Mazie

Azores: Day 1

Fri, 17 Apr 2026 22:52:56 +0000

Here is the update the world has been waiting on the edge of its seat for! The Azores Islands!!!!! I am going to stay true to the bullet point trip log form because it’s more fun to write this way and I’m less likely to ramble on about like the wind for five paragraphs :) Also, before I let the bullets flow, let me just say that it is AMAZING here and I love it so much and I so see myself living here and I am so inspired and renewed and joyous every time I look outside and Chris and Pavel and Stephanie YOU ARE THE BEST. Fyi, it is Day 2 right now (oop, now its Day 3) but I am starting this log on Thursday because Thursday was a fun day and I want to write about it and I didn’t sleep that night so my Friday was basically my Thursday too!

Thursday, April 14th

9:00 Wake up
9:35 Leave the house
9:41 Metro –> Get off at Povenca
9:51 Walk to Learnlife. Do internship! Second-to-last-day. Had no idea I was supposed to be leading Adri’s Math for Science and Business until I walked in two minutes before class started…
5:00 Bye Learnlife! Walk over to Parc de la Ciutadella. Stop to buy chocolates and olive oil for my Azores hosts. Speeeeeedwalk for real
5:45 Arrive at Ciutadella 15 minutes late. This was a program activity and it was really fun! We walked around, had a little picnic in the park, rented rowboats and had an aesthetic paddle around the pond, and then Natalie, Ari, and I got Acai and a Golfeado from a place nearby.
8:00 Last Cristina dinner for a while! We had gnocchi, spring rolls, bread, salad, and a kiwi. Then Natalie and I had our usual post dinner hallway talk
9:30 Look at my homework. (Not me having two final assignments due before midnight and not having started EITHER ONE)
10:30 Shower
11:00 Chill
11:20 Start Photo Project Assignment, which is actually way less work than I was expecting THANK GOODNESS. Also say my goodbyes to Natalie :(

(We switch over to Friday, April 15th)

12:25 I was a little late to submit the photo project assignment, but not too bad (Well… maybe a bit bad because it was a group project)!
12:30 Packing stage 1: Set everything out on my bed
1:00 Brush teeth, pajamas. Then cozy up and work on my Psych Written Final for a bit. I was so tired and all I wanted to do was stay in my bed and go to sleep…
2:00 Pajamas back off, packing stage 2: Put things in my backpack. I packed incredibly strategically to be able to fit: 5 days of clothes, girl scout cookies, host gifts, an umbrella, a cinnamon roll, my school stuff, and all my other random stuff
2:35 Walk out of the house and completely miss the bus I was going to take.
3:07 Wait a reeeaaally long time at the bus stop for the next bus that Google Maps was really not sure was even going to come. But it did!
3:35 Changed to the N17 Airport bus. My timing was so perfect
4:05 Arrive at the airport. Go through security, find my gate, work on my assignment more, blah blah blah.
5:30 Board the plane
6:00 Take off! I had the window seat and actually slept pretty well.
7:20 Land in Lisbon. Had to wait almost a half hour for the jet bridge.
7:30 Find my next gate, eat my cinnamon roll, board the plane
8:15 Take off! Had the window seat again and slept even better this time!
9:45 Land in the Azores! Specifically, at the Ponta Delgada airport on the São Miguel Island (largest of the 9 island archipelago).
10:15 Chris, Pavel, and Faith graciously pick me up at the airport. Faith and I scream and are reunited. It’s a beautiful moment :)
10:30 We drive into Ponta Delgada and I get to know my new local heroes a bit better. Chris is from the U.S. and Pavel is from Bulgaria and they met when Chris was in Bulgaria and fell in love and moved to the Azores. They got married and have been living here happily ever after for 2 years with Chris’s sister Stephanie. They renovate old ruins into modern homes for a living on the island. Chris is one of those people that you immediately like: easy going, funny uncle vibes, can make a story out of virtually anything, and Pavel is very sweet and funny as well. As far as how I got so lucky to meet- and stay with- these lovely people, it is thanks to Faith’s mom. Before the Azores, Chris lived in Minnesota for 20 years and met Faith’s mom and dad working at the Stages Theater Company. When Faith’s mom told him that her daughter was studying in London for the year, he said he would be happy to have her visit the islands and bring a friend! And boom, that was me!
11:00 Welcome breakfast at a local café in the capital (Ponta Delgada). Chris and Pavel knew everyone in the cafe- of course- and had lots of entertaining stories to tell Faith and I. We all got bacon, eggs, and toast, and it was actually really satisfying.
12:30 Chris and Pavel head off and Faith and I, armored with loads of tips and recommendations from them, headed off to explore the capital.
1:00 Walk along the harbor. Examine a giant cruise ship and a really beautiful golden church.
2:00 Walk up this really old tower that feels like its going to crumble underneath our feet and enjoy the view from the top.
2:30 Buy apples and water from a local grocery store. Figure out what to do next, then ATM stop.
3:00 Military museum! We kept stumbling across new exhibits and passageways just after we thought we’d explored it all. Personally the underground tunnels were the coolest part, but there were also some pretty nice views from the roof.
4:30 Walk over to the Botanical Gardens and we are blown away! We thought we were entering a nice city park. But no. We were stepping into an enchanted jungle world of moss covered bridges and flowers and caves, plopped right in the middle of the city. We frolicked and took a lot of pictures :)
6:00 Garden closes. We could’ve stayed longer. Illegally hop the fence to leave, then walk over to another botanical gardens a few blocks away. Just our luck- they were also closing
6:15 Walk to a mall for dinner.
6:30 Decide on this fast food Italian pasta place for dinner- we ate in the mall food court!
7:00 Run to the grocery store downstairs to buy provisions (breakfast) for the week. I bought: 2 apples, yogurt, and these english muffin bread things that looked really good.
7:30 Meet Chris back at the food court and drive back to his house in Fenais de Ajuda (Fin-aysh de A-joo-duh). It’s a solid 40-50 minute drive into the interior of the island. Their house is gorgeous, with the backside and giant balcony overlooking the ocean. And they renovated it themselves!
8:30 Settle in, give everyone their gifts, chat with Faith, do some homework, etc.
11:30 I am continually falling asleep as Faith and I are laying in bed and talking.

