Approaching Ulysses

Something I’ve been working on inadvertently for a while now is reading the Modern Library’s 100 greatest novels and non-fiction books.  I have not really been actively pursuing it, but rather just crossing some off my list when I finally got around to reading them.  One thing that I want to do within the next year is to start actively trying to cross more books off the list and finally read the ones that I’ve been avoiding.

Last weekend, I opened the list and of course, the first book, glaring me in the eyes is Ulysses by James Joyce.  It’s the end of the semester and I do seem to have a lot more free time, so I decided, okay.  I’m going to tackle this one now.  No more putting it off.  So I went to the St. Cloud Public Library, borrowed the book, along with a few others (wishful thinking), and set off to finally read Ulysses.

I started off by reading some reviews on Good Reads.  The reviews are some of the most varied I’ve seen regarding a book on the site.  There were a lot of “5 stars” with people siting it as a literary masterpiece (of course).  Then again, there were a lot of “1 stars” with people saying they dropped it in the bathtub and weren’t upset about it.  Literary masterpiece or not, I was quite intimidated.

I sat down and opened up the book.  First episode: so far, so good.  I understood mostly everything, but I had to look up a translation of the Latin phrases.  While I was searching, I found some online resources specifically related to the book where I could get a episode synopsis and a list explaining the allusions.  So there I sat, with the book open, my laptop open, and an online dictionary open for some of the more obsolete vocabulary.  I was well armed.

On one of my reading breaks, I was googling through some further online resources about Ulysses and came across a few websites that cited the fourth episode as one that usually turned people away because it was such a confusing stream of consciousness.  Oh no.  I was almost to the fourth episode.  Was it going to turn me away from this obstinate book?  Further googling brought me across a blog that totally changed my view of Ulysses.

The blog confirmed that yes, the fourth episode is the most intimidating.  But, it said, why not just skip over the fourth episode if it is really dragging you down?  Why not just put away all of the reading guides and translations, why not just enjoy the book for what it is and don’t worry if you don’t understand all the allusions?  Hey, I said to myself, they’re right.  If I’m enjoying what I read, and I can make some sense of it, isn’t that the point?  Not to understand every word and get muddled in the intricacies of the thing, but to really just read it and enjoy it.  That made the 700 plus pages seem more manageable.

Guess what… I made it past the 4th episode!  With my new philosophy, its really not too bad.  I’m just trying to enjoy it and gleam what I can from it.  There are 18 episodes in all (I am told from online sources) and if I try to read one every couple of days, reading this book will not take my entire lifetime to complete.  Thank you random reading-positive blogger.  You made my goal seem within reach!

Lentil stew

Happy Sunday! Aren’t Sundays usually a day for cooking delicious food to eat through the week? Well they are for me. Today was a very relaxed day for me, as I woke up this morning with a sore throat. I blame it on the fact that I subbed in the elementary school last week. One day with the kiddos and my immune system just can’t handle it. So today was a day for resting up and hopefully getting rid of this sore throat. 

Since there was a light dusting of snow on the ground when I woke up this morning, I decided to make some warm and hearty lentil stew. The recipe comes from Forks over Knives. It turned out really nicely and was just what the doctor ordered on this cold Sunday. 

Interestingly enough. To make the stew, you begin by blending 1/2 cup water with 5 dates. This makes a nice thick base for the stew and doesn’t make it overly sweet. 

Be sure to take the pits out first! I chopped up my dates a bit to make it easier on the blender, but if you have a food processor or really tough blender, this probably isn’t necessary. 

The next step is to mix all of the ingredients in a large stock pot. This is what I love about making soups, you just throw everything together and something great comes out of it! 

I included: one finely diced red pepper, half an onion, 1/2 pound of lentils, garlic, tomato paste, and diced tomatoes.

I seasoned it with: chili powder, red pepper flakes, parsley, and basil. 

Then I let it simmer for about an hour and a half until the peppers were soft. 

This dish would be perfect for Christmas because the seasonings, and the lentils are green! So it is bright red and green, beautiful!

I served the stew with a hearty chunk of French bread and some vegan butter. Delicious!

