I wish we could have tried everything, but unfortunately our money and stomach capacity could only stretch so far. Between the three of us, we sampled empanadas, Argentinian steak & sausage, quesadilla, paella, two versions of grilled calamari, churros and, of course, coffee to finish. Out of all this, we were disappointed only by the churros - dry, thin and sparsely drizzled with chocolate sauce, they were very disappointing. However, the same stall that we got these from (El Toro Furioso), also sold us a truly great empanada. You win, you lose. All in all, we left full and happy, and, needless to say, skipped dinner. I don't know whether this is going to be an annual event, but I certainly hope so.
It is not often that we get a 26 degree, sunny Sunday in Prague, and what better way to spend such a day than by sampling an obscene quantity of great South American food from a variety of Prague restaurants. By the river. In one of the world's most beautiful cities. Have I mentioned how great the weather was? Myself, Mark, and our friend John arrived at Nabrezi Smichov well past lunchtime, but it was packed. We scanned the stalls, mouths watering. Seeing the hundreds of tapas-style meals on offer, we decided to pool our finances and get a number of dishes to share.
I wish we could have tried everything, but unfortunately our money and stomach capacity could only stretch so far. Between the three of us, we sampled empanadas, Argentinian steak & sausage, quesadilla, paella, two versions of grilled calamari, churros and, of course, coffee to finish. Out of all this, we were disappointed only by the churros - dry, thin and sparsely drizzled with chocolate sauce, they were very disappointing. However, the same stall that we got these from (El Toro Furioso), also sold us a truly great empanada. You win, you lose. All in all, we left full and happy, and, needless to say, skipped dinner. I don't know whether this is going to be an annual event, but I certainly hope so.
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Weekends in Paris, especially in the summer, can be crazy and jam-packed with tourists. If you can spare the time, it's best to spend the weekend avoiding sights such as the Eiffel Tower like the plague, and instead opting for a local-style urban relaxation. This is how we spent last Sunday in Paris.Start your day at the Petit Palais. Wander around the exhibition halls, and follow up with some tea or a chilled pea & mint soup with a view onto the beautiful courtyard garden. This museum isn't as popular with tourists as some others, so you'll escape the crowds here, but you'll be hard-pressed finding a table in the garden, as this spot is very popular with locals - totally worth the wait though! Get on the metro to Saint Paul, and queue for some ethnic street food at King Felafel Palace on Rue des Rosiers. Walk a few houses down and step through the archway at number 10 to eat your take away pita in the charming Jardin des Rosiers - Joseph Migneret.Walk lunch off in the streets of Le Marais. Drop in a few boutiques, sit down to listen to street music on the edge of the sidewalk, and be sure to keep an eye out for the dancing grandma of Le Marais - we found her and her accompanying band across from the Carnavalet Museum on Rue des France-Bourgeois.Stop for cafe au lait at a sidewalk cafe. We enjoyed sitting in the little red chairs at Le Petit Italien at 5 Rue Saint-Gilles. End the day with a walk along the Seine, and a glass of wine on Place Dauphine.What would you do on a Sunday in Paris? Tell me in the comments below.Summertime is finally in full swing, and for me, that screams one word: picnics, and lots of them. Picnics are such a fun way to celebrate the beautiful weather, enjoy each others' company, and eat some good food in the process. They're also a great way to save money when travelling, or while out exploring, as they're usually much cheaper than eating out. Last week, Mark and I decided to open our picnic season with an Italian-inspired meal, and cooked up several light recipes to take with us. On the menu were a Caponata salad with eggplant and avocado, baked parmesan zucchini chips, and foccacias with goat cheese, pesto and prosciutto. All of these were really easy to make, and turned out really well. In addition, we also brought along some mushroom pastries that Mark's grandma sent over, some strawberries for dessert, and a bottle of wine. We packed it all up in an old picnic basket with my plastic wine glasses and a blanket, and set off. We soon realized that baskets are only really convenient if you're getting to your picnic spot by car - but hey, it looked pretty. The next challenge was, of course, to find the perfect spot. We had wanted to set it up in the apple orchard by the Strahov Monastery here in Prague, but when we got there, we found that the grass was really tall and the slope was uncomfortably steep for setting out our meal on, so we continued walking. As we walked down a quiet little street towards the city centre, I noticed some grassy steps lining one side of the street, and suggested that we climb up on them and have our picnic there, with a view of the dome of St. Nicholas Church at the bottom of the hill to one side, and of the colourful houses of Nerudova on the opposite side of the orchard to the other. We laid out our food, and watched passers-by in the midday sunshine. Of course, we had forgotten to bring a corkscrew, so we had to get creative, and after experimenting briefly with a couple of techniques suggested by Google, including the bizarre idea of banging the bottle with a shoe (is this really a thing, anyone???), we pushed the cork into the bottle, and it floated there for the duration of our meal. I find that picnics always create rosy memories and great stories. Not only that, but they're also a unique summer activity that allows you to get a little bit creative; between making and/or buying food, finding the perfect location, and eating outside with friends and loved ones, you're sure to have lots of