango, and Antigua (the historic capital). The most unique part was Hobbitenango, a hobbit/LOTR-themed eco-park nestled in the remove mountains. The food and culture was amazing, including authentic Pollo Campero and Gallo.
Europe (Summer 2025): This summer I visited several towns and cities across Europe, including Stuttgart, Tübingen, Berlin, Wittenberg, Erfurt, Heidelberg, Böblingen, Strasbourg, Göttingen, Stockholm, Uppsala, Reading, Oxford, Nottingham, Stirling, Fort Augustus/Loch Ness, St. Andrews, Edinburgh, Conwy, Stonehenge, London, Fuertaventura, The Hague, Leiden, Gröningen, and Hamburg. From May 10 through Aug. 6, I traveled across Europe for a combination of military training and academic research. In May, I was in Stuttgart, Germany, and traveled to various local towns while there, including Castle Hohenzollern, Schloss Lichtenstein in Baden-Württemberg (another castle), and Tübingen. I returned to the U.S. for a week to celebrate birthday festivities, including a few days in America’s “Historic Triangle” (Jamestown, Colonial Williamsburg, and Yorktown) in Virginia. Jamestown is the first permanent English colony in the Americas; Williamsburg was the historic capital of the colonial-era Colony of Virginia; and the Siege of Yorktown was the final battle of the American Revolution which led to Washington’s capture of General Cornwallis and the British Army. I also had my first tour through the White House in Washington, D.C. on June 6. Returning to Europe on June 9, I attended the Semitic Dialectology conference at Freie Universität Berlin on June 11-12, where I saw, inter alia, Geoffrey Khan present on NENA dialects of modern Aramaic. I took the train south through Germany, with stops in Wittenberg (seeing e.g. the Augusteum-Lutherhaus), Erfurt (Krämerbrücke in the Altstadt), Heidelberg (Castle, Marktplatz, Karl-Theodor-Brücke, university, etc.), and Böbingen. From there, I crossed the Rhine River into France where I attended the conference in Strasbourg called “Studying Hebrew in Sixteenth-Century Strasbourg.” I presented my own paper on the role of Strasbourg in the birth of Aramaic studies during this nascent period. From there I headed back to Germany for a conference on Ugaritology in Göttingen, followed by the annual International SBL meeting in Uppsala. While in Sweden, I spent a couple days in Stockholm, which included a city tour and a visit to the Nobel Prize Museum. I next visited the UK from June 28-July 14. I attended the annual Aram conference at Oxford University, then met some family in London for a road trip through Scotland, Wales, and England. Every day included tours of historic sites (mostly castles and palaces), and highlights included Scone Palace, Stonehenge, and seeing Hamilton at Victoria Palace. (To be continued…)
Caribbean & Mexico (March 2025): From March 15-23, I took a quick trip down to New Orleans, Louisiana (including beignets at Café Du Monde and a tour around Jackson Square) before taking a cruise via the Gulf of America and Caribbean Sea to Jamaica (Montego Bay), the Grand Cayman (George Town), and Mexico (Tulum).
Europe (Summer 2024): From June 15 to August 19, 2024, I traveled to England, Germany, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Denmark for various summer schools and a conference.
Iberian Peninsula (May 2024): From May 24 through June 1, 2024, I traveled to three cities in the Iberian Peninsula: Porto, Portugal; Salamanca, Spain; and Madrid, Spain. In Porto (May 25-27), I visited the World of Wine Cultural District, the Monastery of Serra do Pilar, Livraria Lello, and the world’s most beautiful McDonald’s restaurant. My second time in Salamanca (May 27-29) included much the same activities as my first trip there in Summer 2022: touring the Universidad de Salamanca, Plaza Mayor, the Cathedral, and Roman Bridge, as well as visiting friends in the city. In Madrid (May 29-31), I ate at DiverXO (a Michelin 3-star restaurant ranked #3 in the world) and attended the sold-out Taylor Swift concert at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium.
Tanzania (January 2024): From Jan. 15-31, I traveled with my uncle to Arusha in Tanzania, Africa, where we climbed Mount Kilimanjaro (the highest peak in Africa), and then went on a couple days of safari. I also took tours to learn about Tanzanite mining as well as coffee production and export.
