Road tripping – Amsterdam

Tags

101 in 1001, travel

Since I was pretending to be GPS on our road trip (with printed directions from ViaMichelin), I have to compliment myself – I only scre*** up once; upon arrival to our last destination – Amsterdam. Buuut, it wasn’t entirely my fault; roadwork’s were in progress so we had to take a different route. When we finally arrived to our hotel, we were completely exhausted and all we wanted to do is rest. Then things started to go wrong…

First we were told that parking is not included in room price (and that would mean 17 Euro per day*5  days… you do the math). Then we were told breakfast wasn’t included in room price as well (so we decided we´ll survive without it). At that point we were quite irritated… And then, as icing on the cake, the metro ticket machine ate our 20 Euros bill while we were trying to buy a weekly ticket. There was nothing we could do about it but to complaint. In written form. That was on Dutch. Great way for “first impressions” about the city, don’t you think? 

Luckily for us, our “bad-luck-chain” stopped the next morning when we found the greatest restaurant ever just across the street. We ate there every morning (and sometimes in the evening) cause everything was so d.e.l.i.c.i.o.u.s and prices were more than reasonable.

Payback time

They met when she was 17 at a summer garden party. 

It was the first garden party her parents let her on (accompanied by her older sisters of course). She wore her best dress and her mother braided her hair. He, on the other hand, was a young 22-year old man who finished four grades of primary school and had been working for 10 years already in order to help his parents feed and raise the rest of his siblings.

They eyes met across the dance floor and he liked what he saw. He asked her to dance with him and she said yes. After a couple of dances, she had to go home. She though that she will never see him again. But, she was mistaken… A month after that, he appeared at her doorstep asking her parents’ permission to court her. And then their love story began…

Road tripping – Berlin

Tags

101 in 1001, travel

When we planned our road trip, I knew exactly what I could expect from Prague (I’ve been there on a high school trip) and I knew what I wanted/expected from Amsterdam. But, I had no idea what to expect from Berlin. I asked around and everyone was thrilled with their visit to Berlin. Every.Single.One. The thing that confused me was the range of people claiming they had a blast there: families with small kids, history freaks, wild party animals, art lovers… 

How could one city satisfy all those different needs?! You know what – Berlin can. I don’t have the words to describe to you exactly how fast and with what intensity Berlin swept me of my feet. Until know, London was my No.1 and all other cities were way-way-way below him on my rank list. But after Berlin… my dearest London, watch out, you have a serious competition…  

First I would like to share two magnificent things we discovered in Berlin: 

• finding a place to stay via airbnb (you can check out here how it works),  
• free walking tours viaSANDEMANs New Europe (they operate strictly on tip-bases).   

Here is my list of things that are a must-see/must-do while in Berlin: 

1. Brandenburg Gate

The small Empress

Tags

babies, photography, slideshows

What fascinates me is when you ask a boy and a girl to tell you their love story, you always get two different versions. Always. 

The only thing that “matches” in both Sanja and Zoki’s story is location of their encounter; they worked together and they met in winter of 2009. He asked her on a cup of coffee; during work hours. After couple of “short-during work hours” coffees, they started to go on longer ones; after work hours. After a while, those “longer-after work hours”coffees turned into evening dates and nights on the town. The difference in their story is that Sanja claims that he was pursuing her while she wasn’t into him as much… He, on the other hand, claims she was very much into him – she just didn’t wanna admit it. 

Nevertheless, they hooked up and on March the 6th this year they became proud parents of baby girl Morana - the cutest, most peaceful and most serious baby girl I ever met. Last Sunday, I had the pleasure to snap-shoot one sunny afternoon with them. You should have seen us: four clowns, leaning over Morana, trying to make her laugh… or at least giggle… and – nothing. She was serious, delightful and dignified all the time; like a small Empress.

Mihaela and Kristijan // 09.07.2011.

Tags

photography, slideshows, weddings

Last weekend a long-time friend of mine got married. They first meet at a christening of their mutual friend Lana’s niece (she actually brought them together)… and last June their love story began. 
After couple of months, they knew they were meant to be together – forever.  But, before she met him, she planned a month long trip to New York (ohhh, how I envy her on that trip… totally green of envy – head to toe). So, before her departure to America, he proposed… and of course – she said yes. They both agree it was the longest month in their life… When she returned to Croatia she didn’t unpack at home, but at his place and remained there till this day…They were getting married at gorgeous Trajbar club in Zaprešić. The thermometer was showing 40°C and the air was incredibly dry – like someone sucked out 90% of oxygen from atmosphere leaving us with barely enough to breathe. The ceremony itself was held in the meadow just behind the clubs main building. It was the first “open air” wedding I attended and I have to say – b.e.a.u.t.i.f.u.l. (I now understand Americans and their love for meadow/forest/farm/beach wedding). 
I ask her couple of weeks prior to wedding could I bring my camera with me (since I tend to take it everywhere I go now days), and of course she said yes. Here are some bits and pieces of their special day: 

Road tripping – Prague

Tags

101 in 1001, travel

Our road trip seems ages ago… Realistically, not even a full month passed by – where the heck does the time go?! But, its Friday night, temperature is finally below 30°C, I processed photos from Prague and it’s time to share first third of our adventure.

We arrived at Prague after 7 hours on the road. I was very successful GPS (with printed instructions) and managed to get us to our destination without getting us lost along the way. One of the things Prague is known for are beer houses. We didn’t wanna go to famous ones where all the tourists go so I Googled and found „local“ one under the name of „U Zlatého Tygra”. I think we were only tourist in there but the atmosphere was great:

Killing two birds with one stone…

Tags

101 in 1001, goals, travel

Its 45 minutes after midnight and I’m melting on my balcony. Literally. At some point today, I glanced at Accuweather and 39°C were staring back at me from the screen… They are forecasting the same temperature tomorrow. I feel like a snowman in spring time… Since I can’t sleep, I figured I could be useful and do something I neglected lately – my blog.

I love travelling – it feeds my soul like nothing else. I believe that real wealth to life lies in experiencing more of it, seeing more of it, taking in as much of it as you can. There is always a “down” side to each story. The catch with travelling is it leaves you wanting more. Always.

Exactly a week ago we returned from the best vacation ever. I imagined it would be great, but it was better that great. It was mind-blowing. Impressions are still settling down but it was surreal. When someone asks me witch city was the best, I instantly reply Amsterdam but all of them were great in their own way. A friend asked me to single out one anecdote and I couldn’t pick one out.  

During our vacation I managed to fulfil 2 of my goals:

48.   Take a road trip with my husband and stop along the way

59.   Travel trough Europe


There are a ton of images I wanna share so you can expect three posts soon:   


                PRAGUE                                    BERLIN                            AMSTERDAM

Alice in Wonderland…

One of my favourite stories while I was growing up was Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. The White Rabbit, The Caterpillar, The Queen of Hearts – every character was incredible. But (there is always a but)… In that sea of incredible characters, one of them stood out - The Mad Hatter (and Johnny Depp was so excellent in Tim Burton version).

On Sunday we returned from our vacation. The whole vacation resembled Alice in Wonderland (but that is another blog post story)… A busy week is in front of me – I have around  1.000 photographs from every city we visited to look through/process/develop. This photo (took in Amsterdam on Cool Globes exhibition) reminded me of Alice and Mad Tea Party hosted by the one and the only Mad Hatter: