LIFESTYLE

HELLO LONDON | Moving in MARCH

Hello lovely people and welcome to a new (super late) Hello London blog. (My apologies!) Moving and settling in a new place took a lot of time, but we did it. I have to say it took time to get used to the new place, but I like it much more than the previous one.

So this time in the blog I will update you a bit about the moving in March and I manage to see a nice musical and one of the best exhibition so far. Grab your cup of daily tea and enjoy reading.

By the way: HAPPY EASTER!

Moving in London

It started with viewing a lot of properties. You have to see at least ten flats to see what you can get for what price. If you check the websites ZOOPLA and RIGHTMOVE, you can find a lot of flats in the area that you would like. Arranging a viewing of the property is really easy to do. Just contact the agency or send them an email. Surprisingly sending emails and explaining your income, when and with how many people you would like to move, will get you a quick respond. All kind of agency were calling me to show us different flats. I think Foxton is a good one, if you want to see lots of properties at once. Just to give you an idea what is available around.
In the end we went for OPENRENT. This website provides the “small independent” landlord to rent their property to tenants. Without an agency in between it will save you a lot of fees to pay. The new flat is just ten minutes from our previous flat, but the rent here is much cheaper and the flat is much better maintained. We now live in a neighbourhood with much more local “nice” Londoners, some cute cats next door, a relative huge kitchen and no more ambulance sounds as a daily routine or wake up alarm (this is the best).

Our new wine (alcoholic drinks) corner 🙂

Aladdin the Musical

Aladdin is one of the musicals I really wanted to see here in London. I saw this one on my birthday and I can recommend it to anyone. The genie in this musical is hilarious, the customs and decor are beautiful. A bit different than the Disney story, but really magical. JUST GO AND SEE THIS MUSICAL! Tickets are available online. Next musical will be Kinky Boots and maybe the Phantom of the Opera. (Excited about these ones)

Modigliani exhibition in Tate Modern

 

“When I know your soul, I will paint your eyes” Modigliani.

Just heard about this Italian painter and sculptor a few days ago and I am already in love with his work. This painter lived only for 35 years. He died really young because of an illness. The exhibition is till the second of April 2018, so If you can.. GO! This is a really must see exhibition with so many beautiful paintings of Modigliani. Since I am into art and paintings, I really like his style of painting, Modern art movement, Expressionism.

He mainly painted the portraits and the nudes. What I love about his painting is the mystery of the eyes. From what I could find on the net, he only painted the eyes if he knew the person. He lived among great artist like Picasso, Brancusi, Chirico and Derain. Next step for me is to watch the movie that came out in 2004 with Andy Garcia “Modigliani” and  the Picasso exhibition in Tate Modern.

Thank guys for reading my blogs! Hopefully soon with more art related blogs.

” Have a great Easter, Kisses!”

LIFESTYLE

Hello London | January Blues

Good morning Lovely Readers, Welcome back to my Hello London blog. How is February going so far? I can’t believe January is already over. London has been really cold this month… Wow  winter has come to London.

A few new things are going to happen this month. We are moving! Finally we found a new flat, so we are going to be very busy this month, but very happy that we could find a flat in a short time. Maybe going to blog about the process another time, if you think it is helpful.

Another new thing (and also for a new blog) I started to oil paint. This is something I always wanted to do. Really happy that painting is a part of my life now. I like being creative, first with making bracelets in the Netherlands and now slowly learning to draw (again) and paint with oil paint. It is just fascinating to work with oil paint or to see great artist in museums using oil paint ages ago and now finally getting the feel of it.

This is going to be a blog of all the places we have seen so far and is worth a go. Grab your cup of coffee, a pencil , a notebook and enjoy this blog!

Fara Charity Shop

Just want to mention this shop, because recently they have changed the whole shop and it looks fantastic! I found some amazing pieces there these months. My first found were a pair of black Manolo Blahnik pumps (in my size!)

Omg… I did some really great purchases there lately

I found a deep port leather COACH bag for £10! This bag needed some extra care and love, but still looks great. A cashmere sweater from Zadig and Voltaire, a silk dress from Diane von Furstenberg and some trousers from Banana Republic for work. They were all in great condition or new and here comes the best… All for amazing prices between £5 and £15! I am in thrift heaven.

