Nice to Meet You and Welcome to My Bookish World

“Still round the corner, there may wait

A new road or a secret gate

And though I oft have passed them by

A day will come at last when I

Shall take the hidden paths that run

West of the Moon, East of the Sun.” 

JR.R. Tolkien

It all began with the Spice Girls... I should thank them one day, especially Geri Halliwell and her Union Jack dress. I am sure you know which one I mean. Seeing that dress made me wonder; What is that red and blue cross and why would someone put that on the dress?

This is how I discovered the United Kingdom. This was 1997 and I was just 9 years old; singing along "Stop" in Slovakia. 

I remember one Sunday; my mum was cooking lunch when I walked in the kitchen so proud of myself and said: "One day I will live in London.... in England to be more precise." I am a bit embarrassed to admit that I thought England was in London, but there was no Google Maps at that time.

Fast forward 21 years and I am happy to share with you that now I do know where the London is. I am also very happy to tell you that I did live there... or close enough. Because as I discovered later in my life, I do not want to live in London, but there were plenty of other cities in England that were very attractive and so I travelled. I lived in Bristol, in Chippenham, in the middle of nowhere in Devon and in the city called Crawley (Creepy Crawley for English readers). I had been spending my summer holidays in England since I was 18 years old. Other people went to Italy or Croatia, they returned to school with a tan and seashell necklace; while I came with tea and lots of Primark clothes. After finishing a master's degree in English Language and Literature I moved there. I travelled a lot around England and learned so much about the culture and people. I lived in England for four years until I decided that it is time to move on. 

"What could be better than the country of Spice Girls and Harry Potter?", you might ask. To be honest, it is a hard question. Well, maybe easier now with all that Brexit going on. Nevertheless, I made my decision, packed my bag (and all the books) and moved back to the mainland... to the country that I refer to as "weed land" but it is officially known as "The Netherlands". 

I was flying between the London and Amsterdam for almost a year before that decision was made, but my one-way ticket had a date of 1st of April 2017. I am an April fool indeed! ...and Expat in that matter. I am a little Slovakian girl that tries to be Dutchie as much as possible. Luckily for me, I have great help; my Dutch boyfriend and my friends are helping me fall off the bike and laugh at me when I try to pronounce words like "Scheveningen" or "ezelsbruggetje". But if all of this gets too hard and too complicated I hide into one of the books and disappear from this world into the Middle-Earth or Panem, or Hogwarts...

Books have always had an important place in my life. After Spice Girls broke up, there was Harry Potter and this obsession lasts until today. I should thank Rowling, for helping me discover the magical world of books and through Harry Potter lead me to other amazing stories. Thanks to those books I chose to study English Literature at University. I feel like Potter series was a gate that opened unlimited possibilities...

I hope that, in a way, my blog will open a gate for you into the same place where magic is real, where elves, dragons and hobbits exist and where you are never far away from a good book (and a cup of coffee).

If you are reading this I would like to say: "Hi, it's nice to meet you and welcome to my bookish world."

Special thanks to Tim, Sophia, Egle, Nathalie, my mum and dad... and Geri Halliwell’s stylist.