Japan

Before I say anything about you Japan, I will thank you for one big thing which made my situation much better while I travelled this absolutely amazing country: They had incredibly clean and comfortable restrooms at any public place such as subway stations and bigger stores. This was a huge relief for someone (still) struggling with bladder infections like me. So THANK YOU for that. Japan Railpass and the Shinkansen (super fast) trains deserve my appreciation as well. You made traveling in between Kyoto, Osaka and Tokyo pretty easy and worth the trip itself!! Germany, please take an example in this system, efficiency and velocity!!

After being three months in Southeast Asia I thought I had caught a lot of the essence of Asia, but Japan totally blew off my mind being so well organized, clean, interesting and different. And with different I really mean the term of being different. Everything was worth to keep your eyes on for a longer time. The people of course, the streets, the shops, the restaurants, any matter of transportation, buildings, temples and not to forget the manhole covers (!) which had artsy ornaments on them. To sum it up I was extremely fascinated by literally everything. In terms of patterns and nature it is an extremely rich country as well. You find everything decorated and a big appreciation of the very detail. You want to do this yourself at home too. Decorate everything with ornaments and flowers for instance. Of course I had to buy a comfy and yet stylish kimono and a ridiculous amount of stationary like Mt masking tape and pottery.

In the following I will simply share my favourite impressions. It’s going to be more of a photo diary. Enjoy!

Kimono variations

Fushimi Inari Taisha and it’s surroundings – all of it unique and beautiful and never seen before like this for me. Especially the bamboo forest left me speechless.

Himeji Castle – What a surreal place. Same goes for the Golden temple and its gardens around, even if it was a bit crowded and touristy.

The food in Japan was amazing too. Had a ridiculous amount of cucumber makis and sweet treats and enjoyed the peaceful atmosphere in beautiful tearooms slurping matcha tea.

Streets in Tokyo were filled with amazing architecture and shops. Make sure to check out the new Muji Hotel in Ginza and its 9 stories full of the most amazing Muji stuff – yes, I was a little obsessed with it.

As I already intuited I wanted to buy half of Japan. They have so much great stationary and handcraft, I went especially nuts in the Tsutaya bookstore and in Kimono and fabric shops.

On another day we visited Hiroshima – what an awful place, showing one of the greatest destructions of humankind. May this never happen ever again.

From there we took the ferry over to the dreamy Miyajima Island and its famous gate.

Streets of Kyoto and Osaka (by night)

The amazing Teamlab Borderless exhibition in Tokyo was super inspiring and totally different.

To sum it up – Japan left me full of impressions and inspiration. I am extremely thankful for my mum that fulfilled her dream to travel this country for her 50th birthday and decided to take me along with her. She did not want any big party with a lot of people. Just her favourite three people and a little adventure full of new impressions. She shows me everyday that you have to work very hard but every now and then you have to take the moment and do things and eventually fulfill your dreams, because life will not be forever. So thanks to her, I get to be part of fulfilling so many great dreams and adventures of hers.

Looking forward to many more experiences like this one. Big changes coming to my life soon in any case… Stay curious!

XX Sofia

Prague in June

2019 is being quite an eventful year so far. It has been full of travels to incredible places. I’ve been to Istanbul and Dublin after I wrote my last post about Bali but those trips were family quality time weekend trips and even though I took some quite beautiful pictures, I wasn’t feeling like writing a blogpost about it. Time seems to fly like never before and I am very afraid that this is becoming worse and worse becoming older. Still everything is feeling so intense. My graduation will be one year ago next week and it couldn’t seem more far away. Or I could’t be more far away from it. Every single thing I did from the day after my graduation was completely self initiated by my very self. I really felt what it meant to be in control of creating something for yourself. I somehow created something similar to a routine, interrupted by a lot of amazing travels as I wished for doing this whole year. I completely reduced my contact agenda to a minimum of very close friends, which are always there for me. Head of that small list is my boyfriend who made me the wonderful surprise of an early birthday present consisting of three nights in Prague in June, which is one of our favorite months. We won’t be able to spend as much time in summer together as we would like to, but this has been a great opportunity to have at least a couple of days just for the two of us. We took the train directly from Hamburg passing through very different landscapes of Eastern Germany. Prague is an incredibly beautiful city, the architecture pleases your eye at every corner of the inner city. We had a very nice and cozy Airbnb in Prague 10. So all in all, Prague has been an absolute blast with incredible moments and impressions, which made it seem as a beautiful daydream to me. I am happy to share a couple of those impressions through my photos here. What followed afterwards and was supposed to be two more nights seeing family in Leipzig in the first place, turned into an absolute nightmare, but more of this after my pictures.

