Let's Talk About New York City

The Big Apple. The Empire State. The City That Never Sleeps. The City of Lights. The City of Hopes and Dreams. Manhattan. New York, New York. Oh, NYC you wonderful and horrible place.

I both love and hate Manhattan. While growing up, the summers we didn't spend back home in Czech Republic, we would sometimes venture up into the city for a week or so. Then we would retreat back to our country life in southern Maryland, dazed by the quickness of life in the city, filled with pollution in our lungs and wishing to never see an obnoxiously yellow car ever again.

While I say I have a love//hate relationship with the city, I'll never pass an opportunity to be in Manhattan. I'm keen to see what Chicago will hold whenever I will finally make a trip over there.

Anywho, let's get to the fun stuff about New York:

Blinding, crazy, cold but wonderful Times Square by night.

Times Square!

A woooonderfully good french toast breakfast at 12 Chairs in Soho. A must go-to place.

My gorgeous breakfast date // New York City travel companion in SoHo.

Adventures in China Town.

Walking the Brooklyn Bridge (with super cold and sore feet) into Brooklyn.

Brooklyn Roasting Company- right by the river in a warehouse building. Great coffee- a bit on the expensive side but definitely worth it + the atmosphere is so very 'Brooklyn'.

I'm OBSESSED with Thai food so of course, we had to go to at least one Thai restaurant. I believe it was Pam Real Thai Food in Hell's Kitchen. On the outside it didn't look like much but inside it was very modern, dark and the food was delicious. Amazing pad thai and lovely service.

While I'm obsessed with Thai food, I think my heart belongs mainly with coffee. I would go to every coffee shop in a city if I could. Naturally, I Googled the best coffee shops in each part of New York we explored. This quaint little cafe. Third Rail Coffee, was in Greenwich Village. Great $3.50 latte and they even did a little bit of that latte art everyone loves to Instagram.

Morning walk through SoHo.

Central Park, you were gorgeous that Friday morning. 

I had never been to Grand Central Station and as Gossip Girl was one of my favorite shows growing up, I just had to go to the place that started off the show. (GG fans you'll know what I mean).

Breezy strolls through Central Park on our last morning in the city.

Pre-Brooklyn Bridge foot cramps.

Grand Central Terminal Station with my darling of a friend from university.

The Slavics take on New York City!

Some other restaurants we went to were:
- Red Bamboo (vegetarian/vegan)
- OatMeals (awesome oatmeal bar- I didn't even know these existed- with a huge variety of sweet and savory oatmeals...I got the Indian Spiced and it was amazing).
- Birch Coffee

In 2 (full) days we went through:
-West Village (where we stayed)
- SoHo
- Chinatown
- Little Italy
- Upper East Side
- Brooklyn
- Greenwich Village
- East Harlem
- Mid-Town
- East Village
- Lower Manhattan
- No-Ho
- Flat Iron District
- Upper West Side
- Hell's Kitchen

And all on foot! Okay, so maybe we took a metro the last day between Mid-Town and West Village because we were about to keel over from walking SO much.

Well, I guess that's all about New York City! Travel on wanderlusters!

P.S. Tomorrow will be TWW's first fashion-inspired post.

For All You Book-Worms Out There

Gooooood morning wanderlusters and happy Tuesday to you all!

Today's post is going to a little dull, especially for those of you who aren't book-worms such as myself, but I'm still going to write about some incredible books I've recently read.

I've been reading non-stop since uni ended for the winter (we have about two months off). I seriously could not focus during finals week because I was in the midst of finishing several phenomenal books.

Here's what's on my bed-side table as of now:

100 Years of Solitude- Gabriel García Márquez
Orphan Train- Christina Baker Kline
Memoirs of a Geisha- Arthur Golden
Marie Antoinette- Antonia Fraser
The Alchemist- Paulo Coelho

Recently, though, I've read (or re-read):

The Goldfinch- Donna Tartt
The Kite Runner- Khaled Hosseini
A Thousand Splendid Suns (my absolute favorite novel)- Khaled Hosseini
And The Mountains Echoed- Khaled Hosseini
Harry Potter (books 1-5)- J.K. Rowling
Anna Karenina- Leo Tolstoy

I've always loved reading and I did it for pleasure but I never felt that I got anything significant out of it. However, once I read some of these novels, I was amazed on how it provoked my thoughts and beliefs towards certain things. These are such phenomenal reads and I would recommend them (and more) to everyone.

