Auris Lothol Historical costuming, Japanese Lolita fashion and Cosplay.

Hello lovelies,
I am currently sitting on the train to Vienna - I am going home for 5 days to wash my clothes, cuddle my cats and then be off again. (I wrote this while I was on the train, but forgot to upload it.)

Being on the road, or in my case, on the tracks, for almost a month was an interesting experience - from washing my clothes in the sink to running out of body lotion on the 9th day. Week 1-3 was totally fine but Week 4 was already very exhausting, in this last week I managed to go to 5 different cities (Marseille - Lyon - Geneva - Bern - Zürich).
Like Paris, I didn't go to seek out the popular sightseeing places in London, as I have been to the city multiple times. Instead, on the first day, I went to Cafe El&n.

Their food and the location looked amazing and I wanted to try it out. It was cool and looked like rain when I walked to the shop. Google sent me a bit around in circles again but I found it in the end, and the location was pretty but not like in the pictures. Turns out, the beautiful flower wall was downstairs and it was not open. Boo. As for the food, it was really good and as pretty.

I had the nutella hot chocolate and it was really delicious and very sweet.

And a rose lemonade from Fentimans with real roses in an ice cube. I just loved their presentation and the details and dedication they put into their food.

The cafe was located near the Victoria and Albert Museum, and that was my next destination. I had also visited it with M. the last time we went to London but we just peaked into the fashion section and then left again. This time, I made the full grande tour. And it was amazing. There were so many items to look at, small clips on the screens, statues, busts, furniture, and even a whole bedroom.

The outside of the museum

A white cotton dress with an amazing embroidery at the bottom

After the museum, I went in the direction of the Wallace Museum but made a short stopover at Primark for some new eyeshadow, hand disinfect and a small souvenir and at Hyde park for a short rest.

The Wallace museum was also free of charge and had an amazing art collection in an even better surrounding. All the rooms had different coloured silk wallpaper, elegant furniture and big chandeliers.

The reason why I went to the museum was to see the painting "The swing" by Fragonard. And I couldn't find it anywhere? A guard then told me it was at the back and then down the stairs. Satisfied with this answer I went to grab some late lunch. I ate a big chocolate cake and two scoops of ice cream and some lemonade. Afterwards, I went down the stairs but the picture was nowhere to be seen, I asked another guard and he pointed me to the special exhibition which was super expensive. I thought about it and then tried to get a ticket but it was shortly before closing and he waved off and took me into the exhibition and in front of the painting. If I had paid it would have taken me about 90mins but the museum would close in 30mins. That was so kind of him. Plus, I finally saw the swing. and it is even prettier than all of the copies I have seen to date. The details were simply stunning. Too bad the shop didn't sell a poster or anything, I would have loved to buy one. The lady at the cash register told me I could buy myself a copy in the online shop, which was great but when I asked for shipping, she told me it was about 30 pounds. 30 pounds. for shipping? That's madness. Plus taxes (because of Brexit) and the cost for the poster it would be around 50-70euros? uh...no thanks.

It took me an hour to walk back to the hotel but I didn't want to spend more money on public transport. Once again, my feet were painful and swollen and I had walked 23k steps.

The haul: The inspiring disney book and the swing bag from the wallace museum and the rest from Primark.

Part 2 will follow soon.
All the best,
Auris Lothol

Hello lovelies,

I left Amsterdam in the afternoon to go to Paris and I didn't book the coach for the first class because my SO had planned to join me. But because of his covid sickness he couldn't join and I had to go all by myself. The train was full and nothing like the thalys before with the good service. It's a fact that you pay more money for comfort and service in the trains.

I arrived around 7.30pm in Paris and went straight to the hotel. After Amsterdam, Paris was quite the shock. There were only a few cars and so many cyclist. It was quiet and quite safe going around in Amsterdam, and as soon as I left Gare du nord I heard all the noise of the cars, inhaled the bad air and it made me so uneasy.

