France

Monthly Recap: May 2018

Happy June! And welcome to a brand-new feature of my blog: the Monthly Recap!

I read a lot of travel blogs, and I have to admit I really enjoy the monthly (or weekly) recap posts some bloggers do. I’ve been thinking about starting a similar series for a while, but I held back because I wasn’t sure I’d have enough interesting material to fill it, or that anyone would want to read about my life outside of travel. But then I realized 1) this is my blog and I should write whatever I want; 2) it will encourage me to post more regularly and keep track of the fun things I’m doing; and 3) since I really enjoy reading these updates from bloggers I don’t know, who’s to say that those reading my blog won’t enjoy reading these updates from me?

And I’m starting off on a high note, as May was a particularly great month for me in terms of travel (featuring my first international trip in a year and a half!) as well as welcoming summer with a few fun DC traditions. So, here it is: my first-ever Monthly Recap!

National Gallery, London

May 2018 Monthly Recap

Where I Traveled: London, Paris, Versailles, New York City, Washington, DC.

I began the month in the best way possible: with a week in London and Paris! I also visited Versailles for the first time (verdict: it’s certainly impressive and I’m glad I went, but it was a bit of a hassle and I probably will never go again. At least it’s checked off the bucket list!) Then I was in New York City for a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it two-day work trip in the middle of May.

Best Meals: Without a doubt, the prize here goes to my favorite Parisian restaurant, Le Relais de L’Entrecote, where I enjoyed steak and frites to cap off my three days of eating very well in the city. I also enjoyed the food at 28-50, a posh wine bar in London where I sampled Icelandic specialties of lamb hot dog with French fries (American, yet not really…I love it), as well as several varieties of wine.

Best Drinks: The hot chocolate l’africain at Café Angelina in Paris was, naturally, the winner in this category.

Cafe Angelina hot chocolate!

Best Cultural Experiences: It’s hard to narrow this down in a month that saw me visiting the Louvre and the Musee D’Orsay in Paris, but I’m going to give this award to the National Gallery in London, which reclaimed its spot as one of my favorite museums in the world. I hadn’t been there so long that I’d forgotten just how impressive their collection really is, and how beautifully designed the building is as well. And unlike the amazing Parisian museums, it’s free! I promise never to return to London without paying a visit.

Best Read: I’ve just begun The Restless Wave by Senator John McCain. I’m three chapters in and really enjoying it so far, particularly his perspective of the 2008 presidential campaign.

Best of DC: I don’t want to neglect my hometown in these recaps! This month kicked off the annual tradition of Jazz in the Sculpture Garden—weekly Friday evening summer concerts held outdoors at the National Gallery of Art’s Sculpture Garden. These are hugely popular and I got there early to snag a spot on the grass for myself and my friends. We had a great time, crowds and lack of foresight to bring a picnic blanket notwithstanding. I also took advantage of a free afternoon before the concert to visit the National Gallery of Art and check out some of my favorite European painters, including a new exhibit on Cezanne portraits (which to be honest, I just stumbled on).

What’s Next: This month I’ll be in Kenya for a week for work, and hoping to fit in a little time on my last day to do touristy things. I’m also beginning to plan my August European vacation in earnest (more details to come soon!)

So, what did you think? Are you a fan of monthly recap posts, or are they just ridiculously self-indulgent narcissism? (Please pick the first option). What exciting things did you do in May?

DC, France, London, Monthly Recaps, Paris, Travel Musings, US travel

Jun

2018

Highlights of A Week in London and Paris

Melissa Kaplan0

I’m back from my first big adventure of 2018! Actually, it was my first big adventure since the middle of 2016, given circumstances beyond my control that kept me pretty much homebound for the past year. I can’t begin to express how happy I am to have left that stage of life behind and plunged back into exploring and experiencing the world. I missed travel. (I mean, really, really missed it).

My first trip of the year was to two cities I know well: I lived in London for a year and have lots of family there, and I’ve been to Paris several times and adore it (because, obviously, Paris). I wanted this visit to mix discovery of new places and returns to old favorites I already knew and loved. I think I did a pretty fantastic job of combining the two, and would wholeheartedly recommend stealing any of the following experiences for your own London/Paris trip (which hopefully you’re planning as we speak, right?)

Anyway, here they are: my favorite things that I saw, did, ate and drank in London and Paris.

Fortnum and Mason’s tearoom wall, London. Is this not the cutest thing ever?!

