When I left for Italy, I had a solid number of almost-ready-to-post blog posts here. Some were totally ready, others required a little bit of photo editing, or a little bit of writing, but I thought I could totally manage with posting regularly. I also planned to post about Italy on the go, and I was silly enough to think it would be possible to go out in the morning, spend a day outside and then come home and choose and edit photos and tell you about my days. Well - didn't happen! Travelling is beautiful, but also exhausting, so when I would get back home in the evening, I just wanted to s.l.e.e.p. Also, not to mention the internet thing - when you're travelling, you're highly dependent on wi-fi, which I hate. So anyway, one of the things I planned to post was sort of a bucket list, but not really, only things I plan (=wish?) to do before my 30th birthday*, and I wanted to do that on my 26th birthday, which was two weeks ago. I've always loved my birthday, and somehow I don't think 30 is too much - at least I changed opinion when a close friend of mine turned 30 and she was still the same person! But still, as I said here, one more year and I will have to refer to myself as being in my late twenties, which is crazy - especially when it comes to how I feel (and look!). And I feel like a teenager. OK, I shouldn't have told you this :)

(via)

So, if you want to get to know me better, keep on reading. And enjoy your age, whatever it is!

Tasty and Wild - Benvenuti a Napoli!

Finally I am settled down in one place and have time to start re-living my big Italian adventure here on the blog. For those of you who missed it (how could you?!), I was travelling through Italy in September for almost three weeks. September is the time off in my master's program—except for the conference Science of Aphasia that we are supposed to attend. The conference is held in a different place every year, so this time it was Venice we had to go to. We've known about this for a year and I was very excited, because I had never been to Italy - even though it is rather close to Serbia. But it never bothered me too much because I've always known I'd go to Italy someday—who would miss this gem of a country anyway? So as the summer approached, I decided not to go to Serbia in September - that's why I went home in July, I wrote about that on the blog—but to Italy. From Rome up north! But then a dear Italian friend of mine told me to go to Naples. Naples? Ummm, I've heard of it, of course, but why should I? "They have the best pizza there," he explained. "Naples is the home of pizza. You will not have better pizza anywhere else. And you should trust me on this, because I am from the north, Naples is in the south, and we're not each other's favorite people... so when I tell you pizza is the best there, you know I'm not lying." Well. Pizza indeed has been my favorite dish since I was a little child. Didn't take much until I booked my ticket to Naples.

I am here!

Hello lovely people,

I wanted to quickly say hi and excuse myself for not posting anything these days. This is in fact the first chilled out day I have had in almost a month! I have tons of blog material, but I haven't had any time so far to make it postable :). You might have noticed that I was travelling through Italy in September for three weeks and that was one of the best trips of my life! Italy is amazing, I had a blast, I fell in love with Rome like with no other city and I think I need to live there at least three months in my life. I celebrated my 26th birthday in Milan (one more and I will have to refer to myself as in 'late-twenties', urgh!), flew back to Germany and two days later I moved to the Netherlands. I am now living in a beautiful town of Groningen in the north of the country. This is my first time in the Lowlands so I'm very happy, I haven't had the time to explore the town yet but I'm looking forward to it. Of course, I am also looking forward to visiting a very dear friend in Amsterdam, and I hope it would happen soon. 

I don't have any photos of this cute picturesque town I'm in, so I'll just leave a photo of one of the wonderful perks of living in the Lowlands: stroopwafel! 

See, Hear, Feel Berlin: Video Clips

So far I've been trying to show you Berlin in photos and words, and I hope I've been at least a bit successful in a way that you thought 'oh, this looks interesting / worth visiting'. Today, a few weeks before I'd leave Germany, I'm bringing you some songs with videos filmed in Berlin. I think it started when my friend posted a Seeed video you'll find below, and then I started watching related videos, playlists and such. Over time I've come up with this li'l list of mine of songs I enjoy both because of the music and the videos. I hope you like it!

This video by Alle Farben for the song She Moves (Far Away) was filmed in Tempelhof during a music festival. Doesn't it look just relaxed and as if it's possible not to have any worries in life?! If you like the song, you can also find the official video here.

East Side Gallery

If you come to Berlin as a tourist, this is a place unlikely to be missed. After having seen Alexanderplatz, Checkpoint Charlie, Brandenburger Tor, one needs to take a relaxed stroll down this section of the Berlin Wall. It's located close to the center, in Friedrichshein, along the river Spree. It's the longest open air gallery in the world (1.3 km long, which is also the largest remaining section of the Wall). 

After the Wall came down in 1989, artists from all over the world gathered to make this unique and original piece of art. They transformed the former untouchable Wall with bright paintings and activist messages, celebrating life, joy, freedom and hope. 

