Summer Bucket List 2014

Summer BL2It’s June, so in my books it’s officially summertime! As always, I want to make the most of this wonderful season. A couple years ago, I wrote a list of lovely things I wanted to do during the summer, and the summer after that I made a summer jar full of fun ideas (though I wish I’d written them all down in that blog post because now I can’t remember any of them). This year, I want to continue the tradition. This summer is particularly special because, of course, I’m spending it as an ex-pat in Korea. That being said, my hopes for this summer spent in Busan are pretty much the same as for any summer.

Already this season there’s been sunshine, beaches, a sunset boat ride, patio beers, rooftop picnics, yoga, swimming in the ocean, plum wine, and Sunday nights spent at the spa. In a word, it’s been perfect – I’m so lucky to be living such a good life. This is a list of more things I’d love to do this summer, but really, they’d just be icing on the already-awesome cake.

Go surfing

Swim in the ocean at night

Set off fireworks

Create a new cocktail

Sleep on the beach

Celebrate happy hour every weekend

Listen to live music outdoors

Watch a sunrise

Read several great novels

Have great heart-to-heart conversations

Eat al fresco whenever possible

Drink sangria

Take another boat ride

Buy a floppy sunhat, a maxi dress and a pair of shorts

Find (& eat) chocolate soft-serve ice cream

Enjoy it all as much as I can

***

No surprises there right? I just want to be outside, breathe fresh air, eat good food, spend time with friends, soak it all in. Sounds like a good life to me.

Chocolate Nut Granola

Chocolate Nut GranolaI’m the kind of person who can eat the same thing every single day for as long as it takes for me to get sick of it. When I find something that works, I tend to call it a day and will find myself making it over and over until something else grabs my attention. I just like the simplicity of having a routine and not having to spend too much time thinking about what I’ll make.

For a while, every day my breakfasts were green smoothies with a piece of peanut butter toast and my lunches were BBQ tofu tacos – dinners are usually where I get some variety. Since I’ve been in Korea, my breakfasts most days are granola with soy milk and my lunches are usually eggs on toast. Boring but happy, that’s me!

DSC_3006I had been buying a Quaker’s granola at Costco, but it’s a bit too sweet and since I haven’t been going to Costco that often, I needed another option. Back in April 2013 when Elise posted that she’d been eating nut granola for breakfast every morning, I was intrigued and made a mental note to make it myself. Finally this morning I did, and already I’m a total goner.

This stuff isn’t overly sweet and has a nice hint of salt, which I love. I made it according to this recipe from Delighted Momma but with only 1/2 cup of coconut oil as opposed to the full cup that she calls for. Even then, I could probably cut down the amount a little more. I didn’t roast my nuts or bake my granola because I don’t have an oven, but even so I’m really happy with how it turned out. It’s filling and absolutely delicious. I ate it with some plain yogurt and am going to try it with soy milk tomorrow for breakfast. I have a feeling I will definitely be making this again. And again, and again, knowing me.

DSC_3010-editSpeaking of delighted mamas, I am especially happy for my own today. She has worked so hard for the last few months getting my childhood home ready to sell, and happily it sold almost instantly, for more than expected, to a lovely young family who cried when they heard it was theirs. We are all really happy. My younger sister laughed and called me a hippie yogi when I said that it felt like there was a lot of good energy involved: that maybe the buyers could sense the love and laughter of our house, and that it’s so nice that we are passing it off to a young family the way ours was when we moved in. But that’s how it seems. It’s a good thing. (Anyways, I think she secretly loves that I’m a hippie yogi and I love that she’s practical and down-to-earth.) I wish I could have been there celebrating with them in the kitchen I grew up in, but since I couldn’t be, I’m thankful for the magic of FaceTime. Happy days!

Processed with VSCOcam with s3 presetOnce again, the recipe for this delicous granola is here.

Resources for Planning Your Backpacking Trip Through Europe

Resources1It’s I’ve learned a lot about booking hostels, navigating new cities, making friends, and packing. I’m happy to say that I’m a much better traveller than I was one year ago today. My travel knowledge has come from a lot of trial and error, a lot of great information from fellow travellers and friends, and most of all, a lot of awesome resources. I’m very Type A and a planner by nature, and I love nothing more than falling down rabbit holes on the internet while researching various things. My Google Docs spreadsheet for Europe had no less than eleven different sheets!

I wanted to share some of my favourite websites and articles to inspire you and help you plan an adventure of your own.

Inspiration For Your Trip

DSC_0036_7Almost Fearless:

Adventurous Kate:

General Travel Tips

Legal Nomads: World Travel Resources – an incredibly helpful, very comprehensive guide to world travel.

Rick Steves: His travel tips section is full of great, very useful information.

Yes and Yes: There are tons of awesome posts in her travel category including 18 super-helpful travel tips.

The Savvy Backpacker: Lots of great articles and resources for planning a budget backpacking trip.

Nomadic Matt: How to Legally Stay in Europe for More Than 90 Days (a very helpful article about visas and permitted lengths of stay).

