AK Month-to-month Recap: April 2023

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Nicely, one thing very large occurred this month — Charlie and I acquired married! After practically 4 years collectively, we had town corridor marriage ceremony of our goals on April 28, 2023.

This was the primary of our three weddings — the small, authorized marriage ceremony. After this one we’ve our large Prague marriage ceremony in late Could, and our smaller Boston marriage ceremony in early July.

Learn on for the marriage — and extra adventures on this previous month.

Kate and Charlie posing over the skyline view of Prague, gothic churches in the background. Kate wears a white fascinator and suit; Charlie wears a navy suit with a purple tie and a boutonniere. — Simply married!

Table of Contents

Locations Visited

Prague, Karlštejn, Únětice, and Karlovy Fluctuate, Czech Republic

Charlie and Kate stand in a busy pub, clinking pints of beer. They wear wedding outfits (Charlie in a navy suit and purple tie, and Kate in an ivory skirt suit and fascinator) and Kate carries a bouquet of pale pink and purple flowers. — Kantyna is our place…in fact we went there after our marriage ceremony!

Highlights

Getting married! It was an superior day and we had a blast!

Some particulars: I wore an ivory Gaâla skirt swimsuit with an identical fascinator and gold Jonak pumps. Charlie wore a navy swimsuit with a white shirt and a purple tie. I carried a cat-safe bouquet with pale pink roses and freesia; Charlie wore an identical boutonniere.

We walked into the city corridor on Outdated City Sq.; made vows that have been officiated by a metropolis councilor carrying lots of gold medals; listened to overestimated organ variations of Mozart’s overture to The Magic Flute, Tonight from West Facet Story, All You Want is Love by the Beatles, and Handel’s Arrival of the Queen of Sheba (we had to decide on 4 songs from a very random assortment!); signed some papers; and walked out of the constructing right into a crowd ready for the astronomical clock to do its hourly present.

Our pals Klara and Aeon served as witnesses. Afterward we headed throughout the road to U Prince, a rooftop bar with the very best view over the sq., and shared a bottle of Prosecco. Then we headed to Kantyna, our favourite restaurant, for carpaccio, tartare, steak, and beer. Then a cupcake place close by. Then Bugsy’s Bar for craft cocktails. And a return dwelling at an inexpensive hour!

All in all, a terrific day, and I’m so glad I acquired to have the straightforward courthouse marriage ceremony expertise. It actually pares it right down to what issues.

When you’re planning an advanced marriage ceremony — a number of nationalities or areas — I extremely suggest doing the authorized marriage ceremony by yourself forward of time! It’s such a aid to know that the paperwork is DONE so we are able to deal with having a good time.

The city of Karlovy Vary, with tall crenellated buildings in pale colors lining a calm river, people walking alongside the river. Surrounded by hills in each direction. — Karlovy Fluctuate made an ideal low-key getaway from Prague!

Micro-mooning in Karlovy Fluctuate. The day after the marriage, Charlie and I headed to Karlovy Fluctuate, a stunning spa city in West Bohemia, simply an hour and 45 minutes from Prague. What a unbelievable little place! I can’t imagine it took so lengthy for me to go to.

We stayed on the five-star Resort Olympik and loved a balcony with a view over city, in addition to a spa within the basement. Among the highlights have been strolling across the city and sipping on spa waters from our particular cups, climbing down from the hill above city and having fun with the views; spending a day on the heated out of doors pool at Resort Thermal; and consuming plenty of nice meals, particularly at Le Marché.

I couldn’t think about heading off on an enormous honeymoon instantly after a marriage. Most of my pals have completed low-key weekends away after their weddings, saving the honeymoon for a later date, and I can now verify that that’s a GREAT thought.

(As for the large honeymoon, what’s subsequent? In June, we’re going to the island of Ischia for a couple of days, and in November and December we’re going to Chile and Argentina for a MONTH!)

A path leading to a castle tower underneath a stormy gray sky. — Karlštejn Fortress was value a brief day journey from Prague!

Visiting Karlštejn Fortress. This fort is positioned simply exterior Prague within the city of Karlštejn, and it’s one of the vital in style day journeys from Prague. You will get there by prepare if you happen to’d like, although we ended up driving.

