If you read my post on my pre-trip reading, you know that I read Robert Massie’s Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman just before heading to my Baltic destinations, and found both Catherine and the clashes of European histories during that era to be absolutely intriguing. With two full days and one night in Russia, arriving via the port of St. Petersburg, we spent the first day touring the historic heart of the city, spying after onion domes throughout the former capital while focusing on two main sights: The Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood and the Hermitage Museum. The second day we headed out of the city to take in a summer residence of the Russian tsars. Continue reading “A Catherine the Great-Inspired 36 Hours in St. Petersburg: Day 1”
Despite a lifetime of taking the ferries back and forth between Stockholm and Helsinki, and forcibly becoming acquainted with Tallink, the Estonian ferry brand, after their acquisition of my beloved Silja Line, the Finnish cruiseferry brand, I had never headed south across the Gulf of Finland for a daytrip in Tallinn. Until I turned 23. Continue reading “Turning 23 in Tallinn, and a Tirade about Tallink”
I have finally had the opportunity to start to take in Berlin in person, which I plan to do in a series of visits, and I still can’t wrap my mind around it. Berlin is the Hauptstadt of Europe’s economic powerhouse, a centuries-old city, but also a brand new city, reborn again and again through some of modern history’s worst clashes.
Most know that the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, but I was shocked when I realized that its occupiers, including the Russians, did not leave until 1994. 1994! Continue reading “Berlin: Meeting a European Hauptstadt That’s Younger Than Me”
Copenhagen is a beautiful city, and with airline connections, mainly through SAS’s major hub at Kastrup Airport, becoming more convenient for visiting the Nordic capital, there’s all the more reason to visit. But with many travelers using it as a gateway for other northern European cities, or as a departure point for increasingly popular Baltic cruises, it sometimes gets overlooked for an extended stay. If you only have one day in Copenhagen, consider fitting the following activities into your day, and then make plans to come back again. Continue reading “One Day in Copenhagen: What Not to Miss”
Hej! After a painless, nonstop flight from Dulles to Copenhagen, I arrived at the Copenhagen Marriott just in time for some breakfast before heading out for the day. On the agenda: a quick tour de Skåne, or the southern part of, Sweden for lunch and fika with family. So after flying in that morning, I took the train from Copenhagen H over the Öresund bridge to head north to Halmstad. After our rendezvous in Halmstad we drove back, taking the Scandic Line ferry from Helsingborg back to Denmark and then continuing into Copenhagen. Continue reading “København-Skåne by Air, Land, and Sea”
Most of my life, I’ve been a voracious reader. I remember reading Little Women and Gone with the Wind in fourth grade, always having a good book for long flights, and even learning how to write Swedish fluently solely based off of being read to and reading as a young child. But in college, I was always reading books for classes (though as an English major most of those were fantastic), but if I wasn’t finishing up a reading for class, I was doing one or several of a hundred other active projects. I got out of the habit of reading for fun. After more than a year since graduation of my primary reading material being news on my phone, I decided preparing for my next trip would be the perfect occasion to break this streak.
I’m soon headed to three cities that I have never visited before: Berlin, St. Petersburg, and Tallinn. My interest in Tallinn had previously inspired me to do background research on the city online, and last year I spent an insightful evening at the Embassy of Estonia in Washington, DC, so I turned my attention to Berlin and St. Petersburg. Continue reading “Pre-Trip Reading: Berlin & St. Petersburg”
Every part and every neighborhood of Manhattan offers a different NYC experience. In this series, I focus on a day spent in one of the many varied sections that make up Manhattan. See below for links to other day-by-day tips for enjoying Manhattan’s diverse neighborhoods.
It’s a tale of two cities, or countries or neighborhoods, however you to prefer to phrase it, in the heart of New York City. Directly next to each other, even entwined thanks to some outlier stores, are two unlikely neighbors- Chinatown and Little Italy. The first time I went was spontaneous, and I had not yet become familiar with the layout of Lower Manhattan, and I was shocked when one moment I was eating dumplings and trying authentic soymilk on one street, and I was suddenly on a bustling Italian restaurant avenue on the next. While you could argue that world history (and modern globalization) makes these two countries more closely related than they appear, it is still an unexpected situation. Here are my suggestions for a day in Chinatown and Little Italy: Continue reading “New York City Sights: A Day Spent with Unlikely Neighbors in Lower Manhattan”
The core of your home consists of the walls, windows, roof, floors, and the tools you use to decorate this space. I’ve watched many of my friends move into their first young professional apartments with their sole tool being an Allen wrench that came with their first IKEA purchase (I remember mine fondly).
But enough is enough! How can your apartment, condo, or house become a home without the essential tools? Will photos and tapestries forever be held up with thumb tacks or tape as in your college days? How can you be a “real person” without being able to measure dimensions for furniture, or as you align gallery walls by “eyeballing it”?
It’s time to take a stand with these 8 tools of the trade. Continue reading “Tools of the Trade: The 8 Items You Need Before Moving Into Your First “Real” Place”
Washington, DC has a very particular energy during the summer season. The universities are on summer term, those fortunate enough to have vacation days head out of the city, and even the most driven professionals feel the urge to sneak out a few minutes early. The interns take over the metro and bars, everyone sweats in their suits, summer Fridays are pervasive, business booms for restaurants with patios (and the servers hate the patio section), a Friday at Jazz in the Garden is a must, a couple rooftop happy hours are equally as essential, and suddenly Virginia and Maryland are more enticing for a visit.
As a DC resident of five years, I have passed by the Tidal Basin and seen people floating along on the paddle boats that are available for hire during the summer and into the fall and frequently thought, “oh, I should do that some day!” on numerous occasions. My coworkers and friends had similar thoughts- “oh, I’ve always meant to do that but never have.” Well, yesterday became that day for me. Continue reading “DC Summer Series: Paddleboating & Brunch”
Washington, DC has a very particular energy during the summer season. The universities are on summer term, those fortunate enough to have vacation days head out of the city, and even the most driven professionals feel the urge to sneak out a few minutes early. The interns take over the metro and bars, everyone sweats in their suits, summer Fridays are pervasive, business booms for restaurants with patios (and the servers hate the patio section), a Friday at Jazz in the Garden is a must, a couple rooftop happy hours are equally as essential, and suddenly Virginia and Maryland are more enticing for a visit.
Recently, I went on a daytrip with a group of 18 people to go tubing at Harper’s Ferry. I had never been tubing before, and it was ridiculously fun as well as a learning experience in the art of young professionals getting together in a mix of carefree floating and some serious responsibility. Here is everything you need to know for planning a DC summer tubing trip: Continue reading “DC Summer Series: A Guide to Tubing at Harper’s Ferry”
anchored & adrift 