Month in Review: June 2019

I thought it would be fun to add in a little monthly review and roundup post, at least for this next year while we’re in Prague, to document our new adventure. So without further ado, here’s the month in review for June 2019! 

Travels

This month we went to…

• Paris, France
• Munich, Germany
• Prague, Czech Republic
• Kutna Hora, Czech Republic
• Dresden, Germany

Highlights

The biggest surprise and highlight has been what a good traveller Ellie is! As a pup who gets quite nervous and is reactive around other dogs, I was worried about her. But Ellie has been amazing on trains, planes and automobiles. She is super quiet in her carrier and settles down quite nicely. And she’s even been good on days when we take her out to explore the city (except when we cross paths with other dogs… but we’re working on that!). I love how dog-friendly Europe is and that Ellie can come with us when we eat at restaurants or go sight-seeing.

The other big highlight was definitely settling into Prague so nicely. On the whole, everything went really smoothly for us as we settled into our new lives, moved into our apartment, found Colin’s new job, and set up basics here like banking, internet and phones. I think we really lucked out and did well! We’ve also done a great job at being a bit more social and exploring our new city – which is impressive for people who really enjoy Netflix and take-out.

As far as travel highlights, my favourite trips in June were the tour of the Dachau Concentration Camp outside of Munich and our weekend in Dresden. More posts on Munich and Dresden to come!

Lowlights

The biggest lowlight from this month would have to be the heat in Prague. It’s grossly hot! Luckily, our apartment manages to keep pretty cool with good air circulation and fans going. But the city itself has just been so stinking hot (over 30 degrees most days we’ve been here, peaking at 37), which makes it really hard for us to want to do any exploring. It also makes me nervous – what is it going to be like in July and August? Let’s hope this heatwave breaks soon!

The other big challenge of June was navigating our first few cities with all of our bags: four 50lb suitcases, two carry-ons, and Ellie. It was not fun getting all of this stuff through airports, train stations, hotels, Airbnbs, Ubers, and more. We’ve already decided that on the way back to Canada, we have to send some of our suitcases ahead of time.

Posts from this month

Here’s what was published on Teaspoon of Adventure this month. If you missed any of my June posts, click below to read them (and add your email to the subscribe box on the right or at the end of the page so you don’t miss anymore!).

Expat Life: The Moment Before You Go

How to Travel with Your Dog to Europe

Expat Life: Settling into Prague

Visiting Paris with a Dog

What I read this month

In 2019, I set myself a challenge of reading one book a month. I know this isn’t a particularly impressive goal, but I had been working on the same book for three years before that, so I wanted to start small. In May, I bought myself an e-reader and have been reading up a storm since then! Below are the books I completed reading in June. If you want to check out my reading and reviews on these books, visit the Story Highlights on my personal Instagram @rianaautumn.

• No Baggage
• Road to Jonestown
• Honest Guide
• Eat Pray Love Made Me Do It
• Law & Disorder
• Born a Crime

Law & Disorder was actually my 12th book of 2019, which means I’ve already hit my goal of one book a month! So I’m now working towards a new goal of 25 books for the year.

Best reads/listens/watches

Reads: Of the books above, my favourite was definitely Law & Disorder by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker. I read one of their other books, Mindhunter, a couple of years ago and loved it so much. John Douglas is an FBI veteran who started the Behavioral Analysis Unit (aka the real life version of Criminal Minds!). It was so interesting to read his perspective and learn about profiling. He also covered a lot of the injustice of the justice system, which infuriates me in the best way possible.

Listens: I’m a huge podcast fan! I won’t list every podcast that I’m listening to here, but some of my favourites from this month include the newest season of Ear Hustle that just started and the Expat Cast (you can listen to my interview on the Expat Cast here).

Watches: The best movie I watched in June was definitely Always Be My Maybe. If you haven’t watched this hilarious and adorable rom-com on Netflix yet, you need to get on it. I loved it so much! As for TV, Colin and I are right in the middle of some really high-brow and serious shows: Survivor South Africa, The Amazing Race and Masterchef Australia.

Best and worst meals

Best: The croissants we got at Les Gamins Du Faubourg Nourdine in Paris were the best I have ever had in my life. Seriously, game changers. We also loved the Italian food at La Villa Andrea, also in Paris. Highly recommend ordering the seafood linguine and salmon pizza!

Worst: We had a horrible sushi dinner in Munich. I don’t know what we were thinking trying to have sushi in Germany, but it was a mistake. The rolls were awful and even though we went at happy hour, they were still so expensive. I’m scared to try sushi again!

Expat life

One thing I love is our apartment! I am so glad that we found this amazing place and really lucked out. The location is perfect with the most adorable neighbourhood and close to transit, parks, restaurants and grocery stores. And the unit itself is so bright, modern and spacious. I love that we’re up on the sixth floor away from city noises and I love all of the storage and furnishings. No complaints at all! I only wish we could bring this place back to Vancouver with us.

One thing I hate is the hot weather. And my nagging fear that if we try sushi again, I will be disappointed.

Coming up next

I don’t really know what’s coming up next! Which is funny, because I usually have a plan. I know I’ll be turning 27 in a couple of weeks (officially late-twenties!) and I hope we get to do something fun for my birthday. I’d love to go away for a couple of days, but (at the time of writing) I don’t know Colin’s work schedule. And because we don’t know his schedule, we haven’t booked anything for July.

But I’m hoping in July we’ll be able to take a few more trips, even just locally around the Czech Republic or neighbouring countries for a day trip or weekend here and there. I also want to take advantage of all of the fun summer events and festivals happening in Prague. So if someone could just turn down the heat, I’ll be able to get right on that!

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What did you get up to this month?