Melissa’s London and Paris Highlights

London:

The National Gallery. This has always been one of my favorite museums in London, but honestly, I’d forgotten what a cool experience a visit there can be. Not only is the art untouchable (I spent lots of time with the Impressionists, Turner, and Constable), but the inside of the museum is majestically designed and the location right on Trafalgar Square can’t be beat.
Fortnum and Mason’s. How did I live in London for as long as I did and never visit the Queen’s grocery store? Fortnum’s was such a delightful experience: I shopped for shortbread and tea (Harry and Meghan’s special wedding blend, which I brought back for a friend), and enjoyed hot chocolate (good) and an ice cream sundae (amazing) in one of their dining spaces. Also, the walls where we ate were covered in cartoon-style drawings of every British monarch going back centuries. Love it!
Hatchard’s and Stanford’s bookstores. Okay, once again—how did I never visit Hatchard’s bookstore before in all my time in London? It’s an institution I was somehow oblivious to, located right next to Fortnum and Mason’s and pretty much guaranteeing you a perfect afternoon combo. The choice of books is overwhelming, and as a store attendant helpfully pointed out: “We have a whole section just on Churchill, in case you were wondering just how British we are.” Ah, London. I also popped into Stanford’s travel bookstore, one of my favorite places in the world, which is chock full of guidebooks, maps, globes, travel literature, and books about any place you might ever want to visit.
Café Nero. Every time I go to London, I hit Café Nero at least once for their excellent Hot Chocolate Milano—thick, Italian style hot chocolate topped with whipped cream. Happiness in a to-go cup.
Green Park. I had a wonderful time (on a rare good-weather day) strolling through one of my favorite parks just off of Buckingham Palace. I love nature retreats in big cities!
Spending time with family. My mom is English, so I have a large family who live in or not far from London. We had a family gathering at my aunt’s house in Bath, where I got to catch up with relatives, some of whom I hadn’t seen in a decade (!), as well as a dinner with several cousins in a posh wine bar called 28-50 Mayfair with excellent food in central London; highly recommended. It was great to spend time with family and friends in London before moving on to Paris solo for a few days.

Paris:

Cafe Angelina hot chocolate!

Café Angelina. Whenever I’m in Paris, this is one place I always make sure to visit. And if I have friends going to Paris, I tell them they absolutely have to check it out. Angelina’s is a beautiful (albeit tourist-thronged) café just a stone’s throw from the Louvre, which serves the ABSOLUTE BEST HOT CHOCOLATE IN THE WORLD. (Though strong honorable mention to Les Deux Magots. It’s hard to choose, really! Paris’s chocolate bounty overflows, which makes me kind of want to move there someday…)
Musee D’Orsay. I’d only been to the D’Orsay once before, ten years ago, and as a lover of Impressionist art, I was keen to revisit it. Although I had a bit of a snag buying my ticket online (and ended up having to buy another one the day of—ugh), and got there later than I’d planned after my excursion to Versailles, I still really enjoyed the museum, and can’t wait to return and spend more time there. Not only is the art itself fantastic, but the location—a former train station—is pretty hard to top! Plus it’s right near my favorite cafes and restaurants in St. Germain de Pres.
Wandering St. Germain de Pres and the Latin Quarter. I did a ton of walking over my two days in Paris, most of it taking me to or through the fifth and sixth arrondissement neighborhoods—the Latin Quarter and St. Germain de Pres. Both are favorites of mine, and I had a wonderful time browsing through the stacks of books at Shakespeare and Company, poking into the shops along Boulevard St. Germain, and having my second epic chocolate chaud in two days at Les Deux Magots—while pondering the fact that if I return often enough to sit at every single table, eventually I’ll have to hit one that Hemingway and Fitzgerald once sat and wrote at. Yet another excellent reason to keep going back!
Dinner at Le Relais de L’Entrecote. One of my favorite restaurants on earth, and definitely my top choice in Paris. It opens at 7 pm for dinner and there was a short line out the door, but it moved fast and was more than worth the wait. All this restaurant serves is steak and frites, with salad and bread as accompaniments—excellent quality, and they keep refilling your plate till you’ve had enough, so the quantity is pretty impressive too! Only 26 euros for the entire meal: a steal, especially in this popular neighborhood.
Climbing all the steps up to Sacre Couer. As this was my first time staying in Montmartre, I figured it would be worth checking out the Basilica Sacre Couer. I saved it for my last day, and I have to admit I didn’t quite anticipate the number of stairs I’d have to climb; every time I thought I was done, I realized there was another layer I hadn’t seen from below! But I knew I might never be back, so I pushed myself to reach the top and I’m so glad I did. The church is beautiful inside (there was a sign saying not to take photos, which I abided by even if others didn’t, so you’ll just have to trust me on this until you can visit yourself). I did get some nice photos of the outside from up close to commemorate my trek!

As you can see, my week in London and Paris was pretty much perfection, and I’m already plotting my return. I’d love to make London/Paris a yearly trip if possible, knowing there will always be new discoveries awaiting me to complement the old favorites I can’t wait to visit again. And really, isn’t that what travel should be about?

Have you visited London and Paris? Do you love them too? What are your favorite spots in each city?

France, London, Paris

May

2018

Paris (and London) in the Springtime

Melissa Kaplan0

Usually, when I plan a trip, it’s to the most exotic, exciting, adventurous place I can think of—South Africa, Thailand, Israel, or at least somewhere in Europe I haven’t visited yet. But there’s something wonderful about re-visiting places you know well and love. And that’s why I’ve booked my first big trip of 2018 to Paris and London!

