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April 2026 was a really thrilling journey month certainly. I launched into a 17-day solo journey to Central Asia, visiting Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan!
It was my first time visiting this a part of the world, and I had an impressive time. In truth, this might need been the most effective solo journeys I’ve ever had. I can’t wait to return and discover extra!
Let’s check out the month.
Locations Visited
- Prague, Czech Republic
- Almaty, Moon Canyon, Black Canyon, Saty, Kolsay Lake, Lake Kaindy, and Charyn Canyon Nationwide Park, Kazakhstan
- Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, and Khiva, Uzbekistan
- Panjakent, Seven Lakes, and Durman, Tajikistan
Highlights
An unimaginable journey to Central Asia. It went extremely easily — so easily that I used to be a bit shocked! It seems that Central Asia is way simpler to journey than you may assume.
A very powerful factor is ensuring you purchase your Uzbekistan practice tickets as quickly as they go on sale (normally 45 or 60 days beforehand), as they’ll and do promote out shortly.
My journey began in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Almaty is a beloved metropolis amongst my journey blogger colleagues, and I see why — it’s a splendidly inexperienced metropolis, tremendous walkable, with plenty of nice cafes, glorious meals, and views of snow-capped mountains within the distance (in case you’re fortunate and go to in mid-spring like me). It’s additionally an especially inexpensive metropolis. I may simply spend far more time there.
In Almaty I extremely advocate taking a tour with Strolling Almaty. The proprietor, Dennis, is an interesting American man who loves and is obsessive about Kazakh historical past and tradition (to the purpose that he really translated some Kazakh works into English for the primary time).
Additionally, throughout our tour, Dennis actually helped an previous girl cross the road. Like, it’s not a cliché — some individuals really try this!
I additionally took a two-day tour to the pure wonders of the Almaty area of Kazakhstan: Moon Canyon, Black Canyon, Kolsay Lake, Lake Kaindy, and Charyn Canyon. A two-day tour is one of the simplest ways to see all of those, because the one-day excursions begin tremendous early, finish tremendous late, and are fairly rushed.
All of those locations have been so cool to go to, however I particularly adored Charyn Canyon, which regarded prefer it was straight out of Utah or Arizona. You stroll down the canyon as you’re surrounded by sandy rock formations.
The tour itself was massive (43 individuals!) however enjoyable, with nice meals and karaoke, and we spent the night time in yurts.
Subsequent up got here Uzbekistan. I visited 4 cities: Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, and Khiva.
Bukhara was my general favourite, with a relaxed, pedestrianized metropolis middle, lovely structure, and a number of the most excellent memento purchasing I’ve skilled of wherever I’ve visited on the planet!
Samarkand had the most effective general structure of the journey, the sort of artwork that brings you to surprise — particularly the turquoise tiles at Shah-i-Zinda Mausoleum. I additionally booked a photograph shoot in costume on the Registan early one morning.
Khiva was very totally different — a walled metropolis in the midst of the desert, very busy and catering 100% to tourism, however actually lovely and particular and a deal with for pictures.
Tashkent wasn’t as cool as Almaty, however I nonetheless had enjoyable there, together with taking a meals tour, visiting the Utilized Arts Museum, and a few cool espresso outlets.
And I took a number of craft workshops the place I realized two Uzbek crafts — Suzani embroidery and Persian mini portray. I took a number of courses with Craftnculture (they comped me the embroidery class and a meals tour in Tashkent). You’ll hear extra about these quickly.
A cool day journey to Tajikistan. Do you know that Samarkand is simply 50 minutes from the Tajik border? From Samarkand, I joined a small group tour to Tajikistan that visited the town of Panjakent and its bazaar; the Seven Lakes, perched up within the mountains; and the ruins of Sarazm, a UNESCO World Heritage Web site (which, frankly, wasn’t that thrilling).
Oddly, for me the spotlight was the bazaar. It’s not a touristy space and other people have been excited to fulfill me and the opposite two guys on the tour. And Tajik ladies gown SO fantastically — it’s common to see them sporting matching outfits coated with sequins and rhinestones. I noticed one sparkle-covered lady working in a backyard!
