august 2025 - Wanderlogue

08.2025

And just like that, summer comes to a close. Labor Day feels far too early this year. So in those final days, when we are almost used to the relentless heat and humidity, we try to make the most of the longer days. But I can’t help but note how the sun sets earlier and earlier each day.

But in those final summer Fridays, every moment spent outside felt earned. Sitting in a park in Astoria. Sitting in a park in Vienna. Sitting in a park in Prague. The childish delight of seeing fireflies dotting their glows in the lawns of Prospect Park. The simple joys of summer that feel even more precious.

fun thing of the month

After an entire summer in New York, after several months grounded, without the torment of walking the length of JFK, I finally left the country. A patchwork trip that did the job.

Nothing like starting off a vacation with an annoying layover in one of my least favorite airports. But Exki came to the rescue. A little French to kick things off. And then a hop(!) over to Vienna.

Vienna. A sleeper hit. Three days and I was sold. It’s beautiful. Annoyingly so. Filled with art and culture and history. And of course, the cafes, the bakeries. I couldn’t help but compare it to Paris. Cleaner, more pristine, a little less cosmopolitan, less diverse, less grit. It felt like the forgotten source material of what so much of our European imaginations are. And yes, the tap water was great.

Hotel Motto was perfect. Vienna might do Paris better than Paris. A spacious room with pretty details and dreamy windows overlooking the street. And a very good bakery downstairs.

Copenhagen. Back again. This time with much better luck for weather. I was mostly just here to eat and shop. It felt like a brief stopover. And perhaps I can’t afford much more than that.

Ironically, my vacation self is often more well-caffeinated than my working self. And in places with heavy cafe culture, it’s a 2-3 coffee minimum. And since we’re on vacation, some coffees are spiked.

Nothing says summer vacation like ice cream. Three countries, many icy sweet treats. Østerberg ice cream is a must have. One that I’ve been thinking about for a whole year. Elderflower ice cream really needs to be a more common flavor on this side of the Atlantic.

Prague. It’s been a minute since I have truly been somewhere that felt so unfamiliar. Since I have been presented with a view that made me pause. Prague did that. So infested it was with tourists (myself included), but I was enraptured by the sheer beauty of the city. It reminded me of a simpler time wandering around Croatia. I couldn’t help but think I would have loved wandering Prague as a 21 year old. But a decade older, it still enraptured me like a fairytale.

shopping abroad

The travel shopping obsession continues. It’s like a game. An addiction. So many bookmarks of shoppy shops and concept stores and boutiques and thrift shops. Piles of receipts with VAT refund forms. An attention to local designers and brands.

Artsy bookstores. And curated fragrance shops. My weakness. Did I go out of my way to go across and ocean and hop across country lines to pick up niche perfume? yes, of course.

an appreciation for art & architecture

How much art is too much art to cram into a trip? Does the limit exist? I needed an escape, and Vienna offered it in the form of endless museums. Old masters and revolutionary modernists. Beautiful architecture. Long walks, many gardens, and marveling at the detail of Klimt’s landscapes and the soul of Velázquez’s portraits. A search for meaning.

Belvedere. A literal palace for art. It was a delight to wander on a rainy day. A certain quiet calm over the gardens that a sunnier day couldn’t afford. An unexpected feminist exhibition to round it out.

Kunsthistorisches. I wasn’t planning to come here. But then I looked up the inside and was sold. And wandering the great halls of paintings I was reminded that of course, I should have had this in my itinerary from the beginning. Because I love the old masters. I live for the Renaissance and Baroque and Neoclassicism works.

Leopold. Crammed in one last museum on my way out. And chose one that was deliberately Austrian. It’s my ideal size, a 2 hour museum. Well laid out, in a way that is educational and easy to follow. An orientation to a time when Vienna was a cultural center of the world.

current obsessions

Manner. Because why is it so much better than Loacker? Am I crazy? Is it just the branding that is working on me? But the orange one is so good.

Jefferson Library. Which might be my favorite place to work on a weekday. The city castle. The stained glass windows. The perfect little community garden in full bloom.

culture fix

This month’s culture fix was high and low. As in a lot of binge watching british television, a lot of airplane movies, hamilton’s 10 year anniversary buzz, and a lot of art criticism.

first time in a long time, writing that persuades me

i mean, i guess the golden age of marvel really is over

british? crime? idris elba? yeah sure I’ll binge this

perfect airplane movie? yeah

agatha christie might be my comfort television

ok but actually the guy on tiktok that mimics gal gadot. and the girls on tiktok climbing out their windows dressed as hamilton. and the guy on tiktok imitating bad bunny.

NEW FIND

The Mandarin. A new favorite cafe. A very inconvenient location. But still. Good matcha. Good coffee. Good bites. Good ambience. (even in spite of the endless stream of influencers getting their content)

Argosy Bookstore. I’ve had this bookmarked for years and finally made it over. It’s a special place. Filled with old books and posters and prints that beg to be perused. A beautiful space with old world charm that is a delightful contrast from the midtown chaos outside.

Bungee Space. Perhaps the opposite of Argosy, but we love it all the same. Part cafe, part thrift store, part bookstore. But this one filled with indie publications, art books, zines and limited run pieces that actually show taste, unlike that Assouline Amalfi Coast book.

us open

Considering this was my first time at the US Open myself, I have no right to judge the crowd but even I can tell how annoying it is for real tennis fans because the demographic shift of Queens for these weeks is crazy. Consumerism at its finest. In the form of stacks of honey deuce cups and limited edition Lululemon pieces.

Admittedly it was still a lot of fun to see Alcaraz play.

retracing steps

Sometimes I miss the simpler days, when on an empty Saturday I would walk across the Williamsburg Bridge and wander the streets of the Lower East Side, bopping in and out of shops for an afternoon, coffee in hand. And so I prescribe myself a quarterly day on Orchard Street.

Also made it back to old haunts, popping by Yun Hai to pick up some soy paste (and give into my attraction to prints).

good bites around town

August is a month meant for leisure. And for me leisure means ordering unnecessary pastries. And fun drinks. Matcha cream filled croissant and a strawberry matcha latte. Any espresso tonic that anyone will serve me. Stone fruit on brioche in the sun shared with work friends turned real friends. And morning runs to Park Slope bakeries. Miolin lives up to the hype. Thank god it is deeper in Brooklyn.

Little Flower, Astoria.

A long, late dinner at Theodora.

Too lazy to cook.

A sunny lunch at Uzuki.

good bites out of town

I always eat well when I travel.

Nothing feels like vacation more than eating breakfast. And this trip was filled with good hotel breakfasts and the joys of Danish cafes. I think perhaps the best meals in Copenhagen are breakfast, not a meal to ever be skipped.

Some highlights:

Schnitzel in a glass house. An Egyptian spread al fresco in Vienna of all places. Almost felt like being in Brooklyn (with Brooklyn friends).

Early bird dinners in Copenhagen. small bites, good bread, fresh produce. Indulgent bites.

And a lot of central to eastern european comfort foods in Prague. As in, meat and dumplings in gravy. Filling desserts. Beer, of course. And bizarrely cucumber salad..soups.

Really gave into my sweet tooth on this trip. And the cafes of Central Europe more than delivered. Einspanners and poppy seed cake and mango pudding. Pavlovas whenever available. And my favorite almond croissant in the world from Juno.