running

Running in Turin, Italy

Feeling disheveled after running in Turin.

Happy July! I officially have one month left of being 28, and June 27 marked three months in Europe for me and Jeremy. Today is also one of my best friends Nicole‘s birthday, so happy birthday Nicole!!!! She is trying to come visit me and Jeremy while we spend the month of August housesitting in Paris, and I REALLY hope it happens. Just think of all the croissants and macarons we’ll eat! Of course we’ll get some exercise too… Nicole and I met the first week of college my freshman year at UGA in Athens, Georgia. We became fast friends, and have been close ever since.

Me and Nicole circa 2003

On Nicole’s wedding day in 2009

Nicole flew all the way out to Palm Springs from Atlanta for my bachelorette weekend.

On my wedding day, 2013

Running in Turin

My runs in Turin were okay, but not stellar. The house we were renting was up in the hills and the roads around it were steep and narrow with endless amounts of blind turns, and I didn’t feel comfortable running on them since Italian drivers are a little crazy and I was worried I’d get sideswiped. Thankfully, my dad nicely drove me to two different spots to run where no cars were allowed. The first one was in a big green park, Parco della Rimembranza, with hiking trails running all through it. I ran to the top, and then up and down a couple times to make up some distance, and I figured it was good to practice running hills. The view at the top was pretty great.

Afterward, my dad and I found a nice café at the top of the park, had a cappuccino and just sat and watched all the local Italians eat and drink coffee with their families.

It looks like we were the only patrons, but it filled up fast as lunchtime approached.

The other place I ran was along the Po River in central Turin, starting at the Parco del Valentino. This is a such a great place to run; pedestrian paths follow the river for miles, and there were so many other runners out. It was in the middle of the day, though, and it was hot, and I felt miserable. I had eaten the biggest meal OF MY LIFE (not exaggerating) the night before, and felt very heavy. It was one of those runs where you feel like you are running as fast as you possibly can, and it’s still a minute slower than your normal pace. It was rough. But I got through it, and saw some nice sights along the way.

Medieval village in the castle in Parco del Valentino.

Castello del Valentino

The castle from across the river.

I have returned to Hal Higdon for a half marathon training schedule for a race I’m trying to run in September. I have used his plans for my past four halfs, and I like them a lot. Having a plan helps me stay on track, although this week we’re in Rome and we’ve been walking so much that my legs are too tired to run. On Saturday we walked for six hours straight, and since I don’t want to overdo it and re-injure my knee, I didn’t run on Sunday like I had planned. Since I’ve been pretty consistent otherwise, I think that I’ll be fine to continue the training plan and be prepared to run a couple half marathons this fall. I REALLY miss racing, and can’t wait to get on the starting line again.

Introduction to Italy: Verona and Turin

Having my first gelato of the Italian portion of our trip in Verona.

The train ride from Munich to Verona went through the Austrian Alps, and it was beautiful. The ride was about five and a half hours long, but most of it was going by mountains and rivers and snow-capped Alps, so there was plenty to look at and it went by fast. We also got first-class tickets, since when we bought them they were virtually the same price as second class (which is always exciting when that happens). The first-class cabin was roomy and nice, and a lady across the aisle had a biggish dog on her lap that amused me for a big chunk of the ride. The towns near the Italian border were indistinguishable from Austrian towns, but as we started to get farther from the border, the hills began being covered in vineyards, and the towns started taking on a more Italian feel.

Train view.

Italy!

Slight backtrack: we had to meet up with our housesitting host at the Munich train station at noon, and I was really nervous about this. Driving in bigger cities is always a bit scary, and figuring out parking can be difficult. I knew there were parking lots at the train station, but we didn’t know if finding them would be hard. Turns out it wasn’t that bad, but when we pulled into the parking lot, there was a big door covering the entrance. We figured that lot was closed, so we moved onto the next one, which had the same door. I decided we should risk it and drive up to it and take a ticket to see what would happen. The door opened, revealing a small room, completely enclosed, that we were obviously supposed to drive into. It didn’t even look big enough to hold our massive Volvo station wagon, and we had no idea where it was going to take us. We drove into the car elevator, the doors closed, and it’s a good thing neither of us are super claustrophobic, because it was a tight fit. The elevator eventually started moving, and we were brought to the sixth floor of the parking deck. Thankfully everything worked out and we didn’t get stuck in a weird car elevator, but it was kind of scary.

Anyway, our final destination was Turin to meet up with my parents, but since our train was at 1:30pm from Munich, we couldn’t catch a late train from Verona to Turin, so we decided to spend the night in Verona. As soon as we got there (and after lugging our suitcases and heavy backpacks 20 minutes longer than we should have because we got lost), we immediately headed to dinner. We had pizza and wine on our minds, and we were on a mission. We found a place recommended online, and didn’t have to wait that long to get a table. We ordered a liter of red wine, and for some reason we didn’t think it was going to be that much. It ended up being a big pitcher (bigger than a bottle), and got many strange looks from our dining neighbors. As we looked around more, we noticed that people were mostly drinking Cokes, with a small glass of beer or wine occasionally in the mix. We thought it was strange that nobody was really drinking wine, but tried to discreetly gulp it down quickly so we would stop getting attention from it (didn’t work). I don’t have any pictures of our dinner, but I did take this one of the mural that took up the entire wall of the bathroom.

After dinner, we wandered around Verona in search of gelato. It wasn’t hard to find. There was a really nice piazza near Juliet’s house (we got there too late to visit the house and balcony), and the weather was nice and pleasant. Here are some bad quality pictures that I took with my phone around Verona.

Juliet’s house.

Looking through the gate at Juliet’s house, with love notes written all along the hallway.

The arena in central Verona.

The next morning, we took the train from Verona to Turin, which only took a couple hours. After talking to my dad and hearing how difficult it was to find the house we rented on Airbnb in the hills above Turin, we decided to take a cab there. Our cab driver got kind of lost, but nowhere near as bad as the one that my parents hired to lead them to the house in the rain the night before. The road leading to the house went through tiny villages that could only fit one car, so cars were constantly trying to get out of the way of others, and honking to let them know they were coming around blind turns. It was pretty harrowing, and my dad had to drive our rental car through many roads like this in our time in Italy, and it never got easier. Once we reached the house though, it was so nice and spacious, and the view was incredible.

The view from our bedroom window in Turin.

The view of the Italian Alps from the house on a clear day.

We spent our six days in Turin visiting the National Museum of Cinema, I ran a few times, we took day trips to the countryside, and we ate really good food (including all the meals my mom cooked).

Not sure if anyone has been to any of the Eataly locations, but the one in Turin is the original. It is a haven for upscale Italian groceries and food. The one Jeremy and I visited in NYC was so crowded with tourists it was kind of impossible to actually look at anything. This one seemed like it was just a grocery store where local people were buying their bread, meats, cheeses, fish, fresh pasta, or pretty much anything else you can think of. I highly recommend visiting one if you are ever near a location.

Rows and rows of pasta.

I can't resist things that have pistachio in them, and this cheese we got at Eataly was delicious.

I can’t resist things that have pistachios in them, and this cheese we got at Eataly was delicious.

The first day we were in Turin, we made sure to get a bicerin, a drink that originated there. It’s a layer of espresso, then drinking chocolate, then whole milk. We went to the café that claims to have first created it, and it was heavenly.

The bicerin, one of the greatest creations of all time.

The National Museum of Cinema was really fun, and not at all what we were expecting. There were many interactive exhibits, and I had to put aside my fear of heights to take a glass elevator to the top of the building to look at the view.

Hopefully the future of movie theaters: there was a huge screen above these comfortable seats playing movies, and speakers were in the seats.

There were a lot of references to different movies, which unfortunately I didn’t get because I haven’t watched enough movies.

Jeremy sitting on a toilet watching Young Frankenstein.

The glass elevator went through this big room and into the hole at the top. Felt like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

At the top.

We asked a nice lady to take a picture of us with the view behind us, but she insisted on taking only super close-up pictures.

We asked a nice lady to take a picture of us with the view behind, but she insisted on taking only super close-up pictures.

Jeremy partaking in an interactive exhibit that also felt like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Next up: our adventures into the Italian countryside and my runs in Turin.

Our Fourth Housesitting Assignment: Iffeldorf, Germany

Oops, it’s been a while. We’re in Sarzana, Italy with my parents and we haven’t had strong internet for the past week and a half, so it was tough to post. We are hopping on a train today to spend the night in Pisa, then on to Rome tomorrow, which I’m pretty excited about since I’ve never been. I wanted to finish up our time in Bavaria, since it was so memorable.

We weren’t sure about taking this housesitting since it was for two whole weeks and it was during the time my parents were going to be in Europe. It turned out to be a really great decision though, especially since my parents ended up driving us to Munich, and then we met back up with them after the assignment was over. Our host in Germany also let us use her automatic car, which made a big difference, since we were able to explore a lot of Bavaria. Besides the incredible hike we went on complete with beer and pretzels near the top of the mountain and some beautiful runs on the trails near the house we were sitting, there were multiple other highlights as well.

