Citizens of the World: A Stoic Podcast for Curious Travelers - Travel 2019: Where History Lovers Should Go to Avoid the Crowds

Episode Date: January 15, 2019

Last week’s episode was all about setting goals and designing more freedom into your life. I’m happy to say, that I have actually taken action and filled out the business plan template that Natalie shared with us — you can find that at postcardacadey.co/freedomplan Even if you have no plans to start a business this year, it’s still a handy tool for putting any kind of goals on paper and and mapping out your steps to get there.    In the spirit of tidying up and getting organized, I’m thinking through where I want to travel in 2019. As a history lover, I’ve spent my fair share of time in cities like Paris, Rome, Berlin, and London. But I’m in the phase of my life where I like visiting the not-so-popular but still incredible destinations. If you’ve ever flipped through the magazine, Eat This, Not That!,  my travel recommendations for 2019 are a little like that. ‘Visit this charming village, not that over-crowded metropolis!’    Spoiler alert: Here’s where I’m headed: Folkestone, England; Sarajevo, Bosnia; Izmir, Turkey; Tirana, Albania; Warsaw, Poland; Matera, Italy; and Providence and Newport, Rhode, Island. I also want to travel around Japan, but that’s hardly off-the-beaten path these days.    I’m your host, Sarah Mikutel. Ready to travel? Sign up for my newsletter and get your free guide to cheap airfare.    Thank you so much for listening to this show. I know you’re busy and have many listening options, so it means a lot to me that you’re here. You are the best.   This podcast is brought to you by Audible. Not a member yet? Postcard Academy listeners can get a FREE audiobook and a 30-day free trial if you sign up via audibletrial.com/postcard   This podcast is also brought to you by World Nomads. Need simple and flexible travel insurance? Get a cost estimate from World Nomads using their handy calculator at postcardacademy.co/insuranceDo you ever go blank or start rambling when someone puts you on the spot? I created a free Conversation Cheat Sheet with simple formulas you can use so you can respond with clarity, whether you’re in a meeting or just talking with friends.Download it at sarahmikutel.com/blanknomore and start feeling more confident in your conversations today.

Welcome to the Postcard Academy. I'm your host, Sarah Micatel. And on last week's episode, we talked about setting goals and designing more freedom into our lives. I'm happy to say that I have actually taken action and filled out that business plan template that Natalie shared with us. And you can find that on postcardacadademy.co slash freedom plan. And even if you have no plans to start a business this year, it's still a handy tool for putting any kind of goal down onto paper and then mapping out your steps on how to get there. So I feel like a weight has been lifted off of my shoulders. I also joined a gym, started running again, and I'm making my bed every day. A task that I used to think was really pointless, but I have finally given up using a top sheet and now I'm using a duvet.

So you pretty much just flick it up towards your pillows in the morning. and the bed is done. A little aside, the UK used to be like the US in using bed sheets, but since the 1970s, more and more Brits have embraced the duvet as a way of life that the rest of the continent has been doing for a long time. And so if you're visiting Europe for the first time and you get into bed and you think, hey, where is my sheet? There isn't one. They'll change the duvet cover after you leave. And changing duvet covers is actually a huge pain and for me almost negates the daily ease of making the bed with them. But that's a debate for another time. In the spirit of tidying up and getting organized, I'm thinking through where I want to travel in 2019. Last year for the first time, I actually started planning ahead for some of my travel

because I didn't want the year to end without having gone to some of my favorite places and also my wishless countries and cities. And it felt really nice to have some trips to look forward to rather than just packing my bag last minute on a whim, which is also fun. But I want to be a planner, and this is not in my nature. I'm determined to change things up this year. And note to any future employer, I'm very organized and a rock star employee when someone else is paying me to be that way. It's only in my personal life that I'm more of a mess.

So it's time to focus. Get some holidays on the calendar. If you've ever flipped through the magazine, eat this, not that. That's a little bit what my list looks like. Instead of going to this major destination, go to this other place. Or maybe do both. Depends on what you like. Here are my travel recommendations for 2019.

