Who is She?

Hi! I am Yulia and this is my blog. I write about food, travel, and my life as a mom of two boys. Which means in this space you will find travel itineraries, recipes, and personal stories on motherhood and life at large. It hasn’t always been this way.

In 2015 I had a dream of becoming a travel blogger — mostly for the purposes of free hotel stays — and started a blog called The Foodie Miles. I was naive enough to think if I write well, people will somehow find me. And let me tell you, I didn’t even write well. This is my first ever post on this blog, in case you are curious.

It took a while to get traction. I traveled a lot, on my own dime, though. I kept writing and looking for my unique voice. I was a finalist for Saveur Blog Awards twice. Didn’t win, but felt grand, having learned the finalists were chosen out of 23 000 submissions.

I did rebranding and The Foodie Miles turned into That’s What She Had. Yes, I love The Office, thank you for asking! And When Harry Met Sally, too. If you got both references, we can definitely be friends.

After rebranding and Saveur nomination, I finally felt like I was on the right track and what do you think? A global pandemic happened and people stopped traveling. Ergo: who needs a travel blog? I veered into writing recipes, mostly Eastern-European, mostly veggie-focused. Oh and a tiny little detail, around the same time I had my first baby. With the little time I had for myself, creating recipes soon gave way to writing about motherhood.

Once my second son was born, I all but abandoned the blog, bar the posts about my journey as a mom. That I didn’t give up. I had to write it to make sense of it.

It’s weird how for the longest time I kept thinking that me not writing travel itineraries and recipes meant the blog was over. When in reality my posts about motherhood are the most authentic, honest, and creative out of everything I have ever written. They resonate with people and generate discussions more than my city guides or recipes ever could.

And that brings us to today. In 2025 the blog is turning 10 years old. Wait! What? How? My boys are 3 and 5 years old. I now have a bit more time for myself so travel guides are back! Including some about family travel. Never thought that was going to be my thing, but then again I never imagined settling in Germany, but here we are.

I am originally from Russia. My husband is from Sri Lanka. Since the blog was born we lived in Nashua, New Hampshire; Austin, Texas; Colombo, Sri Lanka; Nuremberg, Germany, and finally Hamburg, our current home. So if you wonder why there are quite a few posts with “A Local’s Guide” in title, that’s because I feel local in multiple places in this amazing world.