The making of a lifestyle blog

Hello to my readers! This blog started out its life as a travel blog, but now I think it will be better suited as a lifestyle blog. Sure, there will be some travel-related posts, but since I’m not traveling as much as I once was, and I would still like to use the blog, I’m going to change course a little. Maybe I will lose some followers, but maybe I will gain some as well. In the end, I’m mostly writing for myself anyway. I would like to enjoy the little things in life and flesh out some of my insights here to have a nice record of my life. So here goes. 

If you are a return reader who remembers me as an English teacher in Prague, let me update you on my life a bit. After leaving Prague nearly a year ago, I moved to Minnesota to peruse a masters degree in teaching English as a second language. I have an assistantship where I teach one undergraduate ESL class a semester. It keeps me pretty busy, but being in a state so far from home, I also have plenty of time to explore and search within myself to determine what really defines me. I am about to finish up my second semester (out of 4) and am looking forward to a trip home for the holidays!

Now that we are all caught up, I can tell you a bit about what I am envisioning for this blog from here on out. As I said, it’s mostly for me because I enjoy writing and want to remember things from my daily life. But that’s not to say readers can enjoy the contents and maybe even learn a little something too. 

I know that a blog should try to write for a niche. But when I tried to decide on a niche, it was way too hard. There are lots of things I like, and nothing that I’m a total expert in (besides maybe ESL, but I really don’t feel like studying and teaching it all week and then writing about it! Maybe a few posts here and there). Okay, I’m not going to become rich and famous from this blog, but it can be what I really want it to be. You will occasionally see posts about the following things:

1. Vegan cooking – I’ve been vegan for about 4 months now, and I absolutely love vegan cooking! It is so nice putting together a hearty meal using no animal products. I would like to share some insight into the vegan lifestyle as well as recipes and meal ideas. 
2. Book reviews – I decided to cancel my internet in hopes of reading more books. I want to read Modern Library’s list of 100 best novels and non-fiction books. So when I finish one, I’ll write what I thought of it here. 
3. Running inspiration – I’ve done several 5ks and one 10k and would like to improve my status as a runner and do even more races! I will share training plans, meal ideas, and general inspiration for running. 
4. Lifestyle tips – as I try to live a more focused, driven life, I will share some ideas of things that work well for me here. 
5. Adventures – I will share some of my everyday adventures as well as special trips I take. After all, this started as a travel blog and I love writing about and visiting new places!

There will probably be some other random things that I post about too. I hope you’re with me on my next phase of blogging!!

Iceland is for Lovers

Day 1: We got our rental car from the airport, then got groceries and had Taco Bell for lunch. We drove 4.5 hours to the glacier lagoon, a huge lake with floating glaciers big and small parading through it.

   

We hiked around for two hours and then found a spot to camp for the night.

Day 2: We woke up early today because we were a bit cold and uncomfortable in the back of the car. We got up and drove to the Svartifoss nature area and hiked to see basalt formations and some waterfalls.

  We left there and headed to the Fjadrárgljúfur gorge. It was so beautiful to see.  

Next we pulled off at a stop we saw on the road. It happened to be the best part of our day and one of the best hikes I’ve ever done, the Hjörleifshöfdi mountain. We were the only people there except for one other couple. We saw the burial of the 2nd inhabitant of Iceland and some other truly stunning views.

It was only a 3km hike. We made some food at the bottom of the mountain and camped out there for the night. It happened to be one of our best sleeping locations as well.

Day 3: we woke up around 8:30 and got ready for the day. We left our camping site and headed to the town of Vik to get some coffee. While in Vik, we found the entrance to to black sand beaches so we went there and enjoyed seeing the waves crashing. The sand was so fine and very black. After we made our way to the Reynisfjall sea cliffs. There was a very windy steep hill that we tried to drive up but decided to give up half way and walk the rest. When we got to the top it was so windy I had to sit down a few times because I was afraid to be standing. We couldn’t do the whole hike but we still got some great views of the black sand beach from above.

Next we headed to Reynisfjara and saw the sea cave and walked along he beach for a bit. Next stop was Halsanefshellir a huge archway cut out of rock in the sea, and a bird estuary.

