Microadventures

April 17, 2017April 17, 2017 ~ Kat ~ 2 Comments

Lately, I’ve been contemplating ways to integrate adventure into our everyday lives. It has been sixteen months since we have returned from our year away and I am realising how important it is to me to explore, discover, learn and grow. At the same time, I really appreciate the stability of our life here in Ptown.
More and more, we are hearing about and discovering new ways to build adventure into our lives without having to wait for the next trip overseas. A few months ago I came across the idea of microadventures, coined by Alaistair Humphreys.
The idea is also referenced by many others, including Annie Raser-Rowland who has written a book called Frugal Hedonism. I haven’t read the book yet, but I heard an interview with Annie on The Slow Home Podcast by Brooke McAlary just this week, which was full of aha moments for me.
Basically, the premise behind all of this is that adventure is a state of mind. We are conditioned to believe we need to seek what is new and novel, and we are frequently told that the way to get there is by spending, consuming and escaping our everyday lives.
But what if we could feel that way simply by taking a moment, looking around, being present and appreciating the opportunities we have to be adventurous everyday.
Mr B and I have had a crazy few months – busy during our work days and on the weekends too. This is something that would usually send me spinning and spiralling and into “I’m exhausted” thoughts. But for some reason, I have found this busy period far more manageable that I have in the past. I think it is because I am seeing some of the activities we have been doing differently. I have been embracing these activities as opportunities for “microadventures” – mini breaks full of discovery, fun and joy.
A microadventure can be anything that breaks the circuit of your routine – it could be taking an extra day off and going camping for the weekend, finding a new local hike, choosing a different restaurant for a weekend breakfast or even driving a different way to work and stopping somewhere for a coffee.
We have been down south a few weekends in the last couple of months and I have posted a few pics below. There’s nothing super crazy special about this stuff. Just quiet time with friends and loved ones, enjoying the beautiful landscape in WA. Now that’s my kind of adventure.

Coming home

February 14, 2016February 14, 2016 ~ Kat ~ Leave a comment

I know, I know – this is always what happens. The blog gets forgotten towards the end of the trip. I really didn’t want this to be the case with somethinkdifferent, but it did – we were having too much fun!

After our time in Copenhagen, we headed to Norway. We visited Oslo and then Tromso to see the Northern Lights. This was one of the most amazing experiences we ever had. I started writing a post about our experience which I never posted – I have included it below:

Right now we are in Melbourne, but I really want to write a post about Norway and getting to see the Northern Lights.

After Copenhagen we took a flight to Oslo where we hung out for a few days. It was beautiful there. We were staying in an AirBNB in Grünerløkka, which was a great area. As Norweigan restaurants are quite expensive ($AU30 for a burger), we made the call pretty early on that our time in Oslo would involve going on some long walks into the city centre and around the local area, browsing shops, drinking coffee and cooking at home. My favourite thing about Oslo was our walk along the Akerselva from the city back to our apartment. It was a beautiful day and a really stunning walk.

From Oslo we flew up to Tromso for a weekend. Again we stayed in an AirBNB, this time sharing a house with a host. The house we stayed in was awesome and it was a great place to escape the cold weather when we had enough of the chill!

On our first day in Tromso we committed to doing a Northern Lights chase tour with Arctic Explorers. This was a last minute decision, but totally worth it. Our tour guide Luca picked us up from our AirBNB promptly at 7pm and we were driven to their warehouse to put on thermal suits for the evening chase. We were briefed on what would happen throughout the evening and asked to make our catering selection. We were given expedition food, which was really quite tasty considering it was rehydrated!

We started driving out to the first view point, which was a fjord about an hour away from Tromso. We had to go this far out because of the cloud cover in Tromso being so thick. Luca explained that he really hoped for clear skies at this spot as the next possible location was Finland (so we all had our passports ready, just in case). We pulled in at about 9pm, dressed in our thermal suits, boots, socks, hats and gloves. We stepped outside and it felt surprisingly cosy, despite it being about 0 degrees celsius. The skies were clear and Luca was happy.

