Macaroons? Where?

Since coming back to the flat after Christmas holidays we've all become a little addicted to macaroons. And this generally means any type of macaroon. I brought some back from Luxembourg as a treat, but then I just couldn't get them out of my head. I went to Ladurée in Covent Garden just to get a set of 8 of them for myself. I must say I'm a little unconventional when it comes to macaroon flavour. I like the quirky new flavours, my favourite from that Ladurée box was a passion fruit coconut macaroon. Who even knew that flavour existed?

The box I brought home from Luxembourg was from Oberweis a well known gourmet bakery in Luxembourg. Sadly I didn't get to pick the flavours but all the traditional ones were there. Praline, chocolate, vanilla, coffee, pistachio and lemon, yummy. I was hoping to bring back macaroon mix as well, but I couldn't find any at the local supermarket. Hopefully one day I'll make my own from scratch but at the moment I'm too lazy to invest my time to have a whole batch of the same flavour macaroon. One of the joys of macaroons is the mix you get to pick! 

I also tried the macaroons at Paul's here in London and they were pretty good, but the jam was a little too sticky so I didn't enjoy it as much. However they also do large macaroons which means I only have to eat 2 or so to reach my daily macaroon dosage. If you've never tried one, you're missing out. I recommend you go for a traditional flavour first so you can explore the texture, and then pick something different that catches your eye. In London Ladurée has a bigger selection of flavours, but if you're fond of strawberry, vanilla or chocolate, get yours at Paul's. 

Here's the Ladurée website: http://www.laduree.com/en_int/

Here's Paul's website: http://www.paul-uk.com/

Onesto: Luxembourg

Spending most of my summer in Luxembourg meant that I got to eat at some of the places I loved when I lived here full time. One of the best places to eat near the pedestrian area of the town is "Onesto". They advertise themselves as a pizzeria but they have so much other good Italian food too. Being Italian I rarely want to go out and order a dish of pasta so I always opt for things I can't make at home. Last time I went there with my friends Katie and Caoimhe, I had "frittura mista di verdura", meaning, fried and sautéd vegetables. They were cut really thin, and they were perfectly salted. I loved it. 

One of my favourite Italian dishes is fried zucchini (or pumpkin) flowers. I know it sounds weird, but you have to try them. Onesto serves them as dish of the day occasionally, and they stuff them with cheese before they fry them. Its amazing.

Another thing that is super cute about Onesto is that they have an external terace hidden in the back of the restaurant. Its like a mini oasis, you can see a few other restaurants and the back of some buildings from your seat. Its the perfect place to catch up with friends. And another super cute detail is that the chairs are all multicoloured. 

Here's their website: http://www.resto-onesto.lu/

Pisa

The closest big city to my Dad's hometown is Pisa, and since that's the only airport nearby too we decided to spend the day there. We took the train there and arrived around lunch time. We stopped at a few stores on the way to lunch. I love going to Zara there because its really big, well organized and I always find something I like.We then stopped at a student bar for lunch, having typical Italian food and enjoying being in the shade. After our insanely cheap meal we followed the tourists to the leaning tower of Pisa and the cathedral that is in the square next to it.

There's a legend that says that if you walk up to the top of the tower before you finish your studies you will not pass your exams, so obviously Charlotte and I didn't visit it inside. Unfortunately Italians are quite focused on making as much money as possible, and therefore they charge you for every little thing. Just to visit the town alone costs 15 euros, and in the square there are three other buildings that everyone should see, but they're all expensive.

At this point Charlotte and I just sat down to read in the shade, and then we spent the late afternoon walking around and getting drinks at a couple of different bars. Because in Italy, everything is called a bar, even if its only a café, they just don't ever use the word café.

I don't really like Pisa, but if you're in Tuscany for more than a week, its worth a visit because after a while you get bored of lying on the beach all day. 

Cinque Terre

The "Cinque Terre" are a very famous group of villages on the edge of Tuscany. Charlotte and I were able to take a boat trip to see 2 out of the 5 places. We took the boat at 10:10 and off we went for the day. The first stop was Portovenere which is not one of the five villages, but it was beautiful none the less.