Well, from 9AM Thursday morning to 11:30PM Friday night, that was my epic mega day. I slept better than I maybe ever have on a plane and ended up on a tiny little patch of land in the middle of the Atlantic ocean. I am so excited for my time on the island and forever indebted to Faith and her mom and especially Chris and Pavel themselves for making it happen! And being our drivers, tour guides, and day trip planners. Without them I might not have even know these islands, where I now want to move one day, existed. Special shout out to all of these special individuals for making me feel so at home here.

Salomon Run Barcelona 10k

Sun, 12 Apr 2026 16:28:20 +0000

Today I embarked on an epic mission that I was not expecting to be so epic: Finishing the Salomon Run Barcelona 10k! When I signed up for this race on spring break in Croatia, I was craving a deeper involvement with the Barcelona community. I felt like I had been in the walking around and exploring random neighborhoods phase for too long and needed to do something real in the city. I needed my name written down somewhere.

The race definitely quenched that desire and I am very happy I did it! I even made a new friend at the starting line who is from Argentina and moved to Barcelona 10 months ago. As she was telling me about the mountain summit races she’s done in Argentina I joked that the stairs just beyond the start line would be no problem for her. I never considered my lack of Argentinian mountain training (or any training at all, actually) and how important that might actually be for the Montjuic MOUNTAIN course.

Picture the starting line with me for a second: You are standing at the base of Montjuic mountain staring up eight? Nine? flights of stairs. The gun sounds and you’re off, flying up the stairs like a champion and getting annoyed with the people already walking because they are blocking the entire stairs and forcing you to slow down. You make it up all eight or nine flights, shake out your legs, and are able to run again. Considering how high you’ve climbed, you’re feeling pretty good. You’re patting yourself on the back for choosing the stairs over the escalator in the metro.

And that’s when you see the long stretch of downhill in front of you, pretty steep. It appears a little suspicious, a little too early to be coasting down to a flat course and then the finish line, but you have hope. Well I should’ve expected the worst, because this hill dumps me out at the base of a fresh eight or nine flights of stairs, basically climbing back up everything I just climbed (jogged? bouncily walked?) like two minutes ago. So I do that and I think: All right, good joke, but we must be done with this now.

Of course not! The top of this new hill turns out to be the bottom of another hill, and so on and so forth for the next 9 kilometers. I couldn’t count the number of times we ran up a hill just to turn the corner and run down the equivalent number of stairs. Kilometer 6 was especially bad as the entire thing was one long, terrible incline. One of those that was just incline-ey enough to be taxing, and it just would’t stop. Usually during a race the competitive environment and cheering makes me feel like I am running faster than I usually would be, but this time I couldn’t have even tricked myself into thinking that. I was a helpless little snail wriggling my way up that hill. Honestly, as long as I was still moving, I was moving fast enough.

The last kilometer provided some relief… until the last stretch: You could hear the finish line up ahead, just after you mounted, descended, and re-climbed a final few flights of stairs. The best part, as usual, was cheering on the last few stragglers after I finished. They even had a Vertical Solomon challenge after the races finished where 32 participants raced up the initial flights of stairs over and over again until they narrowed it down to one winner. All in all it was a fun time and made me feel a small pocket of community in the middle of such a big city.

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 07:56:36 +0000

A few more…

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 07:37:23 +0000

A little study of waves and a staircase.

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 22:57:29 +0000

Smallest street in the world!

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 22:55:55 +0000

Jamie visits Klis Fortress.