I’ve SO a lot to jot down about Central Asia, each on the weblog and in social media, and I’m wanting ahead to stepping into that!
Good occasions in Prague. April is the month of the cherry blossoms, and although I missed most of them this 12 months, I received a number of days of pink blossomy goodness! April can also be the month of inexperienced beer (sure, right here inexperienced beer is for Easter, not St. Patrick’s Day).
We went to Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition. This exhibition has been touring the world with fairly a number of artifacts from the Titanic. General, I discovered the exhibition a bit oversold for what they provide (so lots of these artifacts are little twisted items of steel, or dishes), however I actually cherished studying the tales of the passengers.
I received an Extremely membership at Revolut, which implies I now get three WeWork passes per thirty days. So I’ll be coworking extra usually on the Prague WeWork, or perhaps even different areas after I journey. I really like my residence setup (with cats!), nevertheless it’s good to have a change of surroundings, and I do work effectively round different individuals.
And on the finish of the month, I noticed Miguel in live performance at SaSaZu. I am keen on Miguel and his album Wildheart is considered one of my favourite albums of all time. I feel he has the most effective voices of any residing singer. He placed on an important present.
Challenges
Charlie’s cellphone was stolen whereas we have been out in the future. We have been sitting at a desk at Manifesto Market and a man got here as much as us with a chunk of paper wrapped in a plastic folder. He held out the paper and we instructed him we weren’t .
Seems he had been holding the paper over Charlie’s cellphone, and he took it whereas it was coated. This can be a frequent rip-off.
What sucks is that this occurred in a spot we love, Manifesto. We really held our night-before-the-wedding occasion there. And Prague is a metropolis that feels SO secure, and pickpocketing is kind of uncommon right here in comparison with different well-liked European cities like Paris, Rome, and Barcelona. Plus, we have been in an space removed from the touristy middle.
It simply goes to point out it’s worthwhile to be cautious in every single place.
I broke my cellphone display screen in Samarkand. I used to be standing on the Registan, dropped my cellphone, and instantly a white line of damaged pixels appeared on the display screen. I weighed my choices, and realized that despite the fact that it was nonetheless purposeful, it could most likely be a good suggestion to switch it in case it received worse.
A fast Google discovered me a restore store subsequent door to a boba tea spot (candy!), and I frolicked, sipped and chewed my boba, and skim my Kindle till the display screen was mounted, costing a painful $259. I’m simply glad I particularly allocate cash in my YNAB price range for surprising enterprise mishaps and tech repairs.
(And in case you’re preserving monitor, you might be right, I additionally needed to substitute my display screen in November after slipping within the snow and smashing it to smithereens. Not my most interesting few months.)
Early mornings and lack of sleep in Central Asia. I spent a lot of the journey sleep-deprived as a result of there have been so many early mornings. Three early excursions and actions, two early trains, three early flights, and one wakeup within the yurt at 5:00 AM when one of many women’ telephones went off.
The irony is that typically after I fly westward, I maintain an early schedule the entire journey! Up at 6:00 AM, mattress at 9:30 PM. However flying eastward makes you need to go to mattress late and sleep in, and that, coupled with the early wakeups, utterly threw off my schedule.
I received locked out of my room in Almaty — in a lodge with no on-site employees. And the complete story of that’s in my reel beneath…
Weblog Posts of the Month
Learn how to Get Low-cost Flights with Greenback Flight Membership — I really like what Greenback Flight Membership affords — they ship you alerts for when there are way-cheaper-than-usual flights from your own home airport to any of your dream locations! Plus different locations!
Most Standard Submit on Instagram
So, one thing loopy occurred in Almaty, and I instructed the story on Instagram. I received locked out of my lodge room. Which has occurred to me earlier than, and normally isn’t an enormous deal — however this was in a lodge that hardly ever has on-site employees.
The one option to contact the employees is through WhatsApp. However I had locked myself out of my room, which had my cellphone in it. So I needed to go across the lodge knocking on random doorways — and hilarity ensued.
