Traveling has been taking over my brain and my life for the past couple of weeks. While I absolutely love it, it allows some anxiety to creep in when it comes to the unknown safety of my own home, in my case, my college apartment. Especially during this time of the year with Christmas festivites, holiday parties and traveling to Grandma's house, protecting your home is crucial! Here are some of my favorite ways to keep the holdiay cheer and home protection at an all time high during travl:
My heart has been so full as I have gone from country to country on the weekends, and knowing my apartment is safe has been able to let me fully enjoy these new experiences. If you want more to make sure your home is super safe during travels, check out SimpiSafe's security tips and trades on their website here! Have any other favorite home safety tips? Comment below!
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Chocolate. Mountains. Cheese Fondue. Snow. More Chocolate. What more could you want? Do's
Don'ts
The best week, with the best lady, in the best cities in Europe. I felt like a giddy little girl waiting for her mom at the airport arrival oval. Welcoming my mom off the plane, my face started to hurt a little. My mom was in Copenhagen!! We had the most amazing time together spending two days in my study abroad hometown - Copenhagen - and five days in the city of lights - Paris. Copenhagen has so much to offer and it was so hard planning this weekend stay because there was so much I wanted to show her (blog post coming soon about what to do when friends/family come to Copenhagen). My mom booked the weekend stay at Kong Arthur Hotel, right near Norreport station, and then the rest of the weekend was filled with showing her my "life" in the city, eating, my favorite hidden local places, and a dinner with my host family. It was really special being able to share this season of life with her. Monday morning we jet-set off to Paris and spent five wonderful days there. We did most of the touristy must-do things like boating up and down the canal, gasp at the Notre Dame and other beautiful churches, 'touch' the point of the Louvre, take a day trip to Versailles, and stand in awe of the Eiffel Tower. My mom earns the best trip planner award though. She planned a few other festivities that made the trip extra special. Tuesday mid-afternoon we met up with our tour guide ready to bike, electric bike that is, for four hours all over Paris in the Paris Charms & Secrets Tour. Our guide was a hoot, and he guided us through the city to places we would never see on our own like a secret church that was hidden behind big doors and was completely untouched during the French Revolution and now closed to the public. Wednesday night we met up with a local Professional Chef who hosted us and four others for a cooking class through Le Foodist. We followed him to a local food market, picked up our fresh ingredients, and then made our way back to the kitchen for a four course meal - snails, mussels, chicken, and poached pears for dessert. The chef was also a hoot, and taught us a thing or two on how to make some really tasty food. I can't even put into words how thankful I am for this week with my mom. It was so special to have a little piece of home come to visit me in Denmark and have those mom hugs that I desperately needed. It was so hard to say goodbye, but a little easier knowing that I will see her in a months time and that this month is packed with amazing adventures to finish out my blonde eventyr.
1. Under-rated. "You have to go to Austria," is not a common phrase heard in the study abroad grapevine - but it should be. This country has so much to offer, and you will not be disappointed! Salzburg and Vienna were the two cities I traveled too - both different feels, but both Austrian feels.
