This Friday I won’t be fighting crowds for black Friday deals. Any shopping will be done strictly online. Instead I’m enjoying my day off, catching up on reading at home. It feels like skipping school to be reading mags and blogging on a work-day afternoon.
Picture via: Concrete and Honey blog
Home is where the heart is, no matter where you are in the world or where you are going I wish you a safe day full of things to be thankful for.
If you are traveling by air this may be an occasion where buying a one day lounge access pass might be worth it to get away from the stressful fray of the terminal. I would also recommend a cup of tea and headphones. Some may say you’re disconnected from the world and tuning out society, but on stressful days a little isolation can be peaceful. Remember if you don’t make it that leftover turkey is rumored to be just as good if not better than the first time around.
Next year’s biggest trip will be 3 weeks in Europe. We start by flying into Paris (only airport we could get mileage reservations into) and end up in Leuven, Belgium for a conference before returning to London to fly home. We probably won’t stay long in Paris since we were there for a week in 2008 and it is brutally expensive (although worth every penny). We’re also trying to not plan this out exactly with a day-by-day itinerary so we can be more flexible than in the past. All I know is that it will include some time in London, Paris, Brussels, Leueven and a drive through Germany. The main bulk of time will spent in Germany exploring the places of my husband’s childhood, visiting friends and a new country for me.
Unfortunately this is going to to be expensive with these cities in particular. We are going to call back our mileage people every few weeks and see if we can rebook through other cities and avoid the UK and France this time, but it may not work out. In the meantime our eating out budget has been cut in half and I’m looking for creative ways to save. I would much rather pay for experiences than stuff so we’ll be keeping that in mind this Holiday Season/Birthday (5 in the next 2 months in the immediate family). With tomorrow being the very start of the Holiday/birthday craziness, I wanted to keep our ultimate goal in mind.
I have even considered getting extreme with the budget, aka this youtube video on spending $4 a week on food like this family. Couchsurfing here we come!
Wow, the vitriol of some of the commenters on this CNN article is amazing. I probably earn and spend 150k miles a year myself, partly do to flying, partly credit cards and partly gaming the promotions system. I just booked 2 tickets to New York to my brothers graduation and 2 tickets to Europe for next fall as the net result of 1 years mileage earnings. I had to plan almost a year ahead to be assured mileage availability to Europe, so even if you want to spend the miles and have them its not always easy. Oh well, it is probably frivolous to jet off to Spain for dinner, but do you know how many hours that guy spent in coach earning that ticket, ugh, I wouldn’t give him too much of a hard time.
I would love to have some these origami tea bags. This little bird looks so happy sitting there floating in the mug.
Panels of Hawaiian History – Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii
I hate the mentality that “If You Don’t See [blank] Now, You’ll Hate Yourself Later.” I have been to Paris for a week on two seperate ocassions and I still have not climbed the Eiffel tower. People are shocked by this. I have laid on the grass at 2am watching the lights twinkle, but I’ve never climbed it? Well you have to wait in line to get tickets, you have to pay money and then you have to wait in 7, yes SEVEN, lines inside for various stairways and lifts. I would much rather climb to the top of the Arc de Triomphe or Sacre Couer for my view and save a few hours to spend tracking down more yummy bakeries. So if you ask me, the idea of must-see is subjective.
This is really a bowl, but I would sip a large cup of tea with cream and sugar in it on a cold day.
I’m a big fan of Moleskine notebooks, hence the name for this blog, Black Guidebook. These handy journals and notebooks become DIY guidebooks to everything for me from travel, how-tos, DIY house projects, to recipes and more. For more travel journals check out this roundup I found via BlackEiffel.
Wanderlust Travel Journal $16.95
Orla Kiely Travel Journal $17.00
International Travel Journal $39.95
Destinations Travel Book $19.95
Galison Travel Journal (illustrated by Lena Corwin) $15.00
Pierre Belvédère Semikolon Small $11.00
Sukie Travel Journal £9.75
Paper + Cup Travel Journal $16.00
Places to Check Out $10.95
