cool breeze

We finished up our 7th and final day of watching live tennis at the Australian Open on Tuesday after enjoying Heineken Saturday and Jacob's Creek Super Sunday with Torby and Jen and getting to watch some fabulous matches (both singles and doubles). This week was a drastic change in temperature, with cold windy weather, requiring all the warm clothes we had packed.

Since then, we have been keeping up to date with the progress of the tournaments by wandering through Federation Square in the heart of Melbourne and and peeking at the scores broadcasted on the big screens that are everywhere. In Federation Square we have also experienced some African drumming, live music, sculpture art, and found our way into some beautiful galleries displaying gorgeous glass works, paintings, aboriginal art, and a whole collection of works by Melbourne artists.

African Drumming

Art at the Kirra Gallery

Aboriginal Art at the Ian Potter Gallery

Really Cool Plastic Sculpture at the Ian Potter Gallery

We wandered to the north of the city to experience the Queen Victoria Market (huge covered market with all the things you could ever think to buy and an extensive fruit and veggie market). We then took the free city tram half way around its loop seeing new sites and orienting our selves for our walk through the city center. 

Starting from Flinder's Street, we explored the many little allies and lanes throughout the center of the city, finding delicious places to eat, wall after wall covered in colorful paint or mosaics, and expansive glass atriums spanning the space between numerous allies and buildings.

 Flinder's Street Station

Street Art extending the length of a whole ally (compiled from 5 photos)

Collins Place Atrium

For the complete album of photos view our Album (or click the photos above):

Australia and New Zealand 2014 

heat wave

Week one in Australia: We finally made it!! After some cancelled flights and being rerouted through London and Hong Kong, we made it to Melbourne, Australia. Leaving some -25degF (-30degC) winter to arrive just in time for some +112degF (+44degC) summer, pretty much as extreme as you can get... and even after days of cancelled flights, we still made it in time for opening day of the Aussie Open.

While so far, the majority of our time has been spent watching some amazing tennis, we did take a brief stroll in the city (I'm told they don't say "downtown" here), to check out some of Melbourne's lovely street art!

Gorgeous Graffiti

Play Me, I'm Yours Pianos

and

Yarn Bombing (on trees)

...and to top off the first week, we enjoyed a morning at the race track, watching Torby test his skills on the ring.

For the complete photo collection, check out our album:

Australia and New Zealand 2014 Album

beautiful ice

There are days like today, with the temperature threatening to drop to -26degreesF while I sit by a fire watching the flames lick the logs, that it is fun to remind myself the beauty that the cold creates!

2 blinks of an eye

After a while away, it is time to jump start my blog once more (by popular demand!).  It has been a wonderful last two years filled with family, friends, travel, and expanding my brain! I am excited for the year ahead, so to begin, here are my past two years in quick review!

Happy 2014: My year in Review - Jan-Dec 2013

Happy 2013: My year in Review - Jan-Dec 2012

winter is here, kind of

we have had some absolutely beautiful snowy days. unfortunately, the weather can't seem to make up its mind. one day, beautiful snow, next day, pouring rain and ice. kinda like today and tomorrow's forecast. oh well, such is life. but much like our warmer than usual fall, winter has been equally unpredictable ranging from -20F to +40F within 48hr periods.

the one thing that stays the same is how pretty it is!

fun fireworks

beautiful bright lights over lake champlain as the clock struck the new year.
i just thought it was fun, so im sharing some of the good ones.

happy holidays

though i'm behind (sadly it's been a trend so far in 2012). here is my holiday card. summarizing my more than spectacular year+.

wishing you a happy and healthy 2012!

the warm glow of fall

the fall has been absolutely amazing. very quiet, surprisingly warm, colorful, and gorgeous.

one of the rare moments before they collected all the hay

this has been an incredible season for loons. we saw more loons than i think i've ever seen. on this amazing morning, i saw 20 at one time. unfortunately my camera capabilities could only capture a few without making them all look like mini specs on the picture.

one of the beautiful (but extremely chilly) evenings, my mom and i went for a bike ride, and she had the genius idea to transport the remnants of a friend's garden in my bike bags :) loaded with onions, pepper plants, a mini artichoke, etc.

and here are just a few more pictures that show how wonderful a fall it has been.

and though it has been relatively warm, we have had a couple snow coverings. my last swim was the week after columbus day weekend, slightly numbing, and then my last kayak was beginning of november. i went knee deep in the water - SO COLD. but beautiful.

summer in sporatic snap shots

per usual, im really bad about computers during the summer....but i was finally sorting photos and thought i would share a quick glance at my summer... (now that its almost winter and all)

i arrived home to be greeted by Greensboro's fabulous funky fourth parade, charity bike rides, and lake fun! the lake was as perfect as ever.

fun fact. this rooster moved around town all summer long, among its locations: town green, up in a tree, and here, in the middle of the lake.

my mom's garden was fantastic, and due to the fabulous arbor that my brother built, we had AMAZING grapes. im overly excited about this fact because we have never really had plentiful grapes, but this year, there were more than i could ever help to eat. and this led to delicious grape jelly!

after the falcons moved from their nesting ground, we were able to go up to nichol's ledge for some fantastic hiking and picnicking.

we then made a trip up to montreal - continuing my global trot in a much lower key travel. it's amazing how close i live to montreal, and yet have hardly ever gone. it's even closer than boston.

obviously a lot more happened. but it's already november. so moving on :)

global trot part 2

obviously if you are looking at the date, it in no way reflects when I actually did these things, or even wrote them down, but hey, summer happened. and for anyone that knows what a greensboro summer is like, computers are just not a part of it.

however, that being said, i don't like to leave things incomplete. and so i must include the last few stops on my global trot. London, Morocco, and Southern Spain....

