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říjen / rambles
goodness, i needed a day like today. when half of your classes cancel and so does your czech class, it was a godsend on a day like today when i just couldn’t wake up for several hours. i got in some good paris research (so excited to head there soon!) as well as research for day-trips and slight updates here on the blog, like the destinations page updated with all of the greece pages! you may have caught that i said czech lessons. yep, finally cynthia (and alex) have enrolled in private czech lessons. let’s hope this experience goes better than the first one, but i have every reason to…
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the bake off bake along, week 10 (finals)
you guys. it’s been a long road these past ten weeks, but the great british bake off bake along has come to an end. i went from a completely novice baker who only made cookies to a person who made biscotti, creme brulee, a frickin’ seven layer czech cake with no sugar in it, and so many more. i learned so many baking terms. i made custard at least three different times. i would say i am no longer afraid to attempt those recipes that seem a little out there; that this baking challenge has made me realize that i can do it. i mean, if i can do a…
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hello, october + a woodland walk
hi friends, i was just reading an article in the local budejovice rag, milk and honey, about the lazy days of summer (it was an old issue!) that got me seriously jonesin’ for summer’s return already. no! not happening!so i am turning my face away from the hot, everlasting summer of two thousand fifteen that was to the pleasant autumn, recounting all of my favorite autumn things. first thing that comes to mind: pumpkin everything. along with the ubiquitous (or perhaps here, not so much) pumpkin spice lattes, it means pumpkin soup! pumpkin cookies from my absolute favorite recipe. pumpkin coconut curry.lighting a pumpkin-scented candle and a bubble bath. reading…
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prague autumn magic
i am totally down with visitors, man. i think if i was in a bigger or more well-known city, i would probably have more friends passing through, so i am pretty much ecstatic when someone comes to visit. enter, long-lost college buddy, monica, who happens to be a fellow seattle to europe expat living in luxembourg! we had so much fun taking her to all of the tasty nom-nom places, wandering old town at night just waiting for that fifteen second “morality play” at the beautiful astronomical clock. climbing major hills for some of the best views over the city. buying halloween costume implements at the costume shop. drinking our…
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lately, september
time for coffee chat & catching up! + last weekend (above) was so beautiful and warm that something particularly summery was in order… and what is more summery than a picnic! just to throw a big middle finger to fall and be all, hey, it’s not time for you yet… back off. (alright, i know autumn is creeping on us and i do actually embrace it!) + a strange a wonderful phenomenon has occurred with the changing of the weather into autumn and getting out the cold weather coats for the first time: MONEY! there have been two recent instances within a recent one week span of pulling out a good…
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the bake off bake along, week 6
week 6 of the bake-off brings us to pastry week! we had to pick from a frangipane tart, flaounas (a cypriot cheese pastry), or a gazillion vol-au-vents (puff pastry hors d’ourves). though i really wanted to give the flaounas a go because they looked delicious, i happened to be the recent recipient of a bag of apples. it’s apple season! so i knew it was apple frangipane tart time. there is no way i could find almond paste, key ingredient of a frangipane, in czech grocery stores. they do have loads of marzipan, because central europe, but in the end, i actually made by own. first i decided to make…
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lately, november
hi friends! we’re almost at the end of the month now and i’ve seen the mild weather go from pleasant and sunny to cold in almost an instant… funny as i was just bragging about our warm weather as recently as last weekend. no longer! this month has so far seen golden autumn countryside walks, celebrating our second “czechaversary”, and the first weeks of hosting travel tuesday! here’s what else has been up… … eating: the past few weeks haven’t been too kitchen friendly. it’s honestly felt more like a chore a lot of times and i kept buying only ingredients for one certain kind of food. for example, one week we…
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a forest wander. have you ever gone out for a hike or walk and just end up somewhere completely different than you had originally planned for (by accident)? this happened to me on a lovely sunday hike through the forests of nearby rudolfov (an old nearby mining village, pictured above). i definitely had a different destination in mind but was shocked to find myself right back to where i started! but oh well, at least the walk was good… and scenic! november can be such a great time for walks, especially in this mild, golden weather which is fading fast. lastly: you know you’re really in the czech countryside when…
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halloween abroad pt. III
i love halloween. it always reminds me of roasty, sweet smelling jack-o-lanterns on a cold night and eating candy while watching halloween cartoons at home under the glow of the orange pumpkin lights in the window. so after a pair of mediocre halloweens spent abroad (one in paris, the other here in budějovice), i’ve decided it was time for me to step up my halloween game. this… this would be the year we actually plan a good costume, dress up and go out, ready for the best of what czech halloween had to offer. in the lead-up to the holiday, i planned plenty of quality halloween programming. after the viewing…
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autumn, unplugged
when you’re so excited to spend many a morning in bed reading blogs, a three day internet outage really isn’t timed so perfectly over a leisurely five day weekend. times like that sometimes make you wonder what your other hobbies are. (i just know that they exist… i think) let’s just say my german got a decent amount of refreshing and i made loads of headway on a book i wasn’t so sure about but finally got into. although annoying, those periods of unplugging are good for the soul. and yes. i said five day weekend. tuesday was czechoslovak statehood day: the day in 1918 when czechoslovakia because an independent…
