So… it’s been almost a month since I returned from Europe. It still feels like only yesterday that I was strolling the streets of Paris. Funny, before the trip, I did not have much affinity for Paris despite having visited there in 2009. Perhaps it was the fact that I sprained my ankle as I…
The last few days have been less touristy than usual. Jim’s conference has gotten underway, and he is preoccupied with that. Also, the weather has been rainy and chilly – not the best for wandering around gardens and monuments. On Tuesday morning, I was feeling a little rough around the edges, so we got a…
I’m feeling a little dogged right now, but I’m going to power out this blog entry regardless! On Saturday, we caught a City Night Line train from Prague to Cologne, Germany. We had the bad fortune to end up in a sleeper cabin right next to a kitchen from which clanking beer bottles were regularly…
Before I delve into the smells of Europe, let me describe our last day in Prague. As our train was not leaving until around 6:30 p.m. (or 18:30 in Europe-speak, in which I am now fluent), we had asked about leaving our bags at the apartment until later in the afternoon and were told this…
I have noticed several recurring themes in Prague that repeat themselves daily. First, brides. There are a ton of brides roaming around various parts of the city, followed by an entourage of photographers and videographers. Their dress dragging across the dirty cobblestone. We think that perhaps we are not seeing them on their wedding day but…
This morning for breakfast, we decided to try the bakery across the street from our apartment. I was able to decipher some words in Czech that were similar to English, and I bought us two different pastries that had broccoli in them. Oh.My.God. I swear to you that these were the most delicious pastries I…
Today we decided to wander around Prague to see what was near us. As it turns out, there’s a lot! We stumbled upon an outdoor market with beautiful vegetables. I’m hoping to find it again so I can buy some apples. Then we came upon two rows of food vendors. It’s been difficult to find…
Despite the fact that the beds in our train cabin were extremely comfortable, I did not sleep much. The train is noisy and jostles around, and I’m just not good at sleeping in those conditions. This, of course, didn’t help my cold, which has now, as I write this, blossomed into completely plugged sinuses. I…
I am unfortunately fighting off a cold right now but still managing to have a good time. Somehow I remembered London being more expensive than it turned out to be on this trip. I now know that London can be fairly reasonable, but Zurich is the pits! Every time I got a tall (aka small)…
This morning Jim and I ate a traditional European breakfast of bread, meat and cheese… really good bread, really good cheese and really good prosciutto. Yum. It was actually sort of brunch because we ate it so late. In the early afternoon, Esther met us at the hotel, and we all went to the Zurich…
I didn’t sleep too hot at Esther’s, for what reason I cannot comprehend. On one of the occasions that I was awake, I checked my phone and found a message from Jim, who was due to arrive the next day: “Computer malfunction dumped fuel and returned to Atlanta.” Needless to say, this was a worrying…
My least favorite part of traveling abroad is… the traveling. I love BEING in foreign places, but the traveling between them can often be tiring. That’s why, when I travel, I pick a few places to visit for longer periods of time. Travel can seem very unlike a vacation when you’re just hurrying around all…
I took an hour bus ride this morning to Picadilly Circus – a very “exciting” part of London crammed with theaters and expensive stores. London is a great place to navigate as the streets do not ever change. I used a map from 10 years ago and was able to find my way around just…
Before leaving for Europe, I gave a lot of thought to my technology choices. In particular, I was considering what to do about my cell phone issue. Whilst I lived in Florida, I was using T-Mobile as my cellular service. They had 4G service, great coverage and a good selection of phones. However, there is no…
Today started off fantastic because I slept most of the night despite the fact that they were the wrong hours for me to be normally sleeping. In fact, when I woke up around 7:30 a.m., it was really 2:30 a.m. back home in the States. One of my hosts, the lovely Shalene Wong, made me…