When in...

Hannover

Between my last published blog post and now, a lot has happened. After a summer spent jobbing at home, catching up with old friends and two short trips to some of my favourite places, August suddenly rolled around and with it came my cue to pack up my life and move to a new place to start a new experience. Mid-August, I once again packed up my many pairs of shoes (I can see my dad rolling his eyes at me just by thinking of it), cook books and a couple of pots and pans and moved to Amsterdam to start a Master’s degree.

Almost three months later, I can say I’ve slowly settled into the new city, made friends with new people and (more or less) adapted to the busy student life (again). Even though the focus of my studies is new media, I’ve ironically felt uninspired when it comes to blogging, which I kept re-directing to the fact that I had to write blog posts as a form of assignment, so I didn’t want to be writing them in my free time, too. Ahem.

As so often, blogging inspiration comes and goes, and more often than not, my blogging motivation is influenced by the people around me. With a couple of days off after an intense first seven weeks of Uni last week, I jumped on a train to go visit my ex-roomie/live-in blogger Céline in Germany which resulted in a weekend with too much talking (just kidding, no such thing exists), a little bit too much booze and three new German cities to add to my list of places I’ve been to.

Sometimes, it seems all I need to start writing, photographing, documenting again, is a weekend trip away. With that being said, I thought I’d start my attempt at regular updating again with a couple of insights of what I did in Germany, and more precisely, what I got up to in Göttingen, Bremen and Hannover, even if I only spent about a day in each city.

Vegan Eats | Berlin: vegan capital of Europe

view from Klunkerkranich - a rooftop terrace on top of a shopping mall in Neukölln

Berlin is a great place for a trip for many reasons - laid back vibes, friendly people, culture, budget friendliness... and vegan food. Germany's capital has been named the Vegan capital of Europe more than once and not for no reason. Every time I get to spend a couple of days in Berlin (bless being able to stay with friends there!), I like to eat my way through the city and even though I love finding places to go to in advance and planning my food stops, I know that I can turn a corner here or stand in the middle of the city there and consult Happy Cow and I will always find tasty vegan food not far away. Here are a a couple of places I ate at this time - some newly discovered, some old favourites... too good not to share either way!

Pêle-Mêle [Neukölln]
Top notch place to brunch or have a slice of cake and coffee served in a mug the size of your head. Cosy interior, lovely staff and the café is advertised as a co-working space as well - perfect for all those digital nomads/bloggers/students/can't-work-at-home-people.

Innstrasse 26

12043 Berlin

Soya Vietnamese Vegan Kitchen [Kreuzberg]
Vietnamese restaurant offering an almost entirely vegan menu (only non-vegan item is condensed milk for traditional Vietnamese coffee). Lots of tofu dishes as well as mock meats; "chicken", "duck", "fake fish"...

Falckensteinstrasse 36

10997 Berlin

Yoyo Foodworld [Friedrichshain]
Perfect spot for some budget friendly vegan fast food like pizza, burgers and vegan fried calamari (!!). Simple interior, outside seating, situated in the hip neighbourhood Friedrichshain.

Gärtnerstrasse 27

10245 Berlin

Vegan Snackbar by Attila Hildmann [Charlottenburg]

German author of several cookbooks and my first inspiration to go vegan almost 4 years ago Attila Hildmann finally opened his first restaurant back in May. The place to be when you're looking for mouth watering burgers, pasta dishes with homemade sauces, matcha soft swerve, açaí bowls or healthy energy drinks. Slightly more expensive than your typical Berlin food place but well worth the price considering everything is freshly made, high quality and organic. You even get to chat to the owner himself as he's there most days of the week.

Schillerstrasse 71

10627 Berlin

Café Vux [Neukölln]
Brazilian café, entirely vegan, selling everything from paninis to cakes and waffles, including vegan versions of traditional Brazilian foods. Weekly Sunday brunch from 12 onwards (be on time!) for 9.50€ excluding drinks. Beautiful interior with small outside space.

Wipperstrasse 14

12055 Berlin

Superfoods & Organic Liquids [Mitte]
Drop by for bowls full of health, sweet pick-me-ups (about half are vegan), freshly made smoothies and filling açaí bowls. Comfortable and light interior, comfortable outside seating area, free infused water.

Weinbergsweg 23

10119 Berlin

Vöner [Friedrichshain]

All vegan place to get typical Berlin dishes like Döner (kebab) and Currywurst. Very affordable, extremely filling and not far from Veganz - the entirely vegan supermarket of your dreams.

Boxhagenerstrasse 56

10245 Berlin

Paletas Berlin [Friedrichshain]

Ice popsicle store just around the corner from Yoyo Foodworld, offering a wide range of vegan ice popsicle flavours ranging from fruity (mango, raspberry, ...) to creamy (chocolate, coffee, ...). Get it dipped in dark chocolate and your choice of nuts and you're ready to Instagram that beauty (before devouring it).

Wühlischstrasse 26

10245 Berlin

When in Chiang Mai...

Old and new

coat, jeans: h&m shirt: vintage bag: wilby shoes: adidas

MAN REPELLER - 4 POSTS TO READ

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Goodbye Obama - am I caught up now? 

