sardinia I: chia

Stephen and I spent five days in Sardinia recently, and can we talk for a minute about how excellent that place is? Of course we can. We hopped off the plane and immediately booked it down the coast to Chia (pronounced Kia), where we hit up our first two beaches: unnamed Chia-area beach down a road marked "Al Mare" (yes please) and Su Porto. We had to drive halfway across the island in the evening but I'm all for going back -- the area is so excellent and you can dive amongst Roman ruins nearby. So cool.

gmunden am traunsee

I first saw the Traunsee through the windows of a train when I went to visit Suz in Bad Ischl in May 2009, but I didn't know the name of the lake at the time. Dang, is it ever pretty. We were there for parts of four days, and two of them were sunny and hot -- we went for a walk around the lake the first day and I went swimming (just a little chilly), and on the second day we rented kayaks and paddled down to Hois'n Wirt for lunch, with a short dip at a deserted strip of pebbley beach in between. The weather wasn't in our favor the entire time (we spent our last day in Austria over in Bad Ischl at a thermal bath to beat the rain) but we did pretty all right for ourselves in general.

kehlsteinhaus

I visited the Kehlsteinhaus (Eagle's Nest) two years ago, with Ann (with whom I am traveling to Italy in just over two months!), and at the time I wrote I was almost certain to return to the area. And I did! My dad has wanted to see the Eagle's Nest for ages, and I was glad we could make that happen for him. Those views remain spectacular.

Pro tip: If you go to the Eagle's Nest, do your darnedest to be on one of the first buses of the morning (they start at 8:30 and run every 25 minutes thereafter). We were on the second bus of the day, and even by the time we were heading down the mountain at 10:35 the place was starting to get jammed.

königssee

  
The Königssee and its nearby lake friend the Obersee were pretty darned spectacular.

berchtesgaden

  
My parents came to Europe a few weeks ago to visit me and my youngest brother, Conor (our other brother, Ryan, had to work!) and we spent a week hanging out in the German and Austrian Alps. First up: Berchtesgaden. We stayed at the Alpenhof, which, in Schönau, is a tiny bit outside of Berchtesgaden proper, but I didn't find that to be a downside. The hotel is charming and has all kinds of stuff to do (including but not limited to indoor and outdoor pools, a tennis court, and daily Kaffee & Kuchen [naturally]) and the food was very good (we got the Halbpension, which meant breakfast and dinner were included -- a relatively common thing in Germany, I've found). Highly recommended!

the 7th of july

  
It's always a little sad to remember that American Independence Day is not, in fact, a German holiday. Never fear: we made up for it the following Saturday in fine fashion, first by attempting to grill on Mandie's balcony and inadvertently setting off the fire alarm for her whole building, then by relocating to the park when the weather cleared up and BBQing our hearts out. If it seems like there are a lot of pictures of my leggings, it is because I want to make sure that everyone properly understands exactly how glorious they are. (Germany's New Yorker store really came through for me on the 'Merica front.)

I would also like for it to be known that I finished off the night dancing in the bar around the corner from Mandie's house while wearing those leggings and a gigantic sombrero.

kuala lumpur III: yut kee

I swear I'll be done with talking about Malaysia after this post (for now), but I can't be done without talking about Yut Kee. I went twice -- by myself on my first day in Malaysia, and with Megan on one of my last days -- and it was well worth the repeat visit. Kaya and toast, roti, noodles . . . delicious. Jack and Mervyn (the father and son who run the place) are wonderful, too. I might have been a little overly familiar with Mervyn on the return visit ("I was here last week!!") but he took it well in stride, and kindly introduced us to his dad, who showed us the vat out back where they cook the kaya (alas, the kaya-cooking was done for the day). If I lived anywhere near Malaysia, my boyfriend would have some serious competition -- Jack's a charmer!

london in the summer

It's only been a little over a month since I visited Lucy in London, so I'm right on time for writing about it! From a Friday night to an (early, early) Monday morning, we packed in a pretty good amount of stuff: a brief visit with my friend Cecilia, brunch at The Breakfast Club in Hoxton (the SoHo one having been without electricity that day (!)), a visit to Radley (naturally), dinner and drinks at The Boater's Inn (which is in Richmond and right on the Thames, and is lovely), rather hungover Sunday lunch at Moro, lazy afternoon watching 27 Dresses, and a Sunday evening trip down the block to watch "the football" (England vs. Italy in the Euro Cup) at Lucy's local pub, The Normanby, which is lovely. I haven't done a truly touristy thing in London in either of the past two visits, and in the visit before that Megan and I only rode the London Eye because our lovely hostess Lucy was working. Visiting cities with (or like!) a local is such fun.