After a whirlwind journey to South America in November and December, January was meant to be a quiet antidote. And it was — a busy month of working, wholesome residing, and beginning the 12 months off sturdy!

This month, I made a giant purpose for 2024: I need to go to a minimum of one new vacation spot within the Czech Republic each month of the 12 months. I’ve been resolving every year to go to extra locations within the Czech Republic, and it hasn’t actually been figuring out, so this looks like a option to truly go to new locations frequently.

I determine that even in very busy journey months (and March goes to be one!), I can squeeze in a fast day journey someplace.

So I set to work this month, with a really snowy and wintry go to as much as Liberec.

Locations Visited

• Prague and Liberec, Czech Republic

Highlights

Getting actually, actually into closing my rings. Charlie bought me an Apple Look ahead to Christmas — one thing that I resisted for awhile as a result of I believed it could make me appear to be a Spy Child.

Properly, seems I like my watch, particularly the detailed well being monitoring info. I’ve develop into obsessive about is closing my rings each single day. Now Charlie and I are each doing loopy dances when it’s time to get one other standing minute!

Between that and Dry January, it’s been a really wholesome begin to the 12 months.

I bought my eyebrows microbladed! That is one thing I’ve been considering of doing for years. Microblading is mainly a semi-permanent eyebrow tattoo that fills within the sparse areas in your eyebrows and makes them look extra uniform; most final round a 12 months.

I went to AR Aesthetics in Prague and completely LOVE how Alesia recreated my brows into a stunning form. However proper now you possibly can’t inform I had something completed in any respect — post-scabbing, your brows look naked till the pores and skin finishes a regeneration cycle, which takes about 22 days. So I ought to see the ultimate leads to per week or so.

In the event you get micro bladed, my massive tip is to e book your self a blowout or haircut 5-7 days after the process, as a result of I wasn’t in a position to get my eyebrows moist till they stopped scabbing (took about 13 days), and thus couldn’t wash my hair. I bought by on dry shampoo till per week in and it was SO good to have another person wash my hair in a method that might hold my brows dry!

Visiting Liberec. Liberec is a small metropolis up within the mountains, close to the German and Polish borders. It has a fairly city corridor, some good coffeeshops, and a cool ambiance.

The massive attraction in Liberec is simply exterior city — a spot known as Ještěd. Ještěd is a bizarre pointy lodge sort of formed like a spaceship, and it has views over the mountains. Or for those who go on as snowy a day as we did, you’ve a view of simply clouds!

We had some outrageously scrumptious pumpkin soup (critically, it tasted prefer it was stuffed with meat and cheese) and I cherished taking photos of the tree branches with completely frozen snow.

Enjoyable with mates in Prague. One other of my targets is to do 50 new issues in Prague this 12 months (and no, I can’t go all in on eating places or it could be ALL RESTAURANTS). My buddy Janna and I hit up the Christmas Metropolis Cinema, which was placing on Bridget Jones’s Diary — certainly one of my all-time favourite motion pictures. And also you stroll in by way of a wardrobe, prefer it’s Narnia!

And my buddy Harvey came visiting and we hit up the Banksy exhibit, the Dvorak Museum, and sure, the Intercourse Machines Museum. All very a lot price visiting.

Enjoyable with the kitties. They’re simply the perfect. We additionally began them on Feliway this month on the vet’s suggestion and so they’ve been extra relaxed and happier to play with one another.

Challenges

No challenges price mentioning right here this month. The hardest factor has been coping with the darkness of January and its consequential seasonal melancholy. 4 PM sunsets and no Christmas lights to cheer you up.

Weblog Posts of the Month

There have been a LOT — most of them in regards to the Florida Keys and Montenegro. Are you prepared? I’m not going to summarize them as a result of the titles are kind-of self-explanatory.

My Favourite New Locations of 2023

30+ Finest Issues to Do in Key West, Florida

13 Finest Key Lime Pies in Key West

24 Fabulous Issues to do in Key Largo, Florida

25 Finest Florida Keys Seashores

22 Enjoyable Issues to Do in Islamorada, Florida Keys

30 Most Lovely Seashores in Montenegro

15 Finest Issues to Do in Budva, Montenegro

17 Lovely Issues to Do in Kotor, Montenegro

15 Finest Issues to Do in Monopoli, Italy

24 Cool Issues to Do in Lenox, MA

12 Enjoyable Issues to Do in Stockbridge, MA

E book Membership This Month

Our subsequent e book membership will happen on Sunday, April 7, at 1:00 PM Japanese Time. Sure, I do know that’s a very long time from now, and I apologize for that — I actually have a dedication each Sunday till then (besides Easter Sunday, which I’m not touching).

We can be studying Nervous Situations by Zimbabwean writer Tsitsi Dangarembga.

“The groundbreaking first novel in Tsitsi Dangarembga’s award-winning trilogy, Nervous Situations, received the Commonwealth Writers Prize and has been ‘hailed as one of many twentieth century’s most vital works of African literature’ (The New York Instances).

20 years earlier than Zimbabwe would win independence and ended white minority rule, thirteen-year-old Tambudzai Sigauke embarks on her training. On her shoulders relaxation the financial hopes of her mother and father, siblings, and prolonged household, and inside her burns the will for independence.

