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This month was the calm between the storms. With our Prague marriage ceremony ending on the finish of Could and our Boston marriage ceremony beginning originally of July, June can be a time to relaxation, regroup, and take off to Italy for a number of days.
Nah, I’m kidding. It might be a time to panic, stress out over the Boston marriage ceremony preparations…and take off to Italy for a number of days.
Right here’s what I received as much as in June!
Locations Visited
- Prague, Čerčany, and Týnec nad Sázavou, Czech Republic
- Naples and Ischia (together with Ischia Porto, Forio, Serrara Fontana, and Lacco Ameno), Italy
- Boston and Somerville, Massachusetts, USA
Highlights
A stunning mini-moon to Ischia. Charlie and I are saving the massive honeymoon for the tip of the yr (Chile and Argentina), however we needed to take a brief getaway in Italy first. Enter Ischia!
Ischia is an island off the coast of Naples, and it’s rapidly turn out to be considered one of my favourite islands in Italy! Ischia primarily attracts Italians, and Neapolitans particularly, so the island caters to locals slightly than far-afield guests. For instance, you received’t discover memento outlets on each nook — however you WILL discover tons of mid-range clothes outlets!
Ischia has lots to do for a number of days. Certain, there are seashores, however there are additionally thermal sizzling springs, mountains to climb, a stunning citadel set on the ocean, agriturismi dishing up stewed rabbit, and loads of fabulous pizza. One in all our favourite actions was taking a non-public boat journey across the island, which was much more reasonably priced than you may anticipate.
I’m excited to put in writing about Ischia. It deserves to be a significant a part of your go to to southern Italy. Don’t simply go to the Amalfi Coast and transfer on — Ischia is basically price spending a number of days.
Going rafting within the Czech Republic. Czechs LOVE rafting, and I’ve been wanting ahead to doing this for a very long time. 4 of us headed out to the city of Čerčany, rented a raft, and paddled all the best way to Týnec nad Sázavou, a 14-kilometer journey. A enjoyable day trip, even when we needed to drag the raft throughout a number of weirs!
A number of Prague enjoyable. We’re in meals competition season and received to go to Žižkov Beer Competition, a pop-up Bubbles Competition, Latin American Competition, and Prague Ice Cream Fest. We had a barbecue on the container bar by the river, hit up some cocktail bars, and went to Tuscany Wine Night time.
Strawberry season! Peak strawberry season hits Prague in June, and this yr we gorged on extra scrumptious native berries. This yr I made the NYT recipe for Strawberry Spoon Cake, which was fabulous and buttery and disappeared INSTANTLY.
Flying enterprise class to Boston. We splurged on enterprise class flights to Boston for our marriage ceremony and this was the primary time I’ve flown British Airways Membership World (long-haul enterprise class). SO good. Flying is definitely enjoyable that method.
Having fun with our time in Boston. I’ve taken Charlie to Boston a number of instances, however just for day journeys. It was good to truly keep in a single day — and within the coronary heart of Beacon Hill! I’ve by no means truly stayed in Beacon Hill earlier than, but it surely’s a stunning place and good and quiet at evening. (Don’t keep there within the winter, although — these steep hills are harmful when icy.)
We took a journey on the Swan Boats, ate at outside eating places within the South Finish, I visited the Sézane popup on Newbury Road, I took Charlie and his dad across the Freedom Path (enhanced with tales from my early-to-mid-twenties, in fact), and my mother and her associate Tom took us on a enjoyable boat journey round Boston Harbor. It’s fairly cool parking your boat on the Barking Crab and strolling on up!
Challenges
Bank card fraud hell. One in all my bank cards received compromised final month — however after I received the brand new one, as quickly as I received it, the identical fraudulent transaction occurred AGAIN. Then it occurred on Charlie’s approved card on my account as effectively!
It seems that some companies are mechanically despatched your new bank card quantity when it updates. I had NO concept this was a factor. Certain, it’s handy while you’re switching fee strategies, but when it’s fraud, you will get charged once more!
Anyway — it took a while with the cardboard firm, however they had been in a position to forestall the brand new quantity from being despatched to anybody. What a trouble.
Murray swallowed a rubber band. After some preliminary panic, we realized that we simply needed to play the ready recreation and dig by way of his poop to verify it made its method out (FUN!). It took about 55 hours. Oh, Murray Bear!
Getting caught within the final hailstorm. Charlie and I made a decision to spend a Saturday out gallivanting across the metropolis, and it rapidly became dodging rainstorms. And at last once we received to an outside pub, the anticipated brief drizzle became a HAILSTORM with large icy hailstones as we shrank beneath an umbrella!
(I turned it right into a humorous Reel. I wish to make extra stuff like this.)
Not having good pillows in Boston. The older I get, the extra I want good pillows with a view to sleep. However I solely bear in mind to carry my travel contour pillow 50% of the time, and I foolishly didn’t carry it to Boston.
