Author Archive: Melissa Kaplan

Happy 2022, 2021 recap, and Upcoming Travel Plans!

Well, hello there! It’s been a while, hasn’t it?

Umm, yes, it definitely has.  Three and a half years, to be exact.  That’s quite a long break from blogging!

It definitely wasn’t planned.  Instead, as for so many of us over these past few crazy years, life got in the way, plans altered, and my priorities (in writing and in life) changed dramatically.

I last blogged in (gasp) Fall 2018. The 3.5 years since have been among some of the most chaotic and, quite honestly, difficult of my life.  I won’t go into it all here, but suffice it to say that my world looks very different now than it did when I left off posting regularly on this site.

A few months after my last post, I unexpectedly lost my father.  That meant that my mom, who was suffering from terminal cancer, moved in with me.  Which meant that not only did my priorities change, but so did my travel adventures.

As much as I loved my mom and as much of a joy as it was to get to spend so much time with her before she passed away last year, I quickly realized travel was not going to be the same for me now that I was in a caregiver role.  Luckily, my mom’s health was still reasonably good when she first moved in, and we were actually able to have quite a few travel adventures together!  We visited the Bahamas twice (the last time in January 2020, the final trip we took together), as well as Puerto Rico, where she and my dad had spent their honeymoon fifty years earlier (but a completely new place to me!), and spent Thanksgiving in Cape Cod with our family.  And most importantly of all, we were able to travel back to Mom’s homeland, England, to visit her family (many of whom she hadn’t seen in twenty years) in summer of 2019.  I will always cherish that visit and the memories we made there.

Of course, you all know what happened next.  2020 arrived, and with it many grand travel plans that got smashed into pieces within weeks after some little virus called COVID-19 completely altered the landscape of all humanity.  I went literally nowhere in 2020, due to COVID and a decline in my mom’s health.  In a way, if there had to be a global pandemic (and to be clear, I really wish there hadn’t been), at least it coincided with a time when it was essential I be home anyway, as my mom really needed me.  I’m glad I was able to be there for her in her final months, and I miss her deeply every day.  She was an amazing mom, and extraordinary, trailblazing woman, and my very favorite travel companion.

After I lost my mom and got my COVID vaccine, I slowly began wading into travel again.  In 2021, I visited friends in California; took a trip to New Orleans for the very first time; and most excitingly, went on a diving/yoga/snorkeling trip to Egypt!  This was a dream trip I’d been looking forward to for over a year, and luckily all the pieces fell into place to allow it to happen. 

For a magical week and a half, I visited the Pyramids of Giza, sailed the Nile in a felucca boat, and snorkeled in the Red Sea.  It was magical, and a reminder of how transforming travel can be, especially when you need a break from seemingly relentless grief and a world in which COVID often felt determined to keep us all grounded forever.

Other things happened in the last few years, too.  I got a new job (which has consumed loads of my time and mental energy over the past year) and I began writing a novel; and then, another novel.  I’m looking into getting the completed book published (if you’re interested, it’s historical fiction centered around London in World War Two, and there is both time travel and romance involved…it’s less ridiculous than it sounds, I swear).  Focusing my writing on creating a book, rather than weekly blog posts, kept me from turning to this page for quite a while.

Recently, however, a friend commented on something I’d posted on social media and asked “Do you have a blog?”  And I responded, yes, actually I do!  So I figured now might be a good time to turn back to writing about my travels here.

So, what’s next for me in 2022?  Like most of us, a lot of my plans, especially around travel, remain uncertain.  But I do have a big trip coming up: I’m going to the Maldives in March!  For my 40th country (drumroll please), I’ll be flying halfway across the world to an island in the Indian Ocean to spend a week on a yacht snorkeling, swimming, doing yoga, and enjoying spa treatments (basically, everything I  love most squeezed into one week).  I can’t wait!

I’m also hopeful to get back to Europe this summer: to England to see my family for sure, and then adding on a week or so in either Italy/Switzerland (I’ve been to Italy but there are loads of regions I still want to explore, and Switzerland is a new country to me), or Greece (I visited back in 2008 on a whirlwind cruise, so I think the time may be right to return, pick an island, and then hop around a bit to see more!)  The older I get, the more I feel drawn to relaxing vacations on beaches, so hopefully summer 2022 will allow those dreams to be realized (no more variants, please, universe; I think we’ve all had enough at this point!)

After a rough, long few years, I’m looking toward the future with hope.  And I hope 2022 will be a year in which both my travels and my writing (on this site and elsewhere) will flourish.

How have you been doing over the past two years?  Any travels planned for 2022?

