An Enthusiastic Traveller

In less than the 30 minutes I need to get to the airport, to drop off the luggage, go trough security and board. I take a taxi to hurry up. Everyone is already there and they are angry I'm late. They thought I would not show up. I get to the counter to drop off my luggage. There's a problem, I carry on more items than allowed on my ticket. I manage some how to put everything in one and I arrive to the gate. My friends are not speaking with me, I heard my name called for boarding. Haha.. One point checked from my bucket list. I go out through the gate doors and now which is my plane? I woke up, everything was just a bad dream. I get up from bed and practice for 20 minutes some yoga to strengthen  my inner warrior. I'm packing my last items and going out for a coffee. I can't leave without drinking that magical liquor. I took an uber, met with Victor and went together to the airport. By far this is the longest flight I've had. During all this time I read and lis...

It's almost end of year and the perfect time to have a look over this year's resolutions. The list wasn't long. I'm happy to look back and see that almost all the points are checked. Let's have a look together! First things first: I wished for this year to be happy and healthy . Most people will say there is nothing you can do about this, but they are wrong: it's up to you what you want to do, what you put in your mouth. I'm happy I was able to give up easily for a couple of weeks to cookies, sweets, sugar. I tried also to eat more vegetables, green & eco. For a month I gave up coffee for green tea, but I discovered I don't have to give up when I can enjoy both. I will continue to do it next year because it's helping me feel better about myself. Next on the list was: Sport , to do more exercises. For almost 6 months I had a subscription to the gym. I did body combat, yoga, swimming. After the 6 months I continued to practice yoga at home, almos...

This is my last stop before going home for Christmas. Barcelona, I always come back to you. You give me energy at the end of the year. You were not so sunny like the last times, but this way I discovered you with clouds. @Placa Catalunya  Sometimes the clouds are following us and we can't escape. I can't feel the Christmas spirit here, because for me Christmas means cold, snow, white. You are too hot :)). If it weren't for the lights around you, I couldn't tell Christmas is coming. I don't know how I do but each time I find some hidden gems. Tea,  not coffee :)  Today I was walking on Rambla, the place where everything started two years ago, and I turned left on a narrow street. There I found a hidden coffee shop where I rested my feet.  Veggie Burger with jasmine tea @ Federal Cafe Gotic Scanning the place around I discovered a small market (sort of Dichisar).  The entrance to the market I realized that sometimes you have to be alon...

Here I am again, faraway from home. I travel frequently to Brussels with my work. Half of my team is located here. Each time I come to Brussels I have different feelings and see it with other eyes. I have experienced almost all the feelings: love, hate, anger, sad, anxiety. This time I feel I'm rediscovering its beauty. I didn't walk far from the hotel, which is close enough to the office, but the streets around were enough to fall in love again with it. The Christmas scent is in the air. The tables outside of the terraces are decorated with candles and poinsettias. On one of these terraces, more specifically to " La Terrasse ", I had the most delicious hot chocolate ever. The waitress brought me a cup with steamed milk and a small bowl with chocolate chips and you combine them together. The result is very delightful. Last weekend I attended a presentation about the chocolate history in European culture. I felt I was drinking hot chocolate after a receipe old fro...

Two weeks left til my next trip to Barcelona. It's the third year when I go there in this time of year. I think it became a tradition. I would never forget the first time there. It was purrfect. I realized many things. Then the sun didn't show up in Bucharest for almost a month. I was going through a lot of changes in my professional life: new project, management changes, last year at the university. There was a lot of pressure on me. I wasn't so excited about this trip but I said, why not. Plus it was the first time, me and Florin traveled together. While the plane was taking off and going through the grey clouds, the sun was showing up. That was the moment I truly realized: the sun is always there, but there are times when you can't see it through the dark clouds. You should remember this is temporary and the sun will show up on your street. Radu (a friend of Florin) picked me up and showed me where we'll stay. I had a really nice surprise in my room, a candy ...

There are things that we can't control, like weather, other people's behavior. And we have to accept this. This weekend I was in Madrid and I choose to fight against it and to be angry.  Here it's how it went. I arrived Friday evening. The flight was long but I enjoyed reading a book. Once arrived at destination I met with Florin and went for some tapas and sangria. Outside was raining. This time my positivism didn't help. Saturday rained all day. We started the day in a coffee shop. The coffee is really bad here or I couldn't feel anything. From the coffee shop we jumped into another one. You can't walk too much in the rain, therefore we went to eat again. It was still raining but we went further and visited El Retiro Park. What can I say, I'm in hate mood and I didn't enjoy it much. If we were there, we also went to see  the Crystal Palace. Haters gonna hate. I have to check it out when I arrive home to see what's with that sound. It's l...

Red candles - checked.. Deep asana tea with cinnamon and warm ginger notes - checked.. Ambient music - checked.. I'm ready to write about my past vacation. I'm back since one week and I wasn't able to write about it. Why? Due to post-vacation blues. This is also known as post-travel depression (PTD). "A person may suffer from post vacation blues after returning home or to a normal routine from a long vacation, especially if it was a pleasurable one. The longer a trip lasts, the more intense the post vacation blues may be." [1] Yes.. The few days spent in Berlin were great. Let's go to the beginning. Thursday morning. I'm requesting an Uber ride. While waiting for my Uber driver to pick me up, I read Iulia's post (my trainer from Public Speaking Workshop) and she was talking about a pink ball of goodness to pass around to make a better world. This made me think.. how can I do that? My car arrives, I get in, and I start an entertaining discussion wi...