The Ghost Town That Wasn’t

We were in San Miguel de Allende, enjoying all the classic traits of a pretty Mexican town  – a gorgeous church dominating the skyline on the main plaza, colonial architecture with carved wooden doors and wrought-iron balconies, winding cobblestone streets, and quaint local markets where indigenous women sold traditional crafts. […]

From Tulum Trauma to San Miguel Magic

Our flight to Monterrey got cancelled again.  The first time, a year ago, we rebooked it for Mexico City, but this time airfare to León was cheap enough to make us consider going there… again. We had already taken the same flight a few years earlier and spent three wonderful […]

Mexican Chicago

Back in 2003, when I’d just arrived in Chicago, my first apartment was in Hermosa on the city’s northwest side. One evening, when I was in the back porch relaxing after a day of work, the street was suddenly filled with the sound of the revving engines. Motorcycles and cars […]

Go For Gözleme

The previous post about fish, bread, and never giving up on food dreams reminded me of something that happened two years ago, during a road trip from Izmir to Antalya in Türkiye. We left our Airbnb early in the morning, eager to start a long day of sightseeing, and skipped […]

Searching for Fish and Bread in Istanbul

Two years ago, when we did a road trip through southwest Türkiye, I kept looking for balık ekmek.  If you don’t know what that is, don’t worry.  Neither did I.  But Victor kept mentioning how he and his parents enjoyed a delicious balık ekmek in a restaurant by the Bosphorus […]

Albania: Buzzed in Berat

By Julia / September 23, 2021

Our guidebook passionately warned that Albanian red wine was utterly terrible and recommended sticking with white wines only. We are not big wine drinkers at all, but what we did want to see were the Albanian wineries.  Of course, the best part of any distillery or winery tour is the […]

Where To Next?

By Victor & Julia / September 16, 2021

“Next week is going to be our 100th blog post!” announced Victor, who likes to keep track of useless statistics such as his billable hours, NFL scores, and how many times each cat throws up a hairball. I was planning to post about that time Victor, his mother, his aunt, and […]

Raki-n-Roll or Getting Drunk in Albania

By Victor / September 2, 2021

We’ve mentioned in this blog that we don’t drink alcohol unless we travel. No, this is not a complicated loophole in a mostly sober lifestyle; we are simply submerging ourselves in cultural explorations.  We firmly believe that learning about the drinking culture of a country can help us get a […]

Impossible to Ignore All the Red Flags: A Dive into Albanian Past

By Victor / August 26, 2021

If you look at the map of Europe with no political borders, you may not even find Albania.  Where exactly does Greece end and Albania begin?  If you remember that just a thin strip of the Ionic/Adriatic Sea separates it from the heel of Italy, your task finally becomes achievable.  […]

We Ate and Paid for It: The Best Restaurant in Albania

By Julia / August 12, 2021

We were driving down from the mountains, returning from spending three days in Valbona National Park. The narrow mountain road curved and zigzagged between steep ridges and precipitous cliffs, occasionally revealing breathtaking views of lush valleys and a fast-flowing river. We were heading towards the port city of Durres and […]

Albania: When The Price Is Right

By Julia / August 5, 2021

I never planned on going to Albania.  Albania was never on my “Top Ten Places to Visit List” or even on “If I Live to be a 100 Travel Bucket List”.  Albania was not even on the radar.  Until one evening when Victor and I were both on our computers, […]

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