Whenever I take photos of people I usually do it without them noticing. Random people on the street are one of my favorite ‘things’ to shoot. But sometimes it’s good to step outside your comfort zone. So a fashion shoot in Shoreditch with my friend Chiara? Comfort zone…Big step…Sure, why not?!
A little warning for friends and family of bloggers. Don’t spend too much time reading their blogs and listening to their stories about blogging ‘adventures’ (drinking afternoon tea can be an adventure too right?), or you might run the risk of turning into one of them. I’ve seen it happening, and let me tell you… it ain’t pretty. I’m kidding of course. But it turned out that I wasn’t the only one in Paris focussing on taking nice pictures and finding foodie places to write about. My friend Sandra (who took the photos of me with my ONA bag) is becoming a serious food blogger with her first stories on Holland’s most populair culinary website Culy.nl. So how do two foodies spend two days in Paris? Eating of course!
Staring out the window of the Eurostar, I’m thinking about the last time I was in Paris. Twenty years old, studying at Sciences Po and with a room at the Cité Universitaire. I didn’t think much about best places to eat or most trendy hotels to stay. Simply because as a student I didn’t have the budget to go out all the time (let alone pay for a meal at one of the popular restaurants) and I didn’t need a hotel. So even though there once was a time when I knew the city well, when it came to planning this trip it almost felt like I was going to Paris for the very first time.
Last week I heard the first Christmas song on the radio. The lights are up on Oxford Street. And everybody is sharing John Lewis’ Christmas TV ad with Monty the Penguin on social media. There’s no denying: London is getting ready for the holidays. For a group of London bloggers, Christmas started a bit earlier this year. On a warm, late summer afternoon in September at the Conrad London St James hotel where we were getting together for another #LDNBloggersTea.
The most challenging part of visiting Prague is pronouncing the street names. Seriously, you try saying Dvořákovo Nábřež or U Starého Hřbitova or Náprstkova with a straight face. Fortunately, Prague is not a big city and it’s quite easy to find your way. So no need to embarrass yourself in front of locals when asking for directions.