Mrkgnao! the cat said loudly.

Happy Bloomsday everyone! June 16 - the day James Joyce's Ulysses is set, and the day Joyceans celebrate around the world.






















As you can see from the pictures, as a good Irish Studies student, my obsession with Joycean things started early - I won't even tell you how old some of these pictures are! The first statue is in Dublin, the second in Trieste. Sandycove is in Dublin again - a setting in Ulysses, and below, I meet James Joyce again in sunny Trieste a few years on...






































I have so many great memories of my travels connected to Joyce. Ireland, Dublin, Ennis, Pula, Trieste, Paris, Szombathely... Not to mention the Joycean crowd who are just lovely people simply. Starting with my boyfriend of course, without whom I wouldn't have gotten into appreciating Joyce and to these great places! So thank you, Marco! :)






















And again a few years pass, and I greet Joyce like old friends. :)






















A fun Joyce statue in Szombathely I'm discussing something with, in Hungary, where Bloom's father is from in the book.


























Yes, I spent 3 days in Paris, but of course I had to see the Shakespeare and Co. bookshop - another Joycean link!






















Their Joyce display...






















Here's to many more happy Bloomsdays! If you have a Guinness today, think of Joyce and one of the kindest heroes in literature ever, Leopold Bloom.
And if you're interested in Ulysses, there are dramatised bits all day through on BBC Radio 4 you can listen to online!

Trieste, My Love

Two more travel tips from the seaside: When you travel in the spring or autumn, take clothes that can be worn in changeable weather. For instance skirts that can be worn with and without tights or leggins, shoes that can be worn barefoot and with tights, tops that can be freely layered.






































And the jolly joker of travelling: scarves! They warm your neck or head if it's cold, or shade your shoulders when the sun is beating down. They also add colour and interest to a practical travelling outfit.






































Here's the logical reasoning behind the above pictures - and for photographing the same skirt again. It's proof for a working travelling wardrobe. :)





















Back to the travel diary! We made a detour to Trieste, one of our favourite cities, where we return year after year to enjoy a city that's open to the sea, has a rich multicultural background and amazing people.






































This is the Molo Audace, where the good inhabitants of Trieste take a stroll on balmy evenings, to chat, to meet up, to have an ice cream, to see and be seen!





















I've been to Trieste about 6 times before, but never visited the Lanterna baths - this time I had to have a look! What's special about it is that the beaches for men and women are separated. I took a quick picture from the entrance to the male section - ooh, daring! :)






































 The women's section is always full, but there only seem to be a few men milling around on the other side. Maybe they don't feel the need to suntan so much! :)





















Trieste is one of the cities I'd love to move to one day, so I could go on and on about its amazing and interesting sights and great places, but I'll leave that for another time! I'll need to revisit anyway...

But back to the usual blogging schedule from now on! Thank you for following my travel diary! :)

Wearing: that Promod skirt again with those Vagabond shoes, Zara top, H&M scarf 

and second hand 70s sunnies from an antiques market.

Obsessions - Snow Globes

When travelling I often wish I could take photographs by just shutting my eyelids, capturing a scene without a clumsy camera. In a way, I do. I collect pictures from my travels which my subconscious stores for me, to surprise my unsuspecting mind with sometime later.

Memories of cherished places flood me sometimes when my mind is idle, when I'm not concentrating, when I'm sitting on a tram, queuing, washing dishes... These pictures are always unexpected and they bring a rush of feelings with them. I wouldn't describe them as nostalgia for the past, rather a sudden yearning to be in that other place again.

These emotional, evocative memories are just as precious to me as are the consciously treasured ones and share a characteristic with the snow globes I collect from the cities I'd visited - they bring back the essence of a place without actually capturing the likeness of it.

I think this is the feeling Wordsworth wrote about in his Daffodils.

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude...

Snow globes I brought home or received throughout the years