back from paris

last saturday we came back from paris. we rented a wonderful tiny apartment (found here via nano) close to the gare du nord, and enjoyed our time there tremendously, despite the weather being mostly cloudy and rainy.



in no particular order or preference, we did indulge in the following:

we...
* ate (and bought) lots of good cheese
* drank lots of cheap wine (we found a fantastic wine bar in montmartre)
* took a trip up the eiffel tower and felt seasick 300m up in the air
* drank tea and bought macarons at ladurée
* took a tour on the canal (which was mostly nice, but rather longish due to dubble-locks and other obstacles such as unlifted bridges taking lots of time)
* ate lots of croissants for breakfast
* drank more wine
* bought perfume, a green beret and kusmi tea as souvenirs



* visited the louvre and stared at the masses staring at mona lisa (however, i was amazed by the raft of the medusa. it really was as awe-inspiring as i thought it would be.)
* visited notre dame and sacre coeur
* got engaged on our 5th anniversary in a little park on montmartre
* ate lots of fantastic french food (there were two amazing restaurants just around the corner from where we stayed, called Chez Michel and Chez Casimir - i heartily recommend both of them!)
* saw the kubrick exhibition at the cinematheque francaise (best exhibition i saw in a long time)

off to paris

when you read this we're off to paris, to celebrate our 5th anniversary.



in no particular order or preference, we thought we would indulge in the following:

eat lots of good cheese
drink lots of cheap wine
see the eiffel tower
eat lots of macarons
take a tour on the canal
eat lots of croissants
drink more wine
sniff some perfume
visit the louvre
sit in nice parks
eat lots of baguette
see the kubrick exhibition at the cinematheque francaise
buy kusmi tea

i'm sure it's going to be a splendid trip!

paris

we are going to paris this june!



picture from here

since i've never been there, i'm naturally very excited - both to see the city and to see if my rusty french will stand the test of reality...

do you have any suggestions of what to do and what to see and where to eat and what to avoid? please share! the internet offers such an overwhelming amount of possibilities and tips and whatnot that i have become positively confused and would prefer to hear some personal best of paris tips..

flowered tights

i'm really heartily sick of the snow and the cold weather here in oslo. even though we've had a couple of milder days now it's not warm enough to stow away the warm pullovers and thick winter boots. i long to be wearing outfits like this one again:



this picture was taken on our trip to bergen last august, at a mountain stop where the train waited for another one to arrive. the train ride from oslo to bergen takes around 9 hours, so we were glad to strech our legs and enjoy the magnificent landscape..

tights, skirt and t-shirt: h&m
boots and bag: zara
scarf: monki
cardigan: gina tricot
belt: vintage

from iceland

i've done a lot of travelling lately, first to germany to visit some friends, then to sofia in bulgaria, and last week we went on a trip to iceland for five days, to celebrate the birthday of my favourite person in the world. iceland was wonderful. cold, stylish and kind of unreal. magic.

if anybody would ask me now which city i would prefer for a short shopping trip, the answer would definitely be reykjavik. with so many small interesting boutiques, vintage shops and designers, it was really hard for me to limit my souvenir-shopping. this is what i bought:



a pair of vintage frames by yves saint laurent. i'm not sure yet whether i will put in clear glasses or toned ones for sunny days...





just across the street from our hostel in the middle of the city, a young designer called rakel hafberg sold wonderful accesories made from chicken leather in all sorts of colours. her wristbands and chokers are really something special, and on her homepage you can even design your own ones! she custom made a choker in my choice of colour and delivered it to the hostel before we left for the airport, so her service is fantastic.



i had read a lot about kronkron before i left, so of course i had to have a look at their store. i would have loved to buy a pair of their colourful shoes, but my budget said no, so i only got myself one of their brand new designed patterned tights. i love them! now i just wait for warmer weather to wear them...

another opera house

the probably best question i got at work this summer was this: do you have a swimmingpool here? at first i just opened my mouth and shut it again and then asked - what? when confronted with the same question once more i couldn't help but say: this is an opera house - but you're welcome to try out the restrooms...



































however, when we went to helsinki just a few days later, i of course had to take a look at the opera house there, and couldn't help but think: public bath! with all the white glaced tiles and small square windows it really looks like a swimming pool turned inside out.





































some people i met said they didn't like the house, that it was positively ugly. surely it is not as elegant as the opera here in oslo, but i quite liked it, anyways. it has something of an industrial bauhaus feeling, but i also like that it evokes thoughts of greenhouses, these huge ones that were built around 1900 or even earlier, for exhibition of expensive palmtrees and exotic butterflies and birds.

