Give Me Bananas

It’s Friday.

It’s been raining a lot.

And I had a vegan whole spelt chocolate chip brioche for breakfast.

 

And a chocolate protein smoothie too.

Needless to say that life is good when chocolate is involved.

 

In one week my friend Simone and I will leave for the US of A and I still haven’t wrapped my head around it. So much more is happening right now and I can’t wait to share it with you all but you’ll have to stay patient for a bit longer.

Anyway, we will fly to Seattle on my mum’s birthday, 31th July. My parents will drive us to the airport at 6am. Aren’t they crazy? Aren’t they fantastic? No wonder why my genes are so nutso. Haha!

It still feels like the holiday (or in American English: "vacation" ) is so far away. Is it really true that we will drive down to San Francisco in less than two weeks? Will we really stay in New York for one day on our way back? It all feels pretty unreal right now.

Simone and I have planned everything, besides the exact route we’ll take. We just know that we want to visit Mt. Rainier, Yosemite and Napa Valley on the way. Everything else is still unsure.

Do you have any insider tips? Which restaurants in Seattle, San Fran and New York do you like?

I only know a bunch of (apparently) great places in NY (Pure Food & Wine, Candle 79, Babycakes NYC…) though Simone and I already talked about eating our way through NY. I like that.

It’s odd, I’ve never been that far west before. Also, it doesn’t really feel like I’m leading my life right now. I’ve never travelled that much before (Rrmember Japan in January, Florence on Easter and London in May?) and you know what? It’s getting even crazier! But that’s still a secret. I hate secrets so I’m really sorry that I can’t share it with you right now.

Oh well, I work my butt off so it’s time to get a breather.

I usually spend most of my money on food (who would have guessed) but I LOVE travelling. Cheap. I stay in hostels and do lots of camping which allows me to "save" some money and travel a bit more. Maybe it’s my multicultural background but I always have an urge to pack my bags and explore the world.

 

On an other note, my lovely friends Christine and Janine came around for dinner. We made some whole wheat pasta with tomato/zucchini sauce, served with garlic bread and salad. I was feeling a bit carby you know .

 

Tomorrow I’ll go hiking with my besties Livia and Daniela. I can’t wait! It’s my first hike this summer and it’s already the end of July!

 

Do you like travelling? What’s been your favourite place you’ve ever visited? There are so many great places I’ve seen, it’s nearly impossible to choose one. But I’d have to say that I really love my grandmother’s place (in Japan). I always feel extremely “home” there even though I’ve never lived there. The countryside is breathtaking (except for in winter ) and thinking about it makes me miss it so much.

 

It’s official: I am in love with my lomo. I went and picked up the photos yesterday and I have them all scanned and ready for you.

They’re pretty artsy which I love. It’s the not so perfect look which is amazing. It kind of makes the pictures much more nostalgic (but also alive?!?)

In case you were wondering: The pictures were taken with a black and white film and they aren’t photoshopped .

 

 

 

 

I’m currently supposed to get ready for a birthday party and should finish cleaning (I moved tons of furniture today – got to use my sister’s former room ) but I’ll just blog. Finto.

So are you ready for a London recap?

“YEAAAAAH!”

Ok ok so here it goes

As I mentioned before we got to the hostel pretty late. It’s funny, even though I earn well I rather save some $$ and stay in hostels instead of more expensive hotels. However, I usually don’t stay in dorms but in London we didn’t have much of a choice since we were 2 girls and one guy and had to get a mixed room. It was fine though. One dude came back home super drunk and threw up in the bathroom, the other one snored like there was no tomorrow and the dude from South Dakota (I think) thought that everything was “AWESOME!!!!!”.

Anyway… on Saturday we met up with a friend who lives in London which was lovely. We had lunch at a pub in Camden.

Whole Foods was right next to it but that store wasn’t as fabulous as the one near the Piccadilly station.

 

They had some amazing vegan cupcakes though..

Selina said that it looks like poo. Which is kind of true but it was delicious!

 

 

We shopped a lot, mainly for clothes for Silvio. It was hilarious! I also got a Diana Mini lomography camera.

I’m already in love! I sent the film in today and will get the photos back on Wednesday – I can’t wait! Old fashioned photo cameras are fantastic.

