Skopje

I'm spending New Year's in Skopje, Macedonia, with my family, and let me tell you, it's fricking arctic here.
The first couple of days it was just cold and windy, but two days ago it started snowing and hasn't stopped since. Yesterday, I went out to town with my brother, my cousin and his girlfriend. Even though the snow soaked through my boots and socks and I had to walk around with ice-cold feet, it was a nice and sunny day! We had hot chocolate in a cozy café and met a really friendly dog that followed us onto the Stone Bridge, and I could take some pictures of all the monuments. Unfortunately, the area around the Alexander the Great statue was closed off (because apparently they're building even more!) so we just walked around a bit and went back home. It was okay though. I desperately needed to take those socks off.

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas, and all the best for the new year! See you in 2015!

Love,
Besa

A Weekend in Munich

I just returned from a weekend trip to Munich!

I visited my friends Kathrin who I haven't seen in ages, and Karo who I met for the first time there (even though we have known each other for a couple of years now!)

It was my first time travelling by coach in a long time, and the 9 hour ride was tedious, even though it was in the night I could barely sleep. My brother came with me to visit his girlfriend, we met up with her and Kathrin when we finally arrived and had breakfast together.

After relaxing at her home (and meeting her two super cute dogs!) we went to a very cute café owned by a friend of hers to see the art exhibition they were having over the weekend, and later I met her other friends, some really cool people, before we went partying together. I had tons of fun dancing in this little dub/dubstep club (even though I usually don't dance at all and probably looked ridiculous, but who cares), especially because it felt like people were there for the music, not for other people, or getting smashed, or anything. Was a breath of fresh air from all the super drunk and super loud parties I've been to until now. But the other place we went to was too large and too crowded and the music too hectic, so I went home. However it did have a really pretty set-up with lights and projections on the walls, it was just very late and I was very tired :D

The second day I met up with Karo in the city and we had Starbucks~ Their winter menu is soo good and I feel like I'm going to spend way too much money there. We walked through town and went quasi-shopping (because neither of us had a lot of money to spend) thought I did get myself a really cool mug! Afterwards we went to the Westpark (which my brother recommended) but because it was already dark and very cold, we went to her house instead. I met her little kitty, we watched some TV series, I had dinner with her family and before leaving for the train station we found a big, round hedgehog in their garden.

So this morning I got up early to go to the bus station, and now I'm home.

Tomorrow I'll have to get up early again, to go to Bonn for some embassy work (because I have to give up my Macedonian citizenship to keep my German one) and after that it's off to Aachen again, and catching up on everything I missed in uni. Definitely not looking forward to that five page paper that needs to be done by Tuesday. (I haven't started yet.)

Oh well! Back to normality it is.

Love,

Besa

Climbing up a hill!

Today was a nice day so my friend Fabian and I went outside to take photos.

He took me to the 'Lousberg' which is a very pretty place in Aachen, I didn't know this town had such pretty nature. And it's really close to my house, too!

Ok the photoshoot was actually about him because he's going to cut off his dreadlocks soon and wanted some good pictures first, but he grabbed the camera and took some pictures of me too :)

It was a fun day even though it's already very cold, but it's really getting me into the winter and Christmas spirit.

I'd like to take pictures here when it snows!

We'll see.

Love,

Besa

[Review] Post from Japan! ~ Perfect Book "Airi-aL"

Hello everyone!

Today I went to the post office to pick up a packet that had arrived just a couple days prior but it wouldn't fit in my letter box (which happens with about anything I order online.) So I had to go out in the cold. And the queue at the post office went out to the door. And when it was finally my turn, the lady at the counter took forever to find my package.

But when I saw what it was, all the anger, disappointment and frustration went away. Poof. Gone forever.

My book order from Japan had arrived!

This semester, I'm taking a beginner's Japanese course, and to celebrate learning my kana and kanji and vocabulary, I wanted to order a Japanese book. But it's surely going to be just a couple more years until I can read a Murakami in original text, so instead I went for something simpler.