London: I stayed with a friend of mine, who unfortunately was busy and had to work most of the time, but I also got to meet up with a friend and my former RA boss from Hopkins. It was great. As I had already hit up the main tourist sites the last time I was in london in 2005, and i only had a few days, this time I just enjoyed walking around different areas, attending the evening song in westminster abbey, and seeing a shakespeare play in the famous globe theater before jetting off to my next destination...
PHOTOS: LONDON

Morocco: I traveled with my cousin Laura (who was in Morocco for a month prior), her fiance Noel, my cousin Sara, and her husband Ed. It was an amazing trip during which we saw quite a lot of morocco considering we only had 10 days. We started in Marrakesh for a couple days, then drove for a day across southern Morocco and through the mountains until we reached the Todra Gorge which was beautiful, then drove north for a day to Fez, which was very sophisticated and bustling, then drove for about half a day to Chefchaouen (one of the blue cities), before heading to tangier to catch the ferry to southern spain. Each place was so different and it was very interesting to experience the cities, the mountains, and see a lot of the landscape (though I would have loved to experience more of the rural areas like Laura was able to for a whole month because the cities were overly tourist oriented).
PHOTOS: MOROCCO

Southern Spain (Tarifa, Sevilla, Ronda): Tarifa was extremely windy but absolutely beautiful for the half of the day we were there as a group and then we split up and I went to Sevilla where, though very pretty, was way too hot for me! (46C). So that made sight seeing and exploring a little more difficult, especially since with the Spanish ciesta, everything was closed from about 11-6pm everyday. open from like 9-11am and then 6pm-whenever in the evening. But it just gave me all the more reason to go visit Ronda which is up in the mountains and was slightly cooler. Famed as one of the white cities with a cool bridge it was very nice for just relaxing, which I did with Megan, a girl I met from Australia.
PHOTOS: SOUTHERN SPAIN

The flight back to Austria was beautiful, I flew over Ibiza, Majorca (stopping in La Palma airport), and Menorca. But I was more then ready to be getting back to way below boiling temperatures.

narzissenfest

flowers, lots of flowers, but no daffodils.

more coming soon...

global trot part 1

the travels of may.


I kept trying to figure out how to summarize all that I did and experienced, and I simply couldn't. So rather than trying, I will just say this. I had an amazing time, met some amazing people, and experienced 4 very different places.

Berlin was a beautiful city, that embraces its rather unique history. It felt very green and open, with wide streets lined by trees, giant parks you could get lost in, and large open spaces allowing you to focus on a few very unique places. It was a quick visit, shortened even further by my delayed flight. so all in all I had less than 48hrs to experience the whole city. But thanks to my host family, I was able to do just that, have some delicious food, and practice german the whole time as well.

PICTURES from BERLIN

Paris was absolutely gorgeous, fun things to see everywhere you look. I was graced by the most perfect weather from start to finish, which made walking around the city all that much better. Thanks to a family friend, I had a wonderful place to stay and I also met up with one of my friends from college, who has been doing a year in Paris. I enjoyed wandering the streets, eating pastries, and enjoying the gardens, and river side activities. In addition to seeing all the sites of paris, I also took a trip out to Versailles (incredible!) and was able to squeeze in a trip to Roland Garros to see some amazing tennis exhibition played before my flight took off. 5 days was just enough time to realize that there was so much more to be experienced in the city, so I will most certainly have to go back!

PICTURES from PARIS

Barcelona was a city full of energy and art. I arrived in the evening in Barcelona, to a crowd of people protesting of sorts against the many activities of the government. I walked down La Rambla several different times and was amazed at the constant mass of people going to and fro, performing, and enticing you to evening performances and clubs. I had a very fun experience visiting a friend on the Norwegian Epic (Cruise Ship) and was given VIP treatment. It was so much fun to see her after so many months and to see her on the ship I had heard so much about (really quite impressive). I saw the city's sights from a hop on hop off bus tour and thoroughly enjoyed all of gaudi's creations giving the city some flare and encouraging it to embrace the arts. 

PICTURES from BARCELONA

Cyprus was absolutely amazing because I was able to meet so many people - my Schleifer relatives in particular, who I hadn't seen since I was either ~4years or ~2months old and had mostly only heard about since. I totally lucked out because so many were there :)! Cyprus is a beautiful island of course, with some amazing history, but the best part by far was just hanging out and getting to know everyone. I spent hours playing and swimming with my cousin's daughter (just tooo cute!) and had an amazing afternoon with my other cousin visiting the turkish part of Nicosia where we encountered a couple groups of kids who just lit up with joy and uncensored emotions in front of and behind the camera. It was for sure an experience I will never forget. Most of the time I was bad at whipping out my camera, so my album is mostly filled with adorable kids :). It was an unbeatable experience, and I only wish I had had more time to spend with them all!

PICTURES from CYPRUS

Right now I am in Austria, at the Raßberg, heading to the Narzissenfest tomorrow, though most of the flowers have gone by so we shall see how it is....either way, the area will be beautiful.