TRAVEL | collioure & cadaqués

I learned in art history that Collioure was the birthplace of Fauvism. I, as well as the Fauvists I reckon, was struck dumb by this tiny town's colourful facades. Just take a look at Matisse's Open Window or Les toits de Collioure--the crazy thing was that the colours in the painting were only little exaggerated.

The graphic designer in me was loving all the pinks, greens, and blues. My only regret is that I didn't take enough photos for "research". ;)







The next morning we bid France farewell and Roman drove us back to Spain and down the coast to Cadaqués. Before this holiday, I never thought I'd enjoy spending time at seaside towns so much. I always thought I was a city girl through-and-through, but now I have go have a think about my whole identity.

Cadaqués was not a easy town to get to. The one thing I couldn't stand about driving around in Spain was the endless winding roads. While Roman enjoyed all those hours on the road, I on the other hand always got a bit car sick...

TRAVEL | spain to france

Strangest part of our trip was probably the time we stayed at El Vilosell, an incredibly small village located in the province of Lleida. We arrived in the late afternoon after half a day of exploring and hiking hoping to dig into a big carb-y meal, but to our disappointment we couldn't find any restaurants, cafes, or supermarkets. Not that they were closed by the time we got there - there were none! The closest restaurant was at least 20km away at the next town, The only place of gathering appeared to be the only bar in the city a few meters from our hotel. Since we were low on snacks and fruit, bar food was our only option, and turns out they served a pretty decent pizza. :)

On the bright side, the hotel room we booked was beautiful! And only for 35 euros a night total. We happened to be the only guests that night (I wonder why this town doesn't draw in tourists *cough*) so it felt as if we booked a whole villa instead. My favourite part was the garden.





The drive through Andorra was crazy scary. It was such a shock to go from sunshine to snowy
mountains, complete with fog. We could hardly see the road beyond 30 meters. On an additional note,
I wouldn't really recommend a stop in Andorra, unless you're there to ski in Winter. The shopping
street was mediocre at best and the overall atmosphere was just odd. Like walking through the Vegas
strip on a tuesday or something.

Our first stop in France was Toulouse. I've been wanting to visit Southern France for ages and this roadtrip seemed like the perfect opportunity. Unfortunately we didn't get to see the famous La Ville Rose, since the weather was all doom and gloom the whole time we were there.

On the bright side, I did get to visit { Fondation Bemberg }, a fine arts museum that houses works from some of my favourite painters.

TRAVEL | roadtrip

Last month Roman and I embarked on our annual (if this is only the second time we've done a big trip like this can I still call it an 'annual' thing?) 2 week holiday/roadtip. For the longest time I've had my sights set on going to Portugal again but we booked too late and ticket prices soared.

After some moping around on my end, we settled on traveling to Spain instead. After Roman's big trip to Mexico in November last year he's been very driven to learn Spanish. That feeling of wanting to hold on to a place that's become special to you by learning a language, just for another chance to get your tongue tied over those unfamiliar words again, is a feeling I know all too well.

Anyways, onwards to Spain.

Roman and I have two completely different styles of traveling. While I like planning ahead and optimising time, he enjoys spontaneity and adventure. For this trip we wanted to find a balance between the two in terms of activities but where we decided to go often wasn't planned until the evening before. The only thing we knew before we started was 1. We land in Barcelona 2. We want to go to the Pyrenees then France by way of Andorra 3. We fly back to Berlin from Barcelona 4. We also knew we wanted to drive along the coast at some point.

In the end, our trip looked something like this: Barcelona - Sitges - Gratallops - El Vilosell - Pasarelas de Montfalcó (hiking) - Toulouse - Narbonnaise en Méditerranée Natural Regional Park - Gruissan - Collioure - Fageda d'en Jordà, Olot (hiking) -  Figueras - Cadaqués (hiking) - Olesa de Bonesvalls - Barcelona

GUIDE | berlin

Berlin is my favorite place in the world. There is a certain quality about that city that keeps bringing me back.

I left out a lot of places that are already featured in lots of other trendy Berlin guidebooks and instead just featured all the places I ended up going to a lot during my summer in the city.

Just a disclaimer, theres going to be a lot of cafes in this list because thats where I ended up spending most of my time, haha

TRAVEL | amsterdam

If this trip has taught me anything so far, it is to always travel slow. It still astounds me how little I saw on my previous trip to Europe. Mostly I remember jumping from hostel to hostel every two to three nights, losing whole days on buses, and packing (OH, GOD THE PACKING). In hindsight I might as well not have come at all! Too much time was wasted on planning the most minuscule detail, to make sure I "make the most" of my short stays. And for what? I ended up rushing from place to place, and never even having time for a short coffee break. Traveling that way was exhausting, and I got sick a lot during those two months, but worst of all I ended up missing on so so much.

But then again, I suppose, this is the trip that's supposed to make up for everything :)

Amsterdam was among one of the cities I told myself I had to return to. { Last time } I was there for three nights and made a rookie mistake of joining a awful pub crawl my second night. Long story short, I stayed out way too late and ended up sleeping in until 1pm the next morning, effectively losing a whole day because I was so tired.

