"We are shaped and fashioned by what we love."

Happy New Year!

I would like to use this post to reflect on 2012, more precisely on how crazy, exciting and absolutely of whirlwind it was. What exactly happend? Well.. I changed jobs, met amazing people, moved accross the pond for three months, travelled throughout Europe, enjoyed new foods, saw seven Christmas Markets (a biggie for me), started cycling, had a photograph in a gallery, sold my first photograph, travelled to New York three times, and started this blog.

Last year went by so fast, with so many events that happened, it seems like it should have spanned over four years instead of just one. But I’m so grateful that I was able to have these different experiences that I wouldn’t change this year for anything. 2012 has showed and taught me so many new things about the world and not to sound like a cliche but life itself, and because of it I cannot wait for what 2013 will bring!
Here is my year in photographs, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

This year was our second annual Christmas up north, we went there last year and we had such a great time that we decided to do it all over again. We rented a cottage in Perry Sound, Ontario with family friends and we filled our days with cross-country skiing, hiking, skating, movie watching, hot tubbing and ended most days by staring at the fire. It was a perfect way to spend Christmas with the people you love the most.

**PS this is the last post about Christmas I promise.

I would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!

I’m finaly back home, in Toronto after a 3 month long staycation in Paris. And it feels so good to see my family, my boyfriend, my dog, and all of my friends. To make things even better The Toronto Christmas Market is on this weekend at The Distillery District. I have gone 3 years in a row now with my family and it’s a perfect way of getting into the holiday spirit, with the carolers singing and the chestnuts roasting it’s as if you have gone back in time or stepped into a movie set, either way it’s perfect. Here are some photos that I’ve took in between sipping Toronto’s most famous hot chocolate.

One of my absolutely favorite areas in Paris is Montmartre, currently it’s competiting for 1st place with St Germain de Pres (6th arrondissement). The reason why I like Montmartre so much is because there is always something going on whether it be a busker by Sacre Coeur or a band in a cafe shop, it’s definitely a neighborhood where you can meet interesting people and have a great time. Also, Montmartre is quite special because it has anonymous art everywhere and it’s either hidden or in small spaces where it’s not so easy to spot. I went around the neighborhood yesterday and took some photos of art that I could find, here are some of my favorites…

Also, here are some places to visit while you are in Montmartre
Best Pizza - Pomodoro
Best Cafe - Not sure of the name but it’s right by Abbesses Station, on the left side of the church.
Best Bar - Chez Julien

Every year in December for the holidays, two stores that share the same street; Galaries Lafayette and Printemps have lavishly decorated windows. Because they are so close together and sell (correct me if I’m wrong) the same things I’m sure there is a minor war or in polite terms a competition going on between them. This year the two stores had one major sponsor that did their windows, Dior for Printemps and Louis Vuitton for Lafayette. The clear winner for me was definitely Printemps! Why you may ask? Well instead of hawking their products like Luis Vuitton did, Dior actually took time to create intricate windows that involved a winter motif and had puppets that move to Christmas music. Don’t get me wrong Dior still managed to showcase their products but it was much more subtle and it followed the holiday theme. See for yourself which one you like better..

There is a really cool exhibition going on in the Grand Palais that’s free but it ends today, so if you are visiting Paris and you happen to stumble upon this blog post, go and see it! It’s called the Le Petite Veste Noire, and you might have heard about the famous subject of this exhibition… it’s a particular piece of clothing that was designed by Gabrielle “Coco” Bonheur Chanel. In the exhibition there are 109 photographs of models, architects, actors, and creative directors wearing the black jacket in different ways. It was exclusively shot by Karl Lagerfeld and styled by Carine Roitfeld, and if you miss it no big deal there will be 70$ book coming out with all of the photographs.

