as joe is roadtripping with kimu back from chicago to vancouver, i thought i would reminisce a bit and post a blog entry we made years ago when we drove from vancouver to chicago… four years ago! we never did post it though cuz we didn’t have the blog set up properly. it was right read more
My wanderings in Aleppo’s new city took me all over the place, from more central places near my hotel, such as the famous Baron Hotel and shops just surrounding the Old City, to a cemetery south of Bab al-Maqam (this is waaay south by normal tourist standards), to trendier areas such as al-Jedeidah and al-Aziziah: read more
After a couple of days in Damascus, I took a bus (5 hours) to Aleppo, the main city in northern Syria and a contender alongside Damascus for the distinction of being the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. Like Damascus, Aleppo consists of an “old city” with a citadel and souq, surrounded by the read more
My adventures in Damascus continued with more must-see sights: first of all, the National Museum of Damascus, which contains an important collection of antiquities: Unfortunately, pictures weren’t allowed inside (as is the case in many museums in syria), but there were plenty of replica-monuments in the outer courtyard: Later that day I went back to read more
This trip was a long time in coming. Last year a research trip I had planned didn’t materialize, so this summer, for various reasons of timing (including baby on the way), I decided to make a trip purely to get a view of the country and to visit many of the sites I have studied read more
last weekend we drove to jackson, MI to attend Todd and Trilisa’s wedding. on our way there, we stopped at a diner on the side of the highway for lunch… the “Waffle House of America”. in jackson, we stayed at Hankerd Inn, a cute bed & breakfast which was conveniently located only a few minutes read more
we had a very memorable time in paris; joe was able to be quite productive in his research at the louvre… and i definitely got to know the city much better. i enjoyed being able to walk around with less time pressure and see things i otherwise might not have made time to see, like read more
on our way to france, we watched the movie “julie and julia” on the plane which got our tastebuds ready for french food and cooking. since we stayed at a place with a kitchen, we ended up making most of our meals to save a few euros, although we did get to eat out a read more
over the weekend we spent the morning in the montmartre neighborhood. luckily it was a clear (but cold) day when we got to sacre-coeur basilica. afterwards we went to the montmartre museum, which was small but quaint, featuring artwork and history of the neighborhood. we were able to see the original painted sign from the read more
we’ve been indulging ourselves with french pastries. can you say “butter”? since we are living on rue montorgueil, we had to try something from “La Maison Stohrer” just down the street, the oldest patisserie in paris. in fact, the original Mr. Stohrer was King Louis XV’s pastry chef, and opened the store at this exact read more