Angkor Wat, Cambodia and back to Bangkok

 photo Silverstories in Angkor Wat_zps2ohxpfdm.jpg

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Det er helt vildt, hvor hurtigt tiden går, når man har det sjovt, og det er snart en uge siden, at vi tog afsted fra København til Bangkok. Jeg nyder det i fulde drag! Som jeg forudsagde, har wifi’en ikke været min bedste ven her i Thailand, men det er også okay, for jeg er ikke rejst til den anden side af jorden for at være for meget online 😉 Vi rejser på vores klassiske familiemåde, og selvom vi egentlig havde planlagt, at turen skulle være ret afslapnings-præget, har dette indtil videre på ingen måde været tilfældet, da vi, når det kommer til stykket, er rimelig vilde med at opleve ting og knap så vilde med at ligge ved en pool eller en strand en hel dag. Vi tog i forgårs turen til Cambodia fra Bangkok, og dette viste sig at være ret omfattende grundet dårlig infrastruktur, kommisionslønnede chauffører, der trak tiden ud så meget som muligt og ekstrem bureakrati ved grænsen til Cambodia. En tur på et par hundrede kilometer endte derfor med at tage 11 timer… Dog var det dagen efter det hele værd, da vi, kl. 5.30 om morgenen, så solopgangen ved Angkor Wat. En oplevelse jeg sent vil glemme! Billederne her i dette post er fra Angkor Wat, og I kan se flere billeder på min Instagram, hvor jeg uploader dagligt. Dagen efter kørte vi tilbage til Bangkok, og nu er vi på vej i seng efter en dejlig thai street food dinner. I morgen går turen atter videre med fly mod Phuket, hvor vi har planlagt et par dages afslapning. Vi har dog intet hotel endnu, så det bliver igen spændende, hvad vi ender med! Jeg håber I alle har haft nogle skønne juledage fyldt med mad, familie, venner, glæde og skønne gaver <3

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English: Time is passing by soooo fast here in Thailand and I am enjoying to the fullest. As I predicted, Wifi hasn’t been the best, but that is totally fine as we haven’t had much time to be online anyway. We are traveling the classic “Solver” family way, and although we planned this trip to contain a lot of relaxation, we haven’t had much yet. We have literally been all over the place and also managed to go from Bangkok to Cambodia to see Angkor Wat in just two days. It was quite a trip as Cambodia has a pretty strict visa and border system, so traveling a few hundred kilometers from Bangkok-Siem Reap in Cambodia took 9-11 hours each way. A killer! But it was all worth it when we stood at Angkor Wat 5.30 am to watch the sunset…  The pictures in this post are from Angkor Wat. Remember, you can also see more photos on my Instagram, where I update every day. Now we are back in Bangkok ready to go to bed after a slow night with another amazing thai street food dinner, and tomorrow morning we are flying to Phuket. Maybe we will have time to relax a little then – it will be exciting what will happen as we still haven’t booked any hotels 😉 We will see! I hope you all had some great Christmas days full of food, gifts, celebration, friends and family. I am preparing a lot of posts on Cambodia, Bangkok and Thailand in general, so hopefully some of you are going to visit sometime soon <3

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Christmas in Bangkok, Thailand

Caroline Sølver in Bangkok

Jeg er i Bangkok og her er fantastisk til trods for, at jeg er en del jetlagged. Sidder pt. og skriver dette indlæg i hotellets lobby (det eneste sted, der er wifi!) og kl. er syv om morgenen. Oversættelse bliver det ikke til i dag, men læs med på engelsk <3 Og glædelig jul! Håber I alle har haft en skøn juleaften og får nogle dejlige juledage fyldt med familie, venner og god mad!

