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! :)

My week in a review...

Last 10 days or so I was slacking with posting regularly due to busy work schedule which I tried to balance with couple of days of vacation and finally spending some time with my boyfriend. I had a lovely press event planned for one of my companies brands last Wednesday in the gorgeously luxurious Radisson Blu Resort & Spa in Dubrovnik, so I used the weekend before that to spend time visiting my boyfriend and his parents who also live in Dubrovnik.

On Saturday we went to the amazing island of Lapad, where we were swimming in the lake at the very centar of the island, had amazing Mojitos on the beach and spend our time at the island surrounded by gorgeous peacocks. 

Naturally, I used the opportunity when my boyfriend was working out to ask his mum to show me his childhood photos. Wasn't "she" cute? ;)

Late at Wednesday night I got back to Zagreb to work, so I had to calm down my after mini-vacation depression with some lovely neon nail polish I got in H&M Madrid a month ago when visiting my boyfriend at the end of his play season. So, this was marked as neon Thursday. ;)

On Friday I naturally had to catch up with pilled up email on my blog email account as well as on the work one so I worked late but also had to catch up with cleaning after arriving back to my apartment so I did a little valet cleaning and emptied my change to fill up my Shoe fund (yes my boyfriend has one to, his sneakers collection is almost as vast as my heels collection).

After my Spanish class on Friday evening I was dead tired but still had to work on preparing games and decorations for my sister baby shower (she is pregnant and due beginning of August with little boy who's name will be Lovro). This is the Pampers cake I made for her.

After fun baby shower my mum used the opportunity when I was visiting her (shower was held at her house) to pile me up with cooked meals, cakes, fruits and vegetables from her garden to feed a small army. :) She is especially proud of her spices and berries.

Today, Sunday I planned as a relaxing day so I invited my friends Iva and Ljiljana for coffe and cake, I also managed to do a small shopping and to color my nails with H&M's "Blue my Mind" shade of blue for next work new work week adventure. :)

How was your week lovelies?

Heaven is the place on Earth with you...

Sometimes you don't know if it's right, or if it will eventually totally break your heart,

You are hoping for it to last forever and your heart wishes this to be its last risky endeavor.

Sometimes there is that "what if" feeling and other options might seem as appealing,

While at the hardest moments deep down you know,

 where your heart is, that is where's your home.

 Work, money and things can give you instant-happiness feeling, 

but only real love can bring any life's pain to heeling,

and there are no safer holders, then the space in between loving men's two shoulders.

Your earthly heaven is a real place to be find, so trust your heart, it has the path defined. 

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.

Scorpion.

Photo: Harpers Bazaar editorial/ tale source: The Kevin Dolan

Scorpion had lived on the East side of the river valley for his entire life, and as he reached his second year, he asked himself what might await on the other side.

He saw a frog sitting calmly by the river.  Scorpion approached carefully, so as not to frighten the frog, but scorpions are a fearful creature after all and the frog withdrew into the water.

Scorpion yelled to the frog, “Frog, I am Scorpion and I would like to cross the river, but I cannot swim!  Can I hop on your back and ride across?”

The frog responded suspiciously, “But you are a scorpion?  How am I to know that you will not just sting me?”

Scorpion thought hard about how he could prove his innocence to the frog.  Perhaps some logic would do the trick!  “My dear frog, if I were to sting you, I would be left in the middle of the river to drown, for as you know, I cannot swim!”

Scorpion’s words were enough to convince the frog, so she agreed to take Scorpion across the river.  The frog swam to the bank and allowed Scorpion to climb atop her back.  Scorpion’s claws dug into the frog’s back, but she didn't mind.

As the frog began swimming across the river, she considered whether this would be the start of a lifelong friendship between her and Scorpion.

 

Just as the frog’s mind was wondering, she felt a sharp pain in her back.  She quickly began to feel her limbs going numb and her swimming began to slow.  She cried out to Scorpion, “Why have you stung me Scorpion? Now we are both going to drown here in the river!”

Scorpion replied simply, “Frog, I stung you because I am a scorpion.”

Some men are like scorpions. This frog wants to live.

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?

Pink paparazzi in Madrid.

Since I got a small pink Fuji film camera for Christmas from my boyfriend to always wear in my purse, I took the opportunity to try it out during our afternoon walk around Madrid.  I am totally in love with this small but mighty camera! I don’t have to be careful and look after my big pro camera every single minute cause this one actually fits in every single purse I have J

We used the sunny afternoon to visit some of the Madrid’s best vintage stores and shops like: El Corte Ingles, vintage stores like Lotta, Holala and Templo de Susu where I got the amazing purse, vintage frames and a sweater which you can see bellow on my boyfriend and on its own. We also had some great Rose wine, bought some sexy shower curtains and had some delicious food.

Kisses from Madrid!