Hello everyone,

Welcome to my blog! It took me forever to decide whether to put it “out there” or not. Maybe people won’t like what I write, or maybe I’m just spending time on this for nothing. But then, who cares. Let’s give it a go!

How my traveling started

I always liked going abroad. I did an internship in New York and lived in the city for 5 months. I also visited family in Charleston and The San Fransisco area. I’ve been on holiday to Curacao a couple of times and I saw Cuba before it allowed the US back in. I frequented London, Paris and Barcelona.

But my real traveling started in 2015. At first, 2015 wasn’t all that great. I came out of a bad relationship with the worst kind of man (liar, cheater, secretly married, secretly a father, narcissist, you know the drill) and my cat and I were thrown out on the street. We moved back in with my parents. I found a job as a freelance SEO copywriter for a company that didn’t need my physical presence. For a while, my cat was my idea of a colleague and my teen bedroom was my idea of an office. But then I realized: “Hey! This gives me the ultimate freedom to travel. As long as I meet my deadlines I can work from wherever”. I didn’t have to pay rent and quickly considered myself a citizen of the world. Didn’t take long for me to book my first trips with a special place in my luggage for my Macbook Pro. (I also learned: A Macbook Pro and sand from the beach are NOT a great combination.)

My traveling till now

My first big trip was with my mom. She’s born in Indonesia, while it was still colonized by the Dutch. As such, she had to leave at a very young age due to the Indonesian Independance. (If you didn’t know this yet, I’m Dutch and what you call an “Indo”). I decided to take her with me to Bali. It was amazing! My mom took some great pictures and my love for Instagram was born. After that, I visited some awesome places with friends, such as Rome, the South of France, Marbella and Thailand. And then I met my current boyfriend, with whom I was lucky enough to travel to London, Paris, Java, Bali, Tokyo, Kyoto, Dubai, Tuscany, Curacao and Cuba.

My intermezzo for a focus on work

This year, I had to schedule a break. During my traveling, I passed up on some great opportunities for my career and I considered it time for me to focus on work. And with great results! I have more customers than ever and I’m doing A-Okay. I also have more responsibilities: I have to pay rent for my apartment and there’s a cat to feed. As I love advertising, I took a job at an awesome advertising agency, where I will start this autumn. I’m now what they call a “hybrid freelancer”: someone with their own company who works on freelance jobs, but also has a steady part-time job. This doesn’t mean the traveling