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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
