tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84226180162114241512025-02-08T22:54:37.871-08:00Hi. Thanks for visiting our travel blog! From November 2011 until June 2012 we (Anne and Monica) travelled around the world and wrote about our experiences along the way. We're now back in the USA and continuing to post about interesting moments in our lives. Monica S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08020766544577370804noreply@blogger.comBlogger106125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8422618016211424151.post-2953371908964941002013-07-14T23:07:00.002-07:002013-07-14T23:12:25.818-07:00

It's been quite a long time since I last posted on this blog. Life has fallen back into a routine and time seems to fly faster than ever. I can't believe it's been a whole year since I came back from our trip around the world. A whole year in which I haven't been on a plane, nor left California at all - yet, a year of a lot of personal growth, keeping busy and feeling really happy and content

Monica S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08020766544577370804noreply@blogger.comTahoe National Forest, California, USA39.4469575 -120.6199894999999738.661640500000004 -121.91088299999997 40.2322745 -119.32909599999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8422618016211424151.post-86619150311177955382013-01-23T06:57:00.003-08:002013-07-14T23:11:31.408-07:00

I finally finished my Roomuseum–an idea I had about halfway through our trip when I realized I had a growing collection of "artifacts" from the places we visited.  Before I left on the trip, I didn't know what I was going to bring back with me. I thought I'd buy a pair of Argentinian leather boots or a leather jacket, and I wanted a variety of musical instruments from around the

Unknownnoreply@blogger.comNew York, NY, USA40.7143528 -74.005973140.3291728 -74.65142010000001 41.0995328 -73.3605261tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8422618016211424151.post-40691251510151597472013-01-04T01:52:00.001-08:002013-01-04T01:53:31.458-08:00

I thought it would be a fun idea to compile some of the best images of animals we encountered during our trip, so Anne and I came up with this list. Some of them are quite hilarious. I tried to position them in chronological order, except for the first one, which is just a teaser to give you an idea of how amazing some of these encounters were... Image 1: Anne leaning against a tiger at Tiger

Monica S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08020766544577370804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8422618016211424151.post-83639022805237142632013-01-02T00:52:00.002-08:002013-01-02T01:11:32.758-08:00

The other night I watched a National Geographic documentary on the first full ascent of the Everest made by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953. The most inspiring thing (which I didn’t know until now) was that after this moment, Hillary spent most of his life in Nepal, building schools and hospitals for the Sherpa people. As of now, he’s one of my new heroes in terms of making life

Monica S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08020766544577370804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8422618016211424151.post-33946856652688800482012-10-30T00:57:00.001-07:002012-10-31T01:14:02.259-07:00

Last weekend, my friend Jenni generously invited me along with some of her other friends to spend the weekend at a vacation house that her parents have rented up in Calistoga. The house was out of this world, an incredible 60 acre wine country estate with a pool, vineyards and apple trees. I brought my digital SLR (Nikon D90) with a 50mm lens and spent the weekend taking a lot of photos. It felt

Monica S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08020766544577370804noreply@blogger.comCalistoga, CA 38.5787965 -122.579705438.55397 -122.6191874 38.603623000000006 -122.54022339999999tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8422618016211424151.post-54354791291299948182012-10-13T16:44:00.001-07:002012-10-31T01:15:52.042-07:00

So I made it to New York City. In the past two months here, I've acquired a new skill that I might need to add to my resume sometime soon: cat sitter. I've had two house/cat sitting gigs so far and I have two more to go. They're all for friends of mine, or friends of friends. I'm beginning to wonder how long I could bounce around from house to house, living out of my suitcase (which has

Unknownnoreply@blogger.comNew York, NY, USA40.7143528 -74.005973140.3292248 -74.637687100000008 41.0994808 -73.3742591tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8422618016211424151.post-4128046572076308052012-10-04T00:21:00.004-07:002012-10-31T01:16:14.990-07:00

On the last weekend of September I was invited at the very last minute to join a bunch of nutty Germans and some other fellow Europeans in celebrating Oktoberfest at a farm outside of Petaluma. I had no idea what to expect - but I ended up having a blast, meeting a lot of interesting people, laughing my heart out at kids being goofy and saying funny things, eating tons of delicious German food

Monica S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08020766544577370804noreply@blogger.comPetaluma, CA, USA38.232417 -122.636652438.182525999999996 -122.7159599 38.282308 -122.5573449tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8422618016211424151.post-19825483279781940572012-09-25T01:32:00.001-07:002012-10-31T01:19:14.272-07:00

Last Saturday I had the pleasure to be a guest at Slow Food's fresh food picnic, organized at the beautiful Ranchero Mark West farm tucked in the hills of Sonoma County. I would like to herewith extend my thanks to my two new awesome friends Jonathan Sutton and Tony Ferrari, chefs at Hillside Supper Club, a new slow food restaurant in Bernal Heights, San Francisco. I had a great time

