Meet Hetty!

I was getting a little tired of living all by myself and even more of all the dust in my apartment and the fact that I had to clean my floors all the time...and I found the perfect solution for both: Hetty! I ordered her on Amazon, she came to me on Thursday and immediately did a great job by cleaning all the floors. She watched Shrek with me afterwards :)

Apart from Hoovering I am superbusy either at work (I am finally out of training and doing real stuff and not just a little of it) or enjoying Dublin summer (yes there is such a thing) with my colleagues and friends on different terraces and balconies. I have a lot that I want to write about, but expat life is busy with watching the world cup, especially if you support the Dutch and the Germans at the same time like me. I am getting a little nervous about the finals, because right now both teams are on fire and since the DACH and the Benelux teams share the 5th floor it might get interesting there. Hoping for the best, but I am really happy that I left the Netherlands :) But I am going back for a short visit the weekend after the world cup, which I am already very excited about.

My world just became perfect :)

Yesterday I discovered the Buffalo store in Dublin. Yes, it's the same Buffalo that made shoes with very thick soles in the 90s that you'd rather not be seen with - but they only make pretty shoes these days. The store is conveniently located in Exchequer Street. Of course I had to visit it immediately and what I found there made me whole - pink ballerina flats covered in pink-silver paliettes that can be turned to create ever new sparkling effects. Now is that in itself already totally awesome, but I was even happier because I already own the matching purse, Coniurata gave it to me for Christmas. I had been contemplating buying the matching High Heels for a while, but they are Peeptoes and maybe just a little "too much". That is why discovering the ballerina flats made me a very happy girl. They also had them in blue-silver.

Coniurata is visiting me these days and we hit the shops yesterday (thanks to them being open every day). It was the worst weather ever, but who needs good weather for shopping anyways and the city was much less crowded because of that. We got many pretty things and I also went to Schuh to get a pair of Irregular Choice shoes. I had decided on a black suede High Heel with a flower sitting on it, but unfortunately it wasn't available in my size. It was, but only in another store in Dublin or in Galway, but even more unfortunately they couldn't get it for me from those stores. The shop assistant proposed several times that I looked for another black shoe that I liked...SERIOUSLY? I was a tiny little bit disappointed. There will probably be other nice exemplars crossing my path soon, so I shouldn't be too upset. We paused our shopping for a little bit of Brunch & Jazz at Hugo's, which was very pleasant.
Today it's time for some Dublin sightseeing...let's see how long we can stay away from the stores :)

Apartment decoration: Mission accomplished!

After my visit to IKEA on Sunday I now have everything in place in my apartment (well except for my kitchen towels, I still have to find some hooks to stick to the wall) and I am loving it even more now. IKEA in Dublin is somewhere north outside of the city and I took the bus there, which allowed me to get to know another (a little less prettier side) of Dublin, but from the safety of the top floor of a double-decker bus. I bought a lot of useful things like hooks and a pan but also many many decorations, most of which I used for my bathroom which was still quite bare. I have posted two pictures of it...I decided to make it feel like a beach. Obviously I'm not completely there yet, but I will go to the beach here very soon and see if I can find some shells. Also, if you are near a beach and they happen to sell postcards with pictures of that beach I would love to get one so I can put them up on my wall :)

Unfortunately I got a cold again (the second since I arrived), stupid Dublin weather. It always looks nice and sunny when in reality it is not that warm because of the wind and also it changes within 15 minutes to bad mean rain. The air conditioning at the office then just does its part...luckily there is some nice medication that contains paracetamol and caffeine that already got me through the day and a very fun training. I will go home very soon and lie in bed until it goes away, because I have more fun training tomorrow and then the day after Coniurata is coming already to visit this weekend and I need to be in very good health then. I have a lot of sightseeing to do with her since I haven't really done a lot of it until now and I've also planned many other cool things.

The Washerdryer

I recently came across one of these...right here in my apartment. By accident, I discovered that my washing machine has a built-in dryer. This accident was me trying to do laundry but also pressing the „dryer“-button and therefore ending up with very hot, but still dirty laundry that had detergent smeared all over it. It was still a happy moment, as I have been a huge fan of my dryer in the Netherlands that made my towels warm and smooth. On friday, I tried the magic. After the washing part of the laundry was done, I switched to drying. When I came home later my laundry was hot, but unfortunately also steaming and still WET. There is probably a reason why in continental Europe we have two different devices fort his. Good thing I also have a rag to air-dry my laundry. Maybe I can put it into the dryer-washer afterwards to make it all warm and smooth.

Truly Princessy Pictures

 This might almost be a little outdated, but I wanted to share it nevertheless. On the day that I left the Netherlands my dear friend Jennifer, who is a passionate and by now also professional photographer took pictures of me in Utrecht so that I would always remember the city. They are also a very pleasant Souvenir of all the fun times we had together (which are a lot, because we know each other since High School). There are more pictures on her blog. And just in case you are getting married, are pregnant or want some nice pictures of yourself for no apparent reason, give her a buzz! She is truly awesome :)

http://www.jenniferhejna.de/wordpress/?p=1271

Irregular Choice Shoes

This weekend the weather was very very nice in Dublin. Some mean people already said that this was the summer already, but I refuse to believe this and treat this as a preview for many nice weekends to come. I have not been able to fully enjoy this one because I had to study. On Wednesday I have the first of the Google Certified Professional exams and I want to be well-prepared. Still, after studying on Saturday and a little bit on Sunday morning I decided it was time for a treat and I walked to town along the Liffey and hit the shops in Grafton and O'Connell street. I have seen many nice things, but the thing that amazed me most and that I really wanted to share is a brand of shoes I found in "Schuh" on O'Connell street. They are called "Irregular Choice" and I fell in love immediately...really funky cool High Heels and also some pretty flats. I can't wait for Coniurata to visit and go get myself something pretty :D 

Welcome to the Adventures of a Cosmopolitan Princess

Those of you who visit this site more often might have noticed that things have changed in the last two weeks. Since there were some other things in my life that changed in the last months I decided it was time to make changes here as well. From „The world of Christina“ I changed the title of my blog to „Adventures of a Cosmopolitan Princess“, which describes more accurately what this all is about.
I chose the title because it captures best what I want to write about: the things that make my life princessy and me therefore a princess and also the things that make me cosmopolitan, like the awesome places that I visit and the interesting places where I live. After two years of mostly travelling adventures and one or the other update on my life, I will also write about more concrete and more princessy (and maybe sometimes a bit trivial) things in my life. Like very special pretty things I discover and feel the need to share, nice locations I find or an exceptionally good (or bad) book that I read. Since travelling and discovering the world is still one of my favourite things to do, I will of course continue to write about that, too.

Whereas the meaning of „cosmopolitan“ is probably clear to most of my readers and how it could apply to me, there might be a need to elaborate on „princessy“, especially for those who don’t know me in person ☺. To most of my friends it is no secret that I am a little princess on the inside, manifesting itself for example through the purchasing of countless pink items. I have only recently made complete peace with the existence of that princess. For myself, I was always a little afraid to be shallow, as if pink and pretty things were the only things I cared about. Luckily I have proven to myself once and for all that this is not the case by writing a scientifically relevant thesis and getting an awesome job. Also, this new situation brings along possibilites that I didn’t have before – evenings and weekends free of thesis-writing, studying, working or AIESECing, an income to spend on princessy things and space for myself, in my apartment. I will put these new resources to good use.

Until then, take a look at the pictures of my apartment if you haven’t already done so!