Afterwards, we drove to the Skogafoss waterfall and found that there was a nice long hike there. We hiked for two and a half Km and then turned around. We stopped in a town and looked around a shop with locally made things. I couldn’t believe how expensive the famous Icelandic sweaters are 🙂 We drove to our next stop looking for a place to camp for the night. We are clearly getting more intl civilization because it was harder to find a spot to camp! In the middle of the night we saw the aurora borealis.

Day 4: We woke up next to the side of the road where we were parked and got ready for the day. Our first stop of the day was Gullfoss, the golden waterfall. It is more powerful than Niagara falls. Next we went to geyser and saw one erupt a few times and it was amazing. There were lots of hot springs in the area too that you cold wander around and see. Next we headed to Selfoss and picked up a few things we needed and checked out a second hand store and a handmade craft store. Lastly, we headed to Thinglever National Park and saw tectonic plates that Are above ground. 

Day 5:

We woke up and headed into Reykjavik. We checked out possibly taking a tour, but instead decided on a plan based on what the tour bus would have taken us to. We walked around the city for a bit and saw lots of really trendy shops and restaurants. We also saw the tallest building in the city which is an interesting looking modern church. After exploring, we left and went up north of the island, a place we had yet to explore on our trip. To get there we had to go through a really long underwater time that cost about 7 dollars U.S. Our first stop was Deildartunguhver hot springs which are the most powerful hot springs in Europe and they are used to heat many houses. It was hot near them.

And there was a lot of steam being given off, but they were actually pretty small and not that impressive. Our next stop were the Hraunfossar waterfalls. This is a series of many waterfalls that are actually falling over lava rocks. It was beautiful and less crowded than the other waterfalls we have seen on our trip. Our last stop of the day was one of my favorite parts of the entire trip. We saw the Langjökull glacier. We had to drive down a crazy ‘road’ that seemed like we were driving on the moon. When we got almost all the way to the glacier we had to get out and walk because the road was way too bumpy. We walked right up to he glacier and touched it!! It was amazing and invigorating. If I ever come back to Iceland, I would definitely like to take one of the glacier tours they do with hiking, snowmobiling, or even going inside the glacier. Afterwards, the day was getting older so we headed back to Reykjavik for the night. We stayed at a camp sight directly inside the capital city. It’s the first time we paid for camping, and let me tell you, it is quite an experience. There are kitchenettes that look like a science lab from high school and there are people everywhere! There is a lounge with tons of people, some outdoor eating areas, nice bathrooms, and tons of people camping here. It is like nothing I’ve ever seen before and it costs about 12$ per person per night.

Clearly, our experience in Iceland is something I will remember forever.  The scenery was stunning, and constantly changing everywhere you looked.  Each stop had something unique, awesome hikes abounded, and the place is so natural and untouched by humans.  Now, I’m back in Prague, and looking back through all my pictures of the last month of adventures.  I will treasure them (the pictures and adventures) forever.

Day 20; prep for Iceland

Today was all about getting prepared for Iceland. We woke up early and left our air BnB. Then we headed over to the bus station to catch a 7am bus to Lyon. I slept the whole time on the bus – really practicing for sleeping in the car in Iceland! We arrived in Lyon 6 hours later and explored the city a bit. It was pretty quiet but also nice. 

   
Jordan bought me some ice cream and we hung out for a bit using free wifi. Then we left to go to the airport. The shuttle was expensive – it cost 13€.  We made it to the airport and had a nice last meal. Fresh salad- we won’t be having that for a while because we’re going to mostly be eating non-perishables in Iceland out of the car. Anyway, Iceland here we come!!

Day 19; Paris

We did another bunch of sightseeing today on our second and last day in Paris. We started with going up the Eiffel Tower. We walked up to the second floor and then took an elevator to the top.  

    
   
After that, we went to the Louvre and saw some of the interesting artwork. It is so big, I wish we could have seen it all. 

   
The outside of the Louvre. We went around 6 and there wasn’t much of a line. 

