Concrete Jungle

Hello peeps.

Mach reporting, from the cold cold Big Apple.

Yes, I’ve finally moved here for good, and I couldn’t be happier. I have been here for a bit over three weeks now, and weirdly NY already feels like home. I won’t lie, I was a bit scared a first, a 22 year-old in a humongous city like New York, but here I feel like I can actually be whoever I feel like being.

Living in East Village has proven to be the best decision ever. The place is crowded with cute little restaurants and bars, and is alive at any time of day or night, you always have something to do, or someone to talk to. The best thing about this part of town is the authenticity. You get to escape from the skyscrapers and the huge-ass buildings for a second and enjoy life at a smaller scale, even if you can still see the greatness of the Empire State Building and its friends from down here! I swear to God that if I had one wish in New York, it would be to have an endless stomach, in order to try the billions of restaurants this city holds. For now, I have started my quest to discover as many restaurants as I can here, but dude is the choice hard and diversified…

So, here are some tips from a freshly born New Yorker:

• NEVER judge a book by its cover, the best foods I’ve eaten where made in the least appealing restaurants. (ex. Tasty Hand Pulled Noodles)
• Kind people actually do exist, and you can fall in love with a city.
• Shared VIA rides are happiness therapy.
• Opportunities are all over, sometimes hidden in the weirdest of places.
• The greatness of this city is worth a thousand Ted Talks about how awesome life can get.

I’ll keep you posted about how the city’s doing from time to time, and remember…

“One belongs to New York instantly, one belongs to it as much in five minutes as in five years.”
― Tom Wolfe

Santorini

Hey!

I know it’s been a while since I’ve written here, but it has been a bit hectic and I haven’t really had a good three or four hours to sit down and write down all my feels about the wonderful and amazing place that is Santorini, so here it goes!

As my birthday was approaching, I needed to choose a place to celebrate it in style, and hearing a lot about this Greek Island, I decided I wanted to go and discover all the beauties it hides. So, a day before my 22nd birthday, I headed to Santorini with my brother. It was a long ass 10 hour wait at the Frankfurt airport, and I had started asking myself if it was worth it. I celebrated my birthday on a plane. And around 4am, we landed in Santorini, even if I couldn’t see much, I definitely felt relieved and happy to be there. We went to our hotel where we immediately fell asleep.

The next morning, I directly understood we were up for an amazing week!
The little jacuzzi on our terrasse, the clear blue sea, and the magnificent white and blue greek houses put a smile on my face right away. We were in a cute little hotel, called Cavo Bianco, just a few steps away from the beach, so it was perfect for exploring the area and discovering the hidden gems. We were in Kamari, the “beachy” part of the island, which is not the usual Santorini landscape you are used to see on the billion of pictures you have probably went through, but it’s as good, if not better because you can actually enjoy a day at the beach without travelling for an hour (which is the reason why you go on summer vacation, right?) .
As soon as we set foot outside of the hotel, I spotted this humongous hill or dare I say mountain, and I immediately felt the urge to hike to the top (spoiler alert: it was a bad decision, especially when it’s 40 degrees outside and you don’t wear a cap).

A day later, my brother and I actually went on the hike to conquer the top of the already mentioned hill. Little did we know the 2 hour hike would get us to what is known as “Ancient Thira”, where lies a city in which ancient greeks lived and protected themselves of potential ennemies. I was amazed at how evolved and advanced the buildings and their uses were, and it was really interesting to see how people lived on a hill that took me two hours to climb.

Luckily for me, a day or two later, we went on a snorkeling trip where the guide (thank you btw, you were amazing), actually explained the history of the island and how it became what it is today (spoiler alert: the story of “the lost Atlantis” was inspired by Santorini). Being the person I am, I got cold after an hour in the water (and after seeing an octopus), so I gave up and went sun bathing on the boat, unlike my brother who needed to explore every single crack of every single creek before being sure he saw everything that can be seen.