Packing for Europe & Travelling Light

DSC_0149One Bag: The absolute ultimate light packing guide. It has tips on why packing light is a smart choice, a universal light packing list with detailed, and in-depth explanations of why each item on the list is helpful or important. I lost hours to this website.

One Bag One World: Forums and tips on travelling light. I love the old website, but the new one is good too. You can find the new one here.

Her Packing List: Awesome packing lists, backpack and product reviews and resources.

PB Fingers: What To Pack To Europe (aimed at women, for summer travel)

Rick Steves: A light packing list and tips on packing smart and travelling light.

Never Ending Voyage: How to travel long-term with carry-on luggage, and their complete, updated packing list.

Favourites

Ulmon Apps: The ultimate travel app for most major cities. It lets you navigate in real time even without an internet connection, lists all major attractions within the app and sometimes even has integration with the local subway system so you can see which metro stop to get off at for wherever you’re going. I absolutely adore these apps and they are my #1 recommended travel tip. Plus, somehow they’re free.

Hostel World: I love this website and never used anything else to read reviews of hostels and book my accomodations.

Blogsy: A blogging app for iPad, perfect for blogging while travelling.

Oanda Currency: An awesome currency converter app that you can use even when you have no internet connection.

Solo Travel

DSC_0164_2Twenty-Something Travel: The Introvert’s Guide to Travel, and a good reason to travel solo.

Refinery 29: I Travel to Feel Lonely…On Purpose – a really great, fresh perspective on solo travel.

Legal Nomads: The Solo Female Travel Experience, and the same topic, revisited with helpful tips.

Fluent in 3 Months: Is Long-Term Solo Travel Lonely?

A Little Adrift: Yes, Sometimes Travel Is Lonely.

The Ramble: Awesome advice if you’re worried about getting lonely while travelling.

European Destinations

Italy:

Paris:

Croatia: 15 Things To Do in Dubrovnik

***

Taking myself on a trip through Europe is one of the best things I’ve ever done. I was able to see some of the most beautiful places in the world, meet some awesome people, and most of all gain lots of confidence for both travelling and living the life I want to live. I’d recommend it to anyone. You don’t need a travel partner, you don’t need to be ready, everything is figureoutable, you can do this. It’s almost a year later but the experiences I had on my trip are still giving back to me in ways I never could have predicted.

This is a very incomplete list of resources, of course. I’ll try to add more as I remember them or as questions come up. If you have any specific questions about my trip, check out my FAQs, my posts on tips for travelling through Europe and for doing it solo, or send me an email at stephanie @ lifeinlimbo.org.

Thanks for reading. Good luck and have fun on your trip!

Inspiration | May 30

DSC_2605

I adored this post about how the ways we take care of ourselves and show self-love are totally personal and unique! It was such a refreshing perspective and really made me re-think how I’m going to care for myself going forward.

Oh Dear Drea always posts photos of good, simple living. I think I must have pinned at least three pictures from this post alone to my vision board. Indian lunch feasts + a backyard hammock? Sign me up.

A really important piece about the importance of saying no. “You are allowed to not know. You are allowed to listen. You are allowed to say no. You are allowed to change your mind.”

In the aftermath of the Isla Vista tragedy, this open letter a mom wrote to her son was especially poignant and felt very important.

Dreamy picnics forever, please.

Short-but-sweet, wise and true advice from an 100-year old.

An adorable cartoon about the difference between empathy and sympathy, as explained by Brené Brown.

A reminder that we’re all doing better than we think at living life. I shared this with some friends earlier this week and we all needed to read it.

“Big sexy dreams are only accomplished one tiny, very unsexy step at a time.” I absolutely loved this article giving us all permission to be unsexy, every day. It really left an impact on me.

“…and yet there is a voice in my head saying “You are not doing enough. Try harder.”” Such an important topic – we have to stop beating ourselves up, stop feeling guilty, stop trying to do everything all at once.

Some things I’d like to make + eat: strawberry rhubarb quinoa crumble | one big cookie | literally any kind of pizza.

Two Instagram accounts I’ve been loving lately: @madeleinelumley posted some food photos this week that I immediately screengrabbed and that made me want to drop everything and go make them myself (bonus points because it’s all healthy food!). @brightbazaar just consistently posts beautiful, brightly-coloured pictured of lovely things.

Some oldies-but-goodies: how to make time for your passions, who are you doing a favour?

***

I can’t believe that it’s the second-last day of May. I can’t believe my childhood home is officially on the market! I can’t believe I’ve been in Korea 3 months. Clearly, time is flying. It sometimes feels like the days are passing slowly, but holy cow, when I think of all that’s happened between January 1st and today, I’m floored, I’m grateful, and I’m blown away. Life moves fast.

I know this weekend will move equally fast. On the agenda: beach yoga, a potluck, and hopefully lots of reading. I’m reading two great books right now, Thrive and The Master and Margarita. As always, I post photos from my adventures (or more often just of my feet in various locations) and you can see them by following me on Instagram @lifeinlimboblog!

PS. The first monthly newsletter is going out this morning! As I’ve mentioned before, I’ll send it out on the last Friday of every month with the highlights from the blog from that month. You can subscribe to the newsletter here. Thanks as always for reading.

Scroll to Top