To say I’m excited is an understatement. Due to circumstances beyond my control, I haven’t been out of America since September 2016 (ah, Slovenia, what a great adventure you were!) and I am SO READY to venture out into the world again. I’ve missed traveling. I’ve missed the excitement of trip planning, the joy of arriving at a new destination, eating local food, attempting to speak a new language: all of it. Traveling is a fundamental part of what makes me who I am, and not being able to do it has been tough. But in six weeks, I’ll be back on the horse (or rather, the plane) once again!

Trafalgar Square, London

As you may remember, my original plan for my first big trip of the year was just a tad different…I was planning to go to South America. Chile and Brazil were at the top of my travel wish list, and while I still very much want to visit both, the timing didn’t work out this time around. So I’ll be going next February instead (yes, I’ve already planned most of my 2019 travels—I can’t help it, this is how I roll!) In the meantime, I figured my spring trip should be to a place where I could visit family, and also revisit places that I love while discovering new ones. So I picked London, where I have loads of family I don’t get to see very often, and added on a few days in Paris because, well, Paris is always a good idea, oui? (Bien sur!)

I’ll be leaving at the end of April and spending four days in London followed by three days in Paris. My plans are still tentative, but so far, here’s what I’ve got:

The Louvre in Paris

Melissa’s London and Paris Itinerary

London—I always hit the British Museum and the National Gallery when I’m in London, as well as my old haunts in Covent Garden and Soho (like Stanford’s travel bookstore!) This time, I am also thinking of tea at Harrod’s or somewhere similar (a London experience I haven’t had yet!); popping by Buckingham Palace (The Crown has exerted its influence on me); and possibly doing a tour of the WW2 underground bomb shelters, which a friend recently did and highly recommends. I want to have at least one Brick Lane curry. And of course, I’ll spend lots of time catching up with aunts, uncles, cousins, and cousins’ kids.

Paris—I’m lucky enough to have been to Paris several times already, but it’s a place I can never get enough of. I’m sure there’s still loads for me to discover there, which is one reason I decided to book an AirBnB (for the first time ever—thanks, friend-of-a-cousin, for having an amazing rental available!) in Montmartre, where I haven’t spent much time before. I’m excited to be able to live like a local there for a few days, wandering around the streets, discovering new restaurants and soon-to-be-favorite cafes, and just relaxing and taking in that magical Parisian feeling that’s so hard to put into words.

But, it wouldn’t be a trip to Paris without revisiting some old favorites! I’ll be hitting the Louvre (and as a corollary, Café Angelina across the street, which has arguably the world’s greatest hot chocolate!); the Musee D’Orsay; the cafes of St. Germain-de-Pres (if Fitzgerald and Hemingway wrote and/or drank there, I’m in); and one of my favorite restaurants on the planet, Le Relais De L’Entrecote, where they serve nothing but steak, frites, and salad…basically my culinary heaven on earth. And I plan to eat all the Parisian pastries I can handle (maybe I should start building up my tolerance now?)

Hot chocolate at Cafe Angelina in Paris

Versailles—One totally new place I’ll be visiting on this trip: the Palace of Versailles! I’ve never been, because I could never bear to tear myself away from Paris long enough to go there. But my mom has been raving about her trip to Versailles for as long as I can remember. She saw it when she was 21 on her first big trip to Paris, and she’s been urging me to go for years. Yes, Mom, it’s finally happening!

All in all, this should be a fantastic trip filled with reconnecting with people and places I love, while discovering just enough new ones to keep things interesting—a perfect itinerary for diving back into the world again after a long break.

And of course, eating All. The. Chocolate. All of it.

Have you been to Paris and London? What are your favorite places/things to do there? All suggestions welcome!

France, London, Paris

Mar

2018

My Best Travel Moments of 2016

Melissa Kaplan0

It’s that time of year again! Time for holiday celebrations, festive lights, lots and lots of hot chocolate (not that I ever need an excuse, really), and of course, end-of-the-year roundup blog posts.

Honestly, when I look back on my travels over the past year, I’m still pretty astounded I got to see and do so much. I had travel goals and dreams at the beginning of the year, but what I actually was able to see and do and experience blew them out of the water. This was an incredible year for me, and I’m so grateful for every single new place I visited, every new adventure I embarked on, and above all, the people I met around the globe who reaffirmed my hope that, fundamentally, the world is full of good and decent men and women who just want to live the best lives that they can.

Angkor Wat, Cambodia.

This was the year I visited Cambodia for the first time, and was blown away by this majestic country. It’s the year I made it to East Africa, experiencing a taste of safari in Kenya and learning about the history and contemporary life of Uganda. It’s the year that finally saw me accomplish my decade-long goal of visiting Slovenia and northern Croatia for the very first time. I traveled to Portland with my best friend and had a great time in this fun, funky, donut-and-ice cream-laden city. I visited my family in England and got reacquainted with one of my all-time favorite cities, London. And oh yes, I made it back to Paris and it was every bit as delightful as I remembered.

