5 WAYS TO WANDER: A $5 Meal Hack & a Greek Party Trick
14 February, 2025 | Welcome to 5 Ways to Wander. Here are five fresh ideas to inspire your next adventure!
#1 This Week’s Travel Hack:
Grab Picnic Essentials at European Supermarkets. Instead of dining out at expensive restaurants, buy local cheese, bread, fruits, and locally cured meats at supermarkets for a perfect picnic in a scenic spot. It’ll be a whole spread worth $5 tops.
Think baguettes and cheese in France, mozzarella and prosciutto in Italy, or jamon and olives in Spain. You can make a picnic in public parks like Jardin des Tuileries (Paris) and Hyde Park (London), or by the water in coastal cities (Barcelona, Dubrovnik) and cities with river banks (Berlin, Amsterdam).
Just find a spot, lay down a blanket, and enjoy your meal with a view.
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#2 Destination of the Week:
Romantic Road, Germany. It’s a clever name, isn’t it? Suggests you’ll be swept off your feet by charming princes and serenaded beneath balcony windows. While that might only happen in your imagination, what you’ll actually find on this famous road trip route is a string of ridiculously picturesque towns and castles that belong in a storybook. We’re talking half-timbered houses, cobblestone streets, and enough kuchen (cake) to keep you going.
Stretching from Würzburg to Füssen, the route passes through Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Schloss Neuschwanstein and Dinkelsbühl – places to make you believe in love, if you don’t already.
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#3 Cultural Insight:
Greek Plate Smashing. The Greeks are known for their exuberance, and one of their most joyful traditions is smashing plates during celebrations.
Once common at weddings and parties, the act symbolizes letting go of negativity and embracing happiness. And it’s indeed a strangely cathartic exercise.
Today, it’s often staged for tourists, but you still see it happening at special events in Greek daily life. Nowadays, though, plaster plates are used – because breaking real ceramic ones gets expensive (and nobody wants to spend their honeymoon in the ER 🫠).
Some venues have even swapped plate smashing for flower-throwing. Less dramatic, but still captures the celebratory sentiment.
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#4 Travel Quote to Ponder:
“Oh, to see a mountain covered with a quilt of snow.”
― Bing Crosby
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#5 Question for You:
What’s the one travel experience that changed your perspective on life?
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