2014.

I know I haven't been writing on here for a while, and that upsets me. Probably much more than it upsets you. The year is almost over, and I thought it would only be appropriate to finish it with a post, similar to the one I wrote last year. Dedicated to 2014, to this year that was so quick and so full of emotions.

So here we go!

 2014 started well. It's quite unusual for me, and seems to be for many, but this year started with many positive changes. I dyed my hair blue, a color I've always loved and had had twice already when I was younger. It felt like reconnecting with myself, on  more deeper level than just hair. I started eating raw till 4, and it's been almost a year now. I cannot even tell you how GOOD this lifestyle makes me feel. It's amazing. January was basically a month of fruits&vegetables, with new hair and on top of that, many runs in Paris. Not too bad if you ask me, not too bad.

 



February was pretty similar to that as well. I increased my running, I started doing yoga and by doing yoga, I mean practising seriously. And upside down too! February is usually a bit of a boring month, not much happens and though this year was no exception, it felt good. Simply good.

 

 

March was a bit of an heavy month, emotionally speaking. I met with a person that I had never met previously, on a very quick yet teary date (friendly one that is). The past came back to me with much strengh, and this had me down for a while but thanks to the positive lifestyle I was living, and to some extra moments like my friend visiting me, or attending one of my favourite artist's show, I dealth with that without many damages. I also met MrHerbs, for those of you following me on Youtube or twitter, or for those who don't, a guy that I immediatly felt attracted to. He was nice, had a huge smile and a deep voice that left me speechless and looking pretty silly whenever he talked to me.

April. April, my favourite time of the year.More yoga, more food and travels! My sister and I visited Germany, Austria and Hungary. I had the joy to be in Budapest for the third time, visit Munich&Salburg, cities that I hadn't had a chance to go back to in years. I visited a bit more of Hungary, and added a city to my travel journal. April was one of the best months of the year, once again.

In May I hit 20 000 subscribers on Youtuber, which was such a great and humbling moment. I also discovered the best cookies recipe ever, tried a lot of different new foods and did a lot of headstands. I kept on seeing regularly MrHerbs, and grew more&more fond of him. Oh and I bought my first 10kgs of bananas.

June was amazing. Despite no travel this summer, I had a blast. I made a new friend, such a sweet guy down to earth and very talented! My friend who left for London visited me, I met a subscriber in the streets of Paris, Paris which was more beautiful than ever, I visited a lot of exhibitions with my sister and was at my best, running&yoga wise. MrHerbs&I exchanged numbers and had a proper date. Just great.

July. In July I hosted a friend of mine for a week or so, and thus did a lot of sightseeings. I also visited my aunt&uncle in the countryside, ran a lot, and baked a lot. Oh dear, a lot. I was just basically having quite a good time, seeing MrHerbs about everyday at his shop, eating fruits, doing early yoga sessions in the park I also received a package from a very very very important&special person for me, my first love, whom I am still in touch with and have the best relationships with.

August. ah August. The month that was the highest point of all this year, both in the great and the bad. It basically changed my whole year and gave it a completely different color.  August was an awful month. MrHerbs came over at my place, and we spent a wonderful time. I was so extatic of having him over, but the whole story had such an unexpected and sad outcome. I was devastated and couldn't sleep nor eat for weeks. August ended with a lot of pain, and so did start the following months.

In September&October I tried my best to keep me positive and happy. I visited my friend for a few days in Belgium, and we also had a short trip to the Netherlands. My friend spent a bit more time with me in Paris, my sister and I took a few days off in Germany, saw beautiful castles and ate lots of vegan meals. But my heart and mind were still missing MrHerbs.

November&December were very busy months. I basically spent all of my time in essays&books.I found the time to jump into a train heading to Belgium, again, to wish my friend a very happy birthday. That was a surprise we had planned with a few other very very good friends, and it felt so good to be together again. I needed it. And now I'm back in my hometown for the Christmas holidays, spending time with my family&friends. I am pretty impressed with this year, that could have been almost perfect without this terrible heartache. I'm still dealing with it, but I'm doing better. I'm eating&sleeping&laughing, it cannot be that bad!

I did well at uni, I did well in my relationships with people, I grew more independant, tolerant and compassionate. I did well with myself, did my body&mind good. I wrote a lot, ran 16kms, got the splits, made new friends, and reached 40 000 susbscribers on Youtube. I'm excited for 2015, I think it's going  to be an amazing year. I cannot wait to see what it will bring, hopefully some travels, a diploma, meeting again with very precious people and more improvements in yoga&running. Bring it on 2015, I'm ready!

Hohenzollern.

 

 

One of the (many)reasons why I love Germany is the amazing sceneries including castles you can find dispatched through the whole country. It's become quite an habit for me to check which castle I could visit while I'm staying in a city, and this time around we decided Hohenzollern would be the perfect spot to discover while staying in Heidelberg. 

