♪ Paradise - Big Sean ♪

I know I still got many posts to write about Sicily, but the reason I'm behind schedule is the Untold Festival which I attended in Cluj Napoca (I can't wait to also write a post about it, it was an incredible experience!!).

Tomorrow I'll be 21 (Where does the time fly?? I remember being 15 when I wrote my first post for this blog!) and I'm glad I'm sharing my favorite day on my Sicilian trip on this occasion!  Whenever you ask someone about their favorite spot in Sicilia, they instantly reply: Taormina! Naturally, it ended up being our favorite place as well, we went on three different days there and I would still love to visit it few more times in my lifetime.

I loved the streets just as much as I loved the streets in Florence and Paris 

(therefore, they made it into my top 3 list) probably because of the multitude of colorful flowers and beautiful buildings. The Botanical Garden is also breathtaking, but what really stands out is the Ancient Theatre of Taormina. It's a view I'll never forget, we just really couldn't bring ourselves to leave it!! You had the magical theatre, with the sea and the Mount Etna in the background. I just felt infinite staying there and contemplating. At some point, we stopped to get some refreshments and I finally tried the famous cassata Siciliana - I took it as personal challenge because it's told to be the sweetest dessert in Sicilia, and I'm never one to back down haha! It's actually a sponge cake moistened with fruits juices and with ricotta cream between the layers (the same recipe for the canolli filling cream) and covered in marzipan (green usually). Everyone found it to be too sweet, but I went crazy for it! In Taormina I also found the wallet of my dreams, at Furla, on a sale, which I got for myself as a birthday present.

After Taormina, we went to Savoca, a mountain village where scenes from Godfather Part 1 were filmed ( Michael's wedding was not actually shot in Corleone, as it's stated in the movie) and we actually had a delicious lunch at Bar Vitelli , the famous bar where Michael meets Apollonia's father (who owns bar Vitelli in the movie). I've never heard of crostone before, and I love it! I didn't find it in other parts of Sicily and Bar Vitelli also had the best strawberry granita I've ever had in Italy. Aside from Bar Vitelli, it was also beautiful to walk on the roads Michael and Apollonia would walk (with the horde of aunts behind them haha). I chose a light blue dress from Zara for that day, which was a birthday gift from my best friend last year, which made the heat bearable!

“And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”

- Paulo Coehlo, The Alchemist

I read this for the first time five years ago, when I started high school, and it stuck with me. Fate, luck, blessings, karma, we all believe in something. My 20th birthday sure felt like a blessed day. I always had this idea about me shooting next to an oleander when in Greece. Couple of years ago, I missed this opportunity when I visited Thassos. This year, one day before my birthday I found in Rhodes the last Oysho dress I've been dreaming about all summer at  50% off.  'All I need now is a tree' I told myself and the next day, there I was, walking on the magic streets of the Old Town when something pink caught my peripheral vision. Not only it was the biggest and most beautiful oleander that I've seen in Rhodes, but it was also on a quaint street, away from the tourist cram. Whenever I look at the photos I remember Stephen Chbosky's brilliant line from 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower' and I swear I was infinite.

♪ Madonna - Iconic ♪

I've always wanted to receive my birthday gifts when it's my actual birthday, but it seems this year my family and my best friend S. had other plans! I was supposed to return from Iasi on a Sunday after I finished my work, but I called S. on Saturday night to catch up, one thing led to another and we decided that it would be best for us to properly visit Iasi for three days (we try to visit beautiful places in Romania at least two times a year). She arrived on Monday and we had a great time walking around the Palace of Culture (you can see it in these photos). Then, a massive rain changed our plans, but I believe it was for the best: we hid in the cosy Starbucks Garden and had 'refresha beverages' (a summer special, I'm not usually a fan of black tea, but I really loved this one!) and then proceeded with a shopping spree in Palas ( it wasn't my first this summer, neither S.'s but we sure had a lot more fun shopping together).

Now back to the gift part: S. couldn't wait for another month to give me my birthday gift and considering the fact I last saw her in April, I was on the same page. Just after she arrived in Iasi she gave me a pretty Zara bag and when I opened it I saw my dream summer dress (pictured above) and Madonna's latest album "Rebel Heart". Back to the dress, I changed in an instant and it fit just perfectly so I decided to wear it for our walk. It's been my favorite ever since, because of the back cut and its fabric, it's the only dress I have that makes 36-38 Celsius degrees bearable. 

