When you think about the US, you definitely don't picture the Roman Empire 18th-century Spanish missions. But you should. In San Antonio, Texas, the Spanish built several of them in the early 1700s. Over 300 years later, the buildings have deteriorated a bit, but they've held up pretty well overall.

Not the 12th century like the monastery in Florida, obviously (and I'm not joking), but by local standards, that's ancient history.

PS. I stumbled upon this cute little restaurant in the middle of nowhere. Really charming atmosphere. And the food's solid. I didn't see anything more tex-mex during this trip. If you're ever in the area, it's definitely worth checking out.

I haven't seen a major city in a long time where so much wildlife just runs around the streets (just a reminder—nearly a million people live in Austin). There's no getting away from squirrels: they dash right across the roads and barely pay any attention to people. And you can't escape the bird songs either.

Austin is basically a pocket of democracy in a really conservative state. This isn't some new trend either—it was already like this back during Kennedy and LBJ. Both presidents were from Texas, by the way. I'm not claiming to be an expert on American politics, but I thought it was interesting how the state capital's views are so different from the rest of the state. Other major cities lean blue too, but not nearly as obviously.

The Mexican border is right there, and you can definitely feel it: in some places, people basically don't speak English at all. Only Spanish. Though honestly, even in New York, Spanish has become noticeably more common than it was five years ago.

Found a worthy contender for the most unusual city attraction. In Austin, Texas.

Back in the 1980s, the city renovated a bridge. The new structure turned out to be absolutely perfect for... a bat colony. It got to the point where in a city of almost a million people, there are now more bats than humans.

At first, residents were scared and really wanted to get rid of their uninvited neighbors. But a campaign by local biologists changed public opinion. Now it's practically the main draw for tourists.

Every night from March to October, crowds gather at the bridge waiting for the show. You can pay to get on a boat and watch everything from the water. Though there's no guarantee you'll actually see anything: the hunt only happens when it's warm, dry, and there's no strong wind. Otherwise, the insects they hunt stay home, and there's no point flying out. In a single night, they can collectively eat a whole ton of gnats. First, solo "scouts" fly out, then at some point a massive exodus begins. On the best nights, up to a quarter of the colony of a million and a half can take flight to hunt.

There's a whole website where enthusiasts track flight history and publish forecasts for the day. I wasn't too lucky: I only managed to see about 3% of the colony take off in complete darkness to hunt. So the video doesn't show much. People say you need to go in August. That's when the most impressive flights happen. Added an internet picture to the post. Would love to see something like that in person.

And yes. All of this happens not in some remote village, but right in the center of a huge glass and concrete city.

I never really felt drawn to Brighton Beach, but I had some free time and here we are. You know that stereotype of older Russian-speaking ladies and gentlemen you picture when Brighton comes up? Well, they're exactly like that in real life and walking around everywhere. Russian is heard on the streets more often than any other language.

Russian shops are packed with goods from former Soviet countries. I've got no complaints about condensed milk from Natakhtari, but why people haul juice brands like J7, Dobry, and all that Miracle-Berry stuff across the ocean is beyond me. It's like the US doesn't have its own crappy juices or something. Obviously there's demand if they keep bringing it in. Anyway, enough griping about that.

But I did have the best pilaf I've eaten all year here. I really miss that kind of food in Belgrade.

So in New York, those "99-cent pizza" joints don't actually sell pizza for 99 cents. And sure, it'd be one thing if they were just adding tax. But one of these places wanted $4 for a slice :(

That said, the city's really charming in its little details. You can stumble into a Jewish deli run by Yemeni Muslims in the Caribbean quarter, or randomly discover a superhero shop, or spot a historic marker at the place where the first recorded fatal car accident happened, and you can even find the Ghostbusters headquarters. And honestly, I could go on for ages. Feels like you could spend a year here and still not see everything.

If you really want to immerse yourself in the atmosphere of Prohibition, underground speakeasies* and great music, New York has an option for you. In a small basement that fits 30-40 people right in the heart of Harlem, Bill Saxton plays excellent jazz. According to reports from the New York Times, they've managed to recreate the 1920s-1930s atmosphere with incredible accuracy. Not least because visitors are invited to bring their own alcohol, and the space is very small and intimate. If you're in the area, I highly recommend it.

