All posts filed under: Europa

Cruise – Istanbul to Dubrovnik

Published by Katarina

Thursday 18th 16.30 to Saturday 20th 11.30 Sailing through the Bosphorus we cross the border between Europe and Asia. We continue or cruise towards Dubrovnik, a distance of 857 nautical miles. On our journey we pass many Greek Islands and the Peloponnese to yet again enter the Adriatic. After a hard day in Istanbul of 26 degrees startin with rain we get back on the boat. Martin fall asleep and sleep for 4 hours. During the evening it is white theme at the boat and people dress in the colour white. For dinner I have cod-pure, salad, shrimp risotto, filled aubergines and apfel strudel. We continue with the winning end of evenings by having an Irish coffee at the sports bar discussing our doings in Istanbul. AT SEA The entire next day we spend on sea – missing out on the Swedish holiday midsummer. Instead of celebrating the middle of summer we sunbathe, fill in an evaluation form and for some mad reason together with Maja and Josefin play and win a geography quiz. We …

Cruise MSC Magnifica – Venice to Brindisi – the city of Brindisi

Published by Katarina

Sunday 14th 16.30 to Monday 15th of June 17.30 Our first day experience on a cruise was when Martin and I got on the boat MSC Magnifica in Venice Sunday the 14th of June. Our first impression were ”oh, so big” and ”oh what a nice room”. When ordering we paid 3690 sek / around 350 euros per person, an upgrade from the standard package to include a balcony and view towards the sea, now after being at sea for a while, very glad that we made this choice. Falling a sleep with an open balcony door with the sound of the Mediterranean must be my new favourite thing.  Leaving port the 293,8 m long ship pass St. Marcus square exiting the lagoon and then entering the Adriatic sea with is blue waters. The 973 crewmembers and it’s captain Marco Massa setting course towards the city of Brindisi. When the view sinks in you start to check the different parts of the ships and also, ”what cost and what don’t”. So our second impression was …

The islands surrounding Venice 

Published by Katarina

When growing tired of Venice there is more to explore outside the small city. To the north you have the islands San Michele, Murano, Burano, Torcello and San Fransesco del Deserto. And to the south there is very many small islands but also Lido which hold the public beach of Venice. My partner and I visited Lido and Murano in one day where the public beach of Venice being the target. Before going we packed our bathing suit and had lunch at a random square for around 30 euros. From our hotel we walked to the St Marcus square and the busboats that take of from there. We bought a one day ticket 24 hours for all public transport in Venice and hopped on.         LIDO Arriving in Lido you just have to walk across the island. Since Lido is long and small this isn’t a problem, a five minute walk and you are there. On the way you find water fountains typical for Italy to fill your bottle with fresh cold water.      …

Venice – a quick guide including photo tips

Published by Katarina

Arriving in Venice the 27 degrees Celsius hits me in the face quite hard, even though it is only around 9.00 in the morning when the night train from Munich come rolling into the St. Luzia station at the Venice island. At first Martin and I almost disembark at the wrong station, Maestre, which also is Venice but main land. After a short stressful moment the island of Venice appear, and that is where we are going.        the SERVICE Even though we are not checking in to the hotel until 14, we head for the hotel Bargarin at Campo. S Marina. With sweat dripping everywhere, smelling, we drag our assess into the Italian hotel. The receptionist looking suspiciously at us. ”Name, please”. After giving the name the service start to flow and such much better service. The guy gives us water, breakfast and repeatedly say ”You room will not be ready before two” and we answer the same number of times ”We know, we just want to sit here”. After 20 minutes he …

Street photos in Venice

Published by Katarina

So much people! The thought hits me when I enter the city of Venice. As a break from the ramble on about our trip I give you some photos of people in the streets. Do you recognize piazza St. Marco? Katarina Shot with canon eos m3 and 40 mm panncake ed lightroom                                                                                                                                                                  

A Harry Potter night train from Berlin to Venice

Published by Katarina

The worst smell ever, is what hits you when entering the six people cabin at the night train from Munich to Venice. Martin disappears into another cabin after meeting an entire Indian family and not making it through. How odd start of a train trip. The train departs Thursday the 11 th of June and me and Martin are an hour early at the Berlin main train station. After an announcement of ”tricksters” in the station we are told to look out for our bags and take extra precautions and notice anything odd we depart in DB- bahn train ICE 1515 from Berlin to Munich at 16.40. After 6 hours in train, flying pass German villages and old industry cities, wine yards and train station upon train station as Nurnberg we arrive in Munich around 23 in the evening. Picking up a late snack we head for the night train and it is dark around the tracks by now. Entering the train it is like time travel. The carriages that are used are much older …

 Pauly Saal – how it feels to eat a star in Berlin

Published by Katarina

To please the mr in the family a visit to a one star Michelin restaurant was necessary. The choice fell on the restaurant Pauly Saal, a Beelin restaurant situated at the street Auguststrasse close to Oranienburger Tor. We visited the restaurant Wednesday evening after a long day of doing touristy stuff.  Before going we booked a table for 21.30 and the restaurant actually called to confirm the table. Maybe that was good since we had a time accident on the way. When going we added a 30 minutes to the schedule to be sure to make it but when getting to the station where we were to change tube the purple line was closed for maintenance. Oh no, we ran for the extra buses but no bus came so we ran back into the subway and had to go around to get to a station close by Auguststrasse but on the other side. This took forever. 15 minutes late we stumbled into the old jewish girl school and into the restaurant (the old gym hall) …

the berlin wall.

