MY SWEET LONDON !!!

Hello guys! 

To tell you the truth it was my sixth or seventh times in London and I'm still loving the place, sure it might seem like I've seen and done all there's to do in London but I can assure you that's not the case!
After all this time I still manage to find places I've never been before, a restaurant I've never eaten to and the experience is never the same because the people I go there with are never the same.


For once I went there with my family and how lucky we were, I never had such an amazing weather, it was sunny and warm for three days, while it was raining in Paris haha, you could see the Londoners in shorts and shirts, children with no clothes on, everybody in the many parks simply enjoying some sun.

During this long weekend, we walked along the Thames from Big Ben to the Tower Bridge, Then from the London Tower to the Subway to go to Notting Hill to have fun in the Creole Carnival, one advice it's no place to be with your family... It could have been fun with friends and when you are prepared because for us it was more of a Festival than a Carnival and we had no idea...to us it was like the world was about to end and everybody just wanted to get drunk and high and scream and danced until everything was over...like I said we were not prepared.

Then we walked to Paddington just to rest in Kensington Gardens, after this very long day of walking around London. Sometimes it's really nice to enjoy doing nothing, lying down in a park, talking and laughing...until it's dinner time!

Of course, we walked in Hyde Park as well, trying to touch some squirrels, went to London center and did some shopping, where do you go shopping in London? Picadilly Circus and Oxford street of crouse... try to see and do as much as possible during our stay!
And since the weather was amazing it was like the entire population of London was out on the street, not so great when you're doing some shopping but it really showed us what an exciting City London is, it was electrifying, all the people and the shows on the streets, it was full of life...I Loved it!

 What I wanted to do most of all was Camden Market, you know how I love my markets haha but then I heard about the fire and I was so sad, what a beautiful multicultural place had been destroyed...
But then we did Notting Hill on Saturday morning and they actually put the two markets together, I was in heaven! It was the longest market ever but you could distinctly see Notting Hill Market from Camden Market.

Since it was the first time in London for some of us, we went to Buckingham Palace and St James Park, I have to say that I did Buckingham and St James the first time I was in London, so back in 2005...It brought back a lot of memories because London was actually my very first abroad travel, It's London that first gave me the lust for travels, and ever since I can't stop visiting the world. That must be why London is a place I can't stop coming back to.

Few food adresses:

• CERU: levantine food, super good (try the cocktails they're amazing!!)
• JAVA U : Perfect for breakfast and brunches.
• Tommi's BURGER JOINT: One of the best burger I ate in my life!!

I just love London and if you know more adresses or places in London I should go to, please leave them in the comment!

Ever been to London? More original adresses? I'm a food lover so please don't hesitate.

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EXPLORING ICELAND// Maiitikaa's Life

Halo  everyone,

Here it is... the video about my road trip in Iceland!

Hope you'll like it, I'm so sad because so many footage is not in the video otherwise it would have been 30 minutes long instead of 7min, I'll probably try to do another with the dive in Silfra, the western Fjords and Reykjavik see I told you so much is missing!

But for now I hope this one will inspire you and show you how incredible Iceland is!

Please feel free to leave a comment.

ENJOY!

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ICELAND, "A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE" !!!

Hi, guys!!!!

Did you know that Game of Thrones went shooting in Iceland? yeah me too haha, and I totally get why, this place is so wild and impressive, glacier next to volcanoes perfect places for the show, wild black sand beaches, and so many waterfalls you don't even know where to look anymore!

Iceland is also known as "Land of fire and ice" is just 3 hours away from Paris and yet before 2 years ago I never really thought of going there!
And really we decided to go there almost on a whim, summer 2015 my best friend and I came back from our holidays in Ireland and her mom looked at us and asked "Where are you going for your next adventures? you should go to Iceland!" and that how we decided that we had to go to Iceland, 2 years later we were driving a Jeep Wrangler across that very country!

WHY ICE?