The Pastel Magic of St. Petersburg

Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood, St. Petersburg

Whenever I try to describe my recent trip to St. Petersburg, Russia, I struggle to find the right words.  It’s an extraordinary place that’s impossible to do justice to with a quick description—even photos can’t quite convey its majesty.  Without question, it is one of the most stunningly beautiful and yes, magical cities I’ve ever been lucky enough to visit.

St. Petersburg feels magical in a way few places do.  It’s filled with what I can only describe as pastel beauty: pale colors dominate its buildings and churches, yet they make a striking impression despite their muted tones.

St. Petersburg is a city you wander around in awe, struck over and over again by the grandeur of its architecture and the pastel colors popping everywhere the eye can see.  You stroll through its churches—the Church of Our Savior On Spilled Blood, St. Isaac’s Cathedral—snapping photo after photo trying to capture just the perfect angle to showcase their beauty, but it can’t really be done; you need to actually be inside to understand the scope and see the beauty of the architecture and pale blue, gold-encrusted walls.

St. Petersburg is a beautiful city with a dark, painful stretch of history—the brutal siege of Leningrad (as it was then known) for several years during World War Two, during which many people starved to death while others endured hunger and war.  That counterpoint was always in my head as I absorbed the physical beauty of the city.  Knowing how much this city and its residents had suffered during those dark days made its resilience all the more impressive.  St. Petersburg’s beauty is definitely not just skin-deep; darker tones under the city’s surface are a constant accompaniment to the pastels above.

The Hermitage, St. Petersburg

And the Hermitage.  The Hermitage!  I loved just about everything I saw and did in St. Petersburg, but nothing can match this museum: a regal building wrapped in a coat of pastel green and gold, perched on a river, filled with palace-like rooms decorated with world-class art.  I could have stayed there forever, or so I felt, and never have taken it all in.  The overwhelming crush of art in famous museums can sometimes feel like overkill—enough with all the beauty, I can’t absorb any more paintings and sculptures—but I never felt that way at the Hermitage.  It felt just right; beauty I could comfortably take in and appreciate as I made my way room by room through the highlights.  It felt very accessible as well as majestic, and may be my new favorite art museum on the planet (sorry, Louvre and National Gallery!)

Inside the Hermitage.

Yes, I fell in love with St. Petersburg.  (Can you tell?) And while I’m keen to explore much more of Russia in the future, I know my next trip to this vast, treasure-filled country will definitely bring me back to St. Petersburg for another dose of pastel-colored magic.

Have you been to St. Petersburg, or is it on your list?  What is the most magical place you’ve ever visited?

Monthly Recap: August/September

Okay, so I’m noticing a bit of a pattern here.  Despite my best intentions, I only seem to get around to writing these “monthly recap” posts every other month.  Well, rather than beat myself up about this, I’m just going to accept and embrace it.

And really, it’s not a bad thing, especially since August and September featured a big, cross-cutting trip to Finland, Estonia, and Russia!  So in a way, it makes sense to just recap both months together (at least that’s how it goes in my head…)

So, here it is…

August/September 2018 Monthly Recap

 

Where I Traveled:  Florida; Finland; Estonia; St. Petersburg, Russia; Washington, DC.

Best Meal:  An easy choice this month—the steak, cheese plate, and chocolate lava cake I had in Tallin at Rataskaevu 16 was mind-blowingly good.  I’d go back again in a second!

Best Cultural Experience:  Without question, the Hermitage. It’s hard to describe just how powerful an experience visiting this museum was, and even calling it a “museum” seems so inadequate.  From the beautiful pastel-green exterior to the gorgeous white and gold staircase to the stunning art tucked inside every majestic room, it’s just a staggering experience.  I’m so glad I finally fulfilled my decades-long dream of visiting Russia, and the legendary Hermitage in particular.

Best Read:  Hope Never Dies, a book club selection, was my favorite read of the past two months.  It’s a thriller in which Joe Biden and Barack Obama team up to fight crime and solve a murder in Uncle Joe’s native Delaware.  Just go with it.  In this political climate, it’s exactly what we need.  I’m currently working my way through The Book Thief; much heavier, but I’m enjoying it as well.

Best of DC:  Honestly, just having some time to relax in the city in September was great, as was hanging out at Eastern Market on a beautiful summer Saturday and eating all the free fruit and cheese samples.  Sometimes, there’s no place like home!

What’s Next:  I just got back from a great trip to California to visit friends (saving that for the October recap!)  The rest of the month I’ll be here, volunteering for as many House and Senate campaigns as possible before Election Day on November 6th.  (Vote, vote, vote!) And of course, I’ll be planning some trips for 2019 (never too early….)

