Considering a visit to Dushanbe and wondering where to stay? Dush-where, you ask? Well, Dush is where it’s at. Skopje, Pristina, Astana, Pyongyang, Vaduz, Chisinau – you may remember I’m forever intrigued by the quirky and often lesser-known national capitals of the world. A city of 800 000 people, and formerly named Stalinabad, Dushanbe is the capital […]
(Almost) 48 hours in Osh
At the end of a mind-blowing road trip along the Pamir Highway (which you can look forward to in a later post), my two fave travel friends and I are in Osh. Driving most of the day from Karakul Lake across the border in Tajikistan, we arrive in town late afternoon. We had booked a […]
Astana
What do you think of when you hear Kazakhstan? OK, let’s get it over with: Borat. If nothing else, Sacha Baron Cohen did place Kazakhstan on the map. Enormous flat steppes, once the secret home of Soviet gulags and a nuclear weapons testing zone. Also, once the secret home of the Soviet space programme: this […]
Baalbek, Anjar and wine: 3 highlights of the Bekaa Valley
Crossing Mount Lebanon, I’m now deep into the Bekaa Valley, in Heliopolis. You might know it better as Baalbek. This is Hezbollah country, visible by the militant organisation’s characteristic flag – green logo on yellow background – but not much else. My first glimpse of the legendary temple complex here in Baalbek is from the […]
World at a Glance: Petroglyphs in Tamgaly Gorge
As this goes to publish, flight schedules on point, I’ll be ambling about the airport in Constantinople (something about that name…), Central Asia bound yet again, and I was reminded I still haven’t told you about the rock carvings in Kazakhstan’s Tamgaly Gorge. Now, Tajikistan will be the major player this journey. We will be […]
Hiking Qadisha Valley and the Cedars of God
Lebanon is a small country packed with sights and landscape of great variety. There’s winter and summer in one day (ski Mount Lebanon in the morning, chill at the Mediterranean beaches in the afternoon), there’s the bustling nightlife in Beirut, there’s jaw dropping remnants of ancient Phoenicia and Imperial Rome, there’s nectar from a number […]
Yet another day out Beirut: Byblos, the world’s oldest city?
Is ancient Byblos the world’s oldest continually inhabited city? Others make the same claim: Damascus and Aleppo in neighbouring Syria, and Jericho in Palestine, also in the general vicinity. Byblos was founded 7 000 years ago. Some say 9 000, some say 10 800. Either way, people have lived and loved here for a long […]
Welcome! I'm Sophie - writer, dreamer, negotiator, wanderer, mum - in search of the world's curious places. Mostly with my daughters, sometimes solo. The girls share their take on it, too.
- Chasing shadows in Czechia
- A Tale of Two Villas
- Gori: birthplace of the world’s most infamous dictator
- Three new Munich faves
- Day out Tbilisi: Ananuri Castle and Kazbegi Mountains
- Marian’s Guesthouse: An Oasis in Dushanbe
- (Almost) 48 hours in Osh
- Astana
- Baalbek, Anjar and wine: 3 highlights of the Bekaa Valley
- World at a Glance: Petroglyphs in Tamgaly Gorge
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Jonny Blair: A nice article Anne-Sophie and great to see you vi...
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Rahul: Can’t believe I haven’t been before! Thanks fo...
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Katrin: What a bizzare experience to have! Maybe the citiz...
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Anne-Sophie Redisch: Love unusual finds like this plantation. Thanks fo...
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Jeanette Brunet: I was in Edinburgh in August of 2015 for 9 days. W...
