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the place i can’t get out of my head
i don’t know where my obsession with iceland came from… because it is an obsession, full-blown. maybe it was in college at some point when an acquaintance of mine did a one month seminar in reykjavik in the mid-aughts. it was the first time i had ever heard of someone going to reykjavik, besides that one time the mighty ducks went there to play the “evil icelanders” in D2: the mighty ducks. but i digress. i became quickly enchanted with even the idea of visiting this island that met all of my criteria for a fascination: isolated. island. big enough, but not too big. a mysterious history steeped in myth.…
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still learning travel lessons, in brno
i am learning to be a minimal packer, and i’m starting to feel pretty good about it. when i go on a trips for just a night or two, i can fit everything in a normal-sized backpack, for sure. i even pride myself on certain packing choices, for instance, my tiny slipper socks. i bring those for some extra comfort on the road, because sometimes you need something between winter boots and socks for padding around the room or property. also, my lightweight cotton bathrobe. easily doubling as an after-swim cover-up, it’s much nicer to throw on over pajamas or underwear when you need to run out to the shared…
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my anxiety: how it’s going
i never knew what a panic attack was until the year before moving to europe, 2011. earlier that year, i had experienced the worst airline turbulence of my life…. alone… in the middle seat… on my way home from my grandma’s funeral in minnesota. it was so bad, i can barely talk about it. this is about as much detail as i can give. after this happened, i started driving like an eighty-year old woman and began feeling very uncomfortable riding in the car with a fast driver or going too fast on any transport in any circumstances. my fear of heights shot up from “pretty bad” to “nearly crippling”.…
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a year of life & travels: 2017
today is new year’s day and it’s time for a recap of last year! it was another great year of being based in southwestern czech republic, feeling like home both here and back in my home country (and realizing that “home” is just a construct), and going to some magical places. let’s revisit them, shall we? i changed the title of this year’s post to “life & travel” because, as i learned last year, travel isn’t everything and it is also important to capture what else was going on in one’s life. although for this post, it still remains the focal point. (don’t worry) so without further ado…. in january, we…
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christmas in the bavarian alps
i hope you had a wonderful christmas and are still enjoying the holiday season! as i mentioned in my last post, we zipped away for five days to enjoy christmas in berchtesgaden, germany which is nestled literally between bavarian alps on every side and has a lovely and historical downtown. i’ve wanted to visit this town for years… really only a couple train rides from our little budejovice. berchtesgaden is only about fifteen kilometers from salzburg (really, just over the austrian border). you can take a regional bus from salzburg to get to berchtesgaden in fifty minutes, which is what we decided to do on the way there – it was…
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autumn moravian wine trip, take two
living in central europe, autumn conjures up feelings of, among other things, harvest with plentiful beer and wine. i am fortunate to live in a country that currently does both quite well, but you have to travel a little bit to get to the wine part, which is the south moravian region; essentially, the southeast corner of the country bordering austria and slovakia. after we returned from the united states, it was time to kick trip planning for the rest of the year into high gear, and i somehow managed to find a couple nights’ accommodation on late notice in an area we’ve been wanting to see for a little…
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discovering (more of) oregon
i have severely overestimated the amount of downtime i would have on our big trip back to the united states this summer. i had quite enough last summer in iceland, isolated on a farm with no means of transportation in borgarbyggd (west iceland) and only my own two feet to explore the hills and tiny nearby villages, but this summer has been a different story altogether and so different than my trip home two years ago. then, there was a real abundance of time, but i’ve had to be so strategic with what i do each day or how many people i can visit over the past almost five weeks.…
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this great american city
hello, all! we’ve been back in the united states for about three weeks now and it’s been a whirlwind through four different states; visiting family and friends, attending important weddings, and loooads of travel by air, bus, and train. now we’ve mostly stopped in one place long enough for me to write a little somethin’ – thanks for your patience. the days leading up to our flight to the u.s., i wasn’t as much of a nervous wreck as i was, knowing i was about to fly out on our big trip last year, but this time, the only hard thing was leaving behind our pup. i had no idea…
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the vary many ways that i love you
at some point, going to the karlovy vary international film festival year became more than just a one year thing. now, after four years, it has become basically mandatory for us and one of my most favorite summer getaways. since i’ve never been to karlovy vary while the festival hasn’t been on (except for the day before and after which are always a bit sad, really), i am honestly not sure if i’d like to visit during the rest of the year. i’m not sure i’d like one without the other. what is the festival without vary, and what is vary without the festival? i love the buzzing streets, how…
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in the heart of the spa triangle
on our way up to karlovy vary for this year’s festival (more to come on that later), we stopped by petite mariánské lázně (marienbad), only a handful of kilometers from the german border where we arrived by an excellent, fast pendolino train. in addition to karlovy vary which we know quite well by now, i consider mariánské lázně to be another town that makes up northwestern czech republic’s famed “spa triangle” (with františkovy lázně making up the third point). i had heard enough about this little town (called one of the most beautiful in the country) to want to make a little stop there… and i was fully dedicated to…