2. Beautiful. Old and striking architecture, low skylines, lots of white and just a charm that screams beautiful. This place during Christmas would be an absolute dream. 3. Clean. We were always pretty early in starting out days, but the mornings we spent walking the streets it was impeccably clean, which made the experience all the best. It was breathable, and classy! 4. Coffee Capital. Best. Coffee. Ever. Vienna is known for their excellent baristas and brews. I probably had 10 coffees total the whole weekend, and can honestly say all were great. Some of my favorite coffee shops were: phil, Café Sperl and Cafe Central. Beware, the size cup that comes with your coffee is small, really small. 5. Horse-Run. Horse-drawn carriages are everywhere! It's the coziest, most picturesque way to explore the city. 6. Homey. I am the biggest fan of big breakfasts, and Austria agrees. At the brunch places we ate, I felt like I was in Atlanta, exploring new trendy cafés. 7. Yummy. Continuing on the brunch topic, wow were the breakfasts good. In Vienna, we ate breakfast at The Breakfast Club and Café Sperl. For dinner we ate Bier and Bierli, casual bar. The Nasushmarket is also awesome, lots of free samples, and falafel. Best ice cream was at Eis Greissler - get the poppy seed, almond, or cookie flavor. Salzburg was the home of the greatest brunch, at Fingerlos. And also the greatest pizza, L'Osteria. I recommend all of these places! 8. Surprising. On our walk over a busy bridge in Salzburg, we heard a small group singing some great Christian songs, and we were taken back! We started talking to them, and they invited us back to their church for lunch. What a sweet depiction of God's love and his presence on this Earth! The same day, as we arrived at the metro station and the most beautiful angelic voice was singing his heart out at the metro entrance doors. He will be famous one day. Who knows how Austria will surprise you. 9. von Trapp. Salzburg is the home of everything Sound of Music. We were able to see many of the backdrops were the movie was filmed. The von Trapp house is better in person. 10. Historical. Many grand palaces and castles loomed over my head. I would by lying if I told y'all I know what all those buildings were, but they sure are beautiful. The Vienna Opera House is also a must-see. The Opera we attended was such an experience, we left after intermission because a four hour opera sung in a different language sometimes is too long, and will put you to sleep (I can attest to this). 11. Worthy. Go to Austria! This long study tour officially sets off my travel bug mentality. I left Copenhagen to visit Berlin and Prague this past week with my European Business Strategy core class, to set out on academic tours through European companies and to see a new side of Europe. First three days were spent in Berlin. My history-buff-self emerged and absolutely loved the history of Berlin. The combination of old and new buildings post communism and WWII, the Berlin Wall, and all the historical briefings from our bike tour brought the heart of war city to life. Standing where the Nazi regime started and seeing the building where the Nazi headquarters used to be was hard to wrap my head around. To be honest though, Berlin wasn't my favorite. Given it was rainy and cold, I just did not love this city at all besides the history. We had little time to go explore the city on our own, but my friend got her and I on the guest list of Benjamin Fancis Leftwhich's concert - my soul is still on edge and my heart still skips a beat when I think about this concert, it was that good. If you don't know of him, check him out!! So yeah, Ben was definitely the best part of Berlin. With my class, we visited BMW motorcycle, Deutsche Bahn AG, VDA Headquarters, and then we split up into five different groups to see smaller businesses on our own - I visited The Aspen Institute Germany. BMW was cool seeing the difference between the motorcycle and automobile departments under the automobile industry umbrella. VDA was engaging and eye-opening, but the others were eye-closing (super boring). ...and then it was tschüss Berlin, ahoj Prague. The last three days were spent in Prague. Prague is beautiful! The old building facades and cobblestone streets lead the way to Prague Castle, the John Lennon Wall, and the Old Square. DIS planned a cooking class for us the first night there where we cooked our own chicken and potato meal along with our Professional Chef instructor. The kitchen gave a Ratatouille vibe and the chef was a spitting image of Edna Mode from the Incredibles (it was the glasses). Prague also has these iconic dough and sugar sweets called Trdelniks, and they are heavenly. A big must when traveling to Prague. As a class, we visited SKODA and SKANSKA. At SKODA, we were able to see the cars created from a piece of metal to a functional car. This summer I was able to see Mercedes-Benz cars being produced through my MB internship, and it was so interesting to see the difference between car productions. Let's just say that MB screams luxury in production, and SKODA definitely doesn't. All in all, it was an amazing trip that offered a realistic picture of what working abroad would look like with meetings and the limited time to go sight-seeing. So maybe working abroad isn't number one on my list. It was sad to say goodbye to Prague, but nice to be back at my temporary home in Copenhagen! |
Hi, I'm Paige. Welcome to my 'Blonde Eventyr'!
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