Silverstories in Bangkok

English: So, I have arrived in Bangkok, or more correctly, that happened two-three days ago. Jetlag has hit me so I can’t really keep track of dates and time. Right now I woke up at seven in the morning and wasn’t able to sleep anymore. Anyone who knows me will know that this would NEVER happened unless I was hit by a serious case of jetlag. Therefore I have now escaped my insomnia and gone to the lobby (yeah, our hotel room has no wifi, which means we have to go to the lobby whenever we want to go online). I bet it is a good exercise and could be extended to something like a new year’s resolution – be less online and more present…

None the less, Bangkok is amazing! And I am so lucky to be celebrating Christmas in Bangkok! So far I have already had a great amount of Thai street food, held a big, big snake (as I wrote on Instagram, I ONLY did it in order to get a photo for the gram, haha!), visited Rocket Coffee Bar which was very beautiful, but as my mom said “places like these make the world a very small one), meaning these classic coffee bars look similiar everywhere you go you almost forget where you are, in this case – Bangkok and we might as well be home in Copenhagen. She is so right, but I am still a sucker for hip cafes. I have also had a fair amount of fresh coconuts to drink, and they really solve everything. Headache? Drink a fresh coconut. Jetlagged? Drink a fresh coconut. Hungover? Drink a fresh coconut. I predict I will be drinking a lot of them the next 10 days…

Bangkok is a classic big city with deafening and never ending traffic, shopping and market possibilities everywhere and a whole lot of people making the streets insanely crowded. But it is all part of the charm! Tomorrow (or today depending on where in the world you are) we are leaving to Angkor Wat in Cambodia. I am so excited to experience the world’s biggest religious site!

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How do we celebrate Christmas around the world

christmas traditions around the world

Being born in Denmark, Christmas automatically plays a big role in a families life and traditions. Especially when I was younger, Christmas was absolutely magical to me, and I have a ton of good memories from my childhood Christmases. Last year on the 24th of December I was in Denmark getting ready to go to my grandfather’s house to celebrate Christmas, as I Skyped my boyfriend who was in Brooklyn, NYC with his own family. Due to the time difference, I asked him what he was doing later and how him and his family were going to celebrate. He replied that he might just go to a restaurant with his mom and his two brothers. I thought “What!? Are restaurants open on this holy sacret night?!” – duh, of course, it is New York City we are talking about, and secondly I thought that this was a very different way of spending the night of the 24th of December that what I am used to. This inspired me to ask some of my friends from around the world to elaborate on how they celebrate Christmas – how do we celebrate Christmas around the world . I hope you like it aaaand then it is over to your, lovely readers! How do you celebrate Christmas, what are your best and/or weird traditions and your favorite memories?

Me – Caroline, 21 years old, Denmark

How do you celebrate Christmas? The whole month of December is like one big month of celebrations. We have countless of traditions in Denmark, and it starts already in November where the radio starts playing christmas songs 24/7, the streets and all stores start putting up Christmas decorations and the supermarkets sell Christmas candy. The 1st of December, various TV channels start sending their Christmas calendar shows (meaning they will show one episode per day of a new made Christmas show till the 24th of December – the big finale!) and at dinner time we will light our calendar candle (see photo). Every date has to be light, or it will never be Christmas – a horror story if you ask kids! The 1st of Dec we eat warm rice pudding with cinnamon sugar. If we are lucky, we will find a present in our socks either every morning or every sunday from the Christmas elf. At least one night we have to place a bowl of rice pudding on the attic to keep the elf happy.When it is finally time for the 24th of December, the whole day will seem very long, depending on your age. Around 6 pm we shower, dress up and take the car to my grandfather’s house, and we help finishing the food – Danish traditional Christmas food is pork roast, duck, red cabbage, sweet potatoes, potatoes and gravy – heavy and heavenly at the same time! For dessert we have ris a la mande (sweet rice pudding with cream and pieces of almond), and there is one whole almond in the bowl. Then the game is – whoever gets the one almond will receive the “almond present”. After dinner we light the beautiful Christmas tree and we all hold hands while walking around the Christmas tree singing Christmas carols. After the singing and dancing it is time for the presents! Usually there is a mountain of presents, and we will open them for hours.

