Adventurous Kate contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase through these links, I will earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Thanks!<\/em><\/small><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n July was a VERY busy month.<\/strong> This month I ricocheted from the city of Prague to the lavender fields of Provence to the green cliffs of Ireland to a concert swelling with thousands of people in bald caps to my favorite island in Italy.<\/p>\n Yes. It was such a big month, it was TOO MUCH of a month, and I\u2019ll be getting into that in the post.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s take a look!<\/p>\n Charlie and I went to Provence to celebrate our friends\u2019 Patrick and Gr\u00e9gory\u2019s wedding.<\/strong> And we turned it into a weeklong road trip, visiting parts of France we had never visited!<\/p>\n We started with Lac Sainte-Croix and the dramatic, craggy Gorges du Verdon, which were a spectacular place to rent a boat and go for a swim. Around here we also came across a spectacular field of lavender illuminated at sunset. Not touristy. It was just there. And it smelled DIVINE.<\/p>\n Next up we headed down to the Mediterranean Coast, staying on the border of La Ciotat and Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer. The town of Cassis was so pretty and a nice place to visit (especially eating at Le Petit Oyster Bar!). And we loved spending a day at La Boheme Beach Club in Saint Cyr.<\/p>\n Next up, we headed to Arles, the city of Van Gogh, where there were so many interesting art shows on display. One of the artists is a friend of my sister and brother-in-law, so we made sure to drop in to see her exhibition!<\/p>\n And then we headed to N\u00eemes, and I didn\u2019t really know what to expect, but N\u00eemes BLEW ME AWAY. Especially since Thursday nights in the summer are filled with live music events all over the city! Great street life, nice restaurants, and Les Halles is the BEST place to pick up some ingredients for a picnic or lunch at home.<\/p>\n Finally, we headed to Domaine de Valbonne in Provence, where Patrick and Gr\u00e9gory put on three days of wedding events. Their wedding was one of the most beautiful ceremonies I\u2019ve ever seen. And it was so much fun hanging out with our blogger friends.<\/p>\n Charlie and I went to Dublin for the weekend to celebrate my brother-in-law Matt\u2019s 40th birthday.<\/strong> Matt planned a fun weekend full of activities for a big group of friends, similar to what I did for my own 40th in Kor\u010dula two years ago, and we had so much fun celebrating together.<\/p>\n Dublin is a city that I\u2019ve never really gelled with, but I enjoyed Dublin so much on this trip! In Dublin, I think it helps to get out of the city center a bit, and two of my favorite things we did were swimming at the Forty Foot in Sandy Cove, a gorgeous seaside neighborhood, and going on a hike in Howth, another seaside spot.<\/p>\n On top of that, we did a fun whiskey tasting at the Teeling distillery, and Charlie and I enjoyed the Guinness Storehouse, which feels a bit like adult Disneyland! And there was a LOT of good food, too.<\/p>\n Some of Matt\u2019s friends rented a big house with a piano \u2014 and I played and led a singalong for everyone on the final night. \u201cShallow\u201d was a huge hit!<\/p>\n My friend Ashley<\/a> and I saw Pitbull in concert in Prague \u2014 and we wore bald caps!<\/strong> THIS WAS SO MUCH FUN!!! I\u2019ve wanted to be a baldie at a Pitbull concert for so long!<\/p>\n If you\u2019re considering going to a Pitbull concert, go for it<\/em>! There is nothing like it. Pitbull understands that people only want to hear the hits, and the whole show is nothing but hits. Lil Jon is the opener, playing a variety of 2000s songs, and later he joins Pitbull for a few more songs. (And yes, Lil Jon kept yelling, \u201cPRAGUE!\u201d the way he yells, \u201cYEAH!\u201d)<\/p>\n And people were so into their Pitbull costumes! I would estimate about half the people there were wearing Pitbull-themed clothing (most people in white tops and black bottoms with a black tie and sunglasses), and about 25% of people were wearing bald caps.<\/p>\n Pitbull is actually coming back to Prague in November (!!) and I\u2019m thinking of going again. Anyone want to be a baldie with me?<\/p>\n And Charlie and I finished the month in Naples and Ischia.<\/strong> This was the beginning of my birthday trip (my actual birthday is August 2). We enjoyed spritzes, buffalo milk gelato, and a huge plate of raw seafood in Naples<\/a> before heading to my beloved island of Ischia<\/a> to soak up the sun.<\/p>\n Good times in Prague.<\/strong> One evening, my friends and I took a ride on the super modern T3 Coup\u00e9 tram, which has rides open to the public a few times a year. It was SO nice, with white leather seats, big open windows, and a bar.<\/p>\n We had so much fun, we want to rent the whole tram for a group of our friends sometime. You can rent the whole thing for one hour for 7,700 CZK ($367 USD), which can be quite reasonable if you have a big group!<\/p>\n My friends and I watched the World Cup final at Hooters, which unironically is our favorite bar for watching sports (what can I say, there are TVs at every angle and we like the wings).<\/p>\n And I\u2019m pretty sure the ratio of Spain fans to Argentina fans in Prague was about 99 to 1. That made that final red card especially cathartic.<\/p>\n Also this month, Charlie and I went to see the Prague Shakespeare Company perform As You Like It<\/em> outside at Prague Castle. I had never read or seen As You Like It<\/em>, but it quickly became one of my favorites \u2014 such a funny play, and the PSC did such a fun production of it!<\/p>\n We had a car mishap while driving on the highway. <\/strong>Everyone\u2019s okay, the car is okay, but car trouble when you\u2019re speeding down a highway can leave anyone feeling unsettled.