A powerful mug

This morning I made coffee, just like any other morning. And just like any other morning, I had to make the tough decision of which mug to drink from. I have quite an extensive mug collections, most of them from my travels. I reached for a fairly new mug I got in New York City just a few months ago. I got it at the Museum of the City of New York, and it looks like this.

It immediately reminded me of where I bought it. By that, I don't mean NYC, but the exact spot in the museum gift shop where I stood, holding it in hand, deciding if I should buy it. It reminded me of the way I felt that day, what I had seen before, what I did afterwards. And it made me want to write about it. Write about that day, about my time in NYC, about my travels in general. I haven't been writing here for a long time and I am unsure why that happened. But this little moment this morning reminded me why I wanted to write about travelling in the first place: because I like to revisit what I've experienced. We move so quickly these days that it's sometimes difficult to fully be in just one place. Travelling usually allows us to focus on the new adventures ahead and not worry about the six different things we should be doing at the same time. But as soon as we get back home, back into the routines and deadlines, we sometimes almost forget what we've seen, visited, tried just a few weeks ago. We take pictures to remind us - but we hardly ever look at them because they are all on our phone or computer. People ask us 'How was your trip to NYC?' and we say 'Amazing, I loved it.' and often that's that. I write so that it doesn't end there. That is my motivation.

To say I don't know why I stopped writing is not completely true. There have been a lot of moments these past months where I thought about it. But to be perfectly honest, it didn't seem right, posting about my holidays with everything that's going on in the world at the moment. Not a week goes by without horrible news. People fleeing, getting injured, killed. Political situations all over the world are moving further and further to the right, even in my home country. I thought it was immoral and wrong to pretend it wasn't going on. At the same time, I didn't know how to talk about it. I was stuck - and wrote nothing. I'm realising now that this wasn't and isn't the way to deal with the situation. To bury my head in the sand won't help anyone or anything. I love to write and the global situation doesn't change that. It might, however, influence the kind of topics I'd like to write about. Travelling is one of my passions, that will never change. But there are a lot of other things close to my heart, and I might want to write about them from time to time as well. I thought I'd write about this mostly as a reminder to myself, should I ever lose sight again of why I'm doing this. Let's raise our mugs to the power of the written word.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, everyone! I'm a little late, I know, I know, January is almost over, but we are still in the very beginning of the year. Around this time, people start reflecting on their past and make resolutions for their future. I'm not that big of a fan of this whole process, although even I'm not immune to the wave of optimism which is present during this period. So I too think about the past twelve months, and might even make a few resolutions of my own.
So how was my 2015?
I already wrote about the first half of my year in this post here, where I mainly wrote about my month in Venice studying Italian. A few more things happened in the second half of the year:

First Solo trip

I'll start with the biggest one first. I took my first-ever trip all alone. I was surprised that I hadn't done this sooner. I decided to travel around Europe by rail, visiting friends along the way. I actually managed to be on the road for 30 days total, staying always with friends, some old, some new. My tour took me to the Netherlands (Leiden, Delft, Den Haag), Germany (Trier, Koblenz, Gebelzig and surroundings, Berlin), Luxembourg, Brussels, France (Lille), Switzerland (Lausanne, Luzern), San Marino (yes, really!) and finally Italy (Cattolica, Venice, Triest). I had an amazing time - everyone took such good care of me, picking me up at the station, showing me around, making sure I had everything I could possibly need. It was so nice to see people in their 'natural habitat' and meeting their friends and family. I think visiting people you know is one of the best ways to travel: You see the place you're visiting from a completely different point of view, you are really more of a traveller than a tourist. If you're lucky you'll be included in weekend trips, family celebrations, boring errands (I truly mean it, nothing like buying a toilet seat, getting a kitchen delivered or having a duvet cleaned to get a feeling for the daily life), city tours and home-cooked meals. I'm not going to go into more detail about the trip here (I might in another post), but I'll give you an overview with these photos. Also, I want to thank all my lovely hosts: Henk, Caroline, Uta (and her family), Nadine, Babsi and Zakaria, Coraline (and her family), Carlotta, and of course, my parents for meeting me at the very end of my journey in Venice, and exploring Triest with me, on what must have been one of the hottest, and also one of the final days of Summer. (Although I did a lot of exploring on really hot days - that was kind of the theme of this trip.) Thank you all for making this trip so enjoyable for me!

