Marseille & Me, and how we met...

Marseille was my starting-point for my roadtrip, and it was the point it ended as well.

I have a thing for cities, whether I like them or not. They have their own personality and feel like a living, breathing person that is as changeable as the weather.

Arriving at Marseille I wasn't a happy girl. So I started our first encounter with me not really being myself. However, at a couple of hours she made me feel feminine again and ready to expore her in the tartan/plaid dress I brought for the journey (one from 2008, but tartan has returned so there you go!). And my unbeatable Sam Edelman sandals.

My avatar is in Marseille all of the time!

Oh, actually it was the gorgeous and superfriendly woman at the car-rental who gave me a BRAND-NEW car for rental, in RED!

ready to loose your virginity with me??

Yeh, my blog has been portraying Southern French men but I wish I had a picture of her to remind me of human friendliness: I think I have a slight crush with her, so I will return to Marseille to rent a car with her again.

Ok, I'm not that materialistic that women have to give me good deals to make me like them, but I had the best first impression of a Marseillean woman.

To continue red fever and consumerism:

• polkadots!
• Cashmire (mix)
• from Galleries LaFayette (they have two in Marseille!)

LaFayette ship to Holland as well so I should stock up more on their cashmire. Oh geee, they had Maje as well...I was shopping wearing winter coats while it was 34 celcius outside (ADDICT!)

That's how we met, Marseille & me.

The Hague / Den Haag

It's no secret I like cities and I like the Hague. Often the main-City of a country gets a bit too overconfident. I'd used to like Amsterdam when I still had tons of friends there, but the last 5 years I have felt more meh to it. In that case visiting another city in a country has the potential to be inspiring as well, and often with a bit more friendliness and originality involved.

The Hague has the mix of elitism with more-down-to-earthness that attracts me. Also, the coast is quite near. Architecture is impressive & the museums are varied in having both intellectual value (Esher) to just incredibly cute (Madurodam).  The shops have lots: for the Elite crowd there are some excellent speciality shops but Zara is there as well. And I adore Massimo Dutti: the ones in Spain are a bit too far away for me at the time being so it's The Hague in Holland for my Massimo Dutti fix.

London compilation I

I wanted to go back to London in this specific time of the year before the Olympic games will be launched. I visited some new places I was wondering about how they would look (and all the other five senses) in real life.

1. The way to London I went with a more expensive airline, only for a cheaper fare. I arrived quite close to the city of London and, GASP, free breakfast! When you are used to the cheap airlines you have to pay for every extra. Anyway, the public was a bit snobbier this flight.

2. Hackney view from hotel: I actually booked a room at Universityrooms here but nobody in Hackney knew I was talking about. It wasn't an expensive room (€34) but it kinda sucks when you loose that money and probably have to pay a lot more because you haven't compared rates/booked in advance. I had to look for another one in a city that has the Olympics on (and later I found out the London Pride as well). But eventually it wasn't too pricy for it's service and view.

3. So many streetart projects in London! I made tons of photos and only put on a tiny bit on instagram. There will be more!

4. The Olympics in Advertisements: I don't know this particular athlete but  This is Paul Gascoigne: he is licking his lips over here (not really visible, I will put up some bigger photos soon),

5. Another lazy hammock-er! I'm not the only one who launches around when something active is going on...but if the music is mellow...

6. Yeh, finally to London Chinatown for the first time after my 10th (?) visit of London! Such an inspiring place.

7. The LBGT (I hope I get the right order on these letters) London Pride: Rainbow balloons. This is in that musical area: I'm not really into musicals; too much going on. I either prefer theatre alone (without singing) or a concert.

8. Gorgeous Rihanna advertisement for Vita Coco Coconut water. That stuff is too expensive over here and in London about half cheaper. I like that drink, though and it supposed to be massively healthy.

9. As I said, back with the cheapies with the not-so-snobby public: I had an apple for dinner I brought myself :-)

Insta-NYC

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Dutch Cities

the totally unobjective guide to vintage Utrecht

It's no secret that I consider Utrecht to be my fave city of the Netherlands. I like the others but the compactness & cosiness of Utrecht makes it perfect for exploring it in one day and get your complete shopping/cultural boost.

Because of the percentually high amount of students it means that, beside of having a large amount of beautiful/young people (yes you people wanting to see Holland for that!), a lot of vintage shops! So I will be as subjective as I can to show you the four that I find quite good:

1. Sussies

It's like going into a timewarp being thrown back in the sixties! The entry has a plethora of dresses & playsuits and the other rooms have a variety of jeans, jackets & the likes. The shoes are well selected & I've been buying lots of those 70s style boots in 2008 when they were totally happening.

It's quite girly and frilly but that makes it good. The standard price for a dress is about 20 euros but they have a 10 euro rack outside too.

My last purchase from them is this playsuit: suited for floral play when the weather warms up.

Find them at the Voorstraat 48-50 in Utrecht or online.

2. Giensch

Across the street is Giensch with a mixture of vintage & novintage. Somewhat less vintagy as Sussies and the prices are higher. Still worthy to check it out for it's bags.

3. Episode

People knowing Amsterdam will recognize it's name. It's the same store but I believe Utrecht is better organized than the two Amsterdam stores (although I like the one at the 9 Straatjes).

I think it's more of an eighties vintage store. They have lot's of jeans and quite a good selection of leather. I bought this leather/pleather maxi skirt over there for 35 euros. Not bad.

 Find them @ Oudegracht 206 or online.

4. Kringloopwinkel

It's not exactly vintage, which will strike a bell with the connoisseurs, who know the difference between vintage & just really old clothes. Anyway, there are some gems to be found here between the 'just old clothes' and often under 10 euros. That makes it somewhat more satifying than browsing in the carefully selected vintage shop! They also have some fun boots for reasonable prices.

Find them @ Oudegracht 270 and read about their ideology online (only in Dutch)

Rooftop Rome

One of the better views of Rome (ph. me- made in june 2010)

The Women of Sao Paolo

Happy Hippy Hair...somewhat like me, only more poofy

the girl has some music in her head

the nude

I love streetart! Perhaps even more than any other artform. The artist often works on a clandistine level with a limited amount of time (often illegal) and with a canvas that are the elements of the street and the city itself.

These were taken by Marcaomoraes in Sao Paolo, Brazil. I notice that Brazilian streetartists have slightly different themes than Australian streetartist...Often, the women are featured more and differently...

I miss Barcelona...

Something about Barcelona makes me feel more alive:

@ Mont Juic taking a break

I seriously might feel(/look) like a hag in the Netherlands but I feel more radiant in Barcelona, being able to wear brighter clothes and a smile on my face caused by the beautiful elements, some listed below:

Harbour

before the Dali Museum

Barcelonan metros

I love metro-ing in Barcelona

Buildings

being able to wear patterned jumpsuits

Calles

Gentes & comida

Spying up stylish Barcelonan mujeres

Placas & tourists

local scene

Just a smitten of the things I love about Barcelona, and I should add Miro, Gaudi, Dali, Gentes guapas y sympaticas, food, cava, dancing & going out, warmer weather (summer smoulder cities), the fact I had my first real boyfriend over here...

Should I continue? No, enough for now.