We walked close to the water and lay down a few yoga mats. Those that had cameras set them up and the rest of us walked around, adjusting to our new size. We didn’t have to wait too long for the show to start. A beam of green started emerging, in the same shape as a rainbow. This one appeared for a while, growing stronger and stronger as we watched in awe. Eventually it faded and made way for new lights, this time in different shapes. At this point Luca started getting photos of the lights for us (thank goodness he did!). We were all gawking at this light for some time until our attention was drawn away by another, incredible light across the other side of the sky. This one was stunning. It danced around the sky, changing colour from green to pink and occasionally red. We were transfixed – it was swirling, spinning and spiralling in front of our very eyes. Courtney and I fell to the ground as we watched in astonishment. We were so moved by the lights. We paused for a moment, sharing that were were both so grateful for all the incredible moments we have been lucky to share over the last three months away.

Our tour guide explained to us that the type of lights we got to see that night were very special – something that can never be caught on camera. These lights you simply have to enjoy in the moment and watch. The message was loud and clear – don’t take your phone out, don’t try and take a photo. Just enjoy.

It was during this time that Luca prepared a hot drink for each of us and our expedition food. Surprisingly we were both pretty hungry at this stage after being out in the cold for about two hours. We ate our food around a camp fire and talked about the lights we had just seen.

The lights continued for another hour or so. The time completely flew by and before we knew it, it was 1am. We made the journey back to the car as the last of the lights were saying farewell. We hopped in the car and started driving home, only to spot a huge moose on the road. It was an amazing night with nature.

Most of the guests fell asleep after all the excitement, except for Courtney, Luca and I and arrived back home by 2am.

Seeing the lights was a defining moment for us on our travels as it really made us both feel so content in our decision to go overseas for an extended period of time. It also made us feel really, really tiny and connected to the world.

We then flew to Stockholm, Sweden for a few days and spent the time with a couple of friends that spontaneously flew over from London, where they now live. A train ride through Sweden took us to Malmo, the design capital of Sweden. Our final destination was Zurich, Switzerland where we took the time to rest and recharge before our flight back to Australia.

Lucky for us, the honeymoon wasn’t over when we arrived back in Australia. We flew into Melbourne and spent a couple of weeks there, staying with our family. After a long stint abroad, it was awesome to return to our home country but to be in a different city. It helped us get over the shock of being home. I was lucky enough to celebrate my birthday in Melbourne and a group of our closest friends flew over from Perth to meet us for a weekend. This was also a great way to readjust to being back in Australia.

Finally, we ventured to Tasmania where we explored Hobart, Port Arthur and Launceston, as well as a few beautiful places in between. We visited the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) whilst we were in Tassie which was an amazing experience. I really enjoyed the how the art was presented in the gallery and the innovative way they used technology. I highly recommend spending a day there.

We flew home via Melbourne, and after an epic number of flights and being on the road for so long we were totally ready to be in one place for some time. Funnily enough, our last flight home was cancelled, which meant our honeymoon became an extra day longer than planned. We were put up in a gorgeous hotel for that last night and were given $30 each to spend at the hotel vending machine. So many Snickers bars. It was actually a perfect way to end our adventure.

We have been back in Perth now for a couple of months; it seems so weird that we have nearly been home the same amount of time we were travelling. We have readjusted fairly seamlessly to life back at home. Both of us are working again, although I have transitioned into a new industry which has been really exciting. We have both come home with a sense of gratitude for our adventure abroad last year, as well as a deeper appreciation of the place where we live. Although we will definitely spend more time travelling throughout our lives, we are proud to call Perth our home.

Forest Acid

November 8, 2015November 8, 2015 ~ Kat ~ Leave a comment

Copenhagen is a super cool place. We spent eight days in this beautiful city. My most favourite things to do in Copenhagen were hanging out in our apartment in Nørrebro, people watching in coffee shops and walking around the local shops.
The thing about Copenhagen is that everything and everyone looks good, all the time. Whether they are taking their dog for a walk, catching up before a University class or cycling to work, everyone is always dressed impeccably. Their homes and their shop fronts are simple, minimalist, but oh-so-stylin’. I bought a pair of new boots in Copenhagen so I didn’t stand out as much as a tourist. At least my feet felt fancy.

Although a lot of our time was spent wandering and hanging out, we did a few tourist-y things as well.

