26 November 2012

Goddess of.. Berlin, Marseille, Milan!

Three months in to the big move to Paris and life is good!

I've been working from home for the same company I was working for before, except that I'm now a freelancer (social media & web marketing consultant). It's been great and has allowed me the flexibility to work from anywhere.

Lolita came to visit, about 2 weeks after I moved, in early September. We went to Berlin together for 4 days and it was SO fun. We hadn't travelled together for a while, so it was really nice to do so.. especially to a city neither of us had visited before. I loved Berlin, the food, the sights and all the freedom (i.e. drinking in the streets ;) was fun).


About a month after we moved, Nick was assigned his first project and it was going to be out of town. In Marseille (south of France) to be exact. I was a little bummed at first, not for him obviously this is great.. but selfishly, I didn't know anybody in Paris yet and he'd be gone Monday-Thursday (or Friday) for the following 9 weeks.

Fast-forward to the end of November, and this week is his last week in Marseille. In retrospect, it was alright! I was mostly bummed in October but I did visit him twice.. once for a week in early October and then, for 2 weeks around his birthday in November. Compared to all the time we spent apart last year, this really wasn't bad.

Plus, the time I spent in Marseille was pretty fun. It was much warmer there and we were staying in a really nice hotel right by the beach. We haven't had a real routine of "life at home" but that'll come soon enough. Until then, we enjoyed the warm days & the sun!



Nick had his first long weekend off in November, and we jumped at the chance to travel a little bit. We set our heart on Milan (with a daytrip to nearby Bergamo), Italy. It really didn't disappoint. We're both food & wine lovers so Italy really feels like home. Plus, the whole "aperitivo" thing in Milan is genius.. it's happy hour but with a large buffet of italian appetizers. It was really fun to see how competitive the bars get about who has the best buffet... we tried several -- All yummy!

We took a tour around Milan one morning before I had to work, to see all the main sights and get the lay of the land. It was incredible, we visited the Scala Opera house, the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, the incredible Duomo (Cathedral), the Castello Sforzesco (Medival castle), & the painting of The Last Supper by Da Vinci. We also went back to the Duomo another day to climb up to the roof, what an amazing experience!



Our daytrip to Bergamo was equally amazing (except for le rain). We took a 45-minute train ride that brought us to the center of the Citta Bassa (Lower town) of Bergamo. It was easy enough from there to walk to the Funicolare that took us to the Citta Alta (Upper town). It's a really charming, lovely town.. with lots of bakeries, places to eat and beautiful duomos (churches). We also decided to hike it up (ALL the way up) to the San Vigilio castle. The castle itself wasn't the most impressive thing, but the view from the highest point in the city was worth the painful hike in the rain without an umbrella. My bad :/ I forgot the umbrella at the hotel that morning. Don't worry.. I paid for my sins with a nice cough & cold the following week.



And now we're back in beautiful Paris for the last few weeks before heading home for the Holidays. To be honest, I'm also looking forward to being with my mom & friends for almost a month. It'll be nice to catch up on all the things I've missed!

Take care bloggaroos, I'll update you soon!

XOXO,

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