What is your weirdest Christmas tradition? When my grandfather leaves the company all of a sudden, and a few minutes later someone knocks on the door. It is my grandfather dressed up as Santa Claus. He still does it to this day, even though my youngest cousin is five, and the rest of us are 16-21. All of us are perfectly aware that is is him, and not Santa Claus 😉

What is your best Christmas memory? Every single Christmas I had when I was younger. The whole month of December was truly a magical time. I especially loved the mornings of the 25th, where we would wake up early and all our presents that we got the night before would sit on the floor in our bedroom just waiting for us to play with all the toys we’d got!

Deya, 20 years old, Bulgaria

How do you celebrate Christmas? The 24th of December, I wake up way after my mom has woken up, the washing machine is on, it smells of food, she washes the dishes, it is crazy noise everywhere- that is why I woke up lol! My mom is nervous, my dad is outside just having a normal day. My stressed mom gets tired around noon after she has finally finished cooking all the food. I will decorate the tree, clean, help if I am allowed to. I am singing and dancing around all day. We invite my grandma and grandpa to our place, they arrive all shining and very well dressed, with a big smiled on their faces, very official. Family talks begin-  “let’s go through my childhood again”, all funny moments and comments. Then we have dinner, we talk, laugh, share our dreams and memories, After dinner my mom likes to read from a Christmas book that i have had since I was three years old. We always reread the stories and sing the songs, it is the sweetest moment, because I recall and re-feel as if I was three years old again.

What is your weirdest Christmas tradition? It is a family fact: On Christmas my dad ALWAYS repairs something, just in the last moment he will find something to fix and get distracted and everyone will wait for him. This will happen this year as well, I am so sure! I will laugh so much when it happens!

What is your best Christmas memory? Watching Vicky Christina Barcelona with my dad in front of the fireplace!

Marco, 21 yers old, Italy

How do you celebrate Christmas? Well, we put up our Christmas trees and nativities on the 8th December, it’s a holiday in Italy. Aunts and moms start cooking like days before Christmas, we do eat a lot on the 24th (mainly fish), 25th and 26th, basically until you’re just about to explode. Listing what we eat would take me ages so here are some random dishes: antipasti (olives, ham, cheese), lasagne, cannelloni, tortellini, lamb, pork, rabbit, roasted potatoes and looooads of cakes and sweets (special mention for some small pieces of fried dough with chestnut cream inside, delicious). We exchange presents on the 24th around midnight. That’s also the time when we unveil Jesus Christ in the nativity. We normally play tombola (it’s the original version of bingo with 90 numbers, each number is related to a character of the ancient Neapolitan tradition, for exemplar 47 is “l’omm e merd” which means literally “the shit man”, a guy who cheats and robs weak people ) and some other funny card games. Oh, we’re always in big groups, like 15-20 people, family and friends.

What is your weirdest Christmas tradition? I would say the “befana”, an old witch that comes in the night between the 5th and the 6th January and fills up a sock that we hang by the window. Good kids get sweets, bad kids get sweet…coat.

What is your best Christmas memory? My best Christmas memory is eating with all my family when my grandma was still alive. We were like 20 people sitting at a table, laughing and having fun together.

Kristen, 30 years old, Boston, USA (check out Kristen’s blog www.bougiebohemian.com, which will air in January!)

How do you celebrate Christmas? As this year is officially the first Christmas I will be spending on my own, in my first house, with my new husband, it will be a year of firsts. Essentially, I will beg, borrow and steal the traditions I liked the best from growing up in both of our pasts and hopefully get some Boston Christmas snow.