What an amazing year. I’m so thankful I got to experience every moment of it.

View of Soca river…can you believe that water color is real?!

As December draws to a close, I thought I’d do a quick roundup of some of my favorite moments/experiences over the past twelve months. Read on for my favorites around the globe in 2016:

Best Massage: Bliss Spa, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. An hour and a half of heavenly pampering for only $30. Can’t wait to go back!
Best Hot Chocolate: Les Deux Magots, Paris. I sneaked in for an hour with a French newspaper and a chocolate chaud after a long day of work meetings, and it remains one of my favorite memories of Paris.
Best Sunrise: Across the magical vista of my lodge near Nairobi, Kenya. Watching the sun rise over East Africa at 6 am—and thinking how far I’d come to be able to experience that moment—made the early morning wake-up call totally worthwhile.
Best Meal: Paris again—Le Relais D’Entrecote. I’d remembered this fantastique steak-and-frites legend from an earlier visit but couldn’t find it on a map or in my guidebook…then I stumbled across it by pure chance while wandering around the neighborhood. Fate! And it was every bit as delicious as I remembered. That steak is reason enough to visit Paris.
Best Body of Water: As beautiful as the Plitvice Lakes in Croatia are, I have to give the edge to the Soca River in Slovenia. This ribbon of turquoise snaking through the beautiful Slovenian countryside is a marvel. I remember just sitting and staring at it during a break in my busy day-trip from Lake Bled, wishing I could gaze at it forever and never leave.
Best Museum: Also in Slovenia—the Museum of Contemporary History of Slovenia in Ljubljana is a bit out of the way from the city center, but it’s very impressive and does a great job of telling the powerful, inspiring story of the country’s journey from Yugoslavia to independence to European Union membership over the past 25 years. It’s a must-see if you’re going to be in the capital.
Best Bookstore: This is an easy one (even though I got to revisit some of my favorites in London this year). I fell in love with the legendary Powell Books in Portland, Oregon when I visited this fall. SO many titles I wanted to take home, but I limited myself to three, and I still have two of them sitting on my nightstand that I can’t wait to crack open. This place is huge, diverse, and heaven for book lovers!
Best New City: While I enjoyed Phnom Penh a lot, and found Zagreb really charming, my hands-down favorite new city from the past year is Ljubljana. The capital of Slovenia is a gorgeous mélange of pastels set on a river and filled with beautiful architecture, excellent restaurants, and too many charming cafes to explore during my all-too-brief time there. I need to go back and revisit this delightful city soon—it made me so happy and I honestly didn’t want to leave!
Best New Country: Cambodia wasn’t even on my radar a year ago except in the vaguest way, but when a work trip sent me there for two weeks, I was thrilled to get a chance to check it out. It honestly was one of the most significant trips I’ve ever taken in my life. Not only is it an incredibly beautiful country with charming cities and impressive ruins to explore (hello, Angkor Wat!), it was filled with some of the kindest, most interesting people I’ve ever met, and I was inspired and humbled by how the country has worked to move forward after the horrors of its not-too-distant past. Cambodia is vibrant, fascinating, easy to explore even solo, and very affordable. It’s now one of my top country recommendations for all travelers. Cambodia, I’m so glad I got to know you a bit in 2016, and I hope to see you again soon.

What were your favorite 2016 travel experiences? What are your plans for 2017?

Africa, Asia, Cambodia, Croatia, Eastern/Central Europe, France, Kenya, London, Portland, Slovenia, Travel Musings, Uganda

Dec

2016

Paris and the Joy of Return Visits

Melissa Kaplan0

The plane was about to touch down, signaling the end of a long, eight-hour night flight from southern Africa to the heart of Europe. I stared out the window, nearly vibrating with excitement, smiling more broadly than I have upon arrival in a city in a very long time. As we landed and disembarked, and I set foot on French soil for the first time in nearly a decade, all I could think was, “I’m in PARIS!”

I was in the City of Lights for a work trip, but that didn’t stop me from squeezing in every moment I could to luxuriate in being back in one of my favorite cities in the world and revisit all my favorite corners of it. I’d say I did a pretty admirable job of tackling some of Paris’s greatest hits in just a few days: light on the monuments (all of which I’ve seen before) but heavy on the cafes and the food. I briefly visited the Louvre, of course, and stopped in at my favorite café in the world, Café Angelina (home of the sumptuous hot chocolate l’africaine, the darkest, richest chocolate concoction you are ever likely to drink). I also hit up Les Deux Magots—haunt of Ernest Hemingway, and home to more sumptuous drinking chocolate (sense a theme here?), enjoyed drinks with coworkers in sight of the Eiffel Tower after work, and dined at my favorite Paris restaurant, Le Relais D’Entrecote—where it’s all steak and frites, all the time, except with salad and bread thrown in for free because, you know, this is Paris and they’re civilized like that. And I discovered an amazing gelato spot right outside my hotel in Montparnasse which crafts ice cream cones in the shape of roses!

