Walking through the narrow streets of the old town, we almost felt the atmosphere from the past when the trade was very active here. Although only three of the nine original domed bazaars (toqi)...

We went to Bukhara by car with our sleepy driver. In Samarkand, every time we came back from visiting a sight, we found him sleeping on the lowered seats. Now, during the whole drive...

At the beginning of Lent, people in Vienna traditionally eat herring salad. Before I give you a recipe for that dish, I would like to write something about another tradition connected with this period...

When the driver of a minivan met us late in the night at the railway station in Samarkand, we did not think at all that he is a bear whom we just woke up...

Vienna is not only the capital of Austria but also the capital of balls. In the sixties of the 19 century, the American ambassador wrote in a dispatch that in view of the number...

According to a legend which is very popular in Austria, there was the cook Cäcilia Krapf – because she was unhappy in love, she accidentally threw a dough prepared for baking in the heated...

The very first coffee house in Vienna was opened by Johannes Diodato, an Armenian merchant, in 1865. Similarly, the citizens of Prague were taught to drink coffee by his compatriot Georgius Deodatus in the...

The current Austrian Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen – like his predecessors – holds his office in the former imperial Palace Hofburg. Hofburg used to be the residence of the most important personalities...

There had been neither radio nor television in Oman until 1970, only one post office, one hospital and three boys’ schools in the whole country. Local people had lived in clay brick houses or...

If you visit any Arab city you should definitely also visit a local market. In Muscat, the Omani capital, is the traditional bazaar Souq Matrah located near the port. Tourists and local people are...