Embalaje para España: 5 traveling tips.

After spending last five days here in Dubrovnik with my boyfriend at his parents house, our Summer holiday is slowly coming to an end. Tonight we are traveling to Barcelona where we need to find an apartment, furnish it a bit and make it a home for him/us for next couple of seasons. For both of us next month or so will be quite stressful, important and tiresome transitional period with moving to new countries, settling in new apartments and a new working environment. 

Since I am a quite an experienced traveller, traveling abroad in average 1-2x a month or more depending on business needs and having lived in more then 3 countries in last ten years, I decided to post 5 easy traveling tips for all of your frequent fashion travelers. 

1. Carry on luggage. 

Carry on luggage can weigh up to 10kg with most airlines but it is always useful to check on your flight carrier website before the trip. Since my daily Lei Lou purse is quite big I can fit all of my carry on items in it. I usually carry my laptop in it, passport, valet, phones, camera, books, business cards, planner, toothbrush and toothpaste and more valuable jewelry. Also - when I have a transfer flight I always bring a spar outfit in carry on for the cases when my transfers are cutting close and there is a chance my luggage can be lost. If you are flying with discount carriers like easy-yet or Ryan-air bring some Euros in cash since they charge food and water in the plane separately. 

2. Dressing for the trip.

What you wear for the trip will obviously depend on the time of the year and nature of your trip. When I go to business trips and I need to go straight to the office from airport I travel in heels, shirt and pencil skirt with a cardigan, however when I travel on private arrangement like today, when its warm I travel in flats - chucks or ballet flats with jean shorts and button up or I just put on a t-shirt and bring cardigan or a soft scarf like the scull McQueen one on the photo bellow.

3. Key fashion pieces. 

What you bring at any trip again will depend on the nature of your trip but there might be some staples which are always useful. This is what I discovered to be the safest things to pack as a base: dark skinny jeans, white chucks, denim shorts, one pair of tights and one pair of light sweats. Little black dress, floral dress, one blue or white cotton button up, navy 3/4 pants, blue and white striped t-shirt, gray t-shirt and white and black tanks tops, 2 bikinis (black and one in color), leather jacket, 4 pairs of heels, flip-flops, 2 cardigans, 2 purses black and brown, black cotton pencil skirt and on top of all this couple of additional items which add personality to your look like jewelry, scarves, hats etc.

4. Packing luggage. 

I think after all these years I can say that I have became a pro in packing. I always bring one big red suitcase when staying somewhere for 5 days or more. I pack each of my shoes in a separate cotton bag, my underwear, bikinis and bra in its own cotton bags. First I fold the clothes (leaving a chunk of space for my cosmetic bag which is huge) and then I fill the spaces in between with wrapped shoes. I put purses and belts in  the big compartment in closing of the suitcase. 

5. Unpacking at destination. 

It is important to immediately unpack at destination, obviously not all of the suitcase but at least those pieces which wrinkle easily. Most of the hotels have spacey closets, iron available in the room, little net stand to lift up your suitcase and a clothing stand which helps keep your clothes which you plan to wear for the next day wrinkle free.

EXTRA TIP! 

Traveling with your pet.

Since I am moving to a new country where nobody will be able to babysit my dog while I am traveling, Papi will need to fly with me each month to Barcelona. Papi is a 14kg mid size dog so I am not able to bring him up with me in the cabin, he rather needs to travel in his cage as a luggage. I don't give Papi any food on the day of the flight, just water, I also don't give him any medicine to calm him down as I am not sure how the medicine would affect him during flight. It is important not to put any toys or any other items in his cage ( I suggest the one with plastic screws not the one with clips).

 If you plan to fly with your dog he needs to have a valid passport, update vaccinations and he needs to have a vet check (signed and stamped in his passport) done no longer then 7 days from the flight date. Here is where you can get all of the detailed guidelines for traveling with your pet. 

I hope you found these tips useful lovelies! :)

Madrid week in review....

It seems like every time I come to Madrid to work and spend quality time with my boyfriend at the same time I neglect posting a little bit cause I try to use every second of our time together wisely as these moments to do simple things like walking around the city together or watching a movie are scarce. We both work and travel a lot so this seems to be the best possible deal for the time being.

