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kitchens around the world
(add your kitchen to the list! more info at the end of the post) it’s been a quiet, sunny, winter week here. so uneventful that i was scrolling through photos i took last year and couldn’t help but notice how many photos i took of kitchens i stayed in. the thing that fascinated me the most about spending time in someone’s house is their kitchen, especially if they are from a different country than me. like most people, i only knew the kitchen in the house where i was raised and there, we do things a certain way. so it’s super interesting to see what others’ kitchens look like and…
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how to enjoy versailles like royalty
i’m not a palace person. i’d much rather see how the peasantry or the middle-class live. real stuff, not rich peoples’ houses. but after urging from my friend monica (you need to go!) i figured on this, my third time in paris, i was ready to see the grandiose palaces of versailles. i decided to watch sofia coppola’s marie antoinette, which i had been meaning to see forever, and i fell in love. it quickly moved up the ranks to one of my favorite films that i know i can watch again and again. initially, the movie was panned for having too many costumes and not enough substance, but i…
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sublime paris + my airbnb open experience
on my fourth full day in paris, it was my mother’s birthday, so we had to go shopping in the opera district to spend two hours in the monki store and to stop by galeries lafayette to see their stunningly beautiful noel tree centerpiece. “i’ve spent four days here and still haven’t seen the eiffel tower yet!”, she told me, as we were riding the escalator to the terrace on the top floor level. “well….. look, there it is!” we didn’t have pre-sale tickets for the eiffel tower that afternoon (hot tip: buy your eiffel tower tickets as far in advance as you can! not a couple weeks, even in the off-season) but i…
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moments in paris, pt. I
the past week has not been an easy one. coming home from a dream holiday is always tough, but tougher has been coming to terms with the events of last week. however, now that the shock has started to subside, i have found solace in focusing on all of the wonderful parts of spending a glorious, warm november week in paris. #parisisaboutlife, after all, and you would be hard-pressed to find another city that is as vibrant as the city of light. i took a trip with my mother to celebrate her milestone birthday in a place she has always wanted to visit, but as i arrived first, i had…
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returning from paris
hello friends. if you’ve been following along on instagram, you will know that i was just in paris for the past week on a holiday… i opted not to blog during this time (i barely even answered emails the whole time) and to really be in the moment there. i am back safely to the czech republic, but something has really been on my mind and i can’t exactly talk about paris without referring to what happened there on friday night. before spending the past week in paris, the city to me was one of a handful of my favorites in europe, a city that i knew i would probably…
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a montmartre story
i promised i’d tell this story about what happened to alex and myself on our final day of spending two weeks in paris during the first vagabonding part of our adventure in 2012. some old-timer readers might remember it as a mention of this exists in the archives, but it definitely is deserving of a post all on its own. we had just spent a wonderful leisurely time in the city of lights taking things very slowly. one museum that day, two park visits the next day… slow travel style (you can read my nine day itinerary i used here). but something i never got to do yet was visit the…
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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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twenty-first century paris (an itinerary)
in october and november 2012 on my way to prague, i made a two week pit-stop in paris between london and berlin. before this i had spent only a few days there eight years before, so i was thrilled to experience the city for an extended amount of days, this time with alex who had never been to france. now, inspired by reading the paris wife, i wanted to share about my fourteen day parisian experience and what my itinerary looked like. i sublet a tiny studio apartment in the 13th arrondissement while the resident (a russian artist) was on a holiday in the states. her rent was about the…
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A Broad, Abroad: Secrets for Traveling Europe on a Budget
since i embarked on my very first trip to europe in 2004, fresh out of high school, i have learned an enormous amount about how to travel on the cheap. i am the self-professed queen of frugality (as well as a euro budget travel vet) and i cringe at paying full-price for anything. so here’s a list of excellent tips that i use all the time that will allow you to travel even in western europe for dollars a day. and even if you no longer like to travel on such a budget, these tips are just plain smart and will help you save money for the part of your…
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two weeks in paris, pt II
we arrived back in berlin this sunday after a tumultuous day of travel. our flight from paris was only and hour and a half, but alex had just developed a 24-hr stomach flu the night before so it was the worst possible time for the poor guy to get up and put a huge backpack on. i half expected him to want to cancel the flight but he didn’t even think about it– he just pressed on and i’m really proud of him for that. it was NOT easy. i didn’t get that OH i’m in berlin!!! feeling that i always get. instead i felt as if i was just coming home,…