One day we caught the bus to Paper Island to visit Copenhagen Street Food. Copenhagen Street Food is an indoor, permanent food truck hall offering a range of different foods, drinks and desserts from all over the world. Located by the water, they have put a lot of effort into creating a welcoming, fun atmosphere within the warehouse site. There is a fire place in the back corner, a bar in the middle and tunes playing throughout the venue. There is so much food to choose from – ranging from egg burritos and vegi burgers through to Korean meals and freshly squeezed juices. It caters for everyone.

Freetown Christiania is a short walk away from Paper Island. We didn’t know what to expect when we walked into this place. It is a fascinating community, mostly known as a place that celebrates the progressive nature of the Danish. The self-proclaimed ‘autonomous community’ requests no photos to be taken within the 34 hectare area. You can guess why. It has a very hippy, commune like feel and it is like nothing we have ever seen anywhere else in the world. I really recommend exploring Christiania if you are planning a visit to Copenhagen.

On one of the days when we had clearer weather, we visited Hans Christian Anderson’s grave site in Assistens Cemetery. The Cemetery is a beautiful garden which is regularly visited by locals, as it is such a nice green space. For some reason I expected Hans Christian Andersen’s grave to be really grand, and for it to be separated from other graves. It wasn’t. It was a very humbling experience.

Wandering the shops was so inspiring, as they use space so efficiently and lure you into shops with their beautiful window displays. Although we didn’t buy a lot whilst we were in Copenhagen, we left with lots of new ideas on how we want to live and decorate our home. When we return home we plan to update a few furniture pieces to high quality pieces that are not only functional but also well designed.

This blog post would not be complete if I didn’t mention how incredible our AirBNB apartment was. It was owned by a young, hip Danish artist who had renovated the house himself. It was so beautifully styled and used space so efficiently. The highlight was the bathroom. It had a 40cm x 40cm floor space which was the toilet, and right above the toilet was the hand held shower head. Behind the toilet was the bathroom sink. It was a ridiculous but hilarious adventure to have a shower everyday. As much as we thought it would be a hinderance, it actually wasn’t, and it meant that there was more room in the apartment for lounging, cooking and sleeping!

Copenhagen is without a doubt one of the coolest places we have visited and we would love to return again at some stage in our lives.

Jet lag

October 16, 2015October 17, 2015 ~ Kat ~ 1 Comment

After New Orleans, we travelled back to San Fran and drove to Yosemite National Park for a few days, followed by Palo Alto.

Yosemite was amazing – quite a change from the city/city/city we had been doing. We had really nice weather – cool enough for walking but not too cold that we were complaining.

We stayed at Camp Curry in a basic tent – it had real beds, a light inside and – most importantly – a bear locker for our food and cosmetics. They are really strict about this at Yosemite.

On the first day we were there we climbed Sentinel Dome – an 8km uphill steep incline that seemed to never end. We walked up and down it that day. It was a major feat for me and left me stoked, but super tired!

Yosemite National Park celebrated its 125th birthday whilst we were there and they had some sweet celebration events. Lots of kids were attending and involved in the events which was great to see. The whole Yosemite experience reminded me of school camp. Heaps of fun.

From Yosemite we drove to Palo Alto so I could nerd out in Silicon Valley and Stanford. So awesome. Our friend recently landed a job at Google so he showed us around the Googleplex campus. That place is wild! Endless food, coffee, a bowling alley, g-bikes and g-buses, nerf guns and schwag. They really want their peeps to stay there as long as possible and have a great time working there.

We also got to go to a Stanford vs Arizona College football game. Totally like the movies. Nuff said.

We headed back up to San Francisco after Palo Alto, but I am going to write about that another time. Right now, I am in Copenhagen and majorly struggling with jet lag. It’s 5:00am and I have been up all night. I am hoping my sleeping patterns get a bit more normal soon… 😐

Your brain is squishy

September 28, 2015March 26, 2017 ~ Kat ~ Leave a comment

Wow, we cannot believe we have been on the road for ten weeks now, and in the USA for six of them!