 After work and while my boyfriend was at practice or napping I used time to read and get some tan  in front of our building.

For a couple of months now I am promising to bring Monopoly from Croatia and this time I finally did, we played couple of times - first time he totally left me money-less but next couple of times I showed him who's the boss. ;)  

I had the opportunity to watch two of the quarterfinal games after which every time we traditionally go to Mimi's - the best craperia and ice-cream place in Madrid owned and managed by our charming Serbian friend Zoran and his lovely wife Soraya. You can read my post about Mimi's here.

I got this James Dean coffee cup to my boyfriend in Zagreb recently when I was getting some small presents for his parents, it reminded me of him cause he has very similar swag that James Dean had and he has his photo on D&G T-shirts he often wears. The sign on the cup said: A rebel without a cause. - this sentence also nicely describes my boyfriend ;)

Although Zoki and Sona at Mimi's have the most delicious cakes, croissants, ice-cream and salty and sweet Nutella crapes I resisted in the light of my "preparation for bikini shape" and only had a lovely ice-coffee late on the photo higher up.

While at Mimi's where we already feel and behave like at home, we call it our cafe "Cheers", the place everyone knows our name, we peaked at the daily newspaper article about my boyfriend and his best friend from the team Novica.   

Later in the week we finally went to get a tailored made jacket for my boyfriend at Scalpers which one could describe as a Rugby Ralph Lauren meets Abercrombie & Fitch hybrid. They are the only ones who were making and shipping internationally the cotton casual jacket my boyfriend wanted. If you are curious to see how this hybrid looks like you can check it out here.

Seems like this brand is in high demand as Spanish people of upper class definitely strive to look as prep as possible, you know: khakis, button up shirt, navy blazer or a cardigan thrown over the shoulders with some loafers on their feet.

Their women on the other hand look a bit like a desperate housewife's club while daughters are dressed to match mothers and boys identically like fathers - all in all, the scene looks like some Stepford horror movie.

Our friend Zoran from Mimi's took this photo, he said: "I wish my iPhone battery wasn't dead, I would take a photo of you two now!" and Ante passed his iPhone to take this picture. I remember having a short flash back of last year of travel back and forward to Madrid and all we went through in such a short time period and couldn't help noticing that we are slowly making a step progress in our relationship where I's are ever so often replaced with WE's.

I SPY: Dubrovnik.

Like all the other events in our relationship, meeting my boyfriend parents was no ordinary event.

One of my boyfriend’s best friends invited us to his wedding which was taking place in Dubrovnik where my boyfriend is from, naturally we were to stay at his parents’ house – so this was a premature meet-the-parents event.

Now, since I was arriving from Zagreb and my boyfriend was flying in from Madrid, I was cutting my attendance at Zagreb’s fashion week one day short to be able to attend this wedding and naturally had to have my hair done as well, so I arrived to Dubrovnik few hours before my boyfriend and his dad picked me up from the airport and I had to met his parents on my own.

When I was still in Zagreb I played it cool, no issue, wasn’t nervous…I purchased small gifts for his parents, I felt ready…but…when I landed to Dubrovnik I was nervous as hell.  Thankfully, the moment I saw his dad (looking just like my boyfriend but with gray hair and older) we went for a coffee, he took me to hairdressers and I was at ease.  His parents are very casual, warm hearted and kind – they made me feel like I was at home right away, I was actually a bit sorry to leave so quickly hehe J

Wedding also went well; my boyfriend was very affectionate and considerate towards me the whole night, knowing I don’t know many people there. Overall I felt comfortable; I met all of his childhood friends and had a lot of fun. We even met two little kids, one was a major fan of my boyfriend and a little girl couldn’t stop playing with my ring and my earrings.

The next morning, again, my boyfriend flew to Madrid early in the day and I stayed until later in the evening alone with his parents. Part of the time I spent with them, as I wanted to get to know them better and part of the time I used to meet a friend in the city and walk around Dubrovnik’s historic old town. 