But our stay in Santorini wouldn’t be whole without our night trips to Oía and Thera, the two little picturesque villages, full of cute little shops and delicious restaurants. For my birthday, we went to a sea food restaurant with the best sunset view I have ever seen in my whole entire 22 years of existence. It was breathtaking (and trust me, I was sceptic too about the whole “best sunset ever blah blah blah” thing), and the food was delicious. Actually, all the food we ate was delicious, loads of feta cheese, olive oil, fresh veggies and gyros, well all that my tummy needs to be happy and satisfied.

All in all, a great experience, I highly recommend it. A relaxing, but active week on this little island, and loads of colours and smells to satisfy my senses that I am beginning to lose in the grey and highly polluted Paree.

Σας ευχαριστώ, Σαντορίνη!

Love, Mach.

 

 

Tenerife

Holà!

I’m so sorry it took so much time for me to write and post this, but everything has been kind of hectic these last few months, and I have been trying to juggle between my internship, writing my research paper and having a life.

Nonetheless, I have had the opportunity to rest a little, and visit a new and wonderful destination: TENERIFE.

I boarded the plane with Mum (yes, I love travelling with my mum and take time away from everything) on Saturday, and it took us 4 hours to land on the beautiful volcanic island of Tenerife. We had a mini bus waiting for us at the airport to drive us to the hotel, and the moment we went off the plane, I felt the summer breeze on my skin, and trust me that after months of grey and rainy Paris, the sun becomes a luxury! The view was amazing, it felt as if we had landed in the middle of the Grand Canyon (except for the temperature, which was survivable).

When we arrived to the hotel, we were both in awe. The Jardìn Tropical is without a doubt one of the best hotels I have ever set foot in (thank you Mum for having knowing how to find a gem). The staff was incredibly welcoming and I immediately knew we were about to spend an incredible week.

For the first two days we just enjoyed the farniente lifestyle, and the on the third day, we decided (okay, I’ve decided because every single person who knows me, knows my do-nothing span, which is near 0) to go and visit the island and everything it hides. We took booked a tour to see the Teide (the most famous volcano on the island, for the movie fans it is where they shot Planet of the Apes) and the Loro Parque, which is this giant zoo (yes, a zoo again).

It took us about an hour and a half to drive to the top of the volcano, the scenery was amazing and the sun was burning. Climbing the uneven stairs, I felt as if I was in an episode of Man vs. Wild, and I spent about 45 minutes exploring the whereabouts of this volcanic field while mum was “enjoying” the sun and waiting for me next to the mini bus. We then left for Loro Parque, which was an hour away. Once we got there, I immediately turned into a 3-year-old. We went to see amazing water shows with dolphins, otters, sea lions, and my all time favorites ORCAS. I’ll spare you the details of everything we saw and how many times I squeaked when seeing a baby animal, but all in all it was an amazing and really heart-warming experience. Moreover, the park had a really detailed and interesting explanation for every animal that was there. After a whole day of walking and unintentional sunbathing, we took the mini bus to the hotel and I slept the whole way through.

For the rest of our stay we enjoyed long walks, football matches (back when Serbia was still running for world champion), delicious cocktails with a view and incredibly amazing food (the hotel buffet was one of the most incredibly beautiful things I have ever seen). I also had two workouts per day with the amazing Patricia, the personal coach from our hotel, and I can now definitely say, Spanish are far far far from lazy. The big plus, the gym was outside, just above the ocean (even the biggest couch potato would enjoy working out in it).

All in all, Tenerife was an amazing experience, where I have discovered a never-seen-before scenery, a hotel I will definitely return to, beautiful black sand beaches, and people with a heart as big as the world itself. So if you ever hesitate whether you should add Tenerife to your to-do list, I just have one thing to tell you, DON’T.

The next destination is coming soon, and I’m pretty sure you’ll love this one.

Love, Mach.