PARIS PART II

PARIS ON FILM PART I

Our trip to Florence and Paris this past May was the first big trip I took my little film camera on. And I am so happy that I had it. The five rolls of film I took are my favorite photos from this trip. I know that it's the charm of film, but it was so awesome to snap a photo and not immediately sit there and analyze/delete it. Here are a few of my favorites from Paris.

QUICK TRIP TO AUSTIN

I took a trip out to Austin to visit my brother for a few days. This was only my second time visiting (my first time was last year before we moved to New York). But just from those short trips, I really like it there - there's so much to see. My favorite part is all the kitschy signs and neat lettering all over town. Even though I've never gotten a picture of my own, this lightbulb shop has my favorite sign.

We walked around downtown, went to Uncommon Objects (which will always incite extreme excitement in me), saw The Purge (don't), and went to my brother's favorite food truck area. That's my quinoa salad at the top. It made up for my two or three doughnuts. We also spent a lot of time just hanging out together. It was the most time we had spent together since we both lived in Georgia. It was the best part.

I hope you had a great weekend. I'm excited to get back to work this week and hoping the weather doesn't get too bad.

PARIS PART I

I keep thinking of what to write about our recent trip to Florence and Paris. But I get a lot of thoughts and things to write all at once, and I'm left with thinking about what an amazing trip it was. The past eight months or so, since we left New York and moved here to Norfolk have been really stressful and up and down. Douglas has been gone most of the time on the ship, working incredibly hard. I've had to get used to another completely new place and struggle with making friends. We've set up a new home. But they've also been kind of cool because I've changed a lot in good ways - I've become more independent and responsible, become more appreciative of what's good when I'm having a really hard time. On top of everything, it was really, really nice to get away for awhile.

You really notice how you've changed when you're on the other side of the world away from everything familiar, in the same cafe in Paris you sat in last year, feeling intensely like yourself and also completely different.

THIS TIME TOMORROW

My bags are packed, tickets printed, passport in hand, everything is good go. And I can't wait to go on this new adventure. See you soon.

P.S. This is my favorite traveling song, always.

FAVORITE EUROPE SNAPSHOTS

This week I'm leaving for another great adventure with my dad. We've taken a trip together every year since I was in high school, and over the past several years, we've gotten more adventurous. This time we're traveling to Florence and Paris. I can't wait to wander around, take a few day trips away from the cities, get away from Norfolk for a while, and fill up another travel journal. I have a few posts schedule throughout the month, and I'll be back later this month with more photos than you probably care to see.

Here are some of my favorite photos from our trip to Paris and Spain last year.

*you can read about and see some of my previous trips in these posts:
Paris I and II • Paris Street Art I and II • Paris Snapshots • my favorite museum • Madrid I and II • Madrid Gardens I and II • Barcelona • Rome • Venice

QUICK PHILADELPHIA WEEKEND

We took a short and sweet trip to Philadelphia last weekend. We really just...needed to get out of Norfolk and have some time to ourselves. It was a perfect weekend of driving and talking, some shopping around, staying in a nice hotel we would have never been able to afford regularly (thanks Priceline), eating Mexican tapas, and having a lazy Sunday hotel morning. It was exactly what we needed.

REED'S ODDS & ENDS

During my quick trip to Athens, I got to visit one of my favorite little shops with my mom - Reed's Odds & Ends. There's a roomful of books and a roomful of linens and clothes. And then lots of stuff in between. I spent so much time here when I was in middle school and high school and realized I was obsessed with cool old stuff. My favorite thing to buy back then was old books with cool images and artwork in them. I cut them up and covered a whole corner of my room with the clippings.

I still love it here. Next week, I'll share what I found during this visit.