If you want to visit the past specifially the Middle Ages go to Bruges. I went there in late September for a day and a half and it was a perfect weekend gateway. Because of it’s canals, Bruges is often refered to as Venice of the North, but I find that for a small city Bruges definitely stands on it’s own. It’s historic center is a prominent World Heritage site at UNESCO and at one point Bruges used to be a significant port town in Northern Europe. The city is really well preserved, every building is perfect. When you are there it is as if you are walking in Disney Land becuase everything seems so unreal. Here was my itinerary for that weekend.
9am - Train from Gare du Nord, Paris.
12am - arrived in Bruges
1pm - checked into Bed & Breakfast Gallery Yasmine
2pm - climbed up the Belfry Tower
3pm - chocolate time!
3:30pm - Basilica of the Holy Blood (stayed for a service and saw the vile of Jesus Christ’s Blood)
4pm - Renaissance Hall & City Hall
5pm - Church of our Lady (saw Michelangelo’s sculpture of Madonna and child created around 1504)
6pm- boat tour (a must in Bruges)
7pm - waffle time!
9pm- dinner at the oldest pub in Brugge Herberg Vlissinghe dates back to 1515.
Next day
9am - complimentary breakfast at the B&B
11am - St-John’s Hospital Museum (it’s one of the oldest preserved hospital buildings in Europe)
1pm - Beguinage (it was originaly built in 1500s for single women and widows, and it’s now home to Benedictine nuns)
3pm - train back to Paris.

I spent one week in Prague with my boyfriend (itinerary to come) and we found the best local bar to grab really good Czech food and great beer. This wonderfull place is called Lokal it’s a modern beer hall that’s known for it’s fresh and crisp Pilsner that’s kept in special beer tanks. We went there three nights in a row with friends and once for lunch and every single time it was perfect. We ordered “butcher’s sausages” which came with fresh horseradish and rye bread and of course we ordered beer. They had the sweetest way to count how many beers your ordered per table, they crossed pints off on the paper, see picture below. Also watch out for the servers who walk around with beer in their hands because as soon as you finish your pint they will place a fresh one on the table!

Everyone knows that Paris is expensive, but I don’t think people realize or maybe I just didn’t realize just how expensive it really is to shop here for clothes. I consider myself a pretty thrifty person. I am proud of the fact that I can buy a $300 jacket on sale for $50 or getting sweaters after Boxing Day from J crew for $40. So I figured that I would be able to scheme my way through Paris and find some good deals. Was I ever wrong! The problem is that in Paris there are only official sales which happen twice a year in July and January, this means that throughout the fall there is nothing on sale, everything is fully marked up. There are no corners in the stores where they hold a sale section likey they do in Toronto and instead, I am left with prices such as 60 Euros for a cotton long sleeve shirt that I would be able to buy easily for $20 back home. Therefore, the only thing that is left to do is to window shop, and window shop I do. The best streets for eye gazing and drooling are Rue de Victor Hugo, Rue de Saint Honore, and Boulevard St-Germain.

A friend and I went to Zurich this weekend, and in the midst of roaming through the city’s famous landmarks we uncovered the chillest cafe in the world. The word “chill” doesn’t even begin to describe this cafe, but if you ever needed to waste some time and eat some good food go to Kafi Schoffel. Now why is it so chill you ask? Well, it takes about 10 minutes for the server to come to your table for you to order some food, then your food will only arrive 40 minutes later. In between your server will go for a minimum of 5 breaks where he will smoke and drink his beer. After you have eaten your food or finished your drink, you can sit in the cafe for as long as you like. We have literally seen a guy when we were eating our lunch, then when we came back for dinner he was still there and as we were leaving he was still clicking away on his mac book. That being said, the fact that it’s the chillest cafe in the world is not necesarily a bad thing, in fact it’s a major plus. When we were in Zurich it was roughly about +1 outside and snowing so we really needed to waste sometime after dinner and sit in doors. Kafi Schoffel was the perfect place for that. We spent our lazy sunday night in the cafe for about 3 hours, flipping through magazines, eating and laughing away.

There is a place in Montmartre, Paris that’s called the square Jehan Rictus and it holds a beautiful work of art called I Love You: The Wall. The wall holds 311 written declarations in 250 languages of I love you’s and apparently it is where old lovers unite, and new lovers meet. The wall was created by Frederic Baron and Claire Kito who collected the pharases by knocking on the doors of embassies and asked their neighbors to help them gather more than 300 phrases in different languages expressing I love you.
With all of the violence and hate that is going on in the world today, it is such a breath of fresh air to see a monument or a place dedicated to love instead of war. When you stroll through Montmartre and when you actually find the obscure location of this wall, you will see couples kissing and tourists pointing their fingers trying to find their own I love you’s, either way it’s a beautiful sight to see.