Perfect Book "Airi-aL" is a book about Suzuki Airi, a Japanese pop idol. I have been a fan of her ever since I discovered jpop in 2009, she's so pretty and funny and has a beautiful voice, I'm so in love~ And now finally, I have my very own Airiin merchandise!

The book looks like a magazine inside, it's full of photos of Airi and cute graphics and drawings. There are sections with trivia and interviews about her, and some tutorials and collages on how to get her style.
The complete content: Airi's Profile, School Days, Airi's Favourite Stationery, Study Tips, 43 Questions, Daily Routine, Music, Make-up, Hair, Food, Body Care, Favourite Items, Fashion, Airi's Life and Discography, as well as lots and lots of photos in between.

My personal favourite was this~ a day in the life of Airi!

And in the end there's this super cute calendar! I won't write in the book, it's too pretty for that, but I might copy and use it someday :D

The physical book is very high-quality. It's paperback, however both the cover and inside pages are thicker than usual paperbacks, and has an additional protective envelope. The 120 (!) full-colour pages are printed on semi-glossy paper, and all the pictures are high resolution, brilliant colour and top quality (you can even see details in very small pictures, like the album covers in the last section. It's pretty impressive, especially for the low price.

I ordered at CDJapan. The book cost 1500 Yen (~10€) plus 1000 Yen for shipping (~7€) which I think is perfectly reasonable for an international order. And shipping was super fast, it arrived at my house exactly two weeks after I placed the order, and there wasn't any trouble whatsoever with customs. Another nice thing is that the book (and probably their other products as well) is at retail price and there isn't any mark-up. I'll definitely order there again in the future, if I want any more merchandise.

To wrap this up, here are some of my favourite songs featuring Airi~

Hope you enjoyed reading this review!

Love,
Besa

(This was unsponsored by the way!)

Rocky Horror Show

On the 1st November, I went to see the Rocky Horror Show in Cologne with some friends.

We had loads of fun getting ready, and of course seeing the show was amazing. (Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to bring my camera into the theatre, of course)

Rob Fowler as Frank N. Furter was amazing, but the other actors were too! And the size of the Lanxess Arena blew me away.

But what I liked most was the audience participation. If you ever get the chance to see it live, do it. My favourite was the scene in the rain, when everyone covered their head with a newspaper and the whole theatre had a huge water pistol fight :D

This was my first time seeing the Rocky Horror Show after being a fan of the movie for many years, and I definitely think I'm going to go see it many other times :)

In other news, I've caught a pretty bad cold and I'm stuck at home for now.

Funny, I was just talking with a friend about how a couple of years ago we would always enjoy being sick because it meant we didn't have to go to school.

And now we're all like "oh no! I'm gonna miss classes"

All I could manage the last two days was to go to Japanese class (which has compulsory attendance) and a computability and complexity tutorial class.

Oh well! Time to drink lots of tea and sit this one out. At least I'm gonna be sorta immune the next couple of weeks for the Holiday season :) Really looking forward to Christmas fair and drinking wassail, and wearing scarves and hats and snowboots, and scented candles, cinnamon and cloves, Christmas lights...

Lots of love,

Besa

Instalately - October

Hey everyone!

I quite like this format, I think I'm going to do these kinds of posts every month just as a sort of recap of the past month. Seems nice :3

Mum's dinner was too spicy so I made my own. 👌oatmeal with apples 🍎, flax seeds, honey and cinnamon! So delicious 🌱

Ein von Besa Baggins (@besasam) gepostetes Foto am Okt 10, 2014 at 10:43 PDT

I've spent some time back at home at the start of this month, because I finally got through my second round of final exams. So I took the week off work and it felt really really good. I'm also quite happy that I'm visiting home almost every weekend again... During exam time I used to be away for weeks on end and that really doesn't do me good :(

😍

Ein von Besa Baggins (@besasam) gepostetes Foto am Okt 10, 2014 at 2:48 PDT

Adding to that, my brother moved back home recently because he's almost done with his Bachelor's degree and we can do lots of cool stuff again! Like cook together. One day before I went back to uni we whipped up this super yummy chicken roast and the picture really doesn't do it justice, it was sooo delicious.