Caboose Bricklane

This a derelict train carriage where we went for our Christmas dinner with the office. The food is a bit street style food and you will smell like food when you go home, because it is next to the kitchen.

The smoked meat (beef or pork) on a burger is super delicious.

During the day you can just pass by and order one of their delicious smoked burgers. I think I might do this in the summer.

Dulwich Picture Gallery

I have to say, if you live in central London, this gallery is a bit far. I almost sat one hour and a half in the bus to go to the Dulwich picture gallery or I just took the wrong connection to it (I really don’t know). They have a collection of Old Masters in Western European Baroque paintings and British portrait from the 19th century. Entree is only £7,-.

Lumiere Light festival – Lumiere London

This was on the 18th till 21st of January.

This is an amazing exhibition with artworks around London’s architecture and streets.

We went to King Cross and Granary Square to see some light exhibition around this area. Unfortunately we did not have time to see other exhibition. Next year we are going to make more time to see all the exhibition, just because it is beautiful.

 

Depa Tandoori

Not the greatest, but they have some nice spicy dishes. This was my first time to an Indian restaurant.

Sen Viet

We accidently came across this Vietnamese restaurant while hunting for a new flat this month.

It looked super busy, so we thought it must be great. And Wow! This place has delicious authentic Vietnamese food with no fuzz. Simple and delicious. Super busy place, so I am not sure if they can take reservations, but this might be a good option to do before. Please try the summer rolls, they are delicious!

SaSa Sushi

Another day of viewing properties we came across this small sushi restaurant.

Top class Sushi

They open for lunch and dinner. We had  lunch here and order sashimi, a bento box and a temaki roll, one of my favourite sushi.

Flat Iron in Covent Garden

The Flat Iron steak comes from the Flat Iron farm in North Yorkshire. For only £10,- per Flat Iron steak plus some additional stuff of course that are not included, you can have a really nice dinner together. Only downside is, you can’t make a reservation and when you are there, you need to register on a list and wait for an hour or so. This is not so bad when you are not super hungry. You are able to go around and when the table is free, they will send you a text message to go back to the restaurant within ten minutes. So a good thing is to stay in the area.

Life Drawing lessons in Hammersmith

Since I am enjoying painting and drawing lately, I was really curious to try a life drawing session. We went to one in Hammersmith, because of a friend of ours. Life drawing you probably can do anywhere here in London. So if you are interested just check on google one near by.

Thanks guys for reading this blog till the end.

Really appreciated it and hope you will find some cool places to discover in February.

Lot is going on in February, the moving, oil painting and going to be a
year older this month. Hopefully I have some time to write a new blog this month about art, moving and my thrift findings.

Have a great day! Danielle

TRAVEL

Bye London | Hello Lanzarote

Hello Lovely Readers and welcome back to my TRAVEL blog! I was waiting a long time to actually go somewhere and yes we finally did! We had two lovely weeks in Lanzarote during the Christmas holidays and we deserved it!

It was a bit last minute, so we did not want to go too far. Especially because the prices are really high last minute from London to almost any far country. So, we decided to go to one of the famous Canary Islands, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura. Those islands are loved by the British.  The weather in December is around 21 degrees Celsius with a bit of a wind in the evening. I never been to any of these Volcanic Islands, so I was definitely up for it.

Here is how our adventure started, what we did and the amazing food we ate. Believe me the food was AMAZING! Grab your usual cup of tea or coffee and read on…

Arriving at Lanzarote

We arrived at their only and small airport in Lanzarote. Apparently we are noobs, because we did not – to less research before we arrived.

The first and best tip ever that I can give to you, is to search for a rental car company, so that you can pick up the car when you will arrive at the airport.

Just go for the best known rental companies, because we had some issues with the one we picked. We, as noobs, went with the taxi to the hotel. We rented a car, by checking online and then we needed to go back to the airport to pick the car up.  We had some issues with a double booking, fortunately it is al sorted a month later. (Not recommending Cartrawler btw) When all was sorted we paid £124,- for the two weeks that we were in Lanzarote. So, if you are like us and wait to check for rental cars when you are in the hotel. Just check online and do not go for the hotel recommendation. (They usually charge you much more)

Our hotel, Hotel Diamar, what can I say, was a bit of a disappointment, as we got a room with a broken toilet.