 

Our balcony was tiny but it offered enough place for a breakfast for two in the morning.

 

After arriving we had a wonderful dinner at Nejen Bistro in Karlin in the first evening and admired the beautiful facades around it.

 

We enjoyed some real good coffee at Super Tramp Coffee and strolled through the beautiful streets of Prague 1.

 

We went up the tower of the Old Town Hall and were rewarded with the most wonderful view full of red rooftops filling the city widely.

 

I have been an Alfons Mucha fan ever since I saw an exhibition about his work in Brussels many years ago. So of course the Mucha Museum was a must for me!

 

Zizkov is a pretty cool area, make sure to stop for a delicious vegan donut at the Donut Shop.

 

One of the very highlights definitely were the gardens of the Wallenstein Palace. It’s all in the complex of the Castle of Prague and full of majestic peacocks. Looks like you landed in another century!

 

 

                                            Iced coffee in between to fight the heat.

 

I absolutely loved Cafe Letka in Prague 7.

 

Finally it was time to say goodbye to our Airbnb where we really felt at home and which made itself very well as a shooting location. I totally recommend staying in a calmer area as Prague 1 is extremely touristy… 

I would have loved to share pictures from Leipzig as well, but I haven’t had the opportunity to take any. It all started with a blatter infection in the evening we arrived from Prague. I unfortunately have this quiet regularly. After taking my usual medication, drinking tea etc. I thought it was getting better but it couldn’t have become worse later. I went to the hospital in the evening after feeling a heavy pain in my back and guess what, I wasn’t taken seriously at all. They sent me to the pharmacy to get antibiotics. Before even taking them I started throwing up when I was back. Finally I managed to take it, but I kept throwing up the whole night even blood in the end. In the early morning we finally called the ambulance as we didn’t know what to do anymore. I was not completely conscious from that moment on, I just heard the dull sounds of the sirens in the back and felt the sharp pain of the needles put into my body. They ran loads of tests on me and in the end it turned out that I had a very dangerous kidney infection on both kidneys. I still can’t believe that I was in serious life danger… I can’t believe how fast everything can change, how fast you can be completely thrown out of everything, how everything paralyzes from one moment to another. People told me I suffered pain very similar to the one you have giving birth. Considering that, I don’t know if I want to have children… Anyways, let’s say I am fine now. I could go home after two nights in the hospital but I barely move out of bed, which is an absolute torture for a hyperactive person like me. Also considering that right now we are living the longest days of the year it is super frustrating. As I said before, June is one of my favorite months. Here I am,  just a little something on constant medication curled up in blankets hoping for recovery to come fast. Okay, enough now with the self-pity there are other poor creatures feeling much worse than I do. I will keep sinking myself into blankets, books, Instagram, youtube and Netflix. Next week is gonna be exciting.

XX Sofia

Bali

It feels kind of awkward to write about such a tropical and beautiful place as Bali in a regional train in the north of Germany. I am back home and continuously scrolling through my pictures, archiving, editing and deleting. It would be a pity not to write about Bali considering all the material. So be prepared for a little spam over here, as I was not feeling like it on instagram.

Despite other people I don’t get very tanned. Some friends wondered if I really was in Southeast Asia considering my barely noticeable tan. But hey, there still are some mosquito bites left and if you look closely you’ll find some freckles covering my nose and cheeks as a proof. So let me take you through our route around the island.

We arrived in Gilimanuk with the ferry from Java. Our first Bali spot was Munduk, where we saw spectacular waterfalls.

After staying in Amed for one night we took the ferry over to the Gili Islands. We stayed on Gili Trawangan and did quite a lot of snorkeling. The greatest snorkeling trip was the one we did with Gili Eco Trust. This organization is really doing something good by helping the growth of coral reefs by placing eco rocks and fighting against more extinction of those incredibly rich ecosystems. They do also organize beach clean ups and other initiatives.