sailor in detail

i thought i'd test my sailor-attire today in anticipation of the cruise to copenhagen that we have booked for the upcoming weekend. while the boat-part is more for my favourite person in the world, the copenhagen-part ot the trip is more for me. something for everybody so we are both happy =)

























sailor-appropriate neckscarf: vintage

























enamel albatross-necklace: gypsy rabbit on etsy

























crab-claw necklace: redsofa on etsy (birthday present from my favourite person in the world)

























bright red shoes to match stripey shirt: vagabond (via ebay)
red striped shirt: gina tricot

by the way: do you have any tips on what to do during a 7h stay on a hopefully sunny sunday in copenhagen?

the perfect keepsake

last week i took a very spontanious trip back to lüneburg. the not so fun part included a visit at my dentists, the more fun part was meeting up with my friends. since i don't think i'll be coming back in the near future, i treated myself to what i consider the perfect lüneburg souvenir:





















a silver ring made by a local artist, picturing the most significant and beautiful buildings of the town





































picture one: St. Johannis, Altes Rathaus
picture two: St. Michaelis
picture three: Alter Kran, Wasserturm

the capital

i'll be off to stockholm for the weekend. it is my combined birthday- and christmas present for a., and we have been looking forward to it for quite a while. we don't have any big plans, apart from seeing "tomorrow, in a year" at dansens hus on saturday night.

it seems ages ago since i last was in sweden's capital, so i'm mostly looking forward to exploring the city, especially södermalm, eating nice swedish food such as kladdkaka and semlor and enjoying the atmosphere. i have always loved stockholm and could really imagine living there one day.

we think about going out for a really nice meal on saturday evening before the opera, so if any of you know any nice and affordable place with good food somewhere more or less close to dansens hus (i think it's very central, so something between östermalm and vasastan would be around the place i guess), please let me know.

travel dress

this weekend i spent with my favourite person in the world in karlstad, sweden, where his niece was having her name-giving-ceremony (in place of being baptized). we took a bus in the early friday evening, and while this dress certainly was a good idea in the frst place for comfy travelling, it turned out not warm enough. the busdriver apparently thought it necessary, given the outside temperature, to turn the bus into a driving fridge, so i ended up feeling really cold, as my jacket was lying in my bag in the luggage compartement. brrrrr...

























dress: h&m
boater hat, bag and belt: thrifted
shoes: strauss

(and guess what happened on the return-trip? - yes, exactly, just the same. even though i had a cardigan with me inside the bus, i ended up borrowing my boyfriend's blazer. which might give some of you the thought of "oh, nice, boyfriend-blazer, isn't that one of the latest trends?" well, in my case it's not, as said blazer is not, as supposed to be, one size larger than me, but four sizes. or five. not trendy. but warm. which was the main idea, though.)

oslo in the sun

back from oslo, again. this time my parents were there, too. actually, they are still there as it is their summer holidays. we went by ferry, which was a fantastic experience of arriving, the fjord is just amazing in the morning sun. i was very happy to spend some quality time with my parents, and also with my boyfriend, and we had a good time together. the weather was nice and sunny most of the time, and i even catched a little sunburn on my shoulders which has now turned into a pretty tan...

here is me on saturday evening - i didn't bring any heels as i knew we'd be walking a lot. this dress is wonderful, though the length doesn't work too well for me without heels...

























hat, dress and blouse: h&m
bag and belt: vintage, thrifted
shoes: strauss (my favourite summer flats!)

weekend

a and i had a great weekend in karlstad, sweden. we visited his family and had two wonderful days. saturday was lovely, with loads of sunshine as well so we took a lovely walk at the river:

















i stayed a day longer, as i had some business to attend to (this sounds like i'm so important!...) and used the extra time for some shopping. sweden has this fantastic thing called "bokrea", which means that books are on sale and a lot cheaper than during the year, so i bought some novels and also some books for work and uni. sweden has also proved to be best for thrift-shopping: i spent at least an hour at "myrorna" (the salvation army's store) in karlstad and found some wonderful stuff, which will appear on this blog sooner or later.

the 6th picture

now even this tag that's been haunting the international blogworld reached me: ung farbror tagged me to go to the 6th folder in my pictures and post the 6th picture form that folder. well. the difficulty witht his tag is that i don't use "my pictures". and as i am at the moment not even sitting at my own computer, things didn't get easier.. so, instead i took the 6th picture-containing folder on my portable harddisc and took the 6th picture:

























this is the hostel in prague where a and i stayed during our eastern europe holidaytrip 2007. the beds were horrible (ever slept on 3 small matresses next to each other instead of one large one? i cannot recommend it..), the kitchen even more so and the temperatures were not to my liking either. but, it was a lot of fun also.

here is a picture of me on the train to prague back then:



















now i'll go and do some baking.
i do tag friederike (yes!!) and everyone else who hasn't been tagged yet (boring, i know..)

it's been a while...