Visiting Linderhof Palace

Linderhof Palace, according to Wikipedia, is the “smallest of the three palaces built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria and the only one which he lived to see completed.” King Ludwig II seems to be quite the interesting character, and Jeremy and I decided to pay to take a tour of the palace, something we rarely do as budget travelers. Ludwig took over the throne in Bavaria at 18, and he built elaborate castles (we visited another one of his castles, Neuschwanstein) before he was mysteriously found dead in a lake at age 41. He also had a strong fascination with Wagner, which influenced parts of the palace we toured.

We couldn’t take any pictures of the inside of the palace (even though Jeremy tried to sneak one and got caught!), but you can see some of the rooms online. The most interesting room to us was the dining room, where there was a table that Ludwig would eat at alone and the table had a pulley system (called “Tischlein deck dich”), so the table would lower into the staff’s quarters and they would make up the table and put food on it, and raise it back up to where Ludwig was sitting. There was also a big mirror in front of the table, so that Ludwig was dining with himself every time he ate. The tour guide didn’t say this, but on Wikipedia it says that the staff had to make up the table for four people, and Ludwig would have imaginary conversations with them while he ate.

I was excited to see a palm tree.

Another really interesting part of the palace was the grotto, which Ludwig had built for him. People would put on Wagner operas for him in this man-made grotto, and he would sit in this big clam shell and they pushed him around in the water. He was the only spectator of the opera.

Day Tripping: Salzburg, Austria

I really wanted to visit Austria since I’d never been, and we decided to visit Salzburg (even though Innsbruck was a little closer) for the day, where Sound of Music was filmed. It was about a two-hour drive, and it wasn’t bad. We had to buy a permit to drive in Austria, but nobody checked it. It was a little nerve-wracking to drive in Salzburg, as it is in any city really, but luckily I only got massively honked at by a line of cars once. And we missed the turn for the parking lot two times and kept circling around the city in our big old Volvo station wagon, and ended up pulling into the parking lot of Augustiner Bräu monastery/brewery. It was perfect. We had to wait a little while for them to start serving beer, so we walked around town a bit.

You know a city is magical if they have unicorn statues around.

I’m such a sucker for plants that look like they belong in a Dr. Seuss book.

We headed back to the brewery to get some food and delicious beer, straight from the barrels.

You can’t really see them because they’re white, but there was a guy serving shaved radishes with salt and we got some. They were really good.

The halls were filled with food stands.

Anniversary Dinner

Jeremy and I celebrated our one-year wedding anniversary by exploring Starnberger See, a big lake nearby with lots of cute towns around it. This is also the lake where King Ludwig was found dead. We ate dinner at a nice restaurant in our little town, outside overlooking the local lakes.

Starnberger See. The water was crystal clear.

Finally got to wear the one nice dress I packed.

Kloster Andechs

Our housesitting host gave us some suggestions on things to do around Iffeldorf, and visiting Kloster Andechs was high on her list, with good reason. It is another monastery that brews beer, and it’s location on the top of a hill makes for really nice views while you sit outside and enjoy a liter of beer. You can also hike up there from a neighboring town which takes about an hour, but both times we went it was late so we just drove up to it.

Fishes on sticks.

The monastery.

We had such a good time in Bavaria, I do feel like I could live there. The cats we were taking care of didn’t warm up to us too much, but they were still nice to have around for the most part.

My dream chocolate bar.

Making friends.

The biggest birdhouse I’ve ever seen.

You ain’t kidding.

Our last meal at the train station before heading to Verona. Goodbye Germany! For now…

Does anyone have any tips on places to eat or whatnot in Rome?

Running in Germany

I have been enjoying some really great runs here in Bavaria. There are about six lakes right near the house we’re sitting that have paths all around them, and go on forever. One thing I’ve noticed about Germany (and Switzerland) is how accessible everything is for hikers/bikers/runners. There are paths everywhere, away from the road, and there are tons of people utilizing them. I didn’t really expect to be trail running while here, but it has turned into a really good thing. The paths are easier on my knees, there are hills so I can work on my form going up those, there are no cars around (except for one small portion of one trail, which I didn’t realize and almost got side swiped), there are cows everywhere, beautiful scenery, etc.

