The flipflop routine

"Of course we have a routine as well. But a routine in flipflops is definitely better". True words from my boss, who left Portugal to work and live in Bali. We were siting the another day having barbecue at the camp where I actually teach and having a chat with our guests. Somebody asked us how does a typical day look like here. Another friend of mine texted me yesterday. I asked him how he is doing and he answered, that he is okay and of course his life is boring, not like mine having every day a sensation. Well no. I have to disapoint you. Even if I don't live in Germany anymore I have a normal life here. Getting up early, going to work every day (even saturday and sunday), breakfast afterwards, meeting my friends here for a coffee and chat, having a nap, reading, beachtime, meeting my Bali family again for dinner (we usually always stay at the same warung), listening to music and then sometimes going out or just going to bed. But even if thats nearly every day the same, a routine in flipflops is definitely better :-)
Rainy season arrived very quickly here and it's raining nearly every day and sometimes at night as well. And it rains a lot. A part of our famous shortcut just broke down and felt into the rice field. But it's still warm so at the end you just need a rain cape, that's it.

Teaching at the beautiful shala in Canggu

I have actually the opportunity to sit 3 dogs of a friend again, so I moved into her beautiful villa, pretending that I am on holidays :-) I walk the dogs 2x a day, swimming in the nice pool and reading a lot. And me and my two lovely friends from Germany Isi and Vanessa, who also live here, are working on our new homepages together.

Isi, Alena and me...not working but enjoying the happy hour at Old Man's ;-)

Bandit, Bugsy, Raffy and me chilling on a saturday morning

Aah something very exciting happened to me last week. I am meanwhile used to my new roommates like geckos, mosqitos, ants, spiders, lizards and frogs. And I prayed not to see a snake, even if I know that we have many of them here. So I was on my way with the dogs when I saw a quick move in the trash corner and then.....Heard the hissing, turned around and this huuuuuuge snake just passed us, moving down to the river. My blood just freezed in this second and we directly went back again. Aaaaaah I just don't like snakes and I guess this is something I will never get used to that.

Thought the lizard was supposed to be my new student :-) but then he just left....

And ya I had my first surfing lesson. Ha never thought I will be able to even try that one but it just happened. It went not to bad for me, and ya guys I assure you that Yoga is a very good training for that. I managed to catch 3 waves and stand up 3 times...So I felt already kinda new Kelly Slater. But just as long as I didn't smashed into the so called "washing machine". OMG!!!! I thought this is the end my friend. And as I finally came up I managed to get a big inhale as I already saw the next wave coming and breaking over me. At least I got enough air in my lungs the second time but than I just grab the longboard and run out of the water. Pussy! I think my knees shaked for two more hours but I definitely want to give a new try and all my surfer friends tell me you got used to the "washing machine". Hm ok I will believe them.

So what is home feeling like? When you are nearly daily at your favorite places in Canggu, where the staff knows your name, serving you the sugar free cappuccino or Bali coffee without asking, when they know that you eat your sandwich without a sauce, and they know that you just like the eggs very well done...But the best one, they treat you like a friend, like somebody who was always there.

Gypsy Bali Crew

Satu Satu Cafe

Gourmet Canggu (guess this is my 2nd living room here)

And finally my family at the OMG warung. There is no place where I spend more time

The coconut ladies where I go sometimes after teaching

My friend Seno and Dadong, the cute puppy chilling at the OMG warung

Yoga and party? Say whaaaaat?

Unexpected I had another day off last sunday. That meant for me finally going out and having a proper party with my friends on a saturday night. It's been really long ago I went really out here. I may be judged now on this point (but to say I am ok with that ;-). But yes, I am a yoga teacher and yes I like party and even enjoying some drinks. I don't do it very often anymore. Even if I am teaching yoga I still have a social and private life and no I am not a 100% dedicated yogi. I am not even vegetarian. And I know that doesn't make a bad teacher out now. Balance is the key ;-)
So I arrived on saturday at my friends place and after a nice guitar session with my favourite indonesian songs we left and went dancing. You must know that in Canggu most bars and clubs close at midnight, latest 1 am. But I was such in a good mood and still didn't have enough, and those who know me well, know nothing can stop me. So my poor friend Budy has to go with me to Sandbar. I don't really like Sandbar, even the location is directly on the beach, as always when I went there something stupid happened. Remember, my scooter got stolen there at my very Bali beginning. We met Agell and some another friends and really had a nice party evening.
Arrived home safe and sound....Ok, I thought I lost my shoes there..once again, but found them locked in the scooter. At least just one was broken ;-)

@Pretty Poison with Isi (my favourite neighbour), Vanessa, Juda and Ringo

@Sandbar with Budy

@Sandbar with Agell and Budy

Home is where your heart is...

