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first video! “one month in iceland”
i’ve been meaning to start making videos forever, and maybe this is what it will take to give me a little jump! i’ve edited together some videos i took over the four weeks in iceland + some funny moments that maybe you would enjoy seeing. the video was filmed at the following places (generally, in this order):flatey islandstykkishólmurat the farm in borgarbyggd (also again near the end) Þjórsá riverdyrhólaeyreynisfjara beachjökulsárlón glacier lagoonon the road in southeast iceland i’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments! thanks for following along. xo this post is part of wanderful wednesday.
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indian summer
babí léto. altweibersommer. (both names relating to old people!) whatever you want to call it, we are experiencing one heck of an indian summer in central europe. it is now the perfect temperature for things like hiking! it occurred to me last week that i was not in a rut, per se, but forgetting that i live in europe and how much there is to explore around here. i promptly planned two local trips to celebrate st. wenceslaus day holidays that grace the end of september here in czechland. the first was finally climbing klet’ hill (last time, we took the chair-lift!) and hiking down into krumlov for some folklore festivities. what…
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west is the best?
the first taste i got of how laid-back iceland is was on the way to stykkisholmur on the snaefellsnes peninsula in west iceland by bus. the bus left late from the capital because the driver was busy helping two backpackers fit their bicycles in an already packed luggage compartment. we were about fifteen minutes late, and the connection time to catch the second bus in bogarnes was a scant five minutes. after we passed akranes and started for borgarnes, i began silently freaking out. yes, i was that guy who asked the bus driver (when nobody else seemed to care) if he could radio the other driver to tell him…
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sunday cookin’: yorkshire pudding & mushroom gravy
alright, i admit it! not officially participating in the bake off bake along this year has me feeling a bit shut out of the kitchen. although it’s lovely, because i can bake when/what i want, i did want to try something that really grabbed me from the show if i saw anything. as i watched last week’s “batter” episode of this season of the great british bake-off, i smiled as they announced the contestants had to make yorkshire puddings. my personal experience with yorkshire puddings is kind of silly:the first evening in our cottage in arisaig, scotland, i went rifling through the freezer to see what past guests had left behind and saw…
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at summer’s end
even before returning from iceland (heck, even before i went to iceland), i was hopehopehoping that the czech summer still would be in full swing to welcome me back with open (sunny and warm) arms and man, have i not been disappointed in the least! we have been having such a wonderful time since we’ve been back: rafting on the vltava, barbecues, warm summer night gatherings and pool parties, every meal al-fresco out on the balcony… it has really been the third chapter of summer i have been hoping for. however, i am feeling a bit like phil from wayne’s world today: partied out (again)! with the cool temperatures returning…
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how to move to the czech republic to teach english
i get a loooot of questions about how best to start teaching english in the czech republic and steps you need to take to be able to do this and be successful at it. so, i’d figured i’d help y’all out with this big honkin’ post! if this is not your thing, welp, then i’ll see you back here in a few days! first off… GET TEFL CERTIFIED if you get your TEFL (teaching english as a foreign language) certificate in prague, it’s going to help you big time with not only the connections to schools you’re going to need later, but also just helpful day-to-day things (like which bins to…
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tahiti or iceland? when hiking near skaftafell (part of vatnajökull national park in southeast iceland) on a dreamy, warm summer morning, you can’t really be sure sometimes! tropical-looking plants, mountains, waterfalls, colorful wild flowers and sun like nobody’s business. what really is the difference? the waterfall there surrounded by gorgeous, black basalt columns is svartifoss, about 3km from the trail-head at the campsite, where we stayed. there are so many marvelous hiking trails from this area that one could really stay for days and be satisfied here! not to mention the beautiful glacier always looming overhead. just had to pop in with some biiiig photos to share with you my “is it…
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hi, september
there is nothing more invigorating than being away on a long trip and then getting to come back to your lovely home and cook, clean, read books, garden, run out to the drugstore (like i was doing here, above) and do all of those boring household things that are suddenly anything but boring… in the beautiful warm weather which is most decidedly still summer. our adopted home of the czech republic always smiles upon us after we’ve been away every august; i have no idea why. maybe it’s trying to win us over again after we’ve cheated on it with some other country. but we always come back to you,…
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camping road trip, iceland style
hi all! did you have a wonderfully warm and sunny august? i’m back (home) in the czech republic and newly invigorated by this iceland trip, having unexpectedly experienced both sunny and warm weather on the trip. it was a fantastic month, but i wanted to share with you a little about our camping road trip! we spent four days crossing iceland’s south coast, from reykjavik to jökulsárlón and back, which including our interior driving near the southwest golden circle area put us at about 1,000km. why the south coast? well. i was not a newbie to iceland, but having never visited the south coast before, i felt as though it…
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little farm by the canyon
hi guys! how’s your august been? you may know that we are spending almost the entire month of august in iceland, to really do it right this time. the main thing i wanted to do this summer was work-stay (as i have missed it and travel so very much since our adventure began in scotland almost four years ago!) and really build the trip around that. we were so fortunate to be able to do our farm stay on a beautiful little farm in reykholtsdalur in western iceland. when our host picked us up, i was in awe of the landscape around us on the drive there. high, green mossy…