  • Pre-Christmas- we travel down to DC to spend time with my husband’s family for Chanukah, my mother in law is an amazing cook and she makes a whole organic spread from her backyard garden. The traditional food I enjoy the most are the sweet potato latkes.
  • Christmas Eve- Christmas Eve has always been the biggest part of the holiday in my family; we usually exchange the majority of our gifts that day as well as enjoy a large Christmas spread. As the years have went on my family has spread out across the country and it has become harder to get together. However, my husband and I are going starting our own tradition, where we make Christmas dinner together while listening to holiday music. As gifts we always either buy or make ornaments for each other so we can build our own tree as a family. Last year when we got married, the best ornament was a porcelain classic car dragging cans saying “Just Married” with our names etched into it.
  • Christmas Day- my family essentially did nothing Christmas day growing up. “Santa” would come in the middle of the night and I would be woken up while it was still dark outside to open gifts. This year I plan to steal a tradition from my best friend growing up. Her family used to go to the movies on Christmas and I always loved that. This year hopefully that will mean seeing the new Star Wars. As the day winds down we will head to the Christmas tree in Faneuil Hall (in downtown Boston) and explore Chinatown for dinner.

What is your weirdest Christmas tradition? On Christmas Eve when my extended family would all get together, a mix match of the Irish, the Polish and Slovenians, essentially an average American family; my grandfather, uncles and cousins would take this occasion to partake in the tradition that binds us all, drinking. His poison of choice: Sambuca with coffee (I know Italian anise favored liquor, where did this come from? Why?).

What is your best Christmas memory? Hands down my favorite Christmas memory is watching “White Christmas” staring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire pretty much every Christmas Eve. I would fall asleep in our family room while watching, slightly with the hope I would catch Santa putting my presents under the tree. There is just something about a classic black and white film about a snowy Inn that features holiday themed show tunes that just gets a girl. Still to this day, whenever I hear Bing sing “I am Dreaming of a White Christmas” I still feel sentimental.

 

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Traveling to Thailand

YAY! (Der er absolut ingen anden måde eller andet ord jeg kan bruge til at begynde dette indlæg med!). YAY fordi at, i dag er endelig dagen, hvor jeg sammen med min familie (tvillingebror, far og mor) rejser til Thailand. Vi skipper i år julen mod varme, sol, strand og Asien. Og det har jeg kort sagt absolut intet imod. Tværtimod! Dette indlæg er planlagt, ligesom en håndfuld andre indlæg jeg har planlagt til bloggen og skrevet på forhånd, så der ikke kommer til at være helt stille herinde, mens jeg er væk. Jeg får (forhåbentlig) mulighed for at opdatere bloggen løbende, men efter at dømme, hvordan internetforbindelserne fungerede, da jeg i sommer var på Bali, har jeg ikke turdet forvente for meget, da det kort sagt var umuligt at så meget som at åbne en Snapchat på Bali. Det satte mig og mit internetbehov/afhængig på stor prøve, som I jo nok kan forestille jer 😉

Nå, sidespring! Det skulle jo handle om, at det i dag er dagen, hvor jeg drager mod østen. Vi rejser fra København til Bangkok og har på vejen en kort mellemlanding i Moskva. Med tidsforskellen inkluderet, kommer vi til at lande i Bangkok om morgenen den 22., så det er en halvlang rejse, vi har foran os. Jeg er bestemt ikke fan af lange flyture, hvor man er klemt ind på små flysæder, tidsforskel, træthed og en krop, der grundet små sæder og mangel på benplads efter et par timer smerter og er øm, men det må man jo tage med, når man vil opleve nye dele af verden, og udover det, har jeg jo ikke noget at klage over! Jeg får sol og 33 grader den 24. december, og det siger vidst nok om min situation som en meget heldig kartoffel.

