Catching up via Instagram: 4/17/16

Leave a comment

Subtitle: Let us rejoice, for it is finally SPRING!

Spring in New York CitySpring in Brooklyn, New YorkNew York City on a sunny daySpring in New York CityDowntown ManhattanBrooklyn BridgeCity of Dreams mural, New York CitySpring in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New YorkWashington Square Park, New York, on a rainy dayProcessed with VSCOcam with c1 presetGrand Army Plaza, Brooklyn

Not much necessary in the way of captions for these. I’ve been in New York City for the past three weeks, having made the conscious decision to stay put in April and cherish my favorite month. We’ve had very classically spring weather: Sometimes it’s 70 and sunny, sometimes it’s 40 and rainy. I’m just very, very glad we haven’t had any April snow this year. The city is alive and gorgeous and I am loving every minute!

At the Transit Museum, Brooklyn, New YorkCheering on Syracuse at Houston Hall, New York City

Staying in town on the weekends this month has meant some New York weekend adventures I’ve been putting off: Emmie and I visited the Transit Museum (something we’ve been wanting to do for months) and then watched her alma mater, Syracuse, play in the Final Four!

Sleep No More

This week I joined my friend Amanda at Sleep No More. It’s a totally immersive, interactive theatre experience where the audience dons masks and moves through the (enormous) set at their own pace as the action takes place around them. I had the BEST time and am already itching to go back to see more of the set and piece together more of the story!

Avocado toast

I got fancy with my breakfasts last week when I had mornings off. Nothing special here, but I was proud regardless!

Reading My Paris Dream by Kate Betts

The best part about the above photo? The book’s author, Katherine Betts, re-posted it to her own Instagram and Twitter accounts! You’ll read about it in my April roundup, but I highly recommend My Paris Dream.

Follow me on Instagram here.

Looking back: London

Leave a comment

When I returned from my first trip to Europe in 2010, everyone asked me what my favorite place was, and the answer was always the same: Florence was my favorite city to visit, but London was a city I could imagine myself living in.

Looking back at my photos, it makes sense: All I have pictures of is St. Paul’s Cathedral and Buckingham Palace. Lest you think I was only there for a day, I actually spent a week and a half in the city, and spent most of it living as a local – visiting coffee shops, exploring lesser-visited neighborhoods, and, well, working. It was study abroad, after all. I missed many touristy things I’d love to go back and see someday, including the London Eye and the British Museum. But for now, here the photos I do have from that first trip.

Outside Buckingham Palace, LondonOutside Buckingham Palace, LondonUnion Jack outside Buckingham Palace, LondonBuckingham Palace, LondonInside St. Paul's Cathedral, LondonView from St. Paul's Cathedral, LondonView from St. Paul's Cathedral, London

London will always hold a special place in my heart. Can’t wait to go back – and take some higher-quality photos!

Views from the High Line

Leave a comment

I can’t believe I’ve never done a full post about the High Line before – it’s one of my favorite outdoor spaces in New York City! Built on an out-of-use elevated train track, this park runs along the west side of Manhattan from Gansevoort Street in the West Village to 34th Street in Midtown. Last weekend, when the sun popped out for a couple hours between April showers, I ventured out to the High Line for the first time in months.

View from the High Line, New York City

Can you spot the Statue of Liberty  above?

View of the street from the High Line, New York CityView of the street from the High Line, New York CityView of the Empire State Building from the High Line, New York City

My favorite view!

The High Line, New York City

The High Line was smartly designed so you always know where you are, and where the nearest stairways to the street are.

The High Line, New York CityView of the street from the High Line, New York CitySpring Blooms from the High Line, New York CitySpring Blooms from the High Line, New York City

The flowers have been weird this year: A whole bunch bloomed in mid-March, when we had a rash of 70-degree days, and then there was a deep freeze that killed them all off. Now things seem to be re-blooming right on a usual schedule.

View of the street from the High Line, New York CityView of the Hudson River from the High Line, New York CityView of the Hudson River from the High Line, New York City

Which is your favorite picture from the High Line?

How to save money while traveling

2 Comments

You probably know by now that one of my goals for 2016 is to take 12 trips, and I’m doing really well: I’ve already taken five! A couple friends have asked for my tips on how to keep expenses low, so I thought I’d share some advice here too. To be clear, I’m certainly not an expert here: This is not a be-all, end-all list, and I do splurge in some areas, when travelling and at home. (I mean, I spend about 45% of my take-home income on rent. Thanks, NYC!) But if I didn’t at least try to be frugal, my financial situation would be dire, so here are the ways I cut back while still having a good time.

Stay with friends
Pug

Hanging out at Jordan’s house in Phoenix

Maybe I just have super generous friends, but if I know someone at my destination, they’re usually willing to offer up a couch or guest bed. So far this year I’ve stayed for free in D.C. (thanks Courtney), Dallas (thanks Mom and Dad) and Phoenix (thanks Jordan and Mom and Dad!) Be a good person, though. Buy them dinner or some groceries so they invite you back. And I also reciprocate when people visit NYC!

Use Airbnb
Sam Adams Brewery in Boston, Massachusetts

Never would have made it here without Airbnb!

If you do need to find accommodation, don’t go straight for fancy hotels. I’m a big fan of Airbnb*, which I’ve used in Brooklyn, Boston, San Francisco and the Bahamas. A lot of people have safety concerns; my personal rules are that I only stay with female hosts, and at properties that have reviews. I’ve never felt any less safe than in a hotel, and it allows me to stay in better parts of cities than I could otherwise afford. PLUS you have the added bonus of getting to know a local who can give you ideas of things to do. My host in Boston even treated me to dinner at a local tavern, and if not for her I never would have visited the Sam Adams Brewery!

