Author Archives: Gaia Gamaggio

FIRST CHRISTMAS IN HOLLAND

Unfortunately the skiing season this year has been canceled and Christmas has been spent in the same place that we have spent the whole year. It’s not horrible and I actually quite enjoyed the holidays. It is actually my first Christmas ever in the Netherlands but I really do miss being able to go somewhere. Oh well, that must wait. The best way to get through a Dutch Christmas is eat a lot of food and hit up the beach. It’s actually quite pretty and sometimes you get lucky and are surprised with some sun. This Christmas was quite low key but it ways nice to spend some days with the fam. The most important thing to mention is the turkey we had on Christmas eve which might have been the most amazing turkey I’ve ever had. It was so good, I seriously could not stop eating…cheers to that

COLD DUTCH DAYS

Excuse all the couch pics!! But this is really all I see haha. It’s officially winter time again and I feel like I haven’t seen the sun in ages. It gets dark and stays that way until late in the morning. I’ve been lighting my “fireplace” quite often in the mornings so it doesn’t feel too gloomy. The best recent idea I had was to bring my duvet to the couch. It was so cozy and I spent almost the whole morning there (not like I usually don’t do this haha). This second lockdown really got me wearing my pajamas until noon, simply because there is nowhere to be. The Hague is looking very pretty these days with all the Christmas lights and I love walking around at night and getting a glühwein. The past days it’s been quite cold so its always nice to stay in as well, order some pizza and treat yourself to some sparkling wine.

NOVEMBER

With everything still closed (yes I am a month late and it is December now) life has been very low key. The most exciting parts of my week include walking into town and getting a chai or glühwein (the best on is from Six Pense on Papestraat in The Hague). I also got some festive flowers (they are half dead by now haha) that used to smell really nice. Theres not really much else to share besides the fact that I am loving my new boots. Ever since I got them these have been the one shoes I wear. They give me cold war military vibes haha.

GETTING COFFEE IN THE HAGUE

If you know me then you know that I love love getting coffee somewhere. Especially on weekends (when there is free parking in town!!) I always go to probably the best place in The Hague Single Estate Coffee Roasters. You can find me there at least once a week and it’s at the point that my phone even gives me the directions to the cafe like this morning. I always go for the iced lattes with either beans from Costa Rica or Kenya but because its getting colder I’m starting to get more warm drinks. I don’t love warm lattes so I’ll usually get a chai instead. You can get really good chai at House of Tribes and get it with oat milk. It’s much better and creamier. These colorful drinks we had at Secret Garden Bakery. The different colored lattes are really fun and pretty but I think they are too sweet for me and I’ll stick to my iced latte ahah.

THE LAST MONTH WITH SUN: AUGUST

Back in The Hague, it was all about enjoying the last month of Summer. The weather was quite decent, luckily not too hot. My friend Katharina came to visit and we went kayaking through the canals (highly recommend), strolled around town, had some drinks and took a trip to Noordwijk Beach for a dinner by the beach. Dinner was Tulum, however it was a bit disappointing. The food was overpriced and just not that good. At least it was nice to sit by the ocean.

A few days later some friends and I put on a Gala evening, simply because we wanted to have a nice dinner and put on pretty dresses. Corona made that hard the last months, so why not organize it yourself. Another very fun evening with great food and drinks.

The summer ended with sunsets by the “Fensterbank” and many brunch dates. Even though this summer was a bit different, I still quite enjoyed it. I taught me to appreciate my surroundings more and lead me to exploring more places that I would have never even considered.

BOARD TRIP: NORMANDIE

Besides visiting Germany this summer I also took trip down to France. I must admit I am not the biggest lover of France, but it was nice to have a change of scenery also I loveee the food there. Our trip really consisted of eating a lot of cheese, olives, salami and wine. It was our board trip, and after a hard year of work we took this time to relax (in our small plastic pool that we brought).

Every morning we took a trip to the bakery down the road. We stayed in this tiny little town in the middle of nowhere, which was nice because we could make noise and not worry. This meant croissant, pain au chocolate and baguette for breakfast every morning. So good. One of the days we actually decided to get out of the house, we took a day trip to Rouen. Its a typical French town with a nice cathedral and the legacy of Jean D’Arc. My favorite part was probably dinner there..of course haha. It was typical French place, where I had a three course meal including a kangaroo burger?? It still tasted really good. We tried our best attempts at ordering in French, because nobody there speaks English very well. I can’t say that it was a big success but we did end up with food so something must have worked. We took an evening after dinner stroll back to the cars and that concluded the day.

HAMBURG

About two and a half months later, I finally get around to writing this post. I visited Hamburg in mid July and now its beginning October…

I mean it is a nice memory to look at all these pictures and it reminds of the times where corona had calmed down a bit so we could go outside and visit different places. I also miss this summer weather. Currently it is raining in the Netherlands and there is no end in sight. Out of my favorite cities in Germany, Hamburg has got to be my second favorite (Munich is on top of course haha). The city is very pretty and has great food. It’s also pretty close to the Ostsee, which we took a day trip to. There we spent some time at the beach, had some wine and a nice dinner by the water at a place called Fischbar.

The other food pics are from a cafe we tried called Marshall Street Coffee. I highly recommend! It has a great atmosphere, and the food is delicious. I got avocado toast (of course) and Philipe the breakfast burger with a perfectly toasted brioche bun. We also went to an Italian called Magia e Bevi, a place Philipe’s family has been going to for ages. The food of course was amazing and I happily finished my plate. Looking at all these food pics right now is making me really hungry, so maybe I’ll go off and make some breakfast now haha.

MÜNCHEN & THE ALLGÄU

It feels good to be back! Even weirder is the thought that I actually used to live here. The view from the car when driving to the mountains is so familiar yet so distant. Even a simple stroll through Munich feels that way. The visit back here felt quite homely I must admit. The trip consisted of meeting up with my dad and his best friend for a lovely Mexican dinner and day trips to the city center, Bad Hindelang and the Tegernsee. A few nice spots to see around Bavaria. We did attempt a hike however did not make it further than 30 min haha, a bit of a fail. Unfortunately I did not get to eat my beloved Leberkässemmel or Bratwurst. But I’ll be back!

RANDOM SNAPSHOTS

Weeks have passed and so far I’ve been to Germany twice and plan to go again next week. Especially right now traveling far is not really possible so my summer is starting to look like a monthly excursion to Germany to visit friends and family. It started with a weekend in Frankfurt where we had a nice dinner and saw my grandma and dropped by my moms aunt on the way back. She lives in a peaceful and calm forest and I must say I love the aesthetics of her house! After some coffee and Dutch cookies (which are not thaaaaat good) we headed back to The Hague. The week after I finally got to see my board again, it had been like two months since we last saw each other! It was very fun and of course we had to pop some champagne haha. Sadly the board year is slowly coming to an end so I’m trying to take in as much as possible before its officially over :(.