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Category: Places

  • Asia diaries

    Last year one day in summer I received a short message from a long-time tango friend, who asked me if I wanted to join him for a tango festival in Korea in February 2025. I had been to Seoul two times already and had loved dancing there. This festival was going to be in a…

  • Taipei meditations

    I am leaving Taipei in a few hours after almost four days. I don’t know why but I couldn’t connect with her, and it is not her fault. It is only chemistry, it didn’t spark for me. I promise I tried. Her people, streets, sounds, smells were too far away. I reached out, even touched…

  • Three women and a half

    When I was six years old, my mom and dad got divorced. Honestly, it was a relief. Their common presence was far away from the joyful radiance of love. Our home vibrated with tension and I soaked it up. The divorce brought me and my mom to my grandma’s home, we moved in with her.…

  • The sea

    I was born in a city of water. Istanbul. Water everywhere. You cannot not see it, not smell it, not hear it. Istanbul is water. I have never thought this was special until I left her. I grew up right in front of the water. Our home was in a neighborhood called Moda, which is…

  • Why so serious?

    Why so serious Zurich? Isn’t life too short for that? What if you loosened up a bit, let go and had more fun? What is your obsession with perfection about? What if you failed? For example, your trains were late? Everything would be more chaotic, yes. And what if your banks didn’t make so much…

  • Flashback

    Last week Google Zurich celebrated its twentieth birthday and I was invited as a guest. I don’t know why, yet I reason that me living in Zurich and my work being in artificial intelligence were relevant. I received an email one day telling me that they would be happy if I attended, so I did.…

  • Reconnection

    I spent the last few days in Stockholm. It used to be my home many years ago. I still have beautiful memories of snowy winters and long summer days full of light spent with my ex-family. Celebrations of the national day, long lunches, museum visits, boat tours to the archipelago. Then came the divorce and…

  • Home

    This week some clouds cleared away and I had crystal clear sunshine. I will not go into the details of why and how; it just happened. It dawned on me that all my life I have been searching to find my home, to find where I belong. Consciously or not, it has always been the…

  • Buenos Aires Querida

    I am on my way back from Buenos Aires to Barcelona. It is the third time that I am on this route and it is the first time that I am not heartbroken to say goodbye. Still, secretly in me, I am wishing if only I had one more week… Each time I leave Buenos Aires,…

  • The New Life – Sun and Clouds over Barcelona

    It was a lovely Friday. All sunny and happy as every day has been in Barcelona. The day before the Sitges Tango Festival had started. It is an old famous festival known for its relaxed and friendly atmosphere, utmost Mediterranean. I had wanted to go there for many years but there had always been something that hindered.…