This time I made a conscious decision to avoid the bar scene--which, actually isn't say much at all since I don't really like drinking anyways--and the first thing to do is to check into a different hostel. While The Flying Pig is highly recommended by travellers, party hostels aren't really my thing. Instead, I booked a week at { Ecomama } at Waterlooplien, and it was hands down, one of the best hostels I've ever stayed at. I even felt the need to review them of tripadvisor afterwards, something I don't do very often because I'm so damn lazy..ha

My hostel was conveniently located by the metro and a few tram lines so I was able to explore Amsterdam with ease. No more bikes for me this time because 1) I didn't want to deal with risking my life 2) it is a nightmare trying to find a bike for a person of my height (did you know that the Dutch are among some of the tallest people in the world???! I'm only 5 feet, I'm a tiny person!) and finally, 3) no bikes means more time for photos.

I'm currently writing this post from Stockholm. It hit -1 degrees this morning and I can't leave the hostel without a layer of uniqlo heat tech and goose down vest. Looking back at all these photos is making me miss all the sunny days in Amsterdam. 

Taken on a grassy slope opposite Stedelijk Museum in Museumplien. It was a great place to sketch in the sun, and obviously an even better place to take a nap with friends. I also distinctly remember the smell of weed wafting my way when I was there. C'est la vie

Amsterdam's coffee scene (I'm talking about the normal kind!) is among one of my favorites. All the cafes I visited served great coffee and had a wonderful laid back atmosphere. Most places also served a delicious selection of pastries and cakes. I developed a mild obsession with banana bread in Amsterdam that has been carrying on throughout the rest of the trip. I have yet to find some here in Sweden, but I guess I can live with having a { kanelbulle } every morning instead.

On another note, I'm really pleased with how the photos from this trip is turning out. I've been talking about starting a zine photo series for the past 6 months and I'm really looking forward to how it's all going to turn out in the end! I need to start messing about on inDesign again, I haven't touched it in months and I'm rusty.

Time to get to work.

TRAVEL | rome photo diary

To sum it up, Rome was warm, crowded, and noisy. After a month shivering in the cold in northern Europe--making sure I pack on several layers before leaving my hostel--Italy was a nice change of pace. Even in mid-October the weather was warm enough to walk outside in short sleeves and more importantly, warm enough to dine al fresco as the Romans do. 

My hostel was located right around the corner of the Roma Termini train station. It was an ideal location for backpackers since it is a little off the beaten path from all tourist locations, but still within a comfortable walking distance to the city center. My main mode of transportation was the metro, which I took from Castro Preteorio station all the way to Colosseo every day, and then from there I picked up on foot. 

 

I sort of stumbled upon Campo de' Fiori. It is a square just south of Piazza Navona and home to the oldest outdoor market in Europe. Walking around the market was an adventure in itself. Left and right, people were selling products ranging from olive oil to pasta, and regional candies to homemade liqueurs. Everything was so fresh and the atmosphere was so lively, I wanted to stay there all day.

I had my last lunch in the Jewish Ghetto. I was told by my roommate to try { Ba Ghetto }'s homemade ravioli. So I did, and she was right, it was completely out of this world good. I also ordered their Roman style fried artichoke as a starter. At first I wasn't entirely sure how to tackle the dish--the artichokes I'm used to at home were so stringy and tough only a little fleshy base were edible and the rest just gets tossed into the trash--so imagine my surprise when I saw the couple next to me devour the whole thing, leaves, heart and all. It wasn't long before mine vanished completely as well.

My one and only mission in Rome were to find the city's best Pistachio and Banana Gelato. I was told that if there were any flavor of gelato I needed to try, it would be those two. I stopped by Giolitti twice during my trip to try out some of their famous gelati. The first time I tried a combination of dark chocolate, pistachio and banana topped with a healthy serving of panna (cream). It was possibly the most stressful ice cream experience of my life--due to the warm weather I had gelato running down waffle cone then down my arm even before I stepped out of the store. I had forgotten to take napkins before I left but at that point the gelato had made such a mess I was too embarrassed to go back inside. Instead I found a secluded corner by the busy street to eat in private as fast as I can. Thank goodness I had a little bit of water left in my water bottle or else it would have been a very embarrassing, very sticky walk home.

I was a bit more prepared the second time though: two flavors, no whipped cream, a cup to go, and a handful of napkins. This made for a more comfortable eating experience. And I got to stand in street with all the other people enjoying their gelato, and as an added bonus, watch the newbies fail at conquering their 3+ flavor frozen treat in the 70 degree sunlight as I had done so the previous day. 

Live and learn.

To be completely honest, I did not love Rome. I tried falling in love with it, but I just couldn't. Perhaps it was the hordes of tourists that caught me off guard, but mostly it was because I felt incredibly pressured--pressured to soak up the cultural heritage, learn all the history and see all the arts as expected from most travelers who visit Rome. For example, I had no intention of paying 11 euros to enter the Colosseum to see something I've seen a million times in guidebooks or friend's photos--yet, a voice in my head kept screaming "what kind of tourist comes to Rome and doesn't tour Rome?". It was just a constant battle between just doing what I want to do, and what people say I should do. In a way it goes somewhat beyond sightseeing--but quoting Jesse Wallace from the film Before Sunrise: "I could never get very excited about other people's ambitions for my life." So it made more sense to ignore the nagging voice, and in the end had more fun doing things my own way.

And by "my own way" I mean eating my way through Rome, hanging out at my hostel's amazing lounge for hours on end, staying up all night with friends, and then...more eating, of course. 

And I'm leaving out the best part: I never had to wait in line. Not even once!