On My Way

To Germany and Estonia to make new friends and visit an old one

I’m on my way tomorrow to spend nearly two weeks in Germany and Estonia. I’m keynoting at a women’s conference: The Power of Stories: How women can lead and strengthen food security in Estonia, Latvia and the United States.

I’m traveling with one of my stellar University of California colleagues, Pam Kan-Rice, and we’ll be pairing up to offer a digital storytelling workshop at the conference, and also sitting on a panel discussion.

Our local hosts - including one of my dear friends, Lisa Kivirist - have arranged a simply amazing week of activities and site visits to oodles of interesting places. We’ll visit two universities (!), a library, museum, farm, and many other notable sites. We’ll also be meeting with groups of women across Estonia. I’m looking forward to making new friends, learning more about their exciting and inspiring work in the food system, and sharing that with you in upcoming months. (P.S. You should absolutely subscribe to Lisa’s Substack, linked above, to learn about life as an expat, food and cooking, travel, and lots of other great things. Bonus: photos by Lisa’s husband, John Ivanko.)

Munich was the layover from our flight from LAX to Tallinn, so we decided to spend a few days there. I’ve bookmarked pages in my Rick Steves pocket Munich guide, and already know that all the things I want to do can’t possibly fit in the time allotted. We are taking a train to Füssen and visiting a castle on one of our days in the area, and I know we’ll get to visit many other sites.

We couldn’t have organized this trip so quickly and efficiently without the help of travel adviser Jessi Fleagane of Wild Gift Travel; she hales from my hometown of Ventura. Jessi organized all the details on a cool little app so that everything is at my fingertips. Follow her on Instagram for amazing content, and if you’re thinking of a dream vacation, consider using her services. She’s amazing!

I’m front-loading travel and am looking forward to a quiet summer at home, with a couple of quick trips to visit Natalie at her new home in Portland (it’s FABULOUS!) and catch some Portland Fire games (the Fire is Portland’s new WNBA expansion team, and Natalie got season tickets. YAY!)

Other summer plans include writing, spending serious time reading, working with Vera on fun ceramics projects, and pick-up choir at church.

Look for some posts from Estonia in the next couple of weeks.

xoxoxo

Photo by Karson on Unsplash - I’ll have some of my own to share shortly!