Bradt Guides: To the first-time visitor, Afghanistan feels at once familiar and utterly alien. It is a place many people think they know, thanks to the nightly news, social media or the headlines of the last four decades. Names like Kabul, the Hindu Kush, the Khyber Pass, Kandahar, Bagram, the Taliban, the mujahideen – these words echo with recognition. Yet to trace them on to real places, lived-in streets and ordinary people going about their day is disorienting and thrilling in equal measure. The country that looms so large in the imagination becomes something tangible, textured, and unexpectedly human. Click here to read more (external link).