-
lake bled
dober dan! i can’t believe i haven’t told you about the rest of my full week in slovenia yet. i spent four nights in ljubljana soaking in all of those good vibes and day tripping to a sweet cave and a fantastic little town on the adriatic sea. but it was time for (what i thought was going to be) some lake-side relaxation. for that, we headed north on a easy seventy minute bus ride to bled, slovenia.bled, bled, bled. i had heard so much about you… maybe too much! we arrived in early afternoon and pitched our tent at the campground. yeah, there’s likely only one campground. even if…
-
lost in vary
we interrupt this slovenia post barrage to bring you dispatches from the 49th annual karlovy vary international film festival in beautiful karlovy vary, czech republic. today is the final day of this year’s fabulous festival, and i felt like talking about it. so here we go. after figuring out how things are done last year, alex and i came in ready to conquer the festival. we got in the secret “good line” at the box office an hour early and were first to get our tickets! we definitely learned that the key to film festival success is GET THERE EARLY, and we aced it so hard. this year, we spent…
-
june noms
ah yes, the time of the month i like to talk about food is here. june has been so inspirational to me in terms of cooking. perhaps it’s all the fresh produce available… or the retrograde in mercury… or the warm weather! whatever the reason, i’ve finally had a healthy dose of inspiration to make a bunch of fun recipes. all of them were alex tested and approved, and he put up with all this food photography. what a guy. mushroom & caramelized onion risotto: a healthy favorite of mine made with the two vegetables alex formerly disliked. i used no butter and only a tiny amount of milk to make…
-
summer travels 2014
i love the month of june (after SIFF finishes and my homesickness dissipates, of course). june means time to countdown the normal teaching weeks and dream about summer travels to come. for the second year now, we’ve been planning three trips each summer. the first, a shorter trip at the end of june (4-7 days) somewhere generally accessible by road or rail to us. last year it was the salzkammergut lake region of austria, this year it’s slovenia! secondly, our annual karlovy vary trip for the film festival– a tradition i will keep as long as i live here. and thirdly, in august after summer camps are finished, it’s time for…
-
june prague festing
another thing i love about living in czech republic: days in prague. because i’ve lived in prague for two months and been there dozens of other times, the activities i find most enjoyable these days involve taking advantage of festivals and trying out new cafes and restaurants. and yesterday it feels like we did it all. after the exotic food festival got moved back a day (booooo), we hit up the italian food festival happening in havlíčkovy sady, a large park south of namesti miru in vršovice (prague 10). i have to say, i wasn’t expecting to find such a beautiful parisian style park with lovely views from the top…
-
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…
-
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…
-
Kayaking in Sweden
i’ve kayaked once, in seattle’s lake union with my friend julie. the water there was blue, the paddling was hard– after a few minutes we both sort of just stopped because it was getting in the way of talking! but in a lake you feel very protected. after hearing kayaking stories from alex’s boss, marketa, i was determined to kayak in the stockholm archipelago! which is good…. because on a tiny island, there really isn’t a lot more to do! there’s as much walking and sunset watching as you can handle, but i really wanted to do something a bit adventurous and memorable. i asked at the cute little surf…
-
Europe-versary
one year ago today, we arrived in glasgow, scotland at about 5:40am local time. we came in from hot and sunny toronto and were practically freezing in the 13 C temperatures. even though it was the last day of august, it really felt like autumn has arrived. it marked the next chapter of our lives! so we’re calling today, “victory in europe day”. our V-E day. and thinking a lot about our time in scotland. as much as i like to live in one place here in CB, i am really looking forward to the day we get back on the road– no lease, no taxes or social security payments.…
-
A Surprise Berlin
when i returned from sweden, i had no intention of planning any more international trips this summer. but SURPRISE! i ended up planning an impromptu berlin weekend: summer’s last gasp. and it was a fabulous weekend to be in my lieblingsstadt: gorgeous weather and plenty going on. i’d only been in berlin for the summer once (2008) for a few days and fell in love with the buzz and energy i never quite fully felt when living there in the fall and winter months. winter in berlin can honestly feel like the darkest coldest place you can imagine that can make you want to hole-up in your flat drinking A&P…