For extra dwell updates from my travels, observe me on Instagram at @adventurouskate.
What I Listened To This Month
I’m listening to all 500 of Rolling Stone‘s 500 Best Albums of All Time, which I’m having fun with immensely. I’m loving discovering new artists and listening to albums I’ve one way or the other missed my whole life till now!
In April, I received again to kind and listened to albums quantity 92-69.
Favourite Discovery: Tremendous Fly by Curtis Mayfield. I knew I used to be going to like this — I really like funk and soul and the 70s and blaxploitation anthems and all the things I’ve ever heard by Curtis Mayfield.
However that is the sort of album that I want we had extra of nowadays — an album by a single artist, absolutely crafted round a film. There are even plot factors within the songs! What the hell did Freddie do?! I must see the film now!
General, this was SUCH a enjoyable, funky, and groovy album. An absolute pleasure.
I additionally actually loved Dusty in Memphis by Dusty Springfield. I’d heard a number of of her songs through the years, however listening to this album gave me such a deep appreciation for her attractive voice, which is an ideal match for the jazzy-poppy songs on this album.
Different Favourite Discoveries: Baduizm by Erykah Badu, The School Dropout by Kanye West, Again in Black by AC/DC, Hunky Dory by David Bowie.
Favourite Revisited Album: Jagged Little Capsule by Alanis Morrisette. This was my most-listened-to album after I was within the seventh grade, and I’m happy to share that IT HOLDS UP AMAZINGLY. How is that this album so good?!
Like Billy Joel’s The Stranger or Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Highway, this album packs in a very stunning variety of unimaginable, memorable, and distinctive-but-cohesive songs. (And whereas it’s a current album, I’d put Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess into that class, too.)
And the album has such a particular musical sound and standpoint, with an attractive mix of pop and rock and the tales of a younger lady who has gone by means of some darkish occasions. No person may sing like this however Alanis.
I additionally need to give love to a different favourite album of mine: Renaissance by Beyoncé, which occurs to be my favourite Beyoncé album. This album is a celebration of the Black queer and trans artists who pioneered so many various types of dance music and the tradition round them.
What I really like is that this album is so LAYERED and DETAILED. Nothing goes neglected. There are such a lot of dance genres represented: disco, home, funk, dancehall, techno, ballroom, that ubiquitous early 90s style of “lovely lady sings with scary-sounding man.” And it’s finally a celebration of being your self on the dance flooring.
Different Favourite Revisited Albums: Blonde by Frank Ocean.
Favourite Songs: “Cuff It” by Beyoncé, “All Falls Down” by Kanye West and Syleena Johnson, “Break On By means of (To The Different Facet)” by The Doorways, “Again in Black” by AC/DC, “Freddie’s Useless” by Curtis Mayfield, “Only a Little Lovin’” by Dusty Springfield, “Self Management” by Frank Ocean, “You Be taught” by Alanis Morrisette, “Straight Outta Compton” by N.W.A., “Household Affair” by Sly and the Household Stone.
Get the playlist: I’m making a playlist of my favourite songs from the five hundred albums — most one per album — on Spotify. You possibly can hearken to it right here.
Random Music Ideas: I’ve written earlier than about how offended I get when fascinated with how Kanye West has gone from considered one of my favourite artists to an precise, Hitler-loving Nazi. Partially as a result of it’s so exhausting conflating his sensible early music together with his repugnant views.
This month was particularly stark — The School Dropout is such a enjoyable and goofy and trailblazing album, so totally different from what hip-hop was placing out on the time, and it breaks my coronary heart that both younger Kanye became a Nazi or younger Kanye was hiding his inside Nazi-ness all alongside.
*Disclaimer: QUITE A LOT of the musicians featured on this listing are problematic in numerous methods — there are even two murderers within the combine. I’m taking a look at their music solely from an influential perspective.
What I Watched This Month
One among my all-time favourite TV reveals is again: For All Mankind on Apple TV+! I really like this present a lot that I like to recommend to everybody.
When Charlie and I watched the primary episode final 12 months, we cherished it a lot that we proceeded to look at an episode each single night time, 40 nights in a row, till we had watched all of it.
