The comfy traveller's diaries

Category: Travel reflections

Travel resolutions
It is that time of year again. Resolutions. While I haven’t really seen the dreaded influx of new-years-resolutioners clogging up the gym floor, I know that many people consciously make plans for bettering themselves this year (and every year come 1 January.) Some people vow to finally lose the weight (and I am no stranger to that myself), some finally decide to hit the gym, or quit a long-lingering vice to ‘become healthier’. But setting new year’s resolutions doesn’t always have to do with bettering ourselves physically. It can also be focused on organizing one’s travel plans for the next twelve months. And this year, I have decided to play it slightly differently. In fact, I decided to organize them less.

It’s not like I ever really sat with my calendar and planned out the year. I have always been the ‘organized mess’ type of person. I go by gut feelings and general direction, rather than daily to do lists because life has taught me that only few things are within our hands to plan ahead and in detail. I also tend to get bored of sameness and rigid schedules or regimes, and that’s a good thing, because it keeps me hungry to explore what else life has to offer.

And even though I like my routines, I need to break out of them once in a while because otherwise I would go mad. So, when I speak about organizing my travel plans, I rather mean thinking about where I want to go, how often I can afford to travel within a twelve-month period and where I will likely go. Once I have thoroughly thought about it, I will book at least one trip that will be fixed in my calendar to have something to look forward to. It’s like a goal with a plan rather than a lofty ambition of ‘I want to travel this year’. I book a flight and a hotel and pencil it into my agenda. It creates a fait accompli in my head and gives me something to dream about during the drab, dark and rainy days of winter. If I feel particularly adventurous, I will book the non-refundable rate to make it that little bit more concrete and non-negotiable. Most of these travel anchors in my agenda will be sunny destinations, or well-travelled cities I know will breathe some life into my nine-to-five reality. Booking something relatively far down the line, like in September for instance, amplifies my excitement and I normally prefer to aim for that time of year when it comes to this one definite trip.

But this year, I decided to be more adventurous and the only fixed trip in my agenda is connected to a medical check-up in the first quarter of the year, while the rest of the pages in my 2026 agenda will remain unchartered territory for now. For the first time in a while, I am not going to rush to get a good deal on my favourite summer destination. I decided to chill out a bit this year and really take it month by month. Baby steps they say when it comes to other goals, such as lifting PR weights or losing a set amount of weight. In 2026, I will try this approach. And who knows, maybe I will get inspired beyond my usual limits.

Because, let’s be honest, more often than not, my pre-planned trips are city breaks to places I have already been to. Not terribly exciting for a travel blogger you might think, but not necessarily wrong either. Perhaps a little uninventive but at the same time, I genuinely love the places I keep returning to and it’s not like I have seen all there is to Paris or Milan within a 48-hour dash into the centre of town. If there are places that work for you as a solo traveller, that you enjoy and look forward to visiting periodically, why not? You also return to your favourite café or restaurant, don’t you? The kind of traveller and person that I am, I am not looking to become that insta-girl affixing 80 flags to her profile or checking off a bucket list of countries just to prove I am a worthy of calling myself a travel blogger. It is in fact very unlikely that you will see much more than Paris and Milan and maybe a bit of the rest of Europe on my blog or Instagram in the next decade. Because travelling solo isn’t easy; travelling solo when you are female and handicapped and hence without a driving licence, is harder. It’s not like I wouldn’t enjoy a road trip through Spain; it’s just that these kinds of trips aren’t in the cards for me as long as I travel solo.

Does that mean I will no longer venture beyond my comfort zone? No, of course it does not. Because I might just wake up tomorrow and decide to go to Australia. But trips like that require actual planning ahead and I am not sure I am ready for it yet. On the contrary, a weekend trip to a city nearby always works out somehow, even if it will mean working harder to meet a certain deadline a few days ahead of time to be able to take that Friday or Monday off.

Much about my travels is about getting a break from my everyday routine and 2026 will be no different in that regard. It is about breaking out of those habits and about getting new ideas. It’s that different perspective and input that I am chasing in my travels. Just this time around, I want to be a bit more spontaneous and go with the flow rather than planning out several trips at once. Let’s see how it will turn out, but I am very excited for a bit more spontaneity this year.
04.01.2026
Advent
The spirit of Christmases past

Those of you who will have grown up in a Westernized society will inevitably think of Charles Dickens and his Christmas Carol, – or the Muppets’ take on it, I don’t know. You’ll most likely picture Santa Claus who supposedly lives on the North Pole or in the Finnish wilderness somewhere; and he must be fat, because who would trust a skinny Santa? I never understood why he is said to live on the North Pole by the way. Maybe you think of a more northern European version of Saint Nicholas (who actually was a native of Asia Minor but never mind) dressed in a bishop’s robe or, at this time of the year you are more focused on the New Year and your Santa is basically the Eastern version, Deda Mraz. When you think of advent and Christmas time, German Christmas markets come to mind: Christstollen, Lebkuchen, Spekulatius and, of course, Glühwein.