Batch 1 continued

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 22:55:02 +0000

Picture 11: Quaint street just outside of the city center at dusk.
Picture 12: Treats, including an eclair mommy went crazy over, at the Cookie Lab bakery.
Picture 13: Taken from the Substructures of Diocletian’s Palace.
Picture 14: Cuz why not?
Picture 15: We not-so-sneakily-sneaked onto this ruins rooftop and there were really pretty flowers.
Picture 16: Yeah, classy, I know
Picture 17: Possibly my favorite phot of the entire trip in some strange way. I noticed these ladies taking a gelato selfie and the scene was just calling my camera.

Croatia Pictures: Batch 1!

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 22:47:15 +0000

Don’t worry, there are many more to come :) I have hundreds I could post… What I am going to include in this blog post (partly for my own sanity as I should really be going to bed right now) are some of my favorite photos from Split, our first destination. We arrived early Sunday morning and stayed for two nights, exploring mountains, farms, bakeries, gelato, shops, parks, and quaint streets. Split is really unique as it is constructed within ancient ruins (truly mind-bogglingly ancient), meaning people have been working and sleeping and chatting in these same buildings and on these same streets for well over a thousand years.

A little bit about the pictures…

Pictures 1 and 2: Cheese burek from Bobis. We swear there had to be at least 762 Bobis locations in Split, but honestly they’re justified because it was insanely delicious.
Picture 3: A really cool section of Diocletian’s Palace. For perspective, this is something you come across casually when walking down the street.
Picture 4: Me posing by the harbor :)
Picture 5: More ruins, aka the city.
Picture 6: Isn’t this the most adorable kitty I’m in love
Picture 7: Another cat. There were lots of them everywhere in Croatia!
Picture 8: No explanation needed. Same goes for this website hehe
Picture 9: Cool mural! You would never have been able to get this picture in the summer because there would be five hundred people posing and messing up your picture.
Picture 10: The farthest reaches of Marjan Hill. This photo was snapped after we climbed a path that could’ve entered a “steepest path” competition and won, if such a thing existed.

Trip Log -- M&M Croatia -- Day 8

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 09:38:12 +0000

4:00 Tammy wakes up to finish packing and getting ready
4:20 Sitting on the bed time- basically goodbye :(
4:35 Leave the Airbnb and lug suitcase back up the steps
4:40 Tammy meets her ride to the airport in the middle of the highway. Mazie wails and screams and cries but can do nothing to stop the car driving away. Final goodbye through the car window 😢
5:00 Mazie returns to the Airbnb and tries to fall back asleep but is very sad.
7:00 Mazie wakes up for the second time and gets ready to leave.
7:30 Goodbye Airbnb, for real! Mazie catches an Uber to the airport and has an educational conversation with the driver.

Mazie —> BCN (9:50)

Tammy —> AMS (6:30) four hour layover, MSP (12:45)

Well, I wouldn’t want to bore you with five hundred bullet points about boarding planes and taking off and landing, so I guess this is the end of the log :( What an amazing adventure in Croatia- we had a really, really great time! Thanks for keeping up to date with our trip and a huge thanks to Tammy/mommy for planning it all! Hvala!

Trip Log -- M&M Croatia -- Day 7

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 09:37:10 +0000

6:00 Tammy wakes up
8:30 Mazie wakes up.
8:55 Walk to the bus stop to get picked up for our ATV adventure. Another Lindt chocolate bar for breakfast 😊
9:00 Drive out of town to where the ATVs are. Get helmets, choose our vehicle, and get acquainted with driving it.
9:30 The rest of the tour shows up- 100% American college guys, probably a sports team.
9:50-12:30 We’re on the road! We switch drivers: Tammy (flat roads) —> Mazie (flat roads, medium rocks and bumps, lots of mud) —> Tammy (Terrifying, INSANE patches of rock, mud, gravel) —> Mazie (flat roads and gravel back down). Stopped for beautiful panoramic views.
12:45 Drive back to the Old Town area. Dropped off near Airbnb, so stop in for water and another bite of chocolate.
1:00 Walk to Old Town
1:15 Burek- possibly Mazie’s favorite of the trip- for lunch. We found another bakery selling the pizza shaped one!
1:30 Gelato at Peppino’s. Both Tammy and Mazie indulge in the Peppino’s Maxi King flavor- hazelnuts, nougat, salted caramel 😋
1:45 Really quick stop in a museum. They have another dungeon.
1:56 Buy tickets for the Lokrum Island ferry, then literally jump on board as the ferry is pulling out of the dock.
2:00 Ferry ride!
2:15-5:30 Explore Lokrum Island. It’s a nature preserve with a stunning coastline, peacocks, and hidden natural features. It used to also have bunnies.
- Walked around the fort (another fort!)
- Walked the coastline
- Blueberry juice at a café on the island
- Peacocks are amusing and make such interesting noises
- Wander through the Botanical Gardens
- See the “Dead Sea”
- Rush back through the forest to catch the 5:30 ferry
5:40 Board the ferry. Turns out it was late and that’s the only reason we made it on!
5:50 Back on the mainland. Walk to dinner
6:00 Dinner at Art Restaurant Renaissance. We shared sporki makaruli, sea bass, bread, and tiramisu (surprised?). The outdoor ambience with live music was lovely and felt like we were two mice in Ratatouille sitting in an Italian alleyway.
7:45 Second gelato of the day at aROMA Gelato. Mazie got peanut butter and Tammy got more salted caramel.
8:00 Final evening wandering around town. Bittersweet.
8:30 Head back to Airbnb
8:45 Stop at a bakery to buy one last round of burek for tomorrow morning.
9:00 Pack, pack, pack. Listen to Marco Polos on the couch.
10:00 Tammy goes to sleep
12:00 Mazie goes to sleep.

