Our favorite picture from July.
Our camping spot in Lungern, Switzerland.

Another month in the books! July brought us to the Netherlands, Switzerland, Montenegro, and Albania! We’ve enjoyed spending the summer in Europe, but it has been SO HOT. We’re hopeful that the worst is in the past, but not too hopeful since we’re finding ourselves headed to Italy in August… 😬. The lengths we will go to see friends on this trip! A couple reflections from the last month:

🙃 Shaking off the little things — Having had the opportunity to travel and see so many different cultures and ways of living has given us a new perspective on the small things. We have found it much easier to not get worked up by minor inconveniences throughout our travels. Although… almost losing our laptop was definitely an exception to this!
🇨🇭 We hacked Switzerland — Planning our visit to Switzerland was a little tricky because, as you may know, it is an incredibly expensive country and we didn’t want to blow our budget. Ultimately, we decided to tackle the country via campervan, and it was the best decision we could have made! Not only were we able to save on accommodations and food, but we were also able to see a lot more of the country and visit some less touristy towns that we would not have otherwise been able to had we gone with our original plan of exploring by train!

WHAT WE’RE LISTENING TO, WATCHING & READING

BRITT
📺 The Kardashians (Season 3) — Don’t judge, everyone needs a good filler show! If you like the Kardashians, it’s a good season in my opinion, but I recognize they aren’t for everyone.
📺 Romesh Ranganathan: The Cynic — An entertaining comedy special from an English bloke.

JUSTIN
📚 The Book of Delights: Essays - Ross Gay — This was a quick read (well, listen) full of… don’t say it… don’t say it… delights. The author spent a year journaling and reflecting on delights he encountered in his day-to-day life and shared them in this short book.

BOTH
We are on a comedy binge at the moment. Britt is trying to figure out what type of comedy makes her actually laugh out loud. We will report back on the winners.
📺 Mike Birbiglia: Thank God for Jokes — Birbiglia’s dry humor is not for everyone, but his witty jokes and storytelling make his specials very entertaining.
📺 Bill Burr: Live at Red Rocks — We loved this special. It had us both giggling the entire time. Bill is a little… spicy. Be warned.
📚 Identity - Nora Roberts — Another thriller. This one also had us on the edge of our seats the entire time. Shortly after completing this book, someone has been trying to steal Justin’s identity, so that’s a little ironic. Hopefully no murders involved though.

AUGUST GOALS

🤖 Learn Reddit — We have both been on and off Reddit users for years, never fully becoming a ‘Redditor’. Recently, we think a light bulb clicked and we started to understand Reddit’s value / appeal and the niche it serves among other online platforms. This month, we want to learn how to use Reddit the right way. Are you a Redditor? Let’s chat.

🎓 Take a Class — We’ve been away from the work grind for a number of months now, and a lot has happened in that time… AI, Crypto, Return to Work, the list goes on. So, this month, we want to take a class to learn a new skill. We aren’t quite sure what that will be yet and we’re open to ideas!

Update on last month’s goal of making more efficient decisions — We were definitely successful… but that resulted in us making a few more errors than we normally would. For example, we double booked a hotel room in Albania… which is something we would not have previously done. Now… to find a balance.

WHERE WE’RE HEADED IN AUGUST
Feel free to send any tips, recommendations, or thoughts our way!

🇭🇷 Croatia & 🇲🇪 Montenegro & 🇦🇱 Albania — Over the next few days, we’ll be wrapping up our time in the Balkans. We’re headed to Perast, Montenegro before ending with two days in Dubrovnik, Croatia. The Balkans have been an unexpected gem, and we’re glad we visited now because we think it’s only going to continue to grow in popularity!

🇮🇪 Ireland — We’ll be stopping in Dublin for two days so that we can catch our flight back to…

🏙️ Chicago — We’re coming home for a long weekend to celebrate two of our dearest friends’ wedding, Blake and Steph! We can’t wait to celebrate you! Justin is also celebrating his 30th birthday on August 12th in his favorite city ( yes, after all of the places we have traveled, it’s still Chicago). We are excited to see family and friends!

🇮🇹 Italy — After a short stop in Chicago, we will be heading to the Amalfi Coast to meet up with a few of Britt’s high school friends who will be attending a wedding.

🇲🇹 Malta — For us, Malta has always been the illusive cousin of Italy that allows you to buy a passport for a hefty fee. We decided we needed to visit for ourselves to see if we should start saving up.

🇿🇦 South Africa — We are so excited for our first South African safari! We’ll be spending two weeks exploring the country, including Johannesburg, Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Franschhoek, and the Timbavati Private Nature Reserve.

JULY RECAP — PLANES, TRAINS & AUTOMOBILES

Douro Valley 🚗 Nazaré 🚗 Lisbon (LIS) ✈️ Amsterdam (AMS) 🚞 Zurich 🚐 Appenzell 🚐 Lucerne 🚐 Interlaken 🚐 Lauterbrunnen 🚐 Zermatt 🚐 Lavaux 🚐 Lausanne 🚐 Gruyères 🚐 Bern 🚐 Basel (BSL) ✈️ Dubrovnik (DBV) 🚌 Kotor 🚗 Durrës 🚗 Sarandë 🚗 Gjirokastër

YOU’RE INVITED — ONE & DONE BOOK CLUB

TL;DR: We are hosting a Book Club that will only ever meet one time.

Let us know if you’re interested and then we will plan a date in September.

We’d also like to acknowledge a miss in our previous newsletter. The picture on the bottom left is with our friends, The Charltons! We were with them when we crashed their family trip in London (with Hayley and Alex) and also met up with them in Scotland when our paths crossed a second time. We had a blast watching Scottish dancing and staying out way past our bedtime together. We intended on sharing this picture in our last newsletter, but we wanted to save them for a whole shout out this month (yes, we are sucking up)!

That’s it for this month! Don’t hesitate to reach out if anything we shared resonated with you, if you have tips on places we should visit, questions about what we’re up to, or if you just want to say hello. We’d love to hear from you! 

P.S. Thank you to everyone who has supported my fundraising efforts for the Berlin Marathon this Fall! If you’re interested in learning more about my run, check out my fundraising page.

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