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the vary many ways that i love you
at some point, going to the karlovy vary international film festival year became more than just a one year thing. now, after four years, it has become basically mandatory for us and one of my most favorite summer getaways. since i’ve never been to karlovy vary while the festival hasn’t been on (except for the day before and after which are always a bit sad, really), i am honestly not sure if i’d like to visit during the rest of the year. i’m not sure i’d like one without the other. what is the festival without vary, and what is vary without the festival? i love the buzzing streets, how…
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dispatches from vary
karlovy vary film festival – the stretch of days that threatens to consume and swallow you whole, deep in the mire of film viewing where you might never crawl back out again! in the best way possible. in any case, it was our third year at our favorite annual festival and we both had so much fun over the past week. some days were pretty lovely, some days were a little nuts, but all were good. in the past when i visited karlovy vary, i posted a lot about the hilly spa town that is certainly one of the most beautiful places in the country. however this year, i’m not…
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lost in vary
we interrupt this slovenia post barrage to bring you dispatches from the 49th annual karlovy vary international film festival in beautiful karlovy vary, czech republic. today is the final day of this year’s fabulous festival, and i felt like talking about it. so here we go. after figuring out how things are done last year, alex and i came in ready to conquer the festival. we got in the secret “good line” at the box office an hour early and were first to get our tickets! we definitely learned that the key to film festival success is GET THERE EARLY, and we aced it so hard. this year, we spent…
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Vary Good Times
hello friends. i’ve just been to karlovy vary for one of my most anticipated trips of this summer– the karlovy vary international film festival! i am a film festival addict. from the very first summer i lived in seattle (2005) i have been involved with SIFF; first as a patron, then volunteered, and finally interned for three years in guest relations. i count down the days until the film festival catalog comes out every year, and then spend hours poring over the films and making a detailed color-coded google calendar. this year was the most special because: i’m not working!!! no job to go to, just as many films as i…
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Summer, Lately: Celebrations & Life With a 12 Month Old
We had a beautiful month of June here in South Bohemia. I have to say that I feel like I was so tired for at least half the month and had no idea why… until I realized that the allergy meds I am taking every other day for hay fever make me terribly drowsy. I am quite ready for allergy season to be over (still sneezing) but at least June was spent in a dreamy sort of daze. It started with a beautiful choir concert performed at a little festival in an apple orchard near Lišov. What an amazing setting and reminder (just when I really needed it) of how…
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Year of Life & Travels: 2022
2022 was such a big beautiful year, especially compared with the two that came before it. This was the year I finished out my first full school year (not online at all!) at my new place of work. I worked my little booty off, knowing it would be the end of my free time, earning both an Intermediate Certificate in Herbalism (two years of work!) in late April and a B2 Certificate (Upper-Intermediate) in German language achievement from the Goethe-Zentrum in early June. But obviously, the biggest thing – I spent the first half of the year growing a baby! In the middle of the year, giving birth, and the…
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Summer, Lately + Prague Eats!
You know it’s summer when it’s stormy and the reality TV shows are back on! I wish I could write here more often, and I hope I will, but writing a post takes so, so many hours of editing and perfecting. Maybe I’ll do more but “imperfect” posts? (says the perfectionist) Ah well. July, one of my absolute favorite months is now fully under way and things are in a much better place for us here. Coming out of May was rough (as you might’ve inferred from the title of this post) but the wrapping up of a school year always makes me so happy, as do celebratory post-school-year trips…
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Looking Back on KVIFF: Film Festival Memories
It doesn’t really feel like summer in the Czech Republic for us without KVIFF – the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. We’ve been attending nearly every year since we arrived here and as you may have guessed, they made the wise decision to cancel what would have been the 55th edition taking place this week. It hasn’t all been a no-film doom and gloom scenario, though. As I’ve raved about on social media, KVIFF participated in the We Are One Global Film Festival in late May, along with something like sixteen other festivals (such as Cannes, Venice, Toronto, Berlin, etc) and it was such an incredibly enriching experience to have…
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What My Czech Republic Travel List Looks Like These Days
And no… I’m not going to call it my Czech list. It’s been interesting to see that different people are coping with this pandemic situation in different ways. Some people are writing and communicating a lot more than usual. Some people prefer not to mention it and have pretty much stopped posting on social media. Everyone’s confused. Nobody knows how to plan anything anymore. I mean, when this headline came out (“Czech borders could be closed as long as two years”) came out earlier last week, many of us were bummed. Upon discussion with a few other people about this terrible two year announcement, most people think that the borders…
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Year of Life & Travels: 2019
Hello all! Hope you had beautiful holidays if you were celebrating! The Czech celebrating period seems to go for about two weeks so I am still enjoying the beautiful downtime, lit candles, all of our decorations and tree – this time is honestly one of my absolute favorites of the whole year, even though Christmas is over. We’ve just had a nice holidays in the Salzkammergut lake region of Austria, not very far at all from Salzburg (but in the smaller villages). I will post about it soon but I wanted to get to the annual and much anticipated (by me, if nobody else) ‘Year in Life and Travels’, 2019…