August 2018: Monthly Roundup

Welp, summer is unofficially over. Not that we have much to complain about, since this little travel blog still has three more months to go on its around-the-world adventure, but I feel like September signals a change, a shift, a turnover. I guess it’s because school always starts then, and that combined with the weather always cause mood adjustments for me. But, more on that another day, today we are going to recap what we did in August 2018!

Where we were

Um, ok. If I thought I got angina in May 2018 when we had gone to ten places, I’m having a full-blown panic attack looking at the below. Eleven places in one month. Given that we like to travel slow, I have to ask, what were we thinking? I think we were thinking that there are so many places to see and so little time, but sheesh. Luckily our September has started off much slower, which has helped us recover.

• Near Plitvice National Park, Croatia
• Zadar, Croatia
• Zagreb, Croatia
• Geilo, Norway
• Bergen, Norway
• Odda, Norway
• Oslo, Norway
• Lisbon, Portugal
• Algarve, Portugal
• Santarem, Portugal
• Arco de Valdevez, Portugal

Highlights

All the friends and family. As mentioned last month, August was the month of having all the friends and family visit us. And man was it awesome! We started the month by finishing off our time with Noèmie (my friend from the NBA) in Croatia, then JC (Damian’s friend from gymnastics) visited us in Bergen, then Poops (my sister) was with us in Oslo and then we had Daniella and Ian (Damian’s sister and her husband) traveling with us for ten days in Portugal. I think out of 31 days we had friends or family with us for 18 days, it was awesome!

Lots of outdoors fun. After a lot of time spent in cities at the end of Italy it was fun to get back to being in the outdoors. We got to see waterfalls and glaciers and beaches. It was great.

One-year engage-versary and six-month married-versary! We got engaged in August 11, 2017 so this month was the one year anniversary of that, and we got married on February 10, 2018, so this month was also the six month anniversary of that. We didn’t do anything big but we gave each other more kisses and took a moment to enjoy the day. I know people think it’s weird, but I think it’s a waste to not stop and enjoy these little milestones. Life is short, why not get as many smiles out of it as you can?

So much silliness. We acted to dumb this month, and I loved every minute of it. I think part of it was having other people around, but we made so many fun little memories by making up games and making fun of each other. I hope I never forget to laugh at Damian trying to be the directions-leader in Oslo or pool float races in the Algarve.

Back to the beaches. I know I mentioned it above, but I had to say again how happy it made me to be back to the beaches. We had done a few days at the beach in Hvar, but before that our last beach destination was Greece in early June! Summer doesn’t feel like summer to me unless I’m at the beach, so it was nice to get back to it for an extended period of time this month.

I found my tulip pants! Oh, these pants. So I have no idea what the real name is, but I saw the service folks at our place in Jericoacoara wearing them. Basically they are kind of like hammer pants, but the sides are open, with two overlapping pieces of fabric. I’ve been looking for them since (three months!), and I finally found them in Olhão, Portugal. Yippeee!

Lowlights

Allergies. I think I’ve mentioned this before, but on this trip, for some reason, I’ve been having bad allergies in cities, and I’ve been surprisingly ok when we are in “nature” places. This month my allergies acted up in Zagreb, Zadar, Bergen and Oslo, which was super annoying.

Not enough downtime. As you can see from the list of places this month was hectic. Eleven places in one month is hectic enough, but there were also places that we stayed in for 3-4 days, which made our stays in the other places even shorter. I know that this is a self-created problem, and we have taken note. We’re planning South Africa right now and I think we are going to spend all two weeks in one place. Woohoo!

Overstimulation. While having so many visitors was so fun (and continues to be, if anyone wants to join us in Madagascar, South Africa or New Zealand, let us know!), it also leads to a lot of stimulation for me. Travel (plane, car, etc.) also overstimulates me. So those things combined definitely led to me being on a “high,” which I had to proactively manage.

Passing halfway. As I mentioned last month, we officially passed the halfway point of our trip on August 1. While there is a lot I am looking forward to in terms of returning to New York City, this trip (and this life together) has been a dream of ours for a long time. It’s crazy to think we are already on the back half of it, and closer to the end of it than the start.

Scheduling “real-life” stuff. We are hopping back to the US for a few days in September to attend a wedding, and so are setting up some regular doctor, etc. appointments in conjunction with that. I forgot how annoying all that “real life” stuff is!

Falling behind in writing. I usually run this blog about 1.5-2 weeks behind real-time, as if obviously takes me some days to write, edit pictures, get the post up, etc. (our Instagram is real-time if you want to see that). But with all the visitors and the fun I didn’t write as much this month as I had hoped to, so now I am about 3 weeks behind. Booo. I am aiming to catch up in September though, fingers crossed!

What I read

I also only read three books this month, grrr. Though I guess I shouldn’t whine too much, because it means I was spending more of my time hanging out with peeps, but I felt the impact that less reading time had in making the month feel more hectic, so blech. Happily, I’ve already upped the pace in September!

Here’s what I read this month:

Campaign Widows by Aimee Agrestie – I was looking forward to this book, as it had been on a lot of summer reading lists, but I was disappointed. It read too far like a ‘chick lit’ book than I had been anticipating (and I am not above chick lit, I love chick lit). I just thought it would be more like the book Game Change, with insights into what it is like to be a wife or husband on the campaign trail for your partner, and it wasn’t.

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi – I loved this book. I had read before that the key to enjoying this book is to read it in a couple of long sittings as opposed to reading bits and pieces here and there, and it is so true. The structure and idea for the book is genius – basically it starts off with two sisters in Africa in the 1700s (in the area that is now Ghana). One is sold into slavery and one is married to a British royal, and then each chapter follows one of their descendants, with each generation taking up one chapter, until today. Well-written, well-researched and very moving.

Alternate Side by Anna Quindlen – This is a new novel that also had gotten on a bunch of summer reading lists, and, to be honest, I was meh on it also. It follows a group of families living in brownstones in a dead-end street on the Upper West Side of New York City. There’s an incident that happens and then the story follows the repercussions and fallout from that. Sadly, I thought everything was meh – the characters, the story, the resolution at the end, etc. etc.

What’s next

September is another month of change, but slower, and I think it will be reenergizing for us. We start with some downtime in Portugal (where we are now!) and hanging out on the beach. Then we head back to New York for a quick stop to go to a dear friend’s wedding and then we are off to Madagascar!

Travel blog posts from August

And finally, I thought to help us keep track of what’s happening in this little travel blog I’d put in a list of all the posts from August here. Enjoy!

• Italy – Our three days in Rome
• Italy RECAP – What we loved (and didn’t love) in our six weeks there
• Croatia – Our four days in Dubrovnik
• Croatia – Our week in Hvar
• Croatia – Hiking Kra National Park and Canyoning in the Cetina River
• July 2018 Monthly Roundup
• Croatia – Hiking in Plitvice Lakes National Park
• Croatia – Visiting Zadar and Zagreb
• Norway – All the hiking (Glacier, Trolltunga, 4 Waterfalls, Steindalsfossen)