KFC and a graveyard - London

So I went to London to see my good friend Lina who recently moved to Kent and I must say I had never imagined such a trip. After another yet amazing performance from the Wicked cast we went back to our hotel and later out again to catch some food.

    “It’s closed!” she said. Even in London restaurants close, I couldn’t believe it. Okey, so I had to. “I think I saw a KFC just up the road, fancy chicken?” I smiled and we went, just two minutes before they closed. “What do you want?” the lady said and smiled.

“It’s twenty-eight,” said another man. They were closing at half. None of us was really used to eating at KFC, so Lina said: “We’ll just have some chicken stuff,” and I put up my most lovable smile. The lady smiled back and looked at the days leftovers. In the end we both got fries and some huge chicken pieces to take away. Deciding it was too sad to waste a fine evening eating in our tiny hotel room we went looking for a bench, only… There was no bench.

    In the end though, we did find a box, a sand box outside a church and that night we enjoyed a fine meal of chicken in the streetlight in front of a church, only accompanied by ourselves and probably a hundred ghosts.

-Mari Clementine

So f*cking late - London

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Well - almost. I sure have had one trip I haven't told you about this year, but since almost everybody is having Christmas of, I'm posting it now: Christmas Shopping in London.

I'm sorry there haven't been much travelling lately, but I've been a bit busy. You see, I'm planning a much greater journey these days, and I can tell you this it involves Italy, but for now, I've gotten one last trip this year and I'm leaving tomorrow. I'm going back to London! - 7. december

“We’re late! We’re late! We’re so fucking late!” I yelled as I took of all my clothes to get into a beige dress and a smoking-jacket. I quickly pulled my hair up in a ponytail and started spraying it with hairspray. I turned to Lina who was still not in her dress. “I know,” she said. “It’s all my fault.”

“Rubbish.”

    Before we knew it we were on our way downstairs again, this time in stilettos and with nice dresses. I had a look at my phone. “It starts in 5 minutes! We’re gonna be so late!” I said while balancing on the pavement with my already tired after-a-day-of-walking feet. “We should just take off our shoes and run,” I said, wishing we could.

“Let’s do it.”

     So we took of our heels and we ran, all the way up Belgrave road, which by the way was the wrong road, and laid the usual 15 minute walk to Apollo Victoria behind us in 4 and just when we had gotten inside, the doors closed behind us and the moment we sat down the theatre got dark. The musical was about to start.

-Mari Clementine

Travelling.

It’s the feeling you get when you order hot chocolate at Starbucks, the man asks for your name and you answer: “Clémentine,” and hi says: “Oh, yes…” because you do it every day. When you feel so sorry for the dogs belonging to the man begging on the corner that you buy them food. That’s when you’ve fallen for a city and started to make it your own. That’s when the real journey begins. When you smile and they smile. When people in the little shops knows what you’re going to buy, before you buy it, when people come over to talk to you randomly on the street, when everything’s new and you need help to explore. This is when the journey begins. Love.

Mari Clémentine

Sweetest museum ever - Brussels

I sat in the sofa in our apartment and opened my eyes for the third time or so looking at the rain tapping the window. It hadn’t been raining the entire day, but it had been raining and I had gotten rather wet.

     It turned out our last day was a perfect day for museums and we started our morning at the Museum of Cocoa and Chocolate, which is located just of Grand Place and is just okay until the demonstration of how they make chocolate making it great. The boy doing it was so cute, and had such a horrible French accent it made everything super sweet – and we also got to taste! Hallelujah!

    We continued on to The Belgian Comic Strip showing us strips and stories of writers, the strip itself and different series. So as you may know both Tintin and the smurfs are Belgian and we had rather a lot of fun there.

    Next up: We’ve been chocolate shopping. It was the last thing we needed to do before leaving, cause as everyone knows: Belgian chocolate is the best. The only thing that remains now is to pack our bags as we’ll be heading home tomorrow morning and thank everyone we’ve met for a wonderful trip.