This time of year, there’ll be opulent Christmas trees with shiny decorations all around the world (my favourite version of those were in the Malls of Hong Kong) and the humbler versions that are traditional in Austria for example, skinny trees, sparingly decorated with straw ornaments and baubles in red and gold.

But the advent I want to talk to you about today is different. It has to do with Jesus and the Holy Land.

Not too many years ago, when I used to live in the holy city, I got to experience advent in a very different kind of way and it was very special to me in its own right, because it was so unlike everything I knew thus far. Decorations were amazing (in my opinion) and absolutely over the top.

The Christian quarter of the old city of Jerusalem was shining bright, and so were the churches and Christian institutions, restaurants and cafés. But what I loved most about Christmas time in Jerusalem (apart from the weather, of course) was the fact that you weren’t overloaded with Christmas sweets and chocolates and kitschy songs since September that made you wonder what Christmas is actually about.

It does not mean that I don’t also love the shiny trees in Hong Kong, Christmas markets in Germany, or light installations in London; I do. But what I am trying to share is a more spiritual outlook on Christmas, I guess. European Christmas traditions are beautiful. No doubt about that. But for me, they are more about making a particularly dark and, meteorologically speaking, horrible time of the year special, joyful and kinder on the soul. They are less about Christmas in my book.

I was fortunate enough to also visit Bethlehem and the shepherds’ fields in Beit Sahur. Small, hilly, difficult to navigate, and far removed from the vision of the manger I had crafted in my head as a child listening to the priest reading the gospel during Christmas mass.

The church of the nativity is beautiful, but so unpretentious when compared with the overladen churches of the West. It was all so different, but somehow, I needed to see this to understand.

Nothing was shiny and little was golden, and there weren’t any Lebkuchen around, of course. And I thought to myself in my simple mind: but isn’t it just that? Mary and Joseph having a hard time in the chaos of this city?

Look, I am not here to give a sermon or go all religious on you, but the little thought I’d like to share with you this advent is that it doesn’t need to be perfect. Whether you are not so gifted when it comes to decorating your house (like myself) or have it all figured out since mid-November; whether the tree you are going to buy will only arrive on 24^th December, as it used to be traditional in Germany, or whether it’s a plastic one you just got out of a box. It doesn’t matter.

No matter where you are and no matter what it is you are struggling with, Christmas will come and it will be magnificent, because love and hope and light prevail. Always. You just have to look for it and let it do its magic.
07.12.2025
The dark side of tourism
Since my recent surgery a few weeks ago, the doctor only allows me to walk, so I walk. But the tricky part is that walking in the lion’s den of mass tourism isn’t so easy. You have to be early, very early to avoid the crowds. As my walking radius and general state improved a little bit, I have seen a lot – too much if you ask me – of tourist behaviour that makes me question my own frequent travel habits. Is it still okay to travel to popular destinations? I honestly don’t know. Already visiting Dubrovnik this summer – a destination my family has been holidaying in since the 1950s – was unpleasant this year. Hundreds of tourists rolling through the ancient streets, buying trinkets made in China and seeing nothing beyond a façade featured in Game of Thrones.

I wondered whether any locals are actually still living there or whether all apartments have been snatched up and converted into holiday apartments. Most restaurants have unfortunately already downgraded to selling pizza and burgers only – with pictures of course – and waiters addressing every customer in English by default.

I wonder whether it is normal to order a full English breakfast outside of the UK or what goes through someone’s mind when they decide to lay their baby on the table in a restaurant at lunch time. Luckily, I left before finding out what the purpose of that was (besides filming a TikTok) because the other scenarios I could come up with were too unpleasant to imagine. And what’s up with Aperol at 10 a.m. or shady business deals done on a bistro table? Let me tell you, if your business partner or estate agent asks you to sign papers in a café, you should run, not sign.

Another ‘favourite’ of mine are those who feel so much at home, they forget they are in a foreign country. Since when is it okay to address people in your own language when abroad? No, Mallorca is not a part of Germany and ‘Danke’ isn’t Spanish, just in case anyone was still in doubt.

Not only do the masses of people make it unpleasant to walk around after 12 a.m. (with a COVID-style surgical mask of course because people seem to find it okay to cough into a stranger’s face on the street) but they kill any sort of uniqueness of the places they go. In quite a few cases, It also does not seem that they were looking for it in the first place. Thrown out of a tour bus or only following the crowds of others on the main street, they do not look left or right, and I wonder what it is they see apart from the screen of their mobile phones and the same high street shops they have at home.