  Visited my first EXPO

All the credit goes to my mom for this one (Thanks!). I wasn't too interested in the Expo, but she wanted to go, and since it was in Milan it was fairly easy to organize the whole thing. Milan was not the city for me, but the Expo fascinated me. It was two (exhausting) days of incredible impressions, amazing architecture, interesting exhibitions, modern design and food from all over the world. It is hard to believe what you get to experience in a single day at the Expo - I'm so glad we went! 

London, twice

I had the opportunity to visit London twice in 2015. As you all know, the love affair between this city and me is an ongoing one, and it's reaffirmed with every visit. I went there in May, had some lovely (almost) summer days, a trip to Ely and Brighton, and was in the city when the Princess was born. I travelled there again at the beginning of December, for some pre-Christmas fun. I saw a few great exhibitions, strolled through Southbank, did some shopping and, best of all, got to see the musical Cats again. This was my favourite musical as a child, and when we came to London, if at all possible, we would always go and see it. It was still just as entertaining as I remembered, and brought back a lot of happy memories. I'm already looking forward to going back again. I know you'll wait for me, London ♥

 

Had the best fall ever

I have always loved fall, it is by far my favourite season. But in 2015, I definietely enjoyed this period the most. I also discovered my insane love for pumpkin. To eat, sure, but also to simply have at home, to look at, to make the whole place look like pumpkin heaven. I went a bit crazy, had all types of pumpkin at home, made lots of pumpkin soup, pumpkin risotto, and my first ever pumpkin pie.

So it's been a good year. Blogwise, I haven't been as active as I wanted to, but hopefully this will change. Let's say that's my resolution. But shhh, don't tell anyone! xxx

Let's recap

So. I haven't been writing for a couple of months. I thought about it a lot, tried to write a bit, but somehow never quite made it. But I'm about to make up for it.
First, I'm in the middle of planning an Interrail trip in August. I have a few friends I haven't seen in a while and who I miss - and so I'm going to visit them. The final route is not completely decided yet, but I can already tell you: It's going to be good!

Second, it's time to catch up. After New Year's I spent a few days in Venice.

 

That gave me the idea to go back there - and stay. So I decided to spend my February in Venice, and work on my Italian. I picked a language school and had four weeks of classes. The atmosphere at the school was very relaxed, the teachers were great and the other students were friendly. I probably didn't study as much as I should have, but I got to enjoy Aqua Alta, Carnevale and all things Venetian with a group of lovely new friends (and some old ones who visited). It was different to finally get to explore the city for longer, and with a purpose. Going to school every morning made me feel like I was part of the 'working' people of the city, not of the visiting one. It gave me the chance to see Venice from a different point of view - and I really enjoyed that view. Venice is unlike every other city, and being there for  month just confirmed that. I'll definitely be back, hopefully for more than a weekend.

 

 

 

In March one of the friends I made in Venice came to visit me in Vienna, and I got to fall in love with the city once more (I know, I know, that's not news to anyone, but still worth mentioning...). I also took a daytrip to visit a friend just outside Vienna and connected with the weird wonderfulness that is the Austrian countryside.

 

 

 

And then London called to me again. I went back to visit my old roommate, my parents were also around, and I met up with some friends. It was amazing as usual - the atmosphere of a vibrant city gets me every time, and this time it was especially exciting since everyone was awaiting the arrival of a baby girl, which happened while I was there. My mom now shares her birthday with an actual princess. There will be a London post soon, because I need a little more space to write about that glorious city. And I still haven't talked about my last visit just before Christmas. There's also a film I want to write about and a recipe I've been wanting to share with you for a while. So you can look forward to all of that very soon.