♥ This documentary on Netflix “Plastic Paradise”, made me realize something I never really gave much thought before – our use of plastic and how many problems it causes. I definitely recommend anyone to watch it.
♥ Opened my eyes to this blogger Cathrine Frier. I love finding new blogs, and especially when they are like Cathrine’s, hilarious, straight to the point, and personal. I especially enjoy her “things that piss me off”-lists.
♥ I tried watching the new Netflix series “Bloodline” but next thing I knew I was asleep. Maybe I will get to it in a couple of days and I’ll let you know if I like it.
Berlin has a lot to offer when it comes to the coffee scene. Being a coffee and cake – lover, I’ve tried a pretty big amount of coffee places in Berlin, and here are my favorites that are definitely worth a visit!
Silo (Friedrichshain)
Being the coffee spot closest to my apartment, it is no secret that I have spend maybe a bit too much time here in this great coffee bar. Silo is beautifully decorated with brick walls, wooden furniture, and red details like the bike that hangs on the wall and the coffee served in red cups. Everything here is great – the employees, the coffee, the cakes, not to mention the breakfast!
The Barn (Mitte)
The Barn takes the prize of being the king of coffee in Berlin. Many people mean that this is the place to get the best coffee in all of Berlin, and I can only join that opinion. This is also a place I’ve hung out quite a bit since my friend works there. The Barn keeps it rather simple and focusses on the amazing coffee. Besides coffee they also serve buns and cakes that go perfect with the coffee.
Five Elephant (Kreuzberg)
The coffee here is great, but what is even better at Five Elephant is their cheesecake that many people think is the best cheesecake there is in Berlin, which can be shown in the fact that the cheesecake is sold out almost every day. I’ve gone to Five Elephant in vain a couple of times, where the cheesecake was sold out, which is totally understandable, because the cheesecake is amazing!
Bonanza Coffee Heroes (Prenzlauer Berg)
Located close to Mauer Park Bonanza Coffee Heroes is the perfect spot for a coffee break when you hang out in Mauer Park on Sundays. Even better news is that they recently extended the café so there is now space for even more people to enjoy their amazing coffee.
Companion Coffee (Kreuzberg)
Companion Coffee shares location with the amazing fashion store Voo Store. When you are tired of shopping and need a break, Voo Store and Companion Coffee has made it easy for you, you just go to the front of the store, where you can get your coffee fix and maybe top it off with a cookie.
A quick update from a hard working woman. The parents of the kids I am babysitting are in Dubai (lucky bastards) so for the past days I’ve been on as full time nanny. This means early mornings, running around, playing a lot, watching kids TV and so on. Taking care of two kids is hard work but also a lot of fun.
It seems like the very hottest thing at the moment is street food markets, and I must say that I am a fan. A hip place with usually great design, happy, hungry people and all kinds of food from all over the world. What more can one ask for?
When I was in New York back in February we hid from the snow and had lunch in the recently opened Gansevoort Market in fancy Meatpacking District close to the High Line.
Gansevoort Market has everything a real foodie could ask for. Salads, Italian pizza, a Volkswagen food truck that serves authentic Mexican tacos, Moroccan salads, and of course a lot of sweet stuff – greek yogurt, macaroons and pastries.
For indulging the food the people behind Gansevoort Market created this beautiful space where visitors can sit in front of beautiful raw brick walls under trees and branches and eat their food. What I also love about food markets like this is that it allows bigger companys to meet and eat together, and everyone will be happy because there is food for everyone’s taste.
Furthermore Gansevoort Market is in the perfect location, just a spit away from great locations like Jeffreys (shopping), Chelsea Market (concept mall shopping) and of course, the High Line.
As I wrote about earlier, Cuba offered os many things. One thing that Cuba didn’t offer was WiFi. The country simply doesn’t have WiFi, Internet or phone service. WiFi can only be used in very, very few hotels around the island. We managed to get online almost every day for 30 minutes because I had to work, and this might have been the worse thing about the trip to Cuba – the daily stress of being forced to find a way for me to get online in order to work – which I had to.
The funny thing is that the last time I was without internet for more than about a day was last summer. I was with my parents sailing around a little island between Denmark and Germany. I was about to go crazy the first day and a half and I constantly grabbed my phone trying to refresh my Instagram and Facebook feed, but it didn’t work. After that day and a half I came to think about, why it really means so much to me to constantly be updated on what the bloggers I follow on Instagram are doing, why do I care so much? Those thoughts made me realize that I, of course, would be fine without internet for some time, and that I didn’t have to kill my parents for taking me to a god forsaken place without internet.
Then in Cuba it wasn’t that hard to be without Instagram and Facebook, it seemed like I’d learned my lesson last summer, even though I must admit that I am pretty addicted to my iPhone and its internet…
Well, after I got home from Cuba and was back on track with internet again, I got to think about all the time I spend or waste, some would say, every day surfing the Internet. It was quite scary to say the least- when we arrived to Miami and finally had internet again, I was online for three and a half hours straight, sitting up till the middle of the night updating myself on everything I’d missed in those eight days without. When I wanted to go to sleep at 3 am, I tried to, but I was constantly reminded of something else I needed to read, something to check, a message to write, a mail to read… This really made me think how much stress the online world causes and how much of my sleep it steals at times. We (well, I, I can at least talk for myself) are slaves of technology.
The lack of internet in Cuba had me reading three books, or more like, swallow three books, and I remembered how much I used to read and how much I enjoy it. The internet simply steals me away from reading, and it is such a shame. Therefore I made some changes (small ones – baby steps here…) when I got back to Berlin:
♥ I unfollowed a big amount of people on Instagram and Bloglovin. That way I won’t spend that much time forcing myself to check Instagram every other minute, because there won’t be that much to check and the same with Bloglovin.
♥ I started thinking more about what I consume online. Do I really need to read all of Buzzfeeds articles? I will think more about what I consume and be more intentional with it. There are so many articles, blogs, videos and other stuff out there, it doesn’t matter if I don’t read all of it, I don’t need it, and I don’t have to fear if I am missing out on something, because I am not.
♥ Put the laptop and phone away before bedtime and read a book, because I love it. Still struggling on this one, but I am trying.
What are your opinions about this? Are you also, like me, spending more time than what is healthy being online?