The hotel was only a few minutes away from the train station and I could check in immediately. I was in dire need of something to trink and went out to get myself something at the next supermarket. I found a nice chinese restaurant just outside the hotel and opted for some take away. I came back to my room with two entrees, one main dish, one liter of arizona ice tea, and another liter bottle of water. It was a feast as I was starving.

Day 8

I slept in and then went off to find the next mariages fréres because I wanted tea. I don't know what happened but my allergies hit with full force and my nose literally started dripping and my eyes burning. But only when I was near or in the hotel. When I was somewhere else, I was fine.

When I reached the tea shop I chose what I wanted to get and tried to pay, just to realize, that I left all of my cards in my other bag. And the other bag was in the hotel. Oh no.

I was so lucky and carried a bit of cash so that I could pay that, but it made me feel so bad. It was almost Italy 2020 all over again (I had forgotten my whole purse and had no cash or cards). The next stop would have been the Angelic Pretty store but without cards and cash I would not be able to buy anything. And therefore I went back to the hotel to get the cards. After I had them, I was finally able to go to Angelic Pretty. The staff was so nice and we chatted a bit. In the end I bought the lemonade float JSK in pink with a green ribboned delicious lemon necklace and the happy garland necklace. It was more money than I wanted to spend but that was my big spending instead of going to Disneyland, which I was really salty about.

There was a Japanese restaurant just around the corner and it was there that I ate lunch. I hat takoyaki and a spicy chicken bowl. It was a bit too much but I ate it all.

Then I just got some more water and then went back to the hotel.

Day 9

Unsure of what else to do and because I didn't really want to do touristy stuff, I went on a small Jose Rizal hunt through Paris. I think, I even found all the places he worked and lived in. There was also a small bust of him that was relatively new.

1) Lariboisiere Hospital - just outside the gare du Nord. I didn't want to enter it because it's still a hospital and I felt that it would be disrespectful

2-4) Rue de Maubeuge 37+55 + La place José-Rizal - There was a plaque at number 37, but not at 55? I am unsure why and if I maybe missed something. The small bust is at the la place José Rizal, it's in front of a restaurant.

5) Le bon Marche - the market was just down the street of the hospital

6) Hospital Laennec - again, I only filmed and took pictures from the outside. This time I could not even enter if I wanted to, because there was an access control.

7) 55 Rue du cherche-midi - Rizal trained here under Dr. de Wecker in his clinic.

8) Historical Marker at 124 Rue de Rennes - where he stayed during his stay in 1883

9) 65 BD Arago - there is a plaque for Juan Luna who stayed at this adress. Rizal is not mentioned, but it is known that he stayed at his place for a short while.

The whole walking tour can be found here on google maps.

The bust at la place José Rizal

For lunch I ate pizza with salmon and white sauce and tiramisu, both were very good. But the waiter was a bit too flirty.

Day 10

The weather was to be hot, really hot and to combat the heat, I went to the Schiaparelli exhibition at the musee des arts decorativs.

And wow, I did not know this designer but her dresses are just amazing. She took ideas from all over; astrology, religious aesthetics, historical dresses, etc. I loved the embroidery on the dresses, I wish I could do it too.

This floral embroidered top was one of my favourite.

I will do a separate post with pictures of the exhibition, because I fear, it would be just too much for a travel blog.

The rest of the museum was nice too but just a bit confusing and I got lost a few times because I did not know were to go next as there were no signs or something. Also, I didn't have an audioguide and all the information was only in French, there was no English translation, except for the monitors placed in a few rooms.

In the afternoon I had a reservation at Laduree. I can't believe that I really made it to Laduree. I had always wanted to go there but had either forgotten or didn't have any time.

I got the afternoon tea which included 1x tea, 2x finger sandwiches, 1x tartelette, 3x macarons and 2x special macarons to bring home. The waiter was so kind and explained everything to me in English even though she really looked stressed out. The cafe had probably also staff shortages, like everywhere else. I got a cold laduree tea, a pastrami and a spicy tuna sandwich, a strawberry tartellete, rose, marie-antoinette, and raspberry macarons. The spicy tuna sandwich and the raspberry macaron were my favourite. (The sandwiches look small, don't they?)