How was your September?  Any fun upcoming trips planned?

My Favorite Things in Finland, Estonia, and St. Petersburg

Happy autumn!  I’m back from my summer adventure to Finland, Estonia, and Russia, and it’s not an exaggeration to say it was one of the best trips of my life.  And also that St. Petersburg may well be my new favorite city in the world…but that’s a subject for another blog post!

Our trek through Scandinavia and Russia, while all too brief, really was magical.  There were so many incredible experiences that, a few weeks later, it’s hard to look back and sort out and remember all of them.  We were on the go a lot and saw quite a bit in just nine days, though I wish we’d had more time and definitely plan to return to Helsinki and St. Petersburg in the future.

In the meantime, I wanted to share a few highlights of the trip—the things that stand out most to me when I look back on my visit.

My Favorite Experiences in Finland, Estonia, and St. Petersburg

  • Finnish saunas. While I was eager to try the famous saunas in Finland mostly as a cultural experience, I wasn’t sure how much I’d really love them (that whole hot-cold-hot thing sounded a bit dicey).  But actually, Finnish saunas turned out to be a highlight of the trip!  Sitting and relaxing in a steaming, hot but not too hot steam room, soaking up the dry heat perfumed with various herbs, and then dousing yourself in a freezing cold shower is a pretty great way to get over jet lag and absorb Scandinavian culture right off the bat.  And I loved the pools (indoor and outdoor, all different temperatures) that accompanied the sauna experience just as much.
  • Helsinki. It may seem strange to put an entire city on this list of highlights.  But the truth is, I really liked Helsinki and was quite bummed we didn’t have more time to spend here.  Our trip only allowed for two half-days in the Finnish capital between our road trip through the gorgeous countryside and our ferry ride over to Tallin.  In that brief time, I became enchanted by Helsinki and its stylish vibe: beautiful shops, cafes, and restaurants that I only got a glimpse of, but really want to come back and explore more of in the future.  Helsinki feels like a chilled-out city made for relaxation and lingering, and that’s often my favorite kind.

  • Tallin’s Old Town. Having lived in Prague for a year, I’m kind of a connoisseur of European old towns.  I’d heard high praise for Tallin’s, and it didn’t disappoint—rows of pastel houses, winding side streets (far too) easy to get lost in, a beautiful central square with a market and ringed by great restaurants and cafes.
  • Dinner at Rataskaevu 16 in Tallin. While the Old Town was great, my very favorite memory of Tallin is definitely dinner at this delightful restaurant.  We’d heard it was the best in Tallin, and after our meal I would definitely not argue.  The cheese board, fillet, and warm molten chocolate cake with ice cream were all outstanding (and very reasonably priced!), and I would go back in a heartbeat to experience it all again.  In fact, I’ve been telling friends that this restaurant alone is enough reason to visit Tallin!

Inside the Hermitage.

  • The Hermitage. I really have no words to describe this place.  For years, I dreamed of seeing Russia’s foremost museum, packed with art and wrapped in a coating of pastel green, sitting on a river…it’s a combination that I knew would be magical.  But I can’t quite do justice to the building, the architecture, and the art we found tucked inside all the beautifully decorated rooms.  I’m actually glad it’s too big to see all of in a single visit, because this is one place I visited that I absolutely know I’ll come back to experience again.  It was simply magical.

Have you been to Finland, Estonia, or St. Petersburg?  What were your favorite experiences?

Monthly Recap: June/July 2018

Wow, how is it possible it’s August already?  This summer is flying quickly, but so far it’s been a great one.  I have, however, fallen down a bit (well, totally) on my plans to do monthly recaps of my travels and experiences in D.C.  So I’ve decided to combine the months of June and July into a single post, because a) I’m lazy like that and b) July was a pretty quiet month without much travel, so it makes more sense to do a two-month recap anyway.

Here, then, are the highlights of my June and July 2018:

June/July 2018 Monthly Recap

View of a mist-covered mountain outside Nairobi

Where I Traveled:  Kenya, Florida, Washington, DC.

A majestic giraffe in Kenya.

My one big trip of this two-month period was to Kenya for a work conference.  I’d been before, but this time I was lucky to have a full day at the end to explore Nairobi and its surroundings.  I visited the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, where I got a quick but wonderful glimpse of baby elephants at play; the Giraffe Centre, where I got to watch these enormous, majestic creatures eat, play, and strut around in nature; and a local bead factory, where we got to see how beads and ceramics are made.  It was a wonderful day, and I hope to explore more of Kenya in the future—I know I’ll be back in East Africa at some point next year!

