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 […]

An Honest Conversation in Havana

By Julia / January 12, 2023

There is a conversation that happens in every country we visit.  The locals earnestly ask, we honestly answer, the locals are thrilled, and by the end of it, everyone is happy.  But this one time, it went off script. “How do you like Cuba?” the taxi driver asked, flashing us […]

Our Own Museum of Travel

By Victor / December 15, 2022

Our condo is a museum of our never-ending globetrotting.  African masks, religious statues, souvenirs, and mementos from all over the world constantly fight for shelf space with the cats.  The more we travel, the more things we bring home.  Our minimalist way of life directly conflicts with the constant desire […]

Unexpected Food Capital of South America

By Victor / December 8, 2022

How come Peru has two restaurants in the top 10 restaurants in the world list, while the U.S. has none? This was the question we puzzled over while boarding our flight to Lima.  The answer was found shortly thereafter, during our nine-day crisscrossing of the land of the Incas, alpacas, […]

Peninsulas of Ireland Part II: The Luck of the Irish

By Julia / December 1, 2022

Start here with Part I: The Undiscovered Peninsulas of Ireland. Day 4. Ring of Kerry on Iveragh Peninsula. We spent a long time discussing the Ring of Kerry during the planning of the trip, and it all came down to this not-very-common itinerary question: clockwise or counterclockwise?  I can’t recall […]

The Undiscovered Peninsulas of Ireland

By Julia / November 17, 2022

“It looks like a claw,” Victor said. We zoomed in to the bottom left corner of the island of Ireland on Google maps, and I clearly saw a claw with five crooked digits protruding into the ocean, the five southwestern peninsulas.  The peninsulas, Mizen, Sheep’s Head, Beara, Iveragh, and Dingle, […]

On the Edge of the Crater: Volcano Hiking in El Salvador

By Julia / November 10, 2022

My recent post about hiking (and running) through Dunloe Gap reminded me of the most spectacular hike we did at the end of last year.  El Salvador and that entire region, including Guatemala and Costa Rica, are chock full of volcanoes, and yet another volcano hike didn’t sound like anything […]

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