Over The Seas

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20 Dec 2011

Come Away With Me

Here’s a few snapshots from my first week. I’ve had a refresher course in German, I’ve seen tons of dogs kitted out in little Santa costumes, I’ve bought gloves so my fingers can stop falling off, I’ve eaten enough Lindt to turn into one of those gold bears AND I’ve taken 50 million pictures.

I really wish you were all here… unless you’re a serial killer. Then you can stay at home and knit.

It looks cold… because it is cold.

Please note that the Snow I ordered has not arrived.

Possibly the most fancy-pants macaroon shop in existence.

Yes those are macaroon trees and yes it is dedicated solely to macaroons.

The photo I was NOT allowed to take inside aforementioned fancy-pants shop.

Played the “Je suis anglais” card and took it anyway.

Apparently macaroon spies are a real threat.

There’s a Christmas market in the square.

This stand full of old-school, hand-made, wooden decorations and nutcrackers was my favourite.

I really love the buildings. I could walk around for years just taking picture of the cornices. I know. You just have no idea how I sat and stared at the buildings when I was in Paris. I must have looked like a complete fruit-loop.

This place is home to some of the nicest sushi in the world. So nice, that I even disregard Hobbles general rule on fish.

Hobble rule #145: Only eat fish in a restaurant, if you can see and/ or are less than 20km’s from the ocean.

Tried on some of the dream shoes. They didn’t have my size. Little bit distressed. I was also wearing horridiously bright socks. Also realised I may be a closet Kardashian groupie.

This is probably a very sure sign that I shouldn’t reproduce.

More beautiful, life-sized doll houses.

I took tons of these. My phone is an architects dream at the moment.

The skirt that I took the mickey out of. Left the shop, then decided I loved it. Went back to get said skirt; skirt had been sold.

I’d forgotten that if you blink in ZARA, you’ll miss everything.

Hobble Rule #102: Do not hesitate in ZARA. Just buy it.

A little town. A little Christmas cheer.

Secretly kept waiting for one of those giant balls to unhook and cause general chaos.

It never happened.

These lived up to the hype.

As desserts go, they were pretty incredible.

If you make it into a Laduree go for the Lemon and the Pistachio.

They’ll rock your socks.
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18 Dec 2011

Dubai’s Twilight Zone

I had a stop-over in Dubai and behaved as any true, content generator would and took 5 zillion pictures. Because you know, the Internet doesn’t have enough clutter. I think some people were pretty PO’ed with this girl who kept stopping in the middle of masses of moving passengers to take pictures.

Terminal 3 never sleeps. It’s a twilight zone that’s always busy and filled with people bedecked in odd fashion, comfy tracksuits and overflowing carry-on bags. It’s a temporary home to people from everywhere: Nigeria, Philippines, China, Scotland, South Africa, United States, Ukraine and even good old Liverpool; it’s like the UN on acid.

Except with less politics and more duty-free shopping.

Let’s pick up some Armani slippers for our next flight, shall we?

The Coffee Gods

Seeking some inner peace? They’ve got you covered.

Where sunglasses are born.

Standard, cliche airport shot.

Eccentric perfume bottles. I love them.

Swarovski: Getting it right.

Recession? What recession?

Always good to see a fellow Saffer.

Hallo Charlize!

Absolument Fabuleux

I really want to meet the person that can get one of these into an overhead bin.

They will be some sort of God in my eyes.

Grab a MAC makeover while you wait.

No. You really can.

Macaroons. Obviously.

Because macaroons just scream you’re in the Arab Emirates.

More Sunnies. Transit Terminals are very bright places.

In hindsight, I probably could’ve worn fancier socks.
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15 Sep 2010

That Time in China

China is an absolutely amazing place to visit.

My Dad worked there for quite a few years, so I’ve gotten to wander around in Beijing, Hong Kong , Macau, Tanggu and Dalian. I’ve burst into tears in the Fresh Markets ( if you’re a softie rather skip those) , learnt to bargain in the day and night markets and gotten a string of freshwater pearls for ‘best price’ from the Pearl Market.
I’ve eaten some yummy, local delicacies … and stared suspiciously at others.

I’ve shuffled around the forbidden city in the funky slippers they give you, taken a helicopter with my Dad to see Hong Kong lit up at night and survived the heat of the Beijing ‘Dog Days‘. I’ve smiled and nodded at a stream of rapid, lost-in-translation Chinese, gotten soaked in the street fountains in Summer and run down 38 flights of high-rise stairs when a friends building caught fire.

I miss it sometimes. I have a lot of special memories from our time there.