And mine is happy in Bali. 6 months already. Bali, you are so much more than just my home

Day off Singapore

Since weeks I don't have a day off (which is pretty good as I do what I love) but there was one day when my visa finished and I had to leave the country. Arriving in the early morning (5:00) at the Ngurah Rai International Airport I stopped in the front and just had a look. Me and this airport are in a complicated relationship (how Facebook would called it). Love and hate. Hate, because earlier when I had to go back to Germany my heart always broke, I was crying like a kid who doesn't get a toy. It was always soooo sad for me to leave the place I love with all my heart. And love because arriving here always brings happiness to me. Even if I know I will arrive some hours back again here, the small sad feeling will always be with me when I have to go to the departure. 2,5 hours later I arrived again in Singapore (my 3. visa run meanwhile). 4 years earlier I stayed 3 days in Singapore, exploring, walking around, ticking the tags on my to do list here. Today I just went to my agent, gave him my passport, a pic of me (with blond short hair, hahaha I wish I could have taken a photo of his face when he had a look at it), all the papers, the money and then I had some hours off.
As this was a kind of holidays for me I decided to be a tourist for the day. So first of all, instead of using metro I took a taxi ride to the city, big comfy limousine just for me :-) and yeah I was surprised how cheap a taxi ride in Singapore is, comparing to Germany. After I met my agent I went to Marina Bay Sands and took, of course, some pictures of me in front of the hotel. Enjoyed an expensive cafe latte at Starbucks (the place I usually would never go in Canggu, as we have sooo many better places to enjoy good coffee), went to Lau Pa Sat https://www.tripadvisor.de/Attraction_Review-g294265-d386879-Reviews-Lau_Pa_Sat_Festival_Pavilion-Singapore.html to eat. Have you ever been there, guys? Highly recommended. Placed somewhere in the middle of the business district, this hall is full of food stalls, chinese, italian, korean, japanese, indonesian, turkish and indian food, absolutely no chance to just decide for one dish. The food is compared to Singapore prices really ok. Being outside of Bali, now for at least six months I really needed to shop some essentials you don't get in Bali. The shopping tour ended with so many things more than I ever thought.
Being back before midnight in Denpasar, with heavy rain and of course my fancy raincoat NOT with me on my scooter, I reached my home around 1 am in the night. Happy being back and having the visa for the next six months in my hands, hell yeah, life is not that bad :-)

New hippie crib

My friend Noah told me about this place months ago....but I was 1. too lazy to move and 2. I felt really well in our guesthouse with all my friends. But all of them left step by step and it started being empty and boring, so I finally decided to move, to start new again. It was love at first sight when I opened the door and had a first look into my first real apartment. Two rooms, kitchen and bathroom inside. A big balcony outside where I enjoy the sunrise every morning, listening to the prayer from the mosque and with a cup of tigermilk in my hand, getting ready to go to work. And it's much cheaper as well as my previous, pretty dark room.
Maybe some of you, who knew my home back in Germany will be surprised that everything is so colorful now (instead of my previous boho white and cream apartment), but Bali is colorful, so the life here is, too. Feeling finally really home in my small and comfy place, with small kitchen (but big enough to cook the best balinese food) and simply bathroom with cold shower (there is warm water but who needs this here?). So I packed my stuff and moved, of course the balinese way, with my scooter.
I finally bought me a beanbag (aaah there's nothing better to chill in), and my friend Andy gave me his surfboard, until he comes back in January. So I finally have my hippie, comfy, cool crib.

