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Linz-erdays
took a weekend jaunt to linz, austria… just over two hours south of us by train and even faster by car. it’s the third largest city in austria and twice the population of budejovice. it doesn’t have the tourist draw of vienna, salzburg, or innsbruck but it was a medium-sized city in austria that was relatively close to get to. that’s mainly why i wanted to go, even though i found out later that linz does have a rich history but it’s just not quite talked about or as exciting as the other cities. who can compete with ‘the sound of music’, anyway? it’s also where people in budejovice go…
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travel bests & worsts
hey er’body! this weekend has been all about SERIOUS relaxing in preparation upcoming weekend jaunt to linz, austria. park days saturday, sunday, and even today before the nice weather goes away. also, finishing the wire’s last season (incredible: one of the best TV shows of the 21st century thus far for sure). today my class was canceled so i had a nice sit…. seeing how’s i’ve spent over nine months “on the road” and have lived almost entirely on things that i brought with me when i packed all my belongings up last july. it sure is daunting to pack for over a year, and i’m surprised it went so…
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a viennese easter
haven’t had a lot of time to post about easter holiday weekend as i’ve had to jump right into teaching madness: moderating another english competition (this one for 14-15 year olds) then zooming to three other parts of the city to give my lessons. although CB is a city of about 100,000 people, it is surprisingly compact and getting around from north to south really takes no time at all– even on the bus! so great. today i taught my first of three conversation classes at the university! only two people came, which was totally fine by me because it gives the students speaking time. the czech people get are taught…
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bratislava
just rolled in on a very comfortable bus trip back from slovakia! alex and i went over to bratislava (just under a 5 hour bus trip from prague) for a one night getaway. purpose: to apply for our visas (or trade licenses, to be more precise) so we can not only stay in the schengen zone and the CZ longer than three months, but so we can be legal to work here! and yes, you have to apply for your visa at a czech embassy in a country other than CZ. (I KNOW) but i guess it weeds out the people who don’t take it seriously, right? and we are…
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When You Miss the Country Right Outside Your Window (+ Holiday Plans)
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cooking in the CR
food, food, food. i love food. living in seattle, i got pretty dang good and cooking asian food and had some great resources– uwajimaya, huge asian superstore in south seattle. living near the ballard market was a big win for cooking in general as well. so after alex and i were finished with our work-stays in scotland and arrived in paris, we were now on our own for cooking. i fell into the cook position at that point and have been cooking almost all our meals ever since. i’ve never cooked consistently for two people before– as before i would feel free to make whatever super crazy healthy concoction i…
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berlin; arrived in prague!
i cannot believe there is less than a week until the american thanksgiving holidays! whoa! just spent approximately the last two weeks in my favorite city, berlin. i spent lots of time showing alex around some interesting historical sites like east side gallery, topographie of terror, and the bernauer strasse wall memorial. eating at my favorite restaurants was a thing to do by itself: thai huong snack: home of the 4 euro huge portion asian noodles with veg and pillowy delicious tofu! also delores california burritos: the restaurant that changed my mind about burritos. other things we did in berlin: ate lots of currywurst, got the flu (me), recovered from the flu, was…
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two weeks in paris, pt II
we arrived back in berlin this sunday after a tumultuous day of travel. our flight from paris was only and hour and a half, but alex had just developed a 24-hr stomach flu the night before so it was the worst possible time for the poor guy to get up and put a huge backpack on. i half expected him to want to cancel the flight but he didn’t even think about it– he just pressed on and i’m really proud of him for that. it was NOT easy. i didn’t get that OH i’m in berlin!!! feeling that i always get. instead i felt as if i was just coming home,…
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gay paris
paris update– life is good here, and in our little studio apartment in gobelins. the weather has been PERFECT for us (not too cold, blue skies and sun almost daily) and we’ve been enjoying kicking back, sleeping in, and exploring like it’s our job. there is so much to see in this city that twelve days leaves a mark, but a pretty small one. i keep stumbling onto new streets, like rue moffatard– famous latin quarter market street only a short jaunt from my place. or rue montmarte, or rue lombards! everything i find i wish i had found sooner. paris is WAY more expensive than i remember from visiting eight…
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rolling into london
“picadilly circus? what a shitty circus.” — garth just rolled into paris from london on a nine hour bus journey! (and remember kids, book your channel tunnel train tickets early!) it really wasn’t that bad since we were on a ferry for three hours of it. we were really lucky to be able to stay with one of our previous host’s sister, who lives in the pimlico district of london, so i felt right at home. my favorite part of london was the first night we got in which happened to be warm and calm (before it starting gradually pouring down rain): walking along the opposite side of the river…
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edinbURGH
finishing up our time here at the woodland estate in penicuik– it’s been a straaange but decent week. highlights of this week for me was definitely the opportunity to sing latin hymns with a small choir in the crypt of rosslyn chapel with our male host. rosslyn chapel was high on my radar and i sort of forgot it was in our neck of the woods here near edinburgh. this is the chapel featured at the end of both the novel and the movie ‘the da vinci code’. it’s particularly fascinating to me because of the strange religious groups connected with it and the mystery that surrounds it. it has…