Best Meal/Best Drink:  My friends and I visited Agua 301, a Mexican restaurant and bar in DC’s Southwest waterfront area.  I’d been impressed with the upscale Mexican cuisine before, and it didn’t disappoint this time: my chicken empanadas and guacamole were both great.  The frozen peach sangria is pretty amazing as well, so I’m awarding it this month’s Best Drink title!

Best Cultural Experience:  This is an easy one:  in July, I was fortunate enough to see Hamilton at the Kennedy Center!  I didn’t know too much about the show going in (I deliberately didn’t listen to the songs beforehand, so I could be blown away on performance day), and I really loved the music, the actors, and the story itself.  Learning more about Alexander Hamilton’s life, as well as that pivotal era in the formation of the United States, was fascinating to a history nerd like myself–and also, in these turbulent times, a powerful reminder of all our country has been through and survived.  Not to mention that Hamilton’s frenzied efforts to write, create, and live his best life in the time he had on earth are incredibly inspiring; I am already working to incorporate these lessons into my own life, up my productivity, and to try and to learn new things as often as I can.

Best Read:  I read a few new books these past two months.  I enjoyed Dear Madam President, by Jennifer Palmieri, a former staffer on Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.  Part memoir of the campaign and her own life, and part suggestions/recommendations for the first female president once she’s in office, it was a quick read with some valuable insights, and made me long, more than ever, for the day when the dream of a female American president becomes a reality.

I also have been doing a lot of re-reading of favorite novels this summer, and it’s been incredibly rewarding (I love a good re-read; so many books are actually more rewarding the second—or third, or fifth—time).  Two books that I devoured once again, and highly recommend to everyone, are Atonement by Ian McEwan and The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood—both are brilliantly written works of historical fiction focusing on the 1930s and 1940s with fascinating female lead characters.  They’re also quite heartbreaking tales, but don’t let that deter you: they’re well worth reading if you haven’t already.

Best of DC: I’d have to say Hamilton wins this category as well; I always love a visit to the Kennedy Center, and this one was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience!

What’s Next:  August is off to a fantastic start already, and it should only get better: I’ve got a friend in town next weekend (excuse to go to all the nice DC restaurants and hang out in Georgetown!), then I’m flying to Florida to celebrate my parents’ 50th (!) anniversary!  And then in late August, my big adventure of the summer: a trip to Finland, Estonia, and St. Petersburg!  I can’t wait to share more of my adventures when I return in September!

How has your summer been so far?  Any exciting plans for August?

The Art of Making Travel Non-Negotiable

Over the years, a number of people have asked me “how I do it”: how I manage to travel relatively often, to far-flung places around the globe.  Plenty of others haven’t asked directly, but I can tell they wonder about this a little.  Every time I share that I’m going on a new trip, I pick up on a sense of “wow, again?” from some people (though most of my friends and family at this point have moved on from that reaction to one more along the lines of “well, what else is new?”)

There are tons of blogs and articles out there already outlining how to travel more: save money, stay in hostels, work while you travel (I taught English for a year in Prague to get to both live and travel overseas), and of course, be frugal (no more daily Starbucks for you!)  I don’t feel the need to add to this store of wisdom.  A lot of it is valuable, some of it strikes me as kind of silly and unnecessary.  (For the record, I will NEVER tell anyone to give up their daily Starbucks habit, as I myself am a Starbucks fiend.  Some things are sacred!)

Instead, if I had one piece of solid advice to offer on how to make your travel dreams come true, it would be this: start making travel non-negotiable.

What I mean by this is, don’t sit around and wait for travel to happen to you.  Don’t expect the travel fairy to drop plane tickets into your lap.  But most of all, don’t treat travel as something you’d kind of maybe like to do someday.  This is not how dreams are realized.

I’ll make all the usual disclaimers: I know not everyone can travel.  Many people are struggling to pay bills, or fighting illnesses, or caring for sick family members—there are plenty of factors that can make travel genuinely impossible for plenty of people who’d otherwise love to do it.  I’m not here to tell people in these situations that “just changing their mindset” will get them on a plane.  I know it’s not always that easy.

I realize, and appreciate, that I’m very privileged to be able to travel as much as I do.  Some of this is luck and circumstance.  However, a lot of it is the direct result of my own hard work and ultimately, the attitude I take towards making travel a major part of my life. Without this attitude, I can tell you I’d be nowhere (literally and figuratively).

And so, here are a few tips from my own experience (or the story of how I’ve made it to twenty-seven countries in the last ten years).  I hope some of them are helpful in making your own around-the-world adventures happen!

Plitvice waterfalls, Croatia: I spent years planning to get here!

