La Serenissima.

You know what is another thing I love? Hard rock. As in Hard rock cafe. If there's one in the city I'm in…that's where you'll find me. I've seen quite a lot of them, my fave so far being the one in Rome.  Nothing quite as cool as their ceiling painting with angels sporting guitars and other instruments. Classic art meets hard rock and that's super badass. Either way, I only just recently started collecting their charms on a charm bracelet. I always loved the concept of charm bracelets. Got one filled with all kinds of crazy charms but this one is a say, fresh start. Meant for traveling only. It was a gift really. In 2018. I guess I shouldn't complain, 3 charms in 2 years is better than most people get. I suppose I'm sulking because this year I was supposed to add on Berlin and maybe, just maybe if I was lucky Budapest. And that didn't happen because Corona fucked up my life. Well mine and about (enter number of earthlings) others.

I suppose we were all doing that ''vacation close to home'' thing this year. Seriously though, I knew I live in a beautiful country but I had no idea just how beautiful it really is, I haven't seen the places I've seen this year in a while and just, wow. There aint no place like home right? And my home really is amazing, but more on that in another post next week. This week, something else. Because I decided on vacation close to home, well actually at home, and being so close to Italy as we are, I completely unexpected got to add Venice to my charm bracelet this year.

 

Y'all a bit closer to me know I've been obsessed, wanting to see Venice for years and years and never got the chance. I found it so absurd. I've seen entire Italy but never been to Venice which is closest to me. I mean who goes to Sicily, Naples, Palermo but never sees Venice? Crazy. I've been nagging everyone at home for years. ''I wanna go see Venice, I wanna go see Venice''. I've been called annoying for it, and I've been told I'll be disappointed because it aint ''all that''. My entire family already saw Venice mind you. I was the only poor sucker left out. Let me tell you something. I wasn't disappointed one bit. Even if Corona madness really is madness and 2 hours of train rides with no AC and 30+ weather…well that is hell, but shit that first moment, when the train arrives in Venice, the canals, the water, looking as if it's floating on air. It's magic.

I didn't have that much time, hours only. Well a day let's say. It was enough though, for now. Like a day trip. Aren't those the best? I should do this more often. Hours were good enough for the most important things, Piazza San Marco, the cathedral, Palazzo Ducale, Ponte Rialto, a walk down the Grand canal, a little quick shopping and of course a must the Hard rock, both store and cafe.

We took the time to see the Palazzo Ducale inside. If you're there, it's a muss, expensive as hell, I think 20 eu but it's well worth it. The palazzo as you will know is the former residence and the seat of Venetian government. Today it's the very symbol of Venice, I mean, what do you think when you think of Venice? Canals? Sure, San Marco? Most likely. But also Palazzo Ducale. On top of it all, it's a masterpiece of Gothic architecture. Gorgeous. Amazing. Beautiful. And the inside? Jesus fucking christ. All the gold, and paintings, oh dear god. We had a guide that told us what the paintings mean, what each room means, how the Venetian government worked in the first place and why it was so much better than it is today (it really was believe me).

And of course while talking about the palace we can't go pass Casanova. Y'all seen the movie right? Heath Ledger was and is one of my fave actors. Blonde. Go figure. I've seen the movie countless of times. You know how the story goes right? About the poet and womanizer? Well aparently he was the only one who managed to escape from the prison next to the palace. What happened was that the night before a party was on in the palace and he managed to sneak out of the prison and into the palace, dressed as a gentleman, one of the staff asked him how can they help him, assuming he was one of the party guests who got drunk and stay the night. And what did Casanova say? ''just show me the way out''. Can you imagine just how both brilliant and cocky that is?

We also crossed the famouse ''Bridge of sighs'', tried to make the guide say the name of the bridge in my language, it was hysterical. It's a difficult word and he gave up. Hah. Welcome to my life I'd say. I guess the bridge got this ''romantic'' sorta title due to people having one last look at the view before being jailed, while the jailers and others simply called it ''prison bridge''. Kills all the romance doesn't it?

Okay but one piece of info for my girls reading this…do you have any idea how ridiculously sexy the gondoliers are? I mean seriously! Tattooed, and those perfectly styled beards and hair. They look insane, like they stepped right out of a Milan fashion show or a style magazine. Believe me I had trouble breathing more than on one occassion.