Also on Gili T, Casa Vintage was a very stylish cafe with vintage store in the first floor.

Then we went to Ubud. From there we did several day trips to a couple of temples such as the Tirtia Empul Temple where you could bath yourself in the holy water. It was pretty crowded though because of special religious festivities.

We saw a traditional dance and chant audition. Those vocals really got it and you felt enchanted by the whole atmosphere. The fire dance in the end was quite scary.

Of course we couldn’t miss the Tegallalang rice terraces. The green there was the greenest colour I ever saw.

We took an amazing cooking class at Ketut’s Cooking Class.

I took a Yoga class in one of the beautiful studios of The Yoga Barn.

The last days went by with good breakfasts in Canggu. My favourite places were:

• The Betelnut Cafe
• Shady Shack
• Crate Cafe

Make sure you don’t miss the Pretty Poison on Tuesday nights to see the real cool skaters showing what they are capable of doing. Next to it you’ll find the Black Cat Minimart, where a bar is hidden behind a “broken” freezer.

Apart from skaters you’ll also see many surfers. It’s incredible how young some Indonesian surfers are who do perfectly fine on their tiny boards while you struggle hard on the biggest of them all. Well, I gave it a try. The waves are breathtaking and and when I was in front of the first one I was really scared. In the end it all worked out more or less.

Besides all of this and all those beautiful things you could buy all around Bali, that would make great souvenirs for everyone at home, I enjoyed those unexpected authentic moments a lot. Many drivers were happy to tell us more about the history and rich culture of Bali. About dialects, names and families. About tradition an religion. One thing I want to highlight about Bali is, that you shouldn’t get soaked up in this whole western owned super fancy Bali scene, because as appealing as it seems, it isn’t the authentic Indonesia I experienced in Java. Still, I enjoyed every single day in Bali and it is really amazing how many activities you can do on one single island. Just be aware and conscious of the gentrification the mass tourism is causing to Bali while traveling.

And if you do so, you’ll be totally ready to also enjoy the amazing super duper spectacular food in those incredibly fancy cafes. You are welcome. (The Shelter in Seminyak).

Back to real life now and getting used to the fact that spring just started in Europe after coming from the eternal summer.

XX Sofia

Indonesia (Java)

Well, here I am. At the end of this incredible three months trip through Southeast Asia. I still can’t imagine telling people that I’ve been on this trip instead of saying I will be traveling for three months. That’s because it’s been ahead of me for such a long time. I’ve worked so much for it before. Still it feels incredibly good to come home. Sometimes you have to be on the other side of the world to realize how much home means to you.

That being said I want to share a couple of impressions out of this last amazing month in Indonesia. It is such a diverse country. Rich in both nature and culture. I only saw several parts of Java and I went to Bali and the Gili Islands. But there still is so much more to explore. I will be coming back at some point of my life that’s for certain.

Woman clearing a yard in Yogyakarta

Parked rickshaw in the streets of Yogyakarta

Me in the Borobudur temple complex

After Yogyakarta we visited Semarang, the city where my Dutch grandma grew up, where she was captured by the Japanese for three years during World War Two. Everybody wondered why I wanted to visit this non tourist place. When I told them the story of my grandma and that I wanted to see all of this with my own eyes, they understood. It means the world to her that I visited the town where she was born, after she was there in 1992 for the last time and won’t have the chance to ever return.

Toko Oen – the Dutch Restaurant where my grandma got an ice cream on special days.

The Ereveld Kalibanteng, in memories of all those dying during the Japanese occupation. Luckily I can still show my grandma a picture of this and there is no cross for anybody in her family.

Her church where she got baptized and had her first communion.

The travels through Java continued. We had the most awful train ride ever, but it made us more experienced I guess. We arrived in Malang where we found a second Toko Oen. Same as in the other one, time seemed to stand still in this place. The furniture and everything seemed as if the last the century had never passed.

Places to have coffee in Malang.

Colourful village Kampung Visata Jodipan in Malang.

The adventure in super rainy Java continued with the incredible natural spectacle of the Gunung Bromo Vulcano. We drove all the way up in Jeeps. Unfortunately there was no sunrise for us.