Foxton, England. If you're visiting London, I highly suggest you do at least a day trip, if not a weekend, to Fogston, which is only an hour away by train. I randomly moved here last week. I needed to find a new apartment, and I would have to find a new apartment. and I was looking in London, but then I thought, why not try something completely new? So I looked up seaside towns in the UK, decided on Fokston, and so far I am really happy here. For centuries, Fokston was a small fishing village, but then during the Victorian and Edwardian era, Fokston became a really posh summer resort, thanks to trains and the cross-channel fairies.

You can actually see France from here in a clear day. But Fokston kind of faded from the maps after the World Wars. But over the last decade, more and more creative types have been relocating here from London and from Brighton. And Fokeston is the kind of place where artists can actually afford to live. So they're setting up galleries and studios. And of course there are cute little shops and restaurants to go along with all of this. And I keep saying things like, I can't believe this pizza was only six pounds. And it's a very vegetarian-friendly place, which of course I love.

It's a little bit quiet now. I like that pace, but apparently in the summer it's really rocking, and I think that would be really fun too. And Fokston is right on the ocean near these other sweet little seaside towns, like the more popular Wittstable, which I went to yesterday. And it's less than an hour away from Canterbury by train or bus. so I feel like I've discovered one of the UK's best kept secrets with Folkston, so keep it between us. Sarajevo, Bosnia.

If you want to taste of Istanbul on a much smaller scale, go to Sarajevo, Bosnia's capital city. The Ottomans occupied Bosnia for centuries, and you will see their influence in the city's culture and captivating architecture. I've mentioned Sarajevo a few times on this show, and the only reason that I haven't done a podcast on it yet is that this place is so special to me that I really want to make sure that I do it justice. But briefly, when you walk through this humble yet cosmopolitan city, you'll see architecture that spans centuries, as well as the bullet holes and bombed out buildings from the siege in the 1990s, and this was the longest and most devastating siege in modern times. The first time I visited Sarajevo, I asked such basic questions to soldiers who had actually

fought to save their city in those battles, even though they had hardly any weapons, and the world pretty much left them and their families to die. And I really cringe at how ignorant I sounded when I was there the first time. And so I promise to do a Bosnian history episode for you, so you're more prepared when you arrive. But Sarajevo has more to offer than it's war-torn history. When you're there, you can hang out in the Old Town Starigrad, which dates back to 1,462. And in its heyday, it was a major trading center in the Balkans with hundreds and hundreds of shops. And a fire destroyed half of this in the 1800s, but there are still plenty of charming streets that you can wander through today. And it's a lot of locals and then also some tourists just mixing together, eating, drinking, shopping in the bazaar.

You can ride the cable cars up into the mountain. And up there, you'll find the ruins of of the Babsled track from the 1984 Winter Olympics. And that, of course, happened when Bosnia was still a Republic of Communist Yugoslavia. I love the architecture in Sirebo. It's known as Europe's Jerusalem for its multicultural mix of people, religions, and empires. So you'll see mosques, you'll see churches, also a synagogue. And the Austro-Hungarian Empire overtook the Adamans. So you'll see that influence, too.

There's actually a street you can walk down and just see all of the history of Bosnia through its architecture. So you'll see buildings go from Islamic to Viennese, to Yugoslavian, to modern walls. I'm not going to try to pronounce the street because I will just butcher it, but I will include it in the show notes on postcardacademy.com on places to go in 2019. Food in the Balkans is not traditionally very vegetarian-friendly. They love their sausages. but the last time I was in Sarajevo, I found a number of good restaurants that had veg options, and everything is reasonably priced, even in the nice restaurants. I highly recommend a tour group called Funky Tours.

