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This month introduced a phenomenal summer season in Prague. This 12 months we’ve been having a cooler-than-usual summer season, and this July was notably pretty, with temperatures that made it really easy and nice to spend time outdoors.
Let’s check out what I acquired as much as in July 2025!
Locations Visited
- Prague, Czech Republic
- Nuremberg and Frankfurt, Germany
Highlights
Seeing Kendrick Lamar and SZA reside in Frankfurt on the Grand Nationwide Tour! Kendrick Lamar is one among my favourite artists of all time, and I actually like SZA, too. I acquired tickets to see them in Frankfurt in July and in Warsaw in August.
I LOVED THIS CONCERT. LOVED IT. A lot good music, fabulous present design and choreography, and each Kendrick and SZA have been unbelievable. And it was so good being surrounded by followers — nearly none of my buddies are hip-hop followers so I’ve all the time felt a bit alone in that regard!
Fast visits to Nuremberg and Frankfurt. I’ve visited Nuremberg in December for Christmas markets, however had by no means visited through the summer season, and it was so nice strolling alongside the river and taking within the structure! I used to be simply there for just a few hours every method on the way in which to Frankfurt.
Frankfurt was a brand new vacation spot for me — an enormous, skyscraper-filled metropolis with a “new previous city” constructed post-WWII. Whereas some elements have been on the seedier aspect, I had a good time exploring after I might — together with the brand new Kendrick Lamar mural by the river!
Enjoyable occasions in Prague. I’m thrilled to share that Kasarna Karlín has reopened — one among my favorite unusual things to do in Prague. It’s an outside courtyard with a variety of bars and meals locations and occasions. We went to an outside night screening of The Huge Lebowski! I went in pajamas. It felt apt.
Pizza beans. Let me simply say that that is my favourite new recipe on the planet, from the all the time glorious Smitten Kitchen, and I will probably be making it at any time when Charlie is out of city, as he doesn’t share my enjoyment of beans.
An important return to a daily health routine. 2025 has been tough in that regard, between six weeks in Mexico and the US (plenty of heavy meals), coping with my hip damage (powerful to do something however stroll at a median tempo), and internet hosting family and friends for just a few weeks in Prague in Could (plenty of lengthy days and meals out).
However I’m BACK on the mat, BACK to lifting weights and cardio periods, the numbers on my Apple Watch are bettering all time, and I’m feeling higher and sleeping higher than I’ve in months.
I additionally found yin yoga this month, which has turn into a weekly staple for restoration. Yin is completely different from different types of yoga — you maintain positions for 2 minutes or longer, and it targets your connective tissues along with muscle groups.
Additionally: my hip was hurting after the July live performance, however I did yin yoga just a few hours earlier than and the morning after the August live performance and I had ZERO ache — and I had a standing ticket at that live performance! This actually works.
Challenges
Um…the neighborhood surrounding Frankfurt’s practice station at evening. I already wrote about this to my electronic mail subscribers (not signed up? Sign up here!). Frankfurt, on the whole, is a protected place to go to. However the space across the practice station is QUITE seedy.
How seedy? There was a bunch of males smoking crack a block from my lodge, day and evening. Once I got here again from the live performance at evening, a number of males adopted me or approached me in an intimidating method. It actually freaked me out, however I discovered a bunch to stroll with the remainder of the way in which house.
Actually, I believe that neighborhood is the worst neighborhood I’ve skilled anyplace in Europe. Sturdy phrases? Sure. Do I imply them? Additionally sure.
In brief, most of Frankfurt is okay — however I might solely advocate strolling alone at evening within the practice station’s neighborhood should you’re each street-smart and city-wise.
That’s not all of the challenges that occurred this month, however that’s all I’ll be saying at present.
Most Common Reel on Instagram
My hottest reel of the month was Traveling with a Bestie — What’s it Like? with Cailin, with clips from our Krakow journey! Only a enjoyable and jokey reel from our time there.
However there’s one other reel I’d such as you to see, which acquired ALMOST as many views — it’s me speaking about how the Irish Famine is so much like what’s happening in Gaza today.
You’ll be able to see it right here:
The genocide of Palestinians in Gaza is an absolute nightmare, and it infuriates me that our authorities is bankrolling it and so lots of my fellow Individuals are cheering it on.