Mari Clémentine

Waffles and flats - Brussels

So yesterday I learned a couple of things:
1. Belgian waffles are really yummy.
2. The shops and museums here close waaaay to early (6 – 7 pm)
3. Don’t wear high heels if you’re not staying only in New Street.

I can’t say we did much progress with being cultural yesterday either, breakfast-coffee at Starbucks, chocolate tasting, Belgian Waffles at Grand Place and dinner at McDonalds. Well, we’re broke travelers, what can you expect?
    I did some more shopping and we were going to the chocolate museum, but as I now know it’s closing at 16.30. Who goes to a museum at 16.30 when the shops close at 18? I’m starting to sound shopaholic, probably because even though I write that I go shopping every day I haven’t really been buying that much. Well, well…

     It’s our last day in Brussels and lesson learned – no high heels. I rather wear flats because all of a sudden you’re walking a street that looks like this:

Mari Clémentine

Pasta Divina - Brussels

                                                  

Picture from TripAdvisor

So this post is really just me telling you all one more time that you should go to Pasta Divina, it's located in Rue de la Montaigne not far from Grand Place, and it's a quiet area. This italian restaurant is not big, but very cozy and has wonderful food. It's some of the best pasta I've ever tasted. Go there! The "mom" is in the kitchen cooking and the "dad" and "daughter" works as waiters. 5 stars!

Mari Clémentine

Much to do about nothing – Brussels

Seriously. Today I’ve done about nothing. We’ve been shopping for the first time in Brussels and we’ve been jumping from café to café eating macaroons and drinking coffee. Shopping. Shopping. Chocolate. It wasn’t until this evening the real fun started.

    We were just going out for dinner at a place called Pasta Divina, I had seen it the other day and really wanted some real Pasta Carbonara when we took a wrong turn and ended up in the middle of a couple of restaurant-streets. We were more or less attacked by waiters wanting us to sit down, but the worst, funniest thing ever happened when we had nearly made it out and a man suddenly blocked our way holding his arms out. I, of course, ran right into them, getting a long hug and kisses on the cheek and goodness knows, but he wanted one more and all togheter I think we spent 10 minutes hugging, another one showed up offering us free drinks and then free everything, but I had set my mind on Pasta Divina and that is where we ended up. Thank goodness, because the pasta was divine. It’s a quiet place located in Rue de la Montaigne, ran by an Italian family with the mother in the kitchen. Lovely.

   Heading home I found bongo-drums, a street artist and a slightly drunk man, nice enough wanting to show off his political knowledge about the European Union. He also was black, against immigrants to Europe and called himself Tom Jones – enough entertainment for the night for sure.

    Point being: Go out after six o’clock and you’ll find yourself in a dreamland of entertainment if you come open minded and is up for anything. Let the city catch you,

Mari Clémentine.

Hard Rock Cafe - Brussels

So for lunch yesterday we went to Hard Rock Café, it’s all new and located just of Grand Place and is absolutely fabulous. It has a microphone-lamp and a great art-piece made out of guitars. The staff is very friendly and the food is delicious. I guess this one knocked Venice of the toplist, sorry Venice… Hard Rock nr. 12 was a great experience, a must-go-to in Brussel if you like it.

Mari Clémentine

Gare du WHAT?

Gare du Nord, Gare du Midi, so many train stations, so little time. Well, this morning I woke up early and immediately went to Gare du Nord, which is just up the street to get myself a Starbucks and check out the fares to Amsterdam as we are planning for a trip cross the border next week. The smell of coffee embraced me, the ticket machines didn’t and we ended up having to go to Gare du Midi instead. There we did find a timetable and a cute guy to tell us about prices and times and all was well this morning.

    The French style town of Brussels, who’s inhabitants probably don’t like me calling it French, I so cozy, so nice that walking through the streets is a nice activity in itself, even on Sundays and we even went to the viewpoint of downtown-Brussels right by Place Louisa. From there you can see both the Automium and Sacre-Coeur and it was truly wonderful. The sun was shining all day and on our way home we stopped by Paul to pick up a baguette and some macaroons. Perfect afternoon – check.

