You may be wondering what this website is all about. Well, I am here to answer a few questions (that you may potentially have) to help clarify some matters about the Wondering Voyager, a labour of my love.

What even is this website?

It is a travel blog, a travelogue, and a lengthy monologue, all at the same time. If you are lucky, you may end up finding some useful information about traveling to a particular country that I visited at some point. However, it is much more likely to just come across an article where I rave about a particular pizzeria in an unassuming little Georgian town. Optimistically, 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 starting my academic journey, I never really knew how much I would eventually love it before I embarked 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. I also realized that travel did not have to break the bank if it is done in a budget friendly way.

When did you start writing this stuff?

Well, I actually had to wait up until my master’s degree was completed, in the summer of 2022. I was extremely busy up until that point with writing different sorts of articles than the ones you will find here. Thankfully, I had a gap year 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 10 USD meal in Serbia that blew my mind could be considered dirt cheap by Alex in Los Angeles, but perhaps not so cheap by Alexander in Grozny, whose babushka can cook that same dish (or a tastier version of it) for a fraction of the cost. Therefore, what I mean by budget traveling is travel with little to no frills but still experiencing the country somewhat fully. You will realize that my kind of trips 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.

Who are you?

Now that you know what this website is all about, you can find out a bit about the person behind it. 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, since I study at Nazarbayev University. I am most interested in the history of the Soviet Union and the Republic of Turkey, with a focus on the 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, and now you know why. Thematically, I mostly work on labour history at the moment, though I published on military 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 in an academic capacity, 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, 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 at the moment. However, I always loved the idea of updating this website weekly, like how the 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. As a result of this arrangement, it may take up to a year for some of those countries to have their contents fully uploaded to the website. Treat them as spoilers for the upcoming countries I will be covering, in case anyone is wondering.

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 December 2022, I decided to stop eating mammals, and a few months later, I added birds to that list too. This decision was due to ethical concerns. I want to stop consuming living 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. Unfortunately, I live far away from most vegetarian friendly cuisines, in a city where it is hard to find affordable fresh vegetables, vegetarian proteins, and vegetarian food on menus. I love cooking, and practically everything I cook at home is already vegetarian, but that is not the case when I eat outside, 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 more than sushi or fried fish in the period after that.

Why does this website look awful on my smart refrigerator?

Have I mentioned that I was a PhD student and certainly not a designer or a 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 rising attachment to phones. As a result, this website is built for computer screens and optimized for them alone. If I monetize 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 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 was eventually told by some editors that I may be better off becoming a journalist than a historian. I suppose I cannot really blame anyone but myself for any of these, but some of my favourite authors wrote with a lot of commas and very little dots and used some bizarre words every now and then given how they lived some centuries ago. It also does not help that instead of reading a lot of fiction or at least other travel writing, I am sort of stuck reading academic works for the majority of the year. These circumstances create a scenario in which my writing may seem overly colloquial and academic at the same time, somehow. It is not ideal for some, but hey, I had two people telling me that they actually enjoy reading my prose, and I know when to take my wins!

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 hosting… However, traveling is expensive, and in many ways, it is only getting more expensive as the time goes on. In case you wish to help me travel more for some reason, you can follow the Wondering Voyager on Instagram, that would be most welcome! In due time, this website being more popular just might mean some officials or companies reaching out to me with some interesting offers. That would be a dream come true. Other than this, if you are feeling extra generous today, have you considered donating to a worthy cause like the one Sightsavers fight for, or perhaps help 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. Besides, I would rather work for my money. Other than this website, I have some experience with content writing from before, so in case you are interested in hiring me for such roles or more, you can certainly reach out to me here.