Monica S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08020766544577370804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8422618016211424151.post-32720162765577150972012-08-23T16:44:00.001-07:002012-10-31T01:21:02.835-07:00

Anne and Monica's trip "around the world" ended for me with 3 weeks in my home country, Romania. This visit was not part of the original itinerary, but since I had a lot of British Airways miles and were able to buy tickets on miles for a very small fee, I decided to extend my trip and go see my family and friends back home. Going back to Romania is always an emotional whirlwind for me. Being

Monica S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08020766544577370804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8422618016211424151.post-11431223934753684602012-08-13T14:14:00.002-07:002012-10-31T01:21:25.483-07:00

What do I remember about Romania? Meeting Monica's friends and family, the city (Bucharest), the beautiful countryside and THE FOOD. Monica already wrote an entire blog post on Romanian food, so I won't get into it too much, but let me just attest to the fact that Romanian food is off the chain! Enjoying a huge, delicious meal in Bucharest. Monica and I stayed in her brother's apartment for

Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBucharest, Romania44.437711 26.097366944.347011 25.9394384 44.528411 26.2552954tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8422618016211424151.post-62557016112461185972012-08-06T17:41:00.003-07:002013-01-05T02:09:20.537-08:00

Today's blog post is about the myriads of ways people see the world around them, and how one can relate to or understand others' points of view. We often assume that our own point of view is shared by others around us and we carry this thought fallacy from either personal or professional perspectives. We see friends unable to comprehend your dislike of PB&J sandwiches or donuts. (I mean, who

Monica S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08020766544577370804noreply@blogger.comSan Francisco, CA, USA37.7749295 -122.419415537.6745235 -122.577344 37.8753355 -122.261487tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8422618016211424151.post-1793601915577771812012-07-29T17:22:00.002-07:002012-10-31T01:25:57.536-07:00

Anne and I spent the second half of April 2012 in the north of India, more specifically a region called Rajasthan (which means "the land of the Rajas"). Being our first time in India, we experienced severe culture shock. In hindsight, had we started with the south of India and one of its big, modern cities (Calcutta, Bangalore or Mumbay), it may have been less shocking. Anne in front of

Monica S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08020766544577370804noreply@blogger.comRajasthan, India27.0238036 74.217932623.4049711 69.164221599999991 30.6426361 79.2716436tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8422618016211424151.post-57979514236486925102012-07-23T00:24:00.001-07:002012-10-31T01:27:39.826-07:00

For a while now I've been really into backpack hiking. I could say it's my newly discovered love. There's something about being out there in the wilderness by yourself, away from civilization, cars, cell-phones, loud artificial sounds, hoards of people, that renews me and fills me up with happiness and energy. For those who like to run, they call it "the runner's high." I guess I have "the

Monica S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08020766544577370804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8422618016211424151.post-27097183289440812282012-07-17T01:10:00.001-07:002012-10-31T01:26:37.527-07:00

This past weekend my friends Devin (aka "Young Man"), David (aka "Siesta Dave") and I went on a hike up north to an area known as The Lost Coast. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about this magical place: "The Lost Coast is an undeveloped section of the California North Coast in Humboldt and Mendocino counties. It was named the "Lost Coast" after the area experienced depopulation in the 1930s.

Monica S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08020766544577370804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8422618016211424151.post-86295481420478107502012-07-11T15:02:00.001-07:002012-10-31T01:43:37.024-07:00

Ever since I came back from our trip, I promised myself to leave town every weekend. San Francisco is usually cold and foggy in summertime and since I'm unemployed, I'd like to maximize the funemployment as much as possible. I spend the entire week in front of a computer applying for jobs, so I don't feel too guilty for switching off adult responsibilities and switching on hedonism over the

Monica S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08020766544577370804noreply@blogger.comLos Angeles, CA, USA34.0522342 -118.243684933.6312602 -118.87539890000001 34.4732082 -117.6119709tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8422618016211424151.post-59810474640969284962012-07-11T10:05:00.001-07:002012-10-31T01:48:07.073-07:00

It's now been almost two months since I was in Zurich. I'm excited to write about my experience before the memories fade away... Arriving in Zurich felt like a dream. The colors were intense, but muted. The silent landscape felt remote and fascinating. I spent four days there with an old roommate and friend of mine from Boston (Mia), and her boyfriend (Nicolas). It was wonderful to

Unknownnoreply@blogger.comZurich, Switzerland47.3686498 8.539182547.2826163 8.381254 47.4546833 8.6971110000000014tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8422618016211424151.post-6919903263305126882012-07-03T00:44:00.000-07:002012-10-31T01:45:42.089-07:00