I know that name is very unfortunate, but Funky Tours will take you around Sarajevo and also the rest of Bosnia. I love them. I've done a few tours with them, including one that took me all the way down to Mostar, and then on to Dubrovnik and Croatia. And side note, even though Dubrovnik is a city suffering from mass over tourism, I still think it's a city worth seeing. I'd stay somewhere on the sea and then visit the old town and walk the city walls early in the morning or maybe in the early evening. And then spend time sailing up Croatia's coastline, which is something else that is on my agenda for later this year. Ismir Turkey. Here's another Istanbul alternative, or rather,

if you're going to Istanbul, also consider adding Izmir, Turkey's more liberal laid-back city on the sea. The Greeks founded Izmir as Smyrna 2,000 years ago, though people had been living there for thousands of years before that. And in this area, you're going to find some of Turkey's most important Greek and Roman archaeological sites, including Ephesus, which was a thriving seaport in Roman times. They sold olive oil and little statues of god and goddesses, and they shipped those to the rest of the ancient world. A quarter of a million people lived there at its peak in 300 AD, and this was a time when wealthy families had running water. Of course, there were elaborate bathhouses. The Romans were the best engineers and architects. And today, you can see the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, a Greek theater, and also the Virgin

Mary's house, which was discovered when the location came to a German nun in a vision in the 1700s. The Apostle Paul wrote the New Testament here, so this region goes way back from pagan to Christian to Muslim. I'd like to spend time in Izmir this summer, just absorbing this history and hearing all of these stories. And I'd like to go back to Istanbul, a city that I love, though it definitely felt different when I was there this summer. To get a to Bosnia from Macedonia where I was, I had to fly through Istanbul, and I extended my stay primarily because I wanted to return to a bazaar to buy the perfume oil I had run out of. But when I got to Istanbul, everywhere I looked, I saw these massive posters of Erdogan,

who had just been re-elected, and there was definitely the feeling in the air that democracy was slipping away. I mean, it is. Erdogans changed the Constitution. He's considered, he's consolidating his power. The media is not free there. At least 90% is pro-government. And maybe I wouldn't have noticed any of this as a tourist, but I was with a Turkish friend that day who has actually been blacklisted from teaching at most universities because he's been outspoken on the government. So some history. After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Adeturk, the father of modern Turkey, the name he gave himself literally means, father of the Turks. He created modern-day Turkey as a secular state in the 1920s. So after then,

people could drink. He banned headscarves for women. He supported education for everybody, anti-gave women's rights. And Turkey grew closer to the West. It got more industrial. And when Ataturk died in 1938, he had wanted to make sure that the military would protect Turkey's secularism. And there were several military coups over the next few decades, and that destabilized the country and prevented the economy from growing. Erdogan was the mayor of Istanbul for a few years in the 1990s, and he started the AKP political party and eventually became prime minister in 2002. Under his leadership, he borrowed money from foreigners and pumped it into infrastructure, which really grew the economy and made him very popular.

But he was always conservative, and he began rolling back freedoms and arresting journalists and academics and protesters and other people. He doesn't believe in the equality of men and women. He's also an anti-Semite. And the military tried to overthrow him in 2016, but Erdogan actually got on FaceTime, and this was broadcast on TV. So he was FaceTiming his country, and he rallied people to the streets, and he actually survived. survived the military coup and he was re-elected president this past summer. But back in 2016, after that coup, he fired more than 100,000 people he thought may have supported the coup, including a quarter of the judges and prosecutors, plus doctors, teachers, police officers, soldiers, of course. And since the coup, he's also arrested thousands and thousands of people, I think around 50,000, including journalists, human rights activists,

academics. Another problem that's growing in Turkey today is the tension between the Turkish people and the 3.5 million Syrian refugees who fled into Turkey after the war broke out in Syria. And then yesterday, Donald Trump threatened to devastate Turkey's economy if they hit the Kurds. And this is related to a fight that broke out last week when U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton said that the U.S. withdrawal from Syria was contingent on Turkey not attacking the Kurds, who have been the majority of the U.S. Allied fighters in Syria. And Turkey's economy is already in the tank, by the way. And so, yes, there are a lot of issues going on in Turkey right now.

