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Our Love Story: Afterward

In a forest, there is an infinite number of paths to take from Point A to Point B. That’s because a forest, like life, is organic, wild and unstructured: you can make a brand new path if none of the existing ones suits you. As long as you know vaguely in what direction Point B is, you’ll eventually make it over the boulders, up the mountains, around the lakes and through the trees to your…

Hiking the Alps: Monte Rite

When we awoke for our final hike on our last day in the Dolomites, two things happened. First, I checked my phone with a sinking feeling that was soon confirmed: The Donald had won the majority of the Electoral College votes, and was all but confirmed the next president of the United States. Second, we all realized just how tired we were after the past week of activities, and decided that a…

Hiking the Alps: Passo Giau

The next day we wanted a hike in the woods, so I texted Eugenio who came through once again by recommending an amazing forest hike beginning near Passo Giau. Passo Giau turned out to be a mountain road higher and even more winding than the road to Tre Cime but Hanno got us there in about forty-five minutes, just as a light dusting of snow was beginning to fall.

This hike couldn’t have been more…

Hiking the Alps: Tre Cime

Our cabinin the village of Peaio was an ideally situated home base for exploring the hiking trails of the Dolomites in our area. Of course, there are hiking trails everywhere since the little towns are built around the mountain and forest, not vice-versa. The biggest “city” in the area would be Cortina d’Ampezzo, about thirty minutes up the road from Peaio. From there it is possible in the high…

Hiking the Alps: En Route to Italy

We made great time from Ljubljana, arriving to the Italian border in only an hour and a half.

Well, it would have been great except for the fact that we were suddenly being tailgated by a police car.

Felix who was driving was the first to feel it. From the passenger seat I could see him glancing more and more frequently into the rearview mirror.

“Hon…?”

“Yeah?”

“Whatcha looking at?”

“I think… I…

Hiking the Alps: Velika Planina

We woke up very late the next day, partially because we were so tired and partially because it was so quiet.

Chalet Zlatica was seriously perfect.We all slept side by side in the attic bedroom where the floor was practically covered by comfy mattresses. It was warm and cozy, and the entire place seemed to be made of wood! Descending the step ladder into the kitchen, I began breakfast while the…

Hiking the Alps: En Route to Slovenia

And “Hateful” it was!

The drive from Italy to Slovenia was easy enough. Before crossing the border we decided to stop at the pretty port town of Trieste for a late lunch and a break. We parked in a lot by the docks and took a walk through the Italian city with its characteristic piazzas, fountains and cafés.

We stopped at Burger King for dinner to keep costs low, and when we emerged the sun…

Trekking the Alps: November Edition

As the weather turned colder and we were being forced to spend more and more time inside, we turned to movie nights for entertainment! And one fateful movie night, Felix and I and his two friends Hanno and Lucas discovered a movie that inspired a November getaway to the high forests of the Alps: Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight.”

For those who don’t know anything about the movie, almost…

Romantic Road: Füssen and Schloss Neuschwanstein

I’d been dreaming of Schloss Neuschwanstein for years since I found it on a Pinterest “Dream Castles” board (I can’t be the only one looking for places around the world to feel like a princess, can I? 😍😍) and learned that Walt Disney used it as the inspiration for Sleeping Beauty’s castle in Disney World!

We woke up early to get in line so we’d have our pick of time slots to tour both of the…

Romantic Road: Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Rothenburg ob der Tauber is exactly what you think of when you picture a traditional Bavarian town.It looks almost like a fairytale — well kept-up with shops selling all kinds of traditional German things — so much so I half expected Snow White to come twirling down the steps of one of the houses singing to some birds around a well! It’s a walled city with walls you can actually walk on, no…

Bamberg was a great start to our Romantic Road Trip! And the fact that it wasn’t technically on the Romantic Road route made us even more excited to see the towns that were: a week of cute, relaxing German towns sounded like exactly what we’d signed up for.

We hit a winery just outside of Würzburg before going into the city to try the local German Gewürztraminer grapes. The experience was really…

We stopped in Bamberg first. I wanted to kick off our road trip with a classic little German town, and Bamberg didn’t disappoint!

The sun was out even though it was chilly outside, so we had a really lovely walk through the streets between colorful houses up to the famous Bamberg Cathedral at the top of one of the seven hills the town is built on. I’ve been to a lot of cathedrals, especially…

The Romantic Road: The Beginning

Living with Felix and his family in Wuppertal was going smoothly. Every day we’d wake up, have breakfast, then Felix would either go to work at the zoo and take me along to write or we’d spend the day doing something fun together until he had to work in the evening at a local bar. It was cozy and comfortable, sooo predictably my feet started to get itchy again. I wanted to explore the areas of…

10 Things to Know Before Braving the Oktoberfest

When I got back to Germany I couldn’t wait to take full advantage of the fact that I was living in Germany!!

So taking a trip to the REAL Oktoberfest down in Munich was definitely happening!

I’d actually been planning to do Oktoberfest – known as die Wies’nafter the festival’s location in Munich’s Theresienwiese area – since I’d bought my ticket to Europe back at the beginning of the summer! I’d…

Girlfriends in Ghent (and Brussels)!

“GIRLFRIEND!!!!!!!”

I didn’t have a second to look up before my beautiful, blonde, Belgian Annelien barreled into me where I sat at the Ghent train station. I squealed a little inside. She was just as I’d remembered… yet different, too. I guess being in love will do that to you 😊

Rewind to when I first met this ball of light on a walking tour in Lisbon: the second city on my European backpacking…

But first a short stop “In Bruges”! (a reference to the 2008 award-winning movie starring Colin Farrell)

Arriving to a sunny Belgium by FlixBus was a strange feeling. I was on the road again, if only briefly, and it felt good to be alone for a few days exploring a new city; especially one as pretty as Bruges (or “Brugge” in Flemish)!

I joined the Lybeer Travellers’ Hostel walking tourto get the…

At Home in Wuppertal

Have you ever heard of Wuppertal, Germany? No? I hadn’t either.

But Wuppertal, a relatively large city in West Germany’s North Rhine-Westphalia state, became a very big part of my life over the next few months. It became another home, in fact, and it started with being introduced to Felix’s German life.

When we arrived in Dusseldorf on the FlixBusfrom Amsterdam, Felix’s father was waiting for us…