Crete impressions
Crete impressions
A few first unfiltered shots…enjoy!
Toddler on the road or what’s the essence of life
Do you know these families who have a certain area around their home for the first years after a child was born?
"Aurora needs her nap time in her bed."
"Lucas is not sleeping anywhere else."
Or worse, the parents who need the whole children equipment from bottle warmer to rocking chair, the ones who are not able to improvise and stick to their patterns.
We are not like that, neither our child nor we.
We love to travel and the easiest for me ist to travel by car.
You throw all you need inside and off we go.
We spent already lots of time in the car so it's a bit like a second home.
If you don't expect it you'll find a diaper (often when you indeed need it) or jacket which we thought lost.
Yes, it's a bit messy and I admit that we are at the end of October and we still have the beach umbrella in the back and Tuscan sand on the floor, that's us and I love it!
The best of these messy details is that they don't matter, what matters is that we have a big radius around home already and that we know we can go in whatever direction and we are happy.
A travelling toddler who sleeps everywhere is worth the mess.
His seat is based on cookie crumbs and our family is based everywhere.
He sleeps apparently everywhere when he is tired. What he needs is the reassurance that we are around and that he is safe with us.
Everything else doesn't matter, it can be loud or quiet, sunny or dark, crowded or peaceful, when he is tired he grabs our hand or hugs us tight and off to the land of toddlerdreams.
But what about sleeping times and nap times?
We don't have them.
And before someone starts to argue how important steadiness is…we love that we don't have them!
He is 18 months old, he sleeps when he's tired, he eats when he's hungry and we give him the freedom to grow without a strict schedule as much as we can.
Latest with 6 years when he starts school this life is over as he cannot go to school when he likes or stays in bed longer in the morning when he's supposed to be in his class.
What are 6 years compared to a lifetime?
We should cherish these first six years where our kids are mainly free little birds.
The kindergarten (Kita) for kids under three started for us in September and he's doing it great.
He has a nap time there and he's actually napping and he eats when they all eat.
Children are able to adapt quickly and they know which rules apply where so why should we limit his freedom at home?
We are now on our way to my parents and he sleeps in his car seat next to me while I'm writing and my husband drives, this is our on the road life, one glance at it.
Most people tend to make life more complicated than it is. What is really important, especially with children?
Now! Now is all we should focus on. Our children could be our teacher because they know how it works by heart.
BE HERE NOW (look at your child and soak in the love).
At the end of the day WE are important, the core of our beings.
Our travelling toddler is happy, and so are we ♥️ that's the essence of life, isn't it?
Sharing is welcome:
Still on holidays
We are since two weeks in Italy and simply enjoy this first real family vacation and the dolce far niente (the sweetness of doing nothing) or dolce vita (sweet life) 😊
Here are a few impressions:
Tyrol – we are in Italy 
I and the doors – I love to take pictures of doors – this one is in Verona 
Verona Centro Storico 
Arena di Verona 
First steps into the sea
San Vincenzo Marina 
Livorno 
Near Volterra 
So much to discover in Volterra 
Pure Tuscany 
Alabaster near Volterra
Sharing is welcome:
Our honeymoon is booked…
Our honeymoon is booked…
One of the last steps of the wedding preparation is done.
I finally booked our honeymoon – yeah – Ibiza, we will come for two weeks!!!
I honestly can’t wait for the relaxation part to start soon. Sure the wedding itself will be the most exciting part but I feel more and more tired of planning.
To have holidays in near sight gives me a good feeling as we can relax completely as Mr.&Mrs. then.
Why Ibiza and not the typical spots like Maldives, Seychelles or Caribbean Sea?
Who wants more than 10 hours flight time if we have so nice places just around the corner? We don’t want to start the honeymoon with a jet lag.
Ibiza for sure is well known as a party island but what we did is checking quiet places not near to the tourist region and we found something hopefully nice with the sea in walking distance and empty beaches around us. If we need action we still can drive into these areas. Most important for us was a quiet place, palm trees to sit below with a book, beaches where you don’t have to lay down between strangers, a small hotel with breakfast outside instead of standing in a row for the buffet and so on.