As for Madonna's latest album, I think it's underrated. She always tries to reinvent herself (I'm not talking about her fashion in this post, her music strictly) and I honestly loved her new take on pop. Obviously, it was thanks to Diplo's contribution, singers like Kanye West (who produced "Illuminati" and "Holy Water" ), Nicki Minaj ( "Bitch I'm Madonna"), Alicia Keys (playing the piano in "Living for Love") and so many other talented people. S. really knows me, it's been our no. 1 choice for our car rides lately!

Photo Credit: Cristian Alexandrescu Photography

I can't believe I still haven't shared with you all the photos I took in Paris back in December! This is a very emotional post for me, because The Eiffel Tower is proof there still are things which can surprise you in an overhelming way.

We've seen it from far away many times while we stayed in Paris, and in our final night we wanted to go visit the entire Rive Gauche , including Le Cartier Latin, Saint-Germain-des-Prés etc. and end our tour at the base of the Eiffel Tower. Due to the fact that from our hotel there was no good connection to the left bank by metro and we walked in circles for more than an hour looking for the bus station., we weren't able to complete our plan. We got all upset and disappointed that our last night was wasted in such a terrible way. Thank God I'm one of those people who use their anger to get out of a critical situation. I remembered how easy was to get from the Champs Elysees to Place du Trocadero by subway. Therefore, I even persuaded  Cristi to stop for half an hour to walk on the Champs Elysees again ( just to soak it all in- the pretty Louis Vuitton windows, the fancy bistros) and then we went to see the Eiffel Tower.

 We had low expectations because we were tired, we heard that it was an overrated sight , plus we were told we should see the tower from its base. There were also all sorts of weird people, as it was Sunday, very late at night. And then WE SAW IT! Imense, imposing, a true work of art! I suddenly felt blessed that we had this change of plans, because the lights were incredible and I felt like the tiny tower we've seen from far in the last days had nothing in common with the architectural marvel I had in front of my eyes. The photos don't do it justice, trust me, it's even more imposing seen from the Trocadero! You have to visit it yourself (at night) to understand my feelings of excitement and love.

I can't understand why Parisians hated La Tour Eiffel so much at first- Guy de Maupassant went as far as eating every meal in the tower because it was the only place he would not see the 'hideous' creation on the window in Paris. Maybe it was the idea of change that scared them. When I was little, I used to cry every time we got new furniture or a new car, although it was an obvious upgrade. I would make a scene and call it horrible and then, after some time, I would have become so attached to it my parents would be completely shocked.

It was love at first sight and that's when I decided that one day I will visit Paris again and I will take my time to study the tower from all the recommended angles and lights (plus, I still haven't seen Le Cartier Latin, Disneyland and Versailles). I don't think you can ever say you've seen everything worth to be visited in Paris, it's such a magical city, one where I felt genuinely happy and blessed!

Photo Source: Cristian Alexandrescu Photography

2014 is so close!!! I hope you'll have a marvellous time and that you already have you resolutions list prepared. I'll be spending the New Year's Eve with some lovely people and a special dress code: denim! I know, wearing jeans is so weird on this occasion, but if we are to be honest, I think it's pretty awesome I start a new year wearing what I usually choose on a regular basis. All I want for 2014 is to be just as fabulous as 2013 has been: I finally chose the college that's right for me(hopefully I will get in there in July), I took my driver's license, I turned 18, I received the most incredible gifts , I had the opportunity to visit Paris!

Back to Paris, this is my second post about it, where I promised to tell you the story about what I visited on my first day there. After we saw Pont Alexandre III and Place des Invalides, we took the RER and arrived at the Orsay Museum. I'm totally in love with impressionism, so you can imagine this museum was simply heaven for my eyes! You might know from my old posts I read a lot of books about Vincent Van Gogh's life and art and seeing so many paintings in the same room almost brought tears to my eyes. Never have I felt so connected to a form of art, his technique is flawless and I always get so emotional when I think that the only one who supported him while he lived was his younger brother, Theo. Then there was the pointillism dedicated room, obviously filled with painting from the emblematic master Georges Seurat. Other cool thing is that now I can tell the difference between a Monet and a Manet and I can understand the hype around Cezanne's apples. The architecture of the museum is incredible, as it used to be the first train station in Paris (are you familiar with the movie Hugo?).Overall, the Orsay Museum was one of my favourite sights, and should I ever return to Paris, I will spend a whole day there because we were in a severe lack of time when we visited it.