My runs have been in the 4-6 mile range, and all of them have felt pretty good. A couple days this week were REALLY hot and humid (like 90 degrees, which I haven’t felt in years), and that was really a struggle. The day after we went hiking in the Alps was also tough; my legs felt like lead. But I have noticed progress in the past two weeks we’ve been here; at the beginning even my easy pace felt hard, but now I feel like I’m back to my old self… sort of. Yesterday I got up early (like 5 am early, I’ve been having sleeping problems from the heat), and got out on the trails before anyone else did. I broke lots of spider webs, so I knew I was the first one out. I really wanted to just run for a while and see where it took me, and that’s exactly what happened. I ended up doing 7.5 miles at a 10 min/mile pace, which was just fine by me. The weather was perfect, some bikers and hikers were out by the time I was finishing up, but overall I pretty much had the whole place to myself.

I’m trying to work on getting my endurance back, without doing too much too soon. My knee has been fine, and fingers crossed it stays that way. Our travel plans are a little up in the air at the moment due to monetary concerns, but I’ve got my eye on a half marathon in September here in Europe that I really want to do. I would be bummed to go home before doing at least one race abroad. After that, assuming we’re home, I’m going to sign up for the Santa Barbara International Half Marathon on November 8, which I ran last year. I think that’ll be a nice welcome home for me. My goal is still to break two hours in the half marathon, and hopefully that’ll happen soon.

Still trying to be proactive about my knee – icing it with frozen raspberries.

It’s going to be a bit tougher getting my runs in after we leave Germany since we’ll be going to bigger cities. It’s been so great having these paths right outside our door. We’re heading to Italy on Sunday and will be there for a good bit, and it’s already really hot there. So, I have to work on getting out of the house early, which will help with the traffic situation too. I’ve been looking up routes that I can run, and I try to book our accommodations close to parks so that I have easy access away from busy streets.

It’s been a lot harder staying in shape while traveling than I was anticipating, but I’ll save that for another post.

Happy Friday the Thirteenth! Jeremy and I are off to a monastery on a hill that brews delicious beer (we know it’s delicious because we went yesterday, too).

Running in Paris

I can’t stop thinking about our week in Paris. It’s a good thing we’re going back; I’m not done with that city in the least. Jeremy and I have a housesitting assignment for an entire month there starting late July, and I can’t wait to explore more. Prior to our trip, my runs in Zurich really stood out to me, but running in Paris was something really special. I don’t mean to compare them – pretty much all my runs in Europe have been really fun and memorable – but there was something incredible about seeing the City of Love in that way.

Les Berges

I had done some research, and found a section of the Seine called Les Berges (which has a really great, interactive website) that has lots of shipping containers made into pop-up ateliers, food trucks, obstacle courses, etc. And a 100-meter track. It is basically between the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre, so I knew it would be the ideal place to run. We had to take the metro from our Airbnb in the République, so we headed out somewhat early to make the trek to Les Invalides, which would land us close to Les Berges.

Pretty much every time you get off a metro stop in Paris, you go up the stairs and walk out onto the street to see something so beautiful you can’t believe your eyes. After getting off at Les Invalides and walking a couple blocks, we came to the Pont Alexandre III covered in gold statues.

On the Pont Alexandre III with Les Invalides in the background.

We walked down to the Seine and saw Les Berges right away. A little ways down, we saw an obstacle course and the 100-meter track. There were tons of people running (which I love), and we ended up walking to the Eiffel Tower to check out how far it was (not far at all) and soon after I left Jeremy to get my run started.

I have a picture of me climbing on here, but it’s way too cheesy to post.

A plaque with instructions on proper sprinting form.

I ran along the Seine to the Louvre, past the Musée d’Orsay, stopping to take lots of pictures along the way. There were a ton of people out, but it didn’t feel overwhelming. The weather was perfect (albeit a little windy), and I even ran around the Place de la Concorde among all the tourists. Normally I wouldn’t like to do that, but there were so many other runners out, I felt like I could do whatever I wanted (strength in numbers, right?). At one point I got caught in a cluster of tourists at a red light, but I saw an older French man running fearless through them and I sprinted to get right behind him so he could lead the way. He met up with other running buddies and I tried to push myself to keep up with them, but their pace was too fast.

Little head, big tower.

Musée d’Orsay.

When I was done running (I ended up doing four miles), I met back up with Jeremy, and he took some totally candid, unplanned action shots of me sprinting slowly on the 100-meter track.

Perfect weather, beautiful scenery, strong-feeling legs… It really doesn’t get much better.

