Bad Things
We arrived in Taipei on December 13th and left on the 18th to explore Alishan. On December 19th, 2025, a 27-year-old man threw smoke grenades and stabbed people in a Taipei metro station, killing three people and injuring eleven others. He then killed himself by jumping from a building. This […]
Taiwan: Shaking in Our Boots
It was an evening of our last day in Kaohsiung, and we were visiting the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas. Temples in Taiwan usually have dragons painted by one set of doors to indicate that those doors are used to enter the temple, and tigers by another set of doors, which […]
Day Lilies, Yuli Noodles, and the Mountain Mist
Of the four days in the East, we spent three days driving up and down the coastal highway. These days were filled with stopping at ocean viewpoints, exploring the shoreline’s rugged geoparks, and learning about local indigenous culture. But as we navigated through this narrow stretch of land, sandwiched between […]
The Wild, Wild East: Taiwan’s Enigmatic East Coast
Like Alishan, we considered cutting the East Coast out of our itinerary entirely. The region was remote, and it was a logistical puzzle to plan. Also, it was the only place in Taiwan where we needed to rent a car and potentially drive through what looked on the map like […]
Food. Taiwan. Must I Say More?
I wanted to write about the top 10 dishes we ate in Taiwan and quickly realized that the list was way longer than 10 and each dish deserved its own blog post, and this would quickly spiral into Two Cats Backpack Eats Taiwanese Food for Entirety of the Foreseeable Future […]
Taxco: The Silver Capital of the World
It’s Thursday evening, and I’m in a conference room of a Chicago office building, waiting patiently for opposing counsel to finish the deposition that’s gone on for too long. And then, in what feels like the blink of an eye, it is Friday morning, and Julia and I are sitting […]
It Takes a Norwegian Village
It was late evening by the time we arrived at our Airbnb in a tiny hamlet by Galdhøpiggen, the tallest mountain in Norway. We were tired from the long day and were relieved to finally reach the isolated farm that we would call our home for the next few days. […]
The Norwegian Grocery List
As I mentioned in the previous post, restaurants in Norway are very expensive and Norwegians cook most meals at home. We followed suit. This meant a lot of grocery store trips to the point where we knew the standard Coop Prix and Bunnpris store layouts by heart. In smaller towns […]
Norway: Table for Two, Please!
Food has always been an essential part of travel for me. I’ve always been an adventurous eater, from grubs to scorpions, cow brains, and alpaca. Except for an occasional refusal to nibble on a fried guinea pig, I am usually game to try anything locals eat and always fully immerse […]
A Brown Slice of Heaven
Remember last year we went to Türkiye and came back to write the entire post about leblebi – a Turkish snack that impressed us so much. On our trip to Norway this summer, something similar happened. And we are here to tell you about the most iconic Norwegian food item […]
Norway: It’s a Bad Day for a Hike
Most of the hikes we did in Norway required almost zero planning. Look up some good hikes in the area, take enough water and snacks to last the round-trip, wear weather-appropriate layers, and off you go! The Besseggen hike in Jotunheimen was a notable exception to this rule. It’s a […]