• Summer

    spring around here

    officially, spring has sprung and since easter weekend, we’ve had a handful of gorgeous warm days here in south bohemia with highs above 22ºC! (although you wouldn’t know it by how bare most of the trees here still are!) i’m still not quite used to this continental european “spring”. it seems to come in mid-april, still with bare trees sometimes, and by early june, we are blasted with either heat-wave temperatures (or rain and floods, depending on the year). spring is a blink-and-you-miss-it affair, unlike western washington with our first cherry blossoms blooming in late february! i’m really trying to get into it this year, though… embrace those mild temperatures…

  • Summer

    august in bohemia

    on the last day of being in athens, i was ready to come back to the czech republic. that sounds kind of awful to write about the last day about your long-awaited honeymoon and i hate to admit it, but the intolerable heatwave had me dreaming of breezy czech august days. getting back to the flat. cooking. getting back to normal.  boring stuff like that. fortunately it’s been far from boring. after summer camp, we’ve made it a mission to tick a handful of experiences off of the list. you know, that list you make when you move somewhere of things to do and places to go that you just…

  • Summer

    biking bohemia

    after getting my bike back in ship-shape just in time for the nice weather, i decided to take a first pedal of the year last weekend. the weather was supposed to be around 23°C and mostly sunny, and with alex busy, it was time for me to finally take the pedal to hluboká nad vltavou, the next town of any repute to the north, on what has been called the busiest cycle path in the entire country! it is an easy 12km from my house to hluboká, riding along the river vltava most of the time before veering off into the adorable village of bavorovice, then on along some ponds…

  • Summer

    castled out

    eventually after living in a new place for awhile, what was once a novelty can become downright tiresome. and friends, i am almost ashamed to admit, that after touring castle upon castle upon castle, i am officially castle’d out.i realized this as i was planning our little easter getaway to somewhere in the czech republic, which was one of the most frustrating trip planning experiences i’ve had to date. i was trying to plan a jaunt across south-central czech republic stopping at many lovely small towns with great historic value. but i just didn’t feel interested. and why shouldn’t i? these cities are beautiful! some were UNESCO world heritage sites!…