Trip Log --M&M Croatia -- Day 6

Sun, 05 Apr 2026 22:37:03 +0000

6:00 Tammy wakes up
8:00 Mazie wakes up, pack
8:20 Tammy walks to buy a spinach burek and Lindt chocolate bar for breakfast (don’t judge, it was good).
8:55 Check out of Airbnb and walk down the pier to meet our ferry to Dubrovnik!
9:06 Board the ferry
9:10 Ferry leaves. We make several stops at islands along the way, but it is a smooth and pretty ride.
12:30 Arrive in Dubrovnik. Uber from port to Airbnb just outside the Old City.
12:45 Another puzzle to figure out exactly where the Airbnb is, but we meet our host and check in without too much confusion. It is a beautiful, modern place with an amazing view of the sea.
1:15 Leave to explore the Old City. Walk down five million stairs to get there. Beautiful water views.
2:00 Chicken burek from Holy Burek. Very popular place.
2:15 Buy special Dubrovnik passes granting us access to the city walls, museums, and free public transport.
2:30 Walk the Old City walls! Gorgeous panoramic views from what felt like very high above the old city. It is really cool that the entirety of the wall is still intact.
3:30 Back into the Old City
3:35 Gelato stop at Molõ. Tammy had the salted caramel and Mazie tried dark chocolate orange, which she managed to get all over her fingers.
3:45 40 minute walk out of the city to escape room.
4:30 “Legends of Dubrovnik” at Puzzle Punks. Fun room! Reference my blog post or the Escaping Things website for more details :)
5:30 Narrow escape, walk back to the Old Town.
6:15 Explore
6:45 Take refuge in a tiny art museum because we are cold and it’s windy outside.
7:00 Dinner at Local Peka- our first time trying Croatian Peka, and it was homemade family style. We both LOVED the bread and olive oil, Mazie enjoyed the Peka meat, Tammy enjoyed the Peka potatoes. We smuggled our leftover bread out with us, it was that good😏.
8:30 Wander back to Airbnb. Walk back up the five million steps we descended earlier.
10:00 One last episode of Never Have I Ever.
10:30 Goodnight!
1:30 Mazie goes to bed- whoops :)

Trip Log -- M&M Croatia -- Day 1

Sun, 05 Apr 2026 22:35:56 +0000

3:20 Wake up, pack up, say goodbyes. Have a safe journey home Jamie/dad and Tyler!
3:45 Meet our Uber outside the apartment. Wonderful driver, got to know him a little bit!
4:15 Arrive at airport. Line to check luggage
4:45 Security and walk to gate. Mazie gives the airport an early morning Bridge Over Troubled Water concert at a piano along the way.
5:45 Board the plane. We were almost the last to board (out of choice)
6:15 Take off!!
8:15 Landing!!
8:45 Collect luggage and take a very overpriced taxi to the Split city center
9:00 Drag luggage across very bumpy cobblestones to the Airbnb to check in. We had to give it a few tries before we found the right door :)
9:30 Climbed the secret ladder in our apartment to the old palace walls. We walked along the entire stretch of wall!
10:00 Walk around Split for a bit! We saw a nice park with Easter eggs, the Adriatic Sea, Froggyland, and the palace ruins on which the current city is built.
11:00 Pastries from Bobis. We tried two versions of cheese Burek- one was warm and rolled, the other cold and pizza shaped, and despite being cold, the pizza one was absolutely amazing!
11:30 Make our way to the edge of the city for our olive oil experience!
12:00 Meet Marian and he drives us to his farm in the mountains. We pick up Jason along the way- a hitchhiker that Marian met yesterday and blossoming friendship.
12:00-4:00 Tour Marian’s sustainable farm, learn a ton about olive oil and wine production notably. Two learnings that stood out: Balsamic is made from aged figs, and almonds and peaches share 85% of their DNA! Apparently there are almonds inside peach pits…? We enjoyed a charcuterie board of dried meats, cheese, and dried fruit all made by hand at the end.
4:00 Marian drives us back to the city center.
4:30 Explore, walk the windy streets, accidentally hike part of the way up Marjan hill.
6:30 Pit stop at Airbnb.
6:45 Walk to dinner at Pizzeria Portas. This will be our first and last pizza experience on this trip cause Tammy’s stomach is currently not liking pizza. The pizza itself (and olive oil) was amazing though!
8:00 Back to Airbnb for the night.
10:00 Goodnight!

