“The world is a book, and those who don’t travel only read a page.” A couple days ago I got home from a long vacation in Europe with my husband, and I have so much to share with you! This vacation was the kind of travel that’s tiring and adventurous - a trip that as usual, made my pangs of wanderlust stronger, particularly as I sat in my thoughts during a long 11-hour flight from London to LA. We covered 4 cities in 3 new countries on this trip, the first of which was Stockholm. A stop in Sweden was an add-on to our plans to see Spain. Once I started looking at flights and saw that there was a long layover available in Stockholm, I was intrigued. It wasn’t even a much cheaper flight option, but I had never been to any of the Nordic countries and have wanted to see Stockholm, so ... [Read More]
European travel
Visiting Ireland’s Cliffs of Moher {Travel Recap}
Hello, hello! Today is my last recap from my trip last month to Ireland. So far I've talked about my favorite attractions & fun in Dublin and my Dublin vegetarian eating guide... and today I'm back with a recap of my visit to the Cliffs of Moher! Funny enough, I'm putting together this travel post as I'm currently 40,000 feet in the air en route to NYC. I'm heading east to my home state of New Jersey for lots of wedding festivities: I'm attending 2 friends' weddings this weekend and a bachelorette party the following weekend, and also have some bridesmaids dress shopping from my brother's upcoming wedding planned. Of course, there will be lots of family time as well. I usually try to see my parents and the rest of my east coast-based family every couple of months, but I'm ... [Read More]
Where to Eat Vegetarian in Dublin [Travel Recap]
Hello, hello! Last week I talked about my favorite adventures in Dublin on my recent trip to Ireland, and today I'm back to share a guide to vegetarian eating in Dublin. I initially didn't have very high expectations for plant-based eating in Ireland because I know that the traditional Irish diet is very meat-and-potatoes-ish, and also because of my previous experiences in meat heavy European countries like Austria and Germany. But when I started doing research on eating vegetarian in Dublin, I found that healthy eating in general is becoming more popular in Ireland. I did not have a problem coming up with a list of restaurants to potentially dine at, and I thought that I'd share some recommendations for where to eat veg in Dublin. Here are my favorite meals that I ... [Read More]
Adventures in Dublin {Travel Recap}
Hello, hello! Between traveling back from Europe, catching up on work, and battling an energy-sucking cold all week, I just could not get my blogging act together last week. But, I'm back today with a fun travel recap! Prior to last week, when I pictured Ireland, I envisioned lots of pubs, history, greenery and castles. Now having vacationed there, I can say that the country was very much what I was anticipating. My trip to Ireland all started when I found out that my dad, a longtime football coach for a high school in New Jersey, would be traveling there with his team. They were set to play as one of the opener games for the Georgia Tech vs. Boston College game - a way of bringing American football to Europe. When I heard that my mom and sister were joining the team, I ... [Read More]
What Makes You Fit? {Biking in Austria}
"Are you fit?" "Did you say that you workout?" These were the questions our tour guide was shouting to me as I struggled to keep up with him and my husband biking through the hills of Austria. We had booked a bike tour in hopes of seeing more of the beautiful Austria countryside and getting some leisurely exercise in during our vacation there, but I wasn't so prepared to be huffing and puffing with my heart rate at a sky-high level. Our guide was a little man in his 60s, originally from somewhere in Asia, who seemed to be in good shape for his age and told us he exercised daily. While I already knew that my husband was stronger and faster on a bike than I was from our bike date workouts through the hills of California, I wasn't really expecting our guide to be as hardcore of ... [Read More]
Venice: The City of Dreams
(source) Well, I seem to have gotten sidetracked with my Euro trip recaps, but I'm back today with a post about the last place I visited during my vacation last month -- the beautiful city of Venice! While I experienced a combination of cool but sunny, then gloomy, rainy weather in The Netherlands, Germany, and Austria, Italy was perfect: bright sunshine and in mid-70's during my stay there. We stayed on the Lido of Venice, which was just a quick ferry ride away from all of the action on other islands via one of these bad boys... I found that hotel prices were pretty damn expensive on other touristy islands. The Lido was a bit more reasonable, and after some research, I chose a place called Albergo Quattro Fontane. [Side note: The above picture cracks me up, as ... [Read More]