We have looked at a lot of Bali photos lately! Why? Because we decided to go there for honeymoon!
I am so excited and have been walking around with this very big ear to ear grin for days now.
And then I realized we never got around to share all the photos that Dave took of our last trip to this beautiful island.
These photos were all taken on my business trip to Ubud, Bali in November, when Dave joined me and we stayed on for a few days together. I was working on a beautiful Bali wedding as makeup artist over there and did not get to explore enough. On the up side, I love my job and it is always special opportunity to work on destination weddings.
This visit to Bali was too short, but enough to get a taste and to know that we wanted to come back.
It is a very special place. I loved the tropical extremely hot & humid climate, I was impressed by all the beautiful traditional arts. The flowers, the incense and the cheeky monkeys. Everyone we met was very welcoming and we found so much fabulous fresh vegetarian food.
Dave even braved a lot of the street food and he did not get sick. I thought I mention this, since so many people tell stories of "Bali Belly" after having had bad food.
I wish we could have brought home many of the amazing wood works and furniture but it seemed a mission to get it imported to Australia. We will be back for more.
Our honeymoon is booked, only five months to our wedding day. Seriously how did time fly by that fast? Before we know it it will be February. We can't wait!

The last and possibly favourite part of our trip was our time in Stockholm. Maybe because the sun came out at last. We even went swimming and got a tan! Sun changes everything for the better! At least for us. Some called it heatwave, for us it was just the perfect temperature. Stockholm is bit of a stunner. The city is built on islands, which means that you are never too far from the water. Outside of the city is an archipelago of 30.000 little islands which the Swedes use as Summer holiday destination, a little bit like the Hamptons for New York City.
The Swedes also really know how to take a break throughout a the day with a "Fika" the traditional Swedish coffee break. They have several throughout the day, taking time to chat, have a coffee along with a sweet treat, like a baked cinnamon swirl, cake or cookie. And they know a thing or two about baking too. The question is how they stay so slim and relaxed with this high caffeine and calorie intake?  We stuck to healthy & organic treats most of the time and with all the walking and exploring we always had enough appetite to squeeze in another fika.
On our first night we went out and discovered the best little cocktail bar & restaurant close to where we were staying. We had too much fun to go home early that night. The next days were packed with museums and sightseeing. The fotografiska,  which is the new photography museum blew our minds. We saw two great exhibitions but even the building itself and the design of the museum were incredible. We also went to the Vasa Museum, as every other tourist would, but although it's pricey and packed it's really worth seeing. It's a museum about this old shipwreck the "Vasa" which is displayed in full size within the museum, it's really spectacular and interesting. The weather was so beautiful towards the end of our stay and it even hit 30 degrees, that's why we took a boot out to one of the islands and spent the day on bikes exploring beaches on Üto. It was almost surreal, so cute and pretty. The landscape was almost too good to be true: Rolling hills and rocks meeting the clear water was so beautiful and all nature seemed very untouched. We could have easily stayed here for a whole week. The next day we took a boat out once more to visit the Artipelag museum on another island. We stayed the whole day, sun bathing on the rocks, exploring nature walks and we even went skinny dipping. ( We forgot our swimwear...but thankfully there weren't too many people around and we found a secluded area to swim) we stayed for dinner and a jazz concert at sunset.
The sun sets very very late during the summer months in Scandinavia. It hardly gets dark at all, which makes staying up late and going out so much fun.
We were missing little Dalston like crazy which made it so much easier to leave the holiday and getting excited about being back in Sydney and our beloved apartment.
I think Sydney stole my heart. We don't know what the future holds but one thing is for sure, right now, Sydney is the perfect place for us and we are loving every day in this beautiful city.
The trip really reminded us how much we were missing each other's company lately. Being back to to our blog and documenting our lives together is the best thing that happened to us this year!
We are in full wedding planning mode and we will properly share some of our planning adventures soon as well.

My work as destination wedding makeup artist took me recently to Bali, I packed Dave into my suitcase and we stayed a for a few days after the wedding.
We were in luck when wedding photographer extraordinaire Jo Bartholomew who also flew in from Sydney was up to take some shots of us!
I love her work. So this is the story of how we somehow ended up having an engagement shoot,
that we never planned to do. I am glad we did.
Not only did we have a blast on this shoot, we also became friends with Jo and her lovely hubby Martin. We might have booked them to be our wedding photographers too...

Bali was nothing short of spectacular and I will share our personal travel photos on here real soon!
P.S: We missed little Dalston terribly on this trip!