I will for sure let you know if we made the right choice but I have no doubts.
The smaller island on the picture is Formentera, we may take a boat trip for one day to check it as well.
Enjoy the sunny week as best as you can.
Yours,
Miss Faith
Sharing is welcome:
Budapest
Budapest 2010
I went to Budapest / Hungary for business one week in April 2010.
Some may remember this month as it was the start of the ash cloud.
Work was the main part of this trip and in the beginning I thought I may go with colleagues for dinner some evenings or just have a coffee after work. But it turned out that they were not really happy about me being there and checking what they did for several reasons wrong. I had to check the quality and when I started on the first day to detect quality issue after quality issue, they were more than angry. Not my problem as I didn’t had the task to please them, I had to ensure quality, means they did wrong and tried to blame me to be too strict.
Nevertheless, I wasn’t there to make friends and to get at least a glimpse of the city where I stayed for the week I decided to discover it on my own.
Fortunately my hotel was directly on the chain bridge and it was easy to walk in all directions from there. The weather could have been better as it was foggy and rainy the whole week. But instead of sitting in the hotel room after a tough day with only a partly working TV a walk was not the worst option.
I never took so many pictures within such a short stay but Budapest is full of nice spots, even if it’s rainy. The atmosphere hits me quickly because people there are smiling and friendly whatever they are doing. Given the fact that Hungary isn’t one of the wealthiest countries it proofs again that money can never make you happy.
The last night was the most impressive for me as the whole trip turned out to be a mess in regards to work. One catastrophe was following the other and instead of trying to fix it together, the colleagues started to work against me. I was never in a situation like this, handling everything professionell for sure, but it was not as in other countries. This was the attitude from colleagues not being able to admit mistakes, single persons, so not to judge the rest of Hungary because of them.
On my last evening it was almost the feeling as if you walk along the Thames in London so much fog was laying over the city. I’m not sure if that’s common for Budapest or if I picked exactly this time.
I walked across a market place in the centre where you hardly could see the lights surrounding the streets through the thick layer of fog over the city.
A man with a saxophone was playing and it was the most awesome time of my stay.
There I was, completely alone in a country where I don’t even speak one word of their language and in the middle of a city which is completely new to me but I felt at ease at this moment. I was breathing in the atmosphere not to loose one second of it and I still remember the smell of the air. Its always the small things which last forever. A moment to remember and this one moment overlayed all stress encountered in the same city. Thanks for saying goodbye like this, Budapest. I love to think about visiting this city again one day, maybe in summertime… Amazon.de Widgets
Work was the main part of this trip and in the beginning I thought I may go with colleagues for dinner some evenings or just have a coffee after work. But it turned out that they were not really happy about me being there and checking what they did for several reasons wrong. I had to check the quality and when I started on the first day to detect quality issue after quality issue, they were more than angry. Not my problem as I didn’t had the task to please them, I had to ensure quality, means they did wrong and tried to blame me to be too strict.
Nevertheless, I wasn’t there to make friends and to get at least a glimpse of the city where I stayed for the week I decided to discover it on my own.
Fortunately my hotel was directly on the chain bridge and it was easy to walk in all directions from there. The weather could have been better as it was foggy and rainy the whole week. But instead of sitting in the hotel room after a tough day with only a partly working TV a walk was not the worst option.
I never took so many pictures within such a short stay but Budapest is full of nice spots, even if it’s rainy. The atmosphere hits me quickly because people there are smiling and friendly whatever they are doing. Given the fact that Hungary isn’t one of the wealthiest countries it proofs again that money can never make you happy.
The last night was the most impressive for me as the whole trip turned out to be a mess in regards to work. One catastrophe was following the other and instead of trying to fix it together, the colleagues started to work against me. I was never in a situation like this, handling everything professionell for sure, but it was not as in other countries. This was the attitude from colleagues not being able to admit mistakes, single persons, so not to judge the rest of Hungary because of them.
On my last evening it was almost the feeling as if you walk along the Thames in London so much fog was laying over the city. I’m not sure if that’s common for Budapest or if I picked exactly this time.
I walked across a market place in the centre where you hardly could see the lights surrounding the streets through the thick layer of fog over the city.