I made this in hope that the numerous Individuals who assist the destruction of Gaza and in addition occur to carry Irish ancestry take a second to assume, “Hey, that actually occurred to my household. And it was unhealthy. And perhaps I shouldn’t need that to occur to anybody else.”
And perhaps in the event that they’re up for some vital considering, perhaps they’ll notice there’s an excessive amount of AIPAC cash in our authorities, perhaps the Israeli authorities has been the unhealthy man all alongside, and perhaps we have to make some adjustments in who represents us in Congress.
Eager about Gaza and feeling so helpless makes me really feel like I’m wrung inside out. My coronary heart is shattered for the Palestinians who need to reside in peace and security, in addition to victims of battle in Sudan, in Congo, in Haiti, in Myanmar, and all over the place.
What I Watched This Month
I’m not a horror film particular person within the least — however my buddies needed to have a 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later double function one evening earlier than watching 28 Years Later that weekend.
These are zombie films — however truthfully, they’re improbable. Days and Years, particularly. You’ll be able to skip Weeks if you wish to.
28 Years Later picks up after the Rage Virus decimated Britain, and focuses on a small neighborhood dwelling in peace on an island off the coast of Scotland. And I’m shocked how deep this film acquired! It made me assume a lot about isolation, about demise, about neighborhood. Outstanding, actually.
What a shock that my two favourite films of 2025 are each horror films: Sinners and 28 Years Later.
Oh, and we additionally noticed the most recent Jurassic Park. Me, primarily for Jonathan Bailey, whom I like. However I remorse to tell you that an American accent does NOT swimsuit him. The one second within the film I used to be interested in him was when he briefly lapsed into his personal accent whereas saying, “No, I’m saying it’s a sin to kill a dinosaur.”
What I Listened To This Month
I’m listening to all 500 of Rolling Stone‘s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, which I’m having fun with immensely. I’m loving discovering new artists and listening to albums I’ve in some way missed my total life till now!
In July, I listened to albums 318-286. So loopy to assume that I’m now 200+ albums in since December!
Listed below are the highlights:
Favourite Discovery: Tales from the Metropolis, Tales from the Sea by PJ Harvey. She’s an artist I’ve heard talked about through the years, however I’ve by no means listened to her music till now. And WOW — she is unbelievable!
The songs on this album are dynamite! Love her songwriting, voice, and instrumentation. There are some good collabs with Thom Yorke on right here, too, which I admire, having turn into a Radiohead fan because of this problem.
Different Favourite Discoveries: Random Entry Reminiscences by Daft Punk, The Velvet Rope by Janet Jackson, Full Moon Fever by Tom Petty, Tonight’s the Night time by Neil Younger, Speakerboxxx/The Love Beneath by Outkast, El Mal Querer by Rosalía.
Favourite Revisited Album: Californication by Crimson Scorching Chili Peppers. One factor that stunned me firstly of my long-term travels was the pervasiveness of this album throughout Southeast Asia! You couldn’t go anyplace in Thailand with out listening to “Californication” or “Scar Tissue” or “Otherside.”
This album has all the enjoyable and California-ness of the Crimson Scorching Chili Peppers, however I felt just like the songwriting goes a bit deeper on this album and really feel like a wild, cohesive journey. Such as you’re being shot into the solar.
Favourite Songs: “The World Has Turned and Left Me Right here” by Weezer; “Hyperballad” by Bjork; “Cranes within the Sky” by Solange; “Good Fortune” by PJ Harvey; “Obtained ‘Til It’s Gone” by Janet Jackson, Q-Tip, and Joni Mitchell.
Get the playlist: I’m making a playlist of my favourite songs from the five hundred albums — most one per album — on Spotify. You can listen to it here.
Lowlight of the Month: Nearer by Pleasure Division. I do know, photographs fired, Gen X individuals are going to come back after me for this. I didn’t hate it, however I didn’t take pleasure in one single facet of the album. It felt aggressively meh to me.
Random Music Ideas: It’s so unhappy that that is solely the eighth month I’ve been listening to the highest 500 albums, but the third month that an artist I listened to on this problem handed away. This month, it was Ozzy Osbourne. I listened to Black Sabbath’s self-titled album (#355) and two extra of their albums are developing.
