I have spoken previously about my experiences in France (found here and here) and about my great love for the country, specifically for Paris. It goes without saying that I was very much looking forward to returning to a city that has meant so much to me on the final stop of our honeymoon. I had spent months planning out what I most wanted to do and see in the two and a half days we were to be there and created three very different jam-packed itineraries. I was ecstatic over the prospect of sharing special places and traditions with my husband!
Honeymoon Stop Two – Prague in the Snow
After four blissful days in Amsterdam it was time to move on to a city I was very much looking forward to visiting, Prague. I had wanted to travel to Eastern Europe for well over a decade, specifically to the Czech Republic. The region always held a certain mystique for me and when we began planning our honeymoon I knew I wanted Prague on our list of destinations.
That desire coupled with the fact that the Prague Opera was performing Bizet’s Carmen, an opera I had long loved, dictated that we hop on a plane to spend a whirlwind of a 36 hours in Prague. I knew it was a lot of traveling to do for very little time in a destination, but I was determined to experience as much as Prague as I could. Ideally a snow covered Prague.
You know the old adage “Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it”? Well, Prague offered a shining example of just why I ought be a little more careful about what I wish for. Leading up to our trip I was very vocal about wanting to experience cold weather and snow. I packed long underwear, I carried a wool pea coat across the ocean with me, I was prepared! Or so I thought. It turns out that nothing could have prepared this LA girl for Eastern European temperatures and snow.READ MORE »
Honeymoon Stop One – New Year’s in Amsterdam
As some of you know, my husband I returned from our honeymoon in Europe a few weeks ago. We spent a whirlwind of a week and a half traveling to some of our favorite cities, two of which were new destinations for me! Rather than do a full trip recap, which I don’t feel remotely qualified to do after spending just a few days in each of our gorgeous destinations, I’m going to share a few photos and a favorite memory or two from each of the cities we visited over the next three weeks. First up…Amsterdam!
We started our honeymoon with an amazing four days in Amsterdam spent languidly wandering the the banks of the canals, popping into cafes and taking in the sights and sounds of the city. It was my first time in Amsterdam and I have to say that it stole my heart. It is a friendly, vibrant, beautiful jewel of a city and I can definitely see myself living there in the future. Perhaps just not during the holidays…
European Winter Wonderlands
We are off to Europe for our honeymoon in just twelve days. Excitement hasn’t quite set in yet…perhaps because there is so much that still has to get done between now and then. I don’t think our upcoming European adventure will feel real until we say goodbye to little Lola on Christmas morning. That will be followed by days of tears, my insistence that I don’t want to go and that the honeymoon must be cancelled, then my final acceptance and inevitable excitement the night before our departure, likely resulting in me not getting one wink of sleep. So it goes.
Though the temperatures are starting to dip into the 40’s in Los Angeles, officially qualifying as unbearably chilly, it is still hard to believe that it is full blown winter in some parts of the world. Parts that I’ll be traveling through in less than two weeks. To remind me of this, and to get me into the holiday spirit in general, I’ve been going through photos of European winter wonderlands like the ones below.
Winter bicycling in Amsterdam
A Weekend in Downtown LA
We spent the majority of our free time this past weekend (and there wasn’t much of it!) playing around in Downtown Los Angeles between errands. We started off our weekend by finally (FINALLY!!!) getting the official thumbs up on moving into our new apartment , checked a lot of wedding details off the list and got a lot of work done. Work hard, play hard.
Yep, watching “Christine” on a Friday night while my fiance works away. I don’t hate it.
An afternoon in the Jewelry District in Downtown LA
We chose my fiance’s wedding band, finalized the design of mine and got my engagement ring reset.
SO. MUCH. GOODNESS. Pranqster on tap and coconut prawns, Beelman’s Pub and Downtown LA, I love you so.
Beelman’s Pub scene