A man with a saxophone was playing and it was the most awesome time of my stay.
There I was, completely alone in a country where I don’t even speak one word of their language and in the middle of a city which is completely new to me but I felt at ease at this moment. I was breathing in the atmosphere not to loose one second of it and I still remember the smell of the air. Its always the small things which last forever. A moment to remember and this one moment overlayed all stress encountered in the same city. Thanks for saying goodbye like this, Budapest. I love to think about visiting this city again one day, maybe in summertime… Amazon.de Widgets
Sharing is welcome:
First holidays on my own in Italy – part 3 (Departure)
First holidays on my own in Italy – part 3 (Departure)
One week alone in Italy – was it what I wanted?
On the bus travel back to the airport I was trying to draw a conclusion of what was good, what not so good.
There are many if I’m honest, I just tell about the main for me.
The first and most important lesson learned for me was that you always carry your mind with you, there’s no escape. But if you are out of your daily routine you are able to get another view on it. You have the time to re-think, over-think, search, at least I had the passion to do so and was driving back in a better shape.
Another good experience was not to be scared of traveling alone. If you are a bit communicative you will make contact to others. I kept it on a low level as my intention was not to make friends but nevertheless I had some nice chats with tourists like the two women or my neighbor couple as well as with some of the locals, the poolbar chief who had once a gelateria in Germany, one of his co-workers who proudly showed pictures of his newborn daughter and a farmer who lived near to the hotel.
This was a nice story as I was walking by each day and from time to time I was buying some of his fruits, tomatoes, pepper, and as he was only talking Italian he teached me some phrases. This reminded me again on my wish to learn Italian, unfortunately it’s still just a plan and I haven’t worked on it yet. But it showed me how friendly these people are and they don’t need big houses or expensive cars, they just enjoy there being which is something I took back with me.
Simplicity is often the healthier way to live instead of running after timelines, being stressed or work until you fell asleep exhausted in the middle of the night.
What I missed is someone to share the beauty with. If you are standing at the lighthouse and enjoy the beautiful view of the sea you miss someone next to you to share it with. I took so many pictures and for sure I shared them with others afterwards but the moment itself was just for me.
Also many of these places were romantic and these were the moments when I asked myself what I did wrong to be there alone instead of snuggling up into the arms of someone, but that’s life. Everything which happens in life has a deeper sense.
And it was still better than traveling in a group with a guide explaining stuff you don’t want to know. These guides which hold up an umbrella and you run after it. I think I would have felt even more lonely within such a group.
In the end it was exactly what I needed. I went back with new impressions, new thoughts, ready to do something in my life to change it. I wasn’t completely renewed but it was a step towards myself.
I regained the faith in me, trusting myself, having the ability to change and to live in a happy way.
On the bus travel back to the airport I was trying to draw a conclusion of what was good, what not so good.
There are many if I’m honest, I just tell about the main for me.
The first and most important lesson learned for me was that you always carry your mind with you, there’s no escape. But if you are out of your daily routine you are able to get another view on it. You have the time to re-think, over-think, search, at least I had the passion to do so and was driving back in a better shape.
Another good experience was not to be scared of traveling alone. If you are a bit communicative you will make contact to others. I kept it on a low level as my intention was not to make friends but nevertheless I had some nice chats with tourists like the two women or my neighbor couple as well as with some of the locals, the poolbar chief who had once a gelateria in Germany, one of his co-workers who proudly showed pictures of his newborn daughter and a farmer who lived near to the hotel.
This was a nice story as I was walking by each day and from time to time I was buying some of his fruits, tomatoes, pepper, and as he was only talking Italian he teached me some phrases. This reminded me again on my wish to learn Italian, unfortunately it’s still just a plan and I haven’t worked on it yet. But it showed me how friendly these people are and they don’t need big houses or expensive cars, they just enjoy there being which is something I took back with me.
Simplicity is often the healthier way to live instead of running after timelines, being stressed or work until you fell asleep exhausted in the middle of the night.
What I missed is someone to share the beauty with. If you are standing at the lighthouse and enjoy the beautiful view of the sea you miss someone next to you to share it with. I took so many pictures and for sure I shared them with others afterwards but the moment itself was just for me.
