I love a beach town. And this little gem that you see above, is no exception. In fact, I was completely amazed with how stunning it was. Falkenberg - a little town I've heard so much about and always wanted to visit, but never had the chance to before now.

As some of you might know, and others might not, I work full time at this very blogging platform that I write my blog on - Nouw. I just got back from the annual kick off with the entire Nouw team, this year it was held at a spa resort along the coast: Falkenberg Strandbad. The moment we stepped into our room, my face lit up and I was just shocked at what we saw - isn't this just breathtaking?

Well, if this isn't picture perfect, I don't really know what is.

Long time, no Today's Postcard. So, what better way to revive that category than with greetings (and two ice cold Aperol Spritz) sent to you, directly from Rome? Thought so.

We're onto our second day now, and I've come to realise that not many things are different. Or, who am I kidding? It's all the same! The intense heat (currently taking a break by cooling down in our air conditioned hotel room), the bad WIFI, the insane traffic, chaotic metro mornings, the amazing coffee, even better pizzas & Italians standing chatting (and waving their hands around) behind every corner.

Having spent a while living in Rome, being a temporary "Roman", made it really special coming back to the city. I didn't know what I would feel stepping off that plane, but it's been better than I could have hoped for. A part of me felt like I was "coming back home". Being back makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.

Anything else? Well, our diet so far has consisted of gelato, pizza, pasta, cappuccinos, cornetti, Aperol Spriz & vino. So, putting our existence down here in very few words; we're all good.       

Detta är en bild jag tog i Kyoto som jag inte visat här på bloggen än. Två kinesiska tjejer hade, som så många andra, hyrt traditionella japanska kläder att turista runt i under dagen. En syn som vi kom att se över hela Kyoto. Inte mig emot dock, då tjejer i denna typ av klassisk japansk klädsel ofta blev pricken över i:et i mina bilder. Denna bilden jag postade på min Instagram, till exempel.

När jag tog Instagram-bilden länkad ovan, var det tidigt på morgonen och vår första riktiga dag i Kyoto (även om den publicerades ett par dagar efter). Jag blev superexalterad när jag såg "traditionellt klädda japaner" och drog en besviken suck när min bror upplyste mig om att "det är troligen kinesiska turister som hyrt klädseln för dagen".

Han hade bott i Japan i ett drygt halvår då och hade så rätt så - detta var två av hundratals turister vi skulle se i liknande klädsel i Kyoto. De flesta av dem var unga tjejer på semester med sitt tjejgäng. Ytterligare två tjejer utklädda är resultatet av bilden ovan, som jag publicerat i detta inlägg. Bakom mig när jag tog bilden fanns ett tiotal tjejer trippandes, iklädda liknande utstyrslar, med flipflopliknande skor som bars med strumpor i -  vilket gjorde att de var nära att halka ur sina skor med varje steg de tog. Ett mindre fotvänligt val, men vad gör en inte för den där Instagram-bilden?

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A picture taken in Kyoto that I haven't posted before. In the picture are two Chinese tourists in rented traditional Japanese costumes. We later saw tourists dressed like this all over Kyoto. Very much to my liking, since their clothing became the cherry on top when I took many of my photos. This picture, for instance, that I posted on my Instagram.

When I took the mentioned Instagram picture, it was early in the morning and our first proper day in Kyoto (the picture however, was posted a few days into our stay). I was overly excited over the fact that I managed to see some Japanese girls dressed in traditional clothing! My excitement got drowned quickly though, when my brother ensured me that they probably were Chinese tourists playing dress-up in a costume they rented for a day of touristing. And of course, he was right. He had lived in Japan for six months then already, and had been to Kyoto once before - and knew about the many places that had rental clothes for tourists wanting to be Japanese ladies for a day.

As mentioned, after that first moment, we saw hundreds of girls dressed in traditional clothing. Two of which are the girls captured in the photo above. Behind me, I probably had dussins of girls dressed in the same type of clothing, tip-toeing with little unsteady steps, always on the edge of falling out of the fliplop-like shoes that they wore, due to the little white socks that they wore the shoes with. Not the most practical footwear when touristing around, but for the sake of that Instagram, it's all worth it. Right?