In the "Simply Sara Eats " series, I recount the my favorite food and drink discoveries.
It’s time to talk about Krakow. I can’t say I ate any food I didn’t like in this city, but here are the highlights -
Read moreStarting This Week: Spotlight on Poland
Bon lundi!
Last spring I went on a trip I had wanted to go on for so long when at last Michael and I finally made it happen. It was a 16-day trip all around Poland. We had an incredible adventure which ranked as one of the highlights of 2014, yet I haven't said much about the trip other than my initial thoughts in my 10 Most Memorable Experiences in Poland post.
That's going to change this week. You see, when we told people that we were going on our big trip of the year to Poland, one of a few possible reactions followed. Surprise. "16 days?" Shock. "Poland??" And more clarifying questions ensued, usually boiling down to: 1. Why Poland? and 2. What's in Poland?
Today I can cover the why. I have Polish ancestry on both sides of my family, and I've always been interested to visit the country for personal reasons as a way to connect on some level with family roots. (And Michael is questionably Polish - he keeps telling me he is, but no one can tell me who in the family was from Poland. But I'll share Poland with him, regardless.) That and I've always had an interest in history, especially surrounding WWII. I felt the need to see Auschwitz just once in my lifetime, initially for its historical significance and later on more so once I found out a portion of my family died in similar camps. All of this made me want to set foot in and explore Poland, but it took awhile to sit down and figure out how to best spend our time in such a large country.
These next few weeks I hope to answer the second question on what there is to see and experience in Poland. I think this country is massively underrated as a travel destination, but has so much to offer curious tourists. So stay tuned for more on this wonderful country but be warned...you just might be inspired to consider it as a travel destination before the secret really gets out to the masses!
Coming this week - some of my favorite spots in the city I fell absolutely in love with - Krakow! I especially enjoyed its cool Kazimierz district filled with fun evening spots like this one called Singer.
Have you ever been to Poland? What attracted you to travel there?
2014 Recap: The Gift Year
I know that by this time, we've all stopped rehashing 2014 and have started looking ahead to 2015. But I can't just summarize last year with pretty photos of Paris and Europe - I need to pause and share my reflections of a special year.
21 Trains
19 Flights
5 Buses
5 Rental cars
14 Countries
21 houseguests
131 blog posts
2 camels
And countless sheep
2014. I think of this year as my “gift year.” That’s not to say that every day we get on this earth isn't a gift, because it is. I mean it in the sense that when I think about 2014, I think “we shouldn't still be here.” Michael had a contract to work on an assignment in Paris for almost two years, ending in December 2013. Except by the end of that year, we had realized that Paris wasn't merely the home base for our travels throughout Europe. We had somehow built a life here, entered into community, and fell in love with life in the city. Things were looking bleak for a while and it seemed that we did in fact have to move back to the US as planned. Until things turned around and we were able to stay. We weren't supposed to still be hanging around the City of Light this year, but somehow in the end we were gifted with more time.
Read moreA White Christmas in Seefeld, Austria
Bon lundi!
Hope you all had a wonderful start to 2015!
While traveling, have you ever wished you could share the experience with a loved one who wasn't there with you? Somewhere you knew would just be perfect for them? That was one of the things that crossed my mind last year as Michael and I traveled through Germany and Seefeld, Austria for an annual trip we've called Christmaspalooza - and this year, I got to fulfill the wish by having my parents and brother visit for some Christmas Markets and cross-country skiing.
When we arrived, Seefeld looked like this. Still quaint and magical, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit disappointed that it wasn't covered by a blanket of snow. I mean, we confirmed with the cross-country skiing school that there would be enough snow on the ground for us to take our classes because we were uncertain.
Sunset at Seefeld's Christmas market
But then a Christmas surprise happened. Christmas Day and each day after it snowed and snowed, and turned Seefeld into the winter wonderland I fell in love with the previous year. And like the time before, it felt too soon to leave when the check-out date arrived.
Dashing through the snow, Seefeld-style
Though my brother had to head home, my parents joined us to visit our German relatives for an evening and then continued on to Paris to ring in the new year. So now that I'm back and settled, I have lots to share once again :-)
What did you do for the holidays and New Year's?
Canvas-Worthy Europe, 2014 edition
Last Wednesday I shared my round-up of my favorite photos taken in Paris in 2014. Now it’s time to see the year in review through a collection of my canvas-worthy contenders from our European travels outside of Paris. Here’s where I traveled to during the year!
Read moreCanvas-Worthy Paris, 2014 edition
{Canvas-worthy} A characteristic bestowed to a photograph of exceptional quality to indicate it might be pleasing enough to consider making into a canvas and hanging on the wall. See additional notes in the Canvas-Worthy Paris post of 2013.
Example: Michael: Look at the photo I just took of the Eiffel Tower!
Sara: Wow, that one might be canvas-worthy!
This year I was much less discriminate when it came to narrowing down my favorite photos Michael and I have taken in Paris (18 instead of last year’s 10!). Thankfully, I am only committing to sharing them with you and not actually purchasing canvases for my home yet. So take a look and help weigh in on which were the best of 2014! (Or else I’m going to need to save up a lot more for a larger house with more wall space!)