If we did not tell the reception, they would not border to at least let us know about this issue.

The night we arrived it was too late to change rooms, so we did not want to go to an other room anymore so we waited for the repair guy the next morning. (He did not solve anything, but it was at least flushing better) We settled for this room because of the nice view of the sea and the rest of the room was just fine. I will be honest, I also would not recommend this hotel, purely because of the toilet issue and the way they handled this issue with us. Plus in the summer when it is really hot, the AC will not work. They have really old type of AC in here. I think an apartment or so will be a better option in Lanzarote.

What did we do

Lanzarote is not a huge island, but if you take it easy and explore, you can see a lot.

This island is perfect for a road trip. There is a lot of beautiful Volcano eruptions to see near the Lanzarote roads.

Le Gardin de cactus

Great cacti garden where you can practice taking beautiful pictures with your camera. At least this is what I did with my Canon EOS M10. Must say, some pictures turned up amazing.

Sunrise and Sunsets

 

Of course on every island you will see beautiful sunrises and sunsets. I prefer the sunsets and we were lucky to see those just from our hotel balcony and many more lovely places in Lanzarote.

Playa Blanca – Rubican Marina

This area is a bit to fancy and to much tourists for me. They have a beautiful harbour, market and some okay restaurants.

Bodegas El Grifo

This is the vineyard and museum where you can do some local wine-tasting.

I have to say I learned a lot about white volcanic wine from Lanzarote. Before I only knew about red and mostly Italian wine.

This type of wine is also very nice especially with seafood. The museum gives you an idea how they make their famous El Grifo wine. At the end of the tour you can taste a few different wine that they make at this winery.

The National Park Timanfaya

First we went to a part of this park were you can do a camel ride for 12 euro’s per camel.

Really nice to view this amazing Volcanic place on a camel.

Not the most comfortable way, but a nice thing to do when you are with someone you love. After this we went for to the park itself. We were expecting to just walk around, but once you are in the park and you have parked your car, the excursion begins. I have to say they organised this pretty well. So first you go in a bus and you will get a tour around the complete park. After this tour, you will see a spectacular fire show, some demonstration with the geezers and you can even barbecue on the Volcano.

The Pink Mountains on Famara beach

This was one of the most amazing days in my life with an epic sunset. The water was a bit too cold to swim in, at least for me. So we just walk to the end of this beach. The beach is around 4 km long and you will find a lot of surfers here . Towards the end of the beach, we realised that the sun was going to set. When we were walking back to the other side the sun was going to set and the mountains had an amazing pink glow to it. WOW! The colours of the sky were so beautiful!

All those warm sunset colours it was just like a beautiful painting.

Playa Papagayo Lanzarote

The name reminds me a bit of Curacao. You need to pay a small fee if you want to go to this beach. It is 3 euros. This is a bit of a tourist trap beach, not that it is not a wonderful beach. Unfortunately it is a bit too fancy around it and the beach is a bit small. I liked the beach in Famara must more.

Mirador del Rio

On this spot you will have a wonderful view of the sea and an other island.

Jameos del agua

This place is beautiful. It is a part of a lava cave tunnel in Lanzarote where one of the famous designer, Cesar Manrique, made a small paradise. You can find a subterranean salt lake, a restaurant, beautiful gardens, emerald-green pool, a museum and an auditorium.

Cueva de los verdes

Because of the Jameos del agua we really wanted to visit a lava cave tunnel. At Cueva de los verdes, they organise cave tours for about 45 min more or less. Even for a claustrophobic like me, this was really nice to do. The caves are huge from the inside and they even have an open space for concerts because of the acoustic.

El Golfo

This is a beautiful green lagoon that is at the foot of the crater wall. The green lagoon is filled with Volcanic minerals and micro-organism. Unfortunately you can not get on the beach near the lagoon or on the lagoon itself. The best part is, that just next to this lagoon there are a lot of restaurants near the sea, where they have delicious seafood.