But if you care to find the things you don’t have where you live, you got to get up early. Then, you will be able to admire the beauty of the architecture and soak up a bit of the original charm of where you are. You’ll see people going to work, stopping for a coffee; you’ll see the waitress usher in and greet the regular, who has trouble moving about with his simmer frame, waiting for his friends to take a morning coffee and catch up. You’ll catch a smile and see beyond the masses of rowdy, noisy tourists buying counterfeit bags around the main tourist attraction sites supporting all sorts of illegal activity and unpleasant vibes with their impulse buys without the glimpse of reflection about their significant contribution to this dark economy.

It makes more and more sense to me that many popular tourist destinations are photographed at the crack of dawn or even at night: Venice, for example. Just because there is no more Venice to see once the hoards descend from the cruise ships and flood the tiny streets of Europe’s most popular destinations. Maybe I have too much time on my hands now that my main task in life is to go on recovery walks. Maybe. But what I see makes me think about my own tourist behaviour and whether less isn’t more.
26.10.2025
The case against holiday apartments
My controversial opinion

I recently had to travel for personal reasons, not connected with my love for leisurely trips. That also meant that I had to stay abroad for a few weeks, which in turn made a hotel stay impossible; I mean, I am not Coco Chanel, unfortunately.

Staying in an apartment – and don’t get me wrong, it was a very nice apartment, centrally located and generally quite fabulous – I was, however, again reminded why I loathe staying in apartments when traveling. For starters, the owners hardly ever manage these properties full-time. Thus, you always get exactly that: someone who is “looking after” you and the flat on the side; never a priority, never fully committed, never top-notch service. They’ll fit you in between work and family life, even though you are a paying customer, not a relative coming to stay.

And then, there is the usual that seems to come with every flat – globally. Stuff doesn’t work. You get the induction, and already you are being told that the toilet flush is temperamental and doesn’t work properly; you’ll have to push a few times to make the water stop running. I mean, first of all, what is it with toilets that literally everywhere you go, there’s an issue with the flush? Second, why don’t you, dear landlady, just get the plumber to fix it before you accept paying guests?

Then, we have the miscellaneous electric issue or broken boiler or what have you. Yes, they are kind, they understand, they call the electrician/handyman and yes, he’ll come tomorrow. At three o’clock? Yeah, that’s great, thanks. Because that’s really what I came here for. To wait for the electrician. Fantastic. And you know (or should have known) the guy doesn’t show up at three, but he’ll be there at two-thirty because he can, and you are still with wet hair coming out of the shower; lucky you were wearing a pair of trousers already when he rang the doorbell. And I am not even going to mention the shoes-in-the-flat issue. It is what it is. He won’t know English, that’s clear. Luckily, I know a few languages; that usually helps. And he’ll use your fresh kitchen towel to put his tools on. Don’t worry, he’ll be very kind and carefully put it back later, as if you were totally still going to use that to dry your dishes.

Speaking of the dishes. Yes, you have the de luxe flat with the dishwasher, and wow, they even have about two dishwashing tablets left so you can lay off the groceries for half a day, but guess what, you are not just staying for two days, so of course you’re going to the supermarket and buying new dishwasher tablets immediately. Only to then find those cute little red lights blinking when you first want to run the dishwasher. And then you go the next day again, to buy the salt and rinse aid. And when you are there in the local supermarket or drugstore, buying wiping cloths (why do flats never have them?) and sponges – because the one you found was minging and, yes, all the crockery in the cupboard was kind of sticky and you need to wash stuff on the side because you cannot run the dishwasher for one cup, can you? – you ask yourself: is this really why I traveled to a foreign country? To queue in a store buying cleaning products for a flat that isn’t even mine?

Another classic is the: why are there no hooks to hang towels? What are you supposed to do with those? And tissues? Kitchen towels and toilet paper? Always on the last roll, half down and the olive oil on its last drops. So you have to go buy that, too. And even though you did find some Tupperware in the drawer, it’s the rubbish kind that doesn’t close and all your cut fruit goes brown. By that time, you are already kind of fed up with sponsoring the landlady and decide to buy kod kineza, i.e. the local Chinese market that stocks absolutely everything and most definitely constitutes a fire hazard.

You buy your Tupperware and really got to remind yourself that, no, you shouldn’t buy hooks or a trash bin for the bathroom, because it isn’t your bathroom after all. But, of course, you are going to spend on stuff you did not need and more importantly, you are wasting your time. I already don’t particularly enjoy dealing with handymen or doing that kind of shopping at home. Constantly armed with bags schlepping about kitchen towel and dishwasher salt, you spend your day – doing chores.

All the things that holidaymakers seem to buy must be appearing in the black hole of the landlord’s households. Apart from the leftover shampoos and shower gels – of which there are plenty in the bathroom and which you neither need nor want to try.