Venice is such an amazing city to put the fucking map and the god damn phone apps away and just vander. Get a little lost. No worries all streets eventually lead to the same place, if not the people (the sexy gondoliers) are so sweet and will no problem show you the way. Venice is not that big you can walk the entire city in a few hours, counting that you get lost several times, hah, but really, that's the best part, get lost and explore, you never know what's waiting behind the next corner. There's a lot of tiny stores and tiny cafes which are not that expensive and just perfect for a quick stop to have a coffee or some Aperol (I only love to drink it in Italy because I swear only they know how to do it right), and the prices (if it's not the San Marco Piazza of course) aren't even that high.

What I enjoyed during this visit most is the fact that there were hardly any tourists. Corona aint bad for everything it seems. Usually, on any normal day, Venice is packed, full of tourists on every corner. And if there's one thing that I just can not stomach is American tourists acting like they own the place (I apologise to Americans reading this but jesus they annoyed me in Rome). So emptier streets, no waiting lists in front of sights, though sad is in a way much better.

What I also can't get over is the fact that this city is so strong and yet so flexible on wooden beams. Like it's just wood, in the water, holding up the entire city. How crazy is that? I mean we've all heard that they're sinking and that the world is looking for a solution. How about no cruise ships near Venice? That would be a great start, though I believe now since Corona happened they're no longer allowed. Y'all wanna guess where they got the wood to build Venice? Yeah that's right, in Slovenia. Just saying. Do you know any of the other names for Venice? Like, La Dominante, La Serenissima, Queen of the Adriatic, City of Water, City of Masks, City of Bridges, The floating city, City of Canals. Beautiful aint it? Another beautiful thing must be the Carnieval, which this year didn't happen of course but I can just imagine. I've seen pictures of course, but that probably doesn't come close to reality. All the masks, all the clothes, all the colors and the beautiful city as the backdrop for pictures. I get goose bumps just thinking about it.

Well Venice was and still is today a major cultural centre, and has been ranked many times as the most beautiful city in the world. Times online called it one of Europe's most romantic cities. True. So romantic. So pretty. The architecture, the artwork, the history. Everything combined. Nothing but pure beauty and to be honest, despite it all, Corona fucking up my summer, being home for vacation and only getting a few hours in Venice, I feel blessed for getting some time to spend there at all. It was gorgeous and so worth it. If only I could turn back time and get lost on those streets again. Feels so surreal to be back home, thrown back in the usual routines and stress. God I hate that. But I guess no matter how badly I'd wish it, I can't live in vacation mode forever. I can relive it for a quick moment though while typing these words and editing some pictures. Speaking of pictures, enjoy these and come back next week for an even better post on my own country. It's even more beautiful than Italy I promise cough patriot cough. Hah.

       

P.S. Click on the pictures or open them in a new window to enjoy them in full size.

Spain

I have so much to be angry about today. You have no idea. Everything is wrong. Completly totally everything. But as I've stated before this blog is not meant for that. As much as I'd love to vent out or better yet scream into my pillow I can't. So instead I'll go into that whole travel lifestyle that seems to be so popular. Have you noticed that the only bloggers who blog for a living write about lifestyle or traveling or fashion or like foods. I have nothing against it but why not science or politics? That's way more important then which celeb was seen where wearing what you know what I mean?

Alright lets get to the point. I had seen most of European countries, the capitols, the sea sides, most of the Balkan and it's no secret that when it comes to cities Berlin is my favorite and will always also remain my favorite and if we're talking ocean, beach, cusine then Tuscany wins hands down. I don't really know what it is, might be the sunflowers, I'm a sucker for those. Or the fact that nothing beats Italian cusine. I could never have enough of Pizza. Or the cities. Sienna, Florence, San Gimignano...such beautiful places. But actually, come to think of it I love entire Italy. Milan is one of my favorite places in the world. I've seen some of my favorite bands play there and nothing could beat those memories. Rome is amazing on it's own I mean you can't beat rome, architecture, history, culture, Roman remains, it's just oh my god! And then you have Sicily, which is a whole different thing. I loved it there, best weather, beautiful ocean, the nicest people you could meet it's amazing. Time is standing still there, nobody is in a hurry, people do everything slowly, they don't just survive they live and enjoy life and it's pretty damn amazing. For someone who is constantly busy, constantly rushing some place being in a place like this where everything is calm and peacefull is pretty damn nice. I always say that one day I'd like to live in a place like that. And you know which place is excatly the same? Spain. Catalonian part that is. People are either super lazy or just super slow. And it's the best thing ever. Because who wouldn't want to lie on the beach all day drinking Sangria forgetting that the world exists? I know I would. So since I'm really missing summer right now while I'm wrapped up in 2 blankets and 2 jackets in my bed cursing the heating system I'll tell you about Spain. I've never been there before till this summer. It was kinda a whim we were looking at destinations in a traveling magazine and saw Catalonia and we were like ''hey we've never been to Spain let's go there'' and that was that. And I got to tell you I don't regret that desition one bit. Well maybe the fact that we drove there but the thing is I'm terrified of airplanes. Literally. Just thinking about being in a box up in the sky makes me sick. So we drove. Considering all the things we saw while stopping every now and then it wasn't even that bad. Saw the entire upper part of Italy...who knew you needed 10 hours to get from one side of Italy to another? I mean I didn't. And we saw France, Monaco, St. Tropez, Nice, Marseille, Montpellier, Cannes, such beautiful places. And French highways are a dream to drive on, not kidding. I'm used to people who act as if their license came in a cereal box, not here though.