One day road trip to Fuerteventura

From Lanzarote it is easy to take the Ferryboat to Fuerteventura. We took the car and went with the Ferryboat ARMAS.

Tip is to not forget your passport and if you arrive early, it is possible to buy the ticket just there and then.

Two return tickets with the car is 114 euros. It takes around 50 minutes to get to the other Island.  We had a day ticket, so we had from 10am till 8pm to return to the ferry and to get back to Lanzarote.

In Fuerteventura we drove through many villages, many hairpin roads and amazing views of volcanic mountains. La Olivia was the first place we went through. We stopped to visit a gallery called “Centro de Arte Canario” Casa Mane. They had a small gallery with I think local artists, I definitely saw some beautiful paintings in here.
Next stop was Tindaya, then Puerto del Rosaria,  Antigua, costa de Antigua, Las Salinas, Tuineje, Pajara, Betancuria (beautiful hairpin roads and view of the Rio del Palmas) and finally back to Corralejo.

In Corralejo we stopped to sit at a restaurant near the sea and just enjoyed and rested a bit before we went back to Lanzarote.

Tip on the way back, we saw the beautiful stars in the sky. We saw Orion from Lanzarote and some stars near Orion. (For star spotting, the Canary Islands are a great place to spot them)

Restaurants

Wow, so finally we can start with all the nice restaurants that we have been here in Lanzarote and Fuerteventura.

Restaurant Sol

This restaurant is one of the best in Lanzarote. It is in a small village called Famare, where the famous pink mountains are. From the restaurant you will have an amazing view of the mountains and the beach.

 

The Tuna steak was on fire and super delicious. Nice with some Bodega Volcano de Lanzarote, white wine.

Restaurant Mirador de las Salinas

In this restaurant you will have a beautiful view of the Salinas. We had some fresh mussels and fish with Yaiza, of course a white wine with the authentic Volcano flavour of Lanzarote. Tip, If you like romance and sunset, this is the place to be.

Steakhouse Don Rafael – Las Palmas – Puerto del Carmen

Delicious steaks and almost every cut available. This is the place if you would like to eat some good quality meat.

Pizzeria – La Lanterra – Las Palmas – Peurto del Carmen

Nice family business with real Italian pizza’s . Staff members are Italian and very friendly.

Lilium restaurante – Marina Lanzarote

Near a small harbour in Arrecife. This is the fancy restaurant we went to on the second day of Christmas. I had an super delicious entrecote in this place.

Restaurante Mar azul – El Golfo

In this restaurant I think we had the best seafood. For the octopus lovers, like me.. This is definitely a place to go.

Fuerteventura – Terraza Playa Chica

We had a real good lunch in this place. It is near the beach. Again octopus, Padron peppers and fresh fish.

So hope you enjoy reading this blog. Probably you needed two or three cups of tea or coffee. What can I say.. we went for two full weeks!

If you are in Lanzarote, please try these restaurants.. They are truly amazing and a real recommendation. In the end I liked Lanzarote more than Fuerteventura. Just the Lanzarote landscape itself is mesmerizing. Oh I almost forgot, If you have the chance to go and do horse riding… Go! One of the few things we didn’t had time for in the end.

See you soon and till next blog!♥ MissWidjaja

 

LIFESTYLE

Hello London | Vintage Shops

Hello Lovely Readers and welcome back to my “Hello London” blog. First of all.. Happy New Year you guys! Wish you the best in 2018! This is a blog I wanted to share with you for a while now. Since I have moved to London, I am falling in love with vintage shopping more and more.

There is a vintage shop on my way to work, so I passed by it twice a day. The first time I went in and I was sold! I bought a nice summer maxi dress for £2,-, (That I of course forgot to bring to my holidays in Lanzarote) but it felt so good that I was really proud  I finally could find something nice in a second hand shop.

This is how the vintage shopping journey began and I am still going to this particular shop after work on my way home. (Okay.. not on daily base of course, but I have to say sometimes it is a bit difficult to just pass by this shop without going in) It is one of my favourite vintage shops I have discovered so far.

If you keep on searching you will find really nice quality clothing for a cheap price. Remember this; the key is to keep searching until you find something special!

