I am trying to keep up with Kaitlyn!

Since I have been a terrible blogger lately I have been trying to be best Blog Angel as possible. It is the second time I am a blog angel and it is so cool to get to know all these super cute blog and read about other people's lives!

Now I can (already) reveal who I am trying to help, and it is.......

So the first thing I loved was her name! I live the name itselve and the way it is written. She is from the US and so adorable! I really thing she is one of those girls that you can only like, no matter what! It also shows in the way she blogs, she is always so positive and for some reason her post always give me the feeling she is very happy and content with her life! And this is awesome and inspiring! Because honestly how many people do you know that are actually happy with what they have in live...? 

Since she already have all the blog necessities such as a professional layout, button, 60 followers the only thing I did was comment on her post and try to give as much positive feedback as possible. And of course I will keep on doing this!!!

Another thing I will do is put her button on my blog so she gets some more exposure and this way I can hopefully help her to grow her blog.

You must go and check her out! I am sure she will be happy to hear all your comments and thoughts on her posts!!!

And to you Kaitlyn, keep up the good work! See you soon on your blog!

What you didn't know about Sisi!

As you can read in the title of this post, this is about a story of a young woman who married an emperor. She lived in a beautiful palace called Schonbrunn Palace. Actually this wasn't there day-to-day palace, no this was their summer home! 

Can you imagine living in a place like this?

Ok, I know it is boring but as you might know I love history and I love random fact that are of no use what so ever..... so here we go:

• Schonbrunn is amongst other things mostly famous because of Empress Elisabeth of Austria.

Wikipedia

•  She got engaged to emperor Franz Joseph I, when she was only 15 years old (he was 23-years old)

Wikipedia

• Her family and friends called Elisabeth "Sisi".
• She had hair till her ankles, which took 3 hours everyday to brush an make ready for public duty. And which she washed it once every 2 weeks, this took a whole day! And yes she had a hair dresser.

http://eljen.net/elisabeth/sisibio.html

•  She was very unhappy and had a bad health.
• She always wore a corset due to which she looked even skinnier than she already was.
• She was 1.72m tall and was obsessed with her weight, she never weigh over 50 kg.
• She was murdered in Geneva when she was 60 years old. 

So when I was young we had this Christmas tradition, it was watching the Sisi movies on TV (in German) and these were just the most amazing movies when I was a little girl. Very romantic in an amazing setting. If you like the Sound of Music I am sure you will also love the movies! 

I always imagined going to Schonbrunn would confirm this romantic love story.... well guess what?! It ain't so romantic!!! Sisi was very unhappy, she was a little as possible in Vienna and with her husband. She almost never ate dinner together with her family due to her obsession with her weight, she even once said that she regretted getting married at such a young age and that she felt she was pushed in making a decision a young girl of her age could not make with overseeing the consequences.... So there you have it.....

 

I know it is tough right being an empress in this amazing place. In order to make you feel a bit better here are some pictures!

Hopefully there aren't too many pictures... Unfortunately we were not allowed to take any pictures inside the palace. We did do an audio tour, during I learned a lot more random facts!

Such as:

•  The famous Habsburger family ruled from this palace.
• Most famous Habsburger = Marie Antoinette who married Louis XVI from France.
• At an age of 6 years old the famous composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart performed for in Schonbrunn for the Empress Maria Theresa (mother of Marie Antoinette)

Ok I think it is time to draw an end to this post... I have loads more of random facts but I will keep them for another time. Also there should be some things left for you guys when you go and visit, otherwise you already everything :)

If (like me) you can't get enough, please click here and here  and here to get more information on empress Sisi, Schonbrunn and the Habsburg family.

I am going to sleep now (sounds like my own post makes me sleepy....) and dream of this palace and this amazing holiday. One more part is left, the part about my visit to Germany and the city where I studied for 2 years; Reutlingen.

See you all soon!

The wonders of Vienna

Part due is here! As mentioned in my previous post this one is about Vienna and all its glory!

To be honest I was quite impressed by the grandeur of this city! It is very chic and kinda reminded me of Paris.... Maybe not the best comparison but like Paris it had these beautiful buildings, and it has something royal about it....

So we rented an apartment via Wimdu, it was the first time for me to book something via this site so I was kinda nervous about it.... It turned out the apartment was fine, very spacious and all, but it was located in a very multicultural area so didn't really feel like we were in Vienna... It was a 40 minute walk from the apartment to the city center, which we did the first day. Then we bought a Vienna Card for only € 19.90 per person which gave us free use of public transport for 72 hours. So we did most of the traveling in Vienna by metro.

I am leaving out our trip to Schonbrunn because that was so awesome it deserves a post dedicated all to itself! But here is an overview of what we did the other 2 days!

So the picture in the right corner is it H&M, this is the most beautiful H&M I have ever seen! Doesn't this building looks amazing? P.s. I took this picture for my friend Amy from Amy's Fashion Scrapbook who loves H&M!

Feet in the grass!
And where is Lieke?!

We had a short stop at the Schmetterlingshaus at Hofburg. I thought it would be much bigger but it was pretty nice.

I easily could have been on an expedition somewhere exotic!

 Uhhmm the next thing we did might put me in your weirdo book.... we went to the Zentral Friedhof (Central Cemetery) in the afternoon. But I honestly must say that it was a really beautiful place! Probably helped that the sun was shinning!