memorable adventures. We loved our Italian picnic, and are already excited about all the ideas that we have for the other picnics that we're planning this summer. Will you be picnicking this summer? What is your favourite picnic food, and where do you go? Do you like this kind of 'diary' post? Let me know what you think in the comments below.A week ago, I sent off my things into storage and flew home to Prague after my first year of university had ended. This year was my first living a 'grown-up', semi-independent life, and moving abroad was an important transition for me. I thought that this week I would reflect on this milestone year, as well as give you an idea of what this summer has in store. Thanks to my rapidly developing interest in photography, this year of my life has certainly been the most comprehensively documented of any so far. Soon after I moved to Bristol, I set myself the challenge of posting a photo on Instagram every day. This proved more difficult than originally anticipated, and I have to admit that the year did not pass without a certain amount of creative block and stress over posting a photo daily without sacrificing the quality of the content. A lot of editing was done, many photos were posted and deleted and posted again. Others were taken down days later to suit my perfectionist needs for a cohesive page. In the end, thanks to a combination of willpower and daily Whatsapp reminders from my boyfriend, I missed only a very few days. I've always thought that photography was about capturing and immortalizing beautiful moments, and I can't express enough how happy I am to have captured thousands of moments over the last year. And of course, that's all thanks to Instagram. For every one photo that I post, there's a hundred more that didn't turn out as pretty; but they also immortalize moments, and they wouldn't exist if I hadn't challenged myself to churn out a daily picture. Looking back over the last year in photos, there is no doubt in my mind that this past year has been an exceptionally good one. This year more than ever, I've felt a satisfying sense of balance between the challenges and rewards that came my way. My challenges were not so huge that I was totally overwhelmed, and there were enough things that brought me joy to make me a very contented first-year student - and those things were moments that are now captured forever in the thousands of photos I've taken. A few highlights: I loved showing the people who visited me from back home the place were I lived, and exploring my new city with them. Of course, as much as I love Bristol, by nature I have an ever-present feeling of both homesickness for Prague and wanderlust for places that I haven't yet seen. As far as I'm concerned, there can never be enough traveling; that having been said, I have been lucky enough to visit some amazing places this year, some of them for the first time, and others for what seems like the hundredth. Moving to the UK was exciting for me because I had barely been there before - when I moved, I hadn't even been to London yet. Bristol proved to be a great jumping-off point for day/ weekend trips to some great places, and my little trips included Bath, Exeter, London and South Wales. I have many more destinations in mind for next year, including Weston-super-Mare and St. Ives. In addition, I traveled a little further, to places like Cesky Krumlov, Berlin, Nuremberg and the Selcuk region of Turkey. On the other hand, Bristol played host to a few highly memorable events as well: to name a few, the Halloween zombie walk, the NYC Apartment exhibition at Bristol Museum, and of course, @IgersBristol's Instagram meetups, organized by the wonderful @porthjess. These meetups deserve a special mention, as they helped me to connect with people I would never have otherwise met, go to places I might not otherwise have discovered, and generally step outside of my comfort zone, in an extremely rewarding way. Through these meetups, I met people who are much better photographers than me, and was able to see them in action and learn from them. It was also thanks to them that I took a bus to take photos exploring a stunning yellow rapeseed field near Bath with a few other instagrammers. And of course, through increasing involvement in the Instagram community, I was inspired to start this blog. Everything has changed, and I've changed with it. I can't wait to see what the next few years have in store for me, and I hope that everything will continue to change, that I will develop new skills, become a better person, and experience things I could never dream of now. But que sera sera, and all will be revealed in due time. In the meanwhile, I'm making plans for this summer. In the blogposts to come over the next few months, you can expect some in-depth exploration of Prague, which I'm determined to reconnect with and embrace. There will also be a few travel features: I have confirmed trips to Paris and Vienna already, and there may be a few others coming up too. Stay tuned and have an inspiring summer of exploration! Follow me on Instagram @ClubofExplorers to see what else I got up to this year, and to stay up to date with my new adventures. What would you like to read about this summer? Leave a comment down below.As one of the world's street art capitals, there is far more creativity in the streets of Bristol than could ever be summarized in just one blogpost. This city is the hometown of the most recognised name in modern street art - the great Banksy; and he's not alone. But what really stands out about Bristolian street art is its incredible diversity. The colours, themes and styles vary both within and across the city's neighbourhoods, and masterfully capture the atmosphere and mood of each. Bristol's Stokes Croft neighbourhood is covered from the ground up with art, making the entire area a huge outdoor gallery. The people here live in colour, and don't take themselves to seriously; except on the things that matter, like community and freedom of expression. This is