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*speakeasy — an American phenomenon of underground bars from the time when alcohol sales were prohibited. The name comes from the English "speakeasy" (speak quietly), though the term itself appeared decades before Prohibition in England to describe contraband establishments. Sometimes these drinking establishments were called "blind pig" or "blind tiger" because money was charged for viewing the animals, while alcohol was given as a gift. Americans invented endless ways to get around the law. They used everything imaginable to disguise the business, including funeral homes. In New York alone, there were between 30,000 and 100,000 such establishments in the 1920s.

Remember the Berlin Wall in Singapore?

New York has some too! Several pieces actually. Foursections in differentlocations, though two aren't accessible right now.

Turns out the wall got scattered all over the world. You can see it in Sydney and Cape Town, in Moscow and Guatemala, in Kyiv and Tokyo, and tons of other cities. In the US, it's basically in practically every major city. Here's a complete list.

Did I just save you a trip to Berlin? :)

The most famous Croat Serb spent most of his life in New York. The corner of Bryant Park is named after Nikola Tesla, where he loved feeding pigeons. And in the New Yorker Hotel, where the scientist lived for more than ten of his final years, they placed a bust, and hung a plaque on room 3327.

In his old age, the inventor was openly struggling financially, drifting from hotel to hotel, leaving behind huge unpaid bills. By the time he moved into the New Yorker, Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company began paying Tesla a salary of $125 (about $3000 in today's money) and covering his rent. He lived there until the end of his days.

In his final years, Tesla was slowly losing his mind (literally). He worked on a death ray (Teleforce) hoping it would help end wars. Despite claims that the invention was ready, no papers were ever found. All sorts of conspiracy theories still circulate that the blueprints were seized by special services.

On the Radio Wave building there's a plaque reminding us that Tesla held the first patent for radio. But in history, Marconi went down as the inventor of radio. And he even won a Nobel Prize for it. In subsequent years, lawsuits over the invention rights continued. In 1904, a US court awarded primacy to the Italian, despite the patent history. Plus, he had excellent connections in England, which contributed to the rapid commercial growth of his company. After Tesla's death in 1943, the court reconsidered its decision. Partly because Marconi's company (Marconi himself was already gone) tried to get a ton of money from the US for violating the radio patent during World War I. Anyway, for Nikola it was already too late.

I'm back in Belgrade, but all those photos I took of New York weren't for nothing. I'll share some pictures here.

And here's the most surprising part — many farms have unmanned shops. You just walk into a tent, grab what you need, write down your purchases in a special notebook, leave some money, and head out. I thought that kind of thing only happened in the Swiss mountains. But nope. Just a couple hundred kilometers from New York City, they actually do this regularly.

You can head out to one of the nearby farms for breakfast. There are plenty of farms around here, but not all of them serve breakfast.

That said, it's a pretty popular thing to do, so you don't want to sleep in too late—the later you arrive, the longer you'll probably end up waiting in line.

We got there at 8 in the morning and were first in line, but all the tables were already taken, so we had to wait a bit anyway. By the time we left, there were way more people. I've heard that during peak season, the line starts outside and can get pretty long.

The area is full of small, completely typical little towns—it feels like you've stepped into an American movie. People clearly live a bit closer together here, but it's still more like a village than a real city.

If you ever need emergency help, an ambulance or police will take about 20 minutes to reach you. And the firefighters? They're all volunteers out here. They only get paid salaries in the bigger towns where the budget can actually support that kind of thing.

This place is so remote that there's basically no mobile signal anywhere. Locals have wired connections, which also allows them to set up additional mini-stations from the mobile operator. But if you're just passing through as a tourist, it's better to be safe and download offline maps beforehand.

At night, when there's no moon, it gets so dark that you literally can't see where you're stepping without a flashlight. But the stars are absolutely stunning. I didn't bring a proper camera with me, so I just made do with my phone, sorry about that. Trust me, it's even more beautiful in person (: