Explore and discover

Oh my dears,

What a weekend. It started with a non-functioning toilet on Friday night that freaked me out and made me to a specialist when it comes to terms of being a plumber. When this problem was resolved I finally could join the guys to climb the trees (high ropes adventure course). And yesterday night some friends and me met to have a nice night with savoury pancakes. Due to all the precedent activities, today's one is called uni.

Gargoyles

Cathedral's woodwork

View above the city

Magnificent architecture

Empty rows in the opera

It's been now three weeks that I've lived in my apartment in this new city so I dedicated the last week to explore the city and to further decorate my room. For the city-part I used last Sunday's "Journée du patrimoine" when French patrimonies are open to the public. So I climbed the towers of the central cathedral, balanced on its woodwork and visited the local opera. Furthermore I went to Hautvillers, a very cute champagne village in the region. I especially loved the handcraft signs that were spread all over the tiny curvy streets.

Vineyards

Lovely facade

Signs as the monks' hospice

You got the first glimpse of my room here, so here is what I installed this time: a garland with black and white pictures that reflects memories of the last couple of years, fixed with miniature pegs. Self-portraits, favourite snapshots and best friends are now adorning my wall.

Garland with snapshots

Hopefully, see you next week. All the best so far!

Back to childhood

Disney Castle (despite dark clouds, it didn't rain once!)

Do you remember when you were little and dreamed off being friends with your favorite Disney characters? I lively remember those times and actually turned back to them when I headed to Disneyland Paris on Tuesday. Although all of us have exceeded the age of 20, we spent the day like 4 year old girls - smiling, laughing, amazed and curious!

We met Snow White and her seven dwarfs, explored the world of Pirates of the Caribbean, went on crazy roller coasters with lots of inversions, helped Indiana Jones with his expedition and eventually felt like princesses entering the Disney castle. Since we went there throughout the week queues were rather seldom and so we didn't waste any time at all: We stayed in the park for more than 10 hours and finished by watching a wonderful fireworks and light show (video here).

• A little advise from my side: If you are student, it is worth to ask for a student discount. We did so and payed only 48 Euro for the day but for both parks (Disneyland and Disney Studios). 
• Favorite roller coaster: Rock'n'Roll Roller Coaster by Aerosmith & The Twilight Zone Tower (Drop Tower Thrill)
• Favorite park: Studios because the attractions were much better and exciting; Disneyland is more for little kids. I was also disappointed by only having seen ONE single character (Minnie). I thought there would be thousands. 

Sunset

Mickey and his founder Walt

This trip was a nice change, but still, I am here to study.
4 classes were on my schedule this week, which is not even a third of the total. In nearly every class we have either to deliver a final essay or a group presentation by Christmas which means working-intensive months ahead! But hey, I don't want to complain at all, we are all in the same situation. 

Finally I wanted to show you a glimpse of my new bedroom. In the beginning I had a lot of issues because I couldn't make friends with my wall color. I soon realized that I was wrong. Thanks to carefully chosen decorative items, neutral colors and Emily's tips, I could turn down the girly factor of the walls and fell now entirely comfortable here. In the next weeks, I will complement the oeuvre with some wall decoration. How do you like it so far? 

Desk

Bag organization & mini TV

Decoration & friends!

Bed & Couch

Enjoy your Sunday and the upcoming week, see you then!

Grasse Matinée

Morning baguette

Good morning - or shall I better say good day?!

Whatever you feel like what time it is right now, I've just got up and had a more than satisfying breakfast/lunch. My first week of uni in France is over and today's agenda is filled with relaxing activities (in French = grasse matinée). But let's start from the beginning: 

On Monday I met a part my new fellow students for the first time and I was immediately happy to see that they are people just as me. Throughout the week we suffered language classes, grammar lessons, presentations and a champagne tasting together, not to forget to mention the few parties in private apartments. 

Still, our apartment won't be used for this purpose. Instead, my flatmate and I went to Ikea yesterday to beautify our kitchen, bathroom and bedrooms. Luckily we had same ideas on how we want to have the decoration to be done. Besides, my flatmate is the best. 

Best flatmate! Surprise = Chocolate cookies

Later I am going to meet one of my friends for a cafe before I have some other friends coming over for dinner. I put some French crêpes (pancakes) on the menu and hope that we all together enjoy the night.

Last but not least, I totally forgot to announce last week's winner of the beautybox... Tadaaaaa: For security reasons, I don't want to name her but she is a French girl who has already received a mail from my side. Congratulations!

Enjoy your week, next week I'll show you a glimpse of my newly decorated bedroom!

Light festival at the cathedral

New friend on my desk from Ikea

Night out with cocktails

Field garlic tart

Off to Champagne!

A very early good morning,

It is 6.30 AM and I am already in front of my laptop. My train leaves in about an hour which is why I squeeze a quick post into my schedule before heading to the region of Champagne!

