April – June or Things I’ve Been Doing While Abandoning This Blog

Bytea

It has come to my attention that it’s July. Like, when did that happen? It’s been three months since I did my last ‘Things I’ve Been Doing While Abandoning This Blog’ so here are all the amazing things I’ve seen and done in the past three months.

Been There
Italy: La Spezia – Vernazza – Corniglia – Monterosso al Mare – Riomaggiore – Florence – Pisa: for some village hopping and to catch up with my friends

Austria: Innsbruck and surrounding villages: just to escape for a few days.
Done That

The hiking and going offline-ish in Innsbruck was my favourite trip. Hiking is not something I regularly do or am even made for but being in the mountains makes me so happy.

I’ve never had the urge to visit Italy’s major tourist sites. Rome, nope, Lake Como is where you retire/go to die and Sicily is a hassle to get to. Even the Olsen Twins, Lizzie McGuire and all the history in the world hasn’t yet persauded me. So when Cinque Terre came to me via Pinterest and Instagram I took a mental note and a few years later my friends and me booked a last minute trip and we we 4/5 villages and crammed all the Italian food we could find into our mouths.

The Air Bnb in La Spezia was idyllic. A garden house next to a mansion on top of a hill – very Ryan’s poolhouse from the OC, but without the pool. We arrived later in the evening and as the bus wasn’t running we decided to walk up, but not before we grabbed pizzas. The climb turned out to be around 180 stairs + 10 minute walk down the road, so you can image the circular bits of cooked dough were very welcome.

On the last full day in Innsbruck I did a little hike that started in a small village and took you on a scenic walk back down to the city. Walking through the little village, seeing farm animals and crops growing very much reminded me of home in Bosnia. Which always makes me slaps a smile upon my face.

For a lot of people Rome is the symbol to Italy but for me it has always been the Leaning Tower of Pisa and I was so happy that it didn’t disappoint. Watching the people for posing inspiration, taking a cheesy photo and sitting down at the McDonalds (if you still watch The Simpsons this is actually a bucketlist moment).

In London I didn’t sit that still and next to the usual social gatherings I escaped a room at Lock’d, hid from the dinosaurs at Crystal Palace Park and visited some great, and some not so great, exhibitions. But my favourite bit was walking around the deserted South Norwood Country Park on a Sunday morning. Not for the place itself necessarily, but for the peace I found there, it was an out of London experience, if you’d like.
Bucketlist moment?
How about having pasta and/or gelato every day in Italy.  And then taking back as much pecorino cheese and pasta would fit in my suitcase so I could continue the holiday at home?
Lowlights
I’ve written about some most of the frustrations in the Cinque Terre high and lowlights post.
The Imagine Moscow exhibition at the Design Museum was a missed chance and a complete rip-off for the price. I don’t mind paying for a well-curated exhibition, but £10 for a poorly-curated one was a crime. The main museum is free, but with random stuff cramped in a little space without a real goal or context. It’s a shame as it’s a really interesting space with a bit of history behind it too.
Online
If you missed the posts, they are: on daytrips from London (that are not Brighton, Cambridge or Oxford), some random thoughts on Cinque Terre, a round-up with London posts I’ve written, Part One and Part Two of my trip to Innsbruck, what (not) to do in Florence, some of my favourite Tokyo memories, ways to cool off in London and photos to inspire you to visit Kotor.
What have you been up to?

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