Have any of you wanderlusters read these novels? One of my favorite things to do is buy a brand new book and read it on a long plane ride (like the one I will be taking in 6 days back home to Prague).

Travel on wanderlusters!

P.S. Tomorrow's post will be about a recent New York City trip I took upon arriving in the United States this winter. We went to various cafes, restaurants and tourist attractions so I'll share them + some photos with you!

2015 Means Big Things

I broke my promise.
The promise that I would blog again more.
But there's a perfectly good excuse as for why that promise was broken and it's something called life.

Lame excuse, huh?
I can't tell you how quickly the last year and a half slipped by. I know a blogged here and there during that time but not as consistently as I used to.

I started off 2015 though with several goals in mind and one of them was to start blogging again. Over the last year and half I've been on a journey of what some would say 'self-discovery'; learning about the ins and outs of myself and the wide, wide world out there.
While I haven't traveled much, except between the United States and Europe, 2014 was a pretty monumental year. I'll be honest and admit it was definitely not my favorite years and I'm VERY glad that it's over but the lessons I learned and the improvements I've made will stick with me forever. One of the major things that changed was my writing and my ability to express myself through my writing. So, I'm very excited to write more on TWW and share my thoughts with fellow wanderlusters!

I'm really looking forward to this year (and the years that lie ahead). Some big things are going to happening this year. I'll get those 'big things' in future posts but I'm positive that these big things will make for good blog posts on Traveling with Wanderlust.

I also hope that I can share with you all more than just travel, but also my passion for style and fashion, my (usually sad, pathetic) attempts at cooking and baking, my yoga and meditation practices, photos which spark something wonderful inside me and just daily thoughts/short stories/poems I write.

Another major happening which will occur this year is the release of my first book. I've been working like a maniac the last year or so on writing, editing and ultimately finishing my first fiction drama/mystery novel. I won't disclose anymore as I want to keep it as much of a surprise as possible but I hope that once it is finished and published, I can share some of my thoughts, reasons and what not behind the book with you all!

Here's to a New Year and new beginnings either with old projects/things or entirely new ones.
Happy traveling and a wonderful Monday to all you wanderlusters out there!

P.S. Keep your eyes peeled for a post tomorrow morning- U.S. time, so afternoon for all my other global readers! :)

It's Monday!

Good morning and happy Monday!
Now, I know that Monday is probably one of the worst words out there but you can either:
a) Be grumpy and sour all day
OR
b) Make this Monday the start of something new; see it as a 'fresh beginning', so to speak.

Today, instead of choosing choice a)- which I usually do- I decided to go with choice b).
So, just what does choice b) entail?
Well, this morning I woke up feeling productive. I honestly have not felt productive since mid-May, so the last several months were spent just being lazy and not doing much at all except sleeping and catching up on TV shows. Today, however, I decided I am going to begin posting regularly on TWW again.

I guess it's a good day, eh?

Also, some friends and I are going to explore a park outside of Prague called 'Velka Amerika', which in English translates to 'Big America'. Why is it called this? Apparently, from what I have heard, it is because the park resembles the Grand Canyon in Arizona. I suppose we shall see, hmmm.

Of course I will post pictures and write about it, so expect that post tomorrow morning (well, morning in Europe).

I'm off to explore, travel on wanderlusters!

I'm Dreaming of New Zealand

I've always been fascinated with the idea of moving to Australia or New Zealand after graduating university. There's just something about those accents and the way of life there. I feel that it's more my style of living than in America. I can't say in Europe because Europe IS my style of living and I love it but I just don't picture myself living and working there forever.

