I'm going to Paris tomorrow!

Hello, everyone. Okey, I said I would try my best to keep you updated on my experience here in Europe and I haven't, so today I'll write a summary about my days here. I am in Berlin at the moment and, for those who were curious about it, right now ich wohne in Charlottenburg mit meiner Cousine und ihre Familie (correct me if I made a mistake on that). I speak a little bit of german, you know, the basic stuff, so I can buy things, ask for directions and that kind of short dialogues. I've been to many museums (if you live in Berlin, be sure to check the photography one where Helmut Newton's work is being featured at the moment), churches, to the Brandenburg gate, the wall, shops (The Ku'damm ones are pretty cool), the television tower. I've also attended the Berlinale film festival twice (I've watched kiss the moon and la teta asustada, and I highly recommend both).

I came back from Hamburg yesterday's night. I went with a peruvian friend (I know her from uni back in Peru and she is also enjoing her vacations here in Germany) for two days. We went to the Elbe in a boat, checked the alster, the city council, some monuments and went to St. Pauli (where I found the next beauties for the cheapest price you could ever imagine!). We, of course, checked the Reeperbahn and it was a pretty cool adventure. We wanted to check the place where the beatles did their first performances after leaving liverpool in the 60s. We also went to the Europa passage, which is a nice mall.

Europe is such a great place, not only because of the big museums and culture, but for shopping. The stores and boutiques are really great and I've done some good buys I'll show you in the next weeks. I went to Poland the other day and the prices were great also. I'm leaving to Paris tomorrow, I'm so excited about going there (although I only know a couple of words in french), specially about the Notre Dame Cathedral, the Louvre and Père Lachaise cemetery (I'll visit Jim Morrison's grave for sure). Oh and the vintage shops must be amazing there also. There are some places I'm still missing here in Berlin, but I'll visit them when I come back from Paris (the 25th). See you until then (;

Guess who's going to Europe?

Yesyesyes. I'll be spending my last 45 days of vacations there. My parents were so amazing to give this gift to me, I can't be any more thankful. I'll be leaving Lima today at 6 pm and will arrive on Saturday 7th. I'm first going to Berlin, then to Paris, then to London, then to Bristol. Of course, some other cities (like Hamburg and Oxford) could be added to the original itinerary, but we'll see. It will be a long trip (I think it'll last like 15 hours), so I'm taking my music player, a book, a piece of paper and a pen. Hopefully, someone charming person will sit next to me and we'll have a cool chat. It's the first time I'll be away from my parents and sister for such a long time, I'm kind of nervous, but excited as the same time. My cousins will be taking good care of me there.

I also wanted to ask your for your help. Since it's my first time there, I'd love you to recommend me as many places, fairs, concerts, museums, art galleries, malls and various stores as you can! I'm really interested on finding about some indie concerts and of course, shopping. I've heard of Topshop, h&m and UO, but don't know more besides those. Oh and what about the thrift stores? Do you recommend any? Any help will be much appreciated!

I don't think I'll stop the blogging, I'll try my best to keep you guys updated!

Round sunglasses.

I've read that, for some, their comeback would be a nightmare. I also have seen them featured as a fashion don't. In my opinion, Fashion do's and dont's lists are seriously useless; being stylish is not about wearing exactly what magazines tell you it's alright to wear or whatever Rachel Zoe says, it's about wearing anything you want with grace and feeling comfortable in your own skin. Also, I specially remember a day back in 2006 when I was laying in bed, watching TV, it was a countdown of the worst trends, those which 'should never come back'. Tights and dip-dyed tees made it into the list and guess what? They came back and almost everyone got into them. Trends are relative. What can be cute for some person, could be horrid for another person, which means these lists should be no guarantee for telling you what's alright to wear.

The first person who comes to my mind when somebody speaks about round glasses is John Lennon. I'm pretty sure this happens to most of you. It's summer here and sunglasses are worn in a daily basis. Everyone here is wearing rayban wayfarers, which are still cool to me, but not as cool as they were to me last summer. I can't say I'm a shoe person or a purse person, I'm more of a sunglasses person, I own many of them and I'm always looking for a different pair. The last shopping challenge I put myself in was finding the perfect pair of round sunglasses, although I knew they were hard to pull off. It was a long search (the truth is small round sunglasses are a tricky one and most of them looked funny on me), but it was yesterday when I finally found them. I found this man downtown who had zillions of them for an affordable price, he was very patient with me trying on almost every round pair in his little shop. If you notice, they're not exactly round, but aren't like wayfarers either. The interesting thing about this story is that after I came back home, pretty happy with my purchase, I reviewed my hotmail account and oh surprise whowhatwear had sent me a new article which mentioned round sunglasses as a "buy now" item. So, I guess, we'll be seeing more of them in the upcoming months!

Would you wear them?

Hair accesories.

I've written before about the rocker version of the headband. I think by then I hadn't realized yet that skinny headbands were just as cool, but they worked better with folk/hippie/boho styles. I specially like how they look tied around the forehead, just like Ashlee and this girl did.

Mischa Barton, Ashlee Simpson & Vanessa Hudgens.

Another post about pretty pieces.

They're all from Glue store.

I don't usually wear tees with a message (probably because most of the ones I've seen say stuff like "I'm better than your girlfriend" or "Good kisser") but if I had that young, fabulous & broke one I think the story would be different. Fringed gladiators = perfect match. Those shorts are great, I love light denim and the skirt it's just too pretty not to be noticed (plus sky blue is a very nice shade for summer).

Well, you can celebrate anything you want.

I'm really glad you liked the hippie related posts. I like 1969, specially in music terms. You know, the first Woodstock Festival, the Beatles performing for the last time on the roof of the apple records building, the great psychedelic rock bands (such as Jefferson airplane and the doors), the first Led Zeppelin's album: those were good times. Besides the music, fashion is also and interesting way to make a reminiscence of the 60s. I've been messing with the hippie look for a couple of months now. Wearing hippie-esque outfits is really chill, you can mix a lot of colours, it's fresh for summer and you don't have to do a lot of thinking before going out to achieve the look.

Topitop pants, basic black t-shirt, crafty belt (bought in Cuzco), indian bangles and homemade bracelets.