So compared to my first care visit to Istanbul, this trip felt a bit end of days like the party was coming to an end. and I may not have noticed any of this if it weren't for the locals and expats I was spending time with. The night that I was there, I found myself drinking with foreign diplomats near Taxum Square. There'd been a garden party at the British Embassy, and the men were all dandied out in bespoke suits, and the women were wearing either hats or fascinators. I felt like I was at a royal wedding. And it was the kind of jovial night where strangers insist that you taste their cocktops, and it all felt like a bit of a period piece. One last hurrah before Turkey slides into

full-on dictatorship. All this is to say, if you want to experience a more liberal side of Turkey, go to Izmir this summer. If I haven't completely scared you off and you are interested in visiting Turkey this summer or any time, know that a travel visa is required for citizens from many countries, including the United States. Albania Listener Robert just told me about his plans for a 90-day bike ride through Albania this summer, which sounds incredible. I am very impressed by this kind of challenge, Robert, so good for you. I have no plans to ride a bike for three months, but I am keen to explore this former communist country.

When you hear the word communist, you tend to think of big, blocky, imposing buildings, very cold, and you will find these in Albania. You can even do a communist architecture tour in Tirana, and as a part of this, you will see formerly drab apartment complexes painted in really brilliant colors. And this is because in 2000, Tirana elected a painter for mayor, and he made over the city. But Albania has plenty of sweet little historical villages as well. This is another small country that has something for everybody. So mountains, the Albanian Alps, if you like hiking, lakes, historical sites, including Greek and Roman ruins and Ottoman architecture.

There's definitely a theme to my summer plans, former communist countries and a lot of ancient ruins and other history. And good food, of course. Plus, Albania has beaches described as equal in beauty to what you're going to find in Greece, but for half the price. So Albania is still a very, very cheap country to travel. also Albanians love Americans like they really love us and it's always nice to feel wanted. So why do Albanians love Americans? Well, after World War I, President Woodrow Wilson helped save Albania from being carved up and shared between other countries. He said, nope, Albania is its own country and it deserves protection. And so when you visit Tirana, you will see Wilson's

square in the city. And it's also why there were so many baby boys named Wilson back then. Later, the U.S. helped Albania join NATO after it had suffered from a really brutal communism for decades. So democracy and freedom are very important to people here. And then what they really remember is that in 1999, President Clinton let the NATO intervention to end Serbia's slaughter of Kosovo, which is right next door to Albania. and Kosovo is majority ethnic Albanian. So very broadly, that is why Albanians love Americans. And I have to say that in all of my travels,

I've never been personally attacked for being American, and I've only met a handful of people who have told me, I do not like America at all, and then they will tell me why. But most people have at least one thing they like about America and Americans, even if they think that some tourists can be a little too brash and loud, and out of touch with the rest of the world. I mean, that that's the most common criticism of us. But a lot of people do like Americans,

and they can actually separate individuals from their governments, which is something that we should all do. But to go to a country where people really like us and want us to visit and they're excited when we're there, and when I say we, I guess I'm speaking to my fellow American listeners here, I think a trip to Albania sounds worth it for that alone. Leche and Matera, Italy. So from Albania, you can actually take a ferry to Brindisi, Italy, and this is in the heel of Italy's boot.