The other side of the holiday apartment coin is the fact that you are losing out on so much because you create your own little microcosm, cooking the same food you cook at home, having the same breakfast, and missing out on interactions with the locals. It’s a bit sad, really; in the first three days of my stay, I felt like a student equipping my dorm again; ping-ponging between the flat, the Chinese, and the supermarket. I had a few relaxing coffees in the meantime, but that was all. Had I been in a hotel, I would have seen so much more, and I would have gone out and had dinner or lunch or both. I would have been helped and served by people whose job it is to work in tourism and restaurants.

In a way, I really do understand those locals who seek to curb the holiday home trend; taking up precious living space that the locals can no longer afford without really contributing much to the economy. I get it. And from the traveller’s perspective, I also think it is a bad deal. If you are going on a short trip that does not really require you to have access to a washing machine, etc., I would really urge you to reconsider the holiday apartment thing. It just isn’t worth it. Go to a hotel, get pampered, get looked after, and simply enjoy! Experience the food and the culture, not just the local supermarket.
12.10.2025
Perspectives
I have said it before, but autumn (aka. ‘fall’) is a very important watershed moment for me every year. I can’t say it is my favourite season, which is mainly due to the fact that I am not really into grey skies and rain, but there is something undeniably magical about autumn that definitely makes me love it much more than winter or spring.

Autumn kindles so much desire for change in me, that sometimes I feel I just want to start all over again; in everything. I feel like throwing out all my clothes because they no longer ‘spark joy’, as well as wishing I could move to a different country, find a new job or at least move house. Admittedly, none of the above is realstic (and probably not even healthy or remotely sustainable), but at least I really feel like going for it, which, on a much smaller scale really makes me implement some of the things I have been reminiscing about throughout summer or procrastinating over since last year.

I am the kind of person that observes and takes in a lot of outside influences, ideas and thoughts without really doing anything with them for a very long time until one day I wake up and I had enough. I need change. And ususally, this happens in September.

People in the office are back from holidays and I look at them wondering why they still wear the same clothes and hair styles than 5+ years ago. (OK, let me explain my judgy self here for a second: I am talking clinging on to the past, as in, the same hairstyle they sported in their early 20s when now, in their 40s, faces aren’t as youthful and hair growth isn’t as bountiful anymore.) Why do they keep piling on stuff onto their desks without decluttering it first? Why are they adding more folders to the shelves instead of emptying those they no longer need?

But then I get back to reality and remind myself that other people aren’t my business. I am my business and change starts with me, right here and right now.

Shifting your perspective is skill I believe not many people possess or master, myself included. At least I am aware of it, even if far from proficient in it. I am trying, I am working on it. And travelling is one of the biggest catalysts for me to nurture my ability to change perspective.

I have realized years ago that simply going on a weekend trip helped me restore balance in my life and thoughts (I am a libra in case you wondered) and had a disproportionally large positive effect on my mental well-being. When I stay too long in the same place, routine and surroundings, my mood flattens and I live on auto-pilot, getting things done, day in day out, without much room and pause for admiring the beauty of life. When I am in the situation, I do not even realize it, but as soon as I get out, go somewhere else, see something else and change my perspective, I realize it. I heal, I recharge, I am able to look at what’s going on in my daily life from that ‘outside perspective’ I otherwise lack. In a way, I crave the outside input, and I have learned to give in to that craving, so I travel.

When I return, I am full of new ideas and energy and I know exactly what I no longer want and what I want to change.

When I go too long without travel, I am keeping too much to myself, to my inner (unhealthy) comfortzone. I need that impulse and social cue to get me out of it that only travel can give me.

I miss my close friends who live abroad and want to go see them. I miss a big city and people-watching. I miss being surrounded by culture and different foods and smells and beautiful things.

I just wish travelling was more affordable. It feels like hotel prices skyrocketed ever since the pandemic bid us farewell. And if you followed my blog from its inception, you will have understood already that my travelling habits have become more demanding (and perhaps entitled) and cutting corners is still unfortunately the order of the day, because I find it increasingly impossible to compromise on effortlessness and style and it wouldn’t be possible for me to travel as much and as comfortably if I wouldn’t cut my trips shorter or safe on various extras I would actually like very much.

Right now, I am contemplating cutting a huge corner and possibly just go on a day trip to a place not too far away. But the ever overthinking libra that I am, I just don’t know whether it will be worth it. Will it be comfortable I ask myself? And deep down I know the answer will be ‘no’… But I am still thinking about it. I haven’t decided yet. Maybe it will be just comfortable enough to spark that change of perspective I really need.
07.09.2025
Culture, history and a side of hummus, please!
I recently visited the Hungarian capital Budapest. Many years ago, when I was still a student, I already heard the tales of fellow students going to visit the bath houses in Budapest and how much they loved the special vibe of this Eastern European city. I was intrigued, but never really found a ‘reason’ to visit. Recently, the recurring, subtle suggestions from the Instagram algorithm probably planted the idea of visiting Budapest more firmly into my mind. It just looked so beautiful with its magnificent architecture and picture-perfect bagels that kept popping up on my feed.