I don't know whether a thing like summer blues exists, but since some people call their depressive mood by the end of winter a winter blues, I assume that there is an equivalent in summer. And I have it.
Unbelievably but true, I am tired of good weather and sun shining. It's been months now that I merely saw a drop of rain. On all the blogs I currently read bloggers complain about the ending of the season; me, on the contrary, I am happy about it.
By the beginning of September I begin to close the chapter of summer. My outfits change from colourful and flashy to darker shades. My music style changes from estival guitar sounds to classical film music. My food experiments change from fruity and refreshing taste explosions to warming candle light dinner menus.
Isn't that a reason to be cheerful?

As a matter of fact, I left my beloved Canon in my new flat. This fact and a quite not-worth-showing week leads to no pictures in that post. "Not-worth-showing" means in the end that I spent the entire afternoon yesterday by the river with two old school friends having barbecue and talking about old times. "Not-worth-showing" also means that I baked another carrot pie and took it to a lunch with my Mom's best friend and meeting her kids. And last but not least,  "not-worth-showing" is about lying in my bed throughout the day and reading Fall of Giants by Ken Follet (1000 pages of love, intrigues, politics and history - how I love it!).

Tomorrow it's my first day in my new uni. I still remember my very first post, when I had the same situation two years ago. But this time, I feel so much more mature and relaxed that I can only look forward to this new episode. And next week you will get a glimpse at its first minutes. So far, have a great Sunday and enjoy the week!

Giveaway the summer!

Your chance to win a beautybox!

Happy Sunday!

There are photos on my laptop that I constantly put aside, always thinking that one day I will post them on a Sunday morning. The next moment I wonder why I should stick to my self-imposed rule, instead of writing whenever I have to share something with you. There are two simple explanations: self-discipline to write regularly and my anticipation until Sunday morning.

One of these remains is the photo with two new pair of shoes that I acquired during the hot months. My new GEOX high heels and some slippers that I got for only a few bucks on a Vietnamese market. 

Vietnamese slippers & GEOX High Heels

One recent surprise that arrived a few days ago, was a beautybox. It consisted of two alessandro nail polishes (Flaming Spirit & Precious Treasure), a NUXE hair oil, a swisscare mascara, a moroccanoil treatment and the ME eau de toilette by Lanvin. Since I have some issues with broken hair, I was very excited about the hair treatments and currently try the NUXE one first. After only five days of treatment my generally split ends begin to recover, thus thumbs up for the product! Same applies to the nail polishes that have been lasting for four days now and don't have any scratches yet.

Do you also want to try these products? Then it's your chance now: I give away a beautybox! Just leave me a comment with your name and mail address until the 31st of August 2013, 23.59 PM. The winner will be announced in the next post, 1st September. Good luck!

Summer surprise from beautybox

Enjoy your week & all the best!

Change ahead

Beach time

Good morning my dears,

Tomorrow it's time again. Time again for moving. Since I consider myself as a quite experienced person on this topic (here, here, here and here), I haven't started packing yet - but will today. This time it is because my second half of my bachelor's degree begins in September. And of course, I will share all my experiences at the new place as I have done until now.

Since I have been back from Asia I spent most of the time at my family's place, enjoying the summer weather while relaxing at the lake, hiking in the mountains, trying new food recipes, shopping in the summer sale and organizing all the crazy things for my new apartment (so much to think of!). On Thursday my mother and me went out for a ladies night which consisted of "Dirty Dancing" in the open-air cinema situated at the lake and a wine tasting. What a blast with all the shrieking women glancing at Patrick Swayze's body!

Speaking of family activities, I feel very sad today: My brother leaves to New Zealand in a few hours and will stay there for the next seven months. Literally, this place is the end of the world. Yesterday we had a family night together, with home-made pizza, special cocktails and a goodbye-cake. I certainly will miss my little brother and so will my parents as now even the last of us flies the nest. Take care and enjoy this unforgettable period of your life.

Thank you very much for reading and have a great week!

Low calorie summer snack: raspberry sorbet, prunes & cookie

Turtles bathing in the sun

On the court

My brother's favourite strawberry-cream cake

Before the open-air cinema with a glass of Rosé

No better than a dancing movie at the harbour and under the stars

Kingdoms on the travel route

Happy Sunday!

The Golden Triangle

After a long brunch with my family, I now find the time to post about my second part (first part here) of the South-East Asia experience: Thailand & Cambodia.

We entered Thailand at the Golden Triangle that is famous for drug smuggling (no, we didn't!) and then continued our route to Chiang Mai, in the northern part of the kingdom. On our way we passed Chiang Rai with its famous white temple that I adored: more an artwork than a religious site, the temple is all in white and the painting in the inside consist of comic figures such as Superman or Jack Sparrow.
As I love cooking I enrolled for a cooking class in Chiang Mai, where I cooked a spicy prawn soup, red curry (favourite!), hot papaya salad and pad thai. Everything was very tasty and I got an insight how the delicious Asian dishes are prepared. Just be careful when it comes to the term "spicy": our chef told us that 1 chili is soft, 2-5 is medium and more than 5 is hot. Since my friend and I were up for medium, we chose to put 2 chili. Believe me, I hardly couldn't finish my dish.
After only a short stay in northern Thailand, we headed towards the South, to the famous capital of Bangkok. We stayed in the middle of the centre, next to lively Koh Sun Road. In Bangkok I visited the overcrowded Grand Palace, was overwhelmed by the great shopping malls in downtown, did a boat trip through the canals and walked around the city for more than four hours. Actually, after two weeks of travelling, Bangkok was the place I felt really exhausted at. Within the three day I relaxed a lot at the pool, in the hotel room or in small cafes to write postcards. The unquestioned highlight was the skybar where Hangover 2 was filmed and that has an spectacular view over the city!

