A.Kahn's Blog: Archive

Iceland, the final stop of the journey

With the hustle and bustle of the holiday season and my reorientation into American society, I neglected to post about the final stop on my 6.5 month journey that led me to South Africa and all over Europe. In total, Paul and I counted that we visited 12 countries in 2012: Portugal, Spain, South Africa, Austria, Germany, Croatia, Liechtenstein, Slovenia Switzerland, France, Italy, Iceland. Within...

Jan 1st

Goodbye Italy, hello Germany

My time in Albisola was a huge change in contrast with the other parts of my South African/European adventure. For once, I found myself with no gym of any kind and cold rainy weather for the majority of the time. The weather forced me inside and the lack of a gym forced me into my apartment. To say I was struck with cabin fever would be an understatement. I went mildly crazy in our 3 room...

Dec 9th

Comparing Bouldering to Wine

“Try this, it’s very very good. You think?” “Yeah, it’s really good!” One might hear this conversation while wine tasting or maybe out at the boulders. Many climbing enthusiasts have argued over what is the world’s best boulder problem, but what defines the best? What makes Spectre better than Midnight Lighting? What makes The Mandala better than Dreamtime? In the end, you can’t really...

Dec 3rd

Nov 30th

Torino, the only city in Italy I could live in...

I recently returned from the city of Torino, what was once the capital of Italy, a country I learned only recently celebrated its’ 150th birthday. It’s incredible to see that so much culture has been preserved in a country that is so young, in comparison to its neighbors. I will be the first to admit, I never had a previous desire to see the city of Torino- not because I thought it would be boring...

Nov 25th

Varazze

For the past few days I have been stationed in the small town of Albisola, a suburb of Savona and of the more known city, Genoa. There have been a few nice days of climbing but the weather has been anything but fantastic. However, this just seems to be a pattern with everywhere we go this year, maybe it’s nature’s way of telling us its time to pack up and go home. Well nature, we are...

Nov 24th

1 note

La Spezia and Cinque Terre

After battling food poisoning in Bologna and Parma, Paul and I headed to the town of La Spezia, a charming port town on the coast of Italy. It was more beautiful than either of us expected and we had such a great time perusing the cobble stoned streets, checking out the markets where we were able to eat fresh olives and freshly made canolli. We bought fruit from the local farmers and stumbled...

Nov 19th

Nov 17th

Via Italia

I’m back in Italy, a place I never saw myself venturing again after my unpleasant study abroad experience. Yes, I visited some great places when I lived in Perugia 4 years ago, but the overall experience leaves me with haunting memories. Perhaps it was the fact that I was in the same program as the infamous Amanda Knox one year after the murder occurred, or maybe it was the fact that my room was...

Nov 15th

To Paris to see how the other half lives

Paul and I returned Saturday evening after a 4 day trip to Paris to visit my dad and step mom. Paris is our favorite city, and theres as well, plus my step mom had to work at the art fair, so we thought it would be a great place to meet up. It was nice to see my dad since I haven’t seen him since I left for South Africa in the beginning of June. ...

Oct 22nd

1 note

Our tour of northern Croatia: Motovun

Upset to hurry our visit in Pula, we walked back to the car to head to Motovun, a town an hour north of Pula that is known for its truffles. There was a famous restaurant I had learned about from Antony Bourdain’s “No Reservations” called Mondo Konobo and we had to check it out. We ordered a gnocchi with black truffle and seafood dish and a homemade...

Oct 8th

Our tour of northern Croatia: Pula

I found out about the town of Pula when searching for activities in Croatia. It turns out that Pula has its own Coliseum from Roman times, similar to the one seen in Rome, but almost fully intact and not swarming with obnoxious tour guides and camera happy tourists. Our apartment was only 43 euro for the night and was positioned directly next to the Coliseum, or Arena, as they called it. We...

Oct 8th

Our tour of northern Croatia: Plitvice

The drive to Plitivce was fairly short and easy and after we picked our tour option and paid the ticket fee we were off on our adventure through the waterfalls and forests of Plitvice. The weather progressively became worse and many of the falls were probably missed due to the mist and low cloud coverage. The rain was warm and the air was humid but we marched on through the woods at a brisk pace...

