waxing poetic about a field on a farm

I've mentioned before on this blog and about 100 times to anyone who will listen about my heartbreak over missing Bonnaroo this year. It's the first thing that's made me truly homesick (and is triggering serious FOMO that our generation is so guilty of.) In the spirit of living with a little bit of Bonnaroo in my heart always, here's a little retrospective of five years making questionable decisions at my favorite place on earth.

Everything is weird

tornadoes and innovative (i.e. janky) canopies

love these dummies forever and ever

my number one

nerding

this is why you're fat

Germans eat a lot and they drink even more. Turning down food or drinks will undoubtedly result in questions about what I've already consumed today or the contents of my uterus, so I've decided to fully commit to the cause and worry about counting calories when I'm back in the states.

The perfect Sunday afternoon indulgence

Wheat beer, spicy mustard and a pretzel - three of Germany's main food groups

American Breakfast at The California Breakfast Slam - my hangover go-to

Yumcha Heroes perfection

liters of fruit wine at the werder baumblütenfest

Vanille and Marille

Maria Bonita tacos and margs

Ringing in spargel season with schnitzel, potatoes and riesling

Baby beers

A tier at Anna Blume

Just a SMALL portion from a barbecue for seven people

KaDeWe cakes

See y'all on the other side.

Copenhagen [part II]

Yayoi Kusama's Gleaming Lights of the Souls at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art

Travelling alone requires patience and optimism. It creates comfort in silence and isolated courage. It teaches you contentedness and shows you you're capable of more than you thought. It offers a glimpse of a new kind of joy - a singular sort that's refreshing to experience at least once. I'll remember my time in Copenhagen exhausted and sunburned but totally full of the kind of excitement I get by wandering around somewhere totally new. 

Assistens Cemetery

It also confirmed for me that I'll probably have this itch to travel for the rest of my life. Now that I've had a glimpse at a few new places, I've realized how much more of this incredible world there is to see. Crossing my fingers that I'll figure out a way to make this kind of exploration a part of my life forever.

Middle of the road dining and live music on Sunday in Nørrebro

Louisiana Museum of Modern Art

Flea market finds

Copenhagen [part I]

Back in February, when I was utterly friendless and always cold, I booked a May trip to Copenhagen because flights were cheap and I wanted to get one last trip in before tourist season geared up. I had no expectations of the city other than my groggy morning spent in their incredible airport, which looks more like a gorgeous mall (is that an oxymoron?) than anything else.

As my trip got closer, I began to get nervous because it was my first time traveling alone. Copenhagen ended up being my favorite trip so far - maybe because the weather was perfection and the city is totally up my alley but mostly, I think, because it was an ideal solo trip. 

Before I left, I told some friends that I was afraid I wouldn't even talk to anyone for the entire weekend - a completely ridiculous fear and a dead giveaway of how much I love the sound of my own voice. In reality, I ended up meeting tons of people at my hostel and around the city and cancelled plans just so I could have time alone, wandering wherever I wanted. Copenhagen is small and colorful and full of beautiful things (and people... Scandinavians are perfect looking.) It's also very expensive, so I didn't do much more than walk and look and drink sidewalk beers with other broke travelers. The perfect weekend.   

Bikes and Crayola colors everywhere

Scaffolding turned into a public affirmation

One of our favorite discoveries was Christiania, a separate township within Copenhagen where a few hundred hippies live their lives under a government that tolerates soft drugs and free love and good times in general. Heaven - I could have stayed there all day.

Bonnaroo vibes

Into it

Paper flowers - don't they look real?

Can you see why I'm obsessed? 

oops

I forgot about my blog and I've decided to blame it on other factors: a busy baby and warm weather. So there. Can I make a New Year's resolution in the middle of the year? I resolve to start blogging more. This week: details from my trip to Copenhagen, an exhaustive post about all the amazing food I've been eating (along with another mid-year resolution to actually start working out), and a postcard from da club. 

Until I hunker down to organize myself, I've been reading this right-on New York Times piece about the beauty (and total narcissism!) of traveling alone.

"Perhaps even being oneself for the very first time, without tradition scrutinizing you, without expectation hounding you, without class defining you and without a sense of other people lording it over you. That’s an unforgettable experience, especially in youth, because the lasting feature of the solo traveler lies in his hunger for singularity."

today

"Faith is the art of holding on to things in spite of your changing moods and circumstances.” ― C.S. Lewis