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travel dreamin’ 2015
my goodness, the weather is dreary this week. two weeks ago i was in such a fantastic mood because of all the sunshine (even though it would always get right in my eyes during yoga), but now we’re back to the typical total spring weather: heavy wind, flash showers, cool temperatures. i woke up to a thin blanket of snow on the ground outside… some cruel april fool’s joke, no doubt. it’s helped to daydream about fairer, distinctly more french locales lately. i am so excited that my mom and i are planning on meeting up to celebrate her milestone birthday in style… in gay paris! not only am i…
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calm before the storm
mild sunny days mixed with rainy cloudy ones, but the latter still seem anything but gloomy. i see the peace in them, especially on a quiet friday morning to myself with an over-sized mug of chai with milk and honey and a big bowl of oatmeal (my favorite, banana with cinnamon and chia seeds) topped with dried cranberries, walnuts, and brown sugar. these rare rainy sort of days we don’t often see in south bohemia make me feel so peaceful, calm and relaxed. i really don’t miss the rain too much and moving here to a sunnier climate has been really lovely. sometimes months pass without a drop of rain,…
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end of (school) year
i’ve been a bit relaxed lately. maybe it’s all the warm weather giving me visions of summer, the constant student cancellations, or the fact that i have only one more week of teaching before our summer holidays, but i can’t even be bothered to set an alarm clock lately. especially yesterday, when i woke up four minutes after my german class had begun. i managed to make it in forty-five minutes later and felt like i owed the class some explanation. i proffered a simple: “ich bin nicht aufgestanden.” (i didn’t get up). they were amused. so much for that perfect lipstick/ponytail/preparedness thing i had going for awhile. not even…
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hot hot hot
what a beautiful warm weekend we had here in south bohemia! between celebrating our “minus one anniversary” with spanish food eaten outside on the adorable street behind me (above) and seeing electric light orchestra in the middle of the budvar brewery’s loading dock…. to the fabulous annual slavnosti piva české budějovice (beer festival) and hanging out in the shade beside the river, it’s been a rrrreal good one. i’m enjoying a surplus of bergamot (lemon mint) and finally figured out that the thing to do with it is make MINT ICED TEA– the ultimate cooling summer beverage! and as it’s going to hit 32C (90F) today and for much of this…
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from the church to the palace
on sunday, we took an excursion for the day to the south-south-south of south-west czech republic near the border of austria to a little town called vyšši brod with the intention of hiking 10km to rožmberk nad vltavou. both of these towns are situated on the vltava river, both are meccas for rafting and canoeing enthusiasts, and both have tourist value, so it seemed like a perfect idea, especially at under an hour and a half by train from české budějovice.we landed in vyšši brod around 9:30am and headed up to the monastery. you can visit the monastery complex and go on a tour every day except sundays, so instead we lingered…
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the little things pt. I
happy moments both big and small deserve to be celebrated, and may was full of both of these. the month started out with a bang of happiness, as it was a public holiday and i began the day with a morning bike ride along the vltava river to give a lesson for two of my favorite little students. there is absolutely nothing like a bike ride along the river to give me really positive feelings about life here in budějovice, and to just generally boost my mood with all of the visuals of the river and blooming flowers. on the second day of may, what’s better than to hang out with…
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a few of my favorites from our first engagement shoot on friday morning, which took place in the pretty city center of the town where we live. it was two days after our third (dating) anniversary so it felt like a great morning to celebrate love. spring is love. (click on a photo to activate a larger slide show) all photos courtesy of the talented jan pirgl.
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café i love: kavárna liberál, prague
i’ve not yet spent a good chunk of time in prague in the spring, so i was overjoyed to find myself there on a warm sunny day with all flowers fragrant and in bloom. we were in holešovice (a district north of the river) to go to the annual holešovice fashion market at the pražská tržnice hall near the river, which was fantastic and super hip– there was bahn mi sandwiches on offer, fancy juice drinks, liquor, single-origin coffees, anything you could hope for. lots of czech fashionistas sitting around smoking, drinking, and people watching… but, we were craving a calmer atmosphere so we took off for heřmanova street to…
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spring im schaugarten
i am definitely procrastinating my german homework right now, but i figure if it’s talking about my time at the lovely kittenberger erlebnisgarten (botanical garden) in the wachau valley of austria, then that’s kind of german language related! going to the kittenberger gardens was to be the main point, the highlight of the day trip… and besides the dazzling danube scenery, it was my favorite part of the day. i had been tantalized with talk that kittenberger has a fabulous bio restaurant, called the glas.haus, where they make all of their entrees fresh using herbs and plants from the garden. YES! I’M HUNGRY! while the three other ladies we came…
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rainy wachau valley
phewww, still out of breath from the weekend. mainly, because i said YES to everything. yes, i will go to a concert of a legendary 1980’s czech punk rock band! yes, i will go to the easter market in the square and eat all the food! and when my tour-guide landlord came and knocked on my door at 8:30pm saturday night and asked if i wanted to go to the wachau valley in north-central austria at 7:00am the next morning… well, of course i did! so we set off bright and early, crossing the border into austria about forty-five minutes into the car ride. as soon as you cross the border,…
