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03 Jun 2016 Travel

Athens Travel Diary | Hotel Grande Bretagne

Happy Friday!

This post is so long overdue! How is already June?! It feels like we got back from our trip a week ago (it’s been almost 8 weeks!). I might be heading back to Greece very soon, so I just had to revisit my photos and share my Greek memories with you before I make new ones! If you haven’t checked out my Santorini Travel Diary, get on it – it’s such a beautiful post, definitely one of my favorites. We spent the first few days of our trip in Santorini and then headed back to Athens for a few more days before visiting Istanbul. I fell so incredibly ill between packing up my bags in Santorini and arriving at Hotel Grande Bretagne in Athens. 🙁

I have never been so sick in my life & my luck’s timing could not have been worse. I’ve always loved Greek mythology and could not wait to see the historical sites in Athens. All those years of playing God of War and taking Greek myth classes in college were preparing me for this trip haha! One thing I can always give myself credit for is being a trooper – from my entire body being covered in heat rash in Hawaii to my feet being painfully swollen in Paris.. it has always been in me to seize the day. I rally and push through to be able to see whatever I can regardless of the unfortunate circumstances but this flu (or whatever it was) left me down for the count. I spent most of our time in Athens and Istanbul in bed but was able to conjure up a couple hours of energy here and there to get my explore on.

First up, you just have to see where we stayed! Hotel Grande Bretagne. The property was originally the home of a wealthy businessman, later headquarters for different groups during different wars, and even housed the prime minister during the Greek Civil War. In 2006 it went under a massive renovation to restore it to its former glory and now.. here we are!

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27 May 2016 Beauty

How I Made my #LifeGoals a Reality

Every now and then, I will see girls tagging their friends in my photos and say #lifegoals.

It’s funny reading the I wish this was my life comments, because everything I have accomplished and built is completely attainable by anyone. Sometimes I wish I could just scream it through my phone.

I was always the day dreamer looking out the window, I never knew exactly where my life would take me but I knew that I wanted to build it myself. Ever since a very young age I was completely enamored with creating. It could be arts, crafts, or school projects; I just loved being the architect watching my visions come to life and this passion carried over into adulthood. I’ve never worked a 9 to 5 and have always been my own boss and on my own terms, from working as a photo-retoucher, to an internationally-published photographer, and now a blogger living in my dream city. What I’ll decide to dabble in next is a mystery but I’m confident in my passion to learn, explore, and turn it into a living. The last thing I want to do is write a vanity piece on myself *cringe* but so much of my audience is at that pivotal crossroad stage of life, I am hoping that with this post, I can help inspire and provide some guidance.

Let’s face it, everyone wants to be a blogger these days but not everyone has a tech-saavy-photographer-boyfriend or a dream team behind them like a lot of these A-list bloggers do. I always moan that I wish I had the same resources as the girls that I look up to – but the fact is that I don’t. The up-side is that there is such a full sense of satisfaction with every accomplishment, deal-closed, and successful project in the books when it is all done on your own from start to finish. I do hope to have a dream team behind me one day, but I’m proud to say that in the mean time… I got it handled. 🙂

Today I am sharing with you the genesis of my story. No, it wasn’t a makeup class, or sitting in on a blogging seminar.. it was my 7th grade computer class. Yes, a general middle school class that I attended a couple days a week for a quarter of the school year was the catalyst for everything to come over the next 17 years & hopefully the rest of professional life.

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15 May 2016 Travel

Santorini Travel Guide & Travel Diary

I’ve dreamt of visiting Santorini for as long as I can remember, the white stone homes, the endless Aegean sea, and blooms of bougainvillea framing colorful doors. Today I’ll be sharing with you our travel diary of our visit to the island with some tips along the way. This was our first time in Santorini and it was a relatively short stay, so I am by no means an expert. I did, however, have an incredible time so I’m sharing what I can so you can have an even better time!

I’m sad that this is my last batch of photos to edit but I still have my vlog coming which I am so excited to work on. I put together a little sneak peek to hold you (actually, me) over until then 🙂 What do we think?

[fbvideo link=”https://www.facebook.com/irenesarah/videos/1336246209726146/” width=”1000″ onlyvideo=”1″]

I hope this travel guide is helpful, please let me know if you have any questions at all!

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04 May 2016 Travel

Musée du Louvre | Paris

Happy humpday blog-fam!

If you saw my Paris Travel Diary you’ve already seen these photos but if you haven’t.. you’re in for a treat! At least I think so! 🙂 Our visit to The Louvre back in December became one of my favorite photo-sets and I just had to break it off into it’s own post. My husband, Waseem, and I closed out 2015 & kicked off the new year in Paris and London. We took the exact same trip back in 2012 and he proposed to me at Pont des Arts which is just a stone’s throw from the Louvre. So, it’s needless to say that this itinerary is very near and dear to our hearts. <3 We were engaged on Cinco de Mayo 2012 so I thought it was pretty fitting to repost this today!
Enjoy the photos! If you missed the Paris post be sure to check out the full travel diary and travel vlog.

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27 Apr 2016 Travel

Andronis Luxury Suites | Santorini, Greece

What tumblr dreams are made of! Santorini has always been my dream destination and our stay did not disappoint thanks to Andronis Luxury Suites. With the exception of our very first night, we spent our entire time in Santorini here in Oia. We stayed in the gorgeous Zeus suite and everything was simply perfect. Our suite had two large terraces, one with a bistro set where we had our delicious breakfast every morning and another adorned with daybeds for our lounging needs. I realize now I never took a photo of the living area in our suite (I blame our luggage uglying the scene!) but the window opens up to the hot tub which opened to our breakfast terrance.. ahh perfection! You’ll catch a sexy photo of the husband enjoying a soak while we waited for our breakfast. Speaking of which… I have never experienced anything like a Santorini breakfast!! I can’t broadly call it a Greek breakfast because our mornings in Athens paled in comparison to the incredible meals that were brought to us every morning at Andronis. 🙂 And I’m not even a breakfast person!

The village is mostly a pedestrian walkway and Andronis is located right at the beginning making it a quieter and less crowded area which we loved! It was so conveniently close to the lot where we kept our rental car. The property has 27 suites and villas. Our Zeus suite was one of the few in the main building just up a quick flight of stairs. All of the other suites and villas (as well as the restaurant and pools) are built into the cliffside so just like in the rest of Oia.. be prepared for a ton of stairs! Our first night we headed down to Andronis’ restaurant, Lycabettus, for our anniversary dinner. Holy moly, make sure you reserve a table over the cliff – the most incredible views you’ll ever see. Oia’s sunset is world famous for a reason.

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