You may be wondering what this website is all about. Well, I am here to answer a few questions to help clarify what the Wondering Voyager is!

What even is this website?

It is a travel blog, a travelogue, and at times a raving monologue. If you are lucky, you just might find some actually useful information about traveling to a particular country that I visited at some point in time. However, you are much more likely to come across an article where I rave about a particular pizzeria in an unassuming little Georgian town. I would like to think that there is something for everyone here.

Why did you start the Wondering Voyager?

While I always wanted to travel, and did manage to see a bit of Europe before attending university, I never really knew how much I would eventually love it before I left Istanbul for an exchange semester in the University of British Columbia, in 2018. Crossing the pond for the first time, and all alone no less, made me realize just how invigorating and outright transformative a proper trip can be, which is how I treated my four months in Canada. In due time, I started to travel more frequently, and often on a humble budget. Of course, this all came to a halt with the pandemic, which is when I decided to start writing about my travels both to keep myself busy and to share what little I know with those who may want to visit the parts of the globe I was lucky enough to see with my own eyes. This desire eventually led to the creation of Wondering Voyager.

When did you start writing this stuff?

Well, I actually waited until I received my master’s degree, in the summer of 2022. Before 2022, I was extremely busy writing different sorts of articles than the ones you will find here, and I could not do much traveling due to the ongoing pandemic. Thankfully, I would have a gap year abroad in between my graduate school and the doctoral one, so that seemed to be the best time to start working on this long-desired project of mine.

What do you mean by budget traveling?

What is cheap for some, may be expensive for some others. A 15 USD meal in Serbia that blew my mind could be considered dirt cheap by Alex in Los Angeles, but a bit pricy by Alexander in Grozny, whose babushka can probably cook that same dish for a fraction of the cost. Therefore, what I mean by budget traveling in my writings is travel with little to no frills but still experiencing the country fully to the best of my abilities. It is more of a mentality, rather than a strict financial limit. My understanding of a good trip often consist of staying at relatively comfortable and central locations that are admittedly quite basic, eating out almost always (for I believe experiencing the food is half the journey) though often in local and cheaper spots, and maximizing the sightseeing that I can possibly do by attempting some extremely tiring daytrips if necessary. In other words, I never claimed to be a bonafide budget traveler, the ones that can go on traveling for years on an extremely tight budget. I will cut corners that I can (mostly so that I can go on another trip sooner than later) but you will not really see me pinching pennies all that often, especially as I try to be thorough in my travels, which involves eating as much local food and visiting as many local attractions as possible, which is not always cheap.

Who are you?

My name is Mustafa Serdar Karakaya. I was born on a Labour Day in Turkey, in 1996. Though I love traveling, it is not the only thing that excites me. I am a historian by profession, currently working on my doctoral dissertation in Astana, where I study at Nazarbayev University. I am most interested in the history of the Republic of Turkey and the Soviet Union, with a focus on the more formative years of 1920s to 1940s. You may see my love for Soviet mosaics and derelict factories in post-Soviet spaces in some of my writings here, and now you know why. Thematically, I mostly work on labour history at the moment, though I published on military and social history before. One needs to be flexible in this job market after all… In due time, I hope to teach and do research full time, though I sure would not mind it if this website blew up all of a sudden, regardless of how unlikely it is given the current trends on the internet.

How soon is (Soon)?

You may have realized that some of the countries in my website have no content in them, at least not yet. Well, like most of us, I have a very busy life, and also, like most us, I am not rich. I would love to travel around for a living, but that is not the sort of reality that I have to live with at the moment. However, I always loved the idea of updating this website weekly, like how most TV series worked in “ancient” times. While this is a matter of stylistic preference, it also lets me have some months off in between my travels and not have the website dormant for a long time. This is why, sometimes, you need to wait for up to a year until I can get around to upload all writings on a particular trip of mine. So, those countries without content should receive all their writings uploaded within a year or so at most.

Why have you not had a proper plov in Uzbekistan?

I actually had this exact question asked to my face a couple of times in Astana, following a trip of mine to Uzbekistan in the winter of 2023. Well, as of December 2022, I decided to stop eating mammals, and a few months later, I added birds to that list as well. This decision was due to ethical concerns. I want to stop killing and consuming sentient beings to the best of my ability and removing the most emotionally and mentally intelligent ones was a priority for me. However, I still eat shrimps, calamari, fish, and mussels. I love cooking, and practically everything I cook at home is already vegetarian, but that is not the case when I eat outside, at least not yet. This is the reason why you will see some meaty dishes in articles of mine that cover the travels I did before December 2022, but you will not find anything meatier than sushi or fried fish after that.

Why did you not mention this controversial issue in “this” or “that” country?

For the exact same reason why any sensible person writing on Marseille’s finest restaurants does not mention the French affairs in Africa out of the blue. This is not a news website, nor do I aim to write particularly political pieces. This is where I share my non-academic and thus non-serious work. In other words, Wondering Voyager is where I relax and enjoy the very act of writing. Moreover, if these travels and my research so far taught me anything, states and the people that live within them are not one and the same. I prefer to report on my experiences with the latter.

Why does this website look awful on my smart refrigerator?

Have I mentioned that I was a historian and certainly not a designer or a web developer? I already spend almost a month on this website every year. Researching, writing, editing, and so on takes an immense amount of time, and I simply do not have the extra time to make sure that the website looks at its finest on all platforms. I love computers, they are far superior to phones and tablets, and certainly smart refrigerators. This is a hill I am willing to die on despite most people’s (including my generation) worrying attachment to their phones. As a result, this website is built for computer screens and optimized for them alone. If I monetized this project someday, I would love to learn how to use better website development tools and perfect the Wondering Voyager experience for all. However, this is not on the plans just yet.

What is wrong with your writing style?

Ouch… Well, I grew up reading Jules Verne, was scolded for writing my “otherwise not so terrible” articles in a very colloquial language in the university, and I was eventually told by some editors that I should consider becoming a journalist and not a historian. I suppose I cannot really blame anyone but myself for this predicament. Some of my favourite authors wrote with a lot of commas and very little dots, and they used some bizarre words every now and then given how they lived some centuries ago. Their works certainly had a lasting impact on me. It also does not help that instead of reading a lot of fiction or at least some other travel writing, I am sort of stuck reading academic works for the most part in the last decade or so. These circumstances led to my writing seemingly being overly colloquial and academic at the same time, somehow. It is not ideal for some, but hey, I had at least four people who told me that they actually enjoy reading my prose, and I consider that a win!

Can I aid you in your voyages?

This website is not monetized in any way, nor is it advertised on any platform to attract more visitors. It is not like I have a budget for advertisements, I already think twice before paying for my hosting plan… In due time, if this website becomes a bit more popular, some state officials or companies might reach out to me with some interesting offers, which would be a dream come true. Other than such collaborations, I am not really looking for support of any kind. If you are feeling extra generous today, have you considered donating to a worthy cause, such as helping baby orangutans eat well by giving to Borneo Orangutan Survival? If I ever monetize this website somehow, I will share a link here, but in all seriousness, there are those that need your money more urgently.