She yearns to be freed from the constraints of her rural village and thinks she’s discovered her method out when her rich uncle provides to sponsor her education. However she quickly learns that the training she receives at his mission college comes with a worth.”

You may join right here. Hope to see you there!

Most Common Reel on Instagram

I haven’t been doing a lot on Instagram these days — simply feeling tremendous burned out in each different enterprise path — however I did create a reel about my new eyebrows! (Let’s simply hope that they stick round!)

For extra updates from my travels, you possibly can observe me on Instagram at @adventurouskate.

What I Watched This Month

I’ve a brand new favourite TV present, and it’s known as For All Mankind. It’s on Apple TV+. I didn’t watch it initially as a result of it seemed sci-fi-ish, and I’m not a giant sci-fi fan — however belief me, it’s SO SO SO SO GOOD.

Don’t learn something about it — simply watch the primary episode. And also you’ll be hooked.

Charlie and I’ve watched a single episode for 34 of the previous 35 nights. Thus far the collection has 40 episodes general (4 seasons of 10 hourlong episodes).

The showrunners say they’ve a seven-year plan for the collection, and so they’ve bought that Apple cash, so I’m wanting ahead to the place they’re going to go!

What I Learn This Month

Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld (2016) — This e book is a contemporary retelling of Satisfaction and Prejudice, set in Cincinnati and starring a household of wayward sisters who hold working into the identical two medical doctors, certainly one of whom is the alum of a current actuality relationship present. Will journalist Liz be capable of save her household from monetary destroy and her sister be capable of discover real love, and can that terrible Fitzwilliam Darcy begin leaving her alone?!

I’ve been working my method by way of Curtis Sittenfeld’s books, and this was a beautiful one. A really trustworthy adaptation (and much more significant once you learn the afterward, which was about writing the e book for her terminally ailing Austen-loving buddy). Satisfaction and Prejudice is simply SO simply adaptable — I truly rewatched Fireplace Island after studying this e book, which is one other fabulous adaptation!

You May Make This Place Lovely by Maggie Smith (2023) — Poet Maggie Smith’s life modified after her poem Good Bones went viral worldwide. SO a lot occurred after that poem, and one unhappy and sadly predictable factor was that her husband couldn’t deal with her being extra profitable than him, had an affair, and left her and their kids. This can be a divorce memoir.

I actually take pleasure in studying works of prose by poets, as a result of they take such care with each phrase. This e book feels on the similar time delicate and incisive, and I loved being in Maggie’s head for a bit, even when the subject material was bleak. That mentioned — that is one e book the place I need to see extra of the story past what she shared. Not as a result of I don’t consider her, however as a result of she portrayed her ex-husband in such an arch method that I can’t see what she or anybody ever appreciated about him within the first place.

Everybody Right here is Mendacity by Shari Lapena (2023) — On this thriller thriller, a nine-year-old lady goes lacking and captivates the nation. Her father seems to be a LOT like he could possibly be behind her disappearance — however turns on the market are lots of people who could possibly be equally believable kidnappers for this annoying-as-hell child.

I learn this e book as a result of Roxane Homosexual advisable it in her e-newsletter. And it IS a fast-paced thriller that retains you guessing. I couldn’t cease listening to it. However it has certainly one of my LEAST favourite literary tropes — the precocious youngster who talks, thinks, and acts like an grownup. My eyes practically rolled out of my head.

The Golden Couple by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen (2022) — Avery is a therapist who misplaced her license; she now acts within the capability of a marketing consultant who isn’t sure to the legal guidelines and ethics of remedy. She begins working with a pair trying to rebuild their relationship after infidelity — however quickly Avery is swept up in a a lot darker, extra difficult thriller than what she signed up for.

Eh. It’s a meh thriller. Not one of the characters me, and nowhere did Avery display how her lack of ethics may make her a greater therapist. The very best a part of the e book was when Avery adopted a candy however hard-to-adopt pit bull, and the canine DID NOT die on the finish. Phew.

Coming Up in February 2024

My 2024 travels are kicking off in mid-February! First off, Charlie and I can be visiting London. I’ll be attending IMM UK, a journey trade occasion, and we’ll be celebrating a belated Christmas along with his household, going to see the Arsenal girls’s group play, and gorging ourselves on Chinese language meals at Hunan and Indian meals at Dishoom.

Then I head to Paris by myself for 2 days. I’m truthfully primarily going to do some purchasing intel (aka check out ALL THE BRANDS I LOVE and see how I like them in actual life). Past that, I are inclined to a whole lot of the identical issues at any time when I go to Paris, so this time I need to do all new issues. It’s been enjoyable planning.

So what is going to my new Czech vacation spot of the month be? Mariánské Lázně! Charlie and I can be visiting this well-known Czech spa city close to the tip of the month.

Like Karlovy Range, Mariánské Lázně is without doubt one of the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Nice Spa Cities of Europe, although it’s extra well-liked with Czechs than worldwide guests. Winter looks like a pleasant time to luxuriate in some geothermal waters.

Any plans for February? Share away!