A quite Monday

 Hey there, stranger. 

Yesterday was a nice and relax Monday for me, and I wish all Mondays could be like this. We woke up around half-past eight, had coffee, bacon and eggs on the bed and chill for a while before we started tidying up the house and running a couple of laundries. While Thijs went to the supermarket, I finished organizing the house and then we went for a little walk under the rain and a nice coffee.

 

A trip back in time (part II)

Hey there, stranger.

I owed you this entry for some weeks now, just to show you how this trip ended, right? Where was I? Oh, yes, on a boat! Follow me to continue this adventure...

So our boat trip took us to our next stop in the city of Enkhuizen: the Zuiderzeemuseum! I didn't know what to expect here, but I must say I was really pleased with what I found there.

Enkhuizen, located up north from Alkmaar, was one of the harbour-towns of the Dutch East India Company, from where overseas trade with the East Indies was conducted. There you can find the Zuiderzeemuseum, located on Wierdijk in the historic centre of Enkhuizen, and devoted to preserving the cultural heritage and maritime history from the old Zuiderzee region. The museum has two parts: an indoor building and an outdoor village that was opened back in the 70s. Here is where we started our visit!

Before Ciara

Hey there, stranger.

Last weekend was a long (and much needed) weekend for me. Also, a weekend to stay at home since we had the storm, Ciara, on top of our heads! Or at least, that was our main idea until, of course, we decided to do one of our favourite things during our spare time: visit a museum!

 Our initial idea was visiting the Westfries Museum at Hoorn, but due to the storm lots of trains were cancelled, so we decided not to take the risk and we paid a visit to the lovely Kaasmuseum (cheese museum) here in Alkmaar. 

The Kaasmuseum was founded in Alkmaar in 1983 and it's located in the historic Waaggebouw (weighing house), which was built in the 14th century. The day was quite dark, so I don't have any photos of the beautiful facade of the building, but we manage to take some nice shots inside the museum. 

Every time that you lose it sing it for the world (Karaoke Meet)

Hey there, stranger.

Some weeks ago we had a super nice meet at the Duke of Tokyo, a Japanese-style karaoke in the heart of Amsterdam. The lovely Rossella (@girlfromtherosegarden) took the time to organized it and gurl, what a great idea she had! I cannot thank her enough for this fun experience with the rest of the comm!

Nice places around Alkmaar: Soepp

Hey there, stranger.

You know when you pass by a place you've been wanting to visit so badly but you never got to enter? Well, that was me with this little lovely place where I live until last week! Since my friend Marta was visiting us for a week, I made a little tour around Alkmaar with her, and when we passed by Soepp, we decided that we should have lunch there that day.

Comfortable with myself.

Hey there, stranger.

The weekend is about to start and I'm happy because a good friend of mine is visiting us for a few days in Alkmaar. I have to work too, but we managed to do some nice things together already. 

These photos are from last weekend when we were about to go visiting Thijs' family. The light was lovely and honestly, it was not cold at all. Of course, I was wearing a coat, but I was not cold while shooting the photos. This week temperatures here in the Netherlands are a little bit lower, so doing this would be more difficult. It was a very comfy outfit, even with the puffy petticoat. For me, I feel that Lolita and Otome fashion are the styles I'm more comfortable with, I like how I look when wearing it and I feel more myself. I wear these clothes feeling lots of love for them and it's a way of expressing who I am. 

Needless is to say that, as a lot of my fellow lolita friends I've received lots of critics (most of them unwanted) about the way I look but, you know what? Fuck them. Fuck them with their narrow minds and sad ways of thinking. If you don't like this or any other type of fashion/person, just don't look at them, ignore them. You don't need to make those people feel bad about the way they look just because you don't like their hair colour, makeup or clothes. 

If you're reading this and someone sometimes said something nasty to you because of the way you looked, just repeat out loud with me: Fuck You, assholes. 

Because always remember: we're not here to please anyone, and probably we're all gonna get critics about how we look no matter what we do... So maybe just keep doing it.