Recently, I've become romanced by New Zealand though, especially Queenstown on the South Island. All of the mountains, lakes, nature and photos I see that convinced me it was the place I will settle down one day. I've never been there but I just have that sure feeling. I'm actually hoping I can make a trip to New Zealand either this December or January 2015.

Fingers crossed!

But anyways, I am wondering if any wanderlusters have been there and what they think about it, even better if you live there!

Well, I'm back to dreaming about New Zealand, travel on wanderlusters!

A Little Kale Here, A Little Kale There- Summer Recipes

You know what I love lately?
Kale smoothies.

Kale? What the heck is kale?
Well, let me enlighten you (unless you and kale have already become acquainted).
Kale is a green vegetable, kinda leafy, kinda crunchy, not so good by itself (in my opinion) but can be used in many, many ways which make it yummy!

If you are like me, vegetables are not really on the list of foods you eat. Some are OK but for the most part when I am hungry, I won't reach for veggies. It's bad, I know, but nobody is perfect.
So, I choose either to make Kale chips or a kale smoothie in order to give myself some veggies each day, without eating them alone.
I'll share with you wanderlusters my Kale recipes so that you too can enjoy healthy eating and drinking!

SP's Kale Chips:
-a handful (or two) of washed kale
-tablespoon of sea salt
-half a lemon
-
First and foremost, the most boring part of it all: set the oven to 350 F or ( C).
Now, time to get really started: what you have to do is get a baking tray then spray it or put a baking sheet on it.
Then, place the kale pieces on the tray and drizzle them with olive oil. Not too much that they are soaked but just enough so that someone would be able to tell there is some oil on them.
After, sprinkle the sea salt on the pieces (and/or some pepper if you like).
Finally, squeeze the lemon half over the pieces and then you are ready to get cookin'!
Pop the tray into the oven and wait about 8-15 minutes.
It's best to keep an eye on them after about 7-8 minutes so that you don't burn them. Just wait until they get a little crispy and take them out to cool.
Once cooled, ENJOY!
A kale chip snack is a great, healthy alternative to regular potato chips (obviously).
If you don't like them, then of course that's okay- they aren't for everyone. I won't lie, when I first heard of them I was a little grossed out. I figured I should give it a try and I fell in love with them.

SP's Super Healthy Green Smoothie:
-handful of kale
-handful of chopped, frozen mango (or about one whole fresh mango)
-a whole sliced apple (usually a green granny smith)
-1/2 of orange juice
-one banana (sliced or whole)
-handful of spinach leaves
(you can add 1/3 cup of pineapple to the mix for additional, non-artificial sweetness)

Whip out that blender- even if it's been a long time, don't be scared, 9/10 blenders won't be mad at you.
Dump in the mango, apple, banana and spinach leaves.
Then pour the orange juice in and top off that pre-smoothie healthy goodness parfait with the kale.
Turn up. Seriously, turn the blender onto the highest setting and watch it get shred to pieces. The smoothie should be thicker than a juice but not so thick you can't drink it with a straw.
And from there on out, I hope you know what to do.


I hope you wanderlusters enjoyed this post- it's the first post, of many to come, on the new Traveling with Wanderlust site.
I'm open to suggestions via comments and emails for what you would like to see on the new TwW.
Email: travelingwithwanderlust@gmail.com

I love hearing from you all, so don't hesitate to shoot me an email!

Until next time,
Travel on wanderlusters!

TWW- Under Construction + BIG Changes

Traveling with Wanderlust is about to become more of a personal blog with a little bit of fashion, a lot of travel, some opinions on various subjects/current events, along with random writing pieces and what not...a little bit of everything!

So, with that said, the TWW site will be under construction for the next few days but when it goes live again, I will make sure to inform everyone via a new post and there will also be several exciting posts which will follow!

I'm really looking forward to sharing my latest wanderlust adventures (and some other stuff) with fellow wanderlusters + anyone who wants to read about my life...good luck with that...I'm actually laughing out loud right now so I guess it's appropriate to write "lol".

Travel on wanderlusters!