<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[RSS Feed]]></title><description><![CDATA[RSS Feed]]></description><link>https://ecency.com</link><image><url>https://ecency.com/logo512.png</url><title>RSS Feed</title><link>https://ecency.com</link></image><generator>RSS for Node</generator><lastBuildDate>Tue, 18 Aug 2026 22:49:33 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://ecency.com/@ivan-drazic/rss" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title><![CDATA[First Time in China: What Europe Hadn’t Prepared Me For]]></title><description><![CDATA[Before my first time in China, I worried about cultural differences. Instead, I found QR-code payments, a stubborn firewall, barely any English, robots using lifts — and a system that somehow became completely]]></description><link>https://ecency.com/@ivan-drazic/first-time-in-china-guide-for-european-travellers</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://ecency.com/@ivan-drazic/first-time-in-china-guide-for-european-travellers</guid><category><![CDATA[hive-184437]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[ivan-drazic]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 18 Aug 2026 06:09:30 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://i.ecency.com/p/TZjG7hXReeVqFW2gC3hwB1BAeLUdtoghVbn5XhswjmN1HPdkuR8opVvVR4qpZxpEaYGYCVT16GmEVU1qAMsRvjRT2gRamDJyq8rfU9iWntgFEAqssSyiBXavKupTyQ6wiybiRgdX1rLCwQ?format=match&amp;mode=fit" length="0" type="false"/></item><item><title><![CDATA[Checking In, Checking Back: Ten Years, Twelve Istanbul Hotels - Part One]]></title><description><![CDATA[Four Istanbul hotels: a spectacular suite, an efficient stopover, exceptional hospitality and a cocktail that became a minor engineering project.Choosing between Istanbul hotels can easily become part]]></description><link>https://ecency.com/@ivan-drazic/istanbul-hotels-four-check-ins-part-one</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://ecency.com/@ivan-drazic/istanbul-hotels-four-check-ins-part-one</guid><category><![CDATA[hive-184437]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[ivan-drazic]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sat, 15 Aug 2026 14:20:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://i.ecency.com/p/TZjG7hXReeVqFW2gC3hwB1BAeLUdtoghVbn5XhswjmN1HPdkuR8opVvVR4qpZxpEaYGWmvv2V1ySzizdWwMYuCYpjJMXX4iHEuq7hrm5Jco7q1S49cgKBC8eVFiCnKJtAK1ooc5fh1h5K4?format=match&amp;mode=fit" length="0" type="false"/></item><item><title><![CDATA[I Drove to Pamukkale at 3 A.M. — and the Best Part Was the Fruit]]></title><description><![CDATA[I came to Turkey for a business meeting in Ankara. A few days of annual leave turned the journey into a solo detour through İzmir and Pamukkale, one reluctantly abandoned plan for Ephesus, an exceptionally]]></description><link>https://ecency.com/@ivan-drazic/pamukkale-road-trip-from-izmir</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://ecency.com/@ivan-drazic/pamukkale-road-trip-from-izmir</guid><category><![CDATA[hive-184437]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[ivan-drazic]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 13 Aug 2026 20:33:03 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://i.ecency.com/p/TZjG7hXReeVqFW2gC3hwB1BAeLUdtoghVbn5XhswjmN1HPdkuR8opVvVR4qpZxpEaYGWmvv2V1ySzizdWwMYuCYpjJMXX4iHEuq7hrm5Jco7q1S49cgKBC8eVFiCnKJtAK1ooc5fh1h5K4?format=match&amp;mode=fit" length="0" type="false"/></item><item><title><![CDATA[I Walked Through a Gate and Left the 21st Century Behind]]></title><description><![CDATA[Travelling to Fes can easily feel like travelling into the past. Pass through one of the monumental gates of its medina and the first question is almost inevitable: are we really still in the twenty-first]]></description><link>https://ecency.com/@ivan-drazic/fes-medina-morocco-travel-story</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://ecency.com/@ivan-drazic/fes-medina-morocco-travel-story</guid><category><![CDATA[hive-184437]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[ivan-drazic]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 