Picture perfect Portofino. And some things extra.

Portofino! Does have a pretty magic ring to it and lots of divine online images to spark the interest. And therefore was on my travel bucket list for a while now. First time I came very close was on my Cinque Terre trip back in 2015. There was too much to see back then and already plenty of beaches to check, so Portofino didn’t make the list. Then I was in the area that goes by the name of Liguria back in 2017, when I made a city trip to Torino and Genova. It was December so would have been quite a waste to come close to the perfect waters and now dive in, so yet again Portofino was set aside.

Berlin weekend escapes. Dresden or the Jewel Box.

I’ve been wanting to visit Dresden ever since I moved to Berlin but kept postponing, waiting for the right moment. Turns out I was actually waiting for springtime and once the weather turned positively gorgeous I decided to book my trip.

Dresden is roughly 2 hours away from Berlin by train so a perfect weekend getaway. This was my first interaction with the German rail system so I learned a couple of things. If you want to get a decent ticket price wise you should book about 2 weeks in advance or even more, since the closer you are to the date and the less tickets available, the bigger the fee. It is useful to have a DBahn card, that gives you a 25% discount for tickets (a trip to Dresden was around 38 euros like this). When you book your ticket, if you want to make sure you also get a sit, you need to reserve it, and that’s an extra 4 euros. Some trains have Dresden as a mid stop on the way to Prague and those trains are usually full so better avoid them. Since I did that, even on a Saturday morning and Sunday evening I managed to find a seat without reservation. Also leave your house with a bit of advance, because you never know when the Berlin Sbahn decides to delay a train and you find yourself praying and running to make it in time.

Coldplay on Olympiastadion. Two times, with feeling!

I used to love Coldplay when they started out all the way in 2000. Clocks and Yellow and Fix You and all the heart felt songs of an alternative medium sized band. A bit of drama, a bit of rhythm and of course a bit of extra charming Chris Martin. It was 2009 when they were doing the Viva la Vida Tour and I remember ringing some radio contest in the hope I would win tickets to the Paris show. I didn’t and was very bummed, but after that I don’t think I’ve thought that much about seeing them again.

Found in London

When it comes to my London trip, initially I said that I wouldn’t try to hard to check off things on lists and, instead, simply walk around. Well, it looks like I’m not capable to do this when visiting a completely new place that’s totally worth discovering. So, naturally, I ended up running from place to place, aiming to see as  much as possible. I tried to organize my days around certain areas so things would run more smoothly.

Lost in London

I knew way before I left for London that it won’t be like other places. I knew it’s big, there are maaany things to see, maaany things to do and maaany things to try. I knew from the start that I can’t do it all in 5 days, so I decided not to stress to much and see what I can. But I had no idea what I was in for.