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Bali Backpacking

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I went away, far away. Destination Bali.
In following post I want to tell you about the best experiences I made, I’ll show you how absolutely beautiful this country and its culture is and I will give you some recommendations if you ever consider traveling to Indonesia.

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Here a little map of our trip. After a 14 hours flight we – my best friend and I – arrived in Denpasar. Before that we had to change planes in Singapore – here my first piece of advice for you. Always make sure you have more time than 1 hour to change planes, otherwise you’ll run (like really really run) and you won’t have time for dutyfree shopping!

However, we arrived and got to our Hostel in Ubud, the so called cultural centre of Bali.
It is a very busy city with lots of traffic but many cute little shops and many things to see.

The place is quite touristic, however as I would find out during this trip, Bali itself has become a complete tourist-magnet and the people who live there rather open a little restaurant or a shop instead of making their money with traditional fishing or agriculture. Most Balinese people which are now 20 to 35 years old have studied tourism. However the culture and religion is still of big importance to the local people.

In Ubud there are great restaurants and places to go out, you can see celebrations in temples or visit the monkey forest.

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Recommendation for Ubud: 

Hostel: Pandok Permata (15 minutes walk from centre, best banana pancakes in the world, very friendly staff, warm water in the shower, pretty rooms/ cost: about 8 Euros each à night)

Restaurant: The Bali Yoga Restaurant (Jl. Kajeng No. 11) (very cheap but local and yummy food)

Culture: Ubud Palace (picture above) and rice fields in the western part of the city (if you find time, walk them all the way up and get a ride back down, cause most tourists only walk trough the fields for a little while, so if you wander further you’ll be all by yourself and you’ll find the cutest restaurants (make sure you go around sunset, you won’t have a better view of it anywhere else in Ubud)

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Holiday Special #5

CHOICE, THAT’S THE THING

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I am not sure this is a spoiler – so I guess if you ever consider reading “The Chaos of Stars” by Kiersten White you might not want to read any further… although I am only going to talk about one Quote.
About the books I read on holiday I am going to write a blogpost later.

Here it is:

–

“And I’d choose you; in a hundred lifetimes, in a hundred worlds, in any version of reality,
I’d find you and I’d chose you”

–

Aren’t those words absolutely perfect? I mean choice, that’s the thing!
I thought about this a lot and about how much I wished that a guy would consciously choose me with all my flaws and all my issues.
Commitment.
I like the idea about losing one another out of sight and maybe even out of mind but then finding each other again because it has to be – because both want it to be that way. Because the choice has been made and no matter what, if both make the same decision, they will find each other again.

Choices are very powerful.
It’s about making them wisely… and about actually making them in the first place.
If you don’t make a choice, you won’t change anything, you won’t develop and you won’t ever get happy.
Because you cannot become a happy person if you don’t know what you want.

Let’s make choices. Good ones. Real ones.
With our hearts.

jana x

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Holiday Special

THE THING ABOUT THE SEA
Rhodes – “Your Soul“

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I am like the ocean.
Just like it, I am relentless,
hopeful.
Like it, I am trying.
See, the sea forever tries to
reach the shore
just to be rejected
over and over and over
again.
Still it tries uncountable times
to reach what it yearns for.
So does my love.
I keep trying to reach you with it,
my love.
You can reject me
over and over and over
again
– I don’t want to and I cannot
stop.
I won’t give up.
Except if you shape your shore
to cliffs of hatred and desperation.
Then I might cease
because I might have the will of the sea
but I don’t own it’s strength.

And unlike it, I don’t have
million chances to try
and succeed.

4. April 2015

What I want to talk to you about is the calmness I always feel when I am at the ocean.
I am completely and utterly in love with the sea and the beach and the way it is so infinite and beautiful. I love the smell of the salty water, the sand on my feet, the breeze on my skin. Literally, the sea, for me the “mountain-girl”, is a miracle.
I always become very thoughtful when I am walking along the beach. I guess it’s too hard not to. And the sound of the waves always calms me – it’s as if the sea talks to me too.

I have been thinking a lot near there. I found some time for myself and finally, finally, finally some time to relax and to let my heart breathe for a little bit.
I guess I was even praying to the sea, and I cried.
And obviously all I did was talking to myself in my mind, thinking, considering, and just staring ahead into the nothingness.
Great moments.

As I came back I felt healed.
Some of the pain has been washed away and I started to seeing parts of myself that I thought were lost long ago.

Please always treasure the sea.
And if you want to think and breathe – go look for the ocean.
Sit down, recollect, close your eyes and listen.
Trust me you’ll figure yourself out, you’ll heal and you’ll find yourself.

Let’s hope what we found will last for a while.

jana x

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Visiting France

The Format – “First Single“
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With one of my best friends I went to Bretagne, France. We had an eight hour trip with the car. I drive since one year – but driving with someone else’s car in a country which has way more cars than Switzerland was a serious challenge.

This was our route: Quimper-Brest-Saint Brieuc-Saint Malo. On our way to Quimper we accidentally drove for several hours through the countryside of France – and we almost ran out of gasoline! Well, trust me, always check your GPS and the route it chooses…

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We basically just wanted to go and visit the sea. I mean, who goes north in winter when it’s not tourist season? Seriously, there is a reason why it isn’t tourist season there in winter – because the weather is horribly cold and changeable. Several tourist attractions were closed, which was a shame. But anyway, we visited many cliffs, observation points – and the SEA. My favorite places are listed below:

Pont-Aven: A beautiful village where the river L’Aven runs through. Seriously magical, as if you were in a fairytale (look at the first picture below).

Pointe du Raz: This is a rugged cape with cliffs, which were more than 70 meters high. If you decide to go there, check the clouds around you. We got caught in a blizzard when we were there and the wind was super strong. But the freedom you feel at the cliff is just amazing (check out the three following pictures after Pont-Aven).

Mont Saint-Michel: This is a monastery built near the coast. When there is high water the construct is almost completely surrounded by the ocean. Loads of tourists were there, even though it wasn’t season for it – so be aware.

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10869337_10203255028358001_124377918617400899_oIMG_769910498709_771904022890375_7527620239440813389_oI love spontaneous holidays with people I feel close to. France has been very nice, but not very relaxing. To a romantic like me, cliffs have its significant, specific meaning.

I have a tattoo which says “the which the sea breaks against”. It’s translated form the Aleut word “Alaska” – Aleyska is its archaic spelling and reminds me of my mum’s name.

Cliffs mean strength, relieve, hope and beauty to me.

I tried to let my heart breathe there, but it was just too adventurous all the time for me to really get into emotional-thinking-mode or to reflect a lot. My mind and heart were always consumed with worries – for it was a troublesome, hard time then – and i missed my beloved one – as always.

Main Outfit:

scarf/headband/jeans/socks – H&M
coat/bag – Vero Moda
shoes – Max Shoes
camera – Canon EOS 1100D

jana x