Read moreChristmas Cheer in Northern Iceland
Bon lundi!
Wishing you a very Merry Christmas! To celebrate, I thought I would share a picture from northern Iceland of a cute, quirky store. This is Jólagarðurinn (the Christmas garden), which is located just outside of the center of Akureyri. Inside is a Christmas store spreading Christmas cheer all year round!
Simply Sara's Ultimate European Christmas Market Round-Up
I’ve been making a list and checking it twice...and am ready to reveal which European Christmas markets made the naughty or nice list. This by no means is a conclusive list of markets throughout Europe, but it’s my thoughts on 20 markets spanning 8 European countries. So without further ado, here’s the breakdown by country:
Read moreChristmas Market Count-down
Bon lundi!
Everyone has a favorite Christmas season tradition. Growing up, my favorites were baking cookies and decorating the tree, while my husband's was putting the lights on the house. As much as I love to deck the halls, I must admit that I only started decorating my Parisian apartment yesterday, so it's finally beginning to feel like Christmas is ten days away.
This week I can't wait to share my new favorite holiday tradition with you: going to European Christmas markets! Get ready for my round-up of the markets I've been to, and how they all stack up. Stay tuned this week.
Christmas in Cologne, Germany - this market had a giant Santa!
Do you have a Christmas tradition that you learned from another culture?
The Most "Local" Christmas Market: Leipzig, Germany
Sometimes when you least expect it, you stumble upon something wonderful. If you saw my husband’s first guest post earlier this week, you heard how Leipzig, Germany was his addition to our first European Christmas trip in 2012. It wasn’t the Christmas market that attracted him to this town though. Instead, it was a pilgrimage of sorts to see the town where his favorite composer of all time lived for nearly 30 years of his life. And if you adore Bach like he does, the Bach Museum still stands as his favorite museum ever (and let me tell you, we’ve been to A LOT of museums).
But let’s get back to the Christmas market. The mission of the trip was to experience European Christmas markets for the first time, and at first, I honestly thought this stop might interfere with that goal a little. After all, we reduced our time in Berlin to one day and one night to have enough time for Leipzig. But it was so worth it in the end.
Read moreTake me "Bach" to Leipzig
Today's post is a guest post from a special someone - my husband! It's his first guest post, and appropriately on a subject he has always been passionate about, his favorite composer of all time. It's the reason we made Leipzig, Germany a stop on our first European Christmas market tour in 2012. Although it felt like a concession at the time on my end, it was a surprisingly delightful town that earned our superlative of "the most local" Christmas market we have visited, and all of this to do:
While we were planning our trip through Germany to see the Christmas markets, there was one thing on my Christmas wish list that had nothing to do with hot spiced wine or baked German treats: the town of Leipzig.
In America, Leipzig earns a mere footnote in our contemporary world history textbooks: they are mostly known for two things:
- Their failure to prosecute WWI war crimes (this is one of the primary reasons the Nuremberg Trials took place: the Allies didn't trust Germany to prosecute the war crimes on their own this time)
- The Monday demonstrations which led to the fall of the Berlin wall
Going further back in history though, Leipzig was a notable cultural center of the world. Martin Luther preached here, and some of the greatest minds in music have lived, worked, and/or visited here -- including Mozart and Schumann -- but most importantly...
Read moreSomething's Amiss in Galeries Lafayette!
Bon lundi!
Are you getting into the holiday spirit? I sure am! Christmas music is on chez moi at almost all waking hours. I've been known to listen to songs from a wide array of artists - everything from Straight No Chaser to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra over to Destiny’s Child (bet you didn't know they had a Christmas album!), with a splash of the Beach Boys when Michael takes control of the selection. Heck, I’ll even admit that I own an album entitled “Ska-la-la-la-la-la” which hasn't made an appearance on the Christmas playlist in a while, but it’s at the ready if needed...
Anyway, if you don’t have your own Christmas music playing, turn on Rockapella’s You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch to accompany this post. It’s the most relevant song I could think of that was monster-related...because look at what those monsters did in Galeries Lafayette!
As I mentioned in my previous post, Galeries Lafayette does a really good job at tying in its Christmas theme throughout the store. This year’s Le Noël Monstre (The Christmas Monster) theme meant that those monsters featured in the display windows got their hands on the Christmas tree, and turned it upside-down!
So what do you think? Too weird or fun and festive?
And second question: What’s on your playlist these days? Give me some new ideas, I need hours worth of Christmas music to listen to continuously! Just another reason I don’t start listening to it until after Thanksgiving - I don’t think I could go more than a month straight :-)
Simply Sara's European Christmas Market How-To
I have always loved celebrating the Christmas season, and moving to Europe has introduced me to an absolutely wonderful tradition: the Christmas market. For the past two seasons my husband and I have traveled to many European cities during December to experience the burst of holiday cheer and have been anything but disappointed in our findings.
If you’re off to a European Christmas market, here are 13 tips we've learned firsthand!
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