White Temple

Spicy Papaya Salad

Street market

Canal tour

In Bangkok lots of the other travelers left us, so that my roomie and I were put together with an entire new group. Together we went for the kingdom of Cambodia, the last country on my travel route. Arrived in Siem Reap quite late in the night, we concentrated on the next day: Angkor Wat, the biggest temple town in the world. With a small group of three others and a Cambodian guide, we went up at 4AM and spent 10 hours at places where Lara Croft was filmed and where Buddhism and Hinduism converge. Our guide was a very intelligent person who not only told us something about the temples and symbols, but also about Cambodian life itself.
First thing back in hotel was a three hours nap.
The next day we went to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, situated next to the Mekong River. The first night we had dinner in a restaurant where I ate a tarantula spider (my mom thinks I am crazy - but it tasted like chicken). The following day I fully dedicated to the horrible genocide that happened 35 years ago when one third of Cambodia's population was killed by the Khmer Rouge,. After having visited the genocide museum S21 (a prison at that time), we went to the so-called killing fields where more than 80 mass graves where found after the regime had stopped. I have never heard of this tragedy before and was therefore very touched by all the stories, places and relics. Currently reading a book - three weeks after visiting - I nearly cry on every page.

Despite only four weeks in this different world, I learnt so much about history, culture and life that I don't want to miss. I saw lots of poorness and know why I donate my clothes and money to charity organisations and realise how blessed I am. During my trip I met so many people who traveled much more than I did so far and who inspired my to see lots of different places in our diverse world.
That's been all to my trip, but if you have any further questions to my trip, just leave me a comment. I will be happy to reply!

Enjoy your week!

Angkor Wat

Ta Prohm (Tomb Raider temple)

Buddha!

Chào & Sabaidee

Happy Sunday!

And here I am. Back with a huge backpack of memories, stories, experiences, photos, souvenirs. Today's and next week's posts I therefore dedicate to my trip to South-East Asia.

All in all, South-East Asia was great. I only want to describe shortly what I have experienced and underline my descriptions with some pictures. For all of you who are interested in more information and detailed addresses, I recommend travitips.

Since I started (Hanoi) and finished (Ho Chi Minh City) my trip in Vietnam, I want to start off by these two cities. Dropped off in Hanoi, I was overwhelmed by the heat, the people, the busy streets and the 1 million motorbikes that made it sometimes impossible for me to cross a street. Obviously, there are only few traffic lights that no one respects. The cultural program in Hanoi consisted of the mausoleum of the former president Ho Chi Minh (looked more like a wax figure), the temple of literature (first Vietnamese university), US-war relics, the old town, Houn Kiem Lake and the Hoa Lo Prison. On my way through the city I was asked at each corner whether I want a ride on a motorbike (NO!) and while once crossing a street, I was even slightly hit by one. In Hanoi I also met the group that was with me on tour until Ho Chi Minh City.
Compared to my 4 days in Hanoi, my 1.5 days in HCMC flew by. I managed to visit the central market - bought new shoes here -, to crawl the famous Cu Chi tunnels and to end my stay at the Independence Palace. And I also had to say goodbye to all the people that I spent so much time with. I will certainly miss them!

The other country I want to present today is Laos, my favourite country on the tour. We stopped in Vientiane, Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang before we spent two days on the Mekong river in order to reach the border to Thailand. Vientiane was pretty dull whereas Vang Vieng was a lot of fun: river tubing, Friends-watching, bike tour, swimming in the blue lagoon and partying with other backpackers. The village with two streets was such a relaxed place that I recommend to everyone. It was only topped by Luang Prabang. Here I did elephant trekking and could even sit on the elephant's neck and bath the elephant afterwards. Then I visited the Kung Si Waterfalls and went up early the next morning to see the monks for their daily ritual: monks only eat once a day and food is then provided by village people. As Laos is a very poor country family send their children to become a monk in early age to have a better future.

Houn Kiem Lake, Hanoi

Hanoi Houses

Lemonade on my favourite terrace

Blue lagoon

Vang Vieng

Monks' ritual

Elephant!

Kung Si Waterfalls I

Kung Si Waterfalls II

Before finishing I have one question to ask: I need a new mobile phone. What do you think? Is an iPhone 5 its money worth or should I rather invest into a different model? I prefer to gather your trustworthy opinions on that topic because all the reviews make me crazy.

See you next week with the report about Thailand & Cambodia. Enjoy your time!

P.S. This is actually my 100th post since I started this blog two years ago. Thank you for all your support during that time, I appreciate all of your comments a lot. And now: Time to celebrate!