Vegan Eats | New York City: Beyond Sushi

While I already published a post on where to go for brunch or a bowl of feel-good-do-good food in New York City, I never actually got around sharing where I had sushi. As a huge sushi lover (at both pre-, and post-vegan times), I naturally had to give sushi in the Big Apple a shot, together with my friend and travel buddy, a sushi lover herself. Thanks to Cassey Ho from Blogilates, my friend saw an Instagram post from her posting about Beyond Sushi. It took us quite a while to actually find the restaurant itself, given the lack of orientation and wifi but we eventually found what turned out to be a tiny space filled to the brim with people sitting or standing around, waiting for their orders. Given the amount of people, it did take more than half an hour for our sushi to arrive at our table but after patiently waiting with grumbling stomachs, it tasted even better. I generally love the simplicity of avocado maki sushis, but having a bit of a more "fancy" combination of tastes was nice for a change, especially as different kinds of rice were used instead of the typical white sushi rice. The price was okay, given that you really could tell how much work was put into making the individual rolls. However, I would probably opt for take-out the next time, as nothing is better than a big portion of sushi and your favourite tv show, sitting in your couch at home (or that of the place where you're staying at because - let's be realistic - I unfortunately don't live in NYC (yet?))

Beyond Sushi

229 East 14th Street

10003 New York City

PS: Beyond Sushi has more than one store/restaurant in NYC but this is the one we went to. For more information, have a look at their website.

Summer tunes

Is it just me or those this remind anyone else of an ice cream sandwich? Oh Brighton, you always surprise me with your looks.

Whether I am on a fifteen minute bus ride or on a plane for eight hours, music is always at the very top of my list of things to have with me. Even driving without music annoys me. Since I'll be spending countless hours on trains and busses during my interrail trip, I've been looking through different Spotify lists and added a song to my library here or there. I haven't made a music post in a while on here, so I thought I could share some of my favourite songs of the moment - you've probably heard some or most of them already, as they've partly been played on the radio, but I always appreciate it when people share their music with me, so why not? Knowing myself, I'll constantly be trying to update my music library during my trip as I'll probably grow bored of my selection of songs quite quickly, after having listened to them over and over again, so if you have any suggestions for me, do leave them below!

Two in one

shorts, blouse: h&m shoes: mango bag: / sunglasses: sixx

I love all things that can be used in more than one way, and even more so when it comes to clothes, shoes or bags. Already when I ordered these lace up sandals from Mango, I told myself that I could wear them as two different kinds of shoes: laced up, to get the gladiator sandal look that's been everywhere this summer or laced down, for a simpler, more basic sandal look. Being the comfort oriented person I am when it comes to what I wear, I probably got around wearing the sandals laced down more often than laced up, simply because I like to mainly move around my foot when I'm out and about and lacing them down has made life a bit easier by me not having to make sure the laces aren't sliding down after a while. Combined with loose beige shorts and a comfortable khaki blouse, it was the perfect outfit to have a stroll through the city with my friend before going for a brunch consisting of coffee and bagels.

Vegan Eats | Luxembourg: HaPP

As the amount of health food oriented, vegetarian or even vegan restaurants and cafés has been increasing in the last year/year and a half in Luxembourg, I only heard of HaPP a bit later. From what I've been able to observe, its focus is on health food (catering to everyone from omnivore to vegan) and tasty treats.

SUMMER READS

Ever since I started doing English Literature as part of my degree at University two years ago, reading books has turned into more of an obligation than the hobby it used to be for me. From a young age on, all I did was read, read, read and my mum often more or less seriously complained about my constant need for new books ruining her. However, when I started Uni and had to read a different book for class almost every week, it turned into something more tedious than enjoyable. Don't get me wrong, I've read a lot of books which I enjoyed during the two years of my course so far, but even I liked the book I was reading at that moment, knowing that I should finish it by a specific day often took the pleasure out of actually reading it.

Leaves on leaves

jumpsuit: vero moda shoes: h&m divided

Back in July when I was alone at home for a week and I didn't really have anyone to take pictures of me more or less regularly, I did something I hadn't done in a while: I used my camera remote and tried to find a spot where I could take some pictures by myself. Ever since I've gotten my brother or friends to take outfit pictures of me, I've disliked having to take pictures using the camera remote, especially because I tried to avoid standing in the middle of a street in my village and being stared at. Luckily, I quite like the outcome of these pictures, as the backdrop doesn't distract as much but even plays a bit into the whole look of the pictures, given the great leaf pattern on my jumpsuit. I do look pale as hell, especially with all that green going on around me but I still wanted to use the pictures and show you this gorgeous jumpsuit. It's that perfect, flowing piece of clothing for when the temperatures climbs and all you want to wear is underwear, as it looks great on its own without having to add accessories (especially jewellery is something I hate wearing when I'm feeling like I could melt anytime).

Off I go!

When you're reading this, I've already arrived in Berlin and I'm probably on my way out the door to spend the day with friends. Even though Berlin will my our first stop on our four week long trip, the proper first stop of our Interrail tour will be Gdansk, where we'll head to early on Friday morning. Since I'll be living out of my (ginormous) backpack for the next three to four weeks, I've left my laptop at home, where I decided it would be safer than it would be with me, moving to a new city every couple of days. However, I did make the effort to pre-write and schedule a bunch of blog posts, so that the blog won't be quiet during my time away. I've managed to prepare enough posts so that updates should be happening about twice a week, so look out for that. In the meantime, if you want to see what I'm getting up to on my adventure the following few weeks and don't want to wait until I'm back and can tell you all about it on here, do follow me on my different social media accounts:

Twitter | Instagram | Snapchat: noraameliie

I'll probably be most active on Instagram (prepare for some serious spamming) but I'll also try to snap, given that I don't forget about it or I find wifi every now and then to actually post the snaps.

Until then, I hope you enjoy the next few posts coming up, and do go ahead and leave comments, I'll definitely be checking blogspot every once in a while!

PS: If you still have tips on where to go/what to do in Gdansk, Warsaw, Prague, Budapest and Rovinj (Croatia) - shoot!