I took the Metro 1 to the Hôtel de ville and went to a few vintage shops, but sadly did not find anything. Weirdly enough, I found that the shops had more men's than women's clothing. Usually it is the opposite way round.

Then back to the hotel and try to not sneeze to death. If that is even possible.

Day 11

Finally a lazy day! The booking for the eurostar was at 5pm and I didn't really want to do anything else, so I checked out late, went for lunch, then still had 3 hours at the train station.

It was the first day for me to not reach 10.000 steps and I think my feet were really happy about this.

I got dinner on the train, and of course I picked the dish which had raisins in it. Yucky. But apart from that the food and service was immaculate again.

I reached London with only a slight delayed and was very happy about the hotel being just the street across of the station St. Pancras.

Hello lovelies,

the next city I visited was Amsterdam. It was actually the city were I would meet my so and B. who would both fly in from Vienna. But no. My so god covid the day before he was to leave and had to cancel all of our plans. That meant Amsterdam, our trip to Paris and Disneyland. I was really sad but at least B. was healthy and decided to join me.

Day 3: Amsterdam

In my last post I mentioned of a small odyseey with the train. It was such a weird situation. While I was in Bruges I received an email that the Thalys the next day from Brussels to Amsterdam was cancelled and I should instead take an IC to Amsterdam, which would make my journey about an hour longer. Slightly pissed I cancelled the reservation and looked for a new train. There was an IC going just 10 mins before the Thalys would have left and that was the one I decided to take.

So, the next day I stood at the, very, ugly train station (sorry to all Belgians) and what to my eyes see? The Thalys train was listed. Confused I asked the information and they said that they do not know of any cancellation but I should ask the conducter of the train. So I went up and waited in front of the train, as it already stood in the station. A security came and I asked her but she said, she knew nothing of a cancellation and should ask the conducter. Once again I waited until the conductor came. He told me, that the train was not cancelled and I could buy a new reservation on the train.

It was almost eery how empty the train was. I was the only one in the first class and I just saw a small family boarding the train in the second class. But other than that, I didn't see anyone. It was after the train left the station that I found myself sitting alone in the compartment. That's a first.

The steward was so friendly and we chatted a bit about the train and the mysterious cancellation. He then served me breakfast which, honestly, was so great that I felt like I could never fly again. Riding the train in the first class was so comfortable, I had space, I had good food, I could look out the window and enjoy the landscape. No pesky security controls and no freaking weight limit on the baggage. Train > Airplane.

But in the end, I had to take back my thoughts because the train didn't go further than Rotterdam and I had to leave the nice, plush and comfy seats :(. I took the IC to Amsterdam and arrived just a bit later than planned. But that was alright because I anyway had to wait an hour until B. arrived at the Amsterdam centraal station.

It was so nice meeting her again and roaming around the streets of Amsterdam with her. The first thing we did was going to the hotel and boy that was farther than I though, plus, google maps sent us on a way longer route. I was so hot and sweaty when I finally arrived at the hotel. But the guy at the reception was really nice and we could rebook our room from a three bed to a double bed room. It was about 100€ cheaper and that was very kind too.

The room was at the bottom of some stairs like a cellar flat and it was very cool during out stay. We didn't even turn on the fan. After a short rest we explored the city and even though Amsterdam felt small, there was so much to see. I am a big fan of small details and there were so many details hidden around the city. Usually my friend passed them without noticing them and I had to call out for her to stop so that I could take some pictures.

I also fell in love with the canals, or gracht as they are called in the Netherlands. We often sat down near the water and enjoyed our drinks. I had enjoyed them in Denmark too when I visited back in...was it 2012? 2013?

It was after lunchtime and we hadn't eaten yet and decided to get some Burgers.

Because for an unknown reason, Amsterdam has a ton of Burger joints. The burger was not that great though, the meat was not seasoned enough but it was fine. We walked around and somehow landed in front of the Anne Frank house.

We returned to the hotel and rested a bit. Then went to a bar for a beer and snacks. I finally had some nice cherry beer again, yum!

