Travel

Hannah Wilson

Daydreams of Tulip Fields

2 Comments Travel

For the first time ever, I’m welcoming a guest blogger! Suzette, from the travel blog Try Something Fun, is here to share her experience of the beautiful Skagit Valley tulip fields in Washington. 

Flower gardens are one of my favorite things to see when I’m traveling because they bring me peace. They truly drain the stress right out of my world. There are other reasons as well; gardens are often designed with cultural concepts in mind. In Japan, some gardens are examples of harmony between man and nature. I can definitely see the truth in that, because the colors and shapes orchestrated by nature just amaze me sometimes.

Read more

Hannah Wilson

Travel Diary: Positano, Italy

2 Comments Travel

Positano has a little bit of everything (beautiful views, cute town, good food and interesting culture), but many other oceanside towns have these things. I think how Positano differs is that it somehow encapsulates “opposites” like ruggedness and elegance, romance and adventure. You can have the most romantic honeymoon here with all the fancy restaurants and literally breathtaking views, but you can also trek up steep mountains to the Path of the Gods, take boats to hidden beaches, and adventure to other towns along the coast. It’s the perfect amalgamation of vacation elements.

Part of the aforementioned “adventure” of traveling to Positano, are the busses. Since there is so little flat land, everything is built vertically into the mountainside, and all roads are twisty and perched on the edge of sheer cliffs – not for those with extreme fear of heights! The main coastal highway was one thing, but it got even more exciting once we got on the local bus to the tiny village of Nocelle, where our Bed & Breakfast, Villa la Quercia, was located. After having already taken two separate busses from Naples airport, we were bemused to find that only one single bus ran up and down the mountain road, arriving for pickup about once per hour! I’ve never experienced anything like the driving skills of that bus driver – SERIOUS talent! Since the road was extremely windy and barely wide enough for one large car, you can imagine the kind of traffic jams and puzzles that ensued. Lots of stopping, backing up, and edging uncomfortably close to the cliff edges every time another car came down the mountain in the opposite direction.

Read more

Hannah Wilson

Travel Diary: Freiburg, Germany

5 Comments Travel

My friend Katie and I took a 5-day jaunt through Germany’s Black Forest region, visiting three towns: Freiburg, Heidelberg, and Tübingen. Here is an account of what we did while in Freiburg. Check back later for the other towns! 

After a few hours on the train with some pretty countryside views flashing by the window, we arrived in Freiburg. It took us a little while to get our bearings and find our accommodations for the night, which were slightly removed from the city center. I won’t bother recommending the airbnb we stayed at, since in my opinion, it was lacking. There was no wifi (GASP) and when we brought groceries home that evening to make dinner, we discovered the kitchen wasnt even equipped with a pot to boil our pasta in! After some nervous debating and creative thinking, we improvised and used the electric kettle instead… and it worked out perfectly! So take this as a lesson: if you need to cook pasta, but you don’t have a stove or a pot – just shove it into the electric kettle. ;)

But let’s backtrack to earlier that day…

Read more

Hannah Wilson

Travel Diary: Park Güell, Barcelona

Comments Travel

My summer travels began with a short trip to Barcelona with Erik and Natalie. Since I have so many photos I’d like to share, I’ll be splitting this up into a few parts, so stay tuned for more! 

Barcelona had been on my and Natalie’s travel wish list for years now – in fact, we had originally planned to go last summer, but instead went for a road trip through Normandy due to issues with my visa. Even though it wasn’t our first choice, I had an amazing time last summer driving through country roads and little villages in apple cider country and exploring Mont Saint Michel, which is magnificent.

This trip, on the other hand, was much louder, more colorful, and definitely sunnier. We didn’t do a ton of planning for Barcelona, so we missed some of the architectural gems (like Casa Batlló and Palau Guell), but taking it easy meant less stress, less sweat, and more time to relax and eat yummy Catalan cuisine.

Barcelona-blog-24-3

Barcelona wouldn’t be Barcelona without Gaudí. He quite literally shaped the city with his weird and wonderful architecture. One of the highlights of our trip was Park Güell, a multileveled outdoor complex with open spaces, stone arches and passages, a shady covered colonnade, colorful tile mosaics, gardens, and structures that look like gingerbread houses. Having seen pictures, I half expected this place to feel like a cheesy theme park, but it was impressive! Despite its whimsical vibe, the place demanded respect.

barcelona-collage-2

Barcelona-blog-26-3

Read more

Hannah Wilson

Frozen in Time – A Swedish Farmhouse

1 Comment Travel

While we were in Sweden a few weeks ago, we had the chance to explore an old Swedish farmhouse that was almost literally frozen in time. From the embroidered cushions to mismatched dining chairs, it felt like we had walked onto a movie set or a cultural museum. The décor was a mashup of decades. Most of it felt 70s kitsch but there were items that had obviously been heirlooms from much further back. We even found a black and white photograph of some unsmiling folks, rigid in their poses, like they’d been sitting there for a while to get the shot.

I like to imagine what life might have been like back then, aside from the lack of technology, it probably wasn’t so different from the lives we live now. I had this realization – that people in the past aren’t so drastically different from us in the present – when reading Anne Frank’s diary. I was amazed at how much I actually related to her, which I did not see coming. Even though she lived in hiding during the 1940s in the Netherlands, it brought back feelings and memories from my own teen years. It makes me feel so much more connected to the past and to life itself, knowing that we’re all (even those living 1000 years ago) built from the same basic components. We are more than just individuals existing in the here and now – we have a long, epic history that shaped each and every one of us, and we’re preparing the way for a long, epic future. Walking through this house, I saw myself, very consciously and very simply, as part of that timeline.

Read more

Hannah Wilson

Travel Diary – Sweden

1 Comment Travel

Our week-long trip to Sweden is winding down; tomorrow we head back to France via car, train, plane, and then another train.

This trip was essentially one big, continuous circle of fika, or coffee, sweet cakes, and light conversation. Of course, most of the time I didn’t have any idea what was being said, since I don’t speak Swedish! Knowing about five words – speedbump, frog, sausage, and beach – doesn’t get you very far in a real conversation.

I am in love with Swedish cakes, however. Nothing like texture of French pastries, the Swedes like softer things, much like their temperament. Sugar cake with a layer of butter in the middle, vanilla-cinnamon muffins with custard on the top, and cardamum rolls. They take their coffee strong, but not too strong. Not quite espresso, but way darker than the American cup o’ joe.

Read more