Tag: travelling

Playing Book Fairy in Zagreb: Giving Away my Books #ibelieveinbookfairies #Booklovers #Books #BookFairy #Zagreb #Croatia

At the very beginning of 2019 I caught myself thinking how can I start this new year on a positive note.

If you didn’t know, I am a huge believer in karma, or as I like to call it, the law of “the world gives you back what you give and do to others”. Because of that, I like to start year with doing something good.

This year, I was inspired by Book Fairies who I worked with (I actually worked with Simon and Schuster UK who collabed with Book Fairies) in 2018 (and you can read bits about it here). They are organization of people who leave books around for other people to find them.

I like the idea, because as a book lover, I can only imagine how excited I would be if I found a great book somewhere in the city, that waits it’s new owner to take it.

  

So what I decided is to take 5 ARCs that I enjoyed reading but knew I wouldn’t reread, and took them with me to center of Zagreb, while the tourists were still there.
I chose 5 places and left books for someone to find them. I really hope they found a good home.

 

In the time I was working on my “project book fairy” I didn’t have official stickers, so I wrote my own message similar to the one Book Fairies use.

I can now proudly say that I am also one of book fairies, and to be honest, the feeling is good.

 

There is something satisfying in giving to others, so if you have some books you don’t want to keep anymore, I highly recommend you to do something similar (or donate them).

 

P.S. I apologize for the low quality of pictures. It was dark and I used my phone camera.

What do you do with books you don’t want anymore?
What about ARCs?

Feel free to leave your opinions, comments and links bellow.

Trip to Budapest: Visiting Frida Kahlo exhibition, exploring the city and eating delicious food #FridaKahlo #Budapest #Travelling #Food

This October me and my colleague and a friend Monika spent a weekend in the magical city called Budapest.
This is one of the most beautiful cities in the world and to me it is the most beautiful city I have ever visited.

Our main reason for this trip was Frida Kahlo exhibition (which was impressive to say the least), but we also wanted to explore the city, eat some Hungarian food and just have good time.

Most pictures from this post were taken by Monika Hranj.

Day 1

We travelled with an agency, and took us less then 5 hours with bus to reach Budapest.
First thing we visited was Citadella. You can see the whole city from there (and the first pic from this post is taken there, and it was taken by me so excuse my lack of talent).
Everything we saw there was so mind blowing.

  

After that we went to explore the city and their main street called Vaci.
I remember it being my favorite part of Budapest, back when I visited this place for the very first time. Since I was there the first time around Christmas time, the whole street smelled of food and mulled wine, but this time around that wasn’t the case.
It was still beautiful, and while exploring we stumbled upon Starbucks (that was located in some other street that I don’t know the name of).
It was a big deal for us since we don’t have Starbucks in Zagreb.
For the first time ever I tried Pumpkin Spice Latte (it was my desire to try it for the longest time), and I ate the most delicious apple pie ever.

In the evening, after some relaxation in our 4 stars hotel, we took a cruise trip on the Danube river.
It was nice and relaxing and some buildings and views took my breath away.
We drank champange, because that is the ritual.

 

After the cruise trip we went to have a dinner.
We located one beautiful magyar restaurant with authentic food.
Hungarian food is pretty similar to croatian, and we were pretty satisfied with taste and portions.

 

After the dinner, we decided to walk through the city and then went into our hotel.

 

Day 2

Day two was the day of the exhibition, but before that, we went to Heroe’s Square.
I don’t think pictures can ever prepare you for the magnificentness of that place and sculptures that are there.

 

We had some free time before the exhibition so we decided to try magyar cremeschnitte. There was no place to sit in the cake-shop, so we ate it from the paper plates.
Magyar cremeschnitte is unique and (allegedly) different from every cremeschnitte all over the world.

As we walked to Hungarian National Gallery, where the exhibition took place, Monika took this photo. We named it “Looking in the eyes of death”:

The exhibition was stunning. It was so spectacular, impressive and breathtaking.
Frida had a hard life, and she transferred her pain into her work. We noticed it all and the feeling I had while I was there is hard to describe with simple words.
All I’ll say is that I will remember it for a long, long time.

 

 

After the exhibition, it was time to go home.
On our way back to Zagreb, we had a quick excursion to Balaton Lake where we also ate dinner.
Sadly, because we were too tired or too hungry, we forgot to take a picture of the main course, but only took a picture of the soup, which was mouth-watering.

 

 

Overall,

I loved being in Budapest. I love that city. I could easily imagine myself living there, but the main problem in reaching that goal would be to learn the language.
But hey, you never know where life can take you, and what you are capable of doing, until you are there.

