Turkey and Albania: Summer 2026
A month-long trip to Turkey included meeting family for the first time in Albania and a peaceful excursion to the Greek island of Leros.
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Food and Memory
On every visit to Istanbul, I make time to have Iskender kebap at Han Restaurant. A simple but decadent concept with origins dating back to the late 19th century, the kebap is…
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Reflecting on Istanbul. And Life.
Istanbul is massive, almost overwhelmingly so. One of the world’s megacities, it is a frenetic place, without a single center of gravity but instead, like an octopus and its ganglia, distributing its…
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Albania and Identity
Here’s a bit of trivia: my great great grandfather, Mehmet Deralla, was the first Minister of War of the first Government of Albania, created toward the end of 1912. It’s a bit…
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Leros and the Art of Sitting
Life is fast. If ever there was a truism that captures the reality of our modern existence, this is the one. Life is fast, it is hectic, it is so much to…
