Quixoticguide
Hi, I’m Maarten Van Den Driessche, a curious human, aviation enthusiast, vexillophile, world traveler, and food lover with over 14,000 days of life experience.
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Danzig Is Still There — It’s Called Gdańsk
Walk through Gdańsk today and it feels unmistakably Polish. Polish flags hang from buildings, Polish is spoken in the cafés, and the city is one of the most important cultural and economic centres on Poland’s Baltic coast. But look at an old German map and you will find another name in exactly the same place:…
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Beirut: Where the Cracks Let the Light In
Beirut has never been a city of perfect surfaces. Its walls carry scars. Its buildings lean into history. Old balconies sit beside new glass, bullet holes beside cafés, ruins beside gardens. Everywhere, the city seems to whisper the same lesson: survival does not mean returning to what you were before. Sometimes the crack becomes part…
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The Cobra Effect: How Trying to Solve a Problem Can Make It Worse
There is an old story from Delhi that begins with cobras. And like many good stories about governments, it ends with considerably more cobras. During British rule in India, so the story goes, the authorities in Delhi became concerned about the number of venomous cobras roaming the city. The problem seemed straightforward enough. Too many…
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Xiong’an: The City Built Before the People Came
There is something slightly surreal about seeing Xiong’an from the air. Roads stretch across the landscape in perfect grids. Entire neighbourhoods appear already mapped out. Bridges cross waterways that seem to be waiting for traffic. Apartment blocks rise beside empty plots where future streets have already been drawn into the earth. Most cities grow because…
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If You Had to Lose One: Sight or Hearing?
Would you rather lose your hearing or your sight? At first, it sounds like a question about the senses. But perhaps it is really a question about existence. How much of who we are depends on the way the world reaches us? Sight gives us distance. We can look toward a horizon, recognise a face…
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Ontario, New York: The Little Town Beside Lake America?
When most people hear Ontario, they immediately think of Canada: Toronto, Ottawa, Niagara Falls and a province with millions of inhabitants. But travel to the other side of Lake Ontario and you will find another Ontario. Ontario, New York is a small American town in Wayne County, east of Rochester, sitting quietly along the southern…
Where Curiosity Leads
Travel is more than ticking countries off a map. It’s about discovering the stories behind places, understanding the people who call them home, and seeing the world through new perspectives.
Quixotic Guide is a collection of destinations, cultures, history, aviation, food, and ideas, created for curious travellers who want to go beyond the guidebook. Whether you’re planning your next adventure or simply exploring from home, every article is designed to help you understand the world a little better.
Explore Beyond the Tourist Trail
- 🌍 Discover fascinating destinations
- 🏛️ Understand history and cultures
- 🍽️ Explore national dishes and traditions
- ✈️ Travel smarter with practical guides
- 💡 Gain context behind the headlines
- 📖 See the world through curiosity
“The more you understand a place, the more meaningful your journey becomes.”
My Travel guides
- Not instructions, but orientation.
- These guides explain how places work — so you don’t just visit, you arrive.
“Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.” –
Ibn Battuta
Maghrebi traveller