Mont Saint-Michel

I cannot remember the time I first heard of Mont Saint-Michel, but the image of a dreamlike castle emerging from the depths of the ocean is seared into my memory. A picturesque island steeped in history and rich in culture beckoned to me. And I could not resist. 

A train and a bus ride from Paris brought me to Normandy on a crisp March afternoon. Clean country air and the looming island commune of Mont Saint-Michel greeted me the moment I stepped off the bus. I was ready to go exploring. Armed with several empty memory cards and a fresh roll of film, I felt like a child at the gates of Disneyland. 

Up close, Mont Saint-Michel was everything I thought it would be: a place forgotten in time. The narrow street lined with small houses, shops and restaurants wound its way round the rocky island. Upward it spiraled with small twisting alleys branching off into secret places. And I followed the cobbled path like Dorothy followed the yellow brick road leading me to a magnificently preserved abbey at the top. The view was mainly the ocean or the sandy expanse revealed at low tide. Yet, in all its bareness, I thought it was refreshingly beautiful in its simplicity. 

I watched the sun rise and set on Mont Saint-Michel; watched the tide rise and recede. I stood there watching as lights slowly flickered  into life to illuminate the island against the pressing darkness. I fought through throngs of tourists in its cobbled streets and then I walked the same streets at night, devoid of life, with my own footsteps echoing back its solitude. And I could not help but feel that life is too transient compared to Mont Saint-Michel, that if its walls could talk, it would tell of great men and greater stories. Mont Saint-Michel may not be a castle, but to me it is a place that gives birth to fairytales and fantasies. 

Thank you for reading! 

Happy New Year everyone!

Kaye + TJ

I have no idea what to write. Truly. I’ve been thinking since well over a week now. I tried to describe the First-Look...how it felt raw and beautiful when Kaye & TJ got to see each other privately before the ceremony and spend a few quiet moments away from the crowd. But all I came up with were feeble attempts to put emotions into words when words just do not suffice. I decided to just show you a few of the pictures in the hope that they’ll be able to convey at least a fraction of what this simple and intimate wedding felt like. 

P.S. I cried at this wedding (and I don’t mean those dainty tears rolling dramatically down my cheeks…lol). 

Congratulations Kaye & TJ!

Vendors

Hairstylist & Make-up Artist: Katherine Magnaye

The Clarity of Foggy Days

I’ve been a slacker these past few weeks (ok, in all honesty...maybe for half a year now...) as you can see with last year’s pitiful number of posts. Truth be told, there are days where I feel like dropping everything to just travel the world for a year. That would be awesome! Then reality sets in and I start thinking about everything between Apartment Rent to Zika Virus — aaaaaaaand my happy daydream bubble is bursted. I start thinking of all the time “wasted”, my failures, my unknown future, and those pesky might-have-beens. Before I know it, I end up eating a whole bag of chips while staring out the window (I don’t even have a view to speak of, just the facade of another apartment). But before you think I’m trying to drag you into a pool of misery, let me tell you about what I learned. 

Through this, I learned that it’s okay to sometimes feel down. It’s okay to dream about seemingly impossible things. It’s okay to not always have a 1000 kilowatt smile plastered on your face. As Jessie J so wonderfully sings: “It’s okay not to be okay”.

I recently took these photos and I love how the fog and the snow hid things from my view. I find it calming when the top of buildings vanish into nothingness and the distant horizon is obscured. It is when glaring headlights turn into mystical floating pinpricks and a massive bridge fades into an indistinct shadow that I am reminded of the beauty of not seeing everything. In a world that glorifies being busy and equates wealth to a life well lived, a day covered in a blanket of fog just reminds me that perhaps the here and now is all that we need to see and appreciate. It’s okay when we haven’t figured out everything. It’s okay if you don’t have a ten-year master plan for your career and your whole life mapped out. It’s okay! To try. To take a misstep. To try again. It’s okay to fail! Trust me, it’s okay. I know that now. It just took me a walk along the Danube on a foggy day to finally see my life more clearly.

Cheers to 2016 and to a life lived 

one day at a time!

(p.s. Thank you for sticking around and 

I'm hoping you'll join me for a new travel series!) 

Before the Madness

It’s been a crazy couple of months for me, which explains why I’ve gone AWOL since August. Changes. So many changes. Lately, it felt like I could barely keep up with life. I didn’t even have time to think about traveling. I’ve been that busy. I needed a break from pretty much everything. So to escape all the madness and slow things down, I grabbed my trusty camera and went out early on a Sunday morning. With only the shrouded light of dawn and the echoing sound of my footsteps on the cobbled roads to accompany me, I walked the empty streets of Vienna.

Utter stillness. I cannot begin to describe how wonderful it felt. To be able to photograph again. To walk slowly without having to check if I’m not running late for anything. To just let my mind wander without mentally going through ten items on my to-do-list. To just live and be. Suddenly, my world was round again. 

As night fully gave way to the light of day and the world slowly awakened, I stowed away my camera with a smile on my face. Sometimes, just a few quiet moments before the maddening rush of day is all the sanity I need.

Thanks for dropping by!