For some reason I didn’t take that many pictures during our stay.. I snapped a lot of pics with the lomo and will scan and post the good ones as soon as I get them.

 

On the next day we had plans to go to Rough Trade (east) and remembered from our last visit that there was a fantastic looking pizza place right there as well. So we went there for lunch and I have to say that this place is now probably my Nr. 1 favourite restaurant. Yes it was that good. Unfortunately I have no idea how it’s called (it somehow has no sign.. kind of an insider restaurant actually ). I was pleasantly surprised when I read on the menu that all of their food is organic. Hooray!

I decided to order the pizza with pumpkin, goat’s cheese, chickpeas, sage, red onion and tomatoes.

Oh my god.

Ok it looks burnt and awful (I didn’t eat the burnt part) but I wasn’t patient enough to take a good picture (mainly because I was starving).

There was arugula too!

It was such a crazy mouth party, I honestly couldn’t believe my taste buds! The pizza was really special – the crust was very thin and crispy and they added the toppings after it was baked.

 

When you’re in London, you just have to go there. It’s literally across the street from Rough Trade.

 

On the next day we finally checked out the Portobello Market.

 

We saw a super funky shop that was decorated with old sewing machines.

It was quite crazy actually – sewing machines everywhere!

 

I love markets.

 

Afterwards we hung out in Green Park and laters in Hyde Park (a day of parks indeed) and got a visit from a squirrel!

It was quite weird to see a squirrel that wasn’t scared of humans. Kind of not so cool (since you don’t really know what people give it to eat..) but cute nevertheless.

 

We gave it some raw nuts. I hope that is ok.

 

My eats varied… I had tons of fantastic salads (thank god for M&S!)

(Sexy eating is not possible)

 

But I also had ice cream, said cupcake, beer… and this here:

A stay in London without a proper (vegetarian) English breakfast? Definitely a no-go.

 

Well I’ve got to go now or I’ll be late. I can’t wait to see how those lomo pics turned out though!

 

Q: Do you sometimes still use old cameras (with film and all)? I usually use my digi cam but now that I have that lomo I can’t wait to use it more often (even though it looks like a kid’s toy ). I really like not knowing how the pictures turn out.

 

Have a wonderful Saturday!

Ahoy!

I can’t believe that I just spent the weekend in London. Time seriously flew by.
Unfortunately I couldn’t blog during my stay due to the adapter (which we did not have) and the laptop wasn’t of much use without power. Anyway, I have to keep you waiting for a recap since I got back late last night and really need to do some cleaning. My sister moved out while I was away (don’t think something wrong – we’re still besties ) and it’s really weird to see her room empty. In some way I am glad that we don’t live together anymore (because seriously.. that was explosive sometimes ) but it’s still strange to come back home and realize that you live alone from now on. I’ve never done that before.

But I am excited! So I will do some cleaning/moving tonight but I will write a proper post tomorrow.

However.. I shall leave you with some sneak peaks

 

 

À DEMAIN!

 

I know it’s mean to leave you with no proper post but I really need to get some work done at home. xoxo

 

Hello from London!
We’re currently in the pub below the hostel – eating breakfast.

 

Our plane was more than 1hr late and we ended up getting to the hostel at 1:30am. Despite our late arrival I was wide awake at 5am. Excited about our stay much? Anyway, we got up at 6:30am, got ready and explored the area a bit. We’re staying near Pimlico which is an ok area but not very familiar to me. We ended up having a (first) breakfast at Prêt A Manger!

 

It’s probably my favourite chain “restaurant” because it uses natural food and often organic products. I had a “yoga bunny” yogurt (haha), cappuccino, water and hippie drink.

 

Oh and my eyes started shining when they brought in some edamame and I knew that we had to get some as well.

I could eat edamame for the rest of my life and be a happy person.

 

We’re currently waiting for our friend Christine to get here. She should arrive in about 30 minutes. For some reason we have some issues with our adaptor (it somehow doesn’t fit?!?!) and I don’t know if this laptop will have power for long. We’ll see. I hope that I can blog though. hehe.

 

Got to keep this short and tight. The power, you know.. got to keep that in mind if I want to continue blogging during our stay.