Oct 7th

Our tour of northern Croatia: Zagreb

The drive to Croatia from Innsbruck was uneventful and long. Besides some nice mountain views, an incredible gourmet highway cafeteria, and some rain storms, our drive was pretty mellow until we reached the Slovenia border. Failing to inform our rental car company that we would be leaving Austria, and Europe altogether, we were fearful of what was to come. Oddly enough, we passed through many toll...

Oct 6th

Austria part 1

I never understood road work traffic until Friday September 28, 2012. This is the day when I learned what it felt like to move a few kilometers in the course of 4 hours. When I learned that a 1.5 hour trip could possibly take 7 hours. The day started off slow, cold, and wet. We had fallen asleep to the sounds of the rain beating hard against our windows the night before and woke up hopeful for...

Oct 4th

Sep 26th

Watch

here is a funny video griff filmed of two of the queen line first ascents I did in Cape Town this past summer

Sep 24th

Temporary step back to Cape Town

Going through old pictures from the end of the summer, i realized that were a few days that I forgot to share! One of these occasions being Paul’s 25th birthday dinner

Sep 23rd

Continuation of the Journey

So after 2 days in Barcelona we took a cab to the train station, now towing 2 big rolling duffles, 1 big duffle, a crash pad, a back pack, the camera bag, the small rolling bag and my purse. We had managed to get rid of the other things in Barcelona and we were ready for the final push of our journey. We decided to take a train because with all our extra luggage it would have cost too much to take...

Sep 23rd

Aug 30th

Loving Life

Just got back from a 5 mile run along False Bay, a beautiful part of the coast of the Western Cape and the place I have been living for the past 3 months. The sun was shining, it was warm and people were smiling and cheering me on (running amongst young people does not seem to be common here). I ran slower than usual and really took the time to look around me because my trip is coming to a close...

Aug 28th

Places to Go

Maybe people who know me know that I love to travel more than pretty much anything else. I have a list on my computer called “places to go” organized by country, city and then broken into climbing vs activities if the place provides both. This list is currently 16 pages long and only includes things I am yet to see and do. I have removed what I have done and transfered that to a...

Jul 22nd

Hello nice weather!

I have been focusing more on my interpretive chef blog lately and have been getting really into cooking healthy foods! We had some great sunny days and were able to get out to Echo Valley and St. James and do some climbing and hang out with friends. I am finally feeling a little bit better in the leg and was able to try something slightly harder and did it so that was a good feeling! The next...

Jul 20th

Cape Town Life

It’s been a little while since I wrote and many things have happened since. The gym Mary and I went to was sweet but we both realized we could do similar work outs at home thanks to some things my mom (a personal trainer) has taught me. My leg has slowly been feeling better and I have climbed outside two days and inside 1 day since I got hurt. The rain was getting us down last week so we...

Jul 16th

The Recent

The past few days have been quite eventful, to say the least. Daniel Woods arrived on Tuesday and joined the crew in our compound in Muizenberg. With one VW Polo, 5 crashpads, camera gear, climbing stuff, and 6 people, we have had quite the adventures in the car! We have been climbing a good amount but we also experience a lot of rainy days so its nice to live in a town where there is so much to...

Jul 8th

Jun 19th

Jun 12th

May 28th

May 21st

May 12th

Watch

Here’s some footage paul took of me in Albarracin Spain.

May 11th

Apr 21st

Apr 20th

Capetown!

Since the fall, Paul and I have been planning to spend the summer of 2012 in Capetown, South Africa. I am happy to say that all the plans are set! We booked our house, have our tickets, our friends have their tickets, the only thing missing is the car, which we will figure out soon. The summer looks like it will be a great one. We are living in this 3 bedroom house overlooking the beach in...

Apr 18th

Apr 10th

Watch

Last weekend and the few days before that was a whirlwind of crazy! It all started when we made the last minute decision to leave our apartment in portugal early and move in with a friend near by. The woman who owned the apartment and her boyfriend chained smoked like crazy inside the house and it was too disgusting for comprehension. We bit the bullet, packed our stuff and walked out. 2 days...

Mar 21st

Mar 19th