After the museum, we took the RER once again and went to Île-de-France, where there are so many sights it overhelms you! One thing about the RER: You save a lot of time, which is amazing, but the system is confusing, unlike the METRO. Knowing French really came in handy because we had to ask a couple times to make sure we were at the right line. First we went to Notre Dame de Paris, it's definitely worth seeing at night because the lights are magical. It's a truly imposing building, with an incredible architecture. We walked by Palais de Justice but unfortunately weren't able to see Saint-Chapelle as it was late at night.  We also walked on the impressive Pont Neuf and saw the Conciergerie. It was one of my biggest wishes, as I first discovered Conciergerie on Miss Pandora's blog and thought : "what a pretty castle". Then, I did some research and I was shocked to see the building had actually been a prison for centuries!

We left "the island" and walked on the right side of Seine until we reached Pont des Arts, the famous bridge where you leave a lock. Of course, I forgot mine in the hotel room because we left in a rush. You have to see it with your eyes, we weren't expecting actually that many locks, the amount is just insane! Then it was Louvre time! We first saw the Carousel and Jardins des Tuileries. Before we left for Paris, there were many people who told us the gardens would be disappointing: completely false! It was like autumn, the trees still had their leaves and the grass was greener than ever, so December really is a great time to visit Paris, because you also get to see all the Christmas decorations.

The Louvre Museum was an interesting experience, totally different from Orsay as it mostly has classic paintings. Maybe you'll think I'm weird, but I wasn't impressed with Mona Lisa most. The painting is so small and the tourists crowded to see her just make you anxious and eager to see other things. My favourite section was the wall with a few paintings of Leonardo Da Vinci like 'Lady with an ermine' or 'St John the Baptist'. He is a genius, I just feel that 'Mona Lisa' isn't his masterpiece. We were stuck in the museum for a lot of time due to unexpected rain and we got to visit the most of it, and also got to explore the intricate details of the ceilings, mirrors, furniture etc. 

When we were finally able to leave the museum, we went to Rue Saint-Honoré, a big dream of mine, where I got to admire all the famous brand stores (oh God, the Miu Miu store shines just like a diamond!) and then we visited Place Vendome. This particular place will stay in my heart forever, because it has another level of beauty, combined with luxury, high fashion and really classy Christmas decorations. I just wish that someday I'll be able to actually walk in a Dior or Chanel store, they all looked so magical! We also got to admire Palais Garnier,  which is their National Opera and the Galeries Lafayette (best window of the store goes to Roger Vivier). Looking back, I'm pretty proud we managed to visit all these incredible sights in just 8 hours and I can't wait to travel abroad again!

Photo Credit: Cristian Alexandrescu Photography

I hope you all had a jolly Christmas and that you enjoyed spending some quality time with your friends and family, I sure did! The holidays also gave me the opportunity to go through all the photos from Paris. Let me just say that having a photographer with you is really awesome and that I hope he doesn't mind I edited the photos, we always have different points of view on the lighting. 

Seeing me in a dress at +5 degrees , you might think we went crazy and I kept on taking my coat off at every corner! I wish, but long gone are the days when I would freeze at -15 Celsius degrees for the sake of the blog. This was the first shoot , so naturally there was this Paris hype in our souls and that's why we took so many photos. You should have seen us 6 hours later: "Just take one picture of me here, so mom can see I visited this as well" haha.

Now, the amount of things we visited in the first days is INSANE. Some people even wouldn't believe us when we told our story, but we managed so well because I've been planning this trip to Paris for two years and I already knew the location of the main sights and the main streets by heart (God bless Google maps!). I think there are around 100 (good) photos with me from the first day, so I chose to share 25 on this first post, when I was all full of energy and we visited the Esplanade des Invalides surroundings, including the famous Pont Alexandre III. For me, the bridge was breathtaking because I could feel the fashion vibe while walking on it ( all the Vogue Paris editorials shot here plus the editorials of my favourite fashion bloggers like Gary Pepper Girl) and also because it was also the first time we saw the Eiffel Tower while we were in Paris. In the next post I will give you the complete list of sights which we visited during that day and I will share my impressions.