Usually castles we visit are really easy to reach, even EltzBurg was easy to find, you only need a bit of courage and a good pair of shoes. I thought this one would be easy to find as well, and the internet didn't give me anything to worry about, so that's quite confident that we left Heidelberg and jumped intro a train to Hechingen, the city from which we were supposed to easily and quickly reach the castle. But, as you might have already sensed, this was nothing of an easy and little walk.

First of all, there was no sign to be found. We took a picture of a map situated in front of the train station, and started making our way toward the castle. At that point I wasn't worried at all, I know well how to read maps and I have a good sense of direction. Soon enough we could see the castle in our field of vision. And that's when I started to worry. It seemed far. And that didn't seem to change despite us walking and walking. Eventually, to make it short we ended up walking for about two hours. In a very beautiful forest I'll agree, but a forest on a very stiff hillside.

When we reached the top of the hill and entered the castle, after some killer stairs, we were sweating like pigs and I was only wearing a tanktop. I could feel the drops of sweat running across my back. However we felt relieved, we had made it! " I don't care what or what not, I am NOT walking back to Hechingen, NO WAY!" I remember myself saying in a loud and exhausted voice.

If only I knew.

After the visit of the castle we walked back to a parking lot a few meters down the castle, and asked for the next bus. 

"There's one every hour, one just left a bit early, the next one is at 6.30"answered the lady who sold postcards, chocolates and pint with the picture of the castle on them.

My sister turned to me with a look of despair.

"Our train is at 6.40".

I laughed. dementia. I thought we just had to walk down the hill and we'd find other buses there. I was so naive and hopeful. We decided to take the road this time and not the path in the forest(thanks lord for that idea) and as the sun started settling down we reached the end of the hill. But there was no bus. Only what seemed to be, and surely was, the highway. I remember having read somewhere about how dangerous it was to walk on the side of highways, and that is was forbidden in some places. In addition to that we had arrived on the other side of the hill and had no idea where to go. It was getting dark and I couldn't decide which of the three villages I could see afar was Hechingen. However we trusted our guts and kept walking, the cars were passing by in an astonishing windy sound. As we kept on putting a feet in front of the other, we finally saw signs that said Hechingen : 1KM. At that moment I thought that was it. 1km was nothing! merely a few steps in my mind, I even thought to myself 'ah we could do that running in 5minutes!" But by then, the night had really fallen, and it was pitch black. We entered Hechingen, not having a single clue where we were. Once again, there was no sign to indicate the train station of the city center. We walked through this residential area for a few minutes, starting to worry about being late for our train. We finally met a lady who looked really troubled when we told her we wanted to walk to the bahnhof. 

- It's not difficult to find (LIE) but it's a bit far away.  Turn on your left, then right and then straight.

We were going to be late. After 10more minutes, I started running and told my sister to do the same. We ran for 10 other minutes or so and asked another lady. Keep in mind all that was happening after an already long and tiring day, at night in a city completely foreign in which for some unknown reasons there was no street lights or signs. A few streets later, we were completely lost and I could feel a) my sister about  to cry b) my own smell. That's when I decided to turn on the internet on my phone, had a look at the map and, animated by a desperate feeling told her not  to worry, we would make it. And guess what? We did make it. A few meters away we walked on a bridge that looked familiar, and with the help of the map that I had mentally took a picture of( btw, my camera had no battery anymore, hence we didn't use it to find our way back with the picture of the map we used on our way to the castle), we almost ran to the train station, an extatic look on our faces when we recognized the streets and stores and burning tighs.

We arrived 2minutes early, and dropped our aching bodies onto the train seats. At this point, all we could think of was a hot shower and food. Food that consisted of two vegan samwiches we bought in a hurry at Stuttgart where we changed trains, and hot shower we took when we finally reached the hotel. That sure makes a great story to tell, but I think it has taught me one thing: double check the distance and itineraries on google maps, don't listen to only one website. 

EVER.

Heidelberg1.

 

I'm a sucker for Germany. I LOVE Germany. I could even deal with its cold weather and early nights. I've been to a few cities already, Berlin, Munich, Leipzig, Köln, to a few amazing places Neuschwanstein, Königsee, Sans-Souci, Eltz... And you'd think I'd get bored but that's actually the opposite. Going back to France gets a bit more difficult each time now. I miss the quietness and nature yet the convenient transports, the various restaurants and shops, the amazing vegan options, the castles and the little villages, the smell of fried potatoes and leaving stores with a tschüss!

I miss hearing german! I love this language, I miss laughing at some of their funny words, or filling up my bag with food so much cheaper than in Paris!

A while ago I wrote a post for my friend Colleen's blog (here) in which I was asked where I could picture myself living. I replied Tokyo, which is true, but Germany... I'd move there in an heartbeat. Without any worries. It feels so familiar, and like the perfect place to live according to my lifestyle and personnality. We'll just have to do something about your winters Germany, because clearly, my italian side cannot handle them very well. Even with gloves.