We walked around, and then laid down in the sun, appreciating where we were. Charlotte even did a few drawings. We then ran back to the boat, scared that we had missed it. Luckily we didn't. The next pit stop was Vernazza, a town with a very curved cove, perfect for swimming since you didn't get sand in your toes. At this point I thought it would be smart to pretend to be different sea animals. At least I had fun.

The third town was Monterosso, this was the last stop. The village is very cute, smaller than the others. The thing I liked the most about this place was that the train passes in the middle of the buildings, about 50 meters from the waterfront.

If you're ever in Tuscany I really recommend you go see at least one of these towns, they give you a sense of fairytale unlike bigger towns in Italy.

Here's the website for the group of towns: http://www.parks.it/parco.nazionale.cinque.terre/Eindex.php

Milan: Museo del Novecento

During my two weeks off in August I also got to go Italy. During this particular pit stop, Charlotte and I spent less that 24 hours in Milan, but we were able to enjoy some food, shop, and even see a museum. We chose to go to the Museum of the 1900's, or the real Italian name "Museo del Novecento". 

The museum has an incredible permanent collection and there was also a temporary collection showing some pieces by Andy Warhol which I hadn't yet see, and I've seen a lot of Warhol. 

The building was really amazing, it was a modern new building attached to a very old Italian building. The combination of the two was incredible. And when you looked out of the modern window you got to see the Duomo, the biggest cathedral of the city. 

The coolest thing about the museum was that they mentioned White Chapel Art Gallery, in one of the posters. Here's their website; http://museodelnovecento.org/

If you're ever in Milan you should go!

Attending a Wedding

Over my holiday I got to go to my first wedding, well really it was my second, but the first time I was 8, and I spent the whole reception throwing wet paper towels to the ceiling to see if they'd stick. So this wedding was very different. It was in Limoges in France, but it was a very English style wedding. The main reception was an early afternoon tea, with cakes, lots of cake. 

Ok, maybe I didn't have that much tea, but I still had a really good night. The wedding started at 12:30, so we got there a bit earlier. My friend Emily was one of the bridesmaids so I was able to see all of them getting ready. And I even helped the bride with her hair. 

It was just a really fun experience, and I got to know a few really great people. Everything was so pretty, even if part of the theme was to have everything kind of mismatched. I think the decorations were incredible and everyone seemed to be having an amazing time. 

Over the next two decades I know I'll be attending loads of weddings all over the world, and I will get sick of them. But the fact that my first wedding was a cute small one really made me look forward to the others. 

Am Clubhaus Op Der Spora

Op der Spora is an incredible restaurant in Luxembourg. It’s a little hard to get to, because it’s in a forest and no buses go there. But the food is amazing. My friend once had her birthday dinner there, and since then my family and I go there at least once every time I’m back because their sushi is so good. They have a sushi chef and a normal chef because the restaurant serves European cuisine too. But it’s definitely not a fusion restaurant. The sushi is kept very far from all the other food.

One thing I love is that if you order sushi then they bring you free miso soup before, and hey, who doesn’t love free food? The staff is really nice too, and the place has a really good turnover, they probably fill every table twice per meal. They also do sushi to go, which we’ve taken advantage of a few times.

But best of all, it’s a really calm and warm place, even in winter. The fact that it’s surrounded by nature makes you feel even luckier to be there and sometimes getting away from the traffic of everyday life is good. Even if it’s just for an hour or two at lunch.

Here’s their website: http://www.amclubhaus.lu/

Welcome to Luxembourg

My family moved to Luxembourg in 2004 and is still living in here. Luxembourg is a tiny country in between France, Belgium and Germany if you didn’t know. It’s not a well known country, but it does have a lot of good things. It’s a centre for banking because there are really low taxes compared to other countries so many major companies have branches here.

