From Rota, where we spent the month housesitting, we took a day trip to the ancient city of Cádiz, which is a lesser known Spanish superstar known for being the “oldest continuously inhabited city” in Western Europe. Although it preludes Rome by centuries, it’s hardly a date in the bucket when compared with a city like Plovdiv, Bulgaria founded 6000…

Continue ReadingDiscovering the Oldest City in Western Europe in Cadiz, Spain

From Porto, we jubilantly traded in our three words of Portuguese for Spanish as we boarded a 6-hour BlaBla car ride south to Sevilla with a pair of sultry-looking Spaniards, Daniel and Carlos. It cost a whopping $109, but whacked the bus time in half for the same price, which made it well worth it. It also meant we would…

Continue ReadingA Place to Flâneur at its Finest: The City of Sevilla, Spain
Read more about the article Porto: It’s a Wrap!
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In Summary... This was our second time to this Portuguese gem of a city…this time in much different circumstances. The first in May 2022 was a brief four days, warm, already congested and crowded, and I (Mandy) was on excruciatingly limiting crutches. The second, due to a 2.5 week housesit, was cool and rainy, easy to bypass any crowds, and I…

Continue ReadingPorto: It’s a Wrap!

To Porto (from Baku, Azerbaijan) Our 38-hour westward odyssey from Baku to Porto...consisted of a series of unsatisfying siestas in stupendously contorted positions…three budget airplanes featuring a zero degree pitch on their seat back tilt…a hate/hate, literal on/off relationship with my now compulsory compression socks …and our saving grace thanks to our Venture X credit card, a stream of Shangri-La-ounges…

Continue ReadingA Very Different Experience: Porto Revisited
Read more about the article It’s a Wrap: Azerbaijan
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In Summary... Baku, Azerbaijan was an unexpected destination for 2025 on our way back to Europe from Central Asia, but it didn’t take long for us to become utterly enchanted by this underrated and under touristed destination. In fact, it’s a place we undeniably see ourselves returning to again, and though we needed downtime this visit, we’re also very eager to…

Continue ReadingIt’s a Wrap: Azerbaijan

Arriving to Baku After a troubled ten days in Tashkent thanks to hotel registration issues, we were 100% elated to get out of Uzbekistan and onto our next destination of Baku, where we would be for coming 2.5 weeks. 2.5 weeks?! You might say….? True…it’s not long enough according to our new one-month plan, but we’ve got a VIC (very…

Continue ReadingThe Unexpected Treasure of Baku, Azerbaijan
Read more about the article The 2025 Geney Awards: Our “Best of” List
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Happiest of New Year's to all of you! We wish you love, joy and happy travels in 2026! For us, 2025 began at a month-long housesit in the upside-down where winter is summer, and summer is winter. While listening to new carols which could really enhance the Mariah Carey selection like Six White Boomers and My Dingo Stole my Christmas…

Continue ReadingThe 2025 Geney Awards: Our “Best of” List
Read more about the article Uzbekistan: It’s a Wrap!
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In Summary.... Now that you’ve drooled over all the stunning architectural photos and listened to us drop every synonym for the color blue throughout our time in Uzbekistan, this post will begin to convey more of our real experience in the country…now that we’ve successfully exited. You can read about that story a bit more in the Tashkent blog post.…

Continue ReadingUzbekistan: It’s a Wrap!