Who doesn't want to burred in one of these gorgeous graves?

I do apologize for taking a picture with these 2 graves, but I had to! The left grave is the family Knorr of the food brand (I assume) and on the right the family Kovatz which I believe are my ancestors (Kovats looks and sounds like Koevoets). Hmmmm I do look way to happy in this picture....

We are also convinced we saw the Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel! We came to this square and saw all these soldiers who were waiting for someone important (obviously, I mean they won't have 50 soldiers waiting for me now would they..). And then they started to play the German national anthem and a small blond women came walking out of the building in a black suite... and it had to be Angela Merkel! There was a friendly soccer match between Austria and Germany the evening before so fair chance it actually was her!

 The last day we went to the National Library, which was one of the most amazing things I have seen! It is a library which really looks like the old ones you see in movies of which you cannot believe they really exist! But guess what? They do exist here in Vienna!

 Österreichischen National Bibliothekt

 Pfff it sure looks amazing right? If you ever go to Vienna you should for sure buy the Vienna Card and visit the Zentral Friedhof, it is really a beautiful place! And also be sure to stop by at the National Library!

Ok, the next post is on the wonders of a place called Schonbrunn and her most famous resident, Elisabeth von Bayern the Austrian Empress a.k.a. Sissi.

Thanks for stopping by and see you soon for part tres!

The sounds of Salzburg!

I am back from my travel through Austria and Germany (I only was away for 10 days but this way it sounds like I was away for ages :))!!!! 

So I decided to make 4 separate posts so I can give you all an inpression of my vacation in 4 short stories instead of 1 long tedious story. It will be as follows:

- Part Uno: Salzburg

- Part Due: Vienna

- Part Tres: Schonbrunn (which is also in Vienna)

- Part Quatro: Germany

So part uno start here! I strongly recommend to start reading and enjoy the pics!

It all starts in a town situated in Austria along the river Salzach north of the Alps. We arrived there around 4 in the afternoon on a Friday. The drive to Salzburg was pretty awesome, it was about a 8 hour drive, so basically 1 working day :)

We stayed in Haus Arenberg, a small hotel located in a quite area of Salzburg. It was pretty difficult to find, but once we arrived and entered our room it was awesome! The beds were soooo good, we had a balcony and the shower was amazing! In the morning we had breakfast on the terrace in the lovely fresh mountain air and Austrian morning sun (which of course is the same as the Dutch morning sun but it felt much nicer....).

 We had 1 full day to discover Salzburg and here is an impression of what we did and saw:

Recognize this fountain?

The view from the fortress called: Festung Hohensalzburg

The start of the Alp Mountains

Mozarts Geburtshaus a.k.a. the house Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born.

Doesn't this look amazing?!
p.s. this is the river Salzach

 

 

 

The gorgeous gardens of Schloss Mirabell

Behind the horse are the famous steps from the Sound of Music song "Do-Re-Mi"

How I love the feeling of the soft grass under my feet!

Since this holiday had a high girly factor (Salzburg = Sound of Music and Vienna = Sissi and Reutlingen = my old University), I thought it would be good to add something my boyfriend would for sure appreciate: the Biergarten of the Augustiner Brauerei (brewery)! Here is an impression how this looks like and how it is to visit a biergarten with me....

I wasn't really drunk it is just a bad picture! Below the actual picture at is was intended:

Pfff this looks much better!

Oh and in case you wonder, the small beer was for me, I asked for the smallest and I got 0,5 liter... which is normal in this region... The "glass" I am holding in this pic is 1 liter! 

So as you can see we had a lot of fun the Salzburg! And yes I did loads of swirling! And I can really recommend you to go here and enjoy this beautiful city and do some swirling of your own!

I ran this city!

So here is a quick update on my weekend! The highlight of my weekend was the Tilburg Ten Miles, which a running event in my hometown! I ran the 10 miles (16.6 KM) for the second time and it was a good one! The weather was nice, it was quite hot actually... And there were a lot people cheering for us, and for them selves while they were enjoying the sun and a nice cold beer..... I ran, waved to some people I didn't know, high-fived with some kids and enjoyed the cold water from the sponges that were handed out! I also made a old women smile by simply waving back, her whole face lit up when I did that! So cool!

During the run it felt like I was running really fast and good, but my time says otherwise..... I ran the 10 miles in 1h43m50s.... so much longer than I had hoped for.

In case you go running, here are a few things you have to take into account, because it could happen to you!

Never had this thank god!



So true!


Same goes for cycling!


Hate when this happens!

Luckily we don't have to many hills in Holland


Yes.... but it makes me feel tough!


Hmmmm nope do not recognize this....


Pfff this is scary then it happens!


Hasn't happend yet... (knock on wood)


Yep had this aswell!

Haha! This sucks!


Hate when this happens!


Thank god we have Aquarius!



But I also have good news! Just 4 more days and my summer holiday starts!!! Wooohooo!!! Finally! I will try to keep my blog up to date because I want to share with you my adventures and show you all the pictures that I will be taking.  The goals is to share my Sound of Music experience, we are not going to do a tour but I do hope I will be able to find some of the iconic spots and take a picture. I will also try to take pictures inside the Schonbrunn castle, I am hoping that me and my boyfriend can dress up as princess Sissi and  Franz-Joseph and take these really wrong but oh so fun pictures :)  

Well enjoy the rest of your week and don't forget to: