AK Monthly Review: September 2024

Ah, September – one of the most beautiful months of the year and one of the best months to travel. I definitely made the most of this month.

It's been a busy September for me, starting with a holiday to South Moravia in the Czech Republic and then a 12-day trip to the Basque Country and La Rioja later this month.

Let’s take a look at September 2024!

Destinations visited

• Mikulov, Lednice, Valtice and Prague, Czech Republic
• Spain: Bilbao, San Sebastian, Samaniego, Haro, Logroño, Elsiego, Guernica and Lecatio

Highlights

The month started with Charlie and me traveling to South Moravia in the southeastern part of the Czech Republic. We were based in Mikulov and Valtice and also visited the town of Lednice.

Lednice is home to a castle – and what an impressive castle it is! Overall, I'm not a big castle fan, but I really liked the decor of this castle, with lots of turquoise and dark mahogany, canals in the grounds and an actual spire that you can climb.

Next, we went to Valtice, home of the National Wine Cellar. As we all know, they have over 100 wines and you can taste them all in two hours (quickly)! Yes we did. We finished 100 small flavors in 120 minutes.

Overall, I really enjoyed South Moravia and it is now one of my favorite places in the Czech Republic.

This month, Charlie and I are also traveling to Spain with our friends Nick and Jack, planning a trip around the San Mateo Wine Festival in Logroño.

We started our trip in the Basque Country, visiting Bilbao and San Sebastian. I really like Bilbao – it feels very pleasant and liveable! Stroll along the river, beautiful bridges, great pintos bars and of course the Guggenheim Museum!

San Sebastian is a place I’ve been wanting to visit for over a decade, and it was worth the wait. There's lots of delicious food and the pintxos bar has a lot of creative dishes. The beach and views are also great. I found the old town a bit busy, but I really enjoyed the neighborhood of Gros across the bridge.

Next up is La Rioja. The San Mateo Festival is in full swing and it’s crazy – everyone is wearing burgundy bandanas around their necks, there’s loud music everywhere, parades and statues, and the snack streets are packed with people.

To be honest, this festival was a bit too much for me – but I’d love to go back to Logroño when the weather is a little quieter. The city has several food streets filled with unique tapas bars, some of which only serve one type of cuisine. Logroño is very affordable, partly because it's a little out of the way.

We visited several wineries and a cheese factory in the area, before heading via Guernica to the seaside town of Lekeitio on the Bay of Biscay to spend our last few days. It was so peaceful, chill, and lovely – the perfect end to a busy trip.

Overall, I really enjoyed the Basque Country – it's very different in terms of geography, temperature, culture and food from other areas of Spain I've been to. It would be nice to go somewhere in Spain where everything is green and not overly brown.

In addition to this, this month I completed the documents for permanent residence in the Czech Republic. I have my new ID and everything. I’ve already enjoyed two benefits!

First, we renewed our apartment lease and I no longer had to go to the foreign police to submit paperwork, which I had to do before! I received my new health insurance card and it's blue instead of green and it's valid for ten years instead of one!

challenge

Central Europe suffered severe flooding this month, with water levels in Prague rising sharply. However, damage was minimal, partly due to protective measures taken after major floods in Prague in 1997 and 2002.

Unfortunately, the situation is not so good in other parts of Central Europe.

Blog Posts of the Month

Most popular posts on Instagram

This summer, when I was in Scottsdale with a friend, we hailed an Uber and received an unexpected message — “Would you like to try a self-driving car?” Well, of course! Why not take a five-minute ride through Old Town Scottsdale?

I made a video about our first self-driving car experiencethis is so fun and weird! Waymo is now operating in certain communities in three metro areas: Phoenix, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, and I would totally love to ride with them again!

If you want to see more interesting videos from my travels, you can Follow me on Instagram: @adventureouskate.

What did I watch this month?

will and harper It's been a blast to watch on Netflix this month. If you've been living under a rock will and harper is a documentary about Will Ferrell and his close friend, comedy writer Harper Steele, as they go on a road trip across the United States together after Harper's gender transition.

Harper, who often traveled alone on road trips across the U.S. before her transition, loved dive bars, truck stops and restaurants — but she didn't know if it would be safe to do so after her transition.

I love movies about two ordinary people and their relationship. That's the purpose of this article. But it’s also the kind of education cisgender people need about how dangerous it is to be a trans woman in America.

(Also, it’s nice to hear Harper write the sketch “Oops, I ripped my pants.” My friends and I used to quote that in high school!)

below deck renew: This month, Charlie and I watched below deck Season 11: The latest season and the first for Captain Cree.

Can I say that Captain Cree is the best captain ever? Charlie and I kept saying what a great boss he was. He has high standards, expects the best from his crew, handles difficult situations expertly, and makes himself a constant presence on board.

After watching too much Captain Sandy lately, this season was a great show, even if by the end you started to get annoyed by most of the crew.

Another thing: I noticed this season you almost never see any crew members smoking. In previous seasons, most of the cast would smoke constantly on nights out – I wonder if Bravo is working on quitting.

What did I listen to this month?

Someone on Threads was talking about Willow's song “Symptom of Life” and mentioned that part of the song was in 7/4. I love weird time signatures, so I listened to it – OMG, this song was written by Willow, like in Willow Smith? !

To be honest, I never paid much attention to Willow. Mainly because of the baby Nebo thing and the fact that the Smiths have been a little tired lately, but you know what? She makes incredible, genre-defying music.

I listened to this song over and over again, and then to Willow's latest album, Empathogen. It's wild, funky, jazzy, futuristic, ethereal, smart. A really good album that should top the charts and win awards.

It turns out that when you're a very talented musician who happens to be a Nebo baby, you're free to make unusual music that probably won't sell very well. This is a great album. Have a listen.

To be launched in October 2024

A massive solo adventure to three new countries is coming! I’m going to Nepal, Bhutan and Qatar!

The plan was to stay two nights at a resort outside Kathmandu and then fly to Bhutan for just over a week. You need to work with a tour company to visit Bhutan and I am working with bhutan tourism centerthey received me as their guest. They planned a fun week full of culture, hiking, and scenery.

Afterwards, I flew back to Kathmandu, stayed overnight in an airport hotel, and flew to Pokhara early the next morning. I will spend one night in a mountain resort, three nights in Pokhara, then fly back to Kathmandu for the final night, then fly to Doha, Qatar for two nights, then fly back to Prague.

I booked my flight with Qatar Airways using British Airways Avios (it's actually much cheaper to use BA Avios than QA Avios!), but to get to Bhutan you need to fly on one of two smaller airlines with limited coverage one.

You should know that I almost canceled this trip due to the terrible flooding in Nepal, specifically in the Kathmandu Valley. The losses were heavy and many people lost their lives.

Then, when I saw that Kathmandu Airport was fully operational, I decided to stay at the airport hotel for two nights and then go to Bhutan (unaffected by the floods) before flying back to Qatar.

Then I talked to a lot of people in Kathmandu and Pokhara and staff at all my hotels. Conclusion: Life is normal in all the areas I visit, my travel plans will not be affected (especially since I am flying between Kathmandu and Pokhara), I will not be in the way of any relief efforts and local small businesses that need my money .

Anyway, after much consideration, I decided to go ahead with the trip as planned and make a generous donation to the local organizations I found there.

I can't wait to share this trip with you.

What are you looking forward to in October? Share it!