 

How I Make Travel Non-Negotiable:

  • Attitude.  I know it sounds cliché, but sometimes they’re true for a reason: my attitude is the single most important thing that keeps me traveling.  By this I mean that I quite literally treat travel as non-negotiable.  If I have a steady job and any vacation time and money, I’m going to be traveling.  That’s not a hope or a dream; it’s a fact.

 

I keep a list in my Iphone notes section of countries I’ve visited, trips I’m actively planning, and places I want to visit that I haven’t been to yet (the latter still contains roughly forty countries).  Every year, when new years’ and the resolutions roll around, I sit down and plan out my travel year.  Where do I want to go?  What can I fit in, realistically, given time and money constraints (we all have those, right?)  I think, I dream, then I plan (see #4 for more on this step).

After ten years, I made it to Slovenia and Lake Bled!

One thing I’ve noticed over the years is that lots of people who say they want to travel never make it to this step.  They talk idly about how they’d love to go here or there, but they never tell themselves, definitively, “I’m going to do it!  This year!”  Their attitudes are passive rather than proactive; all too often, they treat travel as negotiable…a thing they’d like to do someday, with more time or money, but not now.  That attitude keeps you grounded.  The only way to fly is to change it, and decide that no, you won’t put off your dream trip any longer, and yes, this is the year you’ll finally do it.  From there, with a little money, planning, and strategy, so much becomes possible!

 

Cafe Angelina hot chocolate in Paris: a splurge that’s worth saving for at home!

  • Priorities.  We all spend money every day.  What you choose to spend your disposable income on is your business; I’m not going to tell you to spend less on this or that.  But as a fairly frugal person, I find that saving in some areas of my life that I prioritize less allows me to spend more on (and save more for) the areas I prioritize the most.  It’s a different equation for everyone, of course, but I find that moderation is often the key, as well as finding balance between what you really want and what you don’t really need.  For example, I love Starbucks and go there almost every day.  However, I drink maybe one alcoholic drink a week (and it’s almost always a happy hour special).  I’m not a big drinker or partier, so this tradeoff works for me.  Likewise, I love getting salads for lunch at the fancy salad place near my office, but I’m not willing to shell out $10 a day for this (which would add up to $200 a month—money much better dedicated to a travel fund!)  So I go once or twice a week and brown-bag it the rest of the time.  I love massages and mani-pedis, but I’m also a huge fan of free museums, which luckily are abundant in my town.  I enjoy the occasional fancy brunch out with friends, like every self-respecting city dweller, but I do this once every month or two, not once a week.  My yoga and kickboxing classes come free as part of my gym membership.  You get the picture.  Yours will look different than mine, but ultimately the key is to make sure you’re spending money on the things that bring you true joy (including travel!), and not frittering it away on things you really don’t care that much about.

 

  • Save. Step Three is pretty self-explanatory (if not always fun) but I want to spell it out here anyway. If you really want to travel, start saving!  And make that savings a regular part of your budget.  It doesn’t matter how much or how little it is to begin with: if all you can save is $50 a month, it will still add up over the course of a year.  The key is to make it a regular part of your life.  I have a set amount of money that I transfer from my paycheck to my travel-specific savings account once a month.  Every month, I watch it build a little more until I’m ready to set off on my next adventure.  It’s practical, and also motivating…once you start and see the numbers in your savings account rise, you want to keep at it.  No time like the present to begin!

 

  • Research. Travel costs money: this much is obvious and sadly, won’t be changing any time soon.  But often, it doesn’t cost as much as people think. One commonality I’ve noticed among friends who don’t travel often is that they tend to think it costs a lot more than it really does to see the world.  This is where research comes in handy.  Decide where you want to go, and then figure out how much it will cost to get there and have the trip you want.  Or on the flip side, figure out how much money you have to work with and start looking at where you can go with that budget.

This gorgeous view in Phuket, Thailand wasn’t as expensive as you might think….

How do I research?  I usually decide on a place from my endless list first, then start reading about it on travel blogs, buying guidebooks, and talking to anyone I know who’s been.  I search my Skyscanner app (the best thing ever, and free to download!)  to check airfares on different dates and see what a typical flight will cost.  Depending on whether I want to go budget or a bit fancier, I then either check out www.hostelworld.com or look in guidebooks or places like www.hotels.com for sample hotel fares (admittedly, I do a lot more of the latter than the former these days…perks of adulthood).

