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 […]
Our Travel Wishlist: Yemen
This will be a different kind of post. Normally, we describe places we’ve been to, but today we want to tell you about a country we want to visit. Recently, the area where we live saw a boom of Yemeni coffeehouses popping up here and there. These spacious, lavishly decorated […]
Against All Advice: Finding The Perfect Beach Near Istanbul
Planning a trip for just the two of us is now easy, as we know what we like and what kinds of trips bring us joy. But earlier this year, planning a family reunion trip to Istanbul with Victor’s father, brother, sister-in-law, and niece was a whole different story. Victor’s […]
Is Istanbul Now More Expensive Than Dubai for Tourists?
In August, we spent a week in Istanbul meeting with my family, and the city once again left us speechless. But this time, it was not for the reason you might expect. I could write about incredible sites or delicious food (of which Istanbul has plenty), but, as a travel […]
NAKED BATH JAPANESE GIRLS
It’s always interesting for me to see which of our posts get more traction and which barely get a trickle of visitors. I often find it to be completely unpredictable when some of my own favorite posts fly under the radar (example 1, 2, 3) while uninspired 20-minute write-ups are getting […]
There Is Always Room for More: Exploring Japanese Cuisine. Part II
My last post was all noodles – soba, udon, ramen, but there is so much more to Japanese culinary traditions. To expand our food horizons, we visited Dotombori Street in Osaka. The name “Dotombori” refers both to the Dotombori Canal and to Dotombori Street, which runs parallel to the canal’s […]
Welcome to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the Coffee Capital of the United States
For many people, Milwaukee is and has always been the U.S. beer capital. The stereotype is understandable given the city’s history, but a little bit outdated. Milwaukee’s breweries thrived in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and for a time, the city was home to the four largest breweries in […]
Eating Our Way Through Japan
The first and only thing I used to think of any time anyone said the words “Japanese” and “food” in the same sentence was “sushi”. I was faintly aware of noodles and tempura but have never been a big fan of either. Sushi, on the other hand, has been my […]
Jamaica: The World’s Highest Coffee
Last month, we did something irresponsible. Are you ready? We paid $15 for a cup of coffee. Yes, frugal backpackers who run this blog did that. Before you judge us for the splurge, all I can say is that we did it in the fancy, four-story Starbucks on Chicago’s Magnificent […]
How I Left Everything and Joined a Monastery in Japan… For One Night
There are old fables of exhausted men climbing tall mountains to find a wise Buddhist monk meditating on the very top. The monk then, in very few words, discloses to the weary traveler the secret to success, love, life, or whatever grand question is presented. In these fables, the monks […]