I bought some sugared almonds, took my camera and went exploring.

 During the walk through the narrow stone covered streets an older guy (the city’s oldest barber) invited me to his barber shop in which he was sitting in and smoking with his two friends and told me the story about his barber shop which is more than 50 years old and about destructions it suffered during the war.

His shop is full of client photos, photos of celebrities who visited, naked girl’s pictures, vintage barber equipment and there were also 4 birdcages with various birds in there. His newest bird was a baby pigeon which fell from the nest. Baby pigeon didn’t have a name, so I named him Koko (the guy refused to name him Papito as I originally suggested, he already has Carlos so he said one Spanish named bird is enough).

Did you do meet – the –parents thing already lovelies? Any cool stories to share? J

Double face love.

Photo by Frederik Heyman

Recent conversation with couple of my friends on trust and relationships got me thinking. Is love really double-faced? How many of us love with fingers crossed in our pockets? How many people is in relationship with one person with a number of B options just a click away in his/hers cell-phone, notebook, Facebook, Twitter or WhatsApp? So when the tough gets going in a relationship you are CLICK gone…and CLICK goes the next one…

I wrote about love and trust in a number of ways in couple of different posts, going through various stages in life. It was quite interesting for me to learn how my own views changed with experience, as I guess there is no other way to learn this lesson but on my own skin.

Here are the couple of posts I wrote on this topic…

Emotional switch

Masks off

Wake up call

Trust

Still, going through my current life stage and relationship I find myself going foolishly and naively all out on a daily basics trying to be positive, loving and thinking that the other person will equally openly and honestly feel and act towards me, with no fingers crossed with no B options CLICK away…does he, do they really do the same?

What should one do when in doubt? Confront for every little thing? Ask rather than assume? Listen to that women instinct or let it go?

When I look back and remember myself when I was a little girl observing my parents well functioning marriage…wearing crown on my head and princess outfit on a daily basis, acting and moving like a confident princess trusting each person from the first day we met – I almost feel guilty telling that same girl with same morals just a bit older now, to be careful, wiser, to step back and act unlike her character in order not to get hurt.

When did double face love got in fashion?

El hogar es donde esta el corazon....

The worst thing about going away 

is fighting every little piece of me which just wants to stay.

The hardest thing to do 

is leaving without being sure that giving my all is good enough for you.

The worst thing is the day before, 
when sadness silently floats around the room, 

next morning you come home to an empty house and can still smell around what's left of my perfume.

All the feelings which are left unsaid 

keep spinning around in different forms in my head.

While I am walking towards the plane 

trying to silence my heart and listen to my brain...

...I kind of wonder where is home?

….with you where my heart is …or there where I’m from….

Día dos: YSL Restrospective @ Madrid

I was thrilled to go and see Yves Saint Lauren Retrospective exhibition here at Madrid’s La Central yesterday! I felt like walking into fashion Narnia. There was about 20 minutes wait to get it although exhibition is open since the beginning of October, seems like the interest is vast. The entrance was free as the exhibition was sponsored by the Pierre Berge Yves Saint Lauren foundation.

Exhibition was shown on three floors and it was organized into 11 sections that display about 150 examples of haute couture and prêt-a-porter, shown together with various photographs and films and with about 81 sketches, 46 toiles and models for hats showing the work and life of this remarkable designer from his first creations in Dior in 1958 to his last collection presented at the Centre Pompidou in 2002.

Through this exhibition one can see many garments that revolutionized the traditional definition of the elegance with garments like: tuxedo and jumpsuit…. all still relevant today, which provoked scandals in their day. As they say, Coco Chanel has liberated women, but YSL has liberated fashion.

The other focus of the exhibition was the process of creation on its own, showing personal universe of YSL and places and things out of which he pulled his inspiration like Russia, Morocco and Spain.

As YSL’s partner Pierre Berge said about YSL:

“His work went far beyond that of mere fashion designer. It was created by an artist who revolutionized his own time.

It is true that his work is not sculptured in marble but it changed the life of women, empowered them and gave them confidence and self-esteem.”