Cool Cats of Türkiye

It is time to acknowledge that a great injustice has been done in this blog.  While the name of the blog is “Two Cats Backpack” referring to the never-ending struggle between staying home and spending time with our two cats or packing the backpack and heading out to explore the […]

Raiding and Pillaging through Norway

I am looking at the fjord There is salmon in the sea My baby says she’s bored She is not in love with me Before visiting Norway, we watched Conan O’Brien’s new travel show, Conan Must Go, where Conan travels the world to meet his fans.  In the first episode […]

Poutine Must Go!

After living and working in Wisconsin for over a decade, it is tough for me to say what I am about to say.  Here we go… Canada has the best cheese curds.  Yes, I said it.  Please do not cancel me, Wisconsinites! One of the categories on this blog is […]

The Very Berry Norway

As we traveled through the countryside, we were constantly distracted by the gorgeous views of mountains, herds of peacefully grazing animals, and fields of vibrantly blooming… potatoes. “Look! Potatoes!  That’s all potatoes!” Victor would exclaim pointing out of the car window, “So many potatoes…”  I nodded along as he kept […]

Taxco: The Silver Capital of the World

Thursday evening. I am sitting in a conference room of an office building in Chicago patiently waiting for the plaintiff’s counsel to finish the examination of a witness and conclude the deposition that has been dragging on for too long. And then in what seems to be in the blink […]

Stop and Smell the Flowers

By Victor / May 23, 2024

“Dead bushes,” I muttered. “We need to do something about it.” It had been more than a year since the pandemic started and I was looking through the window of our condo at the lifeless branches dangling outside. “Why don’t we get rid of them and plant some flowers? We […]

The Prettiest Town in Mexico

By Julia / May 16, 2024

“We are going to the prettiest town in Mexico,” Victor said as we were packing our backpacks for the flight. “Says who?” I demanded, “Who decides what’s the “prettiest town”? What’s the prettiest town in the US? In Europe? In the world?  I’ve never even heard of Guanajuato before you […]

Rhode Island: Gilded Age of Our Travels

By Victor / May 2, 2024

How do you spell “Victor”? How do you spell “Julia”? I did not know what I expected before visiting Rhode Island but learning a new language was certainly not what I planned for.  But here we were, at the gift shop of the Sailing Museum in Newport, unexpectedly immersed in […]

Part II:  It’s Good to Be Home

By Julia / April 18, 2024

Start with Part I here.  Short version: Victor became terribly sick with a fever and rash on our 15-hour flight from Dubai to Newark. There was good news and bad news.  Good news – Victor did make it back to the U.S.  Bad news – we were landing in Newark […]

Long Way Home

By Julia / April 11, 2024

On the morning of December 31st, Victor started running a fever.  It wasn’t too bad, and he didn’t even want to slow down or skip any of the sightseeing we had planned for that day.  I gave him a few pills of ibuprofen and forgot about it.  We celebrated that […]

Unexpected Oman

By Julia / April 5, 2024

There were many ways Oman surprised me, mostly due to my complete lack of knowledge about its history, politics, and, as crazy as it sounds, geographical location.  For whatever reason, I only considered countries separated by a land border to be Oman’s neighbors and cultural influencers.  It never occurred to […]

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