Published by Katarina

After doing the classic round we ended the tourist day by visiting East Side gallery, which is street art on the eastern side of the Berlin wall. Here you can find the crying Einstein (probably have fancier name) as well as Picasso look a like street art and locks with names in them in many colors.  Walking from the S bahn station Warschauer Strasse to Ostbahnhof – you find the street gallery on Muhlenstrasse. We liked it so much that we returned the second day, Thursday the 11 th of June, so we could scout some more art but mostly just hang with the other cool kids by the water. During the day the sun was intense and what better than to find a nice spot in the shadows and just hang, feeling Berlin grow on you and making imaginary plans to move here some day. The best thing about traveling must be to dream.   Katarina Shot with canon eos m3 and 40 mm pancake lens ed in lightroom                                                                 

the classics in Berlin

Published by Katarina

Im not sure what the classic tourist places really are nowadays, it is not the 70s anymore when all tourists traveled to the same remote location to get red like a tomato and occasionally went on a guided tour to the city centre. The tourist buses still exist and frankly a bit tempting. I can see myself sitting there on the top with my sunglasses with a bit to much sunblock on the noose, just going round and around all day. We didn’t go in these buses but anyway, took the tour around on foot on what I guess is some of the classics in Berlin. (Due to the vast amount of photos an entire photo post will be dedicated to the Berlin Wall and East Side gallery.)          > Crossing the boarder at Check point Charlie  Martin and I were aiming at getting to Potzdamer platz but ended up close to checkpoint charlie so thats where we started our classics walk. We jumped of the subway by Kochstrasse and walked from there to the …

Ein currywurst in Berlin

Published by Katarina

Arriving in Berlin I told Martin that he had to have a currywurst, the true Berliner food. So first thing after dumping our stuff at the hotell we went for a currywurst, that and also walking down Kufurstendamm and checking out the Gedächtniskirche. The first wurst Martin was handed was over fried, so not a good start. The second thing was, the curry isn’t in the wurst but actually cheap old curry spice pored over the sausage. What? Not the best first impression. Or as Martin put it ”Germans seem to love yellow, the food is flavoured with turmeric, curry or mustard and the buildings including the subway is painted yellow”. Yesterday Martin gave the currywurst another try. It was better, but still, cheap old curry sprinkled over. A bit off a disappointment. But, still, the little sausage houses looks cute on photo, like a french old dancers house with red light lighting up the neighbourhood. Katarina Photo shot with Canon Eos M3 with 40 mm pancakelens and edited in lightroom app converting into black …

Stockholm Travel Massive at MSC Cruises – talking photos and travel industry

Published by Katarina

Third time is the charm! Waking up early, I took an early bus to Kungsträdgården where I met Helena for a joint adventure, taking bus 76 Norra Hammarbyhamnen to Ropsten, for the third Stockholm Travel Massive. Travel Massive is a world wide event in many countries for travelbloggers and people in the travel industry to meet up, network and interact. A fantastic possibility to meet new contacts if you are interested in making a buisness out of your blog or just meet friends. At the moment I go within category two, but in the future I might turn the page into something else and then these events and contacts will be important. During the long – lunch event on the boat MSC Sinfonia, MSC Cruises and Travel Massive cooperated to give us a great time. Lola spoke about taking better travel photos, good and concrete ideas for travelers to make their photos more interesting. One of the tips was not shooting to much close-ups when taking photos of food but try to take photos in its natural environment. …

Stockholm Travel Massive- the January 2015 event.

