Going places

That feeling, when you have to go home from holiday….

It is both fulfilling and a bit sad. I always feel at home where my suitcase is and easily adapt.  But mr. Grumphy is at best at home in his normal state of mind.

Heart and soul… A wellness day

For Mr. Grumphy’s 40th birthday I booked some well deserved spa time for the both of us ofcourse. Found this lovely little resort and spa hotel only 10 minutes drive from Radda in Chianti. Perfect. A 4 star hotel in lovely sourrondings. So in spite of not getting the massages together I didn’t mind waiting around.

 

They charge aboute €75 for a full hour massage and have a big variety of spa choices. From the single manicure and face treatment to fully body massages. So well worth the trip down this valley.

This is also a fully operating hotel so you may take a weekend here for ypur own well beeing or just to relax. Prices are from €140 a nigth ( all prices from june 2014)

Springtime in Paris

Paris is never what you´re expecting I ones read. And it could´t be more true. This past week I have been giving the question of: So how was Paris? And to be completely honest  I struggle to answer this question.

I can’t quite put my finger on what it is with Paris. Don’t get me wrong. I loved my 4 days in Paris. But I have also visited so many other big cities in my travel days and this is by far not my favorite city.

My ambitions may have been to high for Paris. I wanted to see and do so much of what Paris has to offer – and you just can’t do it all in 4 days.  And what about those tourist lines. Even for May month those lines are pretty long. For instance, when we decided to visit the Paris Catacombs in Montparnasse – we waited in line for 2.5 hours! – Madness. This was the only waiting in line we did on this trip.

You could loose so many hours just waiting in line here. And there are so many more fulfilling things to do than wait in line. Why not spend a couple of hours on a sidewalk café instead? Way more relaxing and fun time to spend your time. Get yourself a carafe of wine and just sit and soak up the sun, sound and the people. Thats therapy.

it´s been said that Paris at spring is the best time to visit. Warm without being to hot, the air is fresher, all the parks are luscious green and inviting to spend some time at or even a nice picnic. And last year Paris was named the winner of Tripadvisor´s traveler´s choice – the best city to visit.

And I admit it. Paris is lovely in spring. With all it´s great monuments, wide boulevards, all of the neighborhoods, charming sidewalk cafe´s by the dozen and not to forget the incredible light show at the Eifell tower after dark. I am so glad we stayed even if we were cold as ever. It was truly magical. And in spite of all the concrete city – Paris is still a very green city and I find that very charming.

I leave you with some pictures from Paris in spring:

 

Sorbonne university Paris

The square outside Sorbonne University

a view of the tip of Ile st-Louis

Arc de Thriomphe at the end of Champs-Elyseé

Jardin des Tuileries

Flowers and the view of the Louvre

Spring in paris with the Eiffel tower towering.

And if you ask me if I would like to go back. That is a big YES, I would love to discover and explore more of Paris´s neighborhoods.

Passport to Paris

Returning back home to Norway after my resent travel to Paris and I sit here thinking back on this experience.

Paris is, at least for me, an overwhelming city. It´s big and I mean B.I.G. The distances between the many sightseeings is large and you often need to use the metro, bus or taxi to get from one place to another. And I have visited many cities – and find them easier to navigate due to the distance.

I would in most cases recommend the metro system – it is fast and frequent – but if you travel with a specific grumpy half – this is not the way to go. As experienced. My boyfriend got both stressed and grumpy from this experience – the metro way.

Taking the metro in the weekend can be a fun experience – I got to experience a train concert on saturday morning.

We got to experience Paris for full 4 days, friday trough monday. The weekend time is by far the most crowded days. We did try to get around the city as much as possible experiencing the different neighborhoods and of course see the mandatory top sights.

Champs-Élysées at a Saturday is cramped but well worth a try. You find all the haute coutures fashion houses in this neighborhood.

Paris´s top sights

Will I visit Paris any time soon – not likely. I find other metropolitans more charming.

But I do wanna come back some day and explore more. It is a beautiful city without doubt and a big metropolitan. And all in all I had a good time here. I just need to soak it all up.

I think Paris is a city that grows on to you with every visit. And you probably need to find your favorite neighborhood. I found mine to be the latin quarter with its small winding streets.