13 Aug 2026 10:29:57 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://i.ecency.com/p/7ohP4GDMGPrUMkf3udiCagKn5vdJx67RUPnkuJtUkR7HCVuMkiim5TNH2gXVSQwpvnysBvythpCavHumaL4UjuAnm7gNTyJHd5jL?format=match&amp;mode=fit" length="0" type="false"/></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Future Came with Slippers]]></title><description><![CDATA[My first trip to China had all the technology I expected. The surprise was how comfortable they had made it. Shanghai had already given me a very different kind of speed: 300 kilometres per hour while]]></description><link>https://ecency.com/@ivan-drazic/shanghai-hangzhou-high-speed-train-business-class</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://ecency.com/@ivan-drazic/shanghai-hangzhou-high-speed-train-business-class</guid><category><![CDATA[hive-184437]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[ivan-drazic]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 11 Aug 2026 16:10:39 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://i.ecency.com/p/8SzwQc8j2KJa5zQFnJbmjwSjdsFWWBzuwmh8NTsEhGsy4iRV5vA3Wx6kYBFfS6VE9VAnuT6jjrfxBEcumV8xFtJHbPuJ4yZriinnT92HnoZFiKxotcn?format=match&amp;mode=fit" length="0" type="false"/></item><item><title><![CDATA[Helsinki Between Night and Snow]]></title><description><![CDATA[One winter evening, one quiet morning and a ferry waiting at the end Helsinki was never meant to be the main event. The journey had already taken me north to Lapland and then south to Tampere for an Erasmus]]></description><link>https://ecency.com/@ivan-drazic/helsinki-in-winter-night-snow-ferry-tallinn</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://ecency.com/@ivan-drazic/helsinki-in-winter-night-snow-ferry-tallinn</guid><category><![CDATA[hive-184437]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[ivan-drazic]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 11 Aug 2026 05:52:57 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://i.ecency.com/p/TZjG7hXReeVqFW2gC3hwB1BAeLUdtoghVbn5XhswjmN1HPdkuR8opVvVR4qpZxpEaYGVi1WoWRKdQ3od5snRwneitr8ySirKyjGfhvfEVbtYXuUPQrEpS7H3LmqAKr4Po7Hoo54aEewAGW?format=match&amp;mode=fit" length="0" type="false"/></item><item><title><![CDATA[Hangzhou Was the China I Had Come to See]]></title><description><![CDATA[I arrived knowing almost nothing about Hangzhou. Between water lilies, pagodas, Buddhist temples and old streets, I found the China I had imagined — and discovered that reality was even more captivating]]></description><link>https://ecency.com/@ivan-drazic/hangzhou-was-the-china-i-had-come-to-see</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://ecency.com/@ivan-drazic/hangzhou-was-the-china-i-had-come-to-see</guid><category><![CDATA[hive-184437]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[ivan-drazic]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sun, 09 Aug 2026 19:45:24 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://i.ecency.com/p/Zskj9C56UonZ32MeExgUUXJbBio3DqYcgkG7XjajSm5xTPq4xhcv7CCPAcFidmDbgKjizpKKN23YwKaZhuBs6RHGmDYX8jKveHTQTJBTiiNsYmwhHL7Y?format=match&amp;mode=fit" length="0" type="false"/></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Silk I Didn’t Know I Came For]]></title><description><![CDATA[I arrived in Hangzhou knowing almost nothing about its most famous craft. By the time I left, silk had followed me from museums and markets all the way into my suitcase. The old man and I had no language]]></description><link>https://ecency.com/@ivan-drazic/hangzhou-silk-silk-road-china-silk-city</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://ecency.com/@ivan-drazic/hangzhou-silk-silk-road-china-silk-city</guid><category><![CDATA[hive-184437]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[ivan-drazic]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sat, 