AK Monthly Recap: May 2024

When you’ve been traveling a bit too much, non-travel months are SO NICE. And that led to a very, very nice month in May.

May is the best month of the year in Prague — so you bet I was happy to be here!

Destinations Visited

• Prague and Vraňany, Czech Republic

Pivo a Burger — my favorite food festival!

Highlights

A nice, lazy month in Prague. That was good.

The month included visiting new restaurants (including Vietnamese spot Rice Field), and spending lots of time with friends.

We celebrated the St. John Navalis festival in Prague for the first time — which, honestly, is the most religious I’ve ever seen this very atheistic country get! There were religious processions through the city, followed by a finale on the river with paragliders jumping from the sky, some even flying underneath the Charles Bridge!

And food festivals, of course — including Pivo a Burger, one of my all-time favorites, which takes place right in my neighborhood and features all kinds of beers and burgers! There was also Korso Krymska, another fun food festival.

We had our favorite Italian food festival at The Italians Wine and Food Market, which we make sure to hit up every year.

Friends came to visit, including my dear friend Tess and her husband Michael!

Visiting Vraňany. I’m visiting a new Czech destination every month of 2024, and this was my new spot — a strawberry farm in the town of Vraňany, which is accessible both by car and by train.

Yep, Charlie and I went strawberry picking, as it’s the best time of year for strawberries! I think we were the only people there without kids, and soon realized why — strawberry picking is so hard on your knees!!

We ended up making strawberry spoon cake, strawberry summer cake, and strawberry lemon sorbet.

We turned into a strawberry-cooking kitchen! The cats wanted to be involved.

Challenges

I always say that May is the best month of the year to visit Prague, with absolutely gorgeous weather. And it is — but this happened to be a cloudier, rainier May than the past few years.

Oh well. That happens every now and then!

That, and I got a cold for the fourth month in a row. I need a break. (Fortunately, since I’m getting this piece published so late, I can confirm that I was cold-free for the month of June!)

And we were supposed to see Bruce Springsteen at the end of May, but he injured his vocal cords and had to cancel. It’s been rescheduled for June 2025. Ah well!

Is there any city more beautiful at blue hour than Prague?

Blog Posts of the Month

• Burano Island Guide
• Murano Island Guide
• 16 Fabulous Day Trips from Venice, Italy
• 16 Cool Day Trips from Buenos Aires
• 18+ Fun Things to Do in Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay
• 31 Best Cape Cod Beaches
• 30+ Best Things to Do in Venice, Italy
• 35+ Unforgettable Things to Do in Florence, Italy

This school is one of the most photographed buildings in my neighborhood.

Book Club This Month

Our next book club will take place on Sunday, August 18, 2024. We will be reading Dearborn, a short story collection by American author Ghassan Zeineddine.

“Spanning several decades, Ghassan Zeineddine’s debut collection examines the diverse range and complexities of the Arab American community in Dearborn, Michigan. In ten tragicomic stories, Zeineddine explores themes of identity, generational conflicts, war trauma, migration, sexuality, queerness, home and belonging, and more.

In Dearborn, a father teaches his son how to cheat the IRS and hide their cash earnings inside of frozen chickens. Tensions heighten within a close-knit group of couples when a mysterious man begins to frequent the local gym pool, dressed in Speedos printed with nostalgic images of Lebanon. And a failed stage actor attempts to drive a young Lebanese man with ambitions of becoming a Hollywood action hero to LA, but Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have other plans.

By turns wildly funny, incisive, and deeply moving, Dearborn introduces readers to an arresting new voice in contemporary fiction and invites us all to consider what it means to be part of a place and community, and how it is that we help one another survive.”

You can sign up here. Hope to see you there!

Most Popular Reel on Instagram

So in May, I created a Reel that made A LOT OF PEOPLE MAD. It’s about Americans of Italian descent who go to Italy and say “I’m Italian!” People are still insulting everything and everyone in the comments, two months later. Just take a look.

For more updates from my travels, follow me on Instagram at @adventurouskate!

What I Watched This Month

Can I just remind you how amazing of a show Hacks is? It’s the best comedy on TV, with crisp and furious writing, and it stars a woman in her 70s, the fabulous Jean Smart. The third season came out this month, and it’s as fabulous as ever. It’s on HBO. Watch it!

Below Deck update: This month Charlie and I finished Sailing Yacht Season 3, which I think is one of the all-time great seasons of the franchise. The best crew. Some awesome guests and some unhinged guests. All set on the beautiful island of Menorca.

Scottsdale at sunset, via Shutterstock

Coming Up in June 2024

This is a very big travel month! I’m heading to the States for a few weeks, spending most of the time based on the North Shore of Massachusetts.

And there are trips within the trip. I’ll be heading to Maine for a few days. Canada for a few days.

But the BIG trip within the trip is Scottsdale, Arizona! I’ll be visiting Scottsdale with three of my closest friends as we all celebrate turning 40 in 2024! There is going to be SO much awesome stuff on this trip, and I can’t wait to share it with all of you.

Later in the month, I fly back to Prague, hang out with our house- and cat-sitter for 24 hours, then fly to Naples, Italy — where I’ll meet Charlie, grab a lightning-fast pizza, and then we’ll hop on a boat to the island of Ventotene!

What did you get up to in May? Share away!

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