This present begins within the Nineteen Sixties and is another historical past about what would occur if the Soviets had landed on the moon first. Due to this, the house race by no means ended — the US and the Soviets continued racing one another to have a base on the moon first, to get to Mars first, and so forth. In consequence, house exploration is so extra in depth and thrilling.
Every season takes place in a special decade, following the unique astronauts and their households as they age and know-how progresses. The of-the-time musical cues are excellent (I’m nonetheless not over the immaculate use of DMX’s “X Gon’ Give It To Ya” in season 4), and since it’s Apple TV+, they spent a ton of cash on manufacturing, and it’s seems costly.
This month, season 5 began, which takes place within the 2010s, and season 6 would be the remaining season. Every episode has 10 hourlong episodes, so there’s so much to take pleasure in. WATCH IT!!
Additionally, I noticed the film Michael within the theater. The plot is skinny, however the music and dance sequences are gorgeous, and Jaafar Jackson (and the younger Juliano Krue Valdi) did an unimaginable, uncanny job as Michael Jackson himself.
This film is a reminder that Michael’s music, from the early days of the Jackson 5 by means of the Dangerous period, is a number of the finest pop music ever created, and I cherished attending to hearken to it for 2 hours.
What I Learn This Month
I at all times get numerous studying completed after I’m on a protracted solo journey!
Yesteryear by Caro Clair Burke (2026) — Natalie Heller Mills is likely one of the most adopted tradwives in America, elevating her six youngsters on a farm in Idaho. In fact, she has a TON of assist behind the scenes, however her followers don’t know that. However then Natalie instantly wakes up in 1855 and has to dwell the approach to life she’s been pushing.
This is likely one of the buzziest books of the second, and I actually loved it. The subject material is tantalizing and I genuinely had no concept what course the e book went in, resulting in a stunning ending.
That stated, I really feel like this e book was rushed. It felt prefer it may have completed with extra sturdy enhancing, although I perceive that the writer needed the e book out FAST. There have been a handful of strange points I feel may have been written in a different way (her Harvard expertise felt extra like an enormous nondescript college, and actually, her father-in-law is the favored Republican Senator from California?).
And sadly, it solely touched the deeper problems with feminism and efficiency within the lightest approach. If it the e book had chosen to reckon with these points extra deeply, it may have been the most effective novels of the last decade. So I do really feel a bit dangerous that that is the ultimate model of it.
The Women Who Grew Large by Leila Mottley (2025) — Adela Woods is a 16-year-old aggressive swimmer who turns into pregnant and is banished to her grandmother’s small city within the Florida panhandle. Whereas there, she meets the Women — a bunch of outcast ladies and women who have been teenage mothers and lift their youngsters collectively.
The e book adjustments perspective between Adela; Simone, the oldest of the group, who has four-year-old twins and finds herself pregnant once more; and Emory, who brings her new child to highschool and is set to graduate towards the chances.
I actually loved the characters and the setting of this e book, and particularly stepping into the views of adlescent mothers who’re seen as outcasts inside their neighborhood. Whereas it didn’t fairly blow me away, this was an important learn.
The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (2025) — Sybil Van Antwerp is a lady in her 70s who has written letters her entire life — to her brother, to her finest good friend, to writers like Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry, to her former colleague’s teenage youngster, to the dean on the college the place she desires to audit courses.
This epistolary novel is a group of letters to and from Sybil over the course of a number of years, as she struggles with relationships together with her children, is courted by two totally different males, and offers with the onset of a incapacity.
This e book has been an surprising breakout hit, and I see why! The letter-writing is a superb gadget, displaying you solely what Sybil desires individuals to know and letting the reality seep in little by little within the different letters. Sybil is just not a lovable narrator. She’s difficult, she’s gruff, she retains individuals at a distance, and I really like when ladies characters are allowed to have an edge like this.
One warning: there’s an animal dying on this e book that actually upset me, and to be frank, was dealt with in a merciless approach and sort of ruined the studying expertise for me. They’re making a film of the e book, starring Jane Fonda (who can be FABULOUS, as she at all times is), and I hope they reduce the animal dying altogether.
