JOURNAL: HAPPY 5TH BIRTHDAY, COBBLESTONES & COFFEE

It is Cobblestones & Coffee's 5th birthday this month! We are celebrating with, of course, coffee on this beautiful spring-ish day where the clocks have also went ahead one hour. It seems only appropriate that we are honouring C&C, which was born in the spring. Is this a sign we need to start taking annual spring trips for the blog's birthday?

Tokyo, 2019

I started Cobblestones & Coffee in March 2019 while simultaneously planning a trip to Tokyo, Japan. I actually align the start of the blog with a confusing time in my travel life. It was somewhere between coming back home from abroad and the pandemic years, not to mention job and life changes to follow. It's kind of funny that I started a new blog when I felt the least inspired and had no idea where I wanted to go. I chose Tokyo because it was different than anywhere I had been before. Basically, it wasn't London, which I consider my spiritual, wanderlust home and where I would always run to in my twenties. At one point, I almost cancelled the trip altogether but am so happy I didn't.  Walking through the surreal streets of Tokyo, alone and jetlagged, acted as a nice reset button. Though it's been a rocky road trying to find itchy feet again, I feel like I have.

Last spring, I went to London again for the first time in many years. After leaving there as an expat and later being dealt unprecedented, worldwide travel restrictions, I honestly never knew when I would be back. When I eventually did, it was a wonderful week of being reunited with favourite train stations, shops and hotels, walking amongst familiar street corners and canals. It felt like the right place at the right time. I also went on a trip to New York City with my mom this year, another city I was very happy to see again. It is so special going back to cities that you love and seeing them with new light and appreciation. 

Going forward, there are no clear objectives. I just hope to spend as much time as possible in my favourite places and hopefully sprinkle a few new surprises in there too. Like I said, finding the identity of this blog over the last five years has been difficult at times. I have deleted posts, reposted them and deleted them again. But the foundation of this blog is in the title: it's all about wandering beautiful cities with a coffee in hand.

I will also be posting New York City highlights very soon because I finally seen 'Hamilton' on Broadway and I will never, ever get over it. So, please stay tuned for that and thank you for following along. Here is to many more coffees and croissants. x