Newsletter 3 (09/06/25)
Hello friends!!
I hope you are all doing well. This week has been pretty busy for me, with lots of traveling and work to do, but I'm super grateful for everything as it has been tons of fun overall :)
Here are a few things I've enjoyed this week:
The 6 handshakes theory
Many here already know that I've been obsessed with this idea since way before this week, but last monday I found out I'm 3 handshakes away from Hayao Miyazaki (which makes all of you 4 handshakes away btw) because one of my friend has had a super famous brother all along. For those who are not familiar, the 6 handshakes theory is defined by wikipedia as "Six degrees of separation is the idea that all people are six or fewer social connections away from each other. As a result, a chain of "friend of a friend" statements can be made to connect any two people in a maximum of six steps". So if I know my friend who knows their brother who knows Miyazaki, that's 3 handshakes!! I think the beauty of this rule lays in the fact that once you know it, it always comes up in your brain everytime someone mentions knowing someone. So if any of you knows somebody who knows somebody famous, please let me know so I can add them to my list of people I'm connected to :D
Crossing the continent by train
The nerdiest thing about me is definitely how much I love trains. Like I genuinely believe nothing is nicer in this world than watching beautiful scenery unfold through a train window with your headphones on. This week I traveled 2300kms by train, including 2 night trains in a row which means I didn't shower for a billion years and had to clean myself by swimming in the adriatic sea inbetween transit. I guess there are worse ways to live!
- Split, Croatia
Split is a lovely medieval city with beautiful beaches and soooo many vegan options. They shoot lots of Game of Thrones scenes there and in surrounding villages!! I only spent a single day there (arrived by train at 9am and left by bus at 18), which I felt was enough. The big downside of the city being its popularity, it was super crowded and the marina was filled with big yachts which pissed me off. Mostar, Bosnia Herzegovinia
Mostar is also a large town built around a historical city center. Said city center is absolutely charming, mixed with super colorful houses and stone buildings, it hosts a lively bazaar and a famous bridge, the Stari most, destroyed by the war with Croatia in the 90s and rebuilt identically using 16th century stones and techniques. The city is crossed by a gorgeous turquoise river in which one can swim (!!!). You can still feel the heavy influence of the ottoman empire which controlled the area for a while, which makes for a lovely mix with balkan catholic tradition. The city has both beautiful churches and mosques, and I ate 13 baklava in just a day (oops). My initial plan was to get out of the city and up in the mountains to see a bunch of old ruins and waterfalls aroud, but turns out transportation is only carried by tourist companies which plan very expensive tours, so I scratched that and went on a daytrip to Sarajevo instead (11 euros back and forth by train!). Nonetheless, I improvised a hike along the river and dipped in the freezing cold water. It was great fun! In Bosnia, people love to serve you a cup of traditional Bosnian coffee in absolutely gorgeous copper cups. Too bad it is disgusting....Sarajevo, Bosnia Herzegovinia
Sarajevo is a beautiful city with a mix of tall colorful buildings and small white houses with wooden facades. It has a billion mosques and around the same amount of cathedrals, none of which I got to visit because my stupid ass showed up in the smallest crop top I own and they wouldn't let me inside... But I still got to see the buildings and the nice yards! The city has many water fountains which I loved especially given how hilly everything is. I really wanted to go to the national art museum but it was exceptionally closed on that day... I did go to the war childhood museum where people who had grown up during the bosnian war in the 90s sent objects from their childhood with an accompanying story. The museum is small but very touching and there are tissue boxes everywhere which I was very grateful for. It was super hard to read all the stories, especially given the current situation in Palestine knowing over a million children are going through the same if not worse experience. I highly recommend checking it out if you're ever in Bosnia !! In Sarajevo I got to eat a few of their famous pies, specifically spinach pies and potato pies which are delicious and ridiculously cheap. I heard so many tourists say they ate so many pies they couldnt stand them anymore, but I found them actually super hard to get?? Like they are only sold in specific bakeries that have stupid opening times and are never close to the center? I'll keep investigating, stay tuned... For the frenchies, Buregdžinica is translated as "magasin de tourtes" on maps which I found absolutely charming. Magasin de tourtes..."Antisocialites" by Alvvays
This album has been a constant in my life for like 7 summers now. It so perfectly captures the specific kind of nostalgia you can only feel when it's 30 degrees with a slight breeze outside and you're lost in your thoughts on a long drive or train ride. I listen to it religiously every year the second I'm able to leave the house in a tank top, and every year it hits just as hard. Would compare this to the instrumental outro of 'Hot & Heavy' by Lucy Dacus, except over an entire album. Anyhow, I love this record so so much and highly recommend it to all of you, especially if you have to be on a bunch of transportation soon.
Places I've explored so far:
That's all for this week my dears!
Next week I will be traveling around some more and hopefully finding an actual decent ice cream place. I hope all of you are doing well :)
all my love,
Axl