#bali – City to jungle

February 6, 2023February 6, 2023

And the nest is half-empty – #25

love from bali, dear friends!

today i saw four bright blue kingfishers – three on my dog walk and one from the bedroom window. it surely must be a sign but of what? maybe of a thriving ecosystem.. google search says they are symbolic of freedom, courage, adventure, and balance. it also says a lot of highly unlikely bullshit. let’s see!

so much has happened in the past 12 months that i don’t know where to start – broken foot and damaged shoulder, graduation and start of university, graduation and start of high school, lost dog/found dog, extra dog joining the pack.. moving houses, visiting new places and returning to some amazing ones, seeing friends and family in prague and bratislava, trekking the highest mountain in bali, cohabiting with a monitor lizard, getting older (but not wiser), welcoming some dear dear old friends in bali, you name it!

in spring we revisited our friends in Ngalung Kala on the mysterious island of sumba. the rugged beauty of this island is indescribable. peace, connection with nature, inspiring people.. little did we know that this was going to be our ‘quiet before storm’ moment for a while!

dan and i also managed to ascend mount agung, the most sacred mountain in bali, the one which at the same time happens to be the active volcano that kept us grounded and under cover for a while 4 years ago. great trek, great views, super sore ass..

February 27, 2021February 27, 2021

Happy (and Lucky;-) 2021 from Bali – #23

hello there, greetings from rainy bali!
in my home country we have a saying that goes something like “stepping into shit brings good luck”. who wouldn’t want to be lucky?!? as we were getting ready to welcome 2021 we started to smell a really bad smell around our house. it was not exactly ’shit’ smell but more kind of like decaying algae one.. anyway, on the 1st of january we discovered that our septic tank was overflowing and had to call a guy to empty it. what can bring more luck than being knee deep in shit on a 1st day of the year? i have high hopes, 2021!!! so far, the year hasn’t disappointed me, serving me a baby cobra in the shower on my birthday, really unexpected guests and a few other delightful surprises.

trip to the beautiful island of Nusa Lembongan (to ease the cabin fever)

let me backtrack a bit though, because last time you heard from me was july 2020. we have been really well here in bali. healthy, at least physically. school opened in august which was a great relief – both for the kids and the parents. it operates in a different way at the moment, masks, protocols, learning pods, no parents on the campus.. which is not great but i’m eternally grateful for what is. the digital addiction of the kids was getting out of hand. and the cabin fever was raging. restaurants, cinemas, beaches and gyms are open too. protocols yes but the common sense seems to prevail so far.

due to covid border restrictions we haven’t had many human visitors lately (the ones who braved it and made it were a very nice addition to the quiet ubud life though!) but it seems like the animal kingdom decided to compensate us for this sad situation. one quiet night i was suddenly woken up by dan excitingly yelling at me – common, wake up, we have a – and he used a word i have never heard before – here…

July 30, 2020

Crazy 2020 Bali Style – #22

dear friends,

it’s already july and this is my first message of 2020. i’m sure many of you have felt the timeless quality of the year so far – having no idea what day of the week, month, planet we are on. i was often so confused i had no idea who i was – and who my housemates were!!! i think we just shouldn’t count this year when celebrating our birthdays next time.

let me start at the beginning. first time since we moved to bali 4 years ago we decided to stay in indonesia for the long december/january break. just to travel around a bit, try out the new house that after three long years has been finally finished and enjoy the hassle free holidays – by hassle meaning traveling back and forth to europe, changing tropical climate for freezing temperatures etc. little did we know that by doing so we missed our last chance for a long time!!

anyway we had a nice time, discovering all the secrets of our new house – for good and for bad. the house is absolutely charming and sweet, there were only a few hiccups to be solved – like a tree falling on our roof on my birthday (the biggest present i ever got!!) or the ants raining on us all one lovely january morning. later we found out these two unforgettable experiences were directly linked – the poor ants were peacefully living on a tree but then crashed through our roof and after few days decided they wanted to explore.. resulting in a little hitchcockian experience.