This past Wednesday, I introduced Topkapi Palace as the home of the sultans of the Ottoman Empire from the 1460s until 1856, when a new...

Topkapi Palace is huge, and, as it is Wednesday, I do not have to go over all of it today. Instead, I will provide a brief introduction...

My second day in Istanbul started with a peak inside Hagia Irene. The Eastern Orthodox Church, which sits in Topkapi Palace's outer...

At around 3 p.m. each day, my tour guide and I would part ways—she to her home and family, and me to my wandering. Only once did I...

Old City Corner I spent three full days in Istanbul. At 8 a.m. each day, I met my tour guide, Gamze, at the Starbucks at Taksim Square. ...

To examine the history of a civilization, first consider its water. Ancient civilizations formed on the banks of rivers. The ancient...

Ruins of the Hippodrome, from an engraving by Onofrio Panvinio in his work De Ludis Circensibus (Venice, 1600). The same morning I saw...

Hagia Sophia from the Bosporus Strait. I had a birthday yesterday. Getting older every year. I got the cutest card from the cutest...

Note: I am no historian or expert on this structure or region. As such, I am referencing History.com for most of the information...

The Republic Monument in Taksim Square. The sculpture commemorates the foundation of Turkish Republic in 1923. After spending a little...

In today's post, I'm going to share the last of my photos from Brasov. Brasov is so full of character. I loved it. On Saturday, I'll...

The city of Brasov cannot be separated from the mountain around which it was built. The first thing a visitor notices, in fact, is the...

In my last post, I talked about Peleș Castle in Sinaia, but I didn't talk much about the city of Sinaia itself. Although I was only...

I've been thinking about how buildings tell stories. Like novels, buildings tell stories about who we are, what we value, what time...

Towards the end of my stay in Brasov, I found myself rushing to get to the last of the many sites I wanted to see. Brasov's Cetatuia...

The White Tower (Turnul Alb) The Black Tower (Turnal Negru) Sitting beside the Council Square (Piața Sfatului) in Brasov are two striking...

At the end of 2022, I spent one month traveling in Romania, Turkey, and Greece. I spent a little over two weeks in Brasov, Romania,...

The Arcul de Triumf in Bucharest As promised, here at the start of 2023, I've decided to revisit Europe with you, my readers. Each...