Summer of '69

Raise your hand if you're a girl and have never watched Sex and the City and/or Gossip Girl. I don't see any! These two have been guilty pleasures of mine for years; and although I know that none of them is very intelligent nor deep, I loved both for many reasons, one of them being the supporting character: New York City. I fell in love with it like you fall in love with a person you know online: you see many sides of them, yet you've never seen them in person - but it doesn't stop you from being completely and utterly in love with them. I've read and heard about severe NYC winters and awful hot summers; but at this point I feel I'd forgive every sin of imperfection to this city. We'll see how it goes once we meet - no plans so far, but it'll definitely happen. Until then, fall knocking on our doors, I leave you with these shots of NYC and its people on a hot day in 1969, taken by photographers of Life magazine. Aren't they beautiful?! You can almost hear the car horns and feel the humidity. 

Welcome to the Hipster Kingdom

I once thought Kreuzberg was my favorite part of Berlin. It's fun - cobblestone streets, cute cafes on the pavements, a lot of greenery, hipsters, immigrants and their stores, what more could you ask for? But then I went to Friedrichshein. Friedrichshein is WOW! While I find Kreuzberg more relaxed and laid-back, with people eating vegan stuff and drinking beer lazily while sitting on the sidewalk, sipping coffee and working on a computer in a coffeeshop, Friedrichshein is so alive. For example, when you arrive at Warschauer Strasse station, probably the first thing you will hear is a singer or a band busking outside of the station. Turn to your right and cross the bridge, you will find punks on their couches on the street with little cardboard boxes saying something like PLEASE DONATE FOR WEED.

Instagram Jul & Aug: It Should Have Been Summer

This time I won’t mourn over the past two months and how time flies and this and that; we’ve entered September so it means New Year’s is just around the corner, and you canot neglect that fact. Moreover, it’s my birthday in few weeks and to be honest, it’s hilarious that I’m turning 26 and I’m still being asked for my ID when buying... ummm, when entering clubs. :) So, if you’re living in Europe, this past summer was probably one of the worst you’ve experienced – weather-wise. Actually, did I just say summer? I don’t know what was wrong with it, but it was summer for maaaybe ten days. Two weeks? Apart from the beginning of June, Germany was cold. I was looking forward to going home to Serbia, wholeheartedly hoping it would be warmer there because hey, it’s in the south, right? – but nope, Serbia bailed on me. I mean, okay, I did experience some sunny days and a few were even hot, but rarely would it exceed 30 degrees Celsius. Which is fine if you ask me, but it’s not normal for this time of the year! In Serbia we’re usually swimming in our sweat during the whole months of July and August, so excuse me, but this sudden change is not normal, no matter how convenient! And back in Germany I had to admit that the fall was here – not later but in mid-August. How awful is that?!

Berlin Summer Market

I like clicking "attend" to various Berlin events on Facebook just to keep them there and know what's going on in the city - but truth be told, I rarely actually attend. Most of the times I'm busy, but it also happens that I'm just not in the right mood. Last Wednesday it almost happened that I missed this thing, but in matter of minutes I packed my tote bag and decided I'm heading out. And I was so glad afterwards!

The thing we're talking about here was Berlin Summer Market. Hipster kingdom. Fashion & arts market. Place of the cool kids. It took place at an amazing venue that I'm looking forward to exploring by day, and I will because it's THAT awesome! (What I love about Berlin is that I keep stumbling upon great new places/things, but that's another story.)

Let's Keep in Touch!

Hey lovelies,

I just wanted to update you on a... well, on an updated feature of the blog. If you click Travelling from the Link List above, you will now be able to see a neat list of the posts on my travels - so far you could have seen only bunch of posts labelled "travelling", so if you didn't feel like scrolling, you might have missed, for example, some of my favorite posts featuring Finnish Lapland. As for the future travels, I'm hoping to bring you at least two more European countries (and their capitals!) by the end of the year, but more on that soon. ;)

In the meantime, as I said on the Travelling page, some of the places I've been to didn't receive much of my attention to get to the blog (which is by no means their fault, only mine!), but they did find their way to my Instagram profile! So if you want to stay updated on where I'm roaming, follow me and drop me a line there to make sure I check out your profile - I love finding new inspirational Instagram people!

(via)

You can also like my Facebook page (and make me happy yay! and make sure you're among the first ones to see when the new posts are out) or follow me on Bloglovin. I'm a huge fan of Bloglovin and if you follow a number of blogs, it's a perfect way to stay organized and not have too many bookmarked websites. I, for example, pay a visit to the blogs I follow on Sundays, and since I started using Bloglovin I don't have to visit each blog separately to see if there are new posts. Cheers to the saved seconds!

And last but not least, if you're more into the 140 characters social network, you can follow me on Twitter in Serbian or English. I really blabber a lot in Serbian - I typed so much over the past few years on Twitter that I could've easily published a book instead. Or two.

Hope to see you around!

Love, Tihana