Looking back at the summer of 2019 - Paros - Greece

In the last week of July, we went to Greece for a little beach vacation together with Makayla. Knut had not been to Greece before, and I had only visited Athens (during winter), and not the islands, so we were both very excited to see the beaches and eat the delicious Greek food.

On Paros we rented an Airbnb-apartment in the village of Dryos. The apartment was typically Greek; white and blue, and with a beautiful view over the beach and ocean. The days were mainly spent on the beach, with a coffee freddo (sweet Greek iced coffee, perfect for a sweet tooth like me), and a dip in the water once in a while.

In the evenings we tried different restaurants in the area, and tasted some really great local food. The northernmost village Naousa was definitely my favorite on Paros. Such a charming town, with white houses, narrow streets, and small design shops. Even though there were a lot of tourists, I didn't think that stood in the way of getting a good experience in the town. They were obviously used to having a lot of people visiting in July, and made the best out of it.

Enjoying our first evening in Naousa. 

Posing in front of one of many beautiful window frames. 

A local sight of squids drying outside of restaurants.

Hand in hand on Antiparos ♥

The sunset seen from the village Parikia. 

Enjoying the beach and the warm weather.

Enjoying a sweet coffee freddo ♥

One of the many churches on Paros. I love the white
and blue colors together with the pink flowers. 

Knut made a new friend.

Makayla picked fruits from a random garden on Antiparos.

Enjoying some local wine in Naousa on our last evening. 

It was a great adventure together with our favorite Texan, and we can't wait to see you again and explore more random places in the world with you! ♥ 

Looking back at the summer of 2019 - Norway

The summer of 2019 was the first summer we both did not work and got to spend a lot of quality time together. Not only as boyfriend and girlfriend, but one of the first days of vacation, we also got engaged! So we got to spend our summer as newly engaged together in a lot of lovely places and with so many of our family and friends.

Our summer started on the 1st of July, when we moved to Norway from Copenhagen. It was a stressful day, starting with a flight from Copenhagen to Oslo with no less than 10 pieces of luggage. We went to IKEA, and I was not expecting anything, until the evening, Knut asked me to marry him and it was such a pleasant surprise. Our new home was loaded with IKEA-boxes and we had only just starting to put up the furniture, but during the next couple of days, the apartment started to look pretty good.

After a couple of days of furnishing and stressing over IKEA-furniture (it's safe to say I am not a fan of IKEA), we went to an island in the south of Norway, Lyngør, to visit our friends who have a cabin/ summer house there. It was such a lovely trip, and such an idyllic location. The old, white tree houses, the sailboats, the fishing (and also catching) and just the thought of not having to do anything was amazing. The mackerel tasted even better than usual when we caught it ourselves, and the sunny weather did us good.

Knut took some beautiful pictures of Lyngør!

Always happiest at sea.

Fishing at the pier.

And caught one mackerel!

Next in line was the Molde International Jazz Festival, that we go to every year. This year's headlines were amongst others some of my all time favorites; Melody Gardot, Marcus Miller and Gregory Porter. We had a lovely festival experience (as always) with friends and family, and ended the week by celebrating the 50 year anniversary of the Moon landing (on July 20th 1969) with a Moon Party with our friends. The perfect end of a pretty awesome week!

Always a good mood during the jazz festival! 

The guys getting a beer on the roof top Hawaii party. 

Louis Cole and his band were very entertaining
and funky, and gave us a catchy, upbeat show.

The weather was also nice, and we took a swim at Hjertøya. 

Fimke and me at the Moon Party celebrating
the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing. 

The Moon Party. <3 

(Right after the festival, we flew to Athens, for a little vacation on the island Paros, which I will write a separate blog post on.)

As a last little trip before the semester started at the university, we went to our friends' cabin out by the coast of Telemark. Again, we were welcomed with such sweet hospitality in company of good friends, and enjoyed ourselves to the fullest. The days were enjoyed eating good food, playing games, and fishing (but not with the same luck as last time). 

The view from the cabin. So cute and peaceful.

Dinner in good company <3 

All in all a very busy summer even though we did not work. Traveling to the west and east of Norway, to Greece and of course moving our lives from Copenhagen to Ås. We have a lot of good memories to look back at from the summer of 2019, and now that we are almost in November, it is nice to look back at the good, sunny days. 

-A ♥