And so I leave Paris to sink in with these last pictures and hope that I can stroll here some time in the future.

Sorbonne Univeristy, paris

latin quarter by night

The Louvre

The Eiffel Tower and its signature spire

Louvre

cursing the seine at night time

The sparkling show at night – don´t miss it.

Introducing Travellingmunk

Travellingmunk in person

So who am Travellingmunk?

Well this is me. Annette, a 30 something girl who loves to travel and see the world. I live in Norway, close to Stavanger with my boyfriend and work as a shop manager.

Soon to be a year ago I started to blog after thinking about it for years out of curiosity. I love to travel and to write about it. Why go public you may ask, and not stick to scrapbooking?. Well in the future I want to be able to live out of blogging and traveling. The blog is a great way to make contacts and it has already landed me a great trip to Morocco with new acquaintance. Where my future will take me remains to be seen but I will write about my travel experiences short and long, post pictures and talk about food. I want to be a Travelista.

I am very new to this blogosphere so please bear with me – I hope to be even better at it in the future. It is a learning experience. I will always try go get better so feedback is alway welcome.

Tea time the Morocco way

#sponsored

At our recently trip to Morocco, we were treated to quite the amount of mint tea. The moroccans make their tea with pride. As we were demonstrated in the lovely Riad Chorfa by our tour organizer.

Mint tea is a sign of hospitality, friendship and tradition. Served all day long and if you make your way in to the souk/medina for some shopping you may very well be treated to some mint tea during the bargaining. The tea is made the old fashion way with gunpowder green tea and is served very sweet often garnished with some mint leaves.

making that moroccan mint tea

Here as shown in above picture you have the gunpowder green tea in a traditional moroccan teapot. Fill up one a small cup of boiled water and let sit for a little while. After about 1-2 minutes swirl the pot and pour one cup, discard this as this is dirty tea.

clean vs dirty tea

You can clearly see the difference between the dirty and clean tea – dark being the dirty. Then you add the fresh mint leaves and a ton of sugar.

To bad I did not get a picture of the massive sugar cubes he used, one stick probably equals 10-15 normal sugar cubes.

Add more water and put to a boiler. When the water has boiled you may start the pouring. And If you have  ever got served moroccan mint tea you know they pour one cup and put it back in the teapot, this they to 2-3 times and the only reason is to dissolve the sugar.

Ready, set and pour:

Put it back into the pot

 

Tea is served, enjoy!

Stavanger

Velkommen til min fødeby. Naturlig for meg å starte her. Her ble jeg født en vinterdag i desember i århundret 1975.

Stavanger er det 3. største byområdet i Norge, den er og en av Norges elste byer.  Stavanger kan også regnes som Norges oljehovedstad. Nå skal det sies at jeg ikke er flink nok til å besøke denne deilige byen. I internasjonal sammenheng er Stavanger en liten by. Men på sommeren, en av Norges vakreste vil jeg påstå. Spesielt om solen skinner. Da er det naturlig å ta turen til Vågen der pubene ligger tett i tett med utsikt til havnen.

På sommerstid kan byen skilte med en del festivaler. En av de største er kjent som Glamat festivalen. I slutten av juli trer de lokale matprodusentene fram og byr på god lokalmat. Stavanger har egen domkirke som stammer fra middelalderen, ferdigstillt i 1150.  Stavanger kan også skilte med litt shopping og har en liten bykjerne som er lett å komme seg rundt. Den største delen av både mat og drikke steder finner du nede ved vågen. Her kan du gå fra pub til pub, eller sitte ute på en av de mange uteserverings stedene og nyte både sol og uteliv.

Dette er gamle stavanger. Stavangers eldste trebebyggelser og en stor turist magnet. Et sørlandsidyll

Gamle Stavanger består av 173 trehus som ble oppført på slutten av 1700- og begynnelsen på 1800-tallet. De fleste husene er små og hvitmalte.

Her ser du blandt annet stavanger domkirke og den fargerike gaten Øvre holmegate. Her finner du både butikker og søte små kafeèr.

boder og folk under glamat 2013

 

oversikt over folkehavet under glamat festivalen