It's Good To Be Back

I've neglected my blog. And I am sorry for it. It's just that ... I haven't felt like writing these last two months.
Maybe because I have been busy discovering and learning new stuff. Do you remember my decision to attend a course (Adult Educator)? It has been intense (I go to school every Friday) and oh soo good. I found new friends, learned a lot of new stuff ... theories about how to learn, how to teach, etc. I even held a lesson about European Art in front of my fellow students. Exciting times.

Then these thoughts (or should I call them doubts?) kept popping up. Should I really continue writing stuff on my blog? Do I want it? Do I need it? Or is it maybe time to change the form i.e. yes to writing but no to writing a blog? And if no to my blog, then what kind of writing? Where? What?

Lots of questions SIGH. And being busy with school gave me the perfect excuse to avoid my blog and to let my thoughts/doubts about its future float around my mind a bit longer.
Hoping that an answer would come up (remember? my intuition works in mysterious ways! haha).
Well, it hasn't ... yet. 
But this morning I decided ... not to decide. I will dedicate more time to this space and see where it'll lead me
One thing though I know for sure. Writing is still part of me today and will be in the future as well!

June Wish

Summer has finally arrived (at least where I live) and with the sun came new energy as well. Suddenly I feel like taking on new challenges. No idea where that came from ... but my intuition moves in mysterious ways (haha). I believe June is the perfect month for embracing challenges. Long days, sunny days (at least, we all hope so) but not yet real summer heat. It's perfect for doing things, going places.
Well, me, anyway, I have decided to take up on ... stand up paddling. It's something I have wanted to try out for at least three summers now but there was always something else preventing me from doing it (too much rain, not enough heat, not the ideal place, not enough money - you name it). 
This has changed now. I found the ideal place to try it out (i.e. a small lake not far from home). I even found the ideal school (because I need someone to explain stuff to me ... at least for my first excursion around the lake). And the costs are okay.
Will I be able to enjoy myself? Or will it be too hard? Am I athletic enough? Does one even need to be athletic? And, most importantly, will I be able to stand up again in the middle of the lake should I fall into the water?
Well, you know what? I have no idea.
What I do know though is ... that it feels good and that I will ... embrace this new challenge!

May Wish

In one of the many email newsletter I am receving (and sometimes reading), I came across the following sentence:

The future is unknown, so the only thing I can do is to trust my intuition.

Wow. Just wow. While reading the words, I just knew that this is what I wish for (in May and in general, obviously). The text continued with

Trusting the process isn't always easy and it's not necessarily natural, but like with all new things, practicing it makes perfect sense. 

So, dear everybody out there, let's start practicing trusting our intuition ... and let's discover where intuition leads us to :-)

About Aging

I don't spend time thinking or dwelling on or worrying about aging. I go through good and not so good months, through wonderful and more difficult years but I never regret doing (or not doing) what I did. The past is the past and I accept that I decided what I decided with what I knew at the time of my decision.
It's not that I ignore or don't like my past.
On the contrary. I like to tell about past actions, funny or sad or embarrasing ones, about cool people I met or cool stuff I did, etc.
But it's not a dwelling on thing - it's more like telling stories. I very much prefer the actual moment.

Then, sometimes, rarely actually, I have a kind of crystal-clear second where I wonder:
where the heck has time gone? 

It happened just this week. I needed information that, at least I thought so, an ex-boss of mine would be able to help me with. He wasn't, but he gave me his daughter's phone number because he thought that she would be able to help.
While dialing her number, I realized that, in my mind, I still saw her as a kindergartner because the last time I saw her was while she visited her dad in the office and she was small. Like kindergarten small. I told her so, when she answered her phone, and we laughed hard. No, she said, kindergarten was quite some time ago. Now it's more about university.
Oh my, what to add? Nothing, right? It's just that it seemed like yesterday...

April Wish

Year after year I am amazed about how awesome springtime is. You can literally see how the trees and the flowers come to life again. Amazing, really. Strong. Beautiful.

So, my dear readers, let's copy mother nature and let's blossom as well. Wintertime and its short and dark days are over. We had time to think and we had time to enjoy long evenings spent at home.
The "vita contemplativa" is over, my dears, now it's time for the "vita activa" part.
Time for strong energy, fresh air, new ideas.
It's time to blossom
HAPPY SPRINGTIME

Visiting Trieste

It was unfair of me to visit Trieste AFTER having been to Venice. Really unfair. Because with all the Venice Magic in my head, it was difficult to appreciate a cool, clean city like Trieste. While planning my short trip, I hadn't thought of what my feelings would be but then ... you can't predict what you're feelings are gonna be, right?
Anyway.

I had put Trieste on my Travel Bucket List because I wanted to see for myself what a city at the eastern end of Italy would feel like. It was totally worth the trip. The feeling I got while walking around was that the place was clean, rich, understated. It remined me of Turin or Hamburg. They got this "old money feeling" where wealth is not something you show off but simply something you have. It's classy. (And the coffee is wonderful and the pastries are just yummy!)
Unfortunately, it was another of those places where taking pictures was difficult (if not impossible). You know ... how do you even try to put elegant and understated in a photo??? This notion totally escapes me...

While I walked the streets and the waterfront promenade, I kept hearing Slavic languages and saw lots of cars with Slovene, Croatian, Bulgarian, etc. license tags. I really was at the eastern end of Italy. Trieste was part of the Habsburg Monarchy and was the fourth largest city during the Austro-Hungarian-Empire (1382 - 1918). Read it up on Wikipedia ... the history buffs among you will love this place! This is Mitteleuropa at its best (I checked the train schedule afterwards. It takes less to travel to Vienna than to Rome! Understandable that the Chinese want a piece of that port...).
Next time, I'd combine a city trip with maybe a road trip through Istria. Or stop there on my way to Croatia. Oh my, I said "next time" :-)

Venice's Doors and Windows

I have a weakness for old doors. They kind of talk to me and Venice, obviously, has quite some memorable specimen to offer

On The Road Again: Venice and Trieste

It was time to hit the road again. It happened on the spur of the moment because I realized that, with my ongoing course, long weekends or trips would be impossible ... until September.
September?
Oh my.
Therefore, when our teacher announced an unexpected Friday off, I decided on a short trip to Venice and Trieste.
It was sooo good to be on the road again.
I soaked up Venice's energy and discovered Trieste.
I have been to Venice twice already but as I absolutely wanted to visit Trieste (has been on my list for quite some time now) and as the (direct) trains to Trieste are mainly departing from Venice, well, I decided to visit Venice a third time. And honestly, I can imagine visiting a fourth, fifth, etc. time. (I even added "spending a month in Venice" to my travel bucket list. Wouldn't that be great??)

Venice is magic.
I had visited all the monuments and museums the last time, so my aim this time was to walk the streets and to soak up the wonderful energy.
It's what I did (I may have overdone a bit because my app on my mobile phone counted almost 36'000 steps/day! New personal record hahaha) (it was totally worth the aching back and legs though)

I believe that everything about Venice has already been said or written, therefore I stick to some pictures

Canal Grande

Campanile e Basilica di San Marco

no, it's not Pisa

reflections...

Cimitero di San Michele it's where they bury their dead