Today I went to an exposition in the Palais Decouverte that’s called Betes de Sexe. It’s running from October 23, 2012 to August 25, 2013. It showcases seduction in the animal world, and how sex plays a role in their daily lives. It’s very informative, educational and quite easy to understand. It consists of videos, interactive diagrams, and stuffed animals. Here are a couple of facts that I’ve gathered while I was there…
Some females, hold out until males demonstrate their worth with impressive gifts. Penguins present pebbles as nest warming gifts and Guillemots display their fathering skills by feeding their partner as they would a chick.
Female ducks are often injured fighting off unwanted advances from males, and many drown in the process. But they do have a trick up thier sleeves to retain control over fertilisation. Multiple passageways within their reproduction tracts can send an unwelcome penis down a dead end.
Homosexual behaviour has been documented in 450 species.

I’ve been travelling a lot during the past two months (blog posts to come) and until I went to Oslo, I hadn’t visited a city, in which I would actually want to live in. The best way that I can describe Oslo is that it is a mix between a colder, cleaner New York and a trendier London, and this in my opinion equals perfection. Oslo is very expensive city to visit and I was happy to stay there for just two days. If I stayed there any longer it would have literally drained my bank account. Here was my agenda for the weekend:
Saturday
1pm arrive in Oslo
3pm Viking Museum
4pm Kon-Tiki Museum (saw the Kon-Tiki raft that Thor Heyerdahl crossed the Pacific with)
6pm checked into my room which I booked through airbnb.com
7pm dinner at Mucho Mass (best Mexican food)
Sunday
7am wake up, walk to the central station & have breakfast
9am hiking (take Line 1 West and get off at Frognerseteren)
11am Vigeland Sculpture Park & lunch
1pm Opera (the best contemporary building I have ever seen)
2pm coffee break
3pm National Gallery (free on Sundays and showcases The Scream by Munch)
5pm walk around and go to the Color Line ferry
8pm dinner at Villa Paradiso ( really good pizza & great trendy neighborhood)
Monday
fly out at 6 am.

As you walk in and out of monuments, churches and museums you slowely start forgetting things you have seen the week before. To stop this memory loss I’ve started paying attention to the small details and vivid patterns of each place I visit, here is the the visual evidence …

If you want to have a cheap day in Paris, yes it’s actually possible, here is what you do…
You can go to two really great museums for free, and they are both situated in the Marais and are walking distance from each other.
Musee Carnavalet showcases the history of Paris through paintings and other artifacts. It’s really interesting to see especially after being in Paris for a few days. As you walk through the museum and see various paintings you will start recognizing different monuments and buildings that you have walked by.
Another free museum is called Musee Cognacq-Jay. It displays an amazing art collection that has been put together by Ernest Cognacq, and his wife Marie-Louise Jay. Most works date back to the 18th century but there is a great painting done by Rembrandt dating back to 1626. You can also see an apartment (salon) that dates back to the 18th century.
Both Museums are really well curated and are easy to understand. If you have a moment in Paris, and if you have spent your last dime on a pain au chocolat, you should definately pay a visit.

When living in Paris there is always a battle with food. No matter how much you eat and how full you are, you are always thinking about food. This of course does not help when you pass by the wonderful smelling boulangeries with their beautifully complicated pastries, or that there are food markets on every corner. I passed by Marche d’Aligre (metro: Ledru Rollin line 8) the other day and there are stalls of delicious fresh fruit, vegetables, flowers and other trinkets. I read about it in the Frugal Traveler, and decided to see it for myself.

I went to Hamelin, Germany over the weekend. Hamelin is famous for the story of Pied Piper who led away rats into the river with his magical flute and when the town refused to pay him, he took children away from the town and they never returned.
The town is situated on the Weser river and it’s really beautiful, there is a lot to see and do in Hamelin and around the area as well. I would recommend heading to the Pied Piper museum and take the guided tour which takes you around the town and tells you small historical details. Also if you have a chance to rent a car go to the Weserbegland Mountains and the Buckeburg Castle they are both about 20 minutes away from Hamelin and are really pretty sight.