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Showing posts from July 2, 2023

Summer Heat and Exotic Curry

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It has been hot and humid. We usually get some breaks in the heat and humidity in the summer. Not this year. The relativity humidity barely edged below 60% in the last month. We don't get dew on the lawns. We got heat instead. I think the heat and humidity is why I got a summer cold. I am mostly resting this weekend. One of the things we do when we travel is get flavorings and spices. We broke into some curry this past week that we obtained in a market in Turkmenistan last year. It was good. It was made in Russia and distributed out of Belarus. They translated into Kazakh and Armenian. I liked the taste and the label.

The Balkans 2023

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Dowdell's 2023 Balkan trip Wow! What a trip! 10 New Countries (based on what the US state dept considers countries) Romania Bulgaria Moldova Serbia Bosnia and Herzegovina Kosovo North Macedonia Montenegro Albania Greece 3 Different Alphabets (many different languages, sometimes with multiple alphabets) 10 Currencies 14 Taxi or Uber Rides 3 Rental Cars 15 Border Crossings 9 Flight Segments 4 Bus Trips All that in 14 days. I am only now convinced that we could complete a trip with those stats, because it is over. It was a complex trip. We tried to take a version of this trip in 2020 but were thwarted by Covid. This time we pulled it off. The Balkan peninsula countries are fascinating because of the deep history, unique cultures, but also with current events and intercountry relationships. We learned a lot about the region and relationships with other countries. Since it was such a travel intensive trip we l...