Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost

All that is gold does not glitter. 

Not all those who wander are lost.

There are many parts to a trip. What to pack, how to pack, where to go, what to eat when there, the best non-touristy things to do. And many of these uncertainties can be solved by visiting a travel agent or hitting up various Travel boards on Pinterest. 

And then there are things like this, blogs, by people who blog for a living or blog because it might be the only way to keep the travel bug alive whilst not actually traveling. This blog happens to fall into the second category. Past blog entries have been about my times studying, teaching, living abroad. Present and future blog entries are going to focus on simple travel destinations and the essentials for that destination - what adapter is needed, where's the best food and drink, what's the number one thing to do that isn't listed on TripAdvisor etc. So if you have a comment, a question, or simply a story to share about a destination, don't hesitate to do so. 

The best way to travel is to keep the travel bug alive - so if you aren't jetsetting around the world, the next best thing is to live vicariously through someone who is. 

Just to catch everyone up, my name is Caitlin. I consider myself quite lucky to come from a family that embraces travel. I've traveled extensively throughout the US and Europe. I was lucky enough to get to study abroad in Paris during university, and even luckier, to get a job as an English teaching assistant in Normandy post-university. Since coming back to the US, I've scaled back my travels, but I still manage to fit one or two big trips in a year, and I continue to travel throughout my home state of Minnesota - because adventure is always out there, you have to just find it. 

Like Little Lambs....

"The longer I live, the more my mind dwells upon the beauty and the wonder of the world." 

-- John Buroughs

I feel that there is a need to apologize for my lack of blogs - it's not that I haven't been doing anything fun and exciting, it's more that I came back to Lisieux, worked for 5 weeks, and than had a 2 week vacation. So really, in my mind, not that long has passed and not that much has happened since my January post. Though, I might have had 2 weeks, I really only traveled for one of them - the rest of the time was spent trying to not freak out about freaking out about not freaking out about what I was doing with my life post-TAPIF, sleeping the day away (while it rained cats and dogs), and applying to jobs, figuring out travel plans, and participating in TakeCaitlinToWorkDay via FaceTime. 

So, vacation. Vacation, eh? Va-ca-ti-on, vaaaaacation, vacationvacationvacationvactionvacation, vacation! Hope everyone is getting all of this down.

Budapest, Hungary. Where old meets new, where street food is all the rage, where ruin pubs are the coolest things ever, where there's something new, something historical, something fascinating just waiting around the corner to be found. And like always in Europe, where the majority of museums are free to teachers/students...which when on a budget is awesome, because it means you can spend more money on aforementioned food and beer....which in Eastern Europe is fantastic. 

Museum of Fine Arts - home to Rembrandt 

Heroes' Square

Ice Skating

St Stephen's Basilica

Parliament Building

Inside the Thermal Baths

Mathias Church

Buda hills

National Gallery

Buda Castle over Chain Bridge

Prague, Czech Republic. Where old is still old, where kolace pastries and chimney cakes reign supreme, where the building architecture means you are in a living and breathing art gallery, where there's something historical and ancient waiting to be discovered just down that narrow, twisting cobbled streets. And much like Budapest, where the beer is cheap, delicious and always available.

Astronomical Clock

Prague Castle from Charles Bridge

Inside the Municipal House

Municipal House

Kafka statue 

Mirror Chapel in Clementinum

John Lennon Wall

Prague Old Town

I think it's important to point out that to get from Budapest to Prague, I took a night bus - 11pm to 7am - through Bratislava. I can officially check "take a night bus" off my Bucket List - it is long, uncomfortable (either a sauna or a freezer, no in between), and border patrol/passport checks happen either way too often or not enough.

So to wrap up Eastern Europe: delicious and cheap beer, many delicious pastries, and worth returning to for another visit.

Sehnsucht (n., German): a yearning for a far, familiar, non-earthly land one can identify as one's home

"Little by little, one travels far." - JRR Tolkien.  

Wanderlust. Homesickness. Traveling.

Rain. Netflix binging. Wanderlust. 

Wanderlust. Transportation. Walking. 

Home. Wanderlust. 

2014 has been a year of change, a year of traveling, a year of trying to figure out who I am, what I want to do, where I want to be. Perhaps a look back thru the months is required:

• January: National Western Stock Show, where I realized I actually missed horse showing, braiding and grooming, and even the lack of sleep.

• February: My senior thesis started to slowly take over my life and having my "regular study room" at the library started to become a necessity, as well as any motivation I could get. 

• March: Got waitlisted for TAPIF, freaked out and applied to graduate schools.

• April: Got accepted to both TAPIF and various graduate schools. Accepted job offer from TAPIF and deferred the American University of Paris graduate program until fall 2015.

• May: Thesis handed in, rewritten and than defended. One step closer to graduation.

• June: Graduated from the University of Denver.

• July: Spent the summer loving on the Stan-man and Callie-mare. 

• August: Volunteered for the FEI World Equestrian Games in Normandy. 

• September: Spent the month packing and unpacking and repacking for France. It is quite near impossible to fit your whole life into 2 suitcases...
• October: Started working for TAPIF in Lisieux.

• November: Thankful for technology - it allowed me and continues to allow me the ability to stay in touch with friends and family while halfway around the world. 