08 Aug 2026 09:18:48 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://i.ecency.com/p/TZjG7hXReeVqFW2gC3hwB1BAeLUdtoghVbn5XhswjmN1HPdkuR8opVvVR4qpZxpEaYEyTEPDtfeaK87cottuQjgkEst2SAokUJ8Px5TmTLr7Nqt1b3DGJKAS28RBB42FJHCs4h1TsaryvE?format=match&amp;mode=fit" length="0" type="false"/></item><item><title><![CDATA[Where the Vatican Goes to Hide]]></title><description><![CDATA[From Castel Gandolfo’s Private Avenues to the Gardens Behind St Peter’s For years, the Vatican existed in my mind as an extension of Rome: St Peter’s Square, the basilica and the long route through the]]></description><link>https://ecency.com/@ivan-drazic/where-the-vatican-goes-to-hide</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://ecency.com/@ivan-drazic/where-the-vatican-goes-to-hide</guid><category><![CDATA[hive-184437]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[ivan-drazic]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 07 Aug 2026 16:36:06 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://i.ecency.com/p/7ohP4GDMGPrUMkf3udiCagKn5vdJx67RUPnkuJtUkR7HCVuMkiim5TNH2gXVSQwpvnyUJmNjyYiYUaHu967e3BhuWU6kmabGaEJa?format=match&amp;mode=fit" length="0" type="false"/></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Queen, Her Yacht — and the Hotel That Upstaged Them Both]]></title><description><![CDATA[I returned to Edinburgh for Elizabeth II’s private rooms. W Edinburgh rewrote the script. By the time I reached Edinburgh, Queen Elizabeth II had already hijacked my Scottish itinerary from beyond the]]></description><link>https://ecency.com/@ivan-drazic/edinburgh-holyroodhouse-britannia-w-hotel</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://ecency.com/@ivan-drazic/edinburgh-holyroodhouse-britannia-w-hotel</guid><category><![CDATA[hive-184437]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[ivan-drazic]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 06 Aug 2026 21:41:48 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://i.ecency.com/p/TZjG7hXReeVqFW2gC3hwB1BAeLUdtoghVbn5XhswjmN1HPdkuR8opVvVR4qpZxpEaYExjx8oWxSmWzUT3vZBJUzf9WgXt9Cw1moC1ieX4KRfRNMkg1EpLtE76BTDkbfHNZQcyUZGFaYrPY?format=match&amp;mode=fit" length="0" type="false"/></item><item><title><![CDATA[A Detour North: The Lapland I Had Imagined]]></title><description><![CDATA[A frozen Arctic morning, Santa’s Christmas economy, and Rudolph in a bun. In January, I was travelling to Tampere for an Erasmus programme when one rather obvious thought occurred to me: it would be genuinely]]></description><link>https://ecency.com/@ivan-drazic/lapland-rovaniemi-glass-igloo-santa-claus-village</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://ecency.com/@ivan-drazic/lapland-rovaniemi-glass-igloo-santa-claus-village</guid><category><![CDATA[hive-184437]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[ivan-drazic]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 05 Aug 2026 20:36:48 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://i.ecency.com/p/Zskj9C56UonZ32MeExgUUXJbBio3DqYcgkG7XjajSm5xTPq4xhcv7CCPAcFidmDbgKjhEeBsZobaGREyK7tXBdkvdZeBZiHy2aXrSRbuodfsJtY2aRrN?format=match&amp;mode=fit" length="0" type="false"/></item><item><title><![CDATA[Aphrodite Promised Eternal Youth. My Midlife Crisis Was Listening.]]></title><description><![CDATA[Sixty-one hours across Cyprus, with Aphrodite negotiations, Roman mosaics, a shipwreck, banana groves, impossible blues, suspicious greens and cocktails that appeared to have escaped from a laboratory.]]></description><link>https://ecency.com/@ivan-drazic/cyprus-road-trip-paphos-limassol-aphrodite</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://ecency.com/@ivan-drazic/cyprus-road-trip-paphos-limassol-aphrodite</guid><category><![CDATA[hive-184437]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[ivan-drazic]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 04 Aug 2026 16:30:57 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://i.ecency.com/p/TZjG7hXReeVqFW2gC3hwB1BAeLUdtoghVbn5XhswjmN1HPdkuR8opVvVR4qpZxpEaYEx2fsJVZZH7nKeYYD4a6zptkYAWyk4fLqCjCByPEPFtMWjTYgs4U7oG3X1G5d9rHvDizuG65WVyY?format=match&amp;mode=fit" length="0" type="false"/></item><item><title><![CDATA[Dunnottar Was the Plan. Stonehaven Nearly Stole the Day.]]