Europe (Summer 2023): From June 1-Aug 2, 2023, I traveled to Europe for various conferences and summer schools, including the following cities: Stockholm, Sweden; Copenhagen, Denmark; Berlin and Hamburg, Germany; and Amsterdam and Leiden, The Netherlands. The highlights included the Frei Universitat Berlin International Summer School (FUBiS) where I studied conversational German; visiting the Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin (and seeing, inter alia, the Kulamuwa Stela inscription, Hadad Statue, Bar Rakib stelae, and other NWS inscriptions); playing chess at the World Chess Club Berlin (and meeting GMs Michael Adams, Maxime Vachier-Legrave, and Vincent Keymer among others); attending a conference on medieval Ethiopian historiographical texts in Hamburg; and attending the annual Summer School in Languages and Linguistics at Leiden University.
UK/France (Winter 2022-2023): From December 23, 2022 through January 8, 2023, my girlfriend and I visited the UK and France. We flew into Dublin for an Irish Christmas. The highlight for me was attending mass at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. On the 26th, we took the train up to Belfast; probably the best meal of the trip was at Bar + Brick Steakhouse in Belfast. The following day included a ferry and bus ride up to Glasgow, Scotland, with a day-trip on the 28th to Edinburgh. Dec. 29th was undoubtedly the best day of the trip: a day trip to Stirling, including a visit to Stirling Bridge, the National William Wallace Monument, and Stirling Castle. My paternal ancestry is largely Scottish, deriving from members of Clan Wallace that immigrated to the newfound colonies during the founding of the United States–a topic and era of history that deeply fascinates me and I hope to investigate more in the future. My “Heimat” (hometown) in Tennessee, Stewart County, was named for an early settler of the region and state legislator, Duncan Stewart, who was the son of a Scottish immigrant and a distant descendant of King Robert the Bruce (1274-1329). We then took an overnight train from Glasgow to London where we arrived on Dec. 30th. We spent the day at the British Museum, where I perused the ancient Near East collection. It was a great pleasure to see, in person, five Amarna letters from kings of Hazor, Megiddo, Shechem, Gezer, and Lachish; the latest dated cuneiform tablet (61 CE from Babylon); the Cyrus Cylinder; and the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III, among many other artifacts. Of course, we did all the other touristy stuff that London has to offer as well–like Buckingham Palace, Westminster, Tower of London, London Bridge, and the Imperial War Museum–but it’s hard to beat seeing the wonderful collection of the British Museum. We also spent New Year’s Eve seeing the fireworks at the London Eye. January 2, 2023, consisted of a train ride through southern England with stops in Faversham, Canterbury, and Dover. It was a real pleasure to see the Canterbury Cathedral, Dover Castle, and the famous White Cliffs of Dover. We spent the night in Dover on England’s southern coast then boarded a ferry to Calais, France on the 3rd, heading from there to Paris with a stop in Lille. On the 4th we visited the Louvre where I was excited to see the Stele of the Vultures, the Victory Stele of Naram-Sin, a couple Gudea statues, the famous Law Code of Hammurabi, the sarcophagus of Eshmunazor II, and many more artifacts from the ancient and modern worlds, including of course the Mona Lisa. Dinner that night was at Café de la Régence, a historic European center of chess during the 18th and 19th centuries. After a day-trip to the Palace of Versailles on the 5th, we spent the evening at the Eiffel Tower. On the next day, before leaving Paris, we spent the morning walking through Père-Lachaise Cemetery where we visited the tombs and epitaphs of historic figures like Oscar Wilde, August Comte, and Jean-François Champollion, the latter being the French philologist and savant who deciphered Egyptian hieroglyphs in 1822 almost exactly two centuries earlier. Upon returning to Dublin, we spent a couple more days relaxing with day-tours of the Guinness Storehouse and Jameson Factory.
Spain, Israel, & Alaska (Summer 2022): Description forthcoming.
Israel & Europe (Summer 2019): Description forthcoming.
Israel-Jordan (March 2019): Description forthcoming.
Europe (2018): Description forthcoming.
Israel-Jordan (March 2018): Description forthcoming.
Caribbean & Mexico (March 2017): Description forthcoming.
Panama (March 2014): Description forthcoming.
Cuba (March 2013): Description forthcoming.