I hope that all is well with you in this fine day! I am the Wondering Voyager, though to be fair no one calls me that, for a very good reason… Mustafa Serdar Karakaya is what I go by officially, and simply calling me Serdar should be more than enough! I was born in Turkey, where I completed my BA degrees in History and Comparative Literature at Koç University (Istanbul). Then I received an MA in Global and Regional History from Higher School of Economics (St. Petersburg) after which I spent a year studying the Russian language at the Higher School of Economics’ Nizhny Novgorod campus. Nowadays, I am a PhD student in Eurasian Studies at Nazarbayev University, Astana.

I am a historian of early 20^th century, with a focus on our globe when it was transitioning from a multipolar world order to an arguably bipolar one. Geographically speaking I am much more invested in Eurasia than anywhere else, with the Americas and Africa acting as my blind spots. I do love my more scholarly endeavours, but this is neither the place nor the time to discuss them any further. Aside from being an academic, I do a bit of wondering, and a bit of wandering, and I feel the happiest when I get to wonder about the things I see as I wander around the globe. I especially love to see the (often) lesser visited parts of our planet where I try my best to reflect on what I saw using my knowhow of a bit of history and some contemporary issues. This is a venue for me to do just that! However, do be warned, you will still run into a lot of simpler articles that will just write about what to do and where to eat in places I ended up visiting. After all, it is a travel blog.

A few fun facts about the website are in order! Firstly, I am proud to report that every single photo you will see here is taken by me (including the terrible ones), hence there are no credits to anyone anywhere. Secondly, I try my best to comment on some political and historical issues every now and then, but do not expect me to write anything earth-shattering on a website that I treat as a hobby at most. Thirdly, travelling is a way of life for me (and not merely a hobby), and to keep it that way on an academic’s salary, travelling on a budget is hardly a matter of choice in my case. You will see me splurge here and there a bit (and things do get better from late 2023 onwards), but if you want to read about fine dining or partying until wee hours of the morning, you should try your luck in some other blog. Oh, and also, since December of 2022, I have been a pescetarian, therefore posts on trips starting by 2023 will not involve any meat dishes in them. For the most part, I follow a cheese-heavy vegetarian diet with a seafood dish every now and then, mostly due to my unending love for sushi and fish and chips, the sort of love that seems to triumph over my morals… That should answer all your questions about why I left out all the kebabs in that or this city, I simply do not eat them.

Now, if this all sounds right up your alley, browse the website to your heart’s contents! Also, do get in touch with me if you have any questions about the website and/or my more academic works using the form you can find HERE!