the kind of place where the demolition of an abandoned building often used as a canvas by street artists was recently halted in response to protests by Bristol residents. In Stokes Croft and the adjoining Montpellier residential neighbourhood, art is business, art is a call to action, and it's just plain fun. Although the density of street art is without a doubt the highest in Stokes Croft and Montpeiller, the rest of the city doesn't go untouched by the influence of public art. The city centre houses one of Banksy's more famous works, a mural of a man hanging off a window ledge after his lover's husband returns. JPS Artist's 'Big Deal' is just around the corner, depicting a business transaction between toddlers. A maritime mural advertises a fish and chips shop called Catch 22. A slightly more unconventional piece, the shoe tree on College Green is both a continually evolving, public piece, and a great mystery. For a different kind of street art, Millennium Square contains a few surprising pieces, including Cathy Pilkington's dogs swimming in a rubber puddle, and the newly installed Energy Tree. Even the peaceful residential neighbourhood of Cliftonwood is no stranger to being an outdoor museum. In fact, it's colourful houses, each facade painted a different pastel colour, makes it a giant functional installation in itself. To complement this, Cliftonwood street art takes on a very different identity from what may be found in the likes of Stokes Croft. The area's strong sense of community is reflected in the highly cohesive, subtle mosaics scattered sparsely on garden walls and above doors. A mosaic of the neighbourhood itself welcomes visitors to the city's most colourful district, and the Bristolian theme continues throughout. From a permanently parked bicycle planted with flowers, to the hot air balloons that float along the streets, breaking up white walls, this area's art truly captures the light and colourful Bristolian mood. Which is your favourite piece from this post? Do you know of a piece of Bristolian art that you feel should have been featured? Let me know if you think I should showcase more pieces and more neighbourhoods in future blogposts.Recently, I took a little trip to the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery to have a look at their current temporary exhibition. I didn't know quite what to expect, but decided to check it out; and how pleasantly surprised I was. The exhibition is entitled New York City Apartment, and what is currently on display here in Bristol is actually only part of the full piece, a life-size replica of the artist, Do Ho Suh's West 22nd Street apartment. Here's where it gets cool: it's all made out of netting material. The room on display in Bristol is the ground floor corridor. What is charming about this piece is the fact that you can walk through it, and that every time you do, the seemingly simple, minimalist piece comes to life as you discover more and more minute architectural details. The banisters of the stairs are only the beginning: look closer and you'll discover light switches and fire sprinklers, water piping and a thermostat, painstakingly embroidered into the netting. Even the door hinges are made of fabric, supported by thin wire. The craftsmanship in this corridor is truly fascinating, and it is essential to walk through several times, for with each walk, more details reveal themselves. The artist, Do Ho Suh, grew up in South Korea, and came to the United States to study painting. He has lived in the US since, and his experience of living in a foreign culture, and the effect of cultural displacement inspires him to create art that reflects the gap between the physical, and the internal ideas of home. 'Each time I left home, I entered an entirely different world.', says the artist, 'My desire to guard and carry around my own intimate space makes me perceive space as infinitely moveable. [...] Space for me becomes intrinsically transportable and translatable.' As an expat both in my hometown of Prague, and Bristol, where I am studying, I can relate to the overwhelming desire to have a space that is mine and mine alone, and a place that I can call 'home', even if I am a foreigner in the city that it is in. The unusual material of Do Ho Suh's installation reflects that need for a transportable personal home, and the fragility of that space. The New York City Apartment exhibition is on at the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery until September 27th. Do Ho Suh's other works can be seen at world-famous museums such as MoMA and Whitney Museum in New York, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.Tucked away in the trendy Vinohrady neighborhood, popular with expats and young people, is a cozy and atmospheric cafe, aptly named the Coffee House. It is cleverly set across several small rooms, giving a feeling of warmth and privacy. Best of all is the tiny courtyard filled with trees and vines. Although the selection of baked goods and cold drinks was very limited, the coffee options were certainly not. Chalkboards displayed several coffee bean options, including daily specials, for connoisseurs to choose from. Not having the expertise to make such serious decisions for ourselves, we left it to the baristas, simply ordering cappuccinos. We were left happy with our coffee, and the croissant we ordered was fresh and pleasing, despite being the only option of baked good. The place drew a cool, largely English-speaking crowd, who lounged in the heavenly garden with their laptops and espressos, making use of the free wifi and early spring sunshine. Overall, the Coffee House is a lovely hideaway in the middle of the city, where one can happily while away and afternoon with excellent coffee, enjoying the fresh air and youthful urban atmosphere.
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AuthorMy name is Emilie. I live between Bristol and Prague, travel, drink coffee and explore as much as I can. Categories
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