JOKULSARLON

One of the most famous, or maybe the most famous place in Iceland, known for its numerous icebergs, we were super lucky to go on a sunny day, we saw icebergs break apart, imagine those huge block of ice fall into the water and create small waves...it was one of the most impressive things I've ever seen.

Then we went for the black sanded beach and that...just blow my mind, since I'm a little girl I dream of going on an expedition to Antarctica or Arctic to see those frozen places, pure nature away from everything and even if it was one of my biggest dreams, I've always been afraid that it was too big of a dream to become a reality and to see the iceberg there in Iceland just made me feel like I was touching my dream, I don't really know how to explain it but the feeling was magical, I felt great!

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SILFRA RIFT IN THINGVELLIR NATIONAL PARK

Silfra is a rift between the tectonic plates of America and Eurasia, the water is only 2 degrees all year long because the water comes from a glacier and can't get warmer because it merges with the lake of Thingvellir and due to the flow the water only goes from the glacier to the lake and not the other way around, this is definitely an experience I will never forget, snorkelling into the water of a glacier, the price is pretty high for snorkelling (price of a dive), but I promise you it's totally worth the price, it last about 30 to 40 minutes and there's no lifeform but algae...You don't really feel the cold only on your face and hands because the suits are really studied so the water doesn't infiltrate and touch your body...
Plus at the end of your tour, they give you hot chocolate and cookies! what's not to like?
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SKAFTAFELL

Skaftafell is one of the biggest glaciers of Iceland, at first, we only went there for a short walk but we couldn't resist and went to see the glacier, we could feel the cold, like literally, the closest you were from the glacier the lower the temperature was, such an amount of ice melting in front of us...just impressive!

Then we went for that walk and arrived on top of the glacier, the walk warmed us up but as soon as we arrived near the glacier the temperature dropped down, I kinda loved the feeling, I like cold it's invigorating and I think it represents perfectly what Iceland is.

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WHY FIRE?

SELTUN

This is certainly the most stinky place I've smelt in Iceland, haha, the scent of brimstone was awful and for my friends, it was even worst, for me it wasn't the first time I smelt brimstone, still, it wasn't pleasant!
But I was glad to see this geothermal place with my own eyes, with its bubbling mud pots and fumaroles, this volcanic land has so many colors and I saw plenty, like blue, pink, purple, yellow and so many...I was in heavenly!

It appears that Seltun is situated in the middle of the fissure zone of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge which crosses Iceland from the South-west to the North-East.

It almost looks like walking on Mars.

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HEKLA

The most active volcano in Iceland, it usually erupts every ten years but it's been now seventeen years since its last eruption.
We kind of get lost trying to climb that one, so we ended up looking at it instead of climbing it, we drove and drove for I don't remember how much hours to end up on the opposite mountain, little advice don't forget the four-wheel drive when you climb a mountain with your jeep, we were so scared, thrilled but scared haha.
But it completely was worth all the time and effort we put in Helka!

For the information, we had no idea that Hekla was so active before we decided to climb it.

LANDMANNALAUGAR

Perhaps my favorite place and yet the one that was the hardest for our mind and body, probably why it was my favorite, in the deserted land of Landmannalaugar we had to sleep on rocks and face the wind and the rain, we didn't eat very well (cold white rice, soup, bad bread and other stuff which weren't real meals) but it made me feel so good because now I can say that I did it and it was hard and cold but I did it, we did it, and the walks in there were the best in all Iceland.
We even kept our wrist band just to prove to ourself that it wasn't a dream, we walked on volcanoes, slept with below zero temperature, on rocks (literally for one of us) eat bad food but met really awesome people and well, we were in Iceland so we still had fun!

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ALWAYS TRAVEL WITH PEOPLE YOU LOVE!

Do you feel like going to Iceland? If you've already been there I would love to hear about your travel experience in the comment!

*All pictures aren't mine, some are my best friend's @emelinespictures (that's her Instagram if you feel like taking a look)

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