Blog reading won’t be possible but I’ll catch up with you guys when I get back, kay? (Guess you all understand that I prefer to spend my time talking to people and enjoying my time in London – and not in front of the laptop). Love you all though! hehe

 

I hope you’re having a great time as well! Enjoy your Fridays! The weekend’s near!

 

ps: your random facts are hilarious and so interesting! Though also kind of scary… Kalli got ran over two cars! Scary scary indeed.
You should go and check out all the other random facts too

 

What a wonderful weekend that was! We arrived at the camping place in Doussard (which is close to Annecy) at 11:45am (after getting lost a bit.. ) and I still can’t believe that you can get there so fast.

The group went paragliding in the morning but they returned just when we arrived at the camping site.

After some chatting they went off again and I laced up my Asics. I did a nice and easy 6 miles on a road which is mainly for bikers (no cars allowed). The weather and view was gorgeous but the road itself was super boring. That’s why I did a lot of running/walking/taking in the view.

 

Then I read a bit (I finished “The Elegance of the Hedgehog” and cried like a baby though I had to hide the crying because of the other people there.. ) and chatted with the other women. It was so relaxing and lovely.

After the first group got back we decided to start making dinner. I hate doing nothing so I volunteered to make the pasta dish. I cooked what was suggested – pasta with mascarpone sauce and veggies.

 

I decided to wait for “my” boys (aka the dad and boyfriend) and eat dinner later. Too many crisps were enjoyed on the way to France . The rest got back at 8:30pm or so and I made a second pot of pasta, as well as a veggie patty pour moi.

 

There was also some amazing cake that someone made and lots of wine .

 

Ps: Yes, I packed way too much food. As expected. It seems like I’m not the only one who over-packs though.

 

Sunday started off with a nice cup of green tea and a huge breakfast.

Everyone was actually way older than me but we had such a fun time. Age is only a number and doesn’t really matter much anyway.

 

We then had to leave the camping site by noon and so we decided to go to Annecy and “explore” the town a bit (some of us have never been there before). Annecy has such a beautiful old town!! I completely fell in love.

 

 

There was a marathon (and half marathon) going on which was fun. Seeing the people run through the finish was great. I could have spent the entire day there but I’m not sure if the others would have liked that .

 

 

There was a market too. Lots of sausages and cheese – as it is common in France .

 

I really like taking photos of markets even though none of the products (ok maybe except the wine and jam) really appeals to me..

 

 

It was rather difficult to find a restaurant where you could sit outside (because we were a group of 11 people). We found a nice crêperie though but had to split up. I got a crêpe (which was made with buckwheat) with onions, tomatoes, egg and salad.

 

 

 

I loved it but both my dad and boyfriend weren’t huge fans of theirs. Sigh…

Then it was time to go back home again! We arrived at my parent’s place at 6pm and had dinner together – lovely way to end a lovely weekend.

I can’t wait to go back to Annecy soon! It felt like we were on a holiday even though it was  rather “close” to home and only for two days.

 

By the way, do you remember the day when I forgot my camera at my parent’s place? Well I got my precious baby back and thought I’d share the photos of the homemade ravioli with you. This is hands down my favourite meal on earth. My mum makes everything from scratch, even the dough. The recipe is from Jamie Oliver’s first cookbook.

The (vegetarian) ravioli are filled with sundried tomatoes, mozzarella and basil and taste like heaven.

We always drizzle them with olive oil, pepper and parmesan cheese. A sauce would totally ruin the amazing flavours.

 

Mmmm these photos make me hungry!

Anyway, I better be off now. I hope you had an amazing weekend too!

 

Take care!

 

Every time I pack for a trip I’m worried about food. I always think that we haven’t packed enough when in fact the whole lot could feed a small army.

Forgot a towel or the toothbrush? That’s ok as long as I’ve got the sandwiches and bananas for everyone.

Is this something that foodies do or is that some weird motherly instinct that wants to make sure that everyone’s got enough food?

 

Today I got up at 5am and got to work on the sandwiches for the road. Just like with salads I am bored to death by boring sandwiches (cheese and butter anyone? No thank you.)

Aubergine, Almond + sesame tofu, tomatoes, spinach.