Parc de la Villette

When I was looking around online for things that were going on last weekend in Paris, I found a 10K that started near our apartment. I got really excited, and we planned on getting up early on Sunday and making our way to the start so I could register. I’ve been itching to run a race, even though I’m fairly out of shape compared to my fitness levels this time last year. But I figured it would be fun to run a race in Paris, and explore the different areas the route went through. The night before the race I was reading up on details to make sure I had everything I needed, and I noticed that the website said every runner needed a note from a doctor clearing them for running. I had seen this when I was looking around for a marathon to register for earlier in the year, but was surprised to see that it was necessary for shorter races too. A quick Google search made it clear that I was not going to be able to run without the note, and I was disappointed. Since I was pretty set on running 6.2 miles, I decided to head out from our apartment and run up along the Canal Saint-Martin. I came across the Parc de la Villette a couple miles in, and it was really great. I wouldn’t have visited this park if it hadn’t been for my run, and it was fun to explore the different paths and huge art sculptures. There was a different race going on, and I could hear the announcer cheering people on, so the finish must have been close. It made me want to run a race even more. On my way back, I actually ran alongside the 10K I had planned on participating in, and people were cheering for the runners, so I pretended they were cheering for me too. I was, however, running the opposite direction as the racers, which a man kindly informed me of in French.

Parc de la Villette, with a huge bicycle tire in the ground.

The rest of the bicycle… and some goats.

It was a beautiful run, and I was able to explore areas I wouldn’t normally have visited. I don’t think this running in new cities thing is ever going to get old.

Running in Azille

The picturesque vineyard setting of Azille, France has provided the backdrop for some really nice runs this week. My left knee has been a bit sore since my 7-miler last week (not sure why I’m surprised, I didn’t stretch afterward at all and haven’t been doing any kind of strength training), so I have been taking it a little easier lately. Jeremy and I have made a sort of 180 in our eating habits the past few days, which has been a very good thing. We realized that we can’t continue eating baguettes and blocks of cheese and pain au chocolats and drinking multiple bottles of wine daily (sadly), or we’re going to outgrow all of the clothes in our suitcases. So we stopped buying baguettes, wine, and cheese, and are saving some of those for special occasions (like the weekend). I, for one, feel so much better, I feel like my moods are more stable, and I have more energy. Not to mention I’m not bloated all the damn time. We’ve been making super healthy meals, consisting mostly of vegetables, quinoa, and fish. We’re pretty much just getting back to how we used to eat in Santa Barbara.

Less of this:

Is that not the prettiest pizza box you’ve ever laid your eyes on?

The cute pizza truck that visits the village on Mondays.

Pizza with white asparagus and artichoke hearts.

And more of this:

Of course, these rules may not apply next week when we’re in Paris because come on, who are we kidding.

The village of Azille is surrounded by vineyards with multiple public paths going through them. I haven’t encountered anyone else on my runs (people or cars), and there are no houses around, so I have been playing my music from my phone as loud as it goes, without wearing earphones. It is wonderful. I am still completely aware of my surroundings and can hear if a car is coming from anywhere. I highly recommend doing this if the option arises.

The one thing that has not been great on my runs is the wind. It has consistently been pretty windy, with a nice tailwind on the way out, and a horrendous headwind on the way back. The first run was the worst. I don’t know what was going on, but it made me ANGRY. Running is supposed to release stress, not cause it. It was blowing so hard that I was barely moving, and I may have screamed obscenities out loud. The wind today wasn’t as bad, but I was confused as to why I looked at my Garmin and it was showing a 7:45 pace (which is unheard of for me) and it felt really easy. I realized when I turned around that it was the strong tailwind, and I slowed down considerably on the way back. Even so, I managed to run all my miles under 9 min/mile, which I felt good about.

Grass that looked like water in the wind.

Vibrant poppies.

You know it’s windy when your ponytail is completely horizontal.

Got the knee strap back on.

There is a canal nearby called the Canal du Midi that is 150 miles long and runs all through southern France. It is a popular destination for river cruises and bicyclists, and I’m going to try to run along it tomorrow. We drove to it today to check it out.

The Canal du Midi.

I can’t believe tomorrow is Friday already; this is the first week that has flown by since we got to Europe. I am really excited to get to Paris on Tuesday!

Palais des Popes and Goodbye Avignon

The Palais des Popes in Avignon is a main draw of the town, as it’s claimed to be the biggest Gothic palace in the world (according to its website). Thousands of people visit Avignon to tour the huge, beautiful palace, with good reason. It dates back to the 1300s, and was the seat of Western Christianity during the 14th century (thank you, Wikipedia), and housed nine popes before the papacy returned to Rome in 1377. Jeremy and I didn’t pay the 11 euros each to take a tour of the inside of the palace (a little too rich for our budget traveler blood, and our hosts in Geneva said that the rooms were pretty much emptied out when the popes returned to Rome anyway), but walking around it and up to the gardens to see the view was still worth a visit.

A closer look at the creepy guy on the left.

Inside the first room of the palace.

The view over the Rhone River from le Jardin des Doms.

Le Pont d’Avignon from above.

Reminded me of being behind the waterfall in Iceland.

Hotel de Ville in the nearby Place d’Horloge.

The buildings surrounding the palace are wonderful as well.

This guy looked like he was conducting serious business on the carousel.

Goodbye, Avignon

Since I’m wrapping up our visit to Avignon, I thought I’d add some pictures from the week that didn’t have to do with Les Halles or Palais des Papes.

If anyone ever visits Avignon, you must go to Camili Books & Tea, it’s so adorable, and all the books are in English. And the people working there are so nice. The lady brought out some freshly baked cinnamon rolls and it was painful how good they smelled. The address is 155 Rue de la Carreterie.

Look at those cinnamon rolls…

Some more things we ate/cooked:

Bought this at Les Halles market, it was stuffed with salmon. Holy crap it was delicious.

Vegetable quiche, also bought at Les Halles.

One of our meals we cooked in the apartment.

Heaven on a plate.

It’s too dark to see, but there’s polenta and grilled mushrooms on those plates.

In our Airbnb – we thought the mosquito net was just decoration, but after waking up with a few bites, realized it was a very important addition to the room.

Another perfect picnic spot.

The stairs leading to our Airbnb.

This day was hot and felt like summer. It was wonderful.

We are now housesitting in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France, in between Carcassonne and Narbonne, and we’ve already been swimming in the indoor pool our house has, explored all seven bedrooms of the house (not including this crazy awesome stage that is constructed in the old tower portion of the house, which was built in the early 1800s), seen a rainbow, eaten paella and crepes, made friends at the wine bar next door, and had a harrowing afternoon driving a stick shift to the grocery store in the next town over after never having driven a manual car before. I’ll get into that next time…

Running in Avignon

I realize I look a little crazed…

Since we arrived last Wednesday here in Avignon, France, I’ve run 21.61 miles, my highest mileage week so far while traveling. I feel like I’m finally getting into a good groove, running every other day. Like I mentioned in my Running Abroad post, I take precautions when I go out for a run, and only now have begun to listen to music if I’ve run the route before and felt safe and secure. I couldn’t find much information about where to run in Avignon online, so I just started exploring. I would start my runs in the afternoon, which I now know was a mistake. There were so many people everywhere, I was the only one running, people like to walk at a slow pace here, and there was a lot of dodging pedestrians and cars. I finally got up this morning to get out the door early. It was a whole different story. I saw multiple people running (always a welcome sight), there were families walking on the path that I had found previously that seemed deserted, and just the decrease in the amount of people out was a huge relief. I did seven miles, and ran the last mile at 8:30, which I was pretty proud of. It was just one of those runs that feels really, REALLY good. As opposed to the one on Monday that I cut short because I just wasn’t feeling it.

I start running from our apartment and then right outside the walls of Avignon, to a bridge that crosses the Rhone River. Here there’s a path that follows the river, and eventually leads to a nice bike path.

Tip to anyone running in Avignon: don’t run directly next to the wall because you will be dodging dog poo the entire time and it smells like urine (and I passed two men peeing on it).

These are a few pictures I snapped during a few of my runs:

There’s that bridge again.

Running under the bridge.

The walls that surround Avignon.

Tomorrow we get back on the train and head to Narbonne, where our housesitting guests will pick us up and take us to a small wine village nearby. I’m pretty excited!

Les Halles Indoor Market in Avignon, France

The view of Avignon from across the Rhone River.

Jeremy and I have been in Avignon for about a week now, and we’re really enjoying the historic town. We’re staying in an Airbnb in a seriously perfect location right next to La Place des Corps-Saints (the best Place in town in our opinion), the town is small enough that you can walk everywhere, there are tons of alleyways to explore, and the pace of life is nice and slow. I’ve gotten some nice runs in, and we’ve seen a lot of what the town has to offer. I don’t know if this is the case for everyone or if it was just because my mom is French, but I grew up with my mom singing me “Sur Le Pont D’Avignon” all the time, and now each day when we walk by the bridge, I get the song stuck in my head. Here’s a children’s video of the song in case you haven’t heard it (which is apparently very popular, 3.5 million views!):

Le Pont d’Avignon in real life.

