-
paris in the autumn
late october and the leaves are all yellow and orange… that sweet smell of fall is in the air… it really gets me reminiscing about how incredible it was to spend two weeks in paris this time of year two years ago. there was no agenda besides perusing the markets, snacking on brightly-colored macarons while people watching on boulevard st. germain, and maybe strolling through a famous garden or two. i may be closer to prague, but today i’m thinking about the other equally as historic and beautiful capital and i’m quite lucky to have sara on the blog today, an american transplant to paris who traded her new jersey bagels…
-
lately, october
i am in an adjustment period. last week was the first week of my new fuller, busier reality: a huge load of lessons that i happily took upon myself in a measure to save money for both our alpine christmas holiday, the big wedding, and associated costs with visiting the united states year for almost two months on the czech crown, which right now is even weaker than usual against the dollar after most european economies took a bit hit last week on the global market. sigh. on the plus side: now is a great time to travel in europe if you make north american money. the weather is good…
-
ode to czech republic
today, it’s early autumn in the heart of europe on the verge of the weekend. many leaves are now shades of yellow and orange, it’s sunny with warm breezes at 22 ˚C. when i walk along the cobblestones to the old town square and and gaze around at all the architectural beauty and the rolling bohemian hills in the background, i can’t help but imagine all the great people who have lived here before me and walked the same streets. nowhere is this feeling of history in the air more pronounced than in the hlavní město of prague, especially on a wander on charles bridge, heading east towards old town. the…
-
řijen / october
i bring you: silly czechpat tales from the first week of october! on monday, i noticed a reasonably fashionable dressed young woman on the street… carrying a whole tomato that she had just taken a bite out of like an apple. had to text alex about what kind of silly country we live in. that evening, i famously had a huge ramble session with myself about life here and life in the united states that alex kept cracking up about. i was in a philosophizing mindset, thinking about how life might be if we moved back to the states, but i probably should’ve just wrote it down in a journal instead of…
-
broke as a joke: the $35 grocery challenge
i mentioned at the beginning of september that this month is typically known as the month of austerity measures. this is because we return home from our august travels, each year seemingly bigger than the year before it, and realize we have not budgeted properly to get by normally the following month. (we’ll get there one day) it doesn’t help that the first payday post-vacation is early october. so, it was time for drastic measures. i instated a $35-40 grocery store challenge (two people, one week) last monday. before the big trip (everyone’s favorite discount market, LIDL to be the store of choice), i carefully planned cheap but healthy items to…
-
září/september
september is here again in south bohemia. all the little kiddos are scrambling around with their new backpacks and school supplies and the leaves on the trees in na sadech park are just beginning to turn the slightest hint of orange. just like my hair has! this may be a fluke and i may need a couple more weeks to correctly prove this, but people here in budĕjovice seem to be friendlier lately. i cannot for sure tell if this is czech republic smiling upon me after my grand return from summer trips abroad (reason one), everyone has been in a good mood these days (reason two), my own good mood…
-
Hallo-Week
hello listopad (november) in czech republic. i’ve seen you somewhere before. oh yeah– it was last year when we moved into you! yes, we arrived on a train from berlin fraught with worry and anxiety over an incident with the ticket checker and also our failure to follow instructions and meet our contact person at the correct place and time at hlavni nadraži (central station), prague. finally we were whisked away by taxi and shown to our simple apartment on kolbenova street, vysočanska district (prague 9). boy, that day was a culture shock. and going to one of the many chinese restaurants to realize we couldn’t say anything… not a lick…
-
Passau Passt – An Autumn Bavaria Trip
we had a three day weekend thanks to czech national day! three day weekends are just made for trips. so we went to bavaria to a lovely little city on the SE german/austrian border called passau. passau is a small city in south-eastern bavaria (at approx 50,000 it has only half the population of ceske budejovice) and is only a four hour train ride away, with a change in linz, austria. (a great reminder of why living in europe is so wonderful and always exciting: getting anywhere in a short amount of time!) i wanted to go to passau because during my prior travels in germany (which are admittedly quite…
-
Lately, Fall Pt. II
this has been a weird week. the weather has been strange (highs of 20’C some days!) and been thinking a lot about the czech republic. one day loving it, the next, exhausted by the stares of crabby old people. thinking about friends, about relationships, about life, about home….. but at least it wasn’t as weird as last week with no electricity, hot water or heat! so thankful to be warm. preparing now for a nice little weekend in eastern bavaria! i haven’t been to bavaria in years, and i’m rather looking forward to a little shopping, some mugs of helles from a famous old brauerei, rich history and architecture and…
-
Desperate Times
sometimes i feel like alex and i are like harry and lloyd from dumb and dumber. living together in a former communist central european country where we don’t speak the language with only each other to count on, when it comes down to it. i realized this yesterday, which was day three of the great unexplained power outage. at one point i sat there in my hoodie that doesn’t zip anymore thinking, okay. we have no food. we have no money. my employer is two days late with the paycheck. we have no hot water… we have no heat… my phone is out of minutes…. “our pets’ heads are falling off!”…
