Bridget No Entiendo

After working for 4 years in the greatest city in the world, New York, I decided to pack up everything I own into 2 bags and live in Spain for 1.5 years. I taught English, learned Spanish, and fell in love. I recently left Spain to live in the beautiful and vastly different country of Austria, where I can no longer say, "no entiendo" but it's clear I still don't understand!

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On NYE we hiked up an icy mountain, drank warm tea and schnapps and took this creepy picture at the top. We had the best views of the fireworks.

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Frohe Weihnachten!

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Christmas marketing hopping in Vienna with good friends.

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I rolled along as a third wheel on a glorious hike/climb in Eisenerz with Markus and Gosia. We got off track at one point, but the poop of several Steinböcke showed us the way. The icy path proved to be a bit treacherous, but that just made the hot tea and chocolate at the peak taste even sweeter. 

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I finally finished the video recap of our big summer trip. Thank you to all of my amazing friends and family members who hosted us, flew or drove out to see us and gave us so many good times to remember. It was an unforgettable summer!

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Athens was the last stop on our little tour of Greece. Of course I had to visit the Acropolis, but I couldn’t really enjoy it because it was overrun by tourists. My favorite thing about the city was our visit to Polis Hammam, where we were washed and massaged with a huge soap bubble in a hot room on a marble slab. Now that is the perfect way to end a vacation! 

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Sifnos: An island with fantastic eggplant dishes, hundreds of stray cats, beautiful walking trails and approximately 1 million churches.

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It's pretty amazing that my friend Ryan was in Santorini with his mom at the same time. Meeting of the Moms 2017!

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Santorini has been high up on my bucket list for a long time. I had always imagined going there on a romantic vacation, but this week I showed up with my mom. It is even more beautiful than I had imagined, but there were definitely some less desirable traits that the pictures never showed. For one, there are hoards of tourists including brides from all over the world (mostly China) who come there to take wedding photos. And it's not just the bride and groom, it's the camera crew, makeup artist and hairstylist. And then there's the heat. It's so hot come midday, but the beach is on the other end of the island, and there aren't many places to escape from the sun. Don't get me wrong, I loved the place, but it has been knocked off the high pedestal I had it on.

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Summer is ending and I'm spending my last vacation in Greece with the one and only Dolores Sheehan. Our first stop was the island of Crete. We spent six days eating seafood, snorkeling, sunbathing and walking through the winding streets. The highlight was probably when mom held an octopus. Now it's on to Santorini!

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Summer is ending and I'm spending my last vacation in Greece with the one and only Dolores Sheehan. Our first stop was the island of Crete. We spent six days eating seafood, snorkeling, sunbathing and walking through the winding streets. The highlight was probably when mom held an octopus. Now it's on to Santorini!

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Had a wonderful time at Cornelia and Sven's wedding in Germany. Everyone dressed in traditional clothing for the event. On to wedding number two in Austria this weekend!

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We spent our last night in Rio going out with a bang at Letícia and Ferdi's wedding. The location couldn't have been more picturesque and the caipirinha bar couldn't have been more delicious. After the ceremony, Brazilians don't waste much time getting down to business. The DJ started right away and the dance floor was full the whole night. I only took breaks to get a new drink or an appetizer. Leaving today is definitely bittersweet. I'll miss this crazy city!

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We left the big city of Rio for a quiet beach town called Itacoatiara. We stayed three blocks from the beach in a little bungalow with a beautiful porch looking out to the rocky hills. We spent most of our time sunbathing, body surfing and drinking acai from the beach vendors. It was a little slice of Brazilian heaven.

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Before leaving Rio, we had to check out the Escadaria Selaron, a colorful flight of stairs in Rio's artsy district, Lapa. We also got to see a lot of local street art as we found our way back to the subway station. By the way, Rio's subway system is super clean and efficient! I was a little nervous to go underground, but I was pleasantly surprised once I was down there.

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Rio by night: Local musicians playing samba music and large slabs of meat.

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Our hike through Tijuca Park was full of lush plants, strange animal noises and a few waterfalls. We ran into two other groups in the five hours we were there, both were German speakers.