Today is your lucky day, because I am going to share my top favourite vintage shops with you and some cool findings.

So lets start, get a cup of tea and maybe a pen and paper to take a note of all the good bits.

FARA Charity Shop

Not going to lie, this is the best charity shop ever! They even have a section with designer clothing. In this shop I found many good quality gems. Friendly staff and everything is well organised in sections. I think lots of people donate their good quality clothing here. I also donated a lot of clothing to this shop. Funny to see some of your old stuff hanging around in a shop. It feels good to make some else happy with it.

Unfortunately they don’t have always good quality clothing, because if they have the good stuff in, it will be gone in a few seconds. That is the reason I am going in on regular basis.

What can you find in this shop? Really everything. Brands like, Burberry, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Asos, Banana Republic, H&M, Top shop, vintage clothing and many more. It can be different on daily basis. The nicest thing is that even the “best” clothing, like “new” or “hardly worn” or from a “luxury brand” will still be affordable. I saw a Burberry skirt for £10,-. The skirt did not looked worn at all, some nice clothing from Asos / Top shop for usually less than £10,- and the latest thing I saw was a super cool leather jacket from Armani for men. (If it was the size of my boyfriend, I definitely bought it. It was only £25,-)

One of my precious finding was a vintage furry winter coat. Super warm and exactly my size for just £25,-. This was an amazing finding as I was always on the hunt for something like this. In London it can be very useful even if it not so extreme cold this time of year.

 

What else did I find in this shop. Let me see… I found some good business trousers from Banana Republic, cute summer jumper from Asos, warm sweaters, a cool leather vintage jacket and a lot of nice tops for work.

Tip: If you have one in your borough, just hop in once in a while.

 
Oxfam Charity Shop

This shop has some great clothing. Unfortunately they sell the clothing a bit overpriced. Tops and sweater are usually around £20,- and if it is from a “luxury brand” it can cost more. If you are asking me… I don’t think the pricing is right for cloths that are second hand.

In general they get lots of good donations. I found some old Canon cameras, a Furla bag and many designer tops. Not really the brands that I like. To be honest for the prices that they sell the clothing, I rather buy something new in the high streets. That is exactly what I am trying to do less and less.

Vestiaire Collective Online Shop

This website is really great! It is a like Gum-tree for all your designer goodies. It is perfect platform to buy and to sell designer stuff on. The good part is, they check the authenticity and then send you the item. The delivery can take up to two weeks, if it need to be checked for authenticity. That can be a bit of disadvantage if you would like it as soon as possible.

This platform is also great if you love vintage designer stuff or if you love any particular design(er) that are no longer for sale in stores. For me it is Marc by Marc Jacobs bags from way back. Love those bag, the leather and design are amazing!

I bought one Marc by Marc Jacobs bag on this site as a Christmas present for myself. Surprisingly they are not so expensive anymore and if you check.. you can find a lot that are hardly used. Just received it and it looks amazing! Almost like new and exactly what I was imagining. (Picture will be on Instagram soon)

Moving slowly to Sustainability

Before moving to London I got rid of almost eighty percent of my closet in the Netherlands.

A lot of clothing that I did not even wear, but collected over years. To be honest the twenty percent that I brought with me is still a lot. (Still trying to get rid of a few items) Even here in London, I am still giving clothing away to the charity shop and it is making me happy. Most of the clothing that I own are really well maintained, so if I can make someone else happy with it, why not? My closet needs to get smaller and smaller and I like that thought of less clothing but trying to have better  quality clothing.

Okay, I am not perfect. I still buy some stuff in stores, but not so much since I moved to London. Mainly if I am on holidays and I need something. I still need to be better at packing for holidays in a carry on bag. Some items I will always buy on the high streets are swimwear and underwear.

Even if I go shopping now, I usually come home without anything. (Except if I go to the vintage shop 🙂 ) I am realising I don’t need anything anymore and if I want it.. I will think twice to get it or not. Usually this helps to not buy it.

So, If I keep this up.. I  have more quality clothing that I actually will wear over and over again.

If you know any charity / vintage shop that I should go to in London.. Please let me know!

Hope you liked this blog and till next time.

See you! ♥ Miss Widjaja