></title><description><![CDATA[A £3.85 bus from Aberdeen, a castle seen from the outside and an easy coastal walk to Stonehaven There are places I visit because I want to understand them, and places I visit because I want one photograph]]></description><link>https://ecency.com/@ivan-drazic/dunnottar-castle-stonehaven-coastal-walk</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://ecency.com/@ivan-drazic/dunnottar-castle-stonehaven-coastal-walk</guid><category><![CDATA[hive-184437]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[ivan-drazic]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Mon, 03 Aug 2026 17:55:33 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://i.ecency.com/p/7ohP4GDMGPrUMkf3udiCagKn5vdJx67RUPnkuJtUkR7HCVuMkiim5TNH2gXVSQwpvnyTwcfyiYUcgkTP5XLh7212BCuXL39fvFfk?format=match&amp;mode=fit" length="0" type="false"/></item><item><title><![CDATA[Vienna Had the Better Traviata. Verona Had Vasilisa.]]></title><description><![CDATA[A cancelled flight, a flooded detour and two radically different Violettas led to an Addio del passato that made the Arena disappear. By the time Vasilisa Berzhanskaya reached Addio del passato, the Arena]]></description><link>https://ecency.com/@ivan-drazic/three-operas-two-violettas-brno-vienna-verona</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://ecency.com/@ivan-drazic/three-operas-two-violettas-brno-vienna-verona</guid><category><![CDATA[hive-184437]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[ivan-drazic]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sun, 02 Aug 2026 20:40:39 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://i.ecency.com/p/TZjG7hXReeVqFW2gC3hwB1BAeLUdtoghVbn5XhswjmN1HPdkuR8opVvVR4qpZxpEaYEvxkV7HaqcbFhBq2or8E1RQo1B1XZHs8m2FA7BJLEyipUKiQtTfm4RX4VEwwo1RccgoMTwp9zzYN?format=match&amp;mode=fit" length="0" type="false"/></item><item><title><![CDATA[Corleone: The Town Where The Godfather Stops Being a Film]]></title><description><![CDATA[A journey beyond the Hollywood myth, through inland Sicily and roads that made a battered town sign feel like a summit Table of contentsThrough the corn to SalemiAn Accidental Stop in SalemiAfter SalemiWhen]]></description><link>https://ecency.com/@ivan-drazic/corleone-sicily-road-trip-godfather</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://ecency.com/@ivan-drazic/corleone-sicily-road-trip-godfather</guid><category><![CDATA[hive-184437]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[ivan-drazic]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sun, 02 Aug 2026 12:12:36 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://i.ecency.com/p/7ohP4GDMGPrUMkf3udiCagKn5vdJx67RUPnkuJtUkR7HCVuMkiim5TNH2gXVSQwpnxKZDaEp39jzmSDBcFcGnkJEPmVT11ZHgbxJ?format=match&amp;mode=fit" length="0" type="false"/></item><item><title><![CDATA[Let’s Sneak a Look Inside Balmoral Before the King Comes Home]]></title><description><![CDATA[The late Queen Elizabeth II kept Balmoral fiercely private — King Charles III now admits just twelve visitors per tour, at £110–£175 a head. Paying between £110 and £175 to enter Balmoral in a group of]]></description><link>https://ecency.com/@ivan-drazic/inside-balmoral-before-king-charles-comes-home</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://ecency.com/@ivan-drazic/inside-balmoral-before-king-charles-comes-home</guid><category><![CDATA[hive-184437]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[ivan-drazic]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sun, 02 Aug 2026 11:33:45 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://i.ecency.com/p/7ohP4GDMGPrUMkf3udiCagKn5vdJx67RUPnkuJtUkR7HCVuMkiim5TNH2gXVSQwpnxKxeTu7XKjH5aDhTErcEMhxb5qo6KeCe9pA?format=match&amp;mode=fit" length="0" type="false"/></item><item><title><![CDATA[A