New website!

I have a new website: vegantraveldreams.com 🙂 I won’t be active on this blog anymore.

I migrated all followers to my new website, just in case you wonder.. 😉

Get out.

I just want to remind you to get out of your house and out of your routine even if for a few days, even if only for one day!

I know how hard it can be to travel or do amazing activities if you don’t have the money or the time at the moment which is the case for me right now. But whenever possible, do something. You don’t even have to leave your country, not even your region. You can also go out and discover your local nature. It just came to my mind again in this moment how good it felt last weekend in Paris to get a break from my everyday life even though it was just for a short time. That’s why I want to share this little reminder with you to motivate you to go out, leave your comfort zone and do something. ❤

Vegan in Paris.. pas possible? Pt. II

The next day I slept in as we got home so late and I wasn’t meeting my ex-roommate at Champs-Élysées until lunchtime. When I got there it was so weird to see her after half a year because we spent several months together in one room before in Sweden and then suddenly didn’t see each other anymore! It was really great though and we had to tell each other so many news about what happened in our lifes. She also brought 2 friends with her and first I worried if I’ll be able to visit the places I wanted to this day as it is quite boring to see touristic places for locals. They didn’t mind though and asked me where I wanted to go so we walked down Champs-Élysées to see Arc de Triomphe at the end of the street. When I saw the big traffic circle around it, I was happy one more time I didn’t bring my car. 😀 After that we went to see Tour Eiffel – finally! It’s amazing to get to see a place about which you’ve read so much about and have seen it in so many movies. It’s strange but when I was younger I always thought it wasn’t that big. Then I read a book about how it was built and was quite surprised that there is a really big place underneath the tower. When I saw it in reality I was even more impressed. I knew it was big but that huge? Wow! I didn’t go up the tower for the same reasons I didn’t visit the Louvre museum..

Vegan in Paris.. pas possible? Pt. I

Last weekend I visited paris – finally! I always wanted to go there but somehow it never happend earlier. It was quite a spontaneous trip because at the moment my future is quite uncertain and I can’t really plan anything for a long time ahead. I also don’t have too much money for travelling right now. So I decided to make a short trip to Paris to visit my French roommate who shared a room with me during my semester in Sweden because I’m not sure if I’ll have any other possibilities to go abroad this year and I just needed to get out if even just for a few days.

Once upon a time…

Did you know that Disney’s Sleeping Beauty castle was inspired by Neuschwanstein Castle? ❤

Actually the castle always reminds me more of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast and some sources say it also was the inspiration for this. I’m not sure what’s true. Anyway.. since I’d known about this I always wanted to visit this castle in Bavaria. It’s been some years since I visited this place together with my boyfriend but I remember this trip pretty well because it wasn’t trouble-free.. As usually we booked a room via airbnb and we were told that it’s okay if we arrive later in the evening. As we got stuck in a traffic jam we got to our accommodation quite late. We ringed the bell and called our host on the phone but noone opened and we couldn’t reach her. I have to admit this upset me a little as she told us it’s okay to arrive late. We were really tired and just wanted to take a shower and have a good sleep so that we could get up early and be fit for our hike the next day. In the end there was no other possibility than to sleep in the car though. At least we could see the castle from where we parked..

Too old for travelling?

When I told my parents that my plan is to get a job, save some money and then quit (if I have to) to travel a lot because I haven’t seen enough of this world yet, their first reaction was „But you have to start working again after studying and get a safe job. You didn’t work a lot so far and you have to think of your retirement. You’re already turning 27 this year!“.

But should your age really keep you from doing what you want? Leaving aside that fact that 27 isn’t old.. I even think being over 30, 40 oder 50 is not too old to start travelling. Some people only realise later in life what they truly want to do and what they’ve been missing out on so far. So should these people like me say „Okay, now it’s too late, bad luck.. I’ll bury my dreams, work for my retirement and die“? I don’t think so.. Of course, maybe it would’ve been smarter to go travelling directly after I’d finished school with 18 but I didn’t even think of this. I was quite a different person back then and didn’t have this desire to travel but now I do. I think you always should do what feels best for you at the present time. And even if I experienced a lot of things back then, should this mean not going on with this when I’m older?

Be inspired.

On social media we see lots of people living their dream, travelling a lot, looking beautiful,.. people who seem to have the perfect life. When watching photos, articles or videos from these people do you ever think stuff like „I’m so jealous, I wanna be her“ or „how can she be so beautiful and have this amazing life, it’s not fair“? Especially when you’re stuck in a life you’re not 100% happy with? Well, I do. And I’m not ashamed of admitting it.

I think it’s normal to have thoughts like that. I too want to travel a lot more than I do but I can’t afford it at the moment and need to find a way to live my dreams in the future. It really is important not to get depressed by these thoughts but to use them in a positive way. My way of thinking completely changed within the last few months. In the past I was just jealous and felt miserable watching other people living the life they want. Now I look at those people as an inspiration. I don’t begrudge them for having what they have, no. On the contrary, I’m happy for them and that there seem to be more and more people rethinking and changing their life. Maybe one day our whole system will finally change. A system which is just about working hard at jobs you don’t like, earn money, retire and die. I don’t agree with this system anymore and though I’m still in it I stick to the mantra „be the system to beat the system“.

There’s more Switzerland than just Swiss Switzerland.

Last year I went to Elbe Sandstone Mountains for two days with my boyfriend. You can see them in Germany but also in the Czech Republic. My boyfriend had already been to the German side (Saxon Switzerland)on his own already and wanted me to see them as well because they’re really beautiful. He wanted to go to the region in the Czech Republic (Bohemian Switzerland) this time and as I’m always happy to leave Germany, I agreed.

You want to be vegan but „your friends and family won’t respect it „?

For me this was the main reason which kept me from going vegan I have to admit. That I’d always have to justify myself for something you seriously shouldn’t have to justify for at all.

And yes, at first I got reactions like „this is so exaggerated“, „but what are you allowed to eat now?“, „isn’t that unhealthy?“, „Vegan? Oh come on..“ etc. But I think if you really stand up for something you believe in it’s not a big deal. If people won’t leave you alone just say something like „Please let’s not talk about this anymore. I respect you and your choice, please also respect mine.“. It’s also helpful when you know what you’re talking about, for example the facts why veganism is a good thing and where you get all your nutrients from.

And don’t worry about being impolite when refusing food someone offers you. I know it can be difficult when someone for example made a cake and you don’t want to hurt that person’s feelings. But you can just let them know that it’s nothing personal and that it looks good and that you’re sure it also tastes great. Hopefully they will understand.

You want to be vegan but „what about eating out“?

It wouldn’t be a problem for you to eat vegan at home but when you’re at work, walk around in town all day, go to a restaurant or travel somewhere else you think it’s too hard to stay vegan? Eating out doesn’t have to force you to eat animal products and throw your principles over board though.