<\/p>\n It was HOT HOT HOT in Provence!<\/strong> And we had accidentally booked one hotel without air conditioning, which is not fun when it\u2019s 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 C). Phew.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re planning a summer trip to the south of France, I recommend staying on the sea, where you have a nice breeze! If you\u2019re planning on exploring the interior, I recommend sticking to late spring or early fall.<\/p>\n I got the worst cold I\u2019ve had in years. <\/strong>Summer colds are the worst! Thankfully, I think I was able to shorten its duration by eating a lot of honey with raw garlic and onion. Gross and effective.<\/p>\n And finally, on a personal note, I am feeling quite burned out on travel at the moment. <\/strong>My schedule has been packed from late May through late September.<\/p>\n Every trip was VERY much worth it, several times over, but I think the problem was having too many trips without enough downtime in between. And that was because several of these trips were scheduled around unmovable events. I\u2019m not blaming anyone \u2014 that\u2019s just how life is sometimes!<\/p>\n But how can a professional traveler feel bad about traveling?<\/p>\n For me, I feel awful being away from my cats (but much more comfortable if someone is staying at our apartment as opposed to dropping in to feed them). On top of that, I feel discombobulated when I am away from my routine and feel like I can\u2019t work, exercise, or even relax. Especially when I\u2019m changing accommodation often.<\/p>\n So once I get back from my long-planned Africa trip in late September, I\u2019m going to scale my travels back. I\u2019ve committed to a conference in Hamburg in mid-October and our annual Christmas visit to London and Boston. That\u2019s it. Everything else has been axed.<\/p>\n I might<\/em> add on a quick Christmas market excursion somewhere close by (maybe Bratislava and Brno?), but want to keep it brief and low-key.<\/p>\n So how do I keep this from happening again? I\u2019ve been weighing the idea of limiting myself to one shorter trip and one longer trip each quarter. I probably won\u2019t be able to pull that off every time, but maybe I can make that work half the time.<\/p>\n If any of you frequent travelers made an effort to scale down your travels, I\u2019d love to hear how you did it!<\/p>\n Best eSIM for Travel in 2026<\/a><\/strong> \u2014 and don\u2019t forget you can get 5% off any Holafly eSIM<\/a> with the code HOLAKATE!<\/p>\n\n![\"Kate](\"https:\/\/www.adventurouskate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Kate-in-lavender-Provence-France-1024x768.jpeg\"\/)
![\"Kate](\"https:\/\/www.adventurouskate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Kate-in-lavender-Provence-France-1024x768.jpeg\")
Destinations Visited<\/h2>\n
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Highlights<\/h2>\n
![\"People](\"https:\/\/www.adventurouskate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Street-life-in-Nimes-France-721x1024.jpeg\"\/)
![\"People](\"https:\/\/www.adventurouskate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Street-life-in-Nimes-France-721x1024.jpeg\")
<\/figure>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.adventurouskate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Swimming-in-the-Forty-Food-Dublin-Ireland-857x1024.jpg\"\/)
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.adventurouskate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Swimming-in-the-Forty-Food-Dublin-Ireland-857x1024.jpg\")
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.adventurouskate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Hiking-in-Howth-Ireland-1024x756.jpg\"\/)
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.adventurouskate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Hiking-in-Howth-Ireland-1024x756.jpg\")
![\"Kate,](\"https:\/\/www.adventurouskate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Kate-Ashley-Baldies-Pitbull-Concert-1024x768.jpg\"\/)
![\"Kate,](\"https:\/\/www.adventurouskate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Kate-Ashley-Baldies-Pitbull-Concert-1024x768.jpg\")
![\"Kate](\"https:\/\/www.adventurouskate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Kate-Charlie-spritzes-Naples-1024x768.jpg\"\/)
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![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.adventurouskate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Fancy-T3-Tram-Prague-1024x768.jpg\"\/)
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.adventurouskate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Fancy-T3-Tram-Prague-1024x768.jpg\")
![\"Prague's](\"https:\/\/www.adventurouskate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Prague-freaky-sky-1024x768.jpg\"\/)
![\"Prague's](\"https:\/\/www.adventurouskate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Prague-freaky-sky-1024x768.jpg\")
Challenges<\/h2>\n
![\"Murray](\"https:\/\/www.adventurouskate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Murray-Licking-1024x768.jpg\"\/)
![\"Murray](\"https:\/\/www.adventurouskate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Murray-Licking-1024x768.jpg\")
![\"Lewis](\"https:\/\/www.adventurouskate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Lewis-Churu-1024x771.jpg\"\/)
![\"Lewis](\"https:\/\/www.adventurouskate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Lewis-Churu-1024x771.jpg\")
Burnout!<\/h2>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.adventurouskate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer-Beach-France-1024x768.jpeg\"\/)
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.adventurouskate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer-Beach-France-1024x768.jpeg\")
Blog Post of the Month<\/h2>\n
Most Popular Reel on Instagram<\/h2>\n