- xoxo - 

Chiara

Last month I left on my own to New York to visit a friend of mine for ten days. We spent our first few days in Carmel which I told you everything about in my last post. This post is the second part of the previous one, so if you aren't caught up yet, quickly head over to that post so you are totally up to date. In today's post I'll tell you a bit more about what we did, show you a lot of pictures and there is also a vlog!

It feels like I haven't written a post in a while. But today I'm here to tell you all about my exciting trip to New York. I already got a lot of questions from friends and family on how my trip went and what I visited. The trip lasted for ten days so it's not easy to talk about everything I did in less than five minutes. If you are interested in my adventure in New York, keep on reading! Or if you don't like reading, make sure to watch the first part of my vlog down below.

I'm sitting on my bed between piles of clothes, makeup and accessories while I'm typing this blog post. My 'Golden Oldies' playlist on Spotify is playing in the background and I can't help getting excited for my holiday which is in two days! I'm going to visit my friend in New York, which has always been a dream of mine to go to 'the city that never sleeps'. I don't know how to feel about the whole trip, due to the long flight which I have never done before and I'm totally doing this on my own.

The whole stress level has gone down a bit since yesterday because at first my friend couldn't come pick me up at JFK. Little side note, the first few days I'm staying over at my friend's place and from Monday on, we've booked an hotel near Central Park until the end of the week. So she wasn't able to pick me up from the airport, which meant that I had to go to Grand Central Station on my own with either a shuttle or using the subway. When I would get to GCS, I had to search for a train that would bring me to where my friend lives (which is more than an hour away from the city). I'm not one to travel by myself, let alone to find my way in one of the busiest cities of the world, for the first time in my life AND with all my luggage and a map to find the right subway stations. As you can tell, I was quite stressed out about this, but hey, all is fine because she can come and pick me up, yay!

On my last trip I went to Eindhoven with my boyfriend. A video says more than a thousand pictures so I vlogged that trip and I like how it turned out. I'm going to be vlogging again this time in New York, just to capture more of the special and exciting moments. Of course I'm going to take lots of pictures too and make notes when I visit a nice museum of when I discover some hotspots. So at the end of the month you guys can expect several new blog post about New York. 

During my holiday you can always follow me on my Instagram or my Facebook page to stay up-to-date or just in case you can't wait for the pictures in a blog post. If any of you know some tips or places I should visit, definitely let me know and I will check them out! Here are some inspirational pictures that make me more excited than I already am!

- xoxo -

Chiara

Last weekend my boyfriend and I decided to make use of our well deserved wellness weekend thanks to Bongo and my mom. We celebrated our six year anniversary on the first of December so there was no better to way to celebrate than to go on a weekend of relaxing and shopping. We ended up going to Eindhoven which isn't such a long drive. We only stayed for one night and two days in the Pullman Hotel. The hotel is placed in the centre of the city and I immediately saw all their Christmas decorations. I'm a sucker for all things Christmas so it made me instantly happy. 

When we arrived at the hotel, we first went for a coffee at Lucifer Coffee because we were an hour early for our check-in. Once we had our coffee and cake, we got back to the hotel for the check-in  and to drop our stuff in our room. The service at the Pullman Hotel was one of the best I've ever had! The staff were all very friendly and made sure we had the best stay.

After we settled down in our room, we decided to explore the city some more. We only had to cross the streets to end up in a shopping mall in the centre of the city. We spent a few hours in Primark where I surprisingly didn't buy that much. It soon became dark and after our dinner, we went to the wellness part of the hotel to relax and became very sleepy. 

The next morning was a relaxed one. We had our breakfast at the hotel where there was an enormous amount of food options to choose from. This was our last day already so we packed our bags after breakfast to check-out at 12. Some more shopping and walking around town finished off our tiny trip to Eindhoven. 

I managed to vlog a couple of clips so I don't have that many pictures for this post. I hope you enjoy the little montage I made instead. It's also in Dutch in contrary with my blog! Let me know what you think of this video of our weekend and if you want to see more videos in the future! 

- xoxo -

Chiara

As my boyfriend and I have been together for five years now, we decided to go on a little trip as we always do when we celebrate our anniversary. This year the plan was to make it that little more special as the number five is evenly special. 

When it starts to get dark outside around five or four o'clock, the feeling of Christmas creeping up is so exciting and heart warming. Every year, I get more excited for Christmas and the holidays and as soon as it is December, everything has to be decorated and everyone has to wear his Christmas jumper. 

Dusseldorf is known for its Christmas markets during these days or as they call it 'Weihnachts markten'. This was the first destination that came up in my head and it ended to be our destination.

When we first arrived in Dusseldorf, I noticed all the Christmas lights and cute little stands with the gingerbread hearts. I knew I was going to love this little town. We dropped of our bags at the hotel we stayed in and went straight on to the shopping streets. 

The first day we stayed here, we shopped and walked a lot, with a visit to the several Christmas markets in the evening. The second and last day we went to see the houses of Frank Gehry and also went to the top of the Rheinturm which has a full panorama view of Dusseldorf and further. To finish off our long day of walking, we bought some Dunkin' Donuts to treat our selves on the way back home.

This little trip was so nice and relaxing to just be with my boyfriend and to enjoy the city. Everywhere you looked, you saw some kind of a booth or Christmas decoration. I will let the pictures speak for themselves. I am now in a total Christmas spirit and cannot wait for the actual holiday.

I hope this puts you in the same festive spirit as I am. 

- xoxo -

Chiara