Let’s get the bagel disappointment out of the way first: I just wasn’t impressed. Probably I did not know where to go, but the Best Bagel Basilica just wasn’t it for me. They were not bad but did not live up to my memories of sumptuous, soft Jerusalem bagels.

Earlier this year, I decided that at least once a year, I should go to a place I have never been to before, and so a Budapest meet-up with my Austrian friend seemed like a fantastic idea. There is a direct train from Vienna, as well as good flight connections to many capitals around the world.

Budapest has way too much to see for a weekend. At the same time, I am not sure I would ever recommend a city trip for more than 3 days. Maybe it is just one of those places that you have to visit multiple times over the years to see and experience everything.

Besides catching up about our lives, we really wanted to take it easy on this trip and kept walking to reasonable limits. Let’s just say, if I am on my own, I walk at least twice as much. But Budapest was great in terms of Uber-ing everywhere. Affordable, clean, and – for a visually impaired person like me – easy to find and identify the specific car that was picking us up, as all Ubers are at the same time yellow cabs and drivers are very patient.

I found the Hungarian people very friendly and kind in a pleasant and somewhat reserved kind of way and everybody had an excellent command of English, and/or another language I spoke. One market vendor sold me yet another bag of paprika just because he so kindly spoke to me in Serbian (without being sleazy). Just pure kindness (and being a good salesman, of course!). I did regret having bought the first batch at a somewhat more touristy stall before I came across his. So, don’t be like me; check before you buy and who knows, you might come across someone who speaks your language and gifts you a smile!

After a stroll through the market hall, we wandered along the bank of the Danube to take pictures of the Liberty and Chain bridges and the historical tram until we more or less reached the stunning Hungarian parliament.

Not far from parliament by the riverbank lies the very harrowing monument of the Shoes by the Danube bank. I have visited a fair share of holocaust memorial sites in my life, but this one really touched me very much on a very deep level.

The shoes are so vividly crafted that you can imagine the people who wore them before they were so cruelly killed at the very tail end of the war.

This memorial site was not only very moving but, of course, deeply depressing in its own right; but we must never forget history and for what it is worth, I think we must never avoid this uncomfortable feeling of being reminded of what humanity is capable of.

I do not want my blog to drag you down, far from it. I started it to distract, to share positive and funny things, to give tips on travel based on things I got right or got wrong during almost two decades of mainly solo travel. But I don’t just travel for shopping and eating, surprising as it may seem. I travel to broaden my horizon and become richer in experiences and understanding of other cultures and lifestyles. Sometimes through shopping, always through food, and other times through history and art.

Let’s just say, no one was shopping on this trip, and besides some of the designer staples like Louis Vuitton and Max Mara we walked past on our evening stroll near the opera house, I wouldn’t even be able to tell you where the main shopping district is or what kind of shops they had.

This time around, it was truly just about culture, history, and architecture.

What I also did not know, for example, is that Budapest has the third largest synagogue in the world, the Dohany Street Synagogue with its own very unique history and architecture. It is not only a stunningly beautiful building in itself, but it has a very fascinating history.

I strongly recommend that you take the guided tour to really understand this building and the particularities of Jewish life in Hungary. Our guide was a very funny man who steered clear of all politics, which I appreciated very much. I really did learn a lot about Jewish history and Hungarian history just by taking the tour.

If you decide to go, just please make sure you are covered (no shorts or sleeveless tops etc.) or else will have to wear the not so chic light blue cover-up raincoat type of thing. Just don’t. And don’t show up on Shabbat (i.e. Saturday) or holy Jewish holidays, in other words, check and plan ahead to avoid disappointment.

To end our day of cultural immersion, we went for dinner and drinks at Mazel Tov in the Jewish district (they are even open on Shabbat), where the food was very nice and the local wine recommendation great.

All in all, the Hungarians appear to appreciate their drinks, with cocktails and copious amounts of alcohol on display on every corner of the city it seemed – our hotel served sparkling wine as a breakfast staple – which isn’t really my cup of tea, but I do not mind trying a glass of local wine with a dinner. I believe Mazel Tov is a great place for anyone who misses a bit of Tel Aviv style boho atmosphere and generally enjoys a relaxed place for food and drink. I can warmly recommend the beetroot hummus and the local rosé that is apparently almost always sold out and whose name I cannot remember (or pronounce) for the life of me. It will, of course, also be more fun if you go with a group of people and share different dishes mezze style.