• December: Realized that there is no where quite like home for the holidays.

But it has also been a year of realizations: 

• I can live abroad. I can make new friends in a new country in a new job. 
• I can drop the horses and pick it right back up, though each and every time just cements the fact more and more that the horses need to play a bigger role in my life. 
• I may not be cut out to be a teacher for forever, but sometimes there's a lightbulb moment with the students, and I think that I could, indeed, be a teacher. 
• As time passes, friends come and go, but it is truly those that stay constant are those who show their true colors and knowing that you have those people in your corner is the best feeling possible. 
• 7 weeks of work and than 2 weeks of break might just be the best idea ever. 
• Growing up in Minnesota with Minnesota winters does not mean that it is possible to always dress weather appropriate. 
• Train systems in all forms are fantastic and should be everywhere. 

So, I can't thank 2014 enough for what it put me through - the bad and the good - because looking back, there isn't much that I would change. Thanks 2014 and here's to 2015.

For anyone that is curious as to what 2015 could hold, let's take a quick peak.

• The remainder of my TAPIF time in Lisieux. 
• Traveling galore including Budapest and Prague, the South of France, and Meg coming over for a whirlwind tour of Europe.
• Graduate school for my MA in Cultural Translation at the American University of Paris. 
• The horses, the dogs, the cats. 
• The friends and family. 
• Minnesota. 

It's beginning to look a lot like Noël

"You know, it seems to me that there is so much more to the world than the average eye is allowed to see. I believe if you look hard, there are more wonders than you could have dreamed of" 

- Doctor Who

If there is one thing you can count on here in France, its the love of Christmas. Being a Catholic country not only means that Christmas is quite a big deal, but it also means that what ever town you visit, no matter the size, is celebrating the Christmas season.

Now, unlike the United States were Christmas decorations have been out since Halloween and come the day after Thanksgiving, all that plays on KOOL108 is Christmas tunes, France has had their Christmas markets and decorations all planned out and set up by the time us Americans celebrate Thanksgiving. This means that the streets are filled with twinkling lights, Christmas trees covered in ornaments are found at every corner and in every roundabout, and Christmas music has been blaring out of city speakers all day long.

With all this, it also means that the Christmas markets are in full swing: the hand-crafted ornaments, the regional products such as various cheeses and sausages, the crèpe stands serving warm freshly made crèpes filled with warm gooey Nutella, and the best feature of them all: le vin chaud, le glüwein, the mulled wine. The nectar of the gods that promises to warm you from the insides out, that cinnamon-y, orange-y red wine, the only time when it is appropriate and not frowned upon to drink mug after mug in the early mornings.

Yet the massive difference that exists amongst les marchés de Noël is the fact that the small towns in the country side clearly have small marchés, as is to be expected, but what isn't expected is that when you ask for a recommendation on what marchés to visit, you are told time and time again to go to Strasbourg, not Paris not Caen not Rouen, Strasbourg, always Strasbourg.

I've done the Strasbourg marché du Noël and I can totally understand why and how it is considered la capitale du Noël here in France. But, clearly there are other ones that are possibly just as cool as Strasbourg or might be smaller but worth the visit to see the city.

So, even though I am not going to make it to Strasbourg this year for their Christmas market (hopefully next year), that doesn't mean that I won't make it to as many Christmas markets as I can. So far Lisieux's was cute in a very quaint way, Rouen's was neat in that it was at the foot of the fancy cathedral and much bigger than Lisieux's. Still yet to come is the various ones down in Paris, where I need to do a ton of shopping. And then, once I am back in Minnesota, that doesn't mean that the Christmas market fun has to stop because this year, Minnesota is having its very first marché de Noël in place of the Holidazzle Parade. Yes, it isn't that big, has an entrance fee and expensive food BUT it is a start to what will hopefully be a tradition that can slowly turn into resembling the marchés found in Europe.

So though there exists differences in the timing of the start of Christmas celebrations, it seems that Christmas is still quite important no matter where one is. As always, it is who you celebrate Christmas with than where.

Lisieux

Rouen

Paris - Champs-Élysées

Paris

Galleries Lafayette

The Hidden Beauty

"For my part, I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream." 

- Vincent Van Gogh

More often than not, it is the hidden beauty that is waiting to be found that is what needs to found in hard times. Sure, call it a silver lining, but sometimes it's more than that, sometimes it's different than that, sometimes it's simply a hidden beauty. 

The hidden beauty can be so many different things. So let's make a list: 

1. Those church remains that have crumbled to ruins over the years, yet still hold that inner strength, that inner beauty, that time has attempted to erase.

2. Those feelings of wonder and speechlessness when you see the real life work of an artist that has played a big role in your life. In this case, George Stubbs, who helped influence and inspire my undergrad thesis.

3. The amazingness that is modern technology. There is just something about talking face-to-face with a family member, a pet, a friend, that just reminds you how important they are to you and vice-versa, as well as making that big, huge puddle in between France and the US disappear for just enough time to make you feel right at home. 

So, the hidden beauty can be found in just about anything and in any situation. All one has to do is look - it may be hard and it may take a while, but it is there, so go ahead and look, take risks, look hard where others refuse to, and always be fantastic.