 
The Mona Lisa. You wouldn’t believe how pushy people were in front of her. She must see some interesting things all day. 

   
Sitting scribe. A classic example of Egyptian art because of the proportions, colors, and being cut out of one block. 

 
We saw lots of different kinds of mummys and tombs. 

  Winged bull. 
 
Venus de Milo. People think it is Aphrodite but it’s impossible to know because the arms and other distinguishing features are broken off. 

  
There was a whole room dedicated to michaelangelos sculptures. This is the dying slave. 

  
The winged victory of samothrace. 

Once we had all of the ancient beauty we could take, we left to go to sacre coeur. The sun was going down and the place was packed with people watching the city turn its lights on.  

   
I love the cathedral from the outside and we also got a chance to see its beauty inside too. 

After that I was pretty exhausted so we grabbed a quick bite near the air BnB and headed back!

Day 18; Paris

Today was our first real day in Paris and although I have heard pretty terrible things about the city, and especially its people, today was an amazing day. 

We started out at notre dame. The outside of the church was quite amazing and we waited in a short line to see the inside too. 

   
  

Next we went to the catacombs. We got there a bit early and had crepes! Mine was chocolate and banana.  

 Next we toured the catacombs. In Paris’s history, at one point someone said all the bones from burial sights need to be moved, so the result was the catacombs. It seemed to go on forever. I couldn’t believe how many bones there were. 

   

  

 Back above ground, we wandered around a bit searching out a place for dinner. 

  We walked through this park.

We found a nice place for dinner where we had fondue and some meat that you cook on a hot plate in front of you. 

   

 After dinner we caught a subway ride up to a different area and went to a Tanlines concert. It was so much fun, and also at a very cool venue.   

 After the show we saw the Eiffel Tower at night. It was breath taking. I can’t believe I got to see the Eiffel Tower!

   
   
It also sparkled for five minutes at 11pm. 

We bought some beers from the vendors at the tower and enjoyed the view!

That’s all for today. I hope tomorrow is just as nice in Paris!

Euro trip: days 9-17

Day 9:

All day was spent in transit. We started in the morning with a train from Certaldo to Siena. When we got to Siena we had some time to walk around the city which was nice. Then we grabbed some yummy pizza with surprisingly thick crust for lunch and caught a bus from Siena to the Rome airport. We hung in the airport for a few hours before getting on our flight to Nice. We were flying right as the sun was setting and it was a truly awe inspiring sight.  
   In Nice we took some extra crowded public transport and met our air BnB hosts and then relaxed for what was left of the night. 

Day 10: 

We slept in a bit and then woke up, got ready and went to the laundry mat that is across the street from our air BnB in Nice. We did our laundry with the help of a friendly French woman who kept saying voilà. While we were waiting for that, we went to the grocery store Carrefour and picked up some food for breakfast lunch and dinner. We both agreed we were getting a bit tired of eating out so we decided to take advantage of the nice kitchen in our air BnB. 

After all the laundry and shopping was done we went out to check out the city of nice. We walked down to the water which was about at 25 minute walk from our air BnB. The city is probably the nicest I’ve ever seen.   

 It is so clean with very nice architecture in the French style. Right in the city center there is a fountain water park for kids to cool down in. The street leading up to the beach has lots of shops.   

  

 We walked along the beach for a bit and put our feet in the water, finished exploring the area and then went back to our air BnB and had some lunch. After a quick siesta, we caught a train to Monaco another country that only took 20 minutes to get to!   

   It is a very wealthy place and I was surprised and how entertaining it was to gawk at all of the yachts and cars and dream about the type of people that were inside. We walked around the harbor and then went to the casino- the same one from James Bond!  

  We went into the slot casino and Jordan played 5 euros on some roulette. He almost doubled his money at one point, but then lost it all in the end 😉 

We headed back to Nice and made some dinner. 

Day 11:

Today we took a day trip to Antibes. It was very similar to Nice except for the fact that we took at walk on the le sentier du littorale which is a 2 hour hike along the coast.   

  

  

  It has beautiful scenery the whole time and we stopped to go swimming in one of the alcoves. Then we took a bus back to Antibes city center and walked around for a bit before heading back to Nice. 