These Boston pillows had been terrible — the form of down pillows the place your head simply falls into them and your neck has no assist. I didn’t notice how unhealthy it was till 4 days in when my complete physique was hurting. Get a superb journey pillow, folks!
Weblog Posts of the Month
Best 14-Day Croatia Itinerary — Wow, was this publish overdue! I’m so glad I lastly wrote it — and made it pretty much as good a bit as I might, even together with little extensions in Istria and Montenegro.
28 Fabulous Things to Do in Naples, Italy — Naples is perhaps my new favourite metropolis in Italy. What an unimaginable place!! Too many individuals falsely see it as harmful (sadly Fb feedback received out of hand on this one…), however those that have hung out there lately know what it’s truly like.
This Month on Patreon
On the Adventurous Kate Patreon, I publish unique content material and never-told tales which you can entry for $6 monthly. We even have a non-public Fb group and members get free entry to the E-book Membership every month.
This month, I shared two items of content material — my downloadable 36-page information towards touring in Croatia for 2 weeks, which is on the market on the blog post and so they received free of charge, in addition to one other downloadable Croatia information I made as a lead magnet, and a marriage images preview.
This month goes to be a heavier month to make up for final month being on the lighter facet. I really feel like breaking down the most effective seaside locations in Italy and which of them are finest for which individuals.
E-book Membership This Month
Our subsequent e book membership will happen in August — on Sunday, August 13, at 7:00 PM ET. We shall be studying In the Shadow of the Mountain by Peruvian writer and adventurer Silvia Vasquez-Lavado.
“Limitless ice. Skinny air. The specter of dropping into nothingness 1000’s of toes under. That is the climb Silvia Vasquez-Lavado braves in her page-turning, pulse-raising memoir chronicling her journey to Mount Everest.
A Latina hero within the elite macho tech world of Silicon Valley, privately, she was hanging by a thread. Deep within the throes of alcoholism, hiding her sexuality from her household, and repressing the abuse she’d suffered as a toddler, she began climbing. One thing concerning the brute pressure required for the ascent—the chance and spirit and sheer measurement of the mountains and demise’s shut proximity—woke her up. She then took her largest ache as a survivor to the most important mountain: Everest.
‘The Mom of the World,’ because it’s recognized in Nepal, permits few to achieve her summit, however Silvia didn’t go alone. She gathered a gaggle of younger feminine survivors and led them to base camp alongside her. It was by no means simple. At instances hair-raising, nerve-racking, and at all times difficult, Silvia remembers the acute anxiousness of main a gaggle of novice climbers to Everest’s base, all of the whereas coping along with her personal nerves of summiting. However, there have been additionally moments of peace, pleasure, and therapeutic with the power of her fellow survivors and neighborhood propelling her ahead.
Within the Shadow of the Mountain is a exceptional story of heroism, one which awakens in all of us a lust for journey, an urge for food for threat, and religion in our personal resilience.”
You can learn more about the book and buy it here.
You can sign up to attend the book club here. Hope to see you there!
Trend Discover of the Month
I jumped by way of one million hoops for an outfit this month — and it was price it! I’m an enormous fan of the French model Maje, and for months I’ve been eyeing this matching pink openwork top and shorts combo. This month, it went on sale. HUGE sale. FINAL sale.
Right here’s the factor — regardless of the very fact that there’s a Maje retailer actually in Prague, nearly nothing goes on sale there. And regardless of THAT, they don’t ship anyplace within the Czech Republic (!!). Sure, they’ve an EU web site, but it surely solely ships to the Netherlands, Portugal, and Luxembourg. (Additionally they ship to Germany, France, and the US on country-specific websites.)
I went by way of EVERY possibility. I might ship to the US, as I used to be about to move there, however US costs had been rather more costly. I might order the outfit from Farfetch, which ships Maje garments to the Czech Republic, however there was no sale there.
I truly thought-about taking the bus to the subsequent retailer — Leipzig, Germany — for the day, however they didn’t have the outfit in inventory.
Then a number of buddies in several nations kindly provided to obtain the package deal and ship it on to me. I took my friend Ali in Berlin up on her supply. I shipped it in a single day to her, and had FedEx decide it up and ship it to me the subsequent day.
It suits, it’s fabulous, and I’m READY for the Barbie film!! However I in all probability received’t go to this a lot bother for an outfit once more!
Aspect Initiatives Replace
That is the month that New Hampshire Way, my New Hampshire web site, went from making a not-quite-enough-to-live-on-income to a yeah-I-could-live-on-that-income. How? Excessive season, child!
That is the primary time I’ve had Mediavine adverts operating throughout excessive season, and the distinction is STARK. New Hampshire may technically be a year-round vacation spot (effectively, aside from mud season within the spring), however I’m realizing the sheer distinction in numbers for summer time journey.
The excellent news is that this visitors surge ought to proceed by way of mid-October for fall foliage season earlier than quieting down once more. I want to determine how you can maximize it within the meantime.
