A Long-Overdue Affair: The Wisconsin State Fair

Last year, it finally happened. I went to the Wisconsin State Fair! Although I had lived in the state for over a decade, for whatever reason, I’d never made it to the festival grounds in West Allis until last year. Ironically, it took me to move out of Wisconsin to […]

Chicago: Keeping the Blues Alive

Today is a special day in Chicago: Buddy Guy celebrates his 90th birthday.  Although we are currently busy writing posts about Uzbekistan, this milestone-and America’s 250th year-makes it the perfect moment to celebrate one of the country’s greatest musical traditions: the blues. At his birthday bashes, Buddy Guy usually tells […]

Uzbekistan: One Conversation at a Time

We were in Margilan, a medium-sized town in the Fergana Valley, on a quick day trip when we stopped at the street market for lunch. We found a tiny café serving hot tea and potato samsas, sat down, and ordered a pot of tea with three samsas to share. As […]

Monterrey, Mexico: World Cup Edition

Back in February, we climbed Cerro de la Silla and marveled at the striking Estadio BBVA from above. There, on the hiking trail, I had an interesting thought: “How cool would it be to see this mountain from the stadium seats during the world’s biggest sporting event?” Later that evening, […]

2026 FIFA World Cup: Hogwarts vs. Narnia

Those who follow this blog know I am a big soccer fan and try to attend games in every country I visit.  This fact is even listed in my section of “About Us” on this website.  So, it won’t surprise anyone that attending the World Cup this summer was on […]

Izmir Food Special

By Julia / November 16, 2023

When Victor visited Istanbul last year with his parents, he was so impressed with Turkish markets that he later wrote three blog posts on this topic (post #1, post #2, post #3). So obviously, while visiting Türkiye this year, we couldn’t skip Kemeralti Market in Izmir, one of the oldest […]

Leblebi, Leblebi Everywhere

By Julia / November 9, 2023

In the evening of Day 6 in Türkiye, we were driving from Pamukkale down to Fethiye, after having spent the whole day exploring what Turkish people consider to be the 8th Wonder of the World.  There’ll be a separate post about that later with some of the most surreal photographs […]

Getting Clean in Türkiye

By Victor / November 2, 2023

My motionless body lies inside the octagon.  I’m on my back, in a state of total disorientation, hardly registering what is going on around me.  I feel neither my legs nor arms, and can barely hear any sounds.  My eyes are closed, and when I squint them open, all I […]

Surviving the Apocalypse in Türkiye

By Julia / October 26, 2023

After visiting the archeological treasures of Ephesus, one of the most famous and well-preserved ancient cities, in the morning, we were in the mood for something easy and delightful, with a bit of indulgently sweet on the side.  And so, a stop in the village of Şirince, just 8 kilometers […]

Welcome to Lycia!

By Julia / October 19, 2023

We visited Lycia, and I am here to tell you all about it.  If you are staring at a map, confused and bewildered, let me get you a little better situated.  Lycia is a maritime district of southwestern Anatolia and can be found on the Teke Peninsula, surrounded by the […]

Türkiye: The First Time

By Julia / October 5, 2023

The first time we ended up in Türkiye was back in the winter of 2013, and to be perfectly clear, we didn’t go to Türkiye, we went to Thailand for two weeks and had an overnight layover in Istanbul on our way back.  And so, Türkiye was an afterthought.  We […]

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