 

One final point: I know a LOT of people who believe that foreign travel is inherently expensive, more than domestic travel they may have done.  This is not always true.  If anything, I think America is a bit overpriced (you can get a nice hotel room in plenty of parts of the world for far less than it would cost you in lots of U.S. cities).  If you can get a good deal on a flight (check out Skyscanner and sign up for Scott’s Cheap Flights emails to help find these), you may find on the ground costs overseas far cheaper than you would expect.  A few of my personal overseas budget wins include a round-trip flight to Iceland for under $300; an entire weekend in Budapest for $150 including transportation  (I mean, I was living in Prague at the time but still, that’s not too shabby!); a $10 hourlong massage in Cambodia; and my personal favorite: a luxurious beach-adjacent hotel room in Thailand for $25 a night.  There are deals out there to be had, so start searching!

 

  • Plan, Plan, Plan! It’s a bit of a running joke that I am ALWAYS planning a trip, even when I don’t have one imminently scheduled.  Planning creates a wonderful kind of forward momentum that helps everything else fall into place. If you book a ticket to Italy (hopefully with a great fare you found through doing your research!) you’ll be much more motivated to keep saving steadily, to cut back on unnecessary expenses, to scour for hotel deals online, and to start planning your itinerary (booking museum tickets online in advance can be super helpful!)  Of course you want to allow some spontaneity in your trips too, but the more you plan, the better prepared you’ll be when the time finally comes around to depart on your adventure.  It’s all part of keeping travel a non-negotiable part of life, which, if you do it right, will pretty soon start to feel like second nature.

So, those are my tips.  I hope they help inspire you to seize control of the narrative of your life, to transform yourself from someone who’d like to travel into a traveler, and to start making your next adventure a reality!

Monthly Recap: May 2018

Happy June!  And welcome to a brand-new feature of my blog: the Monthly Recap!

I read a lot of travel blogs, and I have to admit I really enjoy the monthly (or weekly) recap posts some bloggers do.  I’ve been thinking about starting a similar series for a while, but I held back because I wasn’t sure I’d have enough interesting material to fill it, or that anyone would want to read about my life outside of travel.  But then I realized 1) this is my blog and I should write whatever I want; 2) it will encourage me to post more regularly and keep track of the fun things I’m doing; and 3) since I really enjoy reading these updates from bloggers I don’t know, who’s to say that those reading my blog won’t enjoy reading these updates from me?

And I’m starting off on a high note, as May was a particularly great month for me in terms of travel (featuring my first international trip in a year and a half!) as well as welcoming summer with a few fun DC traditions.  So, here it is: my first-ever Monthly Recap!

National Gallery, London

 

May 2018 Monthly Recap

Where I Traveled: London, Paris, Versailles, New York City, Washington, DC.

I began the month in the best way possible: with a week in London and Paris I also visited Versailles for the first time (verdict: it’s certainly impressive and I’m glad I went, but it was a bit of a hassle and I probably will never go again.  At least it’s checked off the bucket list!)  Then I was in New York City for a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it two-day work trip in the middle of May.

Best Meals: Without a doubt, the prize here goes to my favorite Parisian restaurant, Le Relais de L’Entrecote, where I enjoyed steak and frites to cap off my three days of eating very well in the city.  I also enjoyed the food at 28-50, a  posh wine bar in London where I sampled Icelandic specialties of lamb hot dog with French fries (American, yet not really…I love it), as well as several varieties of wine.

Best Drinks: The hot chocolate l’africain at Café Angelina in Paris was, naturally, the winner in this category.

Cafe Angelina hot chocolate!

Best Cultural Experiences:  It’s hard to narrow this down in a month that saw me visiting the Louvre and the Musee D’Orsay in Paris, but I’m going to give this award to the National Gallery in London, which reclaimed its spot as one of my favorite museums in the world.  I hadn’t been there so long that I’d forgotten just how impressive their collection really is, and how beautifully designed the building is as well.  And unlike the amazing Parisian museums, it’s free! I promise never to return to London without paying a visit.

Best Read:  I’ve just begun The Restless Wave by Senator John McCain.  I’m three chapters in and really enjoying it so far, particularly his perspective of the 2008 presidential campaign.

Best of DC: I don’t want to neglect my hometown in these recaps!  This month kicked off the annual tradition of Jazz in the Sculpture Garden—weekly Friday evening summer concerts held outdoors at the National Gallery of Art’s Sculpture Garden.  These are hugely popular and I got there early to snag a spot on the grass for myself and my friends.  We had a great time, crowds and lack of foresight to bring a picnic blanket notwithstanding.  I also took advantage of a free afternoon before the concert to visit the National Gallery of Art and check out some of my favorite European painters, including a new exhibit on Cezanne portraits (which to be honest, I just stumbled on).