A couple of days ago, I realised that I hadn't blogged in over a month, meaning I haven't been active on here since before Christmas, before spending some time off back home, figuring out the next couple of months of my life (well, I like to think so at least) and booking my biggest trip yet. As per usual every couple of weeks, my blogging/writing inspiration has reached a low point and even asking friends to take pictures of me in front of pretty London buildings seems like too much of an effort. That being said, the number one thing that always gets me back into the mood of snapping pictures and writing up blog posts is reading other writers' work. I've now long established that ELLE is my favourite magazine for both content and aesthetic pleasure and thanks to my being able to read it for free every month at work, at least one article always sparks my inner writer. That being said, there's only very few blogs or websites where I always find something interesting, funny and purely entertaining to read, and Man Repeller has slowly but surely become one of those sites. 

As I'm still feeling a bit uninspired and scrambling to come up with post ideas or a new way of combining the few jumpers I have here in London, I thought I'd share four Man Repeller posts that made me think, giggle or taught me something and question my decision not to work as a writer for the hundredth time in the past couple of months.

16 Haikus on the Horrors of Puberty

Because the horrors of puberty become incredibly hilarious about a decade later, even if some incidents still make you cringe like it happened just yesterday. Avoid thinking of your own puberty horrors by reading about others', written in poetry form. Endlessly entertaining.

10 New Yorkers Give Advice to New York Transplants

No matter how much time has passed since my last visit to New York (it's been over a year now... sigh), eventually moving to the city of cities, for however long that might be, is still at the very top of my wishlist. Even though that dream may still be far away, if doable at all, reading about other people's experience of moving to the Big Apple is a great way to get some insight and wisdom from now-New Yorkers and invites you to dream of strolling through the streets of Brooklyn as a resident for even just a little while...

How to Be Unemployed

Finishing University and not diving straight in to a job or further study tends to leave you in a limbo of not knowing what to do and when to do it. If you're lucky/successful, you might end up interning or otherwise gaining work experience and get to live in a place other than home but those things also tend to come to an end, so the chances of ending up somewhat unemployed are quite high. In times like those (or for upcoming times), it's always good to know how to use your time wisely and productively, and in a manner that will make you stop questioning your life decisions every half hour.

If You're Freezing, You're Layering Wrong

Granted, London's winter weather is nowhere close to New York's icy winter weather but any cold temperatures make it increasingly easier to fall into a rut of wearing your most comfortable jeans, thickest jumpers and boots your biggest socks fit into, so a little lesson on the right way to layer clothing might be just what you need.

Vegan Eats | Reykjavík: chilli, crêpes and hot chocolate

Having heard of the different places my friend had been to during her longer stay in Reykjavík, I was somewhat prepared to be taken around the city and eat tasty vegan food at different locations. The restaurants and cafes she took me did not disappoint and I was nonetheless positively surprised just how many places offered vegan options on their menus, despite Iceland being a country where meat, fish and dairy are consumed rather heavily. I decided to pack two places into one post and dedicate a third, entirely vegan place we had brunch at its own post. 

Before I get into where you can get the world's best veggie chilli, a comforting hot chocolate and great crêpes, I do want to disclaim that Iceland is expensive. No matter where we ate or how much we ate, eating out easily added up to fifteen to twenty euros, especially if we had a cup of coffee with our meal. That being said, we typically had lunch in the city and ended the day with big bowls of pasta at home to avoid spending too much money.

Interning at a fashion brand

After an initial couple of weeks of pinching-self-excitement that came with assisting at a LFW event, sitting front row at a fashion show (yeah, still can't believe that actually happened) and getting to assist during the filming of a new TV show, the hectic first impressions of London settled down and I started an internship at a fashion company. A good two months later and I've slowly picked up a routine of living and working in London, with the odd weekend trip to Brighton or abroad. Coming to London has somehow thrown me into the world of fashion magazines, show room events and volumes of clothes that leave me dizzy, and even though I've started to get accustomed to my role as an intern, some things still feel slightly crazy and perfectly normal at the same time... So here goes an attempt at giving you a glimpse what it's like to intern at a fashion company.

• Someone at Jimmy Choo was charming enough to send a thank you note for sending over clothes samples. Yes, people working at Jimmy Choo are regular people as well, but I smell "frame-and-hang-on-bedroom-wall" potential for this one.
• These jeans are not "destroyed", they are super loved destroy with a let our hem, mind you. Did you see the signature shirt in fatigue? No, not my current state - the colour, obviously. And what do you mean this t-shirt is black? It's caviar and the one over there is washed black oh and this one is true black. Got it?
• Dumbbell bicep raises are overrated. Just steam a couple of hundred shirts and you'll be on your way to arms made of steel!
• No need to pull an Andy and appear at work in a jumper too large and your grandma's skirt but when it comes to dress code, chances are that more people will be wearing jeans and trainers at the office than heels and lipstick.
• Not-so-vegan-fact: steaming cotton shirts is an absolute pain. Silk ones, however...
• Knowing what Ellie Goulding's perfume smelled like at last week's performance isn't unusual, sitting at your desk sniffing the shirt she wore, however... Serious question: does touching clothes Anna Kendrick wore bring you closer to immortality? Thought so.
• Saving cash has never been easier than when reading magazines isn't an option but compulsory as part of your job description.
• Instead of wearing a wrinkly coat that you can't be bothered to iron or get professionally treated, you can make the de-wrinkling-process a DIY project and steam it at the office once you're done with every other piece of clothing in the show room. Give it three to four hours.