Monterrey, Mountains, and Unexpected Mexico
For those of you following along, I mentioned how our tickets to Monterrey had been canceled twice, and it was becoming increasingly unclear whether the universe really did not want us visiting this part of Mexico or whether Viva Aerobus was only pretending to offer flights there. Well, we finally […]
In the Saddle: Conquering Cerro de la Silla
Its image is everywhere — on labels of tostadas and tortillas, wall murals, and even in the logo of the local baseball team. It’s the symbol of the city. The most recognizable landmark. It is as iconic as Rio de Janeiro’s Sugarloaf or Cape Town’s Table Mountain. Cerro de la […]
São Paulo: Hate At First Sight
“Skip São Paulo. It’s just a concrete jungle. Nothing to see there,” was the advice I received while planning a trip to Brazil. Nonsense. We are big city people. We love architecture, museums, and restaurants. Big cities have this never-ending energy and are always full of activities and things to […]
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 […]
No Way! Norway!
It feels like every time I start a post about a new country, there is the same theme. “Look, we are doing something we’ve never done before! We usually don’t travel like this, but we made an exception this time!” A long time ago, we started out as budget travelers […]
How I Sent My Parents To The Concentration Camp
Because my parents still live in Belarus and I live in the States, I like inviting them to join our trips from time to time. This way, we can kill two birds with one stone: enjoy some quality family time and explore a new destination together. Over the years, we’ve […]
San Diego. Finally.
After twenty years of traveling, we have been to over forty countries, almost every U.S. state, most national parks, and basically every major U.S. city. But there are still places out there to explore. “We have still, somehow, not been to San Diego,” Victor said. I vaguely remembered how. We […]
King’s Day in Amsterdam
Earlier this year, we celebrated St. Patrick’s Day in Chicago and saw the city turn into one big green, drunken mass. Despite having lived in Chicago for over 20 years, we rarely participate in St. Patrick’s Day festivities and normally avoid the downtown area during that weekend altogether. So, when […]
Tulip Paradise
As we started to descend toward Schiphol Airport, I was peeking through the plane window and couldn’t contain my excitement: “Look! Tulips!” I shouted. Colorful strips of tulip fields started to appear out of nowhere and stretched to the horizon. On the train ride from the airport, we passed more […]
Stop and Smell the Flowers
“Dead bushes,” I muttered. “We need to do something about it.” It had been more than a year since the pandemic started, and I was looking through the window of our condo at the lifeless branches dangling outside. “Why don’t we get rid of them and plant some flowers? We […]