Maybe two nights without sleeping because of seeing natural spectacles were a little tough on us, but hey it was worth it and I only had the opportunity to see the blue fire down the Ijen Plateau once I guess. Even though I nearly died because of the sulfide…

After this, we took the ferry over to Bali, the very last station of this journey. I loved it there and I will share my impressions of that island too. Anyways, I am happy to have experienced the real Indonesia, away from big tourist masses. Of course this also came with the rain season, which happened to not be completely over yet. It taught me what it really means to be raining.

XX Sofia

Singapore

Arriving in Singapore during this trip meant hitting a milestone. It meant to start the third and last month of traveling in Southeast Asia. After getting used to quite a “simple” lifestyle, there were many things in this amazing city, which felt radically glamorous and very appealing. It started with having a good subway and ended with the most glamorous roof top bar ever with a view onto the whole city. Let me share my favorite moments and places with you!

How couldn’t you visit Gardens by the Bay?? It looks straight out of a utopian movie and the light show in the evening is quite beautiful.

The Botanic Gardens are definitely worth a visit. You can see VIP Orchids and a lot of cute school classes admiring them.

The Emerald Hill Road at the end of the famous Orchad Road, has the most charming architecture. You’ll find the most beautiful idyll of houses in the middle of Downtown.

The National Gallery was a great way to spend a hot morning in cool surroundings filled with Asian art. In between them you could find some works of the famous Ai Wei Wei.

The colourful windows of the Old Hill Police Station.

Cute shops and Cafés. Could you at least use less plastic in such a utopian city??

And never to forget: The omnipresent food courts where you could try yourself through the whole culinary repertoire of Asia. Our favourite one was Lau Pa Sat.

Finally, the most impressive night was the one we spent dancing in the Cé la Vi Bar just on top of the Marina Bay Sands. Make sure you go on a Wednesday if you are a lady… You’ll get a free entry and a little drink on top of the most amazing view of the city out of the 57th floor!

Good bye Singapore, you’ve been absolutely magical.

XX Sofia

Cambodia

Over a month of traveling and adventurous moments in Southeast Asia has passed now. Everything has been so intense. Our third country has been filled with interesting moments.

Everything started in the capital Phnom Penh, after passing the border with Vietnam. We weren’t that amazed by the city itself, but the vivid and extremely traumatizing past of Cambodia was very present there. We visited the Genocide Museum as well as the Killing Fields outside the city. I knew very few about Cambodias horrible past, which isn’t even long time ago. I recommend you to watch First they killed my father on Netflix directed by Angelina Jolie.

After Phnom Penh we went to Kampot, a little sleepy town giving the name to world famous pepper. The streets were filled with old colonial buildings and we were surprised to find such a nice café scene there. I liked Simple Things and the Epic Arts Cafe the most.

We visited La Plantation, a pepper farm run by a French couple. You got a free tour around there and you could try all kinds of different pepper! This was such a cool and unique experience and the food there was delicious too!

The next place was the closest to paradise I have ever seen. From Sihanoukville (not worth to visit in my view) we took a tuktuk to Otres to take a ferry to the little island Koh Ta Kiev, which was highly recommended by another backpacker. The time seemed to go slower at that place. The days were filled with good Khmer Food at the bar of The Last Point were we had our own little bungalow and several swim sessions in the warm ocean.

What made me very sad was seeing all that plastic, daily spilled onto the beach by the waves. I am becoming more and more aware what a huge problem this is for the planet and for humanity. Everybody has to do his part to reduce the massive plastic consume! Of course sometimes you have to buy plastic, as we do with the water bottles here because you can’t drink the tap water as I do at home in Germany. But still, we try to reduce and at least to recycle and throw everything away properly (not into the ocean!!!). Different cultures have different problems, but plastic is one concerning every single person on this planet. You belong to no one and you belong to everyone – apply to people and plastic.

A little sunburned, sandy and salty we arrived in Siem Reap, the last destination in Cambodia for us. I was super excited to spend nearly a week in this nice little city to take our time while visiting the huge temples of Angkor Wat. I have never seen anything comparable to this place. The overwhelming complexity of the temples together with a beautiful sunrise on the first day and sunset on the third day, left images in my head that I will never forget.

Siem Reap itself did also have a lot to offer. One morning I did some Yoga at the Space Yoga studio. The teacher there showed me the amazing vegetarian restaurant Banllé. I ate there three times. I also liked the Sister Srey Café as well as Bang Bang Bakery where we even bought the shirts worn by the staff as we really liked them. The Pub Street (like we did literally dance on the street) and also the bar Angkor What?? were a great spot to dance all night long and having cheap beer.