We spent another couple of days in NYC and were lucky enough to arrange a catch up with an old friend whilst we were in Manhattan. It was a really nice reminder of home.
The pace of travelling is amazing and crazy at the same time; after being on the road for such a long time we have both become very reflective and grateful for our home. There is definitely part of both of us that wants to keep exploring the world forever, but there is a stronger pull for family, community, living our values, stability and routine! I guess that is what they mean when they say travelling helps you find yourself – both of us are regularly seeking similar experiences everywhere we go. For me, I look for new ideas, innovation, socially conscious businesses, young people, universities, yoga, bookstores and businesses that sell ‘low tox’ products. I have also realised how much I love down time – time to chill at our accommodation, meditate, listen to music, read, write in my journal and reflect on the day.

Boston was incredible – we were staying in Cambridge, near Harvard, which was the perfect place to rejuvenate after the whirlwind of Manhattan. Our time there was very chilled. On our first night we went to ImprovBoston after being told Boston was the birthplace of improv. The performance we went to was only $5 and opened with a skit by a professional improv group, followed by an open session where anyone could get up and have a go, and closed with a performance by ImprovBoston teachers. We were staggered by the quality of the show; the energy was high and everyone that participated made a great contribution. Both of us haven’t laughed like that in aaaaaages! We agreed that we want to attend more improv when we return home.

Other highlights of Boston include going on a student-led tour of Harvard University, visiting the Harvard Bookstore, going Candlepin Bowling in Somerville, eating sandwiches at All Star Sandwich Bar and biking to the North End and wandering through the tiny streets. On our last day, we treated ourselves to a massage and a hot tub session, which was so rewarding and relaxing.

We are in New Orleans at the moment which has been a really beautiful and interesting change. The architecture here is out of this world. Every street we walk down looks like (and probably is) out of a movie. We have explored the Garden District with a walking tour guide, ventured to Frenchmen Street for some live music and walked Magazine Street and the Mississippi River. We also visited the French Quarter on our first day and stopped by Cafe du Monde for their famous beignets. Whilst the French Quarter wasn’t really our ‘thing’, we really appreciated the history and architecture in the area.

One last thing – we have stayed mostly at AirBNBs so far (with a few hostels and hotels thrown in here and there). It has been an excellent way to get a more “local” experience, which is what we are both seeking.

Now, some photos!

What day is today?

September 19, 2015September 19, 2015 ~ Kat ~ Leave a comment

Since my last post we have visited San Diego, Santa Monica, Las Vegas and Brooklyn. We are in Manhattan at the moment and leave for Boston tomorrow.

We have hit the half way mark of our trip, which is totally crazy. The time we have been away has flown and gone slowly at the same time. We have found that we are doing so many exciting things and making so many decisions each day that we are feeling like we need a weekend of doing nothing. Today we headed to the New York Library for some much needed quiet time. We spent three hours there and both left feeling recharged.

We are both learning so much as we travel – about ourselves, our relationship and the world. It has been awesome. It has also made us appreciate so many things about home.

There have been so many highlights from the last few weeks – visiting San Clemente and having a vegan feast as we drove from San Diego to Santa Monica, spending quality time with our friends from Australia in Las Vegas, Cirque du Soleil “O” at Bellagio, the incredible Wanderlust Festival in Brooklyn, Sleep No More at The McKittrick Hotel, seeing Matilda on Broadway and of course – Daybreaker in Manhattan.

Daybreaker is an event like no other. On a Wednesday morning from 6am until 9am, New York locals turn up to a nightclub in their best gym get up to have a dance party before work. We stumbled upon the event after I read about the founder in the Wanderlust journal. We booked our tickets to Daybreaker the day before.

In concept it sounds completely crazy, but it is one of the best events we have been to. We arrived, bleary eyed at 6:45am and entered the darkened club at 7:00am. We were greeted by music, lights, friendly faces, coffee, protein shakes and breakfast snacks (as well as a fully stocked schwag station sponsored by Six:02 and Puma).

The DJs played for two hours (dem feelz!), accompanied by an MC and a live brass quintet. The dance floor was packed for the whole time we were there. Towards the end of the event, we were encouraged to welcome the day in and the club’s blinds were raised. There was an incredible feeling in the room – people dancing, smiling, laughing and hugging. It was an awesome way go out to a nightclub without having a late night, meet some new people and get 10,000 steps in before breakfast. Perfection. We will definitely go again in another city.