Trip Log -- M&M Croatia -- Day 5

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 22:00:04 +0000

6:00 Tammy wakes up to attend to medical matters
8:30 Tammy wakes Mazie up
9:00 Leave and get a spinach burek and chocolate for breakfast
9:28 Finally able to take out cash after trying many different machines
9:30 Meet up with bike guy, get acquainted with our e-bikes, learn about routes. We decided to take the longer island tour because we’re cool like that
9:45 Leave town on route to Stari Grad. Biked through Brusje and stopped for pictures and chocolate. Climbed to the top of the mountain and then descended back down to the coast; thank goodness for electric bikes
11:45 Arrive in Stari Grad frozen from the extremely windy and cold ride down the mountain.
11:55 Tammy buys “mittens” from a souvenir shop that is actually open.
12:00 Buy AMAZING bread from a local bakery
12:10 Buy cheese and water from the Tommy grocery store. Can you guess what kind of picnic this is shaping up to be?
12:15 Try to find somewhere warm and sheltered from the wind to eat our picnic. Give up and eat while walking. We managed to find the same cheese from our first European picnic a few days ago that we had loved, but somehow this cheese was different and tasted weird.
12:45 Afternoon stroll along the coast. Beautiful. Somewhat reminiscent of the North Shore.
2:00 Stroll around town.
2:15 Back on bikes for the ride up the mountain.
2:48 Serendipitous stop at Alavia on top of the mountain. They are (shockingly) open but have no menu, so we got some drinks and bread and cheese. Second European picnic of the day. Beautiful restaurant and views, and all the food was delicious.
4:20 Back on bikes, ride down the mountain. Really cool scenery and really cool villages the whole way. A few picture stops were required, but Tammy was very cold so was eager to finish. We rode around 40km in total.
5:15 Drop bikes back off at the rental place and walk back to Airbnb to drop stuff off
5:30 Face timed dad/Jamie. Got an update on how he’s doing- He’s trending much better!
6:15 Left for a walk along the harbor. Explored the side of town we hadn’t seen yet.
7:30 Dinner at Val Marina. Complimentary prosecco and bread & olive oil, Sea Bass, and tiramisu.
8:30 Leave restaurant and stroll around for a while admiring Hvar at night.
9:30 Back to Airbnb
10:30 One episode of Never Have I Ever, snuggling and cozy in bed
11:15 Goodnight :)

Puzzle Punks: Legends of Dubrovnik

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 15:39:38 +0000

Escaped the Legends of Dubrovnik room at Puzzle Punks with 0:02 to spare! Fun room and the puzzles were the perfect level of difficulty- once we stood there for (several) seconds and figured out what was going on. We were moving relatively steadily (emphasis on relatively) until we got stuck on the same puzzle for the last 15 minutes and needed extensive clues to work through it :)

Trip Log -- M&M Croatia -- Day 4

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 20:11:48 +0000

6:45 Tammy wakes up
8:45 Mazie wakes up
9:20 Leave apartment in search of the e-bike rental place
9:30 Found it! Filled out form online to hopefully rent bikes for tomorrow
9:45 Stopped for pastries from Pekka Bakery. Burek and Nutella filled donut.
9:50 Began the trek to Robinson beach via the coastal trail. The trail begins after the road out of town ends, so we almost deemed it nonexistent and turned back.
11:00 Reach Robinson beach, our initial destination, and decide to continue to Milna.
12:09 Reach Milna, walked around in search of European picnic supplies but slowly realize that literally nothing is open. It is a beautiful setting though.
1:00 Back to Robinson beach. We dissected some almonds.
2:00 Back to Hvar Town. Tammy is about to pass out from hunger and Mazie is about to pass out from thirst.
2:15 Procure European picnic supplies.
2:30 Return to Airbnb to eat European picnic. Enjoyed the view of the harbor and Adriatic Sea from our little balcony. Our cheese selection this time around was bad, but our choice in chocolate was impeccable.
3:45 Leave for Španjola Fortress. Short 10 minute walk from town, but it is starting to rain.
4:00 Enter Fortress. Very cool ancient feeling. There is even a prison we got to walk around in.
4:45 Leave Fortress, visited a tiny church on the way down.
5:00 Arrive at the oldest public theater in Europe (and maybe the world). We hung out for a while because the theater was adorable and dry and there were kids practicing for a play. Very cute.
5:45 Head back to Airbnb to grab umbrellas.
6:00 Watched dad/Jamie’s polo and realized the urgency of his situation. We knew he was sick before but didn’t realize how sick he really was.
6-10:00 Text, email, telephone campaign to alert people of Jamie’s situation and get him the help he needed. All of the friends and family we contacted were so amazing and willing to help, but still very scary.
10:15 Jamie is getting proper attention and has Tyler and Hector there with him. Watched one episode of “Never Have I Ever”.
11:00 Tammy goes to sleep. Mazie kind of does a bit of homework.
2:00am Mazie goes to sleep after covering herself in every blanket and comforter she can find because she is incurably cold.