I ate bitterballen for the first time, even though I didn't know what it was the first time. I thought it was mushed and fried champignons. Oops.

Day 4: Amsterdam

We wanted to go for a ride in the canals and went to the next boat station in the south. It must have been one of the more expensive ones because we paid 20€ for 75mins. The tour was really nice though, our captain had a really great humor and we went all the way to the other end of the city.

There was more traffic in the gracht than I had expected and we were even rammed once by a small boat driven by a tourist. Our captain took it with a lot of humor and lectured the man that driving a boat was like driving a car, then turned to us and told us, that he had a lot of hair when he started to work as a captain and pointed at his bold head.

After the tour we went south to the inner city again and suddenly we were in the red light district. I was flashed a few times by women who suddenly appeared behind a red curtain wearing nothing but underwear. And of course, it was then again that my feet died again and we both needed a bathroom break so we stopped at a cafe and I had a scoup of ice-cream. It was Kinder Bueno flavoured! I love all Kinder chocolate. Good it doesn't sound that weird saying it in english. Later on I also bought a bubble tea but the flavour was a bit boring, probably because I got a strawberry tea as I didn't want to risk getting something with milk and maybe upsetting my poor tumtum.

We turned back after a while and at landed at Kalverstraat and in the Vans store. My friend wanted to buy shoes and I just followed. And there I saw...

the Vans X Sailor moon collection. DAMN. And it was there that I bought my first Vans. B. teased me a bit about never having had vans before but I am used to her teasing. We tease each other a lot.

After spending 140€ for shoes, we sat down at a Gracht and I put them on. It was really nice walking in them even though it's always a bit weird walking in flat shoes. I am really only used to walking in my higher heeled shoes.

For dinner we went to a greek restaurant called meat & greek and I accidently ordered a big portion of the hot greek and I coudn't finish it.

The food was amazing and the sauces were really good but it was just too much.

After dinner we took a short walk then returned to the hotel

Day 5: Amsterdam

5 hours. We stayed in the Rijksmuseum for 5 hours. Although I have to admit that we had longer sitting breaks and had a small lunch at the cafe. I finally had a portion of Bitterballen and I thought it was mashed and fried mushrooms. Turned out it's meat?

There was so much to see and I am pretty sure we only saw 2/3 of the museum. They had a wonderful medieval collection and of course Rembrandt/Vermeer. The rococo collection was a bit small and more centred on furniture than on paintings. Nevertheless, it was a great day at the museum I had longed to visit for such a long time. My poor feet had to drag me back to the hotel where I tried to elevate them a bit. But that didn't really help.

For dinner we ate Indian food which we both really enjoyed. I had a chicken thali and it was a bit different than I was used to.

Just around the corner of our hotel was a small ice cream shop and we treated ourselves to two scoops.

Day 6: Amsterdam

It's funny, after four days in the city my friend still got lost and didn't know where we were. I often took charge and told her were to go and were we'd land.

For breakfast we wanted to eat pancakes and there were a few shops in the south of the city. We went there but didn't find the shop we were looking for and just went to the next cafe. The food was not that great but it was food and I was so hungry that I didn't really care. We went north again and there was a vintage store that had really great clothes. But they were so expensive that I left without buying anything. At Kalverstraat we bought Bubble teas and tried to loose ourselves in the city. Later on I finally got pommes frites and B. got herself coffee at Dunkin Donuts.

Day 7: Amsterdam

B. and I finally ate pancakes for breakfast! Hooray! I ordered them with cheese and ham and it was quite good.

After breakfast I brought B. to Amsterdam Centraal and walked back to the hotel, picked up my own luggage but took the tram to Centraal. A ticket was 3,20 which was so freaking expensive for just one ride. (it's 2,40 for a ride in Vienna, and 1,90 in Paris) But I bought it because I did not want to walk all the way back with my very heavy suitcase. B. was at tthe airport 4h before her flight because it was recommended as the security lines were so long, but in the end, she only waited an hour and then had to wait 3h for her boarding. Oh well.

I waited two hours for my Thalys train to Paris but the ride went smoothly and I was at the hotel in Paris around 8pm.