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About Me

Welcome To My Travelogue

Hello and Welcome!, I’m Julia, writer and publisher of Travel The Four Corners.

Travel The Four Corners launched after my trip to the Balkan Peninsula in September 2022.

The world had finally opened up after two years of the coronavirus pandemic. I imagined my husband, Chris, and I exploring virgin lands as Marco Polo had 700 years earlier.

I was so inspired to write detailed posts about our 15-day journey. And that, my friends, parlayed into this travelogue.

The author of Travel The Four Corners, a travelogue, is photographed taking a photo of Lake Bled from Grand Hotel Toplice in Slovenia.
Snapping a photo of Lake Bled from Grand Hotel Toplice in Slovenia. JAG image.

Let me tell you that the Balkan Peninsula is no longer a secret. Cruise ships and airlines carry loads of tourists to Croatia’s Dalmatian Coast in the summer. And yet, we have stories to tell, if not as fantastical as Marco Polo’s reports of his travels to the Middle East and Asia.

I hope our travel experiences, vignettes, and occasional faux pas will make these places come alive. 

The Sum of My Past

Travel The Four Corners is a labor of love, blending my passions for journalism and travel.

I’ve edited aviation magazines in England. I’ve worked as a foreign affairs journalist and a political risk analyst in Washington, DC. I accepted a fellowship at Boston University and analyzed media coverage of the Gulf War and other current events. And along the way, I earned master’s degrees in international relations and communications.

The author of Travel The Four Corners, a travelogue, began her career as a journalist writing for publications that included Defense & Foreign Affairs, Jane's Defense Weekly, Armed Forces Journal, and American Arab Affairs.
Some of the magazines I wrote for in my early career.

When I was a reporter, we used to say, “Public Relations is where the journalists go to die.” I’m not dead yet, but I did jump ship to become a publicist when I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1990s. That’s because I met Chris.

It was also when I joined a startup in the travel industry. One of our first product launches was the travel booking site Travelocity. 

A Third Culture Kid

Travel has always been in my blood. My family moved to Saudi Arabia when I was five months old. My father’s career also took us to Iran and England (where my mother is from). The odd thing is that even though I am an American citizen, the U.S. was a culture shock.

The author of Travel The Four Corners is a Third Culture Kid who grew up outside the country of her nationality and that of her parents. Even though she was born an American citizen, the U.S. was a culture shock when she returned in her teenage years. This photo shows her as a little girl with her family and their gardener, Ali during a visit to his village in Saudi Arabia.
When I was a little [cow]girl, my family visited our gardener, Ali, at his Safwa, Saudi Arabia home.

I am a Third Culture Kid who grew up outside the country of my nationality and my parents’ cultures. This is why I strive to be open-minded to other customs and traditions and to maintain a childlike sense of wonder when I travel.

I hope you enjoy learning about the places we visit. I would love to hear from you. Feel free to share your comments and experiences in the comments below or email me.

2 Comments

  1. Julia, Thank you for sharing your personal history, what an interesting and rich life you’ve led! And your Four Corners travelogue is beautiful and most intriguing! I’m loving it!
    Ann

  2. Julia, WoW! What a life! I will never look at you in the same way, interesting! Thank you for sharing this fabulous site; shall share it with my travel friends! Truly enjoying this!
    Cinde

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