my favorite things

“raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
bright copper kettles and warm woollen mittens
brown paper packages tied up with strings
these are a few of my favorite things”

a fun assortment of things that make cynthia tick… or at least that light up my day. funnily enough, most of these are in some way related to travel. of course.

nudelboxes in berlin

doner kebaps, currywurst, and really legit fallafels from that place in neukölln are great, but i have been and will continue to be all about: the nudelbox. asian noodles. with vegetables. in a convenient, carry-out box. sometimes you can find nudelboxes with tofu, like from this place on skalitzerstrasse near schlesisches tor. especially lovely that you can grab it on the way somewhere and take it on public transport without getting everything (especially yourself) all messy.

open-air kinos

love of the outdoors, check. love of film, check. best way to combine them: spending a warm summer evening in a beautiful city park watching a great film! i like that even smaller cities are getting on board with this trend. pictured above, getting ready to watch the sound of music in ljubljana– it was the first time alex had seen it!

film festivals

as stated above, i enjoy a good movie but to be honest, i rarely allow myself the time to do so. i always have something going on: a book i want to finish, language to study, news to read, yoga to practice, lessons to plan. so, enter film festivals: the perfect excuse but do nothing but try to cram as many films as possible into a day (or week, if you’re lucky!). i’ve been a die-hard pass-holding attendee of the seattle international film festival, and have since also been to the karlovy vary international film festival here in the czech republic twice, as well as the berlinale once when our february break lined up with it. hooray, film tourism!

learning languages

always been an interest of mine from a young age, however it was only until recently that i realized: you don’t have to only study one at a time! (shock!) i had thought this ever since the day during university that i unceremoniously dropped spanish 203 and picked up german 101. all of that hard-learned spanish went right out the window… or so i thought. really, it has just turned into a passive knowledge which i suppose can be activated at a different time. so, in officially throwing out my personal “one foreign language only” policy, i am studying up on my german and just started taking czech seriously with private lessons (hooray!), and have been learning basic french for the past week or two with the app, duolingo, in preparation for heading to paris later this week (!!!). 

so many languages, not enough time. what languages are you into studying? (above, thanks dish soap, for reminding me of what a lowly teller-wäscher i am)

sweaters

not sure how i became such a sweater connoisseur… probably when i decided to finally embrace that northwest washington “no bad weather but bad clothing” ethic. now i am almost always wearing a sweater somewhere… my favorite being my scottish icelandic-style lopapeysa knit for me by a woman named mrs. davidson in edinburgh. (that’s what the tag says – big ups to you, mrs. davidson)

karaoke

above all other things on this list, this is one of the biggest favorites for me as i love love love to sing.  i take my karaoke pretty seriously, and back in seattle it was my favorite weekly or bi-monthly hobby, generally singing rock songs with a sprinkling of throwback pop. i miss this more than anything because budějovice has but one karaoke bar that i visited over two years ago and had a not so positive experience (besides when the entire bar sang "non-stop” by michal david in unison). sooo, i try to seek out a cool karaoke bar when i’m visiting a larger city. i’ve found some pretty decent ones, like this bar in kraków.

cheese

it should be known that my and alex’s first disagreement ever was about cheese.

situation: we were at his house, hanging out in the kitchen which was attached to the living room. he decided to randomly cut himself a slice of cheddar (mmm tillamook block) and eat it. without offering me any. certainly, he had learned his lessons and has never neglected to offer me cheese since. best cheese experience: oude kaas from a cheese shop in amsterdam. dutch cheese simply rules.

here in czechland, these really salty, smoky grilled cheese patties are always available at town festivals, and you can buy virtually this same cheese, in braided form, at any supermarket (it’s called korbačky – more about it here). this particular hunk (above) is from the ljubljana saturday market– definitely go if you get the chance!

the ocean

living in a land-locked country can be tough, man. it is getting easier but there was one stretch when i didn’t see the ocean for ten months (until visiting stockholm in 2013) and then went another ten months before a set foot in the adriatic in piran, slovenia (2014). i’m afraid these ten month stretches are normal these days, but living near a river and visiting ponds does help a little bit. now, i can say i completely cherish that salty sea smell the air gets sometimes on the west coast when that perfectly-angled gust of wind blows inland. (above, artemida, greece, 2015)

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do we have any favorites in common? 

linking up with emma for the november travel link-up