Two Girls. One sabbatical. Zero compromise.
Accompany us on our mission to discover the world & to find the perfect coffee.
AMAZING AZERBAIJAN
Best time in Baku
What to expect of the capital Baku? What comes to your mind? Well, let us just say this is a city which will astonish you in many ways and it is more than worth to visit it.
You can spend the day strolling in the old town of Baku with its amazing buildings and cobblestone streets. By the way, this site is part of UNESCO World Heritage. Stop at the unique sights like
the Maiden Tower and learn about the history of the city. You even get the opportunity to eat at a place which served in the past for a resting place of the caravans in the silk route. Just
a few steps further you can find a unique miniature book museum. If you feel the need to relax, visit one of the oldest Hammams in the city.
The journey to Xinaliq
Do you ever read about a place and get the feeling that you just have to see it with your own eyes because it sounds so amazing?
We have this feeling with a little village called Xinaliq.
The only information we know: It is the highest remote village in the Caucasian mountains where they speak their own language, which is protected by UNESCO.
How to realize the trip? There are some organized trips which cost a fortune. So we decide to just try to reach it on our own, like we always do (and sometimes fail).
Eat up!
The cuisine of Azerbaijan is very tasty. Make sure to bring elastic pants because the probability to gain some weight is very high. We don't know about you, but we love Turkish food and could find a lot of similarities here and there. The love for tea and food connects these two countries for us. Everything feels fresh and the variety of dishes is very broad. It's great to visit places where the quality of food is appreciated. In the evening we could witness the arrival of fresh herbs at the local market just next to our accommodation, the smells in the air will stay in our memory.
Get to know our top choices!
Coffee and Chai in Baku
First of all one fact first: Tea is more common to be consumed then coffee in Baku. The chai is very tasteful and just some change in composition like the addition of some flowers change the taste into a whole different direction. While drinking the tea, black, some with a bitter note, you can eat some sweet cherry compot. The combination of the lightly bitter and sweet cherry taste is awesome and a lot of times we had more chai then coffee in our stay. The traditional way is to drink it made out of a samovar.
The tea is served in a pear-shaped glass (armudu) to keep it warm in the bottom while the surface can cool down faster in order to drink it.
KAVA In CROATIA
A perfect day in Zagreb
How can you make a day even more perfect? The answer is very easy. Combine the coffee stops with racing bicycles. We rent two bicycles and discover Zagreb our way. There are a lot of places to see and visit and by biking through a city you can collect a lot of impressions.
Croatian Coffee Culture
Most important fact first: the Croatian word for coffee is Kava. We are a bit surprised of the Croatian coffee culture, because it is a mixture of Italian, Turkish and the Astro-Hungarian one. The Croatian talent is to combine the best of everything, it also applies in regards to coffee. When you look at the offers you will find the option to order a Turkish coffee as well as a simple but great espresso. Looking at the range of coffee you can buy in the shops, there is a huge variety.
The search for good and tasty coffee in Zagreb is quick. We are happy to drink our coffee in two places in this city. The stay was short but the coffee consumption still quite high, like usual.
Our first choice : the Cogito Coffee. It is located in a side lane in the center of the lower town in Zagreb. The interior design is kept minimalistic. The big wooden table invites you to sit down. You are immediately inspired to work there while drinking a cappuccino. If you want to enjoy the sun you can use the tables located outside. We loved the size of the coffee place. Even with simple and modern design, you got a cozy feeling there. They offer the classics and also 3rd wave coffee. It is one of the few specialty coffee roasteries in Zagreb.
First Destination - Marrakech
Morocco - The Start in Marrakech
First stop in our sabbatical: one month Morocco. It seemed like a long time in the beginning, but there were so many places to discover. We already decided to come back next year, in our mind: a shopping list and more cities to visit. For starters, we stayed one week in Marrakech, inside the busy Medina. After a short trip to the desert (which seemed like a never ending Minibus ride), we arrived in Fez, continued to Chefchauen and finished the month with a surf/yoga course at the coast and a couple of days in Essaouira.
We crossed the whole country by bus (We promise you have lots of time to admire the landscape that way. There are anyway a lot of reasons why we would not recommend to use them).
Morrocain Coffee Culture
Even though we have to admit our mint tea consumption is high, the black brew can not be replaced for us (caffeine is needed in order to wake up and stay awake!).
To sit down in a café, is the perfect solution to take a breath in the busy Medinas (on roof tops the air seems better because of the high number of mopeds racing through the narrow streets), get some energy in between bus rides or before starting surf classes.
It is not common to take a coffee to go, so at least some waste is reduced. We support that!
What's new
New features to be released:
A Day in Zagreb with coffee stops
Turkish coffee with a twist
Discover Baku and its coffee
Kazakhstan- a country of coffee lovers
Morocco - A poem about street food
FAIL
Traveling new countries and encountering different cultures, you might commit some typical tourist mistakes which make you wish to have spent some more time on preparations. We try to help you out by writing about our "fail" moments and make you hopefully smile about them. If you have experienced some of the moments on your own, message us!
Who WE ARe
About
Hey we are Travel Macchiato. Two girls who decided to quit their jobs to discover the world and find the best coffee. After years of drinking liters of coffee our aim is now to learn more about
brewing & roasting techniques and coffee culture. How do people in the Himalaya drink their coffee (if they drink something else than chai?), is it true that the best und most expensive
coffee beans are produced in Bali and why are the Turks so into dark roasting?
Since we are travel lovers and adventure loving we decided to go after this questions for one year. In the same time we will not miss the chance to climb to hills, learn horse back riding, increase our yoga skills and do all the things we would normally say: „let us do that tomorrow“, „next week“, „next month“ or let us be honest: never.
Who we are?
We are Maria & Mine. We are two coffee addicted workaholics who definitely worked too much. Maria is a doctor and worked in the field of internal medicine the past four years in a hospital in
Germany. Mine is an art conservator for paintings and contemporary art and worked the last years as an project manager in an art conservation studio.