To be continued (because Budapest has a lot to offer!)
31.08.2025
Are you capable of truly doing nothing?
Most of the time, I travel to explore. But summer holidays are just different. It is the only time of the year where the sole purpose of going somewhere is to do nothing. Nothing being defined as sleeping in, proceeding to the beach right after breakfast, staying at the beach until about 6 p.m., showering, getting ready for dinner and going to bed after chilling on the balcony for a few hours after dinner. It is perfect, but not easy.

In my daily year-round routine, I get up at 5:24 a.m. (because the alarm goes off at 5:15 and I allow myself one snooze), I work out before a full day in the office followed by cooking and other household chores. I go to bed early and fill my weekends with more chores, longer gym sessions and sometimes travel. I am generally unable to sit still. I would always find something that needs to be done, and leisurely activities, such as reading a book happen very rarely when I am in my working mode.

It will usually take me a few days into my summer holiday to clam down and wind down to the point that I can actually pick up a book and just immerse myself into a story while glancing at the calming waves of the Adriatic or Mediterranean Sea. But doing so is just so very important. No massage, meditation or other procedure can bring me the same level of calm and wellbeing that 10 days by the sea can. The key here is to choose your hotel wisely (as always). For me, the most important aspect is the view. A hotel beach, which not only has its own sunbeds and umbrellas but also someone who moves those around for you for maximum shade and serves you iced coffee without you having to queue for it or schlepp around your wallet. You simply put it on the room and that’s it.

For my summer holiday, I like a larger hotel, so the ‘crowd’ you encounter is more diverse and you do not necessarily run into the same three couples at breakfast and in the beach bar where I would usually take a light lunch (because walking elsewhere does not fit into my lazy schedule). Ideally, my hotel would have a well-equipped gym, just so I can fit in two or three alibi workouts during this time, and a spa. Holidays are the time to really treat yourself and a good massage or facial can make a huge difference when combined with the dolce far niente lifestyle at the beach.

If you are in any way like me (and not spending beach time on your own for a change) lock your phone in the room safe. Don’t bring it to the beach. The world won’t end with you being unavailable for a couple of hours a day and, no, you do not need to check your email on vacation. If you really must, you can check it in the morning, at lunch and in the evening. Just give yourself a break for a few hours in between. Your brain will thank you for it.

As for my beach side reads, I recommend something light and/or wholly unrelated to your everyday life or work. If you really want to relax, you should stay away from gruesome or overly depressing topics and intellectual depths. One good beach side read I remember was by Kamin Mohammadi – La bella figura.

This summer, I will bring Elif Shafak -There are rivers in the sky, as well as Sophie Kinsella – I owe you one, Elena Ferrante – part 3 of the Napolitan Saga, Those who Leave and Those who Stay. I have read the first two parts of the Napolitan Saga in summers past and it is about time to carry on. Just in case I run out or don’t enjoy one of these books, I am also bringing along a novel by Danielle Steel – À tout prix I bought in France (mainly because it was printed in a decent font size and didn’t weigh 1.5 kg!) and started reading on my trip to Mallorca in June.

If you are more into non-fiction, and use this relaxing and reflective time in a more targeted, self-improvement kind of way, I recommend the Mel Robbins – The Let Them Theory, which will give you plenty of food for thought but is also an easy enough read to turn the pages without too much reflection in between.

Another topic, besides beach side reads that I am very passionate about when it comes to beach holidays is SPF. Don’t be the lobster on the beach and don’t be that person that starts applying sunscreen after they already got fried in the morning sun. A key rule on SPF is to apply it before you even get to the beach and to apply it everywhere on your body, face, and yes, your feet and ears. You can thank me later. Of course, you’ll need to re-apply but it is so important to get yourself covered from the very beginning, literally. My favourite SPFs are Lancaster, Clarins, and Shiseido. While I adore the Dior face SPF 50 and use it on a daily basis all year around, I don’t find it suitable for the beach. In my opinion, it is an ‘urban SPF’. For the face, I would recommend Shiseido instead (I will buy mine at the airport).

I would recommend bringing a good moisturising body lotion as well, as most hotel size lotions just don’t cut it (apart from not ever being enough). One of my favourites is the Kiehl’s Creme de Corps.

As for hair care … well. First of all, you should bring and wear a hat. But, nevertheless, your hair, especially if it is treated, will need A LOT of tender loving care during this period. Personally, I swear by Kérastase Nutritive Night Serum (to be applied into your dry hair overnight) and the Résistance Thérapiste Stengthening Healing Serum, which you apply into your wet hair. The latter is my absolute beach favourite.

I wish you a wonderful, relaxing and resetting time of doing absolutely nothing for a bit this summer!
10.08.2025
How coffee can ruin it all
Have you ever stayed in a nice hotel but would never go back there because their breakfast coffee was just too bad? I have. And in fact, the coffee is a serious criterion for me when it comes to rating a hotel.