T-shirt - customized

Skirt - Metamorphose

Socks - Emily Temple Cute

Shoes - Doc Martens

Beret - Offbrand

A trip back in time (part I)

Hey there, stranger. 

I still have a lot to catch up with you. So much that some things I need to split them in two, or I will write endless posts about the amazing places I've discovered here in The Netherlands so far. This post today is about that, so follow me. 

A short visit to my favourite place in The Netherlands: Teylers Museum

Hey there, stranger.

What have you been doing this week? 

Mine was pretty busy, but I'm trying to come with a plan to make this work. I hope I can keep it up because now that I'm kind of back, I wouldn't like to leave this again. 

I was lucky enough last Saturday to spend the day with my lovely friend Liv in Haarlem. We've been wanting to meet up for a while, and Destiny was kind to us, so we could arrange a date pretty soon. 

Haarlem is a city very close to Amsterdam, and I'm totally in love with it. It has my favourite museum in the entire Netherlands, a place that, maybe it's not too big, but is full of charm. I fell in love with it since the first time I was there, and believe me when I say that I have thousands of photos of this place and that this is not the first time I will be talking about it. 

Blinded by the Sun (at De Rijp)

Hey there, stranger.

So I guess that this is happening. Or at least, I'm gonna try to make it happen. It was one of my resolutions for my birthday, bring back this little corner to life, just because. 

To be honest, I've done a lot since I left. I've been in Sweden twice, in Belgium, back to Poland, back to London and in a lot of places around The Netherlands. Met my friends in Madrid twice, people came to visit me... Yeah, I've been busy. Also with work (not everything is having fun, of course). If you've been following me on Instagram, you know what I've been up to, but of course, I always shoot a thousand photos that I wanna show you. 

And now I don't know where t start! Today I'm sick at home (almost lost my voice and had a fever and nasty coughing) and therefore, I don't feel like being philosophical or intensita (little intense, like we say in Spanish. Oh, yeah, you know I can be pretty intensita).

So I will start here, in one of my favourite days of last spring: our visit to De Rijp.

De Rijp is a village and former island very close to Alkmaar. Before the poldering of the lakes surrounding it, De Rijp was famous for its herring industry (herring is a very typical bite here in The Netherlands, you eat it as a snack in the streets). Today it's known for its rijksmonuments (National Heritage Monuments), which include some of the oldest wooden houses of North Holland. 

Grief

Hey there, stranger. 

Long-time no see. 

I've been away daydreaming, trying to keep going with life and what the future brings me. Life's ok, I consider myself happy in The Netherlands and, although I miss sometimes my friends, I've met nice people here too and little by little my social life is getting back together. 

But of course, there's the Grief. The Grief that is always with me. You see, they said that grieving is a process that we must overcome, but I don't believe it's like that. Grief is something that stays with you during all your life and waits for you to be alone and a little bit sad to attack. Just a song, just a memory, just a smell or the sound of the sea. And there it is, biting your ankles to make you fall. 

Nothing bad happens if you fall, really. I've been there, and I've woke up again. And believe me, I'm not stronger than you or more determined, no. I simply woke up again because I understood some time ago that Grief stays with us forever, and we just need to live with it and make that pain part of ourselves. That way, it hurts every day a little less, except when it wants you to feel it (those days in which it bites your ankles, yes). I promise you that, if you just accept it, it would be ok. Believe me. 

This skirt smells like Grief. I bought it from Jimina while I was in Algeciras during those painful months, and is the one I wore for my mum's funeral. Her funeral, my trial (like Nick Cave says). That day I was about to wear something much simple, but at the last moment I decided that no, this was me, this was who my mom loved (and still loves, I know) and that was it, no matter whoever said about it. So I wore it, and I gave my goodbye speech, and I was proud of my mum and I was proud of myself that day. 

Every time I wear this skirt I remember that moment in which I was brave enough to be me, despite the painful situation. So I feel really proud of myself, no matter the bittersweet memory. It's just part of the process of keep growing up with Grief.