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 […]
Following the Musical Trail (U.S. South)
When we travel, we rarely have a “theme” for our trips. Usually, we simply show up in a country or region and explore everything it has to offer. But in summer 2008, we drove through three southern U.S. states (Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana), exploring sites associated with rock-n-roll, blues, and […]
Wallonia: Discovering Undiscovered Belgium
We love Belgium! Despite its tiny size, the country packs a lot, and spending eight days there was barely enough to scratch the surface. Roughly the size of Maryland, Belgium has three very distinct regions: Dutch-speaking Flanders in the north, French-speaking Wallonia in the south, and the capital city of […]
Poland: Blast From My Soviet Past
Please start with Part I of My Solo Polish Travels Here When Belarus very unceremoniously refused me entry, I thought my memory trip back to the U.S.S.R. was over. As strange as it might seem, I was actually looking forward to rude serving staff, late buses, and angry janitorial staff […]
Жыве Беларусь! Belarus Fights for Freedom. We Need Your Help!
Today will be a different kind of post, as for the last five days, I have been waking up in a different kind of world. Those who follow this travel blog know that I was born and grew up in Belarus. It’s more than the country of my birth and […]
Me, Myself, and I: Traveling Solo Through Poland
To begin understanding why I was alone in Poland, please start with the previous post “Back to U.S.S.R.”, a story of pain, betrayal, and Belarus. I disembarked the plane in Warsaw after a 9-hour flight, my backpack pressing heavily against my back, my crumpled itinerary sheet in hand. I stood […]
Back to the U.S.S.R.
I had no plans to travel alone. Traveling alone sounds tedious, lonesome, and possibly dangerous. Ever since Victor and I took our first road trip to California back in 2004, the thought of traveling alone never even crossed my mind. What I did want, and what I still want to this day, was […]