 

I also packed some other things. 30 seconds after taking this photo I filled the bag with produce and other goodies.

 

Got to finish packing now. Have I packed my toiletries?

 

Q: How do you pack for a trip?

 

ps: Yes, my friend Karin made that cake. Isn’t she an artist?

 

It was so interesting to read your comments on my blood donation post. It seems like it’s different in every country.. Apparently in Japan you only donate 0.2 litre. Over here it’s 0.45  no matter how much you weigh (you just have to be heavier than 50kg/110 lbs).

A lot of you are scared of needles (or seeing blood) and I can totally understand that. It’s one huuuuge needle after all. I thought that I was going to freak out when I donated the first time but for some reasons it was pretty easy.. weird.

Danielle mentioned that she might pass out because of all the running she does. Does anyone have any information on that? I wondered what an impact running could have because I also run 3-5 times a week.

 

Anyway, yesterday was such an amazing day. It started off with rain + no umbrella. Ha. But I went and got a fantastic multi grain bagel at Tingel Kringel and didn’t let the rain ruin my mood. 
Tingel Kringel such an adorable shop/café and sells all sorts of bagels, muffins and unusual (often vintage inspired) drinks, ice cream….

Sorry, the pic’s really blurry..

 

I topped my fabulous treat with some almond butter and apple slices.

 

Work was good and busy + for lunch I had some organic vegan spelt ravioli filled with veggies. Love!

I also had some tofu sausage. For some reasons I had a weird sausage craving (??)

 

 

After work I met up with my friends for squash (we always play squash on Thursdays in case you didn’t know) and afterwards I got a huge surprise.

See my title? Yeah I wasn’t kidding…

 

Hahaha.

I still don’t know what to say… I can’t believe that I have such wonderful friends .

Parking lot shooting. Yeah we’re as classy as that. .

But seriously.. these girls are AMAZING and definitely needed to be featured on my little blog.

 

I got the cake for my birthday btw and it’s vampire shaped because of a dream I had 6 months ago! (Which was about me being chased by vampires and an Edward Cullen who looked like Robin Hood. I know – it’s pretty weird )

 

We went and had dinner at a new restaurant called Mishio. It opened on my birthday and I’ve been dying to go there because it offers healthy Asian food. I had vegetarian fried rice which wasn’t heavy on the oil – thank god. It was lovely.

 

You could also watch the cooks which is always great.

Afterwards we headed to my place for coffee and cake. I’m actually not a huge coffee fan (shocking, I know) but I sometimes enjoy a cup after dinner or so..

 

The cake is enormous! I had tons of leftovers and gave half to Silvio. The other half will be taken to France this weekend.

Yes to France.

…

..

.

I’ll spend the weekend in my neighbour country!!
I know this might sound super crazy to you considering the fact that I was in Italy only a few weeks ago. But Switzerland is such a tiny country- heck, most states of the USA are even bigger – and you can reach the border within 2 hours from Bern!
However, I must admit that I’ve never done any weekend trips to other countries before and this year’s travelling is really unusual. So don’t think that I’m always jetting around.
It’s just that my dad and his mates will go paragliding and they asked me and my boyfriend if we wanted to come along. Silvio is a huge fan of paragliding as well and so he’s dying to go. It will be so nice to have a weekend off and just do things that I enjoy – such as running, yoga and lots of reading .

 

Q: What are your plans for the weekend?

 

PS: Happy birthday Marina!! Welcome to the twenties, dear!

 

You’ve still got until tonight to win my giveaway. If you haven’t entered yet – what are you waiting for??

 

Before diving right into the Florence recap I first have to show you yesterday’s amazing dinner. Silvio and I went to Sous Le Pont where they had a special vegan night! Dinner was amazing and I was so happy about all these great vegan options.

I first started with a carrot and coconut soup (which had a great ginger flavour too)

 

The boyfriend ordered the salad with split pea balls (we actually shared everything)

 

For my main course I got the veggie burger with potatoes and coleslaw.

‘twas a huge portion but to.die.for.

 

He got the seitan ragout with couscous and leek.

 

The dinner was so good. All those flavours were amazing and I left feeling super stuffed but super happy .