Vi har i store træk planlagt vores to uger i Thailand, som ser sådan ud: Bangkok – Angkor Wat, Cambodia – Bangkok – Phuket – øhopping – Phuket – Bangkok – hjem, og vi har som sagt to ugers tid. Mine forældre er tilhængere af at rejse off the beaten path, så det der med at planlægge en masse, har aldrig været familiens rejsestil. Derfor bliver det jo meget spændende, hvad vi mere præcist kommer til at opleve og hvor, vi kommer til at bo. På mine rejser med mine forældre, har vi ofte sat os ind i en bil eller et fly og endt der, hvor viden blæste os hen. Det er der i den grad noget frihed over. Og ofte er det sådan, man får de bedste oplevelser. Dem, hvor man ikke har forventet for meget, og hvor tilfældighederne gør, at tingene bare passer sammen og udgør en uventet oplevelse. Man lever og man rejser. Og at rejse er at leve! Nok snak for nu – jeg glæder mig ustyrligt – til varmen, til solen, til nye oplevelser, til familietid, til thai-mad, palmetræer og kokosnødder. Over and out, vi ses på den anden side, når jeg befinder mig langt væk i Bangkok! Jeg håber, at I nyder den søde juletid, om end den indebærer flæskesteg og juletræ eller noget helt andet <3

English: YAY! (There is absolutely no other word to possibly use to begin this post with – YAY as in today is the day that I am (finally) traveling to Thailand. This post is a scheduled post that I wrote yesterday, as I wanted to make sure that I update you on the blog, but judging from my last time in Asia (when I went to Bali this Summer), wifi definitely couldn’t be depended on. I have no idea how it is going to be this time, but expecting the worst, I have planned a few posts on the blog, so it won’t be completely quiet on here when I am busy traveling Thailand for the next to weeks.

More about that – today I am leaving from Copenhagen to Bangkok, Thailand with my family (twin brother and parents). We have a short layover in Moscow, Russia, and with time difference included we will be in Bangkok early morning the 22nd. So far our two weeks in Thailand are only planned as far as where we will be the some of the dates – our itinerary so far looks something like this Bangkok – Cambodia (Angkor Wat) – Bangkok – Phuket – Island hopping – Phuket – Bangkok – back home to Copenhagen. My parents are firm believers in traveling “off the beaten path-style”, so it will be exciting to see how our trip is going to turn out and what cool and amazing experiences we will have. First – full of excitement, we have a long ass plane ride and journey to go through! See you in when I land in Bangkok, Thailand <3

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One year of travels pt. 1

2015 er ved at være ved vejs ende, nytårsaften skal snart fejres, og jeg bruger denne tid på at reflektere en smule over året der er gået! En ting som 2015 i den grad indeholdt for mig, var en hel masse rejser – derfor har jeg, i dette indlæg, samlet og lavet et lille referat over, hvor jeg rejste til i 2015. Det har i sandhed været et skønt år!

English: 2015 is coming to its end, New Years Eve is approaching, and as always I am taking a moment to reflect over what 2015 has brought me. One thing 2015 definitely was full of was travels – here is a little recap of where I traveled to in 2015 – part one! One year of travels.

New York City Skyline

Ice cold winter New York City

New York City, February: I februar måned sagde jeg mit fuldtidsjob op, og begyndte at arbejde deltid hjemmefra – dette gav min kæreste og jeg muligheden for at tage et par uger til New York for at bo i hans lejlighed i Brooklyn. Fantastisk! Bortset fra at byen var isbelagt og -20 grader kold det meste af vores tid der, så vi brugte dagene indendøre. Byen var dog fantastisk som altid, selv i minusgrader og sne. English: In February I quit my full time job and then continued working for them part time from home – perfect opportunity to go with my boyfriend to his apartment in Brooklyn and spend a few weeks there – so we did. It was freeeeeeezing cold, like -20 degrees freezing cold, so honestly we didn’t do much besides staying at home, doing indoor things like museum visits and cuddling up at warm, cozy cafes and restaurants. Oh, how I love New York City, even in -20 degrees, snow and ice everywhere!