But on a touristic it’s known for the way the city is structured. There are several green valleys in the centre of the city because the river cut through the hills a lot time ago.  The rest of the city is on multiple plateaus. There are many small winding roads where cars find it difficult to pass, and cobble stone roads are one of the main features of the town. There’s a pedestrian area in the main shopping area of the town allowing the people to feel safer.

I think I only really appreciate Luxembourg when the weather is good and I can walk around through the winding roads because in winter the city looks really depressing and empty. Also I spent all my high school life wishing I could leave so I’ve only really gotten the chance to look around and enjoy this tiny town during this summer. After all, every city looks better with a little sunshine.

Here’s the tourist’s office’s website: http://www.lcto.lu/en/index

Last Day in Marrakesh

We were able to do a lot on our last day in Marrakesh. We had planned on seeing the important cites at the south side of the Medina on different days, but we then played with our schedule a bit and decided to see them all at once, after all they're all only a few streets away from one another. 

We started the morning at the Saadian Tombs, where you pay 10 MAD for entrance. The building is at the back of an important Mosque and the tombs are spread out in little different rooms with a green courtyard between the different rooms. Each tomb has at least one door way, where people could go to pray and visit their loved ones. The tombs are decorated with colourful tiles, engravings in wood and brick and many other little decorations. 

It was interesting to see so many tourists looking at the architecture, because that's what we see when visiting very different places such as Morocco. However to the locals it probably means a lot more. I would have liked there to be a more descriptive panel posted near the tombs explaining the background of the tombs so we could all gain a little more insight for why this particular tomb is such an important landmark. 

We then visited the Bahia Palace, which was wonderful. There were indoor and outdoor gardens, and so many small decorative details that we no longer see in Europe. The tiny tiles blended in well with the painted ceilings and stone engravings giving each room character even if it was empty. Moroccans tend to show their wealth by having fountains, because if you can waste water it shows that you have enough money to do so. I think that's an interesting mentality behind a decorative feature. 

The Bahia Palace only had windows when looking into the courtyard but never towards the exterior. This was strange to me because it gave me the impression of being closed off. Their windows however have beautiful curved metal wiring. This is where decoration works well with practicality. 

Lastly we visited the Dar Si Said Museum which was off the main roads. The rooms were dark but there were interesting historical objects showing the Moroccan and the Berber cultures very well. Intricate wooden doors and windows were displayed as well as a group of old fire arms and beautiful praying rugs. The museum had several small staircases which we used to see the different rooms, and we were able to visit most of the building which was an old rich man's house. 

Each different landmark we visited we tried to soak in and understand the most possible about the country and the culture. I truly enjoyed learning so much on my own where each discovery was new to me because I organized the trip myself without much previous knowledge about Moroccan culture. 

Souks Marrakesh

Shopping in Morocco is very different from walking down Oxford Street. There are not many "real stores" in Marrakesh unless you go to some of the malls in the new part of the city. The main stores in the Medina are the Souks. Souks are small individual stands which sell regional items and are generally owned by two people. One of these people stands or sits inside the shop and the other one stands outside and tries to lure you in. If you even look at one person's items they will notice that you looked and therefore convince you to look into the store for a better view. 

There are different zones for the different key items being sold. There are specific roads and areas for leather, slippers, jewelry, clothes, lanterns, and clay goods. However they do sort of all blend into one. You will find at least one jewelry store mixed in with all the leather ones. 

Its nice because you can browse at which ever speed you like, and unlike in Europe you can haggle prices to very low and they will still give you the product. You just have to know how to bargain. After the first few days I started getting the hang of it, and I rarely changed the original number I gave them but Daniella was very good at it from the start. You have to be firm and not let them scare you. Try your best not to show them you want their product. 

I loved looking through the crowded jewelry displays and all the other interesting things they had for sale. But thankfully we didn't happen to walk past the animal section of the Souks on any of our visits. 

One thing that people will often tell you is that you will get lost in the Souks, its true. But its ok, after you buy something just ask the seller where you are on your map and how to get to the road you want. Do not ask people on the street because they'll ask for money, or will only tell you where the square (Jemaa el Fna) is. Be alert, but try to enjoy the different experience. We had a lot of fun!