    We went out again, Brussels truly is beautiful by night, but only shortly to get some wine and eggs for dinner. So now it’s wine and The Hangover, with French voices, on the TV, what a way to spend an evening – haha.

Mari Clémentine

Drama in Brussels!

Omg, I’m in Belgium. As I walked down the shopping street it suddenly hit me, the smell of waffles, this isn’t my dear France, this is Belgium. Another thing hit me as well, I had left the camera at our hotel. Or apartment place. You know, nothing big, only for holiday-apartments located over an erotic shop with the reception… yeah, you guessed it, inside the shop. I feel so good going in that door all the time. Haha.

    We arrived in Belgium this morning and barely had time to buy a macaroon (ordered in French of course) before we had to get on the bus and our bus driver had a fight with a mad lady in French, English and Russian and then she spat him in the face and he ran off the bus and chased her down the street and… Well, I didn’t get much of it, but she didn’t get to take our bus. Oh, the drama…

 

   For the afternoon, just to get to know the city, we took a tour of Brussels. We went from Grand Place, the big square in the city center, to Atomium, a giant atom built for the Expo ’58 in the city, we saw the royal palace, the triumphal arc, a hundred museums from the outside and not to forget about ten churches. Oh! And then we went to a chocolate store and tasted and watched people make chocolate! Right now we’re working with plotting out were we most want to go and since we woke up at 4 am I guess it’ll be an early night.

Kisses from Brussels,
Mari Clèmentine

Picture of a City - Paris

I was walking around the Latin Quarter in Paris letting my eyes soak in everything I saw and the nose fill with the smell of autumn in the city of lights. As I had did in both, summer, winter and spring I told myself: “There is nothing more beautiful than Paris right now” and when I headed into the Jardin du Luxembourg with a Starbucks in hand, I knew I never wanted to be anywhere else. It wouldn’t help much in four weeks, but at that very moment I just sat down on one of the old green benches and watched students from LLG pass as they quit school. There is nothing a trip to beautiful Paris can’t cure and as I fetched my notebook I wanted to lock the moment inside the paper and I did.

  

So what has this got to do with everything? Well, I love Paris. And this was my experience last autumn, just running around the city of my dreams, writing and drinking hot chocolate, but now I’m going to Brussels and everything’s new… Wow, wow, 2 more days to go people! I’m so excited to just... not go to school. Yeah.

                                         

Mari Clémentine

Homesick.

I’ve bet you’ve been when you’ve been away from you family too long. I know I have. But never before while travelling. It may be strange how I nearly cry on the plane every time I have to leave Paris, but it’s still the truth. Of course it’s always good to come home, but I’ve never really missed it, like in that I’ve wanted to go home in the middle of a trip. This time I did. It was weird in a way, but maybe it was good as well. Human. Missing my friends, my dad and my boyfriend, and most of all missing my cat.
    I never went home though, and I’m happy I stayed. The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page. I don’t want to finish the book in a long time, but being home at last, I’m eager to read the next chapter.

The Hard Rock List

So when I tell people I’ve been to 11 HRC’s just in the last 2-3 years a lot of people ask me: Which is the best one? Or better – Which is the worst? I have a top three, and a bottom one, and my experiences might surprise you. And by the way! This is all part of my "warming up for Belgium" posts, so if you want to keep following me and I'll take you to Brussels next week! Will Amsterdam or Brussels make this list?

The current top three is:

                          

1.  Hong Kong

This one is a live bar located on Hong Kong island out of the way for tourists. We were lucky enough to be placed by the bar, and what an amazing time we had! This is a must do in Hong Kong, and experience of few. The shop is small, I didn’t even notice much memorabilia, but it was the best.

2. LondonPrepare to see Beatles, Elvis, Queens, the Rolling Stone, the Cure, Michael Jackson, Madonna and the rest of the music world at once. The 10^th café we visited, was in the city were the first ever was opened and they have lovely waiters and a lot to look at. The shop is huge so bring your wallet!

                         

3. Venice
Ah Venice. Another place with great people working there, a nice shop and a lot of things to look at. Did I mention it’s a great place to escape from the rain? The first thing the waiter did was guessing where we came from and he were 100% right.