Trip Log -- M&M Croatia -- Day 3

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 20:08:55 +0000

7:45 Tammy wakes up and goes for a run
9:10 Tammy wakes Mazie up
9:45 Leave our apartment- bye bye!
10:10 Leave luggage at a storage place on the harbor after finally getting cash. Walk to Cookie Lab pastry shop
10:40 Hazelnut eclair and hazelnut mousse dessert at the Cookie Lab. Tammy enjoyed the eclair “very much”.
11:10 Began the walk back to the Old City along the beach. Saw some crazy waves
11:45 Walked around the Substructure of Diocletian’s Palace
12:30 Tried to go to the Cathedral (oldest one in the word) and the Temple of Jupiter but they were not open :(
12:30 Smallest street in the world!
1:00 Ethnographic Museum of Split
1:30 Discovered a random staircase while trying to exit the museum. Led to a beautiful rooftop looking out across Split that was called the Vestibule Terrace. We were probably supposed to pay…
1:45 Uncovered some new streets!
1:50 Quick tourist stop for some souvenirs: Beach towel with Croatian boats and wooden boat wall art.
2:00 Gelato stop at the same shop as yesterday. Tammy tried the salted butter caramel flavor and we wandered around one last time.
2:30 Return to storage place and collect our luggage
2:40 Figure out that our boat is docked at Port 21. Board and sit there rocking in the waves for an uncomfortable amount of time.
3:00 Depart for Hvar island. It’s a smoothly rocky ride.
3:50 Arrive at Hvar Town.
4:00 Met with our lovely Airbnb host to get acquainted with our apartment. It is quite a beautiful place with a balcony overlooking the Adriatic sea.
4:15 Banana, trail mix, and marvel at the four chambered garbage
4:30 Left to explore Hvar Town. Walked through some quaint streets and along the shore.
6:00 Dinner at Mizarola, right down the street from our apartment. Vegetable Tagliatelle, roasted chicken breast, “pizza bread”, tiramisu- a Tammy standout!
7:40 Back to the Airbnb. Both Tammy and Mazie shower.
9:40 One episode of Young Sheldon before bed

Trip Log — M&M Croatia — Day 2

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 13:08:36 +0000

8:45 Tammy wakes up
10:18 Tammy wakes Mazie up (almost 12 hours of sleep!)
10:50 Leave and walk to bus station
11:10 Buy bus tickets somewhat successfully
11:30 Bus to Klis
12:10 Get off at Klis Fortress and realize that we took the wrong bus, so hike down the hill to the bus stop we wanted to get off at and hike back up on the pretty path to the fortress.
1:00 Explore Klis Fortress. Thoroughly.
2:30 Leave the fortress and raid the local supermarket for European picnic supplies
3:00 Find a nice spot on the hillside to enjoy our European picnic. The cheese was incredible.
3:15 Realize that buses are scarce up in the mountains and the next one for a few hours is arriving soon
3:25 Run back down the hill in record time, successfully buy our second round of bus tickets, and hop on Bus 35. It arrived and left 8 mins early, which I didn’t think was exactly allowed.
4:00 Walk to Airbnb to drop off our extra bread and cheese.
4:30 Walk around town. We like the vibe when stores are actually open. Bought designer vibe t-shirts and gelato while exploring. Salted butter caramel and Kinder.
6:00 Began hike up Marjan hill
7:00 Reach the weirdly modern viewpoint at the end of the peninsula. Includes a bathroom. Begin hike back down.
7:30 Back down from Marjan hill
7:45 Dinner at Cicibela. Stone bass and pesto gnocchi with grilled bread and virgin mojitos. -8:45 Wander back to Airbnb. Stumble across Boris, a local guitar player and singer who entertained Tammy and Mazie until Tammy got tired and cold and went to bed.
10:20 Mazie stays and hangs out with Boris and Vivian (studying abroad in Madrid) until past midnight. Boris imparts a lot of wisdom, shares lots of very long stories, and plays lots of music for us. He even teaches us a bit of Tai Chi. We are joined partway through by three other students, including- get this- Maisie, who is studying (permanently) in Prague. At the end of the night we exchanged phone numbers and took a selfie together
12:15 Mazie back to the Airbnb and to bed :)