We got back to nice and headed straight to the beach again to go swimming since we hadn’t had a chance to swim here yet. The beaches are pebbled which makes it very different to walk in than sand! But the water was so clear and clean it seemed like swimming in glass. I could have swam in there forever. 

Next we headed to Fenocchio, an ice cream parlor that caught our attention because of their crazy flavors like cactus and beer. I tried ginger bread, black licorice, and m&m. It was so hard to decide on a flavor! They had about 90! 

Afterwards, we walked along the bumpin Boardwalk for a bit and then decided to go into one of the casinos. I played roulette and lost 1€. I was really unlucky at first, but then I made all my money back except for that 1€. Then we headed back to our air BnB for the night!!

Day 12:

We were both pretty tired after all of our adventures so far so we started the day off kind of slow and lazily. We took another trip to the grocery store to buy some dinner food and then we relaxed in the apartment for the morning. When we finally got ready, we walked down to the water and rented some bikes. There is a great bike lane along the beach so we road until the beach ended, stopped and took a nice swim, and then road back. The beach that far down was much less crowded; it was very relaxing. We brought some wine with us so we had a bit of wine before riding back. We returned the bikes and then sat on the beach and finished drying off while the sun went down. We headed back to the apartment and made some dinner. 

Day 13:

Today we woke up and packed up everything that we had strewn around our air BnB and got ready to leave. We had to leave the apartment by noon so we had a leisurely morning and left. We found out about a service called left luggage where you can leave your bags so we did that, happy to be rid of our heavy backpacks. Next we did a little shopping along the main boulevard in Nice and then ended up at the beach. We had a really relaxing day just laying on the beach, tanning, and a bit of swimming. We also had some lunch on the beach and more wine 🙂 We had to pick up our luggage at 6, so when we did we started making our journey towards the airport. We started at a mall where Jordan could change out of his bathing suit in the bathroom. After that was sorted, we started walking in the direction of the airport. We decided to walk all the way from the city center to the airport because it was only 5 miles and the bus was quite a rip off. It wasn’t a bad walk, but with our packs it got a bit tiring. We took a couple of stops one was for Jordan to get a huge hamburger called a “Mexican” that had two beef patties, French fries, and sautéed onions wrapped inside a pita. It was good! Then we carried on and finally ended up in the airport. Next stop: Barcelona!

Day 14:

Today was our first day in Barcelona. We started off with a tour of la guardia familiaia and went up in the tower.  Gaudí’s masterpiece was really impressive. It seemed like everywhere you looked there was more to see in the architectural design. The tower have is a good view of the city and we got to walk down a really windy staircase.  

  

 Then I had a coffee cream. We stopped at a restaurant. Jordan had a sandwich and I had sangria. We walked down to the beach area and hung around there for most of the rest of the day.  

  

 There was a fun Spanish band playing on the beach. 

For dinner we had tapas at a restaurant near the boardwalk we tried gazpacho, chicken croquettes, patatas tortillas, nachos with guacamole and got a big pitcher of sangria.   

 Day 15: 

We took the walking tour in Barcelona today and learned a lot about the country’s history and some other interesting facts. 

   Catalian style architecture with a flat roof. 

 This is a tower to represent the world record for Catalian human towers, a popular activity that is held at a festival every year. 

When that was over we walked around a bit and checked out the barcoletta area.  

 We had a huge dinner which was a paella meal. It started with tapas, then Paella then dessert.

   Patatas(soo good), croquette, squid, garlic peppers, fried anchovies

  Chicken paella

  

  After dinner we got some drinks and had them on the beach. We had a free drink in the casino and won some money. We watched the Barcelona soccer game on tv while we had our drinks and it was very enjoyable. Then we cashed out and headed home. 

Day 16:

It was our last day in Barcelona and although we started out wanting to have a day at the beach, the day broke a bit too cold and rainy for that, so instead we started off at la rambla, a street with lots of different vendor stalls. As we wandered around, we found the at Josep mercat.  