It was nice sleeping in the same bed for six nights in the OneStop Hostel (which had the super nice and attentive staff). When traveling and moving so much at some point you notice that you need to rest and get settled, even if it’s only for a couple of days. Anyways, I am really looking forward to returning to Thailand where everything started. I guess it’s a bit like coming home. At least a little and at least for now.

XX Sofia

Vietnam

The honking from hundreds of motorbikes and a smell like a mixture of smog, pho and a similar to cinnamon smelling detergent, together with a bright colour palette – this is how my senses experienced the last 15 days in Vietnam. It is a country with an unruly past, which brought fights and oppression. Today this has unified the nation even more, they are proud of their country, I believe. They are friendly to foreigners, even if they don’t understand you in English. Being a vegetarian here means saying: I want this but without chicken, pork, beaf and fish. For now this has worked out more or less great. I tried several different flavours and I saw more hostel rooms than ever before in my life. Vietnam – you’ve been good to us. And what has been quite pleasant is the fact that I could finally become a millionaire thanks to the local money (Dong).

Hanoi

This is where the journey started. I got nearly killed by motorbikes several times. We had great coconut (and less great egg) coffees together with french pastries. We walked around the Hoan Kiem Lake and observed people. I saw several communist monuments and I loved the Old Quarter.

Cat Ba Island

Unfortunately a quite large hotel front destroyed the charm of this quite wonderful place a little, but I guess this is the world we are living in. The Lan-Ha-Bay as well as the Ha-Long-Bay were absolutely breathtaking, especially because we explored them as well as the charming little fishermen’s houses by kayak.

Hué

This little town received us with very good coconut ice coffee and breakfast at Nook. The Citadelle was definitely worth its visit and it was smart to take a bike there.

Hoi An

With the little lanterns everywhere and all those shimmering lights on the river at night you have been extremely beautiful. We ate several times in a market hall, where you got live cooking at its best. The little town is full of nice cafés and shops with precious clothes made out of silk, you would never find this for such a price in Europe!

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

What should I say, you’ve been the loudest of them all! I guess this was especially because we stayed close to the Bui Vien street. You’ve been smoggy and noisy but yet very interesting to experience. Colonial buildings with very own style as well as big boulevards and the War Remnants Museum, they all told their very own story. The tofu I had at the Secret Garden, a cute rooftop restaurant was super good and I guess it has become my main dish here in Asia. For now I don’t mind, let there be much more tofu!

Good bye Vietnam, here we come Cambodia!

Safe travels,

XX Sofia

3 Days in Bangkok

And suddenly I find myself in a flight from Berlin to Bangkok. And this isn’t only an outrageous destination, it’s the first destination of my 3 months in Asia. I have been planning and looking forward to these months for such a long time. I still can’t believe this time is finally here.

Writing these lines, I find myself in the middle of a thai railway on the way from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. I don’t know why, but other than expected I find myself in quite a calm and humorous mood.

Bangkok has been crazy, shocking, busy, dirty but also very interesting and inspiring. The first day was a day of orientation and trying to get used to the temperatures and speed of this enormous city.

We stayed in the Pinto Hostel, which I can highly recommend, even if it’s a little far from the main attractions in the old town.

We visited the incredible temples of Wat Pho with the enormous and extremely beautiful golden lying buddha, which seems a little too big for his home. We went to Wat Phra Kaeo together with the impressive Grand Palace as well.

We took the subway, entered a crazy and loud tuktuk, went on a boat and took a taxi and always payed a little too much I guess, as young blonde girls don’t seem to be taken very seriously when it comes to negotiating… Still every way of transportation was quite fun in the end and turned out to bring us to the right destination.

We walked a lot, which was the best way to get a true image of the city. We had a walk in the green oasis of the Lumphini parc, strolled through Chinatown and enjoyed the view across the river which flows in between the city. A big highlight was the Golden Mount with an even better view [see first picture].