Beach cuba

Silverstories Cuba

Trinidad Cuba

Cayman Islands-Cuba-Miami-New York, February: New York blev så afsindig kold, at vi besluttede os for, at vi havde brug for noget varme. I New York er man så sæt på de caribiske øer, at dette ikke er det store problem. Vi fløj derfor til Cuba med et 24-timers stop på Cayman Islands.Cayman var smuk, og vi solede os og badede, og det var en meget forvirrende følelse at gå fra -20 grader til +30 grader på under tre timer. Dagen efter var det tid til at flvye videre til Cuba. Jeg kunne skrive en roman om, hvor fantastisk denne ø er, men jeg vil spare jer og gøre det kort – Cuba var det vildeste! Vi havde en uge på øen og oplevede både Havanna, Varadero og Trinidad, som var min yndlingsdel af øen. På vej hjem til NYC fløj vi over Miami, hvor vi havde halvandet døgn. Miami er altid skønt, dog var det et helt kulturchok at komme fra Cuba til Miami. Tilbage i NYC havde vi et par dage, inden vi atter fløj tilbage til Berlin. English: NYC got a little too cold, so we decided we needed some sun and booked flights to Cuba over Cayman Islands with a one day layover in Cayman. Cayman was pure relaxation, and both of us had caught a cold in NYC, so we spent the whole day suntanning and sleeping on the beach. The day after it was time for Cuba, and I could write a whole novel about this place and this trip. Not to bore you and to shorten it down – Cuba was AMAZING. I would go back any second. We had a week there, and we visited both Havana, Varadero and Trinidad (my favorite part!). Everyone should visit Cuba at least once in a lifetime! On the way back we had a two day layover in Miami. Miami also holds a special place in my heart, but it was quite a culture chok to experience Cuba and Miami right after each other. We flew back to NYC and had a few days there, before we went back to Berlin after being away for a month.

Caroline Solver in Paris

Silverstories Paris

Paris, April: Da foråret kom, besluttede min barndomsveninde og jeg mig for at tage til Paris på en vaskeægte pigetur. Hendes veninde har den smukkeste lejlighed beliggende i Pigalle-området, og vores dage blev brugt på ægte parisisk vis med kaffe og macaroons på fortovscaféer, middage og byture med venner og mest af alt at gøre lige hvad vi havde lyst til! Jeg elsker, når man kommer tilbage til destinationer, som man allerede har oplevet, så man bare kan bruge tiden på at gøre, som man har lyst til istedet for at stresse rundt og være turist. Da vi skulle hjem, overraskede min kæreste mig med at dukke op, og vi blev endnu et par dage i byen. Læs min guide til Paris her. English: When Spring came, my favorite travel buddy and childhood friend from Copenhagen and I decided to take a girls trip to Paris. Her good friend has the most stunning apartment in the Pigalle area where we stayed, and this whole trip was very Parisian, as we had both been to the city of love before. We basically spent our days meeting up with friends, drinking coffee and eating macaroons at sidewalk cafes and just enjoying each other and the city a whole lot! The day we had to fly back, my boyfriend surprised me and we stayed a few more nights at the Hotel Costes in Paris. See my guide to Paris here.

Silverstories in Lisbon

Sintra silverstories

Lisbon, April: Efter Paris, var vi kun i Berlin en dag, før vi atter vendte snuden mod Lissabon. Det var mit første besøg i byen og Portugal i det hele taget, og jeg syntes straks at Lissabon var fantastisk! Jeg skal helt sikkert tilbage, så snart muligheden byder sig! Vi havde desværre kun en forlænget weekend i byen, men vi nåede alligevel en del og tog også en dagstur til byerne Sintra og Cascais, som bestemt også var et besøg værd! English: After coming back from Paris and spending one day in Berlin, we were off again. This time to Lisbon to meet some of my boyfriend’s friends from the States. It was my first time in Lisbon, and I loved every minute of it and I can’t wait to go back. We only had three days there, but we managed to see quite a bit and took a day trip to the cities of Sintra and Cascais also.

This is one year of travels pt. 1 out of 3.! Wait up for one year of travels part 2 and part 3, and now – over to you, dear readers! Has 2015 been a good year for you and what were the high lights of the year? <3

 

 

 

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