  

  

  

  It was a huge market with every type of imaginable fresh food. We really enjoyed walking down the super crowded alleyways and trying a few of the delicacies they had to offer. We both tried fresh juice and some Mexican inspired food from one stand. 

  

I got fresh kiwi juice. 

After the market, we wandered by the sea before hiring some bikes and riding the entire length of the beach.  

 It turned into a beautiful day and it was fun to explore. We finished with the bikes, headed back to our hostel, and then went to find some dinner. We ended up at an interesting place outside of the tourist sections and got one last Spanish meal. One of the best foods we tried was patatas bravas.  

  Sangria is of course another Spanish favorite. 

Cheese plate and patatas bravas.

After dinner, we walked to the placa de espania and got a nice view of the city at night.  

 

Day 17:

Today we woke up at 5am, checked out of our hostel and caught a bus from Barcelona to Paris. It was a 14 hour ride so we didn’t get to do much else today except for nap, listen to music, and read. We finally made it to our air BnB in Paris around 11pm. Time to get some sleep!

Day 8: Pisa and Lucca

Today we took another day trip to Pisa and Lucca. Before catching our train, we went to the supermarket Coop again and I got some amazing food. A nectarine, waffles, and focaccia for lunch. It was all so perfect, I literally can’t say a bad word about any of it. We caught the train and got started in Pisa which was about 45 minutes away. It was a bit rainy when we first got there but after lunch it cleared up and we got to do some sight seeing. 

  
The city itself was very cool, too. There were lots of small windy streets, but all of the buildings showed a bit more wear than in Florence and gave it a pretty rustic feel. 

  
Next we headed to Lucca, a walled city about 20 minutes from Pisa. It was featured on an episode of top gear because it was impossible to get out of there in a car! And we found that to be true. The street plan is so convoluted, it took us almost 2 hours just to find the center of the city. But it was so beautiful.

   
 
After some exploring, we got a pasta dinner. I had lasagne! So good!

  
After dinner we stopped for dessert and I had a one of a kind experience. It was an ice cream sandwich made with gelato and topped with any kind of syrups or fruit toppings you wanted, and it’s made right in front of you! 

  
I’m pretty exhausted after all of our Tuscan adventures. Tomorrow will basically be a travel day as we head to the south of France!

Day 7: Florence

Wow, it’s been a whole week of eurotrip so far, and I can’t believe how much fun I’m having and how amazing each of our stops has been. I feel like I hope this trip never ends!! 

We woke up today and took a train into Florence from Certaldo. It took about an hour to get there. Before we left, we went to the grocery store in town and got some amazing food. I got some of the best grapes I’ve had in my life and Jordan got some focaccia which was to die for. I couldn’t believe how amazing the food was. Then we headed to Florence. 

The big thing to see in Florence is the Doma, which we were surprised isn’t more famous. The amount of detail is incredible! The pictures don’t do it justice but each time we walked by it we were equally amazed. 

  
Next we just enjoyed wandering around the streets. They seemed so ‘classic italy’ to us that we wanted to snap a photo at every corner. They were small and windy with colorful shutters, with lots of Vespas and bikes everywhere. 

  
We saw the David statue and some of the other famous landmarks. 

  
The David.  

 Ponte Vecchio was a beautiful bridge with some vendors. A great place to take photos.  

 Palazzo Piti. 

  
The great view across from Piti. 

After wandering around and enjoying ourselves for most of the day, we decided to get a Classic Italian meal before heading home.

  
Red house wine and water to drink.  

 Tuscan ham and cheese for an appetizer. The ham was shaved so thin and the hard cheese was really delicious. 

For the first course I got pici pasta with cheese and pepper. The pasta was so fresh. 

  
For my second course I got salmon grilled with citrus and mixed green salad. It was a ton of food but we left feeling great because of the high quality and deliciousness of all of the food. 

  
We love Italy!! It’s so interesting here. I still can’t get over the popularity of the siesta. Everything definitely moves slower here, but for the most part, it’s not frustrating. The scenery has been so beautiful. The bit we have seen of a Tuscan sunset was amazing. The whole sky was lit up. We have even seen some sunflower fields. 🙂