Favorite Destinations 2013: Paris (part II)

My favorite place in Paris is located on the top of Montmartre, yes, I you’ve been visiting this blog before, you already know, Sacre Coeur. I didn’t come there until 2010, and then I had already been to Paris 3 or 4 times. It’s this white “castle” raving over the dusty and grey part of the city. High over the rooftops, suddenly it pops up like a little part of heaven. There sure was a stairway to heaven, and we had to climb it. It was a long way up, but at last we reached the top and the view was stunning. It could rain, snow, be full storm, it wouldn’t matter, the view will always be beautiful. It’s the top of the city, but feels like the top of the world and the cozy streets of Monmartre behind it will always be enough for me while in town. I could stay there forever, and now we always stay in the area and we always visit Montmartre. 

-Mari Clémentine

Traveling XXLedition

"The forbidden city" - Beijing, 2011

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
I haven’t been travelling much lately (okey, so I did go to London,  and I'm going back to Paris in February, anyways..) but these days a great journey is about to commence and it has stood a little in the way of, well, travelling in the way I know it. I don’t want to jinx anything so I choose not to tell you, my dear readers about it, but I can say so much: it involves Italy or France.
   So for the next weeks I thought I could tell you a little about my favorite destinations in Europe: Rome and Paris. Maybe my awesome Asia-trip to China, Vietnam and Hong Kong will be mentioned. I just don't know... There's so much to tell you about my "great journey" and I can't tell you about it just yet!! Stay tuned for more :)

-Mari Clémentine

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

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

An angel told me Rome is no place for High Heels...

"This is Rome, Johanna. Here troublesome people will be killed!"  -Gerlod in Pope Joan

Well, that movie took place 1500 years ago and Rome certainly have changed since then even though it may not feel that way when you walk the Ponte sant’Angelo and see the castle in front of you and St. Peter’s Basilica to your left.   

    When we first landed in Rome yesterday the sun kissed my skin and I was happy to be back, but after a while, a very short while, I was in need of a cold shower at the hotel. Luckily Ciampino airport where we landed wasn’t far from the city.

“Bella! Flowers for you!” No, no flowers for me, I thought and went straight on past the man who wanted to sell me a rose or five. Rome may have changed a bit since the 800’s but it has not at all changed since I was here in 2010. The weather is nice, at 12 o’clock the best thing to do is go inside and take a shower, new and old still go perfect together and the salesmen still scream after tourists. Not to forget, Rome is still no place for high heels as many streets are covered in cobblestone.

    That evening we decided to go to Castle Sant’Angelo. We live not far away at an excellent four star hotel that we found on sale at Booking.com. It’s called Cicerone Hotel and is only a 5-10 minute walk from Sant’Angelo.

       It was a beautiful view in the evening and we found a market right outside were we spent some hours just wandering around watching people, the stuff they wanted to sell us and the most beautiful bridge in Rome: Ponte sant’Angelo where 10 angels look down at you, each one holding an instrument from the Passion.

Well, my siesta is over and it’s time to explore more, just remember ladies: Rome is no place for high heels.     

Mari Clémentine

The Past and the Present

So as I’m taking things a little step by step these days I just wanted to tell you a little about the present as well as the past. Just for the record: I "just" came home from a couple of days in Paris and a week in Trondheim that was more about festival-life than anything else. It all looked a little like this (at least Paris did):

Tomrrow I’m flying to Rome to explore more of the Vatican and meet a friend of mine, then we are taking the train to Florence – a city I’ve never been to before, but I’m sure I’ll have a lot of fun in the sun. And how bad can it be in the land of gelato and pizza? (Pictures are from my 2010trip to Rome)

From Florence we’re flying to London, getting ready for a piece of West End and Harry Potter, with day trips to Brighton to walk down memory lane and Oxford to walk the footsteps of J. R. R. Tolkien. After a couple of days in London we’re heading north to Scotland and Edinburgh to sit where J.K. Rowling sat and explore castles, lochs and bagpipes. I am so excited for this trip and I’m sure I’ll have a lot of stories to share with you guys, so stay tuned!

Mari Clémentine

Welcome, welcome!

Sorry for about no pictures and bad quality, talking 'bout old times now and digital cameras did not exist back then, but I promise it will get much better from now on!

The first time I was travelling anywhere my parents and I went to Copenhagen in Denmark for a couple of days in the summer holiday. I was six years old and we took the boat. While there we went to the zoo, the Tivoli, up and down the main street many times a day and we ate red hot dogs.

A six-year-old me getting my picture taken at some fun Tivoli-shop

The first time I was travelling by plane we, my mom and I, were going to Gran Canaria. I was 10, the five hour flight was terribly long, but I was so excited I didn’t care. It was supposed to be a typical beach holiday, just chillin’ on the beach, but even though my mom was sure to keep me active in the child-care-fun-club-thing (Bamseklubben ayeee!) where I made a bunch of friends, one that I still have, I was set to explore the island. Therefor we went on a bus trip around half of the island, we went dolphin-watching and camel riding in the dessert. I also had an adventure on a donkey, but that’s another story… This anyway is where my obsession with travelling started and even though I’m still in school I drag my mom around the world every now and then.

At a banana plantation at Gran Canaria

So join me as I climb and camp on the Great Wall of China, try to have full conversations in French at the steps of Sacre Ceour, go to school in Brighton, hang out with old friends in Italy, get mistaken for being French in Hong Kong, meet the whole world on a boat in Halong Bay and sing karaoke in a bar in Bugibba.

Mari Clémentine. –tine like in sin, not time.