rome roundup

Hi guys!

Sorry for being away so long between my posts, I'm still trying to get into the normal blogging routine again after all my city trips and the flus I had in between. Furthermore I'm trying to spend as much time as possible with someone who has entered my life and has been making me really happy since then. ;)

Anyway, here are the promised photos of my Rome trip. It was the last of the three city trips I took, so after this post there'll finally be outfits again.

I went to Rome with my family to weeks ago, it was my mum, stepdad, stepbro and me. Believe me, after two days I started to remember why I hated to go on vacation with the family when I was a teenager - damn can they be exhausting.

However I shouldn't really complain because my stepdad had booked all kinds of sightseeing tours for us, for example a guided audio tour for the Coloseum.

On this first tour we covered the Coloseum, which was really cool and the Forum Romanum. It was quite hot that day, although it was the end of October we had 24°C and pretty high air humidity that made the trip feel like a summer holiday.

The Vatican was a bit of a disappointment because you have to pay for everything. The only place you can visit for free is St. Peter's Square and when I stood there and took a look around I saw that it always looked much bigger on TV, so it was nothing really impressive to me. I would've loved to see the Sistine Chapel with the Michelangelo frescos, but like I said, unfortunately you had to pay for it and I just failed to see why I should throw money down the Christian church's throat. In my opinion that's a total tourist rip-off and pretentious for an institution that tells their followers not to be covetous...

Shopping-wise I couldn't do much because I was already pretty broke from the trips to Budapest and Prague that I had taken before I visited Rome. However I was able to at least buy a cheap necklace for myself and some chocolate that's not available in Germany.

Some other places we visited were Foro Augusto (see picture above), two arch basilicas, the Holy Steps, catacombs and Castel St. Angelo, but I didn't want to spam you guys with too many photos. Also I enjoyed the trip but came to the conclusion that Rome is not really my cup of tea. It was interesting to see all the historic sites, but apart from that I was just not feeling this city, it felt different and I was not as smitten as I was with the Eastern European cities.

Hope you like the pics though.

Have you ever been to Rome? How did you like it?

Have a lovely day!

  

prague roundup

Hey peeps!

Three weeks ago I visited Prague with my Canadian friend Mona - that's already so long ago wow. Buuut I still owe you the photos and I really wouldn't want to witthold them from you because Prague is a beautiful city.

It was my first trip there and I would totally go again. I'd been in Budapest right before going to Czech Republic (see the Budapest post here) and I think Prague had many similarities. There is something about the Eastern European cities, some certain atmosphere I really fall for every single time. Prague combines modern urban style with classic tradition, there are lots of beautiful old buildings, especially churches, but also corners with hip modern cafés and shops - aaand the mixture of religious kitsch and what I like to call "down to earth grey concrete charme" hovers above the whole scenery.

Here are some impressions for you:

This is me sporting my awesome new Mi-Pac travel bag which has been the perfect companion on my trips so far (thanks Surfdome.com for the bag and thanks Mona for the photo!).

Churches! Prague has many churches with many magnificent glass window art. This one is inside of St. George's Cathedral at Prague Castle and was one of the prettiest I've seen.

Prague Castle itself is an interesting place too, but I didn't really enjoy it because it was way too touristy and overcrowded. Nevertheless we saw the royal bling, the Golden Lane and some other places around the castle complex.

This is me having a coffee break on the picturesque Charles Bridge which provides a lovely view on the Vltava river with its other bridges and the pretty riverside. Again this place was very touristy and packed with people, but it was the perfect transition for walking down to the city centre from Prague Castle.

As every blogger has to do that, let's talk weather: we had about 13°C, almost no wind and plenty of sun, it was wonderful!

This is the très steampunkish Astronomical Clock at the Old Town Square, cool huh? Prague's historic city centre is full of lovely old facades, cobblestone streets, souvenir shops and squares with churches or other sights like this clock.

The view on the river and the city from Castle Vysehrad - oh it was the perfect autumn scenery! Golden sunlight, crisp air and fallen leaves everywhere. Vysehrad was a wonderful place to wrap yourself up in warm jacket, scarf and beanie, grab a coffe and roam around the historic buildings and cemetery. Plus it was not touristy at all, so nice!

My résumé: Prague was cool, I would totally go there again. I can definitely recommend it, so if you have the chance to visit this place you should, it's lovely.

Hope you like the photos.

Have a nice day!

  

now playing: maybeshewill - he films the clouds

the lords of salem

Hi loves!

I'm sorry for the long hiatus, that was definitely not planned! I caught a really bad flu twice in four weeks and that totally knocked me out. Furthermore I was busy travelling between the two flus..

So I still owe you the photos of my Prague and Rome trips - but first I'm squeezing in Halloween now!

I didn't really have time to put much effort into a costume, so I went for a rather simple but still spooky one: Heidi Hawthorne from Rob Zombie's Lords of Salem movie.

That's actually a horror nerd costume because almost no one I know has seen the movie. Most people probably just thought I'm dressed up as "skull something".

One of my mates was Hollow Man - really cool huh?

How do you like our costumes?

What were you dressed up as?

I'll be back with the promised city trip photos very soon!

  

now playing: maybeshewill - take this to heart