Consider alternate modes of transportation…
Grand Central, New York City

Take a train and travel through Grand Central!

Whenever possible, I travel by Megabus. They have fares as low as a dollar, which are hard to find, but I’ve still never paid more than $25 round-trip. You get what you pay for, and I’ve heard horror stories, but it gets you there – and I’ve never had a bus arrive late by more than 30 minutes or so. There are other bus companies, too, and if you’re hesitant you can also consider Amtrak.

…but if you do fly, watch for sales and use miles
Swaziland

There are no buses to Africa. Sadly.

Tragically, it’s just not feasible to take a bus across the country  (or the world!) when you only have a few days off from work. That’s why I’m a big fan of Southwest and Jet Blue. They both offer cheaper fares than a lot of other airlines, and they both have great rewards programs. I even flew round-trip to Dallas for less than $70 this year thanks to rewards points! I’ve heard great things about airline credit-card programs, as well, but I’m not a part of one so I don’t have any great insight. In general, I track my ideal flight route on Kayak, set a price point in my mind, and buy when fares are around that price – regardless of the airline. By flying at weird hours (leaving early in the morning or taking a red-eye), I’m almost always able to find reasonably-priced direct flights. I’m also a member of pretty much every airline’s loyalty program!

Use public transit
At the Cable Car Museum in San Francisco

The cable cars in San Francisco are not only touristy, they’re convenient!

I’ve taken public transportation not only in New York, but in London, Dublin, Rome, Amsterdam, Boston, D.C., San Francisco, the Bahamas and Phoenix. I’ve never rented a car and I only take cabs at night. This keeps my transit costs once I’m in a place crazy low – usually within the $20 range for short vacations. Plus, it lets you feel like a local.

Grocery shop
Homecooked breakfast in the Bahamas

Homecooked breakfast in the Bahamas

Decide which meals are most important for you to eat out for, and buy groceries to cover the others so you save money. This is especially feasible if you’re in an Airbnb with a kitchen! When we were in San Francisco, Jordan and I got a loaf of bread and peanut butter for sandwiches for breakfast (her) and lunch (me), so we’d feel less guilty eating dinners out. In the Bahamas, we stocked up on snacks and breakfast food (our Airbnb host drove us to the grocery store!), and ate big dinners out. (We also hit up a liquor store, if that’s your thing, to save at the bars).

What are your favorite ways to save money on the road? I’m always looking for tips!

*If you use this link to register with Airbnb, you’ll get $35 off your first booking and I’ll get a credit too! Everybody wins!

Books I read in March

2 Comments

After a bit of a reading slump in February, I’m back on track: I finished six books in March! The real story here is my discovery of audiobooks: Now I can read while I’m doing chores, walking around the city, or doing any other number of things that don’t require all of my attention. Half of my March books were audio! Here’s an overview…

Mac and Cheese at Lux, downtown Phoenix, Arizona

Paddle Your Own Canoe, Nick Offerman

If you haven’t noticed by now, celebrity memoirs are one of my favorite genres, and listening to them only makes it better! I’d been wanting to read Paddle Your Own Canoe for ages (at least since I saw Offerman perform in late 2014), so it was my first choice when I started the Audible trial. Listening to his stories made me feel like he was sitting next to me and we were chatting. Not to mention, the book itself is just plain funny and insightful. Five stars

All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr

I actually read half of this one in February, had to return it to the library, and bought it for Kindle so I could finish it (on the beach in the Bahamas. Maybe not the best choice for a beach read but I was hooked!) It’s an addicting World War II novel that somehow stands out in an over-saturated genre, telling the parallel stories of a blind French girl and a German boy. There was a little more fantasy than I expected (that is to say, there was a small amount of fantasy, when I expected none), but overall a captivating read. Four stars

#Girlboss, Sophia Amoruso

I don’t have much to say about this one: It was fascinating to read (hear, in my case) about Amoruso’s rise from teenage rebel to wildly successful entrepreneur, and there were a lot of useful, applicable business tips, though a lot of them felt like common sense. Still, an inspiring read! Four stars

The Boston Girl, Anita Diamant

My mom sent me this one and I was immediately hooked. It’s a historical fiction novel set in, duh, Boston – one of my favorite cities! It follows the child of immigrants from her teenage years in the early 1900s through her young adulthood and was a really insightful look into not only Boston’s history, but the life of American immigrants in the twentieth century. I read  A LOT of historical fiction and this was one of the best. Five stars

Food Whore, Jessica Tom

I borrowed this one from the library and read it while in Phoenix. It’s a novel about a young food writer in New York City, so I was drawn to it for those obvious reasons – and while it was a cool look into the food scene, it was also very predictable if you’ve read any chick lit at all. That doesn’t usually turn me off to a book – what are vacations for if not light reads? – but the main character was incredibly ditzy and I spent most of the book wanting to scream at her for not seeing what was right in front of her. Two stars

Girl Walks Into A Bar, Rachel Dratch

BIG SURPRISE, another celebrity comedian memoir I loved. I actually didn’t know much about Dratch outside of her characters on SNL so I was pumped to listen to her book and learn more about her path to fame and what she’s been up to for the past few years. Some parts of it dragged and I obviously can’t relate to the bits about motherhood – but it was still hilarious. Four stars