Author: Maarten Van Den Driessche

Two countries. One island. Two very different stories. At first glance, Hispaniola looks like a geographical unity: mountains running like a spine down the center, the same Caribbean sun, the same tropical winds. Yet, cross the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic and you enter two different worlds — not just politically, but economically,…

Delhi is India’s capital territory and one of the world’s great historic cities. It is actually made up of two broad halves: Delhi is not just a city — it is a palimpsest. Scratch the surface and you uncover another capital, another empire, another vision of power. Few places in the world compress as much…

Caucasian Albania — The Other Albania When we say “Albania,” most people picture the Adriatic coast and the Balkans. Yet far to the east, between the Greater Caucasus Mountains and the Caspian Sea, there once existed another Albania — Caucasian Albania — a forgotten civilization at the crossroads of Europe and Asia. Caucasian Albania roughly…

At first hearing, Austria and Australia feel almost like twins — separated by just a few letters, easily confused in casual conversation, and often mixed up by schoolchildren, travellers, and even seasoned newsreaders. Yet beyond their similar names, they could hardly be more different. One sits quietly in the heart of Europe, wrapped in Alpine…

Most people arrive in China through its superstars — Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chengdu. But if you move eastward, past the familiar skylines and high-speed rails, the Shandong Peninsula offers something quieter, saltier, and more atmospheric. This is China facing the Yellow Sea: part maritime province, part agricultural heartland, part industrial frontier. Qingdao: The German Memory…

The United Nations sits in Manhattan like a promise carved into concrete: a place where the world gathers, argues, negotiates, and, occasionally, agrees. Yet every time I walk along the East River, past that slim slab of international idealism, I feel the same quiet tension. For all its symbolism, the UN is anchored to one…

If you’ve ever been confused by the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, you’re not alone. Two neighboring countries, almost the same name, even capitals facing each other across a river—it feels like history played a prank. But there’s a good reason both countries kept the name Congo, and it has far deeper roots than modern…

Some of the most meaningful journeys don’t begin with a plan, an itinerary, or even curiosity. They begin with restlessness — the quiet kind. The kind that doesn’t demand escape, only motion. We rarely talk about that version of travel. The Pressure to Justify Motion Modern travel is obsessed with explanation.Why this place?Why now?What’s the…

Maarten’s Note I’ve crossed many borders where flags were treated as unquestionable facts—stitched onto uniforms, printed on documents, fixed above checkpoints. Traveling long enough teaches you something else: identity is rarely that stable. It shifts, overlaps, and sometimes contradicts itself. When I first encountered Marc Napier’s net.flag, it felt less like digital art and more…

An atlas is supposed to explain the world.Borders, scales, legends. Certainty. The Coincidence Atlas does the opposite. It maps what cannot be planned. This atlas is not organized by country or capital, but by moments of alignment: places entered by accident, meetings that should not statistically exist, cities that appeared briefly and then rearranged your…