Greetings from Vesterbro, Copenhagen! We landed yesterday morning, it´s been drizzling ever since and the grey skies invite you to hibernate. Fortunately, we´ve rented a lovely apartment with airbnb and we can do just that. We took an early flight yesterday morning (and the only person who hates early flights more than me is V!) and we spent the afternoon in the neighbourhood, ate some yummy smørrebrød at Dyrehaven, had a coffee at Enghave Kafé and bought some wine at a local winery. I had me a nap while V watched Netflix and then we paid our friends a visit in Østerbro, where we shared some champagne and V helped with peeling root veggies. I was being a diva on the couch with an electric blanket on my belly since “that time of the month” renders me totally helpless.
buildings
Easter 2014
Thursday was all about baking and hiding inside from the rain. I made all this food and we cuddled up with blankets and Netflix. A lovely way to start a mini holiday, but would have proved boring in the long run. Yesterday however, the sun was shining and it was time for new adventures. I waited for my husband to finish a wallet he´s had an order on and when it seemed it was never going to happen, I took Sam for a walk to hip Grunnerløkka. We took some pictures on our way crossing Grønland and Tøyen, strolled through the lovely Botanical Garden and smelled the flowers. Luckily, my friend Elif agreed to meet us there, so we had coffee and pizza at Villa Paradiso. My man joined us in the end and we walked happily into the sunset the three of us. Haha!
Today we´re going to the Østensjø lake into the woods. Pictures soon! Enjoy the ride with us!
Return from Mother Country
As you might have realized, I´ve been away for a week. Back to my mother country, or, to be more precise, Bucharest. More than anything, it was a time travel- as I implied last time I mentioned my trip- to a stage in my life when the future still held everything in store and my hopes were sky-high. I´ve been living in Norway for 14 years now and I look back on my year in Bucharest with a mixture of nostalgia and of “things that could have been”.
This being said, my “future” turned out just right, my country´s, however, never raised to my expectations. Buildings are crumbling down, corruption is still everywhere, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, even the middle class seems to be flattening out into a mass of people learning how to survive with what they have.
Leaving politics and the deplorable speed at which things happen aside, Bucharest is a nice city to visit. Plenty of coffee shops, restaurants, stores and bookstores. Throw in some museums, lovely architecture in the old town and some of the city´s main streets, fairly low prices and welcoming people, there´s no reason why you shouldn´t give it a chance for a weekend or so.
I was there for a week to see my family, especially my niece, who is the crown jewel of our “dynasty”, to meet up with friends, have some laughs, some drinks, get hold on some books in Romanian and shop. I love Max Mara and they don´t have it in Norway any more! Can you even imagine?;-)
So I dined and wined, visited people and places, mostly the same places (and people!;-)), as my need for stability is ever so present, ate the eclairs and the pies my body had craved for an entire year, stayed in the same lovely hotel Cismigiu and explored. The city was sad and grey in the dirty February light, the temperature was nothing to fuss over, either, but the 1st of March brought a token of spring and people gave each other flowers and symbolic jewelry as they do every year. And it was lovely to see everybody, now I´ve recharged my batteries for a while. I´m sure I´ll go back to feeling home sick in no time!
Check out Amsterdamming´s entries on Bucharest!
life in a bubble 