It was so good seeing how the world got here collectively to honor Ozzy. How wonderful was it that he was in a position to have that closing live performance along with his followers? What a particular reward.
What I Learn This Month
After a 12 months of barely studying, this month I learn a ton of books — largely within the self-improvement class, as a part of a problem I’m doing. I’ll inform you extra about that in subsequent month’s recap.
The Forgotten Girls: A Memoir of Friendship and Lost Promise in Rural America by Monica Potts (2023) — Monica Potts and her finest good friend, Darci, have been two of the neatest women rising up of their rural Arkansas hometown. Monica acquired out, went to varsity, and constructed a profession. Darci fell into drug dependancy. This memoir tries to determine what went incorrect and what few choices there are for rural American girls at present.
There’s a lot that I appreciated about this e book — I all the time devour items about poverty in rural America. And its premise sounded loads like a feminine/white/rural model of Wes Moore’s The Other Wes Moore, which I learn lengthy earlier than he turned governor of Maryland!
However this e book additionally made me uneasy. It made me really feel because it Potts was exploiting Darci, who was within the throes of dependancy and will not have understood how public this could all be (and that it could embrace her actual identify). And Potts railed in opposition to her hometown for many of the e book, then casually dropped that she and her companion moved again and he or she didn’t need to share why — actually? Simply unusual.
Quit Like a Woman: The Radical Choice Not to Drink in a Culture Obsessed with Alcohol by Holly Whitaker (2019) — It is a e book for any girl who’s contemplating reframing her relationship with alcohol. A lot of the alcohol business and restoration business is geared particularly towards males, and this e book is radical in aiming towards the particular wants of girls.
Holly Whitaker is a improbable author, and that’s what introduced this e book to the subsequent stage. It’s half self-help e book, and half memoir — oh, and her life was a HOT MESS earlier than she acquired sober. It’s entertaining in that facet, in a little bit of a horror film method.
I did discover within the Goodreads critiques that a number of folks identified that her strategies have been most accessible to girls who’ve more cash to spend. She writes from that perspective. And I do assume they’re proper (although I additionally assume none of these reviewers notice that you are able to do yoga just isn’t costly — you possibly can actually do it at no cost on YouTube).
She additionally writes WAY an excessive amount of about her journeys to Italy, and as somebody who writes about her personal journeys to Italy for a dwelling, you’ve acquired to know when to share and when to drag again on that form of stuff.
Both method — should you’re contemplating consuming much less or giving up alcohol altogether, I strongly advocate studying this e book.
Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds by David Goggins (2018) — Okay, this was my hate-read of the month! David Goggins went from an abusive childhood to changing into a Navy SEAL and ultra-endurance athlete, and he shares how he pushes himself into doing essentially the most troublesome bodily challenges.
I’ll maintain it easy — it is a man that shouldn’t be emulated. He’s a deadbeat dad and four-time divorcee who continually places himself in peril because of not making ready appropriately for these bodily feats. He ran an ultramarathon with no prep, solely drank protein shakes, and put himself into kidney failure.
This man wants remedy, not devotees. He’s additionally extremely sexist and the e book is stuffed with sexist language that infuriated me.
Micro Skills: Small Actions, Big Impact by Adaira Landry and Resa E. Lewis (2024) — It is a assortment of broad however shallow tips about tips on how to carry out higher at your workplace job. I didn’t discover this as useful for a solopreneur like myself, and I are likely to favor books that go deep on one subject versus making an attempt to cowl somewhat little bit of every part.
How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell (2019) — This e book was NOTHING like what I anticipated it to be. Much more philosophical and educational about getting your self to do nothing moderately than one thing actionable.
Read People Like a Book by Patrick King (2020) — Uh, this e book may be very, very unhealthy. Don’t even trouble with this one.
Coming Up in August 2025
August started with me and Charlie touring to the Excessive Tatras of Slovakia for my forty first birthday! This was precisely what I needed this 12 months — a peaceable location in nature, a simple journey by practice, and staying in a improbable lodge. We had a blast and need to do extra journeys like this.
The one different journey this month will probably be a fast journey to England for our good friend’s bonfire celebration, which we attend yearly.
Aside from that, I’ll be chilling out in Prague as I prepare for the BIG journey adventures of September.
What are you getting as much as subsequent month? Share away!
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