We left home late in the afternoon, deciding to drive at night, less traffic and no heat. This is a sunset over the highway somewhere close to the Italian border but still at home. I always enjoy that little glimps of the ocean you can see from the highway when you go to Italy. I don't know why really but I love it. We spent all afternoon and good part of the night driving through Italy, only stopped over at a gas station in San Remo for a bit to get gas and coffee. I stood there staring at a couple of Frenchies dealing with a broken car. Completly dazed by their language. I speak French myself because I find it beautiful but they spoke so fast I barely understood a damn word. Hah. We got to Monaco a little over 3 am, you would not believe how beautiful these coast line cities are, it's all dark but there's a million lights, it just looks amazing. I never saw anything like it like this open road, huge car windows and just millions of ligths in pitch black. Gorgeous. We drove all night and all day with bathroom, gas and food breaks no longer then 20 or 30 minutes yet we got to Spain at about 6 pm. Our intention was to actually stay in Madrid but somwhere along the way we changed our minds.We were driving along the Costa Brava which means the ''wild coast'' and we just fell in love. We found one of those tourist towns that was basically a mini Ibiza bars and parties on every single street corner which to be honest didn't sound like much of a vacation so we drove a little further and found a very peaceful charming town of Callela.

Callela is a complete ''tourist trap'' you have cheap souvenir shops on every corner as well as tattoo shops, henna, all kinds of other things you know will sell, like Marvel licensed products, trust me I was going out of my mind with all the Thor comic books and Skelanimals plush toys not to mention a whole store of Iron fist high heels and dresses. It was asdfghjkl!! You know what I mean? Though the prices were also asdfghjkl! heh, here's the thing about Spanish people they'd sell you air if they could. To them it's not a good vacation if the tourist leaves with any money left in their pocket. Which is why hotels don't have free wi-fi. I know right? They give you about 15 or 30 minutes then you have to pay or go into a bar. Which you know, aint so bad because bars have booze plus there's this amazing bar just down the street of the hotel we were staying at.

Here's a little story that follows. Where is there ever not a story if you have me and alcohol. Hah. On our last day in Callela we met some really amazing people. We stayed in touch too because guess what? They are from my country! How crazy is that I have to leave my country to meet normal decent people. Not that I'm surprised it's the smart ones that travel and go out to see the world. So anyways they were way older then me, some not all but you would not believe how well we got along. I loved them from the first minute. We could talk, and joke and have fun. Something you can't really do back home, you mention loosing a bra in the middle of the capitol and people freak out, but this is a story for another time. Hah. Anyways we were at the beach drinking a little too much Sangria, laughing our asses off over bras, and whatever else we could find, people were literally staring and laughing along with us. They didn't know what we were saying they were just laughing because we were. And I gotta tell you something it was the best time I've had in years. Completly calm and relaxed, no stress, no worry. Just actual fun. It was a little less fun stumbling over my feet over the hot sand later on to get to dinner back at the hotel but alright. We met up for more drinks after dinner anyways. But this time at a bar closer to the hotel. Just in case you know. Heh. This will always be a fond memory of mine but a bittersweet one because it's rather sad that finding company my own age and this town proves so hard and a good one because there's still hope that not everyone is a complete douchebag.