Price visiting? Positive. It was fascinating to see. I actually loved the tour and among the uncommon architectural options of the fort, like a cool wood-patterned room. Do I feel it’s the finest day journey from Prague, although? No. That may be Kutná Hora, which I feel packs a a lot greater punch.

Having fun with the primary stunning day of the yr in Únětice. I point out Únětice on my checklist of bizarre issues to do in Prague, and we went to the brewery to take pleasure in a Celtic pageant. It was completely GORGEOUS — and super-crowded. Everybody was having fun with the sunshine and a few beers!

Easter markets in Prague. Do you know that Prague has Easter markets? They’re fairly just like the Christmas markets (in reality…practically equivalent, aside from swapping out the handicrafts), solely they’re within the spring months. Enjoyable instances.

Selecting my birthday journey. I haven’t gone on a visit for my final two birthdays, and actually needed to this yr. So Charlie and I are going to Montenegro and Croatia! We’ll be doing a couple of new issues — staying in Perast moderately than my traditional Kotor, and visiting new locations, like Durmitor Nationwide Park in Montenegro and the Elafiti Islands in Croatia.

Three little gray cats sitting together on a hardwood floor, looking at the camera with wide eyes. — Baliček, Lewis, and Murray: the brand new three musketeers!

Challenges

Preserving the house clear with three cats. Baliček, our pals’ cat, spent many of the month with us, and he’s the sweetest, most loving cat, waking us up by purring on the high of his lungs.

Nonetheless, the dude is messy. When he’s at his home, he makes use of a lined litter field and flings the litter in 1,000,000 instructions. However at our home, we’ve open litter containers and if an open litter field is an choice, he’ll go there and fling litter all around the rest room!

You’d assume the answer could be shopping for lined litter containers for all. NOPE. Murray is scared of lined litter containers, and if he sees one, even when there’s an open litter field subsequent to it, he will get so scared, he goes into one other room and pees on the ground.

So this was a month of fixed sweeping and vacuuming and yelling, “Noooooo!” when Baliček turned the toilet into the Sahara for the fifth time that day.

After which Baliček needed to go dwelling, and I cried. He and Murray actually acquired to be good pals! (Lewis tolerated him.) However seeing him curled up in his two-year-old human sister’s arms was value it.

Making a rookie cheese mistake. This month our dishwasher and freezer have been on their final legs, so we determined to exchange them each, in addition to the fridge. (In Prague, this isn’t one thing the owner covers — even if you lease, you pay in your personal giant home equipment.)

Nicely, this occurred to coincide with French week at Lidl, with plenty of cool cheeses on the market. We purchased a couple of and launched them to the brand new fridge.

It’s been a couple of weeks and THE BRAND NEW FRIDGE STILL SMELLS LIKE STINKY FRENCH CHEESE. We messed that one up!!

Crowds of people sitting at an outdoor beer garden, drinking beer in the sunshine. — First heat day of the yr? Head to a beer backyard! We headed to Únětice.

Weblog Posts of the Month

21 Quirky and Uncommon Issues to Do in Prague — Wow, I lastly wrote a Prague publish! And it’s an AWESOME one! Listed here are some superior issues to do in Prague past seeing the fort and the Charles Bridge. That is what my pals and I do round Prague!

17 Greatest Prague Eating places — One other long-overdue Prague publish! I wrote this so I can have one thing straightforward to ship to individuals who wish to know the place they need to eat. Prague has a FANTASTIC eating scene and it’s best to go means past Czech meals right here.

29 Cool Issues to Do in Zagreb, Croatia — It was about time I lastly revealed a devoted Zagreb publish to complement all my Croatia content material! Zagreb is totally value visiting, even if you happen to’re solely in Croatia for the islands and seashores.

A red and yellow Bohemian building underneath a blue sky, surrounded by an overgrown lawn in the spring. — I like when spring brings Prague again to life!

This Month on Patreon

On the Adventurous Kate Patreon, I publish unique content material and never-told tales you can entry for $6 per 30 days. We even have a non-public Fb group and members get free entry to the E book Membership every month.