... since i posted something here. i don't even know why it took me so long, but i guess i needed a break from all the writing and taking pictures. winter is definitely here and it is, at times, both refreshing and depressing. i do have loads of stuff to do for school which stresses me out quite a bit, but then christmas is approaching and that's a treat.

i just came back from a prolonged weekend in oslo at my favourite person's place. it snowed a little, but mostly it was just cold and we went to the park. the park seemed literally full of music, it was so enchanting! this little girl was so sweet playing the violin, and she seemed so lonely, so i put a little money into her box. she was so absorbed in her playing, i think she didn't even realize me approaching her..

















here is one of the most famous sites of oslo, the monolith at vigelandsparken, taken by my favourite person. with me right in front of it, in my favourite white winter coat and matching hat:

















other than enjoying ourselves in the park, we spent our time on the sofa, eating good food and playing video games. or rather, a. played and i sat besides watching. for me it's like watching a movie, i actually prefer watching him play than play myself.

he had two new games for his x-box, fable 2 which is a weird blend of ancient english myths and the victorian times with some whiffs of steampunk in between, and mirror's edge, based on doing parcours. both are very well done, and while fable 2 was engaging in the tale that is told and your choices between good and evil, mirror's edge got my pulses racing just by watching the player jump between skyscrapers and onto helicopters. if you want to face your acrophobia, there's your chance.

vacation

now i have come back to lüneburg after some wonderful weeks of vacation. a and i first spent a few days in sweden, in his parents' summer house on an island in the lake vänern. it really is beautifully situated, with a view of the lake and some other islands and the far horizon out on the lake. there was a lot of wind and not too much sun, which was nice because we didn't suffer of mosquitoes, but then also we couldn't catch much of a tan. the best thing was that it was nice and quiet and we could read a lot and bath and use the sauna and barbecue and relax.

after this nice start, we continued to moscow to experience the biggest city we have seen so far. we visited just the right amount of sites, had nice food and just stared and watched things. russia and moscow are really fascinating. here come the first two pictures:
















we took a boat trip on the river moskva, which took us along a lot of the major sites







this is me with the kremlin in the background. sadly, the weather was not so nice during the last three days.

from moscow, we directly headed to the south of germany, where my brother's wedding took place. i did wear my dress with much grace and success and we had a lot of fun at the celebration. more about this in a later post. with more pictures.

reading europe - europa erlesen

when a. and i travelled - amongst other places - to budapest last summer, i had the chance to borrow a somewhat different "guide" to the town. it was small, perfect travel-size so to say, and it was called "europa erlesen - budapest" (reading europe - budapest). the basic idea behind it was to gather pieces of literature, both poetry and prose, that had something to do with the town, that discribed the town and its inhabitants in one way or another, and thus give a very differentiated picture of the place you visit. there were both german and hungarian authors, and some from other countries as well. phantastic!

i never really gave a thought to that this actually must be part of a series of books, until i, when looking through the further- information-pages in my new travelguide for moscow, discovered that there is a "europa erlesen - moskau" guide as well. and when checking the publisher wieser-verlag's homepage, i saw that there were surely around 100 other cities and regions to be explored through literature, especially from eastern europe, but also lappland, iceland, new york and oslo (which is not available anymore, but i found it on ebay - so now it's mine). so, if you can read german and go on a trip, check if there is one of those wonderful literary guides available! they are not too expensive, and they make the journey so much more interesting..

beautiful day

today was probably oslo's first real spring day for the year, the sun was shining brightly most of the time, the air smelled of fresh grass (well, at places with lawns nearby) and the temperature was pretty high for this time of the year - i guess around 10 degrees, plus, of course.

i decided to use the lovely weather for a nice walk, and ended up in the famous Vigelandparken, which is where i usually go for my jogging-tours as well. instead of taking the usual round from one end of the park to the other, i decided to explore some corners at the far end of the park, places that i hadn't seen before. the park is a lot bigger than i had assumed until now, and i like it more every time i go there. there is a small hill with a lot of trees on it which i had only seen from far away until today. it looks like a place for fairytales...
actually, those rather remote areas of the park remind me a lot of places where we played as children, so i guess i'll change my running-tours a bit to see how spring is going to change them.. things start finally turning green again =)