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santorini, pt. II: from imerovigli to ammoudi
{this post is third in the honeymoon in greece series– catch up if you’ve missed the others!} from our perch in beautiful imerovigli, every day i would stare out at the tip of land that curved around like an arm to the village on the very tip of the “hand”, oia (ee-uh), purportedly one of the most beautiful villages on the island. before arriving, i thought it would be fun to hike there from imerovigli but when i arrived, i saw it all laid out in front of me, above. (map via) how often do you actually see the path of your hike laid out in front of you? what…
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santorini, pt. I
the moment i’d been waiting for for almost a year: when our ryanair flight from athens touched down in santorini (thira) at 7:50am that mid-july morning, bright and early. the anxiety-inducing bright yellow and blue colors of the ryanair brand did nothing to ease my flying nerves*, nor did a greek yogurt and honey i’d recently ingested at the airport, NOR did the fact that the ascent and descent (least favorite parts) seemed to be the majority of the time of that very quick flight. but when we finally touched down (“WHERE IS THE LAND?!!!”, me, sweatily gripping the arm-rest moments before landing as we were still flying over the…
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touching down in greece
we had a bit of a stressful journey from the united states, which involved spending 9 total hours running here and there all over detroit wayne county airport and almost flying through thunderstorms in chicago (aiie!), and so much more, but eventually being allowed to board a super secret special direct red-eye to london and catching up with our original flight to athens. oh, athens! flying over the vicinity of this ancient city was so exciting: my first glimpse of the deep blue aegean sea and the dusty, rocky terrain with shrubby looking trees. i had never seen land like this before, and it wasn’t until that moment right before…
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unique czech gift ideas
it’s tough to figure out a meaningful gift to bring home from your holidays sometimes… especially a product actually made in the country and not shipped from china with “prague” emblazoned on it. why not try these ideas next time? totally czech, and your loved ones will definitely appreciate them. 1/ becherovka, the most popular herbal liquor choice! made from a secret blend of over 100 herbs and minerals from the karlovy vary region. (i don’t recommend trying to bring czech beer- too much hassle) also recommended: slivovice or moravian white wine. the more homemade/local, the better. 2/ oplatky, especially the kolonada brand. they’re round wafer cookies that come in many…
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honeymoonin’! stories from bloggers
hey y’all– i’m currently in greece on our long-awaited honeymoon! as an attempt to have as unplugged a trip as possible, i’ve rounded up some of my married lady expat-blogger friends to talk about how awesome their honeymoons were. i hope you enjoy their stories! how long have you been married for? in january we celebrated our four year anniversary.where did you go for your honeymoon? las vegashow did you decide to go there? there were a few factors that led us to las vegas: 1) we did not want to be cold and that cancelled out a lot of places in january, 2) we were on a budget and…
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restaurants i love: polonia in michigan, usa
i only add places to the “cafes/restaurants/etc. i love” section if it is an absolute love. and i think now after the third visit, we can finally at polonia polish restaurant in hamtramck, michigan to the list. i first visited polonia in 2011 on my very first visit to michigan to meet alex’s family. one can be a little nervous when they’re about to meet their boyfriend’s parents for the first time, but right after picking us up at the airport, they took us to polonia. all discomfort dissipated. polonia is located in a special place: hamtramck, michigan, a suburb of detroit. it used to be a old polish settlement…
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A Local’s Guide to České Budějovice
When I moved to Budějovice (international alias, Budweis) in 2013, there was almost no information online about this place, save for an extremely scant Lonely Planet blurb (and thank goodness for that!). Moving somewhere sight-unseen without knowing any information or what is actually there is a little unsettling, which is why I have for you this “visitor’s guide to České Budějovice” (pronounced chess-kay bood-yay-yo-vit-suh), written by a “new local”. As tourists have started to discover this city, more and more info is thankfully online, but I still present to you this guide I have written and keep updated. Whether you are looking into studying here, moving here, or maybe even making…
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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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thoughts on heading home
heading to my homeland, the united states, in the coming week for the first time in ALMOST THREE YEARS. this isn’t exactly weird to me, because i’ve lived it, but i can see how it would seem weird to everyone else. i suppose when your life is weird, these weird facts just grow on you! two years and nine months solely spent in europe. blam. i can’t help but wonder if i might freak out when i hear english around me all the time. or what i’m going to do to busy myself on a long-haul flight because the real last big one i took was in 2011. or if…
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kutná hora + remarkable czech churches
i’ve been meaning to go to kutná hora to visit the creepy sedlec ossuary just as long as i’ve been living here in the czech republic, but a foot injury prevented me, and plans were put on indefinite hold after we moved from prague; in the opposite direction as kutná hora. however, i am happy that we finally made it and spent a balmy spring day in this memorable little czech town about one hour east of prague. day trippin’, got to get away.. first, we ended up in sedlec, a cute little village only a kilometer or two from kutná hora, which is the sight of the famous sedlec…