Trip Log -- M&M Croatia -- Day 1

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 23:31:00 +0000

3:20 Wake up, pack up, say goodbyes. Have a safe journey home Jamie/dad and Tyler!
3:45 Meet our Uber outside the apartment. Wonderful driver, got to know him a little bit!
4:15 Arrive at airport. Line to check luggage
4:45 Security and walk to gate. Mazie gives the airport an early morning Bridge Over Troubled Water concert at a piano along the way.
5:45 Board the plane. We were almost the last to board (out of choice)
6:15 Take off!!
8:15 Landing!!
8:45 Collect luggage and take a very overpriced taxi to the Split city center
9:00 Drag luggage across very bumpy cobblestones to the Airbnb to check in. We had to give it a few tries before we found the right door :)
9:30 Climbed the secret ladder in our apartment to the old palace walls. We walked along the entire stretch of wall!
10:00 Walk around Split for a bit! We saw a nice park with Easter eggs, the Adriatic Sea, Froggyland, and the palace ruins on which the current city is built.
11:00 Pastries from Bobis. We tried two versions of cheese Burek- one was warm and rolled, the other cold and pizza shaped, and despite being cold, the pizza one was absolutely amazing!
11:30 Make our way to the edge of the city for our olive oil experience!
12:00 Meet Marian and he drives us to his farm in the mountains. We pick up Jason along the way- a hitchhiker that Marian met yesterday and blossoming friendship.
12:00-4:00 Tour Marian’s sustainable farm, learn a ton about olive oil and wine production notably. Two learnings that stood out: Balsamic is made from aged figs, and almonds and peaches share 85% of their DNA! Apparently there are almonds inside peach pits…? We enjoyed a charcuterie board of dried meats, cheese, and dried fruit all made by hand at the end.
4:00 Marian drives us back to the city center.
4:30 Explore, walk the windy streets, accidentally hike part of the way up Marjan hill.
6:30 Pit stop at Airbnb.
6:45 Walk to dinner at Pizzeria Portas. This will be our first and last pizza experience on this trip cause Tammy’s stomach is currently not liking pizza. The pizza itself (and olive oil) was amazing though!
8:00 Back to Airbnb for the night.
10:00 Goodnight!

"Sit back and enjoy your flight!"

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 17:01:41 +0000

I am not a fan of flying. In fact, I really don’t like flying and am continually annoyed by how takeoff puts half the plane to sleep while it only ever seems to jolt me awake out of fear. That is why, when the flight attendants buzz the classic “enjoy your flight” message over the loudspeaker as the plane is approaching 10,000 feet, I don’t expect to actually enjoy it much.

But my flight back from Paris was different. To start off, we were the last flight out of Terminal 3 for the night which was equal parts fun and depressing. The people on our flight were pretty lively, which made the airport feel fuller than it really was. I noticed a few people sporting Disney Paris merch! Soon after we finished boarding, the pilot gave a full blown speech over the loudspeaker. He talked about many things, notably how two of the flight attendants had just gotten married (to each other, I think?) and how handsome they both were. He had the entire plane laughing and clapping.

He then went into a little section about how aviation is the safest mode of transportation nowadays but why many people are still wary of flying. I’m not sure a pilot should joke about the safety of their passengers, but there were plenty of jokes sprinkled in. At one point during his explanation of airplane safety, he said: “Well, we’ll see about our flight tonight. Hope for the best!”.

And then he repeated an abbreviated version of the same speech in English and French (actually I’m pretty sure all he said in French was “Welcome aboard, we value your safety…. I really don’t speak French”), meaning he was talking for close to 10 minutes. Definitely the most connected I’ve ever felt to a commercial pilot! Aside from the intense turbulence storm as we came into Barcelona, he did a great job flying the plane as well :)

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 16:34:19 +0000

Remy (our adorably hilarious mouse friend from Ratatouille) invited us to dinner at his restaurant. He himself prepared us a delicious three course meal and, because he has a special place in his heart for our family, reserved us the best table in the house. Hardest part was figuring out how we were going to fit in the mouse sized door as very much as not mouse sized humans.

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 16:30:32 +0000

Disneyland Paris: The second leg of a wonderful weekend with some wonderful people!!!

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 16:28:06 +0000

Hashtag our family is reunited in Paris! City of ❤️- We really planned that well :)

Maratón de Barcelona

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 00:25:12 +0000

Después de la misa salí de la Sagrada Familia para encontrar la calle llena de gente gritando. Tuve suerte de estar en el lugar perfecto al tiempo perfecto para ver los corredores del Maratón correr al lado de el Sagrada Familia! Entré en el muchedumbre y empecé a gritar y animar a los corredores con los demás. Fue divertido simplemente mirar mientras tantas personas pasaron. Había un letrero que dijo que los corredores habían ido 14km (8 millas). Casi un tercio del maratón!

Decidí que debía caminar hacia Arc de Triomf, donde completó la carrera, para ver algunos de los corredores élites terminar. No llegué a tiempo para ver las atletas mas élites, pero vi muchas atletas muy buenas (porque cada participante era buena!) cruzar la linea de meta. Entonces encontré otro calle donde continuó la ruta (todavía estaba relativamente temprano en la carrera; la gran mayoría de las atletas no habían terminado) y decidí seguir los corredores en la acera para sentir mas como una parte de la carrera. No aburrí de caminar y tres horas mas tarde, crucé la linea de meta con las ultimas corredores (quienes que, a este punto, hubieron transformado en caminantes también).