As we were driving back to San Francisco yesterday afternoon, weaving South on Highway 101 through golden hills crowned by intensely blue skies, my friend Jenny sitting next to me in the car kept exclaiming: "Gosh, it's so beautiful here!" She must've said it several times, enough to wake me up from my constant taking-for-granted of the majestic landscape that makes California such a visually

Monica S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08020766544577370804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8422618016211424151.post-15312314853062852232012-06-29T00:49:00.001-07:002012-10-31T01:48:33.169-07:00

Here's another post where I will rant about how perfect my life is. Despite various life vicissitudes, such as seeing loved ones getting old or sick, facing impeding death of close relatives, confronting one's own health issues, struggling to find love, purpose and mindfulness, despite all that - I look at the life I've lived so far and think of it as pretty fucking amazing. Wow, what an

Monica S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08020766544577370804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8422618016211424151.post-87898436450148025762012-06-26T17:22:00.000-07:002012-06-26T17:22:36.637-07:00

The European part of our trip was not in our original itinerary. London was added simply because it was a free "layover" from Delhi to Los Angeles. I decided I'd stay a week since I had a couple friends in London and I'd never been there before. Monica visited London for a couple days and then went to Romania for three weeks to visit her family and friends. I decided to go to Romania for my last

Unknownnoreply@blogger.comLondon, UK51.5073346 -0.127683151.3492066 -0.4435401 51.6654626 0.1881739tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8422618016211424151.post-79063859434949813302012-06-25T14:14:00.002-07:002012-06-25T14:22:03.925-07:00

It's been 3 weeks since we came back to the States and life is slowly but surely starting to settle in. That entails going to friends' birthday BBQs, cooking healthy delicious dinners, thriving on California's amazing produce, getting fit with yoga, swimming and bike rides, escaping the city with ever-entertaining weekend trips. One thing I came to realize at the end of our trip: there's no

Monica S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08020766544577370804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8422618016211424151.post-33821908798885783012012-06-22T15:34:00.000-07:002013-08-13T00:55:07.692-07:00

After our two weeks in India, we spent two in Nepal. As soon as we crossed the border into Nepal we felt instant relief. It was less populated and less dusty--we could breathe again! The village of Ghandruk--our trekking destination. We spent one night in Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha, but actually didn't make it out to the famous sites like the sacred garden. The next morning we took a

Unknownnoreply@blogger.comNepal28.394857 84.12400824.8208155 79.070297000000011 31.968898499999998 89.177719tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8422618016211424151.post-21613815280303705372012-06-16T04:28:00.000-07:002012-06-16T04:28:00.939-07:00

Ok, yes, I'm biased, because I am Romanian and my taste buds have been trained ever since I was a kid to love this food. But seriously - you have to try it and you'll know what I mean. Unfortunately, there are no Romanian restaurants in the Bay Area. It makes my heart break at the thought that San Francisco foodies are missing out on such an exquisite display of flavor. Given that we are

Monica S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08020766544577370804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8422618016211424151.post-63319702125706380302012-06-13T16:17:00.003-07:002013-08-13T00:54:32.493-07:00

I'm currently back in the good ole USA and I'm so happy to be here. I love handling dollar bills, calculating distances in miles and going grocery shopping. Life feels easy again. Things that would have been a drag before I left don't bother me so much anymore. I was actually psyched to go to the DMV the other day. I think it's just a matter of familiarity. I know what to expect and that is such

Unknownnoreply@blogger.comIndia20.593684 78.962885.536602 58.748036 35.650766 99.177724tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8422618016211424151.post-90724212069487093612012-05-24T14:53:00.001-07:002013-08-13T00:54:48.774-07:00

Part two of our Indian extravaganza began with an enjoyable one-hour drive from Kuhri Village to Jaisalmer, which was a relief after all the time we'd been spending in that hot car the previous few days. We spent one whole day inside the enormous Jaisalmer Fort and had a really great time perusing the camel hide products ... Jenny modeling a camel hide cowboy hat. ... feather vendors

Unknownnoreply@blogger.comIndia20.593684 78.962885.536602 58.748036 35.650766 99.177724tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8422618016211424151.post-15309641074798857112012-05-22T06:42:00.002-07:002013-01-07T13:06:16.779-08:00

The idea for this blog post came after a heated conversation my Romanian friends and I had over a beer (ahem, many beers, actually) in Bucharest last night. Romanians are always obsessed with their image abroad. "Obsessed" is probably not the most accurate choice of words - it should rather be interpreted as: "self-conscious about their already tarnished image in the eyes of Western Europe."

Monica S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08020766544577370804noreply@blogger.com