Shockingly, most of the places I would discount for future stays despite good locations and other good attributes for the simple reason that their coffee was undrinkable were located in heartland of coffee: Italy. A few years back, I travelled to Rome. I stayed in a four-star hotel that seriously only had a coffee machine, the kind of which you would find in a hospital lobby.

It was truly shocking. However, it was not the only such place in Italy I came across. I also managed to find another four-star hotel in Milan that was similar in that regard (the one close to the hair salon I told you about two weeks ago). The hotel was actually very nice, had a great location and nice staff, but I just could not get over the coffee. For me, my morning coffee is the most important event of the day. It is non-negotiable, and it needs to be a good, strong, flavoursome latte or cappuccino; and from a four-star hotel that charges a couple of dozens of Euros for breakfast, I also expect excellent foam on a barista-made coffee and not something I have to get out of a 1990s machine. Call me high-maintenance, but I really cannot accept that. It’s not like I am asking for champagne.

Another coffee-related ‘won’t go there again’ criterion I apply to hotels is the in-room coffee situation.

Don’t get me wrong, back in the day when I could barely afford a 3-star hotel or bed and breakfast, I was very happy if there was a clean kettle and a few sachets of Nescafé (or the local spin-off) in the room. It is completely fine and acceptable for that category of hotel and at least it woke me up. What I do not find acceptable though is when you are staying at a higher category place and you cannot even make yourself an espresso in the room. After all, you should get what you pay for.

Recently, I stayed in a four-star hotel in Mallorca – with a 5-star price minus the service – that offered exactly that. A kettle and an IKEA mug (the kind you find abandoned in the office kitchen) with one sachet of local Nes and no spoon to stir it in sight. I honestly could not believe it. Worse yet, when I checked out after having had my “big breakfast” as they called it, the lady honestly told me: “I see you had one additional coffee for breakfast [Yes, I tend to drink two, especially when there’s none in the room] … But it’s OK, I’ll gift it to you.” I was gobsmacked. I literally paid an arm and a leg for the night and here she was counting my coffees. It wasn’t the lack of service, the ineffective aircon, lack of toiletries or sub-par restaurant recommendations that got me about this hotel; no, it was the coffee remark that immediately made me think: Bye-bye, hotel, you will never see me again.

During that stay in Spain, I moved to another hotel the next day. Initially, because I had had a change in dates for my trip, but also because the first hotel I stayed at was just terribly overpriced. The second hotel wasn’t much better when it came to their coffee-rating. There was no facility, not even a kettle in the room and the breakfast coffee (yes, from the infamous hospital lobby machine) was so undrinkable (thin and sweet somehow and that’s your black coffee with no added sugar button) that I will not choose this hotel next time I go. It’s a shame, because many other aspects of it were actually good.

Isn’t it the simple things like that, or at least things I believe could be very simple that make or break a hotel stay for you? I really do not understand why so little attention is paid to this aspect of hospitality, especially in countries with an excellent coffee culture. For me, great coffee can easily take a hotel from 6 out of 10 to 10 out of 10 points and the bad coffee can do the exact opposite. In fact, it is so important to me that when I started upgrading the kind of accommodation I would stay at, I would check whether the hotel had an in-room coffee machine running on capsules and save on breakfast altogether, bringing a pack of oatmeal to get me going in the morning and shaving off a good 30€+ a night from the grand total. Just the coffee was the non-negotiable part in it. In most European cities you would anyway want to try the local bakeries and buy a croissant for less than a tenth of the breakfast charge while being happily caffeinated. It was the best deal for me at the time and one that allowed me to go to nicer hotels when my budget was tight.

As my employment situation improved and travel budgets grew out of the student years, I have become a huge fan of hotel breakfasts. They can really make you feel like you are truly on a holiday, but coffee still plays the biggest role in them for me.

And while you cannot know the coffee situation in the breakfast room before you book, you can scan the pictures and read the small print to find out whether there’s at least a machine in the room that will take you from sleepy to happy in the morning! Just don’t over-do it. You might be allowed only one 🙂
27.07.2025
The art of dining alone
Chapter 2: Getting started

If you have followed my blog and read chapter 1 published the week before last you will have understood that for many years of travelling, I did not muster up the courage to go and dine out alone. I felt judged, stared at, or worse even: pitied.

Don’t get me wrong, at times these feelings still creep up depending on the environment I find myself in, but in general I have learned to just let other people mind their own business while I mind my own.

And this brings me to what I want to reflect upon today. In my opinion, the environment and circumstances in which you find yourself matter very much. For instance, I find urban dining much easier than say beach location dining. Of course, this is not a hard and fast rule, but I am just speaking about my own experiences here anyway. I have come to this particular realization after some not-so pleasant meals by the beach during summer vacations. To me, being in a more urban environment makes it easier, as dining is more of an everyday business affair rather than an event in itself which it often is when people take a break by the sea. I think by now, I have a few tips to share about how I managed to transition from in-room meals to venturing out and eating in a restaurant by myself.