Pienso que caminé las ultimas 7-8 millas de la carrera al lado de los corredores. Al fin estaba sudando y motivando a mi mismo para seguir adelante. El calle siguió haciendo curvas y virajes, pareciendo como nunca iba a terminar, pero estaba intenta en llegar el Arc de Triomf usando mis propios piernas. Lo poquito de triste que había sentido al principio por no estar participando había desaparecido y fue reemplazado con un sentido de asombro por todos los corredores: si mis piernas me dolieron como resultado de caminar una sección de la carrera, como fue posible que ellos estaban corriendo todavía?!

No obstante, experimentar el maratón de manera tan intimo me hizo completamente seguro de que voy a hacer un maratón un día. Seguramente estoy idealizando la experiencia de hacerlo, pero quiero experimentar lo que estaban experimentando los corredores hoy y poder decir que lo hice. Podías sentir la energía del muchedumbre en cada calle, validando la lema del carrera y patrocinador oficial, Hoka: “Barcelona te hace volar”.

Misa Internacional en la Sagrada Familia

Sun, 15 Mar 2026 23:32:05 +0000

Hola! Para los que no quieren practicar su español, pueden usar el Google Translate :). Mientras que estoy en España, parece que debo escribir algunas blog posts en español!

Hoy fui al servicio de Misa Internacional en la Sagrada Familia. Es una oportunidad especial por does razones: Puedes atender una misa en unas de las iglesias mas famosos de todo el mundo, y puedes entrar al iglesia sin pagar (aunque no están felices si intentas sacar fotos o explorar fuera de tu silla). Aprendí de mis errores la ultima vez que intenté ir (no había espacio porque llegué en un espíritu optimista 5 minutos antes de que empezó) y llegué a las 7:45- mas que una hora temprano. Me admitieron, pero fue bien que no llegué mas tarde porque solo admitieron 20 o 30 personas mas después que yo.

Fue una experiencia muy bonita y estoy feliz de haber despertado tan temprano en un domingo para ir. La única parte desagradable de la experiencia fue sentando en mi silla para 50 minutos esperando para que el servicio empezara. Nos dejaron entrar unas pocas minutos después de las 8 pero el servicio no empezó hasta las 9, así que quedó mucho tiempo para mi sentar y leer mi libro de Kindle. Hubiera explorado el interior de la iglesia y sacado fotos pero las guardas se pusieron enojados cuando salías de tu asiento.

Jamás había visto el interior de la Sagrada Família; solamente he podido imaginar lo que pudiera tener basado en el extravagante que es el exterior. No me decepcionó! El altar fue decorado y iluminado con velas, había estatuas por todas partes, y el techo tan alto y intrincado fue muy impresionante. Pero mi parte favorito, sin duda, eran las ventanas. Eran tan grandes y muy, muy altas- casi llegan del suelo al techo- y de todas las colores del arcoíris. Los diseños fueron suficiente impresionantes, pero cuando filtraban la luz según el arcoíris fue una belleza de otra planeta. Tomé todas las fotos que podía antes de que las guardas me empujaron por la puerta.

pics i’ve been snapping

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 23:51:04 +0000

And… a taste of what I’ve been up to since Switzerland! I’ll give a bit of context:

Photo 1: Me in a shop between classes. I don’t remember which shop.
Photo 2: I’m pretty sure this was later that same day. I randomly stumbled across one of Gaudí’s iconic houses while walking around el Barrio Gótico!
Photo 3: To give you a sense of just how magical it is to walk into El Desván Bakery. Pictured front and foremost are the Linder Bueno and Nutella cookies/mounds of joy. I snapped this one during the HOUR I ended up waiting for my lemon pie cookie (I was told it would be 20 minutes until they were ready…)
Photo 4: Me with my Turkish kebab at Parc de la Ciutadella on Wednesday. I like this one because I just look so happy!
Photos 5-7: More from Parc de la Ciutadella. I’d been wanting to go for a while, but finally did it on Wednesday afternoon to finish an assignment for my sustainable development class. As you can see it was so, so beautiful and I must return.
Photo 8: A street.
Photo 9: My 99 Cheesecake pic from this week, of course. Sauces were Lotus and Kinder Bueno, toppings were Lacasitos (basically m&ms).
Photo 10: Me leaving my house this morning prepared for a day of who knows exactly what, but something that was going to include running and walking.
Photos 11, 12, 14: Sights I saw on my run/walk. I managed to exit Barcelona proper and got to see some of Santa Coloma de Gramenet and Badalona, which are two immediate suburbs.
Photos 13: Special for Friday the 13th! Ooooo! An ancient cool looking ship I passed that seemed photo-worthy.
Photos 15-16: Streets of Santa Coloma de Gramenet (At least I think that’s where I was).