Finally done with freshers week! Time for the important things in life (like Korean food.) Just kidding, got a ton of work to catch up on

Ein von Besa Baggins (@besasam) gepostetes Foto am Okt 10, 2014 at 8:51 PDT

The first week I didn't have any classes yet, however I was a tutor for the new freshmen and it was very fun, but also very stressful. I don't think I'll be doing it again, I think I could use the time to prepare for my own studies. However I did have a good time with my friend (who is their mentor and looks after them for the rest of the semester) and the freshies~
So to unwind, I had lunch at my favourite Korean place for the first time in forever.

First day of uni! I'm totally gonna show up late with Starbucks. (pls ignore my dirty mirror k)

Ein von Besa Baggins (@besasam) gepostetes Foto am Okt 10, 2014 at 12:27 PDT

And this is what I wore on the first day of uni! My mum bought me the skirt and it's soooo pretty and flowy and I'm crazy about it. I'm also wearing a second-hand cardigan I got off Kleiderkreisel (that place is truly a magical place). I had a good start into the semester! Especially because I finally got accepted into a Japanese class. I applied last semester but didn't get picked, but this time it worked! Along with learning the language I've been wanting to learn since forever, I'm getting some points towards my degree which is good, since I did flunk a couple of exams and I'm currently dragging behind with my credit points. But I have ambitions to turn it around and make it all better :3

#Pusheen helped me with my work at @bitstars yesterday! 😺

Ein von Besa Baggins (@besasam) gepostetes Foto am Okt 10, 2014 at 2:31 PDT

We all know the sticker I'm trying to imitate here :D Yes I have a real-life Pusheen! Actually, it was a birthday gift for Wanja, but it didn't arrive in time and he left on a business trip to the States, so for the time being, she was our office cat. But by now she has finally met her new owner, hehe :3 I seriously can't wait for Christmas to get gifts for all my friends.

How to properly dine as a student

Ein von Besa Baggins (@besasam) gepostetes Foto am Okt 10, 2014 at 11:10 PDT

I felt like making myself a fancy dinner one night. Nothing special, though it was yummy :D

Get a load of these forehead wrinkles. I'm gonna be a very serious looking old lady some day.

Ein von Besa Baggins (@besasam) gepostetes Foto am Okt 10, 2014 at 2:08 PDT

Yes, finally a selfie! This was actually from yesterday, I really liked my eye make-up that day ^^ Also I live for that caption. I think I've inherited the wrinkles from my dad, he has a very expressive and serious forehead lol.

That's it for this month~ I've really not been using Instagram a lot lately, back when I was in school I would upload pictures almost every other day... But I'm trying to make my life interesting so I can post more pictures again haha, bear with me.

So tomorrow it's Halloween and after that it's November and I'm not gonna lie, I've already decked myself out with scented candles and Christmas-y incense and my apartment smells soo good, I've literally been burning candles all day. Can you tell I'm totally thrilled for Christmas this year?

Okay see you guys in the next post! Hope you'll have a great Halloween and a good start into the next month!!

Lots of love,
Besa

[Recipe] The yummiest, juciest apple pie!

Hey guys!

Autumn is in full swing and I couldn't be happier. Finally it's sweater weather again ♥ I'm full of love and I've been listening to autumn playlists for days on end. Good times.

So a couple of days ago I really felt like having apple pie, but it was a Saturday night, the shops were about to close and there was nowhere I could get any. :(
But my brother had the best idea to just bake one. (Why didn't that cross my mind?)
Checking the pantry and fridge revealed that we indeed did have all the ingredients at hand. Rejoice!
So we whipped up this super yummy pie, and it was amazing. Also I just remembered that I saved up two slices in my fridge :D

You really need to try this. It's sooo yummy and not hard at all! Though I did realize that I need to work on my pie crusts (they're very thin on the bottom and thick at the sides, not really the way I like it.)
The orange juice and soft cooked apples in the filling is probably what makes this so juicy and delicious. Unfortunately it's not a pie you can eat warm (because I live for eating baked goods straight from the oven. Soooo good!), it does have to cool off overnight so the filling will go firm, but the waiting is SO worth it.