From there, take a train, and in less than 30 minutes, you will be in Leche, one of my favorite southern cities in Italy. Its historical center is beautiful, reasonably priced, and every meal I had there was outstanding. My friend and I did not have a car when we were there, and so we took a bus to one of the beaches, and it was a dog beach, and it was the cutest thing ever. And also, one of the most civilized to beach experiences I've ever had. So it wasn't snooty or anything, but you could rent lounge chairs and umbrellas, and then they would bring you your cappuccino to you on the beach. And you could also pre-order a sit-down lunch on the patio,

and it was a proper meal like you would get in a restaurant, not just fritters and fries like you would find in, the beaches and the states. And who doesn't enjoy fries on the beach, but this was just another experience. And from Lece, a day trip that you have to do is Matera. I first went to Matera a few years ago because I wanted to see the Sassi. And these are caves that people were living in until the 1950s. So back in the 50s, this area was actually known as the shame of Italy because there was just such poverty there. And at some point in that decade, the government decided they needed to relocate the people there. So they moved the mostly peasants and farmers. There were about 15 or

16,000 of them, and they moved them into public housing. And the sassi were abandoned for a few decades. But the area has transformed completely since then. And Mataria is this year's designated European culture city. The beauty of Matera's Stone City really, surprised me. I was expecting just to see if you abandoned caves, but the rest of the city is, I don't usually think of a city as romantic, but this felt like a place that honeymooners should spend some time in. The Passion of the Christ was filmed here, because Matera can double as Jerusalem. Matera is one of the oldest civilizations in the world. I think it's the third oldest where people have lived continuously. And today, you can rent a hotel room in one of the caves. So you could be

sleeping in the same spot as someone else did 9,000 years ago. I just think that is so cool. And then there are also underground restaurants and museums. It's a little secret city. Matera is small, so I'm not sure you want to spend more than a day or a weekend here. Maybe base yourself in Leche or another beach town in the south. But definitely visit Matara. and those sassy caves that I mentioned. Warsaw, Poland. I'm half Polish. Growing up, I always knew about Italy as a travel destination.

I'm part Italian, too, and also part Ukrainian, if you're interested. But I never heard about Poland. We never learned anything about it in school, and so I didn't really think about going there. But in recent years, I've become more curious about this side of my heritage, and its beauty and its culture. And so last year I visited Krakow for the first time, and I fell in love with the elegance of the historic center, which contains the largest medieval market square in Europe. The entire old town is a UNESCO heritage site. I ate the best parogi of my life there. I toured around and saw where scenes from Schindler's list were filmed.

You might know that the Nazis occupied Poland for five years, and Schindler's factory is, here and it's a museum that you can go and visit now. So this was just my initial taster of Poland, the strip. I didn't go to Warsaw. It has a reputation for being really industrial compared to other charming Polish towns. Warsaw was actually completely destroyed by the Nazis at the end of World War II, and this was in retaliation for the Polish people who were rising up and trying to fight them. But Warsaw is a resilient city. I know a Polish person who recently moved back there after a few years away. And she was just telling me about how energetic the city is and how a lot of people who previously would have moved abroad

are staying to launch their startups and other businesses. And with this entrepreneurial spirit comes the cafes and the nightlife. And there's still a beautiful old town. Even though it was completely destroyed by the Nazis, they worked really hard to recreate. it. And now it's as beautiful as ever. It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site. As you can tell, I love UNESCO. And I think probably everything I've mentioned so far has something UNESCO related. So this is why Warsaw is on my travel list this year. I want to do a little road tripping in Poland and then enjoy Warsaw and eat lots of prurogi. And I will also be saving money because Poland is still a bargain compared to a lot of Europe.

Fun fact, both Chopin and Mary Curie, the only woman to win the Nobel Prize twice, are from Warsaw. Japan. Okay, Japan is not off the beaten path at all. It seems like everyone I know is going there right now. And so I want to go there too. And I want to get there before things get too crazy with the 2020 Olympics. The idea for this trip came about last summer. I was flying out of Boston and my friend from Shanghai just happened to be there on business.

So we had the chance to meet for dinner. We used to work at Apple together and we would video chat. So my morning, her evening, and we got to be good friends. And then when we met in Boston, we realized that we had actually never met in person before. This was the very first time. And it was just so funny to us because in our minds, we felt like we just went way back and had spent all this time together. But we only did virtually. and there's really no point to this story other than to say I think it's so important to stay in touch with people throughout your life and to visit with them and travel with them.

