Today’s Post
Today’s blog post is the next installment in our “Five Things We Are Loving This Week” series, which gives you a little look into what we are currently enjoying doing, reading, watching, cooking, baking, etc. But to be honest, we haven’t posted in a few weeks, so there is plenty to share. In today’s post, Sofie is going to first share some of her recent travel, as she has lots of great pictures from her trips to Athens, Zürich, and LA. Then, I’m going to share with you two recent books that I have read, one of which I loved and the other which was just okay (but very entertaining!). To be honest, I have been working on my dissertation and getting ready to start a job, so reading is about all I have had the free time to do. Anyway, a bit of travel and literature in today’s post – it doesn’t get any better than that! Enjoy 🙂
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Sofie
Thing 1: Greece – Returning Home!
A fun fact about us is that we used to live in Greece, for about three years! Before this trip, it had been almost 17 years since we moved to the United States from Greece. A friend of mine had a destination wedding which meant getting the opportunity to return to Athens and the Athens Riviera. We ate tons of amazing food in Athens (there are so many restaurants and tavernas serving the best Greek food) and visited many of the historic ruins and sites downtown! If you’re looking for a central place to stay, we really enjoyed the A for Athens hotel with a rooftop bar & restaurant with one of the best Acropolis views! The new Acropolis museum is also well worth a visit. Later, we also got the chance to walk through Glyfada, where our family used to live, and see our old home, as well as some of the bakeries/restaurants we used to frequent. It was definitely fun to get the chance to return and see how things have changed – there’s so much to do across the whole country and the islands from sightseeing and great food to pools and beaches, we can’t wait to go back as a whole family later this year!
Thing 2: Zürich
After the Greece trip I was able to spend a few days in Switzerland visiting our dad. We started out in Zurich where there’s a beautiful lake and tons of very expensive designer shops to look at. We ate lunch at Kronenhalle, a very cool restaurant with art and an interesting history! We had great weather so we walked most places, but you can also take the trams that go through the city to get around! The second day we took a train (also a fun experience!) to Lugano, which was also a beautiful place to walk around. We ate great food and walked through the botanical gardens. On our return journey we did get stuck in Amsterdam because of flight delays, so we unexpectedly got a bonus evening which we spent walking around the canals.
Thing 3: Los Angeles
If the Europe travels weren’t enough, I just got back from a trip to Los Angeles visiting friends. We had great time seeing different parts of the city, like Santa Monica! If the weather had been a little warmer we could have gone in the ocean, but a walk along the pier was great too. We enjoyed hiking in a few spots where we got great views of the city and the Hollywood sign – the Griffith observatory hike was super fun! As you can probably tell, whenever we travel we love to go to great restaurants and eat amazing food – we got to try Korean barbeque for the first time, as well as go to a great Peruvian restaurant! There is so much to see in Los Angeles (seriously, it’s a massive city) and we will definitely have to go back to see more of the different areas!
Emma
Thing 4: Free by Lea Ypi*
If you are interested in history and you like memoirs, then this is the book for you! It is written by Lea Ypi, who is a professor of political theory at the London School of Economics. She was born in Albania in 1979 and lived there during both the communist and post-communist governments. She left for Italy in the late 1990s. The book tells the story of her childhood and all the political chaos she endured. To me, it was so striking how she made the book feel like it was being told from her point of view as a young girl. As the reader, you discover things at the same time as she does, so it ends up feeling personal. I also greatly appreciated the nuance with which she addressed the political themes. She showed both the good and bad experienced under both communism and capitalism. Definitely give this book a try if it sounds like something you would enjoy!
Thing 5: A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson*
Exciting news – I got my very old Kindle working again! Bear in mind, my Kindle is from around 2011 or 2012, so it really is an amazing accomplishment for me. Anyway, this means that I can access some of the books I bought during COVID and downloaded on there, which I made a start on this week. This was one of those books! This is the story of a high school girl who decides to embark upon a very dangerous and mystery-filled journey of uncovering the truth behind a tragedy in her hometown. Basically, there was a disappearance and an alleged suicide by the guilty party. However, this girl doesn’t believe it was a suicide or that he was guilty! She spends weeks hunting down the truth, and it is a really entertaining read. The twists keep you engaged and wanting to find out what happened. I will say that it does have its flaws in terms of how realistic it is and it is a somewhat predictable outcome. But honestly, who cares so much about that when you can just enjoy an intriguing plot. I would definitely recommend this one to anyone who likes mysteries or thrillers!
We hope you enjoyed today’s post – thanks for reading!