My visit to Paris was a brief one filled mostly with meetings and with most of my precious hours spent sitting in conference rooms, but it was still magical. Why? Partly because of all the food and drinks and the pure joy of wandering the streets of the city, taking in the charming shops and restaurants and cafes and the timeless Parisian architecture. Partly because I got to speak French for the first time in years, and being able to communicate in the local language makes me feel just a teeny bit like a local. Partly because I feel like Paris gets me, and I get Paris. I understand the lure of a place where it’s okay to just sit and eat and drink and read in cafes all day, rather than feeling the need to be a typical tourist productively checking activities off a pre-determined list.

Hot chocolate at Les Deux Magots

But mostly, I think my time in Paris was magical because I adored the feeling of getting to return to a place I already knew and loved. I rarely do that. Over the past decade I’ve spent much of my travel energy chasing after the new, the exciting, the exotic. Istanbul! Buenos Aires! Thailand! South Africa! Every chance I’ve gotten over the past few years, I’ve booked myself to the newest, shiniest, most distant place my mind could envision…and believe me, I loved those trips and I’m glad I took them. But they also cut down on the amount of time I had to return to places I’d already grown to love; it’s hard to justify going back to rediscover the past when your inner traveler feels like the clock is constantly ticking on new adventures.

It was work that brought me to Paris, and I couldn’t be happier that it did. After years of vaguely thinking how nice it would be to return, I finally had the chance to go back and soak up everything I loved about one of my favorite cities in the world…and to remember how magical it can be to stop searching for the next great place and rediscover all the reasons you already love the ones you do.

Have you been to Paris? What are your favorite spots in the city? What parts of the world do you love to return to again and again?

France, Travel Musings

Aug

2016

Riding the Wave to East Africa

Melissa Kaplan0

A few months ago, I was chatting with my mom one evening and reflecting how, after several rather tumultuous years, everything in my life seemed to be coming together. Work was good; family was healthy; I was feeling a newfound zest for life and, last but not least, I was getting to travel to places I’d once only dreamed of. But even as I contemplated this happy turn of events, I couldn’t help but feel a bit worried. As I confided in my mom, I always fall prey to that most human of frailties: the belief that, if things are going really well, it won’t last. What would come along to burst my happy bubble? What new threat might lurk around the corner? When would everything come crashing down around me?

I was trying to figure out how to deal with these fears in the back of my mind, to be able to enjoy my present life without being overly anxious about the future. My mom, as she always does, stepped up with some very sage advice: “Honey, just ride the wave.”

In other words, don’t look back to the past with dread or to the future with uncertainty about what it will bring. Just be here, in the moment, take it all in, and be happy.

So, I’ve been doing my best to take my mom’s advice. And now, as I set off from home again, I’m excited to announce yet another piece of good fortune this year, in the form of yet another travel adventure….

I’m going to East Africa!

Melissa’s East Africa Itinerary (with a stop on the way home…)

So, where will I be going and what will I be doing? Well, mostly working as this is a business trip, but I’m still hopeful of squeezing in some fun, travel-oriented experiences along the way…read on for details!

I leave tomorrow for Nairobi, the first stop on the trip, where I’ll be spending five days—mostly in conferences for work (which I’m excited about, as I’ll be meeting colleagues from all over the world for the first time), but I do have a full day free before I leave Kenya so I’m hoping to get to do a half-day mini-safari at a game park just outside the city. Also, on our meeting agendas, the planners have thoughtfully included an optional excursion “to see giraffes”—what’s cooler than that to kick off a workday at 6 am? The answer, obviously, is nothing!

My next stop is Uganda, where I will spend a week working, mostly in Kampala but also including a visit to the surrounding countryside. I don’t have much more detail than that yet, but I’m very excited to see even a little of this impressive-looking country (Winston Churchill once called it “The Pearl of Africa”!)

Finally, I’m wrapping up two weeks of work travel with possibly the best stopover ever: I’ll be spending three days in Paris! Again, it will mostly be meetings, but I have nearly an entire Sunday free when I arrive and, come hell or high water, I’m determined to fight off any fatigue from lack of sleep after a nine-hour night flight and get into the city to spend a little time at the Louvre (I’ve been once, but for an embarrassingly brief amount of time—I want to go back!), the Jardin des Tuilleries, and of course, the greatest draw for me in Paris: Café Angelina, home to the world’s most scrumptious hot chocolate. I’m already anticipating the happiness the visit to this chocolate shrine is going to bring me…I wish I could bring some of that divine chocolate back for every single friend, family member, and reader of this blog!

