the wedding of Sarah & Kaleb

A friend of mine recently accused me of attending too many weddings. Not my fault when everyone around me is getting hitched haha

For the finale of my little road trip I went to a place near Stuttgart to reunite with a few of my college girls and celebrate the marriage of Sarah and Kaleb. 

Sarah, being the sweet person she is, offered her apartment to us and Nela and I took that opportunity to come a day early to hang out and catch up. We had dinner at a restaurant where the waitress messed up our drink orders (we told her and another waiter brought the exact same drink out again) and forgot all about our entrees haha. Has anyone seen the Happy Endings episode with the waiter who doesn't write anything down? It was exactly like that :)  Never mind, we had a great time and were excited for the next day.

It was a beautiful wedding and we partied till the early hours. Woop woop!

These people hold a very special place in my heart. The last time we were all together in one place was for Rob & Dee's wedding, evidence here. Every time I see them it is refreshing and the most normal thing to all be together and we can't stop chatting (which happens when there are girls involved).

So much love was in the air...

 

Congratulations Sarah & Kaleb, this will be one fantastic journey for you guys. 

Next reunion in Berlin! 

road trip in September

About a month ago I went on a little road trip to Switzerland and Germany, as I had a wedding near Stuttgart to attend. Not that I need an excuse to go traveling :)
There's something about being able to get on the road and explore that is deeply rooted in my nature but it's even better when there are friends waiting for you on the other end!

First rest stop was just before Munich. If I happen to be going from Salzburg to Munich I always stop at this coffee shop/restaurant called Dinzler. I'm not a big coffee person but this place has great coffee, lovely staff and great interior design AND lactose free milk, which earns them about a million points in my books!

Anyway my first proper stop was just north of Zurich to see three of my favourite Swiss people :) There's something about people you've lived with. They see you in your best and worst moments and yet they're still friends with you. Surprising right!! D&P are some of the best people I know, just wish they'd be closer sometimes so I could pop over for a couple hours. Also Miss V is growing up so fast!

Next up was a stop just north of Basel to see bestie Simon. A couple of days of eating ice cream, going for runs, not having to get up and staying in bed to read all morning, watching funny movies, laughing a lot, watching the boys rock climbing and enjoying the last bit of summer sun. (Feel a bit spoilt since I got to see Simon so much this year plus he's sitting on my sofa as I'm writing this ha!)

On my way to Goeppingen for the big wedding I took the back roads and drove through the Black Forest instead of taking the motorway. Best decision ever! It was a cloudless, sunny day and the scenery is absolutely stunning!

Pics and stories from the wedding later but guess where I stopped on the way back haha

a weekend at Casa Schnorres

As soon as I landed in Salzburg, I found out that my friends were all going away for the weekend haha. (That's what you get for trying hard to get in touch and plan ahead but no-one answers their phone!)
It was a quick decision to get on board and make the 5 hour drive to a tiny place near Karlsruhe.
First off another 30th birthday to celebrate - it is the year of plenty, happy birthday Tommy!

The next two days were spent hanging at Casa Schnorres... still impressed with their kayak storage solution haha

Special mention goes out to Simon for not giving up on the way there! It is a 2.5hours drive from his place and as we hardly ever see him these days I told him to come up. Poor guy was stuck in traffic and it took him 6!!! hours to get to us (we received the funniest pics of the traffic jam, his camping chair next to the car on the Autobahn, etc haha). I hope the barbecue and company made up for it.

That's what's summer is all about: amazing friends, time to hang, a garden to lounge in, chicken to gush about :), good food and celebrating life!

stunning train journey

image via The Selby

Has anyone seen the collaboration the Selby did with Louis Vuitton?
He went on a train journey from Paris to Shanghai! Go and feast your eyes here and here. Gorgeous, stunning, breathtaking,... can't find the right words. Love his illustrations as well.
Suddenly feel like going for a long train journey to far away exotic places :)

spur of the moment getaway

My friend Claudia messaged me last week that she needs a change of scenery and if I'd be up for a city trip anywhere from Budapest to Salzburg. Being the gal that I am of course I said that I would come along.
Friday night we decided to go to Graz and stay at flashy Hotel Daniel, after our friend Steve couldn't recommend it highly enough.
The next morning the sun was shining in full force and we were off :)

 ridiculous spring time weather invited us to relax in the park

funny story: for the entire summer I listened to one of the gentleman of the choir talk about how lovely the tiled roofs are in Graz. A very opinionated person slagging off every other city compared to the beauty of these roofs. Now I'd have to admit that they are quite pretty :)

the design hotel - whatever that means haha - if you want to visit Graz, I'd totally recommend it!

 funniest thing about the rooms: the shower has this massive glass panel looking into the room

a tiny bit weird but nice to have that much light while showering :)

It was a short trip filled with excellent food, great chats, time with God, walking around a pretty city, going to cafes just for the sake of reading the newspapers (if you've never done that, please do yourself a favour and do it), hanging out in the park getting some sun, browsing through lots of little shops, an early night and an unexpected breakfast with the lovely Chris.
Sometimes you need to get away from it all and a mini city trip plus a close friend will make all the difference. Happy weekend everyone x

Edinburgh - a YT reunion

Almost ten years ago I ventured up north to do a gap year with SU Scotland at an outdoor centre called Lendrick Muir.
We were a team of six plus another five doing schools work across Scotland. It was a crazy year that included everything from scrubbing floors/toilets to giving archery lessons (you had no idea I was a trained instructor, right? haha) to chopping carrots in the kitchen to dance parties with about 30 nine-year-olds to the sound of S Club 7 and Atomic Kitten. Those were the days :)
I haven't been up to Scotland since 2005 and finally I had the opportunity to jump on a train and spend the last few days of my GB stay with my YT sista Dace and her beautiful family in Edinburgh.
There was so much to catch up on and by the time everyone else turned up for our reunion we were in stitches haha. So good to just hang out with friends and tell fun stories of what happened back in the day. Weird to think that I hadn't seen them in 6+ years, it felt like we've always been around each other. Love that :)

 I was so excited to see the sea haha

 Mr. Noah all bundled up for our walk

 part of YT 2002/03 Gavin, Carina, Michelle, Dace and Chris

missing Sarah, Ali, Kat and let's not forget Andrew

 love how everyone's cracking up in this picture

Mr. Innes :)

 As Sarah wasn't able to make it the night before we turned up at her and Chris's house. She dug out really random music we listened to while working at LM and it transported us right back to washing bikes in the shed haha

 Mr. Aaron - if you're lucky he will treat you to a whole musical show

Got treated to one of the most amazing sun sets on my way back to London. 

Forgot how colourful they are up in Scotland...

Thank you everyone, it was so so good seeing you all. Hopefully it wont be another six years for this to happen again haha Lots of love going up north xxx