Carrie Soto is Again by Taylor Jenkins Reid (2022) — Carrie Soto is likely one of the biggest tennis gamers of all time, with a document of 20 Grand Slam wins. However in 1994, 5 years previous retirement, a brand new younger participant named Nikki Chan is about to interrupt her document. Carrie decides to come back out of retirement at age 37 to be coached by her beloved father, battle Chan, and maintain her document as soon as and for all.
I really like Taylor Jenkins Reid’s books, that are at all times instructed by sturdy, profitable, and complex ladies characters. The core of this e book is a lady reckoning with who she is that if she doesn’t have the one factor that she’s labored for all her life, and rebuilding a relationship between father and daughter.
That stated, whereas an pleasurable learn, I feel Carrie Soto is Again is considered one of Reid’s weaker books (and Ambiance is her finest). Carrie’s father is from Argentina and so they converse numerous Spanish combined with English, however truthfully, the Spanish simply appeared so cringeworthy to me, with no trace of Argentina, and it was painfully apparent that Reid doesn’t converse Spanish herself.
Orbital: A Novel by Samantha Harvey (2024) — This novel shares the ideas of six astronauts and cosmonauts from totally different international locations who’ve been orbiting the Earth collectively for the final 9 months. Every of them ponder their existence and the fantastic thing about our planet as they put together to return to it.
This can be a lovely elegy, and effectively deserving of all of the awards it has acquired. Whereas it tends to carry every of the characters at arm’s size, you quickly study that the surprise of it’s how fantastically they every look after our planet.
Audition: A Novel by Katie Kitamura (2025) — A Broadway actress is approached by a younger man who believes he could also be her son. From there, two totally different narratives spill outward, and the connection between the 2 of them veers in some really wild and confounding instructions.
I actually cherished Katie Kitamura’s Intimacies, about an interpreter working on the Worldwide Felony Courtroom in The Hague, however this novel didn’t do a lot for me. I recognize it for being well-written and for taking some massive dangers, nevertheless it general left an disagreeable aftertaste.
By no means Cut up the Distinction: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It by Chris Voss (2016) — I listened to this audiobook a number of years in the past and needed to learn it and really take notes this time, as a result of it’s actually useful.
This e book is all about how one can negotiate and get what you need. And whereas I do assume it’s a bit overly tailor-made to males on the whole, and straight white males particularly, there are many glorious suggestions right here that I’d like to put to make use of.
Coming Up in Might 2026
This month will principally be spent in Prague, however Charlie and I do have a visit on the finish of the month. We’re heading to England — and whereas we go to London continuously to see his household, this journey is about exploring new components of his nation.
We’re going to Cooper’s Hill for the annual cheese-rolling! After watching the We’re the Champions docuseries on Netflix, which profiles a wierd and weird competitors in every episode, we knew immediately we needed to witness the cheese-rolling for ourselves. We really booked our lodge greater than a 12 months prematurely.
It’s not as enjoyable and cutesy because it sounds. The hill is STEEP and it’s not unusual for individuals to flip over themselves violently and break bones. In truth, it’s not an official occasion due to the harm danger.
No, we aren’t collaborating within the cheese rolling. We’re right here strictly as spectators for the occasion, and pub-goers afterwards.
We’re padding out the journey with a while within the Cotswolds (which I visited in 2015 and actually loved), and the town of Bristol. In Bristol, now we have a reservation at Wilson’s, a brand new Michelin star-holder featured in Apple TV+’s docuseries Knife Edge! It seems like an exquisite, sustainable restaurant and we’re actually wanting ahead to consuming there.
We’re additionally visiting Cheddar Gorge, which seems like a pilgrimage to me, as that is the place cheddar cheese originated! CHEESE TRIP! (Man, I ought to take Murray the cat right here sometime. He loves cheddar, too.)
We’re lacking three of our favourite meals festivals in Prague for this journey (Pivo a Burger, Korso Krymská, and The Italians’ catalogue occasion), so it higher be good!!
What are your plans for Might? Share away!