Missing Tortoise, Fifty-Seven Urine Samples and Oxford’s Ancient College Feud]]></title><description><![CDATA[Read this post on TravelFeed for the best experience Seven years after my first visit, I returned to discover what Oxford keeps behind its gates Had apparition been allowed inside Hogwarts, I could have]]></description><link>https://ecency.com/@ivan-drazic/oxford-college-feud-missing-tortoise-urine-samples</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://ecency.com/@ivan-drazic/oxford-college-feud-missing-tortoise-urine-samples</guid><category><![CDATA[hive-184437]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[ivan-drazic]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sun, 02 Aug 2026 11:28:30 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://i.ecency.com/p/TZjG7hXReeVqFW2gC3hwB1BAeLUdtoghVbn5XhswjmN1HPdkuR8opVvVR4qpZxpE3wVToQVzMcNaQaMBVVfwxHoibeVwrd4XfyyNTtjXGJAvqneh1mvuYbQURpNabXndEaw4FpUY8Pmjxi?format=match&amp;mode=fit" length="0" type="false"/></item><item><title><![CDATA[Tallinn Lost to the Hotel: One Frozen Night in Estonia]]></title><description><![CDATA[I arrived by ferry, walked through the Old Town at minus eighteen and discovered that a medieval capital could not compete with an excellent dinner and a warm spa. Tallinn’s medieval walls, edited to reflect]]></description><link>https://ecency.com/@ivan-drazic/tallinn-winter-hotel-telegraaf-ferry-spa</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://ecency.com/@ivan-drazic/tallinn-winter-hotel-telegraaf-ferry-spa</guid><category><![CDATA[hive-184437]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[ivan-drazic]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sun, 02 Aug 2026 11:23:12 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://i.ecency.com/p/7ohP4GDMGPrUMkf3udiCagKn5vdJx67RUPnkuJtUkR7HCVuMkiim5TNH2gXVSQwpnxKxvKvxajfHi9zsbTMqhtTS71XKhNwkrmJ6?format=match&amp;mode=fit" length="0" type="false"/></item><item><title><![CDATA[Swimming in November: One Night Above the Orange Cliffs of the Algarve]]></title><description><![CDATA[A conference in Seville was waiting. The Atlantic had other plans. At eleven on a Sunday morning in November, I was swimming in the Atlantic. Behind me, Praia da Falésia stretched beneath cliffs that looked]]></description><link>https://ecency.com/@ivan-drazic/algarve-in-november-praia-da-falesia</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://ecency.com/@ivan-drazic/algarve-in-november-praia-da-falesia</guid><category><![CDATA[hive-184437]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[ivan-drazic]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sun, 02 Aug 2026 11:17:48 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://i.ecency.com/p/RGgukq5E6HBNvuVEthrikS9MLb8yfwcPjwx4AyTN2cWTekog8UjUwutMKKTb7cib4KdqekbkVXmpqKUvfStSPSxCrvgGurGARiuzLxYMh5DGZPR8MjRP7dP6H4C6kiz?format=match&amp;mode=fit" length="0" type="false"/></item><item><title><![CDATA[Shanghai, Where Even a Beggar Wore a QR Code]]></title><description><![CDATA[A levitating train, a room above the city, ancient temples beneath skyscrapers—and the moment China stopped looking simple. Shanghai lay beneath me, and I recognised absolutely nothing. From the upper]]></description><link>https://ecency.com/@ivan-drazic/shanghai-maglev-temples-qr-code-beggar</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://ecency.com/@ivan-drazic/shanghai-maglev-temples-qr-code-beggar</guid><category><![CDATA[hive-184437]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[ivan-drazic]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sun, 02 Aug 2026 11:12:30 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://i.ecency.com/p/7ohP4GDMGPrUMkf3udiCagKn5vdJx67RUPnkuJtUkR7HCVuMkiim5TNH2gXVSQwpnxKZDaF5xsronFmwFkB3XKiH1ySEV8DLEXti?format=match&amp;mode=fit" length="0" type="false"/></item></channel></rss>