The Louvre in Paris

So, off to East Africa (and Paris) I go. And I’m pretty much leaving the experience unplanned, for things to fall into place as they may. I hope to see some wild animals in their natural habitat, discover a few hidden gems in Nairobi, and soak in the beauty of the African countryside I’ve only glimpsed in photos before. It will be quite an adventure, I’m sure…and I’m going to enjoy every minute of it and, as Mom wisely suggested, just ride the wave.

Have you been to Kenya or Uganda? Any suggestions for me? Any great recommendations for Nairobi in particular (I’m still researching!) Follow along with me on twitter (@perpetualvoyage) where I’ll try to tweet as I go, wifi permitting!

Africa, France, Kenya, Uganda

Jun

2016

What’s My Favorite Country?

Melissa Kaplan0

This is a question travelers, and travel bloggers, get asked a lot. It’s deceptively simple but wow, it is really hard to answer!

I’ve traveled to nearly thirty countries on five continents (I’ll make it to you soon Australia, I swear), and there has pretty much been nowhere I’ve visited so far that I didn’t enjoy. And there have been many countries I’d go so far as to say I love.

I love England, because it’s where my mom is from, much of my family lives there, it’s steeped in centuries of history, and London is one of the coolest cities in the world.

I love Italy because it’s full of art, pizza, gelato, and breathtakingly beautiful seaside towns.

I love Thailand for its beaches, its inexpensive massages and pampering, and its glorious seascape panoramas.

I love South Africa for having pretty much everything you could want in a destination—fascinating history, good restaurants, wine country, beaches, and one of my favorite cities in Cape Town.

I love Iceland for its rugged nature and isolation. And waterfalls.

I love Greece for its historical importance, delicious food, and blue-and-white island skylines.

Really, I could go on and on. I love just about everywhere.

But what is my absolute favorite country so far, if I had to choose just one?

I’ve thought about it and decided on my answer: France.

Why France?

Well, lots of reasons! Here is just a sampling:

Cultural treasures: France, particularly Paris, is like heaven for museum lovers. The Louvre and the Musee D’Orsay in one city? Yes, I’m on board with that.

Incredible food: You will never eat better than you will in Paris…or just about anywhere else in the country. Pain au chocolat for breakfast, crusty bread and cheese and fruit from a market for lunch, steak frites for dinner, and in between enough decadent pastries to keep you satisfied and fueled up all day long.

Café Life: The French get the importance of café life…they pretty much invented the concept, as far as I can tell, or at the very least perfected it. Sit me down in a quaint Parisian watering hole in which Hemingway and Fitzgerald used to while away hours eating, drinking, and writing their stories, and I am as happy as a person can be on this planet.

Diverse landscapes: I’ve been to France four times (once as a kid, but I’ll still count it) and three of those trips focused on Paris, so I feel I have a pretty good feel for the city at this point. However, there is so much more to France than its capital city. That’s part of what I love about France, in fact—it’s a place I know well enough to feel familiar and comfortable in, but I also know there is still so much more for me to explore…a perfect combination. Next time I return I want to spend time in Provence with its rolling fields of lavender; Marseilles and Lyon for city life and amazing food; Normandy and Brittany for history and the seaside; and the Loire Valley for castles and wine. Just for starters. France will never bore me, and it rewards multiple trips to explore all of its magical corners.

The Language: Here’s the kicker and probably what tipped France over from “I love it” to “favorite country” status: I can actually speak French! Not very well, but I took years of it in high school and college and when I spend time in France I’m surprised by how much of it comes back with relative ease. I can actually carry on conversations in something other than English, and while it’s obvious to anyone who listens to me that I’m far from a native speaker, I still love to be able to communicate in the language of the country I’m traveling in. I hate having to rely on the hope that people in the place I choose to visit will speak English; I want to blend in and become part of the daily life of a country as best I can, so for me, France is the ideal place to do that. One of my favorite memories of my time in Paris is sitting down in a luxurious historic café with a French newspaper and a chocolat chaud and pastry, and being able to get at least the gist of the news from it. It made me feel, in some small way, that I was more than a tourist passing through: that this was a place where I could soak up the culture, and perhaps feel, for a few minutes at least, as if I belonged here.

What’s your favorite country, and why? Do you love France as well?

France, Travel Musings

Nov

2015

Why I Love the World

Melissa Kaplan0

I had a very different blog post planned to write today, but it will have to wait. In light of the horrific terror attacks this weekend in Paris and Beirut, I can’t seem to focus my mind on much else. I suspect many people feel the same way.

On Friday night, I was out with some friends for the evening as the word began to trickle in about the Paris shootings, and the scope and horror became increasingly clear. One of my friends, shaking her head over the awful news, commented that hearing about events like this makes her want to turn on her favorite fictional TV show and forget all about the world.

I understand this sentiment; I really do. But I can’t agree with it.

Because the truth is, no matter how many horrible tragedies may mar its beauty, I still love the world.

Ever since I was a child, I’ve been fascinated by events around the globe. I was a news junkie even as a little kid growing up at the tail end of the Cold War, watching the news with my parents in the evenings. I may have had a limited understanding of the things I saw and heard, but I was developing a sense from a very early age that this big, mysterious place—The World—was important. What happened out there mattered.