In minimalism news, I bought a new suitcase in Vegas which has helped me out a lot. It is the same size (possibly smaller) and a lot more sturdy. If I had a dollar for the number of times we have said to each other “imagine if we had large suitcases” as we have travelled on planes, buses and the New York subway, I would have enough money to buy another suitcase. Ha. The small suitcases have seriously helped us get around easily and avoid any back injuries.

Here are some pics from our last few destinations…

The quiet life

September 4, 2015March 26, 2017 ~ Kat ~ Leave a comment

LA was awesome. We flew in from Denver after a very delayed Spirit Airlines flight. First on our agenda was to pick up our rental car – which involved a hectic shuttle bus to the car rental depot followed by an extravagant insurance upsell from a customer service representative. Now that we know what it’s like to drive in LA, the insurance we purchased was an EXCELLENT move, except it meant that we couldn’t rent a GPS for our visit to LA and San Diego. Eep.

Nevertheless, we ventured out to the car park, only to find there were no cars available. Hilarious. After a short wait we were on the road (and guessing how to get to our accommodation). Surprisingly we managed to navigate our way downtown (thank you Google for saving our offline maps of the city) and arrived at our accommodation really easily. The AirBNB we stayed in was amazing; it featured a gorgeous view, a pool, gym and a friendly security man who helped us figure out how to open the lobby door.

Highlights of our time in LA included visiting and being part of the FRIENDS Central Perk set, going to a historic Dodgers vs Cubs baseball game where the Cubs’ Jake Arrieta threw a ‘no hitter’ against the Dodgers (the first in his career), stumbling upon a movie set on our walk to The Last Bookstore and eating at The Pantry where our waiter dropped the c-bomb. LA, you’re one crazy beast.

Soft grunge love rap

August 25, 2015March 26, 2017 ~ Kat ~ Leave a comment

We left Portland on Wednesday and flew to Colorado.

We spent five days in Denver, based out of Capitol Hill which was perfect for us. We wandered through the city, checked out the Money Museum and stumbled on the University’s open day.

Another highlight was seeing The Book of Mormon Musical at The Ellie Theatre. We entered a lottery for $25 tickets but didn’t win the grand prize. We were very happy to be offered A reserve tickets for $45! We also met some lovely local college students in the line who gave us a few tips on Denver.

On our last day in town we rented bikes and ventured out to Cherry Creek. Despite a thunderstorm half way through the day, it was a great day out.

We caught a bus from Denver to Boulder a few days ago. Boulder has been awesome – our fave US city so far. Being a college town, it has a young vibe about it. School went back this week so there is a lot happening around the town. We are also staying right near the colleges – it is really easy to imagine ourselves in a teen movie 😂

Today we explored the Flatirons and I am so stoked to say I hiked to the top of the first and second Flatiron and to the base of three and four. This was THE most challenging hike we have done so far on our trip. Yay!

Tomorrow we venture to Los Angeles for a few days. We are looking forward to catching up with a few friends whilst we are there.

A note on our carry on packing: we are still going strong! We are getting better each day we repack our cases. It has made us both realise how much of our travelling involves shopping – when you don’t have the ‘luxury’ of space in your case, every purchase has to replace something else. So we have needed to ask ourselves whether something new will add value or cause us more trouble than it is worth. It has meant our spending has mostly been on food and experiences, which is pretty cool.

Tropical Chill House

August 18, 2015August 18, 2015 ~ Kat ~ 2 Comments

Our trip through BC with our eight friends came to an end last week. It was such a great part of our trip and very special. The two of us have now left Canada and travelled through Seattle and are now in Portland. We took the Amtrak train which was comfortable and the view was gorgeous.

Seattle had some stormy weather whilst we were there which made it a little challenging. Highlights for us included stumbling on a street fair, eating at an incredible vegetarian Thai restaurant in Capitol Hill, having our best coffee yet at Victrola Coffee Roasters and meeting some really friendly people in the hostel.

We arrived in Portland two days ago. So far we have really enjoyed the city and the hostel we are staying in.
Yesterday, we visited Escapism in Portland. The objective of the hour is to solve all the puzzles in the room in order to be let out. Our room was themed like an abandoned lab. Neither of us had done an escape room before and we found it really challenging! We had to work together, communicate and think laterally. It was a great honeymoon date 😂

We also roamed through Powells books, the largest independent book store in the world, ate in the Brewery district and visited the Portland Japanese and Rose Gardens.