Also many of these places were romantic and these were the moments when I asked myself what I did wrong to be there alone instead of snuggling up into the arms of someone, but that’s life. Everything which happens in life has a deeper sense.
And it was still better than traveling in a group with a guide explaining stuff you don’t want to know. These guides which hold up an umbrella and you run after it. I think I would have felt even more lonely within such a group.
In the end it was exactly what I needed. I went back with new impressions, new thoughts, ready to do something in my life to change it. I wasn’t completely renewed but it was a step towards myself.
I regained the faith in me, trusting myself, having the ability to change and to live in a happy way.
Sharing is welcome:
Holidays to remember
Holidays to remember
After traveling a few places already I still have many vacation spots on my list to visit one day.
But the best things always happen unexpected.
After my year of struggling to get back on the feet it happened that I met my future husband. I wasn’t even thinking about a new relationship. My aim was to get along peacefully again just with me in my life.
Concentrating on a second person too was not my plan. But as I already wrote in a former post, there he was, entering my life without me being able to deny it.
To see him again we had to plan where and when.
As we both didn’t want to make it too complicated we just took the middle of the distance and decided that we meet on Cyprus.
No big hotel or all inclusive, we wanted to share daily life to see if we really are able to go along together in a near to normal surrounding.
We booked an apartment with a small kitchen, no restaurant, no breakfast buffet, nothing extra than in normal life also.
We booked an apartment with a small kitchen, no restaurant, no breakfast buffet, nothing extra than in normal life also.
These holidays turned out to be the best we ever had although we both weren’t sure about it when we entered Cyprus from different continents and cultures.
Seventeen days to try daily stuff combined with holidays, relaxation and all of this in a nice surrounding.
Our apartment was in a small cypriot village and not in the tourism hotspots. It was interesting to discover routine things like stocking up the fridge, what to cook today, how do you drink your coffee in the morning, what may be bad habits the other one doesn’t like.
We met before but that wasn’t the same as the period was much more shorter and the main part for us was to become acquainted at all last time.
Seventeen days to try daily stuff combined with holidays, relaxation and all of this in a nice surrounding.
Our apartment was in a small cypriot village and not in the tourism hotspots. It was interesting to discover routine things like stocking up the fridge, what to cook today, how do you drink your coffee in the morning, what may be bad habits the other one doesn’t like.
We met before but that wasn’t the same as the period was much more shorter and the main part for us was to become acquainted at all last time.
After our first meeting we were daily on Skype and talked several hours per night. This was the time where we shared our stories about childhood, how and where we were raised, when we started to work and as what, and also which aims we have for our life and which values count. I already thought during this time he could be the one.
I told him nothing about my feelings because struggles in normal circumstances or while living together should not be underestimated.
What we discovered on this small island is that we both like so many similar things, we have so much in common and most things were really easy going.
But the most important of all was that we indeed do love each other.
A feeling which cannot be described.
It was there and we felt it deep inside and it didn’t vanished up to today.
It’s growing each day.
On the last day we sat in a cafè and knew exactly what we want – a life together. Whatever we will face, as long as we are together, we will manage it.
You can think now how blue eyed Miss Faith maybe is…
First I’m green eyed and second is that we for sure have many things where we have to discuss, to make compromises, to even have small fights as our opinions are so different in some points.
But as long as we are talking and as long as we can say I love you it will not stop us from going this way together.
My grandmom told me one day that difficulties in life are there to manage them instead of running away. Giving up too quickly will never make you happy. And she was married more than fifty years to my granddad.
First I’m green eyed and second is that we for sure have many things where we have to discuss, to make compromises, to even have small fights as our opinions are so different in some points.
But as long as we are talking and as long as we can say I love you it will not stop us from going this way together.
My grandmom told me one day that difficulties in life are there to manage them instead of running away. Giving up too quickly will never make you happy. And she was married more than fifty years to my granddad.
And what is important?
Here we go again…to keep the faith!
If you plan to visit Cyprus yourself – check this guide, it helped us lots to find the beautiful hidden spots on the island.
