Incredibly good food, interesting people, surprising amounts of electric steps in the streets, trendy 24/7 co-working cafes, great weather, fascinating history and year round great weather. Don’t expect me to leave any time soon… I had visited the country various times [...]
Sweden, you are beautiful! I found out that ‘the middle of nowhere’ actually exists; it’s a three hour drive from Stockholm, there’s perfect silence only broken by bird song and there are forests and lakes and knäckebröd and no people… The area around Borlange is a [...]
Live. Create. Tell the story. Repeat. - Inspiration shot January 2018 You have a gift. No matter who you are or where you are from, each of us has a story to share. Things that may seem insignificant to us might contain an important message for others. Last [...]
About 4 hours by minibus from Tbilisi gets you to the beautiful Kazbegi mountains. There’s skiing here in winter. Even now, at the end of April, there’s still snow in some places. The mountains offer nice hikes in the summer. The ride there has lots of stops to break the journey. You pass small villages that in winter are completely isolated. People there live a hard life, surviving on potatoes, flour, wine and wodka (chacha). We hiked up to the 14th century Trinity church. It was pretty strenuous, also considering the elevation of 2500 ft, but absolutely worth the effort. Then we had lunch in the beautiful Rooms hotel with stunning views. I would love to come back here one day to laze for a few days, or maybe organize a writing retreat: this place is so amazing. Another day trip combined two ‘sights’: the Stalin museum in Gori and the Borjomi mineral springs. Stalin was born in Gori, Georgia, and is still revered here. It was really weird to visit this museum in which a dictator, who killed millions of people, is portrayed as a hero. I left feeling slightly nauseous. This is not OK! The experience is best described in this article. It sparked an interesting discussion among our group about how our museums and versions of history might also be biased. The Borjomi mineral springs are located in a beautiful, green, hilly area. The village has a few shops and restaurants. This is where the famous Borjomi mineral water comes from. We had lunch at the upscale Crown Plaza hotel. Then we hiked down a steep hill, through beautiful forests, to get to the mineral spring baths. I had hoped for a hot bath, but it was actually only lukewarm. The hike back up the hill warmed us back up though. The ride back to Tbilisi offered spectacular views of the countryside, villages and mountains. I saw many older locals herding their cows in the street. The sunset provided beautiful light and different shades of golden and green on the countryside. Bye bye Georgia, you enchanted me with your friendly people (the people I met in restaurants and shops, not on the streets), great food and beautiful countryside!
In 2015 I visited Curaçao. Read about my adventures in Dutch.
Silent Storm This is going to be a strange contribution to this yearly tradition*. You see – I can’t and really am not allowed to write about the thing that is occupying me most at the moment. My father – whom I am caring for this winter in [...]
Visibility in 2018 - Inspiration Shot December 2017 "Practice what you post..." You have probably noticed that I am pretty active and open on social media. It hasn't always been like this. In fact I am a pretty private person. But long before the internet started I learned [...]
Peyote Whisperer? My unusual connection with a psychedelic cactus... When I told my friend Randall Rodrigues about my weird connection with a group of Peyote cacti in Amsterdam, he said: “So you are like a Peyote whisperer?” I laughed it off, but in the days following his remark, [...]
For months I traveled the world uninsured until I got into a car accident in the Caribbean. That made me realize how vulnerable you are in case something serious happens. By coincidence, I found out about the health insurance offered by IKEA family in Mallorca and now I have worldwide coverage at an incredible price.
How to register as a resident in Mallorca I get a lot of questions about both registration as a resident in Spain and the cheap health insurance offered by IKEA family in Mallorca. For many digital nomads, this might be a solution to get a registration [...]
