about concrete and kitsch

My name’s Nick.  I’m a bunch of acronyms – OCD, ADD, LGBT, MBA, BFD.

concrete and kitsch is my curated space for information on travel to and stories about the offbeat places I love around the world.

I’ve been captivated by other cultures and offbeat destinations for about as long as I can remember.   Growing up, my parents installed a map of the world as wallpaper in my bedroom – to which I can attribute my knowledge about second and third tier cities of the developing world.   In college, my friends would try to find countries whose capitals I couldn’t identify – spoiler alert: they never could.

I’ve been traveling independently since I was about 16, when I spent a summer in Japan going to high school in a small town about 90 minutes south of Osaka.  I studied Japanese and Chinese in college, but my interest in Korea took me there for my first job after graduation.

I eventually moved home and got an MBA from the University of Washington.  While building this blog and my travel resume, I was married to a wonderful man, David, with whom I am still great friends.  I also divorced my MBA job in 2019 to start an art and travel business, Atlas and Oasis, the former becoming my main source of income during the height of the COVID pandemic.

I’m thrilled, however, to have just returned from a fabulous trip through the South Caucasus with a brief stopover in Romania (March-April 2022).  I am looking forward to reconnecting with old readers as well as new!

You can contact me at Nick(at)concreteandkitsch(dot)com.

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