This Blog Post is Not an Extension of a New Year's Resolution

I really have been away for the blog for some time. I’m sure anyone who receives my emails, has read any of the past several entries here, or is the imaginary friend to whom I compose all diary entries is not interested in another of my excuses for not having written sooner. But I’ll be honest, here’s what happened: Thanksgiving! My birthday! A trip to Strasbourg! A trip to Nuremburg! The panicky, procrastination-induced mania of holiday gift shopping! The sugar-induced mania of holiday break’s beginning! (yes this still happens for me.) Christmas! A trip to Berlin! New Year’s! The panicky, procrastination-induced mania of school beginning, again!

So In the next week I will really do my best to cover in retrospect the highlights of the past 2 months, most of which have to do with traveling.

A little preamble: traveling in the off-seasons of mid-late fall and winter is a lot cheaper than traveling when people would like to travel, in the spring or summer. Obviously, sun and warm weather are better than snow and freezing temperatures for spending much time outdoors hiking and/or taking city walking tours. And having been a student for, well, probably far too long and thus always having next to nothing in the way of disposable income—combined with a desire to travel, combined with a short memory for adverse weather conditions and little experience with them (oh, California, homeland of the tender and unprepared!)—has led me to the habitual planning of trips for the undesirable off-season. Forgetting the downsides of travel during these months has led me to do things like go camping with a cotton-stuffed sleeping bag in Glacier National Park at the very end of the season, or getting caught in a freak blizzard in Victoria (late November) and having to buy boots just to make possible the walk back to the ferry terminal.

Though I may not have learned all that I could have from these experiences, gratefully there are some places that are still really, actually fun to visit, even when it’s -5 degrees Celsius outside and your breath is turning to ice on your scarf and hair. I’d be happy to hear from anyone at all about other good places to travel out-of-season! As I don't expect my financial situation to improve any time soon, I'd really love the recommendations :) Anyway I’ll be focusing on Strasbourg, France and Berlin, Germany.

Please check back tomorrowish--it really takes a long time to upload each picture, I hope someone actually gets to see them!