I went to college to study political science, moved overseas twice, got a graduate degree in international relations, and have traveled to almost thirty countries, all for the same reason: because I love the world. Even when it horrifies me. I can’t stop caring about it, about what happens on our planet and to the people who live here. I can’t stop myself from exploring it and always wanting to learn more.

The world can be ugly and frightening, but it’s so much more than that. It contains so much beauty and wonder that it would be a tragedy to stay home, hide under the covers, and miss out on experiencing it.

The world is the magical allure of Paris, the Eiffel Tower reaching to the sky, its broad boulevards and museums cafes and patisseries inviting weary travelers to come in a while away an hour, or two or three.

It’s the spectacular art in the Sistine Chapel in Rome, and the glorious seaside town of Positano looming in the hills over the Amalfi Coast.

It’s London’s red double decker buses and endless rainy drizzle and how it feels to duck in a warm pub or café or bookstore to escape the grey day, surrounded by camaraderie and friends.

It’s the view from a table on the beach in Tel Aviv, Israel, eating falafel and hummus before heading to the Dead Sea to float for an afternoon.

It’s the windmills and whitewashed houses and impossibly blue waters of the Greek Islands.

It’s the magnificent gold-pattered Aya Sofia in Istanbul.

It’s tapas and sangria in Barcelona.

It’s drinking wine looking out over a sweeping green vineyard in Stellenbosch, South Africa.

It’s the thundering of Gullfoss waterfall in Iceland, pierced by a double rainbow.

It’s all of these places, and it’s the people who live in them too. It’s the strangers who gave me directions when I was lost in foreign countries, who open their homes to travelers passing through, who share a meal or a kind word with people they barely know. It’s billions of people we haven’t met yet, just trying to live their lives and in the process, making our planet a slightly better place.

It’s easy to despair about the world, especially in times like this. The world isn’t an easy place to live in. It never has been. But I refuse to give up hope.

I’ll keep traveling, keep exploring, keep trying to learn as much as I can about the people and cultures and countries of the globe. And no matter what may happen in the future, I won’t turn my back on them or let fear keep me away.

Because no matter what, even on its worst days, I still love the world.

France, Iceland, London, South Africa, Spain, Travel Musings

Nov

2015

My Experiences Bucket List

Melissa Kaplan0

Recently I posted about my top ten bucket list of countries and regions I most want to visit. For me, the whole concept of “bucket list” tends to revolve around travel, because that’s the thing I’m most passionate about and which brings me the greatest degree of happiness.

But of course, travel doesn’t need to be the only type of life goal to find its way onto such a list. And believe it or not, there are other things I want to do with my life in addition to travel! Lately, I’ve been thinking more and more about new types of activities or experiences I’d like to try, believing that doing so will not only be fun and exciting but also open up new worlds and help make me a more well-rounded and interesting person.

I’m a firm believer that we should never stop learning, growing, or seeking new experiences as long as we’re alive. That’s what keeps life from getting stale and routine, and helps us keep evolving into the people we want to be.

But of course, this being me we’re talking about, I can’t completely take travel out of the equation. There are certain things I want to learn or do or discover that I’ve attached to certain places. I mean, you can learn to cook pasta anywhere, but wouldn’t it be more fun in Italy?

So in that spirit, here’s my current bucket list of activities, experiences, and adventures I want to make happen for myself in the future, and where I see each of them taking place.

Melissa’s Bucket List of Global Experiences and Adventures:

Learning to Ski And/Or Snowboard in New Zealand: I’ve never really been a winter sports person (unless you count ice skating), but lately I’ve been inundated by views of New Zealand’s wintry mountains that have stoked my wanderlust to insane levels. And since skiing is something I’ve never yet done but always kind of wanted to try, why not combine a wintertime trip to New Zealand with my first ski lessons? Either Queenstown or Wanaka seem like good candidates for this: if I’m going to try a new activity and likely fall down a lot, might as well do it someplace with amazing scenery!

Learning to Scuba Dive in Koh Tao, Thailand: I’ve loved snorkeling since I was a kid, but scuba diving has always attracted and terrified me in equal measures. The idea of being so far below water with an oxygen tank makes me nervous, but the tales spun by those who’ve tried it (not to mention the underwater photos they’ve shared) have convinced me it’s worth doing. Koh Tao, the scuba diver’s mecca, seems like a perfect place to start. Lots of options for where to learn, plenty of instructors to help me through the beginning stages, and loads of other diving newbies like me to help me get over my nerves (hopefully). And oh yes, it’s in Thailand. What’s not to love?

Yoga on the Beach in India: I’ll be honest, Bali would do for this activity too, but there’s something especially magical about the idea of practicing one of my favorite activities in a place that holds yoga so sacred and contains so much ancient wisdom and expertise on the practice. Yoga on a beach has been a dream of mine for a while (and one thing I didn’t manage to do on my recent trip to Thailand). Could be a job for Goa….