One of our favorite things to do has been to visit the indoor market Les Halles and get makings for a picnic (because you guys know how much we love picnics) and go sit across the Rhone River with a view of the town and eat our food. Avignon has had some pretty nice weather, but it has been getting pretty windy quickly (thanks to Le Mistral, the infamous wind that often takes over Provence), and although there have been blue skies pretty much all the time, there have been a few sudden rainstorms as well (seemingly as soon as we step foot outside the apartment). When the weather is perfect and surely not going to rain, we have been stopping into Les Halles and buying cheese, bread, and dessert for our lunch. It’s a really fun place to wander around and try testers that the vendors are handing out. You can buy pretty much anything you need there, including produce, seafood, baked goods, herbs, olives, flowers, prepared foods, meat, cheese, wine, etc. And there are cooking demonstrations anyone can attend for free every day at 11:00am. The market is open every day except Monday from 6am-1:30pm on weekdays, and 6am-2pm on weekends (we still haven’t gotten used to it closing so early).

A really cool vertical garden covers the entirety of the front of the building that houses Les Halles.

The first thing you see when you walk in the main entrance… aka heaven.

The herb selection is incredible.

I LOVE OLIVES SO MUCH.

So much fresh fish to choose from.

And who could forget cheese? No one.

We opted for some prepared foods for one of our picnics.

And of course there’s dessert.

The square that Les Halles is in, Place Pie, is also charming with lots of good-looking restaurants.

There’s a flea market that has been going on in Place Pie most days we’ve visited Les Halles with some really interesting vendors.

I think Avignon is a great stop for anyone visiting Provence, which is a beautiful region of France everyone should see at least once (in my humble opinion). And Les Halles is an absolute must once you’re in the town that dates back to the 12th century.

One Month in Europe

À votre santé!

As I sit here in Avignon, France at the kitchen table in a house that dates back to the 1800s with the windows open, listening to the French TV coming from another apartment in the courtyard that has been blasting nonstop since Thursday, I realize that things can’t get much better. Today marks one month since Jeremy and I arrived in Europe, and it feels like an important milestone. I keep hearing people say, “I can’t believe it’s May already.” Well, I can’t believe it’s ONLY about to be May and that we only stepped foot in Iceland four weeks ago. We have done so much, seen so many things, and traveled so many miles that it feels like we’ve been here six months already.

My office currently.

To recap the past month in numbers:

4 – countries we’ve been in (Iceland, England, Switzerland, France)

4,821 – approximate number of miles we’ve traveled (by plane or train, including flight from NYC to Iceland)

2 – places we’ve housesat

18 – pets we’ve taken care of

46.83 – miles I’ve run (20 of which in the past week)

100 – approximate number of picnics we’ve had

2 – glasses of wine spilled on the train

Avignon, France.

Time Doesn’t Move Fast Anymore

I’m sure I’ll be singing a different tune when this whole trip is over and we’re back in California reminiscing over tacos and guacamole, but right now, it feels like time is moving slowly, which is a completely different story than when we were back home. It felt like every time I blinked, a year had gone by, and I’d wonder, “What did I even do last year?” Sure, Jeremy and I had a lot of fun the past few years in Santa Barbara, had some incredible sunset beach walks, made really good friends, took some great weekend trips and a long road trip to the Pacific Northwest, spent quality time with my family including two new nephews, but all in all, it felt like we weren’t actually DOing anything, but instead just working and waiting for the weekend, which would be over before we knew it. It just felt like something was missing. I think I can put my finger on it now: adventure.

La Place des Corps-Saints in Avignon, next door to our apartment.

I realize how fortunate we are to be doing what we’re doing. We are lucky to have extremely supportive families that encouraged us and didn’t make us feel like we were making a huge mistake, I’m lucky that my parents took me traveling almost every year growing up and it’s always been an important part of my life and has made me confident that I can navigate foreign countries by myself, we’re lucky that Jeremy and I have similar interests and get along so well that we can hang out 24/7 for months on end and still have a good time every day, etc. We were also at a point in our lives where we were able to leave our jobs and start a new chapter, which I realize is not common.

[Side note: I love to read others’ stories about how they dropped everything to travel the world and how it’s totally possible for anyone to do it. Here’s a good one on a travel blog/resource site called Nomadic Matt about how a guy saved up $14,000 in six months working at a pizza place to travel for a year.]