I’m actually really “cheesed- and wined-out”, if you know what I mean (I never thought that could happen). I reached dairy coma in Florence which was no happy coma at all. For some reason I always thought that it was silly when people talked about not feeling comfortable about eating something after they stayed away from it for some time. Well I unconsciously ate only plant-based food for 2 weeks before going to Florence and all that cheese and gelato made me feel rather uncomfortable after 3 days or so.

However… the food was still amazing. So let’s get to the recap, shall we? (Just make sure to have some time.. this post is picture heavy)

BTW: sorry, some photos are bigger than others because I used the photos from both cameras

 

When we arrived in Florence it started to rain. sigh. However, once we’ve reached our camping site (which was on a hill – right next to the St. Michelangelo place) the sun came out!

 

The view was amazing. A few other people thought so too..

 

 

We decided to stay on the camping site for a bit and have an apéro (aka appetizer).

Dolce vita at it’s best!

 

 

Drinking wine from white plastic cups is extremely fancy..

 

 

And then we went to dinner in town. We went there pretty late but that suited us just fine.

 

On the next few days we walked around a lot and enjoyed the view and great architecture…

 

(ps: some people were walking around with tiny jackets.. and I was cold. What’s wrong with me??)

Btw, there are tons of jewellery shops on that bridge. Silvio bought me a rock. Ha! I wish.

 

We also did some special things such as riding the bike…

..which was HELLA scary among those crazy Italian drivers. (Plus the fact that we had no helmet and that the bikes were pretty crappy didn’t relax me either).

However, for some reason the combination of wine+biking seems so much more fun. I know that this is stupid and scary so don’t copy that! But I have to mention that it was ok because we didn’t drive on super scary roads on the way back to the central station (where we rented the bikes).

 

 

…and going to a museum. The serial killer museum to be precise.

I’m fully aware of the fact that we are nerds. I think that serial killers are (psychologically) interesting. That might seem a bit weird to you but I think it’s fascinating to know how people “tick” and what makes them act the way they do (serial killer or not ).

However, the exhibition made me dream of a serial killer who killed lots of guinea pigs.

 

We also saw a funny little bus.

 

And there was food…

 

Most often there’s a primi piatti and a secondi piatti (like first and second plate). The second piatti is meat based and I’ve actually never seen a secondi piatti that’s vegetarian. However, the primi piatti is mostly vegetarian and that’s what I always had – along with a salad – if I didn’t have pizza or a huge salad.

See, the primi piatti is rather small but perfect for me.

See? (Silvio is my perfect model for showing you how small these primi piattis actually are )

 

 

That is cheese and honey plus Silvio and his mad food photography skills .

 

 

My camera died halfway through our trip so I had to take some photos of the dishes with his camera. That worked just fine though .

 

Caffè. Aka espresso.

 

 

Bruscetta!

 

Linguine with truffle sauce.

 

& He had some sort of chicken with beans..

 

Tiramisu

 

 

Let’s not forget about the gelato..

Looks like crap but was soooo good. Chocolate + orange = heaven!

 

 

 

And Chianti!

 

 

It rained as well which was a bummer but it didn’t damper our spirits. We’re troopers!

 

 

On Monday we also went on a run which was fantastic. We even left Florence (which sounds super impressive but we reached the next village after 10 minutes of running or so )

 

The view was amazing..

I love the countryside .

 

Then we packed our things and left the beautiful city. The sun was shining in Milano (grrr!).

We expected that there would be many tourists as it was Easter holiday but we were surprised that Florence seemed to be a crazy magnet for Americans! I was actually thinking about kicking the next person who’d say “like” (jk!!). So to my US friends: Is Florence some kind of super popular over there? To us it’s just a city in Italy .

I would highly recommend Florence to people who like to walk and adore small cities. This trip was over way too soon!

 

Q: Are there any lovely cities that you would recommend? I’m not talking about huge places like London or New York – we all know that they’re great – I’m thinking more of insider tips . Well I might sound like a broken record but Bern is really pretty and charming. Completely underrated in my opinion (if you know where the good stuff is ). Baune in France is also amazing (I have a thing for small cities) – it’s also the perfect place for good wine from the Burgundy. What else? Oh! Stockholm and Copenhagen. Ok, they’re not small but fantastic. Also, if you’re in Copenhagen; simply hop on the train and visit Malmö which is an other fun city.

