This post is part of a series called Japan 2019 Roughly a year ago, our friend Rebecca said “I’m planning a surprise trip to Japan for Mike’s 40th birthday: you want in?” Well, yeah. Of course we want in. So, we’re in Japan. This post is going up on a delay, because the surprise has…
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You should visit Almaty because it’s a friendly, charming gateway to an entire part of the planet you probably haven’t considered. Chances are pretty good you can’t point to Kazakhstan on a map. And if you know anything about its history, you’re probably thinking “bleak, former Soviet petro-state” or “just one of the ‘stans”. And…
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This post is part of a series called Kazakhstan 2019 Our time in Almaty is coming to a close. We used our final week to knock out a few destinations we hadn’t yet visited, and did some “greatest hits” eating and adventuring. We made one last trip to Kok Tobe for sunset, ate at Luckee…
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This post is part of a series called Kazakhstan 2019 Our six weeks in Almaty are flying by. We knew we wanted to get out of the city to learn more about life in the rest of Kazakhstan, and when one of the KazNU students, Zhan, invited us to visit his family in the historic…
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This post is part of a series called Kazakhstan 2019 Prior to our trip to Turkestan (the next post), we had a perfectly domestic week in Almaty. We made plenty of trips to the bakery, vegetable store and coffee shop, and explored the city. Kat enjoyed another morning at the Botanic Gardens, this time with…
View MoreThis post is part of a series called Kazakhstan 2019 Much of the information online about getting from Almaty to Turkestan is vague or unhelpful. The cheapest and easiest ways to make the trek are by bus or train, but in either case you’re looking at somewhere between 13 and 20 hours of travel. If…
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This post is part of a series called Kazakhstan 2019 After a couple days of fun but intense Fun-Directed activities, we were happy to have the weekend to ourselves. We knew we wanted to get back to explore the Nauryz street festival at our own pace, so after a visit to the gym we ventured…
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This post is part of a series called Kazakhstan 2019 Having New Years during the darkest, gloomiest part of the year doesn’t make a lot of sense does it? “Happy New Year! Now, go back to sulking and reading Scandinavian murder fiction.” Having New Years on the Spring equinox, when the daylight is returning and…
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This post is part of a series called Kazakhstan 2019 We’ve been in Almaty for two weeks now. Just about everyone who’s asked us what we’ve been up to has expressed shock and dismay that we hadn’t yet been to the mountains. Yesterday we righted that wrong. Before we get to that though, there are…
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This post is part of a series called Kazakhstan 2019 We’re continuing to really enjoy our time in Almaty. Because we’ve got a bit of time on our side, we’re savoring the ability to have some routine and normalcy, and not just cram in as much as possible. We’ve explored museums, criss-crossed the city, and…
View MoreThis post is part of a series called Kazakhstan 2019 Almaty has an extensive transit network. In particular, the busses are affordable and easy, especially with the help of apps like Almaty Bus and WikiRoutes. While you can pay on board, an “Onay” transit card is a lot more affordable and easy. Getting them can…
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This post is part of a series called Kazakhstan 2019 We’re wrapping up our first week in Almaty. We’re pretty settled and comfortable, and it’s feeling like home. We haven’t done any major tourist excursions or activities yet – our days have mostly involved working, teaching, and walking around the neighborhood to get the lay…
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This post is part of a series called Kazakhstan 2019 We’re about 36 hours into our stay in Almaty, but it’s already becoming familiar and friendly. We were met at the airport by a PhD student from the University, along with his sister. They dropped us at the “House of Young Scholars”, a dorm for…
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This post is part of a series called Kazakhstan 2019 We’re currently in the air, enroute to Frankfurt. From there, we’ll be on to Almaty, Kazakhstan. This is a bit of a different trip – we’re staying for six weeks, we don’t have an incredibly ambitious todo list, and there’s actual work to be done….
View MoreYesterday, Anthony Bourdain decided to peace out on 2018. I’m still coming to terms with that. Bourdain was such an important influence on my life, and is essentially the reason for this site. I’ve lost idols before – Bowie, Steve – but idols exist on a different plane. You don’t go through your days thinking…
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This post is part of a series called Azores 2018 Back in Minnesota, today was the monthly installment of Cars and Coffee. Car nerds get together in a parking lot and look at other cars. We did something similar, but it was while sipping espressos on the waterfront of Horta, watching rally cars drive past…
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This post is part of a series called Azores 2018 Our flight to Faial was supposed to depart at around 8:15, however there were clouds on the horizon. After an hour-long delay, the airline representative called everyone over to the counter to announce that we were going to take off and attempt to land on…
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This post is part of a series called Azores 2018 Our last full day on São Miguel! We kicked things off with another homemade breakfast (we had some bread and eggs to use up). Then we hit the road to the north side of the island to check out the Gorreana Tea Plantation, the only…
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This post is part of a series called Azores 2018 Today we took it easy. We didn’t climb mountains, hike around volcanoes or climb any rocks. Actually we did climb rocks but they were rather small rocks. Our first stop of the day was a bakery in Ponta Delgada near our now familiar grocery store….
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