Without further ado, the recipe!

Fruity Apple Pie

Prep time: 1 hr
Baking time: 1 hr

Prepare a day a head

Ingredients:

For the crust:

170g flour

70g ground almonds

1 tsp baking powder

a pinch of salt

70g sugar

a packet of vanilla sugar

120g butter

1 small egg

For the filling:

1kg apples

1 tbsp lemon juice

200ml water

500ml orange juice, no added sugar

2 packets custard/pudding powder, vanilla flavor

130g sugar

1 tsp cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice

shaved almonds (for the topping)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C.

2. Mix flour, ground almonds, baking powder and a pinch of salt in a large mixing bowl. Add sugar, vanilla sugar, butter and the egg and knead it into a smooth, not too firm dough. Wrap in cling film and let it rest in the fridge.

3. Peel and core the apples. Put about 350g away. Cut the rest into very thin slices and add them to a large pot. Add water and lemon juice and bring to a boil. Strain the pot, catching both the liquid and the apple slices. Fill the liquid back into the pot along with the orange juice.

4. Mix pudding powder, cinnamon and sugar in a smaller bowl, add some tablespoons of liquid from the pot and stir until there are no lumps left.

5. Bring the liquid in the pot to a boil again, remove it from the heat and stir in the prepared pudding. Put it back on low heat and cook it to a thick consistency, stirring continously. Remove it from the heat and add the cooked apple slices.

6. Grease and flour a springform pan (26cm diameter). Lay out the dough, making a 2cm high crust on the sides. Pour in the filling.

7. Cut the rest of the apples into slices and cover the pie. Sprinkle or cover with shaved almonds.

8. Bake for 20 minutes at 200°C. After that, reduce the heat to 180°C and bake for another 45 minutes. If the top is getting too brown, you can cover it with tin foil for the last 15 minutes of baking.

9. Take it out and let it cool overnight in the pan.

10. Serve with whipped cream and enjoy!

Happy baking!

Love, Besa

[Recipe] Nutella Chocolate Muffins

Heeeey everyone!

I should be SO stressed right now.
My first exam is on Tuesday and I stayed up studying until the A.M. yesterday and I feel like I'm not making any progress. Screw you, Statistics.
So naturally, instead of freaking out and get my nose up in my books and study more more more, I've whipped up a batch of chocolate muffins.

And instead of doing that now while munching down on them muffins, I'm blogging about it.

How I managed to pass any exams at all last semester is beyond me.

Anyway!

I made these and they are really good. The recipe is freestyled again, just used my go-to "pound muffn" base recipe (though lately I'm feeling that I should use a lot less butter since they always turn out super greasy lol).
I didn't want to leave them plain though so I checked the pantry for whatever I could use and wound up with chocolate muffins with a surprise Nutella core~!

I should've used less sugar and more cocoa powder, the chocolate taste is really subtle. But that should be okay if you use more Nutella. I didn't have a lot, so I didn't do either, but they are pretty yummy nonetheless.

And so fluffy!

Nutella Chocolate Muffins
Makes: 20-24 muffins
Prep time: 15 minutes
Baking time: 15-20 minutes

Ingredients:
200g flour
200g sugar and cocoa powder (adjust the ratio to your taste - I used 150g sugar and 50g cocoa powder)
200g butter
4 small or 3 large eggs
1 packet baking soda
Nutella for the filling

Instructions:
1. Mix the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.
2. Add the soft butter and eggs and mix well until you get a soft dough. It should slide off your spoon easily but also shouldn't be runny.
3. Preheat the oven to 150°C/300°F.
4. Line a muffin tray with paper liners or grease it thoroughly.
5. Fill a spoonful of dough into every muffin liner, add a spoonful of Nutella on top and cover it with yet another spoonful dough.
6. Put in the oven and let bake 15-20 minutes. They should rise up and get nice and fluffy.

That's it! Eat while warm, that's when the Nutella heart is extra runny and delicious.

Happy baking!

Lots of love,
Besa