If you are struggling with this situation, too, I think you need to start out easy and make it as comfortable as possible for yourself. My advice would be to start with eating in the hotel restaurant where you are staying. In my opinion, it is the easiest kind of “situation” because you don’t need to take transport, and chances are there are other solo diners owing to the simple fact that hotels have business travellers.

I had very good experiences at various hotels I have stayed at, but on the top of my head I can think of hotel Alfred Sommier in Paris and the Fairmont hotel in Amman, Jordan. The latter has an excellent steakhouse and a Lebanese restaurant.

Sure, going down for dinner isn’t much of a move, but this is the entire point. It will be a good starting point and much better than sitting in your room eating in front of the TV in your PJs.

Level 2 would be to stay local and try a bistro or restaurant close by the hotel. Usually, these places – in Paris for instance – are lunch and dinner places and very unfussed. If you are travelling in summer, most of them will have a terasse or a few tables out in front, where you can engage in some Parisian-style people watching, which is a wonderful way to make dinner for one more entertaining.

I can recommend a few bistros close to the Champs de Mars in Paris, such as le Café Picquet on Avenue de la Motte Picquet or Le Pierrot for that purpose, but generally speaking, there are so many similar ones in Paris – just give it a try. I only mention these here because I have been there, tried them, and liked them, not because they are particularly fancy, special or outstanding. Sitting on a terasse facing the street is in my opinion a perfect setting for a solo-dinner.

In the same vein I can recommend Zum Schwarzen Kameel in Vienna centre, which is a bar, bistro, restaurant with a rich tradition and equally a place for apéritif. It is basically open all day and has a beautiful outdoor sitting area in front.

You can go for breakfast, lunch or dinner as it is always busy and popular. Maybe you want to start with an afternoon drink and transition into dinner. I have been there on different occasions and it is very popular with the locals for after work drinks. You may have to queue for a bit, but to me that is just a sign of excellent quality.

Vienna is a safe and beautiful place to stroll, and I really urge you to explore the local options when you are there, and not just for cakes!

Another way of easing yourself into the habit of dining out alone is going to a mall. In Dubai for example, I have had great dinners in some of the many restaurants in the mall where you just join one of the other shoppers stopping for a bite. There are way too many options to list here, but one place I find very easy (no matter where) is the Japanese chain Wagamama, which is also a great option for London, Amsterdam or Copenhagen.

It can of course be daunting and boring to eat on your own, but I really think that it is an act of self-respect to put on some nice clothes and get yourself out there to partake in adult life instead of hiding in the room.
13.07.2025
Café con leche
Café con leche – probably the first words I learned in Spanish on a trip with my beloved late grandmother. I was 10 years old and she took me to the Island of Lanzarote, to a wonderful luxury hotel where I thoroughly enjoyed myself and stole almost all of the little soap bars we received from room service every day.At breakfast, she taught me how to ask the waiters for things and I clearly remember how she taught me to ask for a café con leche for her. It was a magnificent holiday. My first flight, my first words in a foreign language, reading paper maps in the car while directing her along the road; seeing volcanos and cacti plantations and her buying me my first pair of real Converse All Stars in bright green. I am still obsessed with Converse All Star some thirty odd years later on …

Days like these make me miss my gran very much. I loved travelling with her. Widowed in her early 30s after coming to a foreign country, she was the ultimate role model I could ever have hoped for. I wish she were here with me today, on another Spanish island, ordering café con leche.

I believe that people we love and admire as children often inspire us. And it is only recently that I realized how much my grandmother inspired me to travel and to explore. She was unafraid, interested in culture, food and exploring. She even travelled through Turkey alone, taking the overland buses in the 80s!

This time, I travelled to Palma de Mallorca on my own and because of some commitments, I did not get to explore the island outside of the capital. But what I can definitely say is that I will come back. I have been so pleasantly surprised by how well I was treated in the restaurants asking for a table for one. There was nothing judgmental or weird about it, contrary to many other places I have visited in the past. Nobody made me feel lonely, and that is a feeling that any woman travelling by herself knows how to cherish. I felt safe and comfortable and I am very grateful for that.

If you also love café con leche with maybe something sweet on the side, I can warmly recommend the very cute and old school Ca’n Joan de s’Aigo where the coffee was fantastic and the enseimada absolutely worth it.

I was told about this place by a local and he said I should try the ice cream with an enseimada or cuarto, but to be very honest, I did not love the ice cream. If you like sorbet, it’s definitely for you, but I am more of an Italian gelato kind of girl, so it just did not hit the spot for me. That said, I took strawberry – so maybe the chocolaty-nutty-type of flavours may be different. I will happily check this for you next time I go!
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15.06.2025