And so we are going to meet up in Tokyo where we have a mutual friend, hang out there for a bit and then go explore the rest of Japan. And so I will share more about that adventure on a future podcast. Providence and Newport, Rhode Island. If I were to live anywhere in the U.S., it would be Providence, Rhode Island. Aside from personal reasons, my sister and her family live there. Downtown Providence has the historic charm of one of New England's first cities, and this is going back to colonial times. Rhode Island was actually the first colony to declare independence from England.

They have a history of free thinking over there, and the golden statue on top of the state capital building is not a particular person, but he is rather the independent man. Providence has great restaurants, an Italian district called Federal Hill, Brown University is there, and also RISD, that's the Rhode Island School of Design, and they have a cool museum and a really fun gift shop to explore. My sister lives on the east side of Providence, and that is also super charming. I probably say charming too much in this episode, but all the places that I want to go to are charming.

So on the east side of Providence in the summertime, they have a farmers market that's not just farmers, but also the local restaurants and the local artists. And I have to say that this farmer's market is better than any of the ones that I went to in Brooklyn. And I lived in Brooklyn for a number of years. And so Providence reminds me a little of Fogston a little bit, but Providence is on a much larger scale. There's also local theater and music venues and a community vibe that you don't feel in a lot of cities. Personally, I think Providence is a lot friendlier than Boston, which is only 45 minutes away. And of course, Boston is worth spending time and I actually lived there for a few years. And for history lovers, walking the Freedom Trail and seeing Paul Revere's house is an absolute must.

In addition to Boston, I think Newport, Rhode Island is a place that you should definitely visit. Every year they have jazz and folk festivals, and Newport is another one of the U.S.'s historic cities. And when you're walking around in the charming downtown area, you can see some of the oldest homes in the United States. These are colonial New England homes. You can actually go inside and tour some of them. But then the complete opposite of that, you've got the cliffwalk. and this is one of my favorite things to do in the summer. I usually go with my family at least once a year.

So on the cliffwalk, you're walking down the path, and on one side of you, you've got the ocean. And on the other side, you have mansions from the Gilded Age. So this is where they filmed the Great Gatsby, the one with Robert Redford and Mia Farrow, not the Leonardo DiCaprio one. It's just so fascinating to see this period of time. When my sister and I were kids, we'd walk along this path and just assume we would live in one of these mansions someday or someplace like it.

This really makes me laugh because these days I think a studio would be plenty of space for me. But I do like touring the mansions and they're mostly museums these days. So you can go inside and learn how the Vanderbiltz and the other rich industrialists lived. and they only lived in these mansions for like a few months out of the year. I think it was mostly like the women and kids who would live there and have parties and the men would just show up once in a while. So if you want to do a great road trip on the East Coast in the United States, I would do something like Boston, Providence in Newport, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C.,

Wilmington, North Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina, Savannah, Georgia, Panama, City, Florida, New Orleans, Louisiana, and Houston, Texas, which is one of the most diverse cities in the U.S. and in July, we'll celebrate the 50th anniversary of when we went to the moon. The space station is there, that's why. I have several other places on my hit list this year, including Romania. You can go back and listen to my episode on that to find out why. Plus, Mexico, maybe Malaysia, Bolivia, perhaps a road trip across America, because I actually haven't seen that much of the United States. But for now, I will leave you with

these travel recommendations, and I will share this list on postcardacademy.com. If we happen to be in the same place at the same time this year, I would love to meet up. That's all for now. If you're enjoying this podcast, please tell a friend about it, and that is the best way to grow the show. That's all for now. Thanks for listening, and have a beautiful week wherever you are. Do you ever go blank or start rambling when someone puts you on the spot? I created a free conversation sheet sheet with simple formulas that you can use so you can respond with clarity, whether you're in a meeting or just talking with friends. Download it at sarahmicatel.com slash blank no more.