The bottom one is actually Paris, don't ask. But wherever you are in the world, the capital often holds a Hard Rock, and you get the same familiar taste and nice faces. Sometimes it’s a great escape from Chinese food (like in Beijing) other times it’s just a place for a drink (like in Venice and Florence) since the country already have great food. But it’s always there to welcome you home. So Hard Rock all the way!

Mari Clémentine

BENELUX-autumn

Okey, so I've been knowing for a couple of weeks now that we'll be going some were this autumn, but I didn't bother writing to much about in case I choose to go to Paris again, as that would probably mean no blogging, but! As we absolutley can't aford going to Paris for autumn-break, and I absolutley can't stand having people speaking my own language louder than any other in the halls of Louvre, we choose to go somewhere new and unexplored: Brussels! They speak french, have the best chocolate in the world and belgian waffels! We're also taking a trip to Amsterdam while we're there and we might also go to Tilburg to visit a friend of mine! I've never been to either before, so I am superexcited!  Unfortunatley we don't have the time to go to Luxembourg, but it's still a benelux adventure, isn't it? So right now I'm spending my free minutes looking through guidebooks trying to decide wether to go to the Chocolate Museum or the Royal Palace first and should we eat at "La Tour d'y Voir" or spend all our money buying chocolate at "Mary"?  I hope you all will join me for my adventure in the capital of Europe this october!

Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris - Autumn 2011

Top 5 things to do in Edinburgh

This list really could go on forever. Edinburgh is a magical city, 1-5 could be WANDER. Because that’s what makes the city. Go to the petit stores and sit down in cafes. Have a whiskey at a bar.  But I made a more specific list for you, and it goes like this:

1. GreyfriarsThe graveyard. Yes, it may be my favorite place in Edinburgh and we passed it every day. With just a dash of fantasy I found peace walking with the dead. The graveyard also holds the beautiful story of a dog and his owner and a couple of Harry Potter names. Don’t be scared, the ghosts won’t bite you.

2. Elephant HouseThe so called “official” birthplace of Harry Potter, a café were J. K. Rowling sat down to write the first chapters of J. K. Rowling. It’s very touristy and even though we came for Rowling, we stayed for shortbread, tea and the spectacular view of Edinburgh Castle. And not to forget the toilets holds the Edinburghs best kept secret.

3. Climb to the topTo get the best views climb to the top of Arthurs Seat, a dead volcano. And if you think that is way too much of a climb, you can just walk/climb around Salisbury Crags instead. I can promise a great view and good exercise!

4. Guy with kilt and bagpipeGirl! or possibly Dude! You are in Scotland and even though they are not hard to find, this is a must-do. So you just go up to him and ask the fellow in the kilt if he would be so kind to pose for a photo with you. He’ll probably love to and here is your vacation2012 photo:

5. TourUp to the Highlands or around the city with Alan Foster on the Book Lover’s tour. Edinburgh has a lot of tours and a lot of free tours as well. Why don’t join the must-do ghost tour I write about in Ghosts of Edinburgh? It’s worth every penny even though it’s free and I must admit it got me feeling a bit sick as well.

Mari Clémentine

Hard Rock Cafe - Brussels

So for lunch yesterday we went to Hard Rock Café, it’s all new and located just of Grand Place and is absolutely fabulous. It has a microphone-lamp and a great art-piece made out of guitars. The staff is very friendly and the food is delicious. I guess this one knocked Venice of the toplist, sorry Venice… Hard Rock nr. 12 was a great experience, a must-go-to in Brussel if you like it.

Top 5 things to do in London

 So for London, this list could be endless, there is such a bunch of things you can do in this world city. This time I only had 4 days in London, and Madam Tussauds should be on the list, but we didn’t go there this year. This is my top 5 2012:

1. Go see a Musical or 5 – WICKEDIt is not a secret that my favorite musical of all time is Wicked, the story of what really happened during The Wizard of Oz. The music is fantastic, the costumes, the props, no musical will WOW! you more than the one about the blonde girl and the green witch. Tickets may be expensive, but it’s worth it and it will be a memory for life! Remember to bring your wand!

