Travel is extremely important to me, and it's been something I missed very much during the pandemic.

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I grew up near Chicago, IL, USA. I moved to Washington, DC for university, where I met my partner. We started traveling together when we both spent a year abroad in London during our bachelors' studies. We spent as much time as possible during that year traveling across Europe; every long weekend or study week between terms, we were off to someplace new.

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Washington, DC was our home base until 2018, but we made multiple trips back to Europe during our masters studies, including for our wedding in Ireland in 2017. We just couldn't stay away!

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The stars aligned in 2018, and we made the decision to move to Germany. We cleared out our DC apartment, and before leaving North America, we hit the road for a classic American road trip, seeing national parks and friends and family far and wide. 

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We envisioned that our life in Germany would include many travels, casual short trips around whenever we could get away, and for 18 months, it was. Then the pandemic hit. While it was sad to be grounded anywhere, we were very glad to live in Germany throughout the pandemic.

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As it began to feel a bit safer to travel again, we took advantage of the personal and professional opportunity to travel once more! We spent the winter and spring of 2021-22 in the beautiful region of Puglia, where I conducted field research for my dissertation and my partner and I resumed our travel adventures, enjoying all the charms of southern Italy!

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Photos are our own, all rights belong to Danielle Pullan and Marco Panessa. For more travel photos and, when we're not traveling, my and my partner's cooking adventures, follow me on instagram at @dmpullan.