Well it’s kind of lame. I know some places in Europe pretty well but haven’t visited much else. But jeeez, I’m only 23 and have travelled more than most people. I’ll always be grateful for being able to travel and meet other cultures.

 

PS. your comments on my last post were amazing. I loved reading about your thoughts on aging and would recommend everyone to read them too.

 

Whew.. time to hit publish.

 

Hello and welcome to April!

Sorry for yesterday’s no-show. Let’s just say that I can’t wait to go to Florence tomorrow .

I haven’t run at all this week but I’ll make sure to race around in Florence. It just seemed like there was always something going wrong (like a stuffed nose, completely sore legs because of that damn “No More Trouble Zones” DVD..). You know, I won’t sweat about it. I try to follow my training plan as closely as possible but I also listen to my body. I must say that the blog world can also put pressure on people and they feel like they might have to prove that they’re not lazy. Well, I can happily say that it doesn’t bother me at all that I didn’t run this week. I know my limits and don’t want to get injured.

 

Anyway, cheers to Karla and Sophia for explaining that my plantain wasn’t ripe enough. Well I thought that too at first but was too impatient to not try dehydrating them . I’ll be wiser next time.

Another thanks to BBC for telling me how GORGEOUS the weather in Florence is going to be. Or not. Whatever, I’ll pack my umbrella. Nothing will damper my spirits.

 

I’ve been prepping snacks like a madwoman the past few days and yesterday I got to work on some cookies. I had the recipe for the thumbprint cookies of The Kind Life for ages and finally got to make them.

 

I followed the recipe to the T nd they turned out great. However, 1/2 cup is too much oil and I’d recommend using 1/3 cup and maybe a bit more if it gets too sticky.

My cookies kind of melted away…

..but were still scrumptious! I’ll definitely make them again as it didn’t take that long to make them.

While they were baking away I packed some clothes and did the dishes. Domestic party!

For some reasons I was busy until 12pm and so I decided to skip the gym this morning because I really didn’t feel like getting up after 5 hours of sleep. So I gave in and crashed for an other hour & did the “No More Trouble Zones” DVD again. I’ve had the DVD for a long time but haven’t done the workout and I was really surprised at how tough it was! I read on some blog that it was a good workout for a “day off”. What the eff?? I was a mess afterwards. I like this DVD much more than the 30 Day Shred (but Jillian, you are cruel!)

 

Other eats of the past days:

Leek + split pea soup. So good and simple.

This was a new to me pudding. I simply mixed some silken tofu, cocoa powder and agave until it felt just right.

 

 

There were also many many salads and other unpictured snacks. Nothing too exciting.

 

After my plantains disaster I dehydrated some real bananas and some apples. Sweet, ripe bananas should take over the world!

I’m definitely on a dehydration kick.

 

 

So.. that’s it! I haven’t done many exciting things (besides packing of course ) but I’m so looking forward to the long weekend. Also, I’ll go and see Mika tonight! Aaaah, I see an other short night in the future !

 

Q: Do you “celebrate” April’s Fool’s Day? I actually don’t really like the 1st of April because I always expect someone to trick me or something.. It has never happened before though .

Btw, check out that page: The Top 100 April Fool’s Day Hoaxes of All Time.

#1: The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest

1957: The respected BBC news show Panorama announced that thanks to a very mild winter and the virtual elimination of the dreaded spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop. It accompanied this announcement with footage of Swiss peasants pulling strands of spaghetti down from trees. Huge numbers of viewers were taken in. Many called the BBC wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti tree. To this the BBC diplomatically replied, "place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best.

A spaghetti tree would be fun! And handy!

I thought this one was hilarious:

#3: Instant Color TV

1962: In 1962 there was only one tv channel in Sweden, and it broadcast in black and white. The station’s technical expert, Kjell Stensson, appeared on the news to announce that, thanks to a new technology, viewers could convert their existing sets to display color reception. All they had to do was pull a nylon stocking over their tv screen. Stensson proceeded to demonstrate the process. Thousands of people were taken in. Regular color broadcasts only commenced in Sweden on April 1, 1970.