Riding the Trans-Siberian Express: This one is obviously location specific—Russia, Mongolia, and China. And I love that. Riding the Trans-Siberian has been one of my big life goals for at least a decade, basically since I discovered it existed. A week-long train ride through Russia! The chance to explore not just its amazing cities, but its lesser-known, off-the-beaten-path destinations and get a real feel for what life is like there. And I cannot wait to dip into Lake Baikal, which, let’s face it, is about 90 percent of the reason I’m so excited to make this journey. The world’s deepest lake?

Perfecting my French in Provence: It’s a little-known fact about me that one of my secret (well, not anymore) ambitions is to retire to the south of France. By the time I reach retirement age, I’ll have spent most of my life living in cities, which is fine because I love city life. But I think in a few decades, I’ll be ready for a slower pace of life, and a new overseas adventure in my senior years sounds like the perfect way to begin that new chapter. I want to find a small village in Provence where virtually no one speaks English, and work to improve my mediocre French while shopping at outdoor markets every day for fresh bread, cheese, and fruit, whiling away afternoons reading in cafes over chocolate chaud and pastries, and, should I need a city or ocean fix, hopping on a fast train to Paris or the Mediterranean for a quick getaway. Does life get better than that? I don’t think so.

Do you have a bucket list of experiences you want to try? Does it involve travel in some way? Share!

Asia, France, Thailand, Travel Musings

Nov

2015

My Favorite Happy Places

Melissa Kaplan0

It’s a cold, gray, rainy day outside…looks like fall is finally here for real. As I sit and watch the rain come down outside my window, I can’t help but think there are a few other places I’d like to be today. Nothing better for inciting wanderlust than crappy weather!

So, if I had a magic wand or the ability to transport myself instantly around the globe (please, scientists, tell me you’re working hard on this technology), where would I go? What places call out to me the most on cold, rainy days, and bring back my happiest travel memories?

Here are a few of my favorite candidates—my ultimate list of happy places. (No coincidence that almost all of them involve plenty of sunshine).

Melissa’s Happy Places

Bermuda

I spent a week in St. George, Bermuda every summer in as a kid, and I can’t count how many happy, beach-filled memories I have from those days. Soaking up sun by a pool facing out over the ocean; snorkeling in the crystal-clear blue waters; running back and forth between the beach restaurant and our spot on the pink-hued sands all day long; admiring beautiful sunsets that seemed too glorious to be real. And there were also excursions into the pastel-hued capital city of Hamilton for lunch, shopping, and soaking in the essence of this very British tropical paradise in the mid-Atlantic. Take me back right now!

Paris

I don’t think it’s possible to be unhappy in Paris. Some trips have been better than others, but it’s always a magical place. If I had my way, I’d spend today strolling through the Louvre all morning (after a breakfast of chocolate croissants), then head to Angelina’s for the World’s Best Hot Chocolate, followed by an afternoon in the gardens of the Tuilleries, strolling around the 6^tharrondissement to pop into the multitude of cafes Fitzgerald and Hemingway once frequented, and finishing up with a steak and frites dinner at Le Relais De L’Entrecote. Books, art, food, cafes, and chocolate: this city has everything I need to live life to the fullest.

Barcelona

Barcelona is beautiful, lively, sunny, and above all, fun. Fun! Yes, there are museums and famous works of architecture and other such serious travel fodder, but honestly, my best memories of this magical Catalan city are of strolling through La Boqueria market picking out my lunch for the day, relaxing on the Placa Reial under the palm trees, and exploring the tapas offerings in the wonderful restaurants while drinking sangria and cava. It’s a place that offers temptations and delights around every corner, and reaffirms just how enjoyable travel, and life, can really be. And it was sunny each time I visited!

Andaman Coast, Thailand

I visited Thailand for the first time this year, and fell hard for the Andaman Coast. It’s one of the most beautiful corners of the planet I’ve ever seen, with seemingly endless stretches of golden beach, calm blue water, and an overall vibe that’s blissfully relaxed and welcoming. How can you not love a place that offers both $9 massages and an endless variety of fruit smoothies?

Cape Town, South Africa

I’ve only been to Cape Town once, but it was an incredible week of exploring places that still bring back fond memories and make me excited to return. I loved wine tasting in nearby Stellenbosch, and would give just about anything to be in the warm sunshine (when it’s chilly January weather back home) gazing out over a panoramic spread of green vineyards and bright blue sky as far as I can see. Not to mention the beaches, the view from Table Mountain, the great restaurants surrounding the harbor, the charming brightly colored houses of Bo Kap…it goes on and on, and I can’t wait to go back and see even more sometime soon. Cape Town, and South Africa, are one of my newest happy places on this magical planet.

Where are your happy places? Have you been to any of these—if so, what do you think?

France, Spain, Thailand, Travel Musings

Oct

2015

France

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