Do you love coffee as much as I do?

A lighter post today.

If I were you I’d be getting tired of the drama.

So today’s post is about coffee.

Here’s the thing:

I love my morning coffee.

coffee

I’m not at all grouchy in the morning but I so look forward to that first cup of java.

In every country we’ve visited, we have stopped for coffee each day as we walked around the cities. When my husband was working and I was on my own, I often stopped two and three times at the various sidewalk cafes. It was the one indulgence I allowed myself. I say indulgence because a tiny cup of coffee with no refills was a minimum of five dollars.

Here at home, I would never spend that. Heck, I don’t even like Starbucks. Actually, I hate their coffee and hate the prices even more. Sometimes my husband and I might share a latte at Barnes and Noble on a raining afternoon. But for the most part, it’s coffee from home.

I took a quiz yesterday in a magazine for which the results would determine if I was a spendthrift, a frugal shopper, or a tightwad. I made it to tightwad status by one point. Now there’s a reason for that. The more I’m a tightwad in some areas means I can be a spendthrift in others. I just think that’s smart.

So those two or three lattes, a pure indulgence (but there’s just something about drinking lattes in European sidewalk cafes that are so appealing, right?) only meant I didn’t each lunch at a restaurant. I either grabbed a couple of extra croissants, ham and cheese at breakfast to carry with me or I bought a sandwich from the grocery stores. (I’ll write a whole post when I think about it about my other fetish when we travel, visiting local grocery stores.)

 

This is one of the breakfast areas in a hotel in Paris. Cute, huh?

Paris

 

This is a Paris cafe. There were so many places in Paris, one could stop for coffee every few feet.

Paris

These next two are in Amsterdam. Except for some of the “x-rated” window shops, one of my favorite places because of the city itself, and the Van Gogh,(Gogh pronounced  Gok, hard “k”) art museum.

 

Amsterdam

 

Adorable outside cafe in a small town in Australia. Loved Australia although my hubby and I contracted some sort of “bird flu” while we were there and were very ill for weeks after we got home.

 

A favorite spot in Brazil. Isn’t this amazing?Brazil

When I was a young nurses aid at our local hospital, I meant a woman in her eighties. We talked often and she gave me some of the best advice I’ve ever had. We often talked about all the countries she had visited. Here’s what she said, “Honey, travel the world when you when you’re young and healthy. There will come a time when you or your husband might not be able to.”

I never forgot what she said.  My husband and I were talking the other day that we were so glad I had joined him on many of his overseas trips, although we had traveled before that as well. If anything, we wished I had gone even more. Now, we hesitate because of my mom’s health. However, we are seriously considering a long trip in the fall, perhaps to Switzerland and its neighbors, via Paris, of course. It all depends.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed having coffee with me today around the world.

God bless and have a good one.