What’s Next: This month I’ll be in Kenya for a week for work, and hoping to fit in a little time on my last day to do touristy things.   I’m also beginning to plan my August European vacation in earnest (more details to come soon!)

 

So, what did you think?  Are you a fan of monthly recap posts, or are they just ridiculously self-indulgent narcissism?  (Please pick the first option).  What exciting things did you do in May?

Back to Africa: Kenya, Round 2

View of a mist-covered mountain outside Nairobi

I have exciting news to share: I’m going to Kenya next month!  Well, I’m going for a work trip, will only be there for a week, and I’ll be working hard pretty much the entire time I’m in the country, but hey–even a brief time in Kenya is better than no time at all, am I right?

Of course!

While this will be a whirlwind working visit, I do have a free day at the end of my trip and I plan to make the most of it.  I’ll be staying in a lodge outside of Nairobi, which offers some great opportunities for wildlife spotting and walks through the savanna at sunrise.  Last time I was there I saw zebras and giraffes; I’m curious to see if I can repeat this feat and maybe encounter a few new animals.

Can I repeat the feat of seeing one of these guys again in Kenya?

During my last free day, I’m hoping to go into Nairobi a bit and check out a few local spots of interest: my curiosity was definitely piqued when a friend mentioned a baby elephant orphanage that is open to visitors!  That’s definitely on my list of must-sees, and it would be nice to find a market to take back some souvenirs for myself and my family.

But I have only begun to dive into my trip research (meaning, actually, I haven’t begun at all, beyond putting a crowdsourcing Kenya post on Facebook…) so I am very open to ideas.  Any suggestions for things to see/do/eat in Nairobi and its immediate surroundings?

I’ll be in Kenya for a week in mid-June, and will be eager to share my experiences when I get back.  I’m excited to return to Africa, even briefly, and it’s a reminder of how fortunate I am not just to be able to travel, but to have a job that actually sends me to far-flung locations to see them for myself.  For a wanderlust-filled traveler like myself, that’s about as good as life can get.

 

Have you been to Kenya?  Any suggestions for things to see/do there in my free time?

Highlights of A Week in London and Paris

I’m back from my first big adventure of 2018!  Actually, it was my first big adventure since the middle of 2016, given circumstances beyond my control that kept me pretty much homebound for the past year.  I can’t begin to express how happy I am to have left that stage of life behind and plunged back into exploring and experiencing the world.  I missed travel.  (I mean, really, really missed it).

My first trip of the year was to two cities I know well: I lived in London for a year and have lots of family there, and I’ve been to Paris several times and adore it (because, obviously, Paris).  I wanted this visit to mix discovery of new places and returns to old favorites I already knew and loved.  I think I did a pretty fantastic job of combining the two, and would wholeheartedly recommend stealing any of the following experiences for your own London/Paris trip (which hopefully you’re planning as we speak, right?)

Anyway, here they are: my favorite things that I saw, did, ate and drank in London and Paris.

Fortnum and Mason’s tearoom wall, London. Is this not the cutest thing ever?!

Melissa’s London and Paris Highlights

London:

  • The National Gallery. This has always been one of my favorite museums in London, but honestly, I’d forgotten what a cool experience a visit there can be.  Not only is the art untouchable (I spent lots of time with the Impressionists, Turner, and Constable), but the inside of the museum is majestically designed and the location right on Trafalgar Square can’t be beat.
  • Fortnum and Mason’s. How did I live in London for as long as I did and never visit the Queen’s grocery store? Fortnum’s was such a delightful experience: I shopped for shortbread and tea (Harry and Meghan’s special wedding blend, which I brought back for a friend), and enjoyed hot chocolate (good) and an ice cream sundae (amazing) in one of their dining spaces.  Also, the walls where we ate were covered in cartoon-style drawings of every British monarch going back centuries.  Love it!
  • Hatchard’s and Stanford’s bookstores. Okay, once again—how did I never visit Hatchard’s bookstore before in all my time in London?  It’s an institution I was somehow oblivious to, located right next to Fortnum and Mason’s and pretty much guaranteeing you a perfect afternoon combo.  The choice of books is overwhelming, and as a store attendant helpfully pointed out: “We have a whole section just on Churchill, in case you were wondering just how British we are.”  Ah, London.  I also popped into Stanford’s travel bookstore, one of my favorite places in the world, which is chock full of guidebooks, maps, globes, travel literature, and books about any place you might ever want to visit.
  • Café Nero. Every time I go to London, I hit Café Nero at least once for their excellent Hot Chocolate Milano—thick, Italian style hot chocolate topped with whipped cream.  Happiness in a to-go cup.
  • Green Park. I had a wonderful time (on a rare good-weather day) strolling through one of my favorite parks just off of Buckingham Palace.  I love nature retreats in big cities!
  • Spending time with family. My mom is English, so I have a large family who live in or not far from London.  We had a family gathering at my aunt’s house in Bath, where I got to catch up with relatives, some of whom I hadn’t seen in a decade (!), as well as a dinner with several cousins in a posh wine bar called 28-50 Mayfair with excellent food in central London; highly recommended.  It was great to spend time with family and friends in London before moving on to Paris solo for a few days.