We left for Barcelona then and I got to tell you that was love on first sight. Barcelona is something else. There's not much of the old gothic part of it left but it's absolutely amazing. Vibrant, colorful, beautiful. It's alive, you know what I mean? When the city lives and breathes? The market place, woah, I've never seen anything quite like it, or half of the things being sold there for that matter. The street ''Rambla'' holy hell, made my head spin, all the different languages and artists on that street. Absolutely amazing. The church ''Sagrada Familia'' there isn't one like it in the world. And though I doubt it will ever really get finished it is breath taking. It's gonna sound real damn silly but I was like a little Japanese or Chinese tourist taking pictures of ducks in the lake when I saw parrots in the small park behind the church. I mean I know it's perfectly normal but for me having parrots fly around you instead of pidgeons was absolutely amazing. Of course what's visiting Barcelona without seeing Camp Nou? The ''holy grounds''. *rolls eyes* I swear these people eat, breathe and live football. I didn't go see the actual stadium, can you imagine? Me a die hard Munich fan, seeing Camp Nou before Aliansa? Hah I'd have nightmares for months. Not to mention I found it ridiculously expensive. So instead we took a little walk around it, hoping I may bump into Neymar the highlight of the club. Shut up he's pretty. Heh. Though no such luck. That day was hot as hell to be honest. Must of been way over 35 C, I thought I was going to melt. So going to the aquarium next was a pleasant relief. They had AC there and you know what it was damn amazing. I've seen a couple of aquariums but this one was the first one with a tunnel where sharks swim above your head. I had a huge shark, teeth bared maybe 1 meter in front of my face at some point. And it was the best thing ever.

We also spent a day in a Marine park called Marineland about 2 hours out of Barcelona, it was one hell of a trip to find the park but we did. You know that places like Sea World make my skin crawl right so I was sceptical about this one but it's nothing like it, there's little animals, they have more then enough space to swim comfortably around, they look happy and healthy. It was actually funny how anxious the seals were couple of minutes before their routine, you could tell they were really looking forward to it. And it was the cutest thing, one of them kept giving kisses to his trainer. It was so cute. And the dolphines! Wow. I love dolphines as is, they're so cute and clever but this was something new entirely. Dancing to music was so cool! I also really loved that some of the money from ticket sales and shirts and stuff goes to an organizaton that saves these animals in the wild and that they included a quick ''how to'' help a dolphine if you find one on the beach in their routine.

But y'all know I love art right? So on the way back we just HAD TO stop in Figueres, the birth place of Salvador Dali. He and Monet are my favorite artists since like forever so being in his museum was like a dream. Unfortunally we didn't have a lot of time, if we did I could stare at some particular pieces forever, they are so captivating. I love how things just seem randomly thrown together then you change your point of view or step on a different spot and you see something completly new. It's amazing. Not to mention the tomb, I mean he was something else Dali but brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. I was really happy to see the ''melting clocks'' in person, it's one of his most famous and also one of my favorite works. Not just his but in general. It's just something about it. He's right, time is slipping away from all of us.

And lastly...what kind of vacation in Spain would it be if we didn't spend one night in Ibiza?

''Don`t you give me the stars, don`t you give me your love, don`t you give me your heart, just give me one night in Ibiza.''

And well it's everything you think it is. Wild, crazy, alcohol flows in rivers, naked bodies, electronic music, party till you drop kinda thing. To be fair I'm either growing old or growing up not sure which one because I enjoyed one night but then I had enough. It's fine to let loose once but to spend your entire vacation there? No thank you. I actually came to relax not get back home even more tired. So yeah, I might be growing old after all. Heh. But that one night was fun. If you can't beat them join them. Though that whole ''join them'' part? Yeah I regretted that strongly next morning when I woke up with a massive headache and hungover I never knew I could have. Absinthe is a bitch, who knew right? I'm kidding. Of course it's fucking poison don't drink that kids.

So if you've been thinking of vacation, don't know where to go, or just deciding or dreaming,I recomend Spain. I loved it and I'm sure you will too. Like I already said nothing beats, sandy beach, ocean breeze, Sangria and a hot muscly bar tender that is bringing refills to you every thirty minutes. It's god damn paradise. Blake Shelton knows what I'm talking about...

Anyway, tell me if you liked this, I might pick another destination next week, or not, dependes. Let me know. And if you wanna share where you've been or where you wanna go or any fun vacation stories please do, I enjoy reading those.

Until next time.

xoxo

P.S. All the pictures I shared are all off my cellphone, no family pictures included because as I've said no more private crap. It does more harm then good so enjoy these instead.