Tarte aux Framboises from Ginette & Marcel.

What We’ve Learned

Packing Light is Easier Said Than Done

For a trip this size, it was hard to be fully prepared for it. The couple months before leaving were filled with questions like: What should we pack? How much stuff should we bring? What kind of luggage should we get? If we’re there for different seasons, how do we pack to be prepared for the extreme temperature changes? I’m a creature of habit, and wear pretty much the same thing almost every day, even when I’m home with an entire wardrobe in front of me. I still like to have options though, and didn’t know if I would lose or gain weight, rendering some of my items useless. We learned from our packing mistakes early on, and have since downsized and changed luggage situations three times, and sent a big box of stuff back to America from England (even though it was really expensive, it was worth it). I kept repeating “pack light” in my head, but then defensively thinking, “well how am I supposed to pack light but still be prepared for glaciers in Iceland and hot beach weather a few months later?” I think we’ve come to a good compromise with luggage: I have a backpack that I put my laptop, camera bag and purse in, and a suitcase that rolls (that is unfortunately too big to be a carryon). Jeremy has a backpack and a duffle bag. Right now, it’s still been fairly cold when we travel, so we wear many layers on our bodies, which leaves room in our suitcases. Soon, though, it’s going to be hot and we’ll need to stuff our jackets in our bags, which might cause problems. Luckily, my parents will be meeting us in a few weeks, and hopefully they will have some room to take some of our winter clothing back with them. BUT, what if we’re here until winter at the end of the year? I think it’s more important to shed these items now, rather than hold onto them in the case of that happening. We can always buy cheap jackets when that time comes.

Slow Travel is the Way to Go

We’ve also learned that slow travel is best for us. We don’t feel the need to stay in a hostel in a city two nights and try to cram as much as possible into those two days, then move onto the next place. I’ve done that a couple times (minus the hostel-staying), and we’re going for quality over quantity this time around. I’m not saying we’re old, but we’re also not 18 and looking to party. It’s more cost efficient to stay somewhere for a week or a month (places on Airbnb have rates that go down the longer you stay), and it’s also just more pleasant for us. And we don’t have to be in a major city; discovering smaller cities and villages has been really fun, and even here in Avignon, I feel like we know our way around and people recognize us at the bar in the square downstairs we’ve been frequenting (this may be wishful thinking). This is another reason discovering housesitting has been so great; we never would have gone to the small village outside Geneva, the country house in Kent, and the one we’re starting on Thursday is in a really small village in the Languedoc-Roussillon region in the South of France.

Another view of La Place des Corps-Saints.

How to Travel on a Tight Budget

The only way we’re going to be able to stay over here a while longer is to be very careful with money. In the past month, we have learned what to spend money on and about how much we should be spending on food and lodging, how to avoid expensive countries from now on (I’m looking at you, Switzerland), how to survive on the cheapest food you can find at the grocery store for two weeks [which will probably be pasta and bread (again, damn you Switzerland)], how to celebrate not being in Switzerland anymore by splurging on bottles of French wine for €2 as soon as you step foot in France, and how we need to spend more time places to get better rates on rental apartments. It’s also currently the off-season, so things are cheaper. As we get into June/July/August/September, things will begin to be more expensive and good deals will be harder to come by. We’ve been planning ahead to secure rentals now instead of being forced to spend a lot at the last minute due to a lack of options. Luckily we secured a month-long housesitting in August, and we won’t have to worry about finding a place during the busiest summer month.

A perfect picnic.

As far as food goes, it is much more cost efficient for us to go grocery shopping and cook our own meals (which is one of the main reasons we rent apartments instead of staying in hostels/hotels), and unfortunately this means foregoing eating at some delicious restaurants. Dining out wasn’t even an option in Switzerland (the “cheapest” lunch we could find was about $30 a person, and that was considered a really good deal), but here in France things are less expensive and Avignon has some delicious-looking options. The first night we were here, we did go to to a restaurant and get pizza, but we made sure to take enough home so that it would be our dinner the next night. We’ve decided we’re going to get a nice, not too expensive dinner on a few special occasions: our birthdays and wedding anniversary.

A rare dinner out.

Another important thing we have learned is to never, ever leave your errands (especially grocery shopping) for Sunday, because everything in town is closed and you will be SOL.

These are just a few of the things we’ve learned so far, and I can’t wait to find out how we feel after month two. Thanks for following along and all of your encouraging words!

Pretty river cruise boats on the Rhone River.

Lily Runs the World

training while traveling