I can’t believe it was almost four weeks ago that Jonah and I left Thailand. I became much more attached to Chiang Mai than I thought I would be by the time we left. While the motorbike rides ended up killing my back, I miss puttering around the city, holding on to Jonah as we wove between cars. I miss leaving all the windows open at night and having the sounds of dogs and motorbikes rise up to remind us where we were. I miss the friends we quickly made and that I briefly got to know. I almost miss wearing sandals every day and that shorts were in regular rotation for me.

The past three and a half weeks have been a blur, to say the least. Jonah and I flew into Cologne, Germany where we spent a few days freezing our buns off, getting over jet lag, and starting to assimilate to our new diet (switching from spicy street food and rice to mild flavors, lots of meat, and holy moly so much bread). From there we went to Brussels for two nights, where we were supposed to meet our friends Dylan & Caitlyn, though their plans were sadly foiled by weather around the world. They ended up meeting us a day later in Bruges, where we walked and drank beer and biked and drank beer and played games and enjoyed each others’ brief company. From Bruges it was onto Oberboihingen, a town outside of Stuttgart, Germany, where Jonah’s aunt, uncle, and cousins live. They kindly let us stay with them for almost a week for Christmas, and we enjoyed the German holiday celebrations. We left Oberboihingen for a quick two night stop in Paris (more on that in a later post) and then on to Lisbon, where our Airbnb hosts greeted us with glasses of champagne and a full traditional Ukrainian New Years Eve meal (they are Ukrainian and New Years is a big holiday for them). We’ve been in Lisbon for a few short days, and we are slowly catching up on work and taking in the city. We’ve done a little bit of walking around the quaint cobblestone streets, taking in the beautiful, old buildings in pinks and yellows, or covered with beautiful tiles.

Culinary highlights from our two weeks hopping around Europe included: various versions of wieners, mashed potatoes, sauerkraut, and mustard; all of the rich, sweet, spiced Belgian beer (especially at De Garre); a Christmas market lunch of reibekuchen with applesauce and glühwein; giant pots of moules frites; home cooked meals (finally!) by Jonah’s aunt Rachel including a delicious and beautiful roasted turkey and stuffing and plum chutney, and then the most delicious turkey lemon soup made from the leftover turkey carcass; snails in butter, garlic, and herbs for lunch at a restaurant recommended by my mom in Paris.

P.S. There are still more recipes coming from my time in Thailand. Keep your eyes on this space.