The Bazaar: Roses, Jewellery and Strawberrys

Hi =)
You see those insanely delicious strawberries here? I bought one kilo (!!) for 1 Euro♥. You get bargains like that on one of the many (oriental) bazaars we visited all throughout Israel! Here are my favourite impressions. In Jerusalem, there were the Shouks in the Old City and the Mehane Yehuda were all the traditional people buy food for shabat. And of course there are the shopping streets in the city centers.
Bazaars are so great! I love the chaos, the people, the many different smells that mingle with each other, so many exotic products and fabrics! The atmosphere is often less touristic, because of all the normal citizens buying there. Imagine the shop owners shouting their offering of the day and the attempt to fight the prices of their neighbours. And there are clothes hanging above you (you never know where to look first, it is just overwhelming!!). Birds in small cages, schoolchildren, stray cats...people playing old board games, women chatting^^.

My favourite fruits (they look like rubies here!).

View into one of the small Shouk Streets.

Adorable jewellery boxes!

Wide range of choices for the religious customers.

Spices, spices, spices.

Fresh flowers, waiting for happy owners.

The City Center of Jerusalem (there was a rock concert that evening).

One day I ate so many pastries that I felt sick afterwards... I am so silly. The next day I went back to buy more.

We have a really though work project at the moment and I cannot promise to blog daily for the next few weeks. I hope to manage every 3-4 days (hopefully that's OK for you!^^). See you again soon and stay tuned for more adventures from the Middle East (including a small puppy dog♥). Love,

~ Come Along with Me ~

After nearly six weeks, I feel really that I started living here a normal daily life^^! So are you ready to join me for a short ride through my city? Come along with me and discover...

Growing next to my office♥. A red hibiscus.

The beach for tourists and parties =). The harbour is behind it.

A small palm tree forest (the only known form of a forest here!).

One of the 24h supermarkets - very convenient, when all other stores are closed on shabat.

The mountains. I'd love to go hiking, but the season is already over. Now it's too hot to move outside! O.O

Bars and restaurants for big nights out^^.

This evening, I'll take the 6 p.m. bus to travel to the city where my friend lives. Tomorrow morning, we are heading to Yerushalaim (Jerusalem), the first stop of our Road Trip. We are going to explore the city for three days and I am sooo looking forward to see everything!
Love and bye for now,

Take a tour around my new Town!

Let's take a tour around my new home town today! This is how the streets and the "trees" look like! The houses doesn't seem as individual as in Europe, but I guess they are mostly meant to keep out the heat in the first place. Crossing the streets is a nerve-attacking task: Israeli people only seem to stop for small children! As a foreign adult, you just close your eyes and hope that they will stop when you cross the street!!! It took me some time to get used to that....

View from my window!
Additionally, it seems like every second car in this city is a taxi! So don't stand clueless on the pavement...it happened several times to me that suddenly taxis would stop next to me to pick me up. Haha, and don't raise your hand to fix your hair or sunglasses also, because they even stop for that!! Apparently the competition between the drivers is hard and they fight for every customer.

People tell me that palm trees is one of the few shade-providing plants they are able to grow in this climate! I love to see them every day and I don't get tired of them!!! :D

The sea....awww. It is warm enough to stay in there for at least 25- 35 min. without getting too cold in a bathsuit! More about the interesting underwater life soon!


And the mountains! It is possible to go hiking there (a little too hot for me!). They make still a beautiful scenery and who knows - maybe I will go hiking one day eventually^^. Funny are the different perceptions of temperature. For Israelis, everything below 20 °C is "coooold!" and only temperatures above 35 °C are hot! So they laugh at me when I say it's hot. (In my perception, everything above 20 °C is seriously warm and 35 °C is my limit for temperature). I have to improve my ability to deal with that in order to survive the summer here (45 - 50 °C)!
I am sending you sunrays!!! Love,

Miss Mermaid hits the City of Lights

A fish sculpture in the city center^^. There are several more, but this is my favourite one!

Ship Ahoy! Here comes Miss Mermaid (Lilly wears (not as if this can be considered as an real outfit: pants+ shirt hm, sandals keen, earrings madonna, sunglasses primark).

By night the city is even more beautiful: The heat of the day ceases and the lights create a magical place! Everything is still open and you walk around to eat or to look at the stores.

I like how different light colours mix! People even dance in the street!

Okay, a very important building here: The local shopping mall! They have also Zara and Mango, yay!

I feel really comfortable here. It is amazing to skip into a new culture and become a part of it. I have the impression as if I would be living here for about a month, not a mere week. Soon I'll post pictures about my room (the personalized version, haha). The other girls tease me already because of it. Moreover, I found it surprising that many shops are open until 00.00 am and are closed for hours during the day. More coming soon, I have to rest for today! Love,

Big City Girl: Lilly on Tour

Lunch at an organic food café!

View through their window...a pink house!!

Can you spot that gigantic disco ball in the store?

They have adorable pink fluffy changing cabins - love!!

And today's outfit (oops, with glasses).

Love that disco shirt (by Tally Weijl), the hat is my current favourite key piece (by H&M).

Cute plaid mini skirt (currently on sale!!), seen by New Yorker.

Golden glitter butterfly with perfume bottles^^.

My shopping trip started with lunch at a newly discovered stylish organic food café, where I had cauliflower curry with coconut and a latte macchiato! The food was exceptionally delicious, it tasted like something my mam would have cooked. So I will definitely be a returning customer! I spent some time chilling out  there while browsing through a few local scene magazines and listening to Beyoncé (they played it there, that was awesome).
For the rest of the day I was lucky that only few people were shopping in the city...having free changing cabins is something a fashionista really appreciates! I picked up the last Christmas presents (I have outdone myself this year, finishing that matter before December the 1st^^). The city is all prepared with Christmas decoration (only a few real snow flakes missing). Seems like I am a little into red and black lately^^.
Love,

PS: I am currently looking for a rose shaped ring in black or red, any useful suggestions?

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Attention girls, if you are located in Germany, you might love to take part at the following blog lotteries:

• Celebutante Set from Benefit by Nadine
• Manhattan 'Colour meets Elegance' by Innen & Aussen
• Make Up Set (including The Body Shop, Weleda, Dove etc.) by Laila

Good luck everyone^^!!