Published by Katarina

Sitting on the train heading back from Stockholm Travel Massive. An event I´ve attended twice. In August and now in January. New planned for May and I will most likely attend that one as well.   There where a range of people attending Travel Massive tonight. Met new and met old friends in the travel business.   The event as said before was arranged by Sofia, Lola and Annika with the blogs Fantasiresor, Slowtravel Stockholm och Resfredag. I just learnt that Resfredag is going to get a new design soon which will be exiting. New and pimped. We had delicious snacks and wine. Water for me since I where driving home.   A range of speakers of whom I do not know the name spoke during the evening. My brain never works when it needs to but the event took place in the headquarters of Ving, a Swedish Travel Agency. They had decorated their lounge area in some form of Mediterranean/ North African style and had borrowed statues from the Medelhavsmuseet in Stockholm. I met Margareta …

The yearly photo exhibition in Stockholm

Published by Katarina

Yesterday I attended the photo-exhibition in Stockholm. I was there just to hang out with my companions from Karlskoga photo club and check out some inspiring and new stuff on the market. Must say that all stuff seemed familiar to me and that there where nothing that I hadn´t seen before. Maybe the film department would have got me surprised but, well, didn´t check that part out any deeper. Didn´t bring my camera, a lot of people did, so I shot some photos with my Iphone 6+ to show the spirit of the exhibition. A lot of people visited and to the Canon and Nikon boots it was a queue the whole day. Tried out the Wacom drawing board and actually bought one :/. I must say that I went a bit crazy and bought a Wacom, a Led-light for the camera, a new camera strap, two books as well as a video mic from Röde. The equipment will turn up here eventually in posts and on photos, with comments of how good and bad …

A photowalk in Stockholm- part 3

Published by Katarina

Cont. of last post. Must say that I love the view of Gröna Lund and that the black and white photography really highlights the clouds this particular day (this Sunday). I had such a nice time with Antonia and will definitively go on other photowalks in the future. Really something for the interested amateur photographer. Talking crap and taking photos for hours, could life be better? Before taking of on our walk we started with an tour at Fotografiska, the museum for photography in Stockholm where we watched the really good exhibition of Sebastiao Salgado. It was nature photography from around the world. Especially the penguins caught my eye. Katarina All photos taken by me except for the photos of me which is taken with my camera but by Antonia. Antonia runs the blog Divage where she post about one photo a day and some days more of her adventures mostly in Stockholm but in Hungary as well. The photos is taken with my Canon 5D Mark iii and with my Canon 24-105 mm lens …

A photowalk in Stockholm- part 2

Published by Katarina

Cont. of last post. We walked for a long while me and Antonia and she showed me the amazing crown. Couldn´t really help it but had to keep the crown in color. In the first pictures Antonia (Divage) showed me her trick when taking photos of things that moves and I had to try it out of course. Cool effect I must say. The woman on the bike in the first picture is passing the castle. Katarina All photos taken by me and edited by me in Lightroom. The photos are taken with my Canon 5D Mark iii and 24-105 mm Canon lens. In the next post there is photos taken of me by Antonia.      

A photowalk in Stockholm- part 1

Published by Katarina

This weekend I was at Stockholm Travel Massive as you know but I also met up with a fellow blogger Antonia, who runs the blog Divage. We went for a photowalk where I ended up with many fantastic pictures. My personal favorites being Gröna Lund. Since I took so many photos of Stockholm I prepare some more post of the fantastic views of the capital of Sweden and this photowalk will be published throughout three days, starting today. Katarina All photos in this post is taken by me with my Canon 5D Mark iii and 24-105 mm lens and later edited to black and white in Lightroom.

A fika at HTL Hotels with Stockholm Travel Massive

Published by Katarina

Yesterday after a half day of work in Nora I jumped in my car and went to Stockholm Travel Massive, a meeting for writers of travel. I finally met two blogger I have been following for some time Freedomtravelers with the amazing camper named Freedomtravel. Peter and Helena is planning a one year trip around Europe starting in November if they make it after spending a lot of their travel cash on renovating their boat this summer. They have both a blog and a instagram account. Very worth following.   But to another topic, the night was hosted by three Stockholm girls with the blogs: Resfredag, Slow Travel Stockholm och Fantasiresor who have traveled to more than one country. On the event I also met Katja Presnal. Katja run the Skimbaco Lifestyle Magazine where she and others write about trips. She (her daughters) and Sofia (Fantasiresor) is coming to Finland as well. I also met a guy from the Austrian tourist bureau in Stockholm (who knew that was even possible), a girl from the Visiting Board of Stockholm, another …

Sicily- Taormina and Syracuse – Expensive shopping and hardcore catholics

Published by Katarina

Some years ago (the year 2010) I went to Sicily with my friend Caroline who was visiting me this weekend. Sicily then become one of my favorite places and I wanted to share where I went with you, even if it was some time ago. What I remember especially about Sicilly was the fact that they didn´t let me in in one of the churches since I had to short shorts. (haha) Yeah, that was it for me and religion. We didn´t suit eachother before, but then I did really understand why religion never could be anything for me. I might start believing, but I will never believe that the clothes matter for the GOD I believe in, I am sorry that you might not agree, but this is my standpoint. photos taken by me, my mum and Caroline in 2010 with some small compact digital camera, I think it is a kodak camera and also my iPhone3.   The beaches on the south side of Sicily where we stayed was ok. In Giardini Nazos …