The temples, the incense, the ferries, the language barriers, the expat community and the infatuation of the local’s with my blonde-haired brother.
If you’re blonde .. take yourself and some autographed 10X15′s to China.

You’ll need them.

The only slight issue with China… is that a lot of stuff is written in Chinese. Which makes for interesting experiences.
My Mum once picked me up some lip-ice from a local store. Now if something looks like lip-ice, you ignore the Chinese characters and angry-looking, pokemon illustrations on the side because you feel you are safe in the assumption that it’s lip-ice … right?

So I applied several coats, rubbed my lips together and then they started to stick.

It was at this point that I realised I may have been wrong.

Travel Tip: When in China, if it doesn’t say lip-ice on the pot, it’s not lip-ice in the pot. ;)
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11 Sep 2010

Paris

You have to go. Just trust me. The people, the culture, the language, the architecture, the history and the food.

How they drive madly, park poorly, dress beautifully and live vibrantly.

It’s all perfection to me.

I have been lucky enough to go to France several times and each time I visit, I find something even more beautiful to appreciate. Even the ceilings over there are sheer masterpieces! Most of my time at Versailles was spent looking upwards.

Plus the French are friendly. So we can kill that myth stone dead…. unless you’re a vocal George Bush fan … then maybe vacation somewhere else (suggest Texas).

I have folders and folders of photos of random, Parisian buildings that I snapped, but for some reason this one is my favourite.

It’s cheesy, but I am completely in love with this city. It’s the buildings . I can’t explain it.

I am in love with the buildings. Ridiculous I know. But when you see them , you’ll understand. They breathe character into the city.

Except the SA embassy which is a bit of a design eyesore.

Walking along a random street in Paris, we suddenly saw this horridious building.

As we got closer we realised that the eyesore was related to us.

See?

Call me unpatriotic, but that’s just not easy on the eye.

I mean what is it saying to the French ?

That as a nation, we suck at Tetris?
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7 Jul 2010

Wander With Us

My little brother and I decided to go for a walk . We had no real route planned, we were just going to see where our walk took us. We packed a picnic, grabbed the camera and off we went into the sunshine. There were roses dotted all along our journey..

The old and new testament? Europe has a thing for churches we noticed. No really, they seem like big fans.

They also seem to have a thing for medieval architecture. In the middle of a park we found this daycare spot for kiddlywinks. Wonder if the architect had ever read Harry Potter?

We strolled up through the town and came across a summer flower market. Every morning the square is full of vendors convincing you to buy their brightly coloured wares. There’s also a vegetable market, but we missed that.

On every other street there is a beautiful building to admire. I feel like I am in the land of giant doll houses. I keep waiting for the large dog to come bounding round the corner.

We decided to see what was at the top of these stairs. Stairs we noticed, were also a popular German design feature. These ones seemed mysterious.

Well I didn’t see any talking Lions, so I didn’t think that they were the less publicized, ‘Green’ entrance to Narnia. It was pretty though. It turned out that the stairs were mysterious… they kept multiplying. After a gazillion stairs we were only half way up!

After the epic stair climb, we found a shady patch under some trees, flopped down and had our picnic.

We then decided, in my infinite wisdom to follow these arrows into the forest and see where they took us. This worked rather well until we ran out of arrows and got a bit lost.

It was at this point that my intrepid explorer side-kick began to doubt my navigation skills. I said we should just continue on until we found another arrow. I was convinced it was the right way. He was less so. We took a 20 Euro bet on it.

30 mins later, deeper into the forest and with my intrepid explorer side-kick confidently trying to increase the bet to 40 Euros, we came across a field of artistic, metal cows. They were pretty quirky and rather cute.

Thistles ??? Had we walked all the way to Scotland ? I admitted defeat ( aided greatly by the increase in spider webs we were experiencing) turned back and finally found the fork in the road that cost me 20 bucks.

We ended up back on the runners trail and found our way back to civilization. The trails are really great as every few hundred meters they have outdoor exercise equipment that you can combine with your run. This setup was to test your balancing skills….. I don’t think I’m cut out for a career as a tightrope walker

Back on the path home and back past another church. Their churches really are beautiful. I have often peeked inside them and the stained glass is breathtaking. I am not religious but I can admire beauty. I love looking at an old building like this church and wondering what life was like when it was newly built, before the roads, traffic lights, zebra crossings and app notifications popped up around it.

Today made me realise that more people need to take time out.

Time to just stop a while.

There’s a reason wander looks like wonder. Sometimes we just need to let go in order to open our eyes.

The world went and got itself in a big damn hurry ~ Brooks Hatlen (Shawshank Redemtpion)
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