Most Well-liked Reel on Instagram
I need you to know that I’ve been making main adjustments on Instagram currently, posting numerous enjoyable Reels about totally different journey and life content material. I would love to have you follow me at @adventurouskate! And sure, I’m on Threads too!
This month’s hottest Reel is concerning the Peter Pan Afternoon Tea I did final summer time at Aqua Shard in London. It is a fabulous afternoon tea — the meals is scrumptious, the theme is on level, and the placement is magical, making you’re feeling such as you’re flying above London.
You can watch it here. Put it in your listing in your subsequent London go to!
What I Watched This Month
Okay everybody — Any person Someplace is my new favourite present. You’ll LOVE THIS SHOW, which airs on HBO.
This present is about Sam, a forty-something girl who returned to her Kansas hometown to deal with her dying sister. The present begins six months after her passing and opens with Sam assembly a brand new good friend, Joel. The 2 of them are misfits who hit it off immediately, and he introduces her to a brand new neighborhood.
Some folks name this a “coming of center age story.” Greater than something, it’s about discovered household and constructing an unconventional life in a midwestern small city. It’s created by comic Bridget Everett, who stars as Sam.
This present is mild, small-towny, and wickedly humorous. It’s filling the opening that Parks & Rec left in my coronary heart. And I like that it stars a 50-something plus-sized girl and a solid of average-looking folks (together with queer characters which can be truly well-rounded). I can’t suggest it sufficient. There are solely 14 25-minute episodes.
Under Deck replace: This month, Charlie and I completed Under Deck: Crusing Yacht Season Two — and I can now say that is THE BEST SEASON OF BELOW DECK EVER. Don’t watch it in your first season ever — put it aside.
This season has EVERYTHING — a reliable crew that may deal with a real emergency! A scary boat crash! An truly nice chief stew! Some actually bizarre company! A hookup between a boss and his worker on the FIRST NIGHT! Chaotic bisexuals! An STI scare! Hilarious cuts to Captain Glenn watching alien documentaries! AND A SCANDAL THAT YOU DON’T FIND OUT UNTIL THE REUNION!
Charlie and I’ve now had sufficient time away from Captain Sandy and Malia after the MARITIME LAW scandal of season 5 that we’re prepared to return to the Med. We’ve began Under Deck Med: Season Six and I’ll report extra on it subsequent month.
What I Learn This Month
Aftershocks by Nadia Owusu (2021) — Nadia grew up dwelling between cultures — daughter of a Ghanian father who died when she was 13 and an Armenian American mom who deserted her when she was two; dwelling her life between Italy, Ethiopia, Tanzania, ending in New York; a stepmother who weaponized a secret; looking for her method on the planet. Her life’s largest moments are characterised as earthquakes — therefore aftershocks.
This e book is heavy — however for those who give it the time and area it deserves, it is going to be rewarding for you. You get so deep into Owusu’s head that if I met her on the road in New York, I’d flip and stroll away as a result of I felt like I knew too many private issues about her.
On the floor, her life story is so unhappy. However it’s genuinely, fantastically instructed, and he or she has a novel voice that I’d like to listen to rather more of. (And actually, it form of jogged my memory of how significantly better Matthew Perry’s memoir might have been if he had had an honest editor.)
The Second Mrs. Astor by Shana Abe (2021) — Probably the most well-known couple on the Titanic was the Astors — John Jacob Astor, 47, who perished within the wreck, and Madeleine, his pregnant 18-year-old spouse, who survived. This fictionalized novel tells the story of their courtship and all-too-short marriage.
First off — I swear I began this e book earlier than the entire Titanic submersible factor occurred! Complete coincidence. I used to be actually to dive into the story of this 17-year-old who married an extremely rich 46-year-old, particularly because it was billed as an epic romance.
In the end, although, I really feel like this e book didn’t have a plot. It was very “this occurred, then this occurred, then this occurred,” with none narrative arc. Madeleine and Jack had an ideal, flawless relationship on this e book with out a lot as a disagreement or second of uncertainty (actually? She was 17 and he was 46! Was she REALLY that mature?!). After which they received married. After which they had been blissful. After which they received on the Titanic. Okay.
Coming Up in July 2023
I’m posting this one third of the best way into the month. The start of the month was all about our Boston marriage ceremony! After the marriage and every week within the Boston space, we headed to London for a number of days to see Charlie’s household earlier than heading again to Prague.
Past that, that is gearing as much as be a really busy summer time (I’m seeing I didn’t study my lesson from my packed-to-the-gills summer time of 2022). Charlie and I’ve two brief journeys — first, a drive down into Salzburg and Tirol for an appointment that we’re turning right into a mini getaway, then a fast journey to Copenhagen.
On the finish of July, we head to Dubrovnik to start a Croatia and Montenegro journey for my thirty ninth birthday. You realize I’m at all times blissful to return to those two great nations, and this time I’m wanting ahead to visiting some new locations — together with Durmitor Nationwide Park and Perast in Montenegro, and Cavtat and the Elafiti Islands in Croatia.
What are you as much as this summer time? Share away!
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