Dinner on the floor, eating with the hands (finally managed how to do, without losing all the rice :-)

my chill out area

Essentials you need, blender for smoothies, coconut oil, kurkuma, greentea and all the sauces for my local food

Gypsy jewelery

cold water shower :-) wakes you up in seconds 

small but nice

big bed only for myself (ok and sometimes some mosquitos and geckos)

Living here between locals is simple but cool. I was sitting some nights before outside, watching the stars and I tried to figure out why I feel so comfortable here in Bali. And now I know....I see so many parallels to my small village in Serbia where I grew up. The people are super friendly, the life is simple, you meet people whenever you want, you don't have to make a special appointment (one point which I really hatet in Germany), you share what you have, you are happy sitting with friends, sharing some sweets and listening to their guitar music, and sometimes just being silly with them :-). 

My bro Budy, playing anak pantai (Beachboy). I love getting silly with him, nearly dying laughing always

bro and sista aka Slash and Axl Rose

A post for myself

Today's post is going to be a bit different than my previous ones. Usually I try to let you taking part on my daily life but today I want to dedicate this one post only to myself. Why?
It's been now 7 months living abroad for me. 7 months...wow! I have already 2 full diaries, written down all the good and some less good things happen the past months. And today I am sitting outside of my first real apartment here in Bali and a new chapter is starting.
Most of you still remember how long I planned to go away from Germany. Thinking back as well to my first Yoga Teacher training when I struggled with my english, when I had absolutely no idea how to teach and those moment when I thought, aaaah bad idea thinking I could ever teach. It was a long and hard way from me, as my previous boss didn't like my plan (which was leaving Germany and the company for good) and really create special difficulties for me. I went through some rough times with him and today I would just like to thank him, saying see, I did it!!! I realized my so called "south see dreams". I never stopped dreaming and believing in myself. Even if the start in Bali was not easy. It's saying Bali is proving you. Either you stay strong and patient and your time is coming or you give it up and go. There were 2 minutes once when I nearly booked a flight back to Germany, thinking ok I tried, it didn't work, end of story. But this is not me! So I stayed patient, I learnt to be patient here. And now I am proud of myself. I did it! I have a job which fills me up. I love teaching yoga, I am so grateful for all my students in the past months, seing their happy faces and saying to me how much they enjoyed my class. I moved some days before into an own apartment (I will show you more in my next post) and I found friends and family here. Bali is my new home. And today I like to say a big thank you to all my peeps who believed in me and always supported me.  I as well want to say thank you to all those who were laughing about me in Germany, to those who offered me their sofa as I will come back again (and those were not even people I really knew well), to those who wanted to see me giving up :-) I proved you wrong. But mostly I want to say thanks to myself! Thank you myself, that I never gave up my dreams. I am so f....ing proud of me. You just do great!!
This post should not be understood as me being arrogant, I am not. But being proud of ourselves is a good feeling and I just want you to stop for a moment and think about yourself. Look back and realize how many things you reached already, who seemed to be impossible. Sometimes we have to jump out of the comfort zone.
"Everything seems to be impossible until it's done" I love this quote!

Life just don't gives you lemons.....

and if, it's not always a worse thing! And no, you don't need tequila for it. My Balilife gives me at the moment the juiciest and yellowest lemons or more redest strawberries at the moment...when I was asked last week by a friend if I would like to take care of his house and the two dogs, while he enjoys a surf week, it didn't took me even two seconds to say yes. I packed my stuff and moved into his gorgeous jungle beach house in Pantai Seseh, which is aprox 7 km away from Canggu. Seseh is a very small village surrounded by green rice fields and full of palm- and bananatrees and yes, in Seseh live the nicest Balinese local people I ever met.
My week was full of stillness, as the house is located in the middle of the Seseh jungle, the big garden full of palmtrees and millions of different Baliplants. You hear nothing but the fresh breeze and sometimes some geckos and frogs. I treated myself with meditation in the morning, fresh pressed watermelon juices, Yoga sessions in the garden and long swimmings in the pool full with beautiful and well smelling frangipani flowers. From my bed I had the most beautiful view of sunrising above juicy green rice fields, while I was listening to the silent breathing of the lovely doggies sleeping next to my bed. Walking the dogs twice a day along the absolutely empty Seseh beach, listening and getting lost in the sound of the waves, relaxing on the sunbed cuddling the dogs, filled my heart even more with love and in the past days I finally found my inner peace and realized, how f...ing amazing my life at the moment is. I love the vibrant Canggu life, but spending the time here in the small place like Seseh, far away from the crazy traffic, drunk tourists and loud places I felt like going on holidays.