What a lovely day! And what better to do with it than go for a stroll with Anette and our dogs? We´re lucky to have many cosy areas around and Kampen is one of them. A former working class neighborhood, its vivid colors are refreshing and its wooden houses- quaint. Almost free for traffic and boasting with a couple of real time charm coffee shops, it´s the place to go if the sun is shining and you have a couple of hours on your hands. Just have a look for yourselves!
A blog I follow by a fellow countryman Amsterdamming always presents the canal city in a new posture. The more I get to see of it, the more enchanting I find it. It´s alive! We went there for a long weekend a couple of years ago and were lucky with the weather, too! We walked and walked, almost got run by a bicycle several times, enjoyed a waffle, then a coffee, bought a souvenir, localized the Anne Franck museum, took a picture of a cat living on a boat, you name it. Vintage shopping was great and so was the Indonesian cuisine. We´ve been planning a spring break there, but it seems it´ll have to wait until next year. Enjoy some pictures so long.
I´m having a really difficult time adjusting to this uncertain weather, is it spring, is it still winter, which coat do I wear, do I still need gloves and how come it´s so windy!? At least it´s been sunny, it made it so much easier to spend time outside with my Sammy, without needing to force my own hand.
I´ve only just returned from my trip to Romania and I´m going to Lisbon for a few days in May and still the only thing I can think of is travel. And since France is one of my favorite places, thought I´d share some of my travel pictures with you.
Although I adore France, I haven´t seen nearly as much of it as I should have. Paris is the place I always long for and find a reason to return to, both for its magic and its food. In fact those two are quite interconnected since food is one of the main ingredients of magic! And you´ve got to love French food! Oh, my God! The snails, the cheese, the macarons, the rabbit, the onion marmalade, the Tarte Tatin. Yum! I´ve been to Normandy, Corsica and Cote D’Azur and besides beauty, divine food was the second thing they had in common. I need to explore more, I need to see Provence, the Loire Valley and Bretagne. In the mean time, enjoy a trip on my memory lane!
Restaurant in Corsica, France
In case you´ve missed me, I´ve been down with a terrible cold with fever and sneezing and the whole shabam. And since I had some work to do instead of nurturing my cold it took me ages to recover. Now I´m back on track and ready to roll!;-)
Anyway. Let me tell you about the week that passed. It kind of started on Wednesday, before that I was too sick and too tired to care about anything else than work and sleep. To sum it up, it was all about eating and socializing, as I was lucky not to have too much work on my agenda.
Wednesday- lunch with my lovely friend Elif at The Nighthawk Diner, burgers and fries. Chit chatting and chilling, the perks of being a freelancer finally pay off.
Thursday- out with my friend Kristin, dinner and margaritas at Taco Republica. It´s a fairly new and trendy eatery in Oslo, where they only serve organic food in a cosmopolitan environment.
Friday I had lots of time for my beauty sleep, but also for a walk with Sammie, his girlfriend and a couple of friends. In the evening we attended a fare-well party for a Danish friend who´s both moving back to Copenhagen and getting married. Now that´s what I call a wonderful excuse for social get-together and some bubbles!
Saturday greeted us with sunshine, Vuong took Sammy to the woods while I saw The Forsyte Saga. We then met some friends for coffee, had Chinese dim-sum at Taste of China and made some pizza for a couple of friends in the evening.
Today was for a good day for soup and reading The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak. It´s a compelling book, but not really my type of writing, so I can’t wait to start a new one.
Here are some pictures. Hope you had a good week!
xx, Alina
Although I have lots to do and an exam coming up, I think I´ll actually take a day off today. I feel a bit unwell and the last working weekends have taken their toll on me. I think I just need to lay on the couch all day and watch one of my favorite series, the Danish-Swedish coproduction- The bridge.
Yesterday was a glorious day with lots of sunshine and bird chirping, so spring seems a couple of weeks away. I´m happy I´ll get to celebrate the 1st of March in Romania, it´s the day we mark the return of spring. Here are a couple of pictures of a beautiful spring celebration in Corfu, Greece, a couple of years ago. Have a lovely Tuesday!
What do you reckon? It´s Friday again! Or Friday at last! Whichever one suits you!
I for one am very happy it´s nearly weekend and Valentine´s day on top of it, maybe thanks to the glass of wine and the flowers I bought myself, but I´m not so romantic anyway, so I don´t mind.:-) I´m done with translating the silly Work and Work Place Protection brochure, I´m done traveling for a week or so, happy to be at home with man and pets, not needing to check in or check out, catch any planes or any trains. And it´s just where I want to be. We´re celebrating Valentine´s with Sam´s girlfriend and her parents, who live just down the street, dining and wining.
During the course of the weekend I need to finish some boring accountancy stuff, but first and foremost get lazy with the pets, drink lots of coffee, see a friend or two and take many naps. Haha! Just by reading that I realize I sound like a granny, in fact I used to be teased with that at my former work place, just because I like silk scarves and 60s cut. 😉
I hope you have a lovely day, whether you celebrate Valentine´s or not! And now a couple of pictures from my last days´wandering.
I promised you a couple of pictures of Stavanger, so here they are! Quaint wooden houses, old pavements and even flowers. It really felt like an early spring. Enjoy!
It´s been snowing for days and it´s so very pretty outside! Snowflakes big like butterflies, they keep on falling down hurriedly, with vigor, as though they had only one purpose in life. It´s windy and it´s ruthless outside and I feel like a polar explorer when I dare leave the house. I hadn´t realized how much I´d missed it, it reminds me of my mother country, the panic on the news and the closed schools. Yet I´m not a winter´s child, I prefer admiring it from under the blanket, with a cup of tea in my hand. Staring at the snow safe and sound with the cat besides me, I can feel nostalgia slipping into my thoughts.
I´m going home in February and I´m as excited as ever. Every time I go back home it´s like taking a trip back in time. I don´t just go on a holiday, I go back to being 19. And it´s soaring. It´s not about age or accomplishments, it´s just that beginning, the promise of something bigger, I always wonder when I decided I got there. Don´t get me wrong, I´m pretty happy. The only thing I want is a baby and a picket fence, otherwise I´m good. I have it all. Just not the promise. I´m not 19 any more and the promise is gone. And I don´t know how to go home and not look for the time that passed…
If you haven´t been to Oslo yet, Grunnerløkka is the hipsters´arena. It´s a former working class area where most of the old buildings have survived and make for a pretty quaint atmosphere.The constant flux of young people, Sunday open shops and the Sunday market in Birkelunden keep the area bustling even when the rest of the town is dormant. The borough has lots of nice eateries, coffee shops and shops and it´s always ready for a new wave of people. Long way to go to achieve any Berlin status, but cool is in order. Although a bit too fussy for me to live in, I enjoy taking a day trip to its stores and have lunch nearby.
2013 was a good year in many ways. I established myself as an interpreter and worked hard, so hard that I needed almost a month´s break to realize how burnt out I was. I won´t repeat that mistake in 2014. Besides, I alienated many of my friends because I didn´t even have time for myself, let alone for others.
On a personal level, we´re still going strong, trying to have a baby one way or the other. Meanwhile, we decided to get a dog and that´s how Sam the samoyed entered our lives. We got him in February and he´s been filling every day with pure bliss ever since. He´s such a good natured pup and so affectionate, I never thought you could love anybody as much as we love him! He even befriended our 9 years old cat, at least at a frenemy-level.
Family-wise, I rejoiced in my niece´s presence when I visited my family in Romania for Easter, as well as in everybody else´s. My parents visited us in July, when Norway showed itself from its best side, it was hot and not a cloud in the sky. Christmas was spent with friends and my husband´s family.
Travel-wise, I savored Palma de Mallorca during our summer holidays, unfortunately we didn´t think of bringing the camera with us, so only Instagram can tell the tale. The fall was busy and stressful, but a short break to Berlin for a conference made it bearable. To get into Christmas mood we went to Tallinn for 3 days and it proved to be a terrific idea. Christmas break was long and lazy, I indulged myself in doing as little as possible.
2014 is the year! I´ll get my driving license, travel outside Europe and work my body in good shape again. And be kind. I´ll start with myself. Have a good one!
Stories and Anecdotes by Sharron Little Burnett
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