We had very good food at The family, in the area of the Kao San Road (the craziest not to call beautiful street I have ever seen), which was supposed to be not spicy but it was still quite hot…

The last day, before we left to Chiang Mai, consisted of visiting the Jim Thompson House, which I found extremely beautiful and the tour was quite interesting too (even if I normally don’t like those tours). In the afternoon we had a walk through the Siam Square (a nicely climatized shopping mall) and said goodbye to the nice staff in our hostel.

Bangkok, I guess you’ve been disturbing and beautiful at the same time, but I will definitely not regret to have been visiting you.

(Listen to song: One night in Bangkok to capture the right mood)

XX Sofia

Change

Once again a year is slowly coming to an end. Christmas time is approaching. November never passed so quickly. I guess 2018 has been far the most intense and eventful year for me. And believe me, other years have been extremely intense and eventful for me too. I don’t know how personal I should get on this blog, as somehow it is open to the very public, but at the same time I feel like only those who care really keep on reading my posts. Finally, I am only writing this for myself, same as writing into all those notebooks in my shelf.

2018 started with a very lazy day, cuddled up in an Airbnb in cold Malmö with some of those very special humans for me. It seems like yesterday and somehow everything, myself included, has changed so much. I had an idea about the next couple of months back then. A more or less stressful time full of exams and the feeling of many things coming to an end followed. Last lessons, last concerts, last exams, last school day, last grades, last parties, last meeting up with people from school – everything was waiting for me to leave, to say good bye. To finally let go of things and people. To take my life into my own hands. To try to be more or less what I consider to be myself. I travelled in between. Went to Madrid, to my family. To Porto with my grandparents. To Stockholm, with the school choir. To the Netherlands and Belgium – my future home. I had an incredible summer. A summer that never seemed to end (hello ugly climate change). In Berlin. On the Melt! festival. In Leipzig. I turned 18. I went to the North of Spain. Was astonished by Bilbao and the beauty of the of the Picos the Europa. Autumn followed later with a trip to England and the Netherlands once again.

During that time a new era began – the era of my portfolio. The beginning of the continuous question if I wanna be an artist, a creator – if I am capable to be that. I painted, drew, photographed, sewed and visited exhibitions more than ever. I was having a glance onto the feeling of being extremely inspired and extremely frustrated in the very next moment. This was followed by two tough artistic examinations at two fashion universities – one of them the one of my dreams in the city of my dreams.

I f*cking passed my drivers license (at the second) time, which honestly stressed me out a lot. I go to Dutch lessons. I work my ass of, some people there treating me very nice others less. I listened to more music, read more books and magazines, watched more movies and really realized my inner self more than I had ever done before. I am who I am. But I will change. I discovered how really loving someone feels like. Loving so much that you can imagine the pain. The pain caused by change and by being apart. I feel so ready to leave, but yet I am feeling so home as never before. So settled. I feel inner peace somehow. I feel confidence. 2018 has taught me one very important thing:

The only permanent thing in life is change – and I guess I don’t find this circumstance so scary anymore.

XX Sofia

Brighton (part 2)

As promised here goes the second part of my week in England with the final stop in Brighton.

I wasn’t expecting that much of this city, but I was truly surprised how lively, creative and beautiful it was. Being full of cool cafés and shops as well as having the wonderful beach and the pier, I had so much fun exploring this place.

Our cozy Airbnb was located at the Regency Square, which couldn’t have been better. We spent the first morning walking through the North Laine, flicking through vintage shops and having coffee at The flour pot bakery.

The Lanes is another cool shopping area, we had lunch at a typical English pub called The Walrus. The shops were so beautiful there!

Visiting the Royal Pavilion was quite expensive in my eyes, but still very interesting. Unfortunately you weren’t allowed to take photos once again…

Also make sure to try the fantastic ice cream at boho gelato and take your time to listen to some talented musicians on the street.

Brighton is fancy but still very authentic. People are stylish but still very down to earth. You’ll find tons of Second hand shops and vintage looking cafés with cool 90s music such as Nowhere man with its amazing pancakes (mine were vegan).

The last day after an amazing lunch at Food for friends (they have an amazing vegetarian menu) we took a bus to see the Seven sisters. I wasn’t that thrilled in the first place because of the longer bus ride but it was totally worth it. The landscape, the sheeps, the water and the ground full of stones – everything was so beautiful and peaceful.

Brighton, you’ve been wonderful, I will definitely come back!

XX Sofia