Paris:

 

Cafe Angelina hot chocolate!

  • Café Angelina. Whenever I’m in Paris, this is one place I always make sure to visit.  And if I have friends going to Paris, I tell them they absolutely have to check it out.  Angelina’s is a beautiful (albeit tourist-thronged) café just a stone’s throw from the Louvre, which serves the ABSOLUTE BEST HOT CHOCOLATE IN THE WORLD.  (Though strong honorable mention to Les Deux Magots.  It’s hard to choose, really! Paris’s chocolate bounty overflows, which makes me kind of want to move there someday…)
  • Musee D’Orsay. I’d only been to the D’Orsay once before, ten years ago, and as a lover of Impressionist art, I was keen to revisit it.  Although I had a bit of a snag buying my ticket online (and ended up having to buy another one the day of—ugh), and got there later than I’d planned after my excursion to Versailles, I still really enjoyed the museum, and can’t wait to return and spend more time there.  Not only is the art itself fantastic, but the location—a former train station—is pretty hard to top!  Plus it’s right near my favorite cafes and restaurants in St. Germain de Pres.
  • Wandering St. Germain de Pres and the Latin Quarter. I did a ton of walking over my two days in Paris, most of it taking me to or through the fifth and sixth arrondissement neighborhoods—the Latin Quarter and St. Germain de Pres.  Both are favorites of mine, and I had a wonderful time browsing through the stacks of books at Shakespeare and Company, poking into the shops along Boulevard St. Germain, and having my second epic chocolate chaud in two days at Les Deux Magots—while pondering the fact that if I return often enough to sit at every single table, eventually I’ll have to hit one that Hemingway and Fitzgerald once sat and wrote at.  Yet another excellent reason to keep going back!
  • Dinner at Le Relais de L’Entrecote. One of my favorite restaurants on earth, and definitely my top choice in Paris.  It opens at 7 pm for dinner and there was a short line out the door, but it moved fast and was more than worth the wait.  All this restaurant serves is steak and frites, with salad and bread as accompaniments—excellent quality, and they keep refilling your plate till you’ve had enough, so the quantity is pretty impressive too!  Only 26 euros for the entire meal: a steal, especially in this popular neighborhood.
  • Climbing all the steps up to Sacre Couer. As this was my first time staying in Montmartre, I figured it would be worth checking out the Basilica Sacre Couer.  I saved it for my last day, and I have to admit I didn’t quite anticipate the number of stairs I’d have to climb; every time I thought I was done, I realized there was another layer I hadn’t seen from below!  But I knew I might never be back, so I pushed myself to reach the top and I’m so glad I did.  The church is beautiful inside (there was a sign saying not to take photos, which I abided by even if others didn’t, so you’ll just have to trust me on this until you can visit yourself).  I did get some nice photos of the outside from up close to commemorate my trek!

 

As you can see, my week in London and Paris was pretty much perfection, and I’m already plotting my return.  I’d love to make London/Paris a yearly trip if possible, knowing there will always be new discoveries awaiting me to complement the old favorites I can’t wait to visit again.  And really, isn’t that what travel should be about?

Have you visited London and Paris?  Do you love them too?  What are your favorite spots in each city?

Europe, Here I Come!

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged (not much happening on the travel front except lots of trip planning) but today, I’m excited to finally embark on a return trip to one of my favorite parts of the world: Europe!  I’ll be spending the next four days in London with my family, then hopping the Eurostar to Paris for another three days.  Yay!

I’ve already written about my trip plans, and will be sure to post some fun memories when I return (it’ll be nice to finally have new travel stories to share!)  But I wanted to check in on the blog today mostly to express my own excitement.  It’s been nearly two years (!) since my last overseas trip–life has made taking a break from travel unavoidable--but I am so, so ready to get back out into this beautiful world we live in.  Even the prospect of a seven-hour flight fills me with giddy anticipation.

Here’s to a week of museums, bookstores, cafes, restaurants, gardens, palaces, fromage, and of course, chocolate.  ALL the chocolate.

Hope your weekend is wonderful and full of travel magic!