Uzbeks love children in a way that catches many Western Europeans off guard. Strangers talk to kids directly, press sweets into their hands, want photos — and none of this is a performance for tourists. It’s just how things are. Once you’ve seen it, you immediately understand why families...
Most countries you visit leave behind a feeling. Uzbekistan leaves behind questions. Not because the country is hard to understand, but because it goes deeper than expected — and you realise you’re not done with it when the return flight takes off. The country sits at the heart of...
I leave Bujtina Polia at 7 in the morning. Three, maybe four degrees. My fingers are cold. Hood up, double layers. Somewhere in the village a fire is still burning — I can’t see it, but I breathe it in. Warm chimney air that somehow found its way here,...
Tirana doesn’t show up in most European travel plans. Too unknown, too far off the standard Balkan route, no iconic landmark that works on Instagram. That might be the best reason to go. I arrived with mixed expectations and left with an impression that’s hard to compress into a...
Apollonia & Berat Two Places Not on Your Radar. But They Should Be. Yesterday I touched almost 2,600 years of history in a single day. Not as a metaphor — literally. My hand on the stone of a bouleuterion from the 2nd century AD. My shoes on the cobblestones...