2. Wander along the River Thames
The Thames split London into two and on a day with great weather wandering by the river is a rather cozy experience. Walking from Millennium up to Tower Bridge is, for example, a rather nice walk on a sunny day.

3. St. James Park and other parks
St. James Park is the one in front of Buckingham Palace and here you can go for a walk, not feed the pelicans (I think there are 4), but you are free to feed everyone else and chase the squirrels. If you don’t fancy being so close to the palace, you also have the huge Hyde Park and beautiful Kensington Gardens.

4. Hamley’s
On Regent Street. 1 toystore. 6 floors. Teddies, Lego, cars, dolls and not to forget the Harry Potter noble collection! Just visiting the store, wandering around the toys was incredibly fun. Then I boght myself a wand. I’m such a kid… : )

5. Harry Potter Studio Tour

And while talking of wands, for all Harry Potter geeks, I have a very own post about it (insert link to post) The Warner Bros. Studio Tour: The Making of Harry Potter. See the sets, props, costumes, get the inside information and the behind the scenes stuff. Get a digi guide and you’ll listen to Tom Felton for 2-3 hours. Love.

Mari Clémentine

Where to go (and where not to) - Florence

So for Florence there are to places I will tell you about. One is the snack bar Cucciolo, with the world’s best pizza. I think I’ve said about three times only on this blog. It’s located in Corso and the pizza is only 3,50 – enjoy!
Then the hotel here we stayed: Hotel Medici. The hotel was the coziest ever, and the roof terrace and location is what made it worth staying at. It didn’t have aircondition and the bells of the Duomo rang all around at all times of the day, but it was worth it, I loved it enough to recommend it.

Then it is the “not to go” part, which I usually don’t have to do. It’s about a restaurant close to the Medici chapel with the worst service, the most terrible excuses and worst attitude ever. We actually saw people leave and asking the waiters to go to hell, so yeah. You can only imagine. It’s called Il procospino. AVOID IT! I mean, why bother going there when it’s so many good places to eat?

Mari Clémentine

Top 5 things to do in Florence

So for me the plan of going to Florence came out of nowhere, but when I first decided to go and started researching the city I understood it was not very much to do so I planned on a trip out of town (to Pisa) and was ready for some lazy days. The thing is that much like Venice, Florence is not about the museums and attractions, it’s about the vibe. And beside that the top 5 thing to do in Florence was not written with big bold letters on the web, so I decided to make my own list.

1. The Gucci Museum

As you may have read in my “They never told me Gucci was from Florence” post I was absolutely thrilled over the fashion museum by Piazza della Signora. It was the most refreshing thing we did in Italy and I recommend anyone up for something different a visit to a museum with no lines, a lot of space and great aircondition!

2. Climb to the top of Florence

Across the river Arno is a hill and a series of roads and stairs that lead to Piazzale Michelangelo, named after the most famous of Florentines. The ones that know me know that my favorite place in Paris is on the top of the city, so me enjoying the view from the top of the hill shouldn’t come as a surprise for anyone and I really recommend going up at night, instead of taking a bus in the hot sun. Have fun, enjoy the view.

3. Eat the world’s best Pizza at CuccioloThis is not a joke. The small pizzas you get for 3,50 at the snackbar in Corso is really the best I’ve ever had. Ever heard of. Tastes best when enjoyed on a rooftop c:

4. Look at the Street PerformersFlorence has the best street performers in the world. It’s not an understatement. The painters are fantastic, the men painting on the ground are even more fantastic and the musicians are amazing. Crowds of over a hundred gather around and make the evening unforgettable. To find them check in front of the Duomo,  Piazza della Signora and Piazza della Republica. You’ll be sure to find many.

5. Rub the nose of Il Porcellino (The wild boar statue)              Il Porcellino is a statue of a wild boar standing by Mercato Nuovo. It is said that if you rub it’s nose you are guaranteed to return to Florence. So if you liked it, rub away!

Mari Clémentine