This month, I truly wrote about one in all my non-travel hobbies — thrifting low-cost designer garments on-line. I completely LOVE doing this, however the stakes are excessive when you’ll be able to’t strive gadgets on and you’ll’t return them. I used to make SO many errors, however now I’m good at it, so I made a decision to share my finest ideas.

I share a ton of ideas for ensuring you’re shopping for a bit you’ll truly love carrying. (One underrated tip — DOUBLE CHECK THAT YOUR BLACK ITEM IS NOT ACTUALLY NAVY BLUE. This has occurred a number of instances. So many individuals can’t inform the distinction between navy blue and black!)

I additionally shared some extra marriage ceremony images within the Patreon on the day of the marriage — fast publish and go!

And eventually, I shared a behind-the-scenes a few enterprise catastrophe that I went by as soon as, the way it exploded, and the way I acquired by it and acquired it collectively.

A view from above of Karlovy Vary, with pastel-colored buildings nestled into the hills. — Karlovy Fluctuate was dreamy!

E book Membership This Month

Our subsequent guide membership will happen on Sunday, June 4, at 1:00 PM Jap Time. We will probably be studying Aftershocks by Nadia Owusu, an American writer of Armenian and Ghanaian heritage. This was one in all 2021’s buzziest memoirs, and made lots of the “better of the yr” lists.

You can sign up for the book club here. Patreon members have entry within the Patreon.

“Younger Nadia Owusu adopted her father, a United Nations official, from Europe to Africa and again once more. Simply as she and her household settled into a brand new dwelling, her father would inform them it was time to say their good-byes. The instability wrought by Nadia’s nomadic childhood was deepened by household secrets and techniques and fractures, each lived and inherited.

Her Armenian American mom, who deserted Nadia when she was two, would periodically reappear, solely to fade once more. Her father, a Ghanaian, the good hero of her life, died when she was 13. After his passing, Nadia’s stepmother weighed her down with a revelation that was both a bombshell secret or a lie, rife with shaming innuendo.

With these and different ruptures, Nadia arrived in New York as a younger lady feeling stateless, motherless, and unsure about her future, but keen to search out her personal identification. What adopted, nevertheless, have been durations of melancholy through which she struggled to carry herself and her siblings collectively.

“An impressive, complicated evaluation of selfhood and why it issues” (Elle), Aftershocks depicts the best way she hauled herself from the wreckage of her life’s perpetual quaking, the means by which she has lastly come to know that the one floor agency sufficient to rely on is the one written into existence by her personal hand.”

Kate posing in a mirror wearing a short-sleeved button-up jumpsuit with flared legs. It's navy blue with a pattern of pink roses, green leaves, and white flower chains.

Vogue Discover of the Month

Typically you discover a designer merchandise on the market that offers you good vibes — after which it arrives and suits like a DREAM. For me it was this Sandro jumpsuit. I fell in love with it the second I noticed it. I double-checked the lie-flat measurements, decided it will match, and ordered it.

Then it was delivered and I couldn’t imagine how PERFECTLY it match me!! Jumpsuits will be actually powerful to get proper, however this was made for me. I didn’t even need to hem the legs! (As a result of it’s technically a cropped jumpsuit and I’m 5’4″ so the legs have been regular for as soon as!)

And I’ve an event to put on it — for my bachelorette afternoon tea the day earlier than our Boston marriage ceremony.

Kate wearing black satin cargo pants, a black top and a denim jacket, in front of a church.

I additionally discovered the BEST pants this month. Black satin cargo pants by Maje, most likely my favourite model of the second. I did purchase these new, they usually have been expensive, however THEY FALL SO PERFECTLY AND BEAUTIFULLY. I really feel like a member of TLC in them!

I attempted these on on the Maje retailer in Prague, on a whim — then promptly tried on ten pairs of cheaper black satin cargo pants from different shops simply to see if I might love them for much less. And all the low-cost ones have been horrible by comparability. Oh properly. I ordered the great ones through the Farfetch app and acquired 10% off.

I acquired them hemmed on the tailor, and I plan to put on them a LOT this summer season.