best of 2013

In no particular order, some of my favorite photos from the last year from a bunch of places: Germany, Sardinia, Prague, Paris x 2, Stone Harbor, NYC, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Gran Canaria.

sardinia IX: blue

Amazing blue sea and looking down on a tiny deserted beach that we drove down dirt roads to find. And with that we conclude our coverage of Sardinia (for this year's trip, anyway).

sardinia VIII: spiaggia della pelosa

More of my favorite aesthetic ever, brought to you by Spiaggia della Pelosa just north of Stintino, Sardinia in mid-July. Finding parking was crazy and those colorful umbrellas on the tiny strip of sand look pretty packed together, so we admired the colors from afar and chose two loungers and a blue umbrella at the less crowded beach up the way, which was across a narrow straight from an abandoned Spanish watchtower. We swam out into the straight and I explored the island while Stephen chased fish all through the underwater plants. We drank cans of Ichnusa beer that didn't stay cold for long (gotta love the Italian summer sun!) and ate a picnic lunch of cheese and bread and olive oil and were delighted about our lives.

sardinia VII: birthday beach II

Floating. Santa Teresa di Gallura.

sardinia VI: birthday beach I

This is where I spent (part of) my birthday: Santa Teresa di Gallura, on Sardinia's northwestern coast. We weren't really sure whether it would be nice or not, and in terms of the beach experience it wasn't necessarily the greatest -- crowded! as you can tell -- but in terms of my favorite aesthetic that ever was, a.k.a. tons of colorful beach chairs and brilliant blue water, it was the jackpot.

sardinia V: costa smeralda

The Costa Smeralda has some of the most stunning coastline I saw in Sardinia, but it's definitely a world of weird. An expensive world of weird. I'm a total convert to paying for loungers and umbrellas on the beach (after having tried it for the first time in Positano), but €50,- for a couple of spots on those nice cushy loungers you see in the first picture seemed a tiny bit extravagant. We rented the non-padded blue and yellow ones (way cheaper) and spent a few sunny hours refusing to buy pashminas/sunglasses/hats/assorted other knickknacks from the beach hawkers and then busted our way out of there for the open road.

sardinia IV: water

Three shots of the water on the Golfo di Orosei.