Pan antiques and art fair is on in Amsterdam RAI this week. Pan is an annually recurring art, design and antiques fair. I went last night for a VIP borrel and I greatly enjoyed strolling around the different stands from all of the art galleries around Amsterdam. Personally I love a more modern art approach and I found quite a few beautiful pieces, but unfortunately the price didn’t quite match my wallet?!!
Tomorrow Amsterdam Light Festival also kicks off. It’s one of the most beautiful events I’ve seen in any city in the world I’ve visited. All around Amsterdam, primarily on the canals, there are art installations around the theme of light. This year’s theme is Water Colors, and if you find yourself in Amsterdam take a long walk in the evening around the Amsterdam Light Festival route, the walk usually takes an hour or two! Below are a few pictures from last years festival.
In the meantime wonderfuls have a relaxing weekend and give a kiss or hug to your loved ones?!
After a couple of weeks of hectic work and traveling I have been back on my gym routine the past few days. I did a heavy session by myself on Sunday, followed by a cardio class, BodyShape, and finished off with a Body Pump yesterday. Personally I love the classes because you can get an all round training you wouldn’t otherwise get
The past few days I’ve been feeling a bit low and stressed for both personal and work reasons, and training is truly like a drug. After just a few sessions I feel all my stress and worry disappear.
I also felt I’ve been slipping with my healthy eating lately so I whipped up a aubergine parmigiana for me and my love! Isn’t it fantastic to have a date night on just an average Tuesday evening!
My recent health kick has naturally also had the effect that my ”passion for fashion” has been rekindled due to the very simple fact, I can wear whatever I want!
As Amy Winehouse sang…back to black is the overarching mantra of my closet. Below are a few of these past few weeks work outfits! Amusingly enough I’ve realized that because black is such a wearable color in Stockholm, I’d even venture to say it’s sort of a Stockholm uniform, I never realized exactly how much black I truly wear until I left Stockholm.
Below is today’s outfit, black dress from COS bought probably a year or so ago, paired with a pair of black shoes from Pasito in Zug. The Pasito shoes were an emergency purchase because my heels broke on the way to the office and no replacement shoes in my bag?!!
Next outfit up is the classic black dress pants from Kenzo, found them in a store called Centre Neuf in Amsterdam teamed up with a simple soft black turtleneck. Centre Neuf is unfortunately closing, but it’s truly one of my favorite stores in Amsterdam! This particular turtleneck is from Maruschka de Margot in Stockholm. Maruschka is an almost iconic store in Stockholm, filled with voluptuous furs, exclusive evening dresses and some of the best designers. Your wallet may take a hit so be forewarned?.
Laundry Industry is a Dutch brand that unfortunately no longer exists…but I just put below outfit in to prove I don’t ONLY wear black…on occasion I will branch out into the greys…
And the last outfit of the week, casual black boot cut jeans from Urban Outfitters. I found them in Austin Texas year ago, and I teamed them up with a silk blouse from MQ I found in Stockholm on my latest trip. Ok enough of the overload of selfies, but I do enjoy waking up in the morning and spending a relaxed morning with coffee getting ready for what the office has in store for the day!
If you’re also like me addicted to designer wear, whatever you do check out the Outnet! Quick delivery and great clothes at reasonable prices. Their app is great, and a fantastic selection of brands!
Stay fashionable out there?!
This weekend my lovely and I decided to stay put in Zug for the weekend, and enjoy a sunny weekend in the mountains. The weather here has also been amazing in the past few weeks, completely out of this world! Ski season really haven’t started yet and instead the summer sun has stayed around. Honest truth though, despite living here I never ski…on Sunday though I finally made it up Zugerberg on a rather sweaty but gorgeous hike! Check out the pictures below. Absolutely fantastic! The mountain is something around 1000 meters so the hike isn’t too challenging. Once you’re up there you can stop at the restaurant, before taking the ”bahn” down again.
Apart from the hiking we also checked out the wining and dining situation in Zug and Zürich. On Friday we ventured to the Sky Lounge in Zug. This is a rooftop terrace with a view of the whole of Zug. I’ve always had a weakness for rooftop bars. With the view below…it’s hard not to fall in love with life all over again! We rounded off Friday with hitting Bären Restaurant in Zug and indulging in some fondue, after all now is the season. Bären was above and beyond my expectation, live music, nice food and classic Swiss interior. Unfortunately I forgot to snap a pic, but it was great!
sky lounge view
evening view from sky lounge
Saturday was spent in Zürich. My favorite area of Zürich is probably Seefeld and we decided to pop by again a favorite spot called Schiller Bar. We had the sample menu for two for lunch…yumyumyum as always! WHat I love with Schiller when I was living just around the corner from them is that you can pop into Schiller any time of the day. It’s an equally perfect spot for a quick coffee in the morning as for a very late night drink. If you’re in the Seefeld area I can also recommend having dinner at Terrasse, a true institution in Zürich. If you on the other hand want to go over to the other side of the lake and the Sihlpost area I’d recommend trying out Helvetia Hotel and Restaurant. They have a great little terrace outside that you can sit in even during the winter, their Sunday brunch is legendary and the atmosphere is wonderful!
sample menu at brasserie schiller
brasserie schiller
All in all Zürich and Zug after fantastic places, I’m such a lucky person to have the chance to spend time in these places. If you’re thinking of visiting though…be-warned…the beauty does come with a pretty hefty price tag. Zürich is not the cheapest city to visit?.
sunset on Zugersee
This past weekend I’ve been back to home base Stockholm and it hits me every time…how different life is now than when I left four years ago…
Back then I was yearning for confirmation and admiration. I wanted to please everyone and have a perfect life. Which I think from the outside I had but the challenges of generation Y, we’re never really truly content with everything we have, we need a purpose. I feared making a mistake, fighting with friends or losing my job. You could say I was very status driven…
And then one day I packed my bags and had to face my fears head on. My first night in Amsterdam, in a messy apartment with all my furniture and not a sole in the whole country to talk to because I knew no one, I knew I had made the right decision. Because the first thought that came to mind was that no one knows me here so no one can say whether I was right or wrong and no one here to confirm what I did. It was a fantastically liberating thing! I had the chance to create a whole new destiny for myself. Not that the one I had in Sweden was a bad one, but I got an incredible energy from trying something new.Trust me, things didn’t pan out the way I expected them to. I moved to yet another country, changed jobs, met a man, lost and gained friends and above all have taken a few blows but all in all its been the best years of my life!
A tip though whatever you do get to know the locals whichever way you can, don’t just stay in the expat community because this local knowledge can really broaden your horizon…and whatever you do learn the language! For me it was the biggest mental block, and now feeling I command both Dutch and German is extremely empowering. Seeking confirmation, it really does give you a bit of street cred with the locals.
I still struggle with just doing what I want and not really thinking too much about what other people think…but I’m a few steps forward. If there’s anything I can share with anyone else is, the move abroad really isn’t too hard, it’s purely a mental ghost, being in a strange environment is what’s hard and you have to be humble to this new environment and the people, and above all do what you want without worrying of this is what’s perceived by others as the right thing to do. ????
work ready this week!
Beautiful Zug Skyline