I think visiting Budapest this year was one of the best decisions I made. I liked hanging out with Monika and I think this trip brought us closer.

It also sparked my passion for travel and reminded me how good it is just to get away from your routine and explore something new.

If you’ve never visited Budapest I highly encourage you to do so, because it is one breath-taking place to see.

Trip to Albania: Where I went, what I did and what I ate in Albania

This summer me and my boyfriend spent our summer vacation in Albania.
We decided to go there because his friend was there last summer, and loved it so much that he decided to go back this year.
My boyfriend was really intrigued since he loves travelling, so we booked 8 nights via Booking app, packed our bags and went for an adventure.

 

Sarande

Our main destination was Sarande. It is the tourist based city with lots of programs to offer. You can go on boat trips (there are organized trips to Corfu Island, Greece daily), you can enjoy yourself clubbing and hanging out with young people. They also have rich street program, you can try your luck in the small amusement park, get a tattoo, let the artist draw your portrait, or enjoy the music played by a young boy with violin (he played only popular songs, and he was amazing).
Of course, there are lost of restaurants and coffee shops with the most amazing and serviceable staff.

As it goes when you’re on vacation, most of our days we spent chilling on the beach, and taking walks in the evening.

I finished four books while there, and I am happy to say that all of them were good.

Blue Eye

If you go to Albania, you have to visit Blue Eye. It is one of the most beautiful places in the Europe. It is a water spring and natural phenomen in which people actually do swim. It is so beautiful, you could stare into it all day long.
There you can also visit one of the caffee shops or restaurants, and enjoy yourself by the river, surrounded with beautiful nature sounds.

   

Ksamil

Ksamil is one of the most beautiful beaches in Albania, and it was my favorite place.
We spent there one day, whole day, just chilling and relaxing. The color of the sea is so blue and beautiful because of the white sand. The sand makes it so easy to walk into the water, and it is so easy to swim. So many people play with ball or toys there, even the older ones, but of course, this place is like a heaven for children.

 

Borsh

My boyfriend’s favorite place in Albania was Borsh. It is a village with 7 km long beach, and it is so beautiful. It’s a perfect place for relaxation, because it is pretty quiet there.
This place is THE PLACE for bookworms, because you have ideal conditions for reading. So many people read on that beach, that I couldn’t believe. It felt like every third person had a book in their hands, and what is even more amazing, you can buy books there on the spot, in case you forgot or already read yours.
You can also order drinks or coffee there and enjoy yourself without moving from your deck chair.

  

 

Food

We had breakfast in our hostel (we stayed in a hostel called Gjika and I can’t say enough good things about them. Staff are the most amazing and likeable, always ready to help and always asking if everything was okay, and the housing itself was nice and always clean).

Breakfast would usually be composed of an egg, frankfurter, leafy cheese-pie, vegetable casserole and fruit.
The best thing – it all tasted surprisingly well.

During the day we would usually take something from the bakery (the have really good bureque with cheese, meat, onion or spinach) and drink it with one dairy product that is not available my country, so we were all into it.
It’s structure and taste is like milk with splash of yoghurt.

Dinner we would always eat in the restaurants. We were very pleased with all the food and how work-hard but still very friendly and polite staff are.
Prices are very affordable too.

     

Albanian Ice Cream is one of the best ice creams I have ate in my whole life.
They have so many tastes and it has one spectacular note in every taste, that is what makes it special.
Unfortunately, I didn’t take the picture of it.

 

Cons

As it goes in life, everything has it’s pros and cons, including Albania.
As I already stated everything that I liked there, here I will briefly mention what I was not a fan of.

There are many stray dogs and cats just walking the streets. It is really hard to see them so close to the road because unfortunately, great number of them lose their lives there.
I came home with disturbing images of dead cats and dogs that will hunt me for a very long time.

What is really sad but also hopeful is that this problem can be solved with spreading awareness of importance of sterilization.
If people cared more for animals, their towns would become more beautiful and animals would be happy, therefore people would also be more happy.

The traffic could also be improved.

Poor people asking for money.
Poverty is one of the problems of Albania. Many people just don’t have enough money to survive so they ask for help.
I don’t know how the politics in Albania works and what is the reason for poverty, nor could it be solved easily (probably not), but I know that those kids (I even saw few months old baby sleeping with poor mum) need hope and a chance to build their future, and right now, I don’t think they have it.

Now you have it – my impressions Albania, so if you’ll ever think about visiting that country, you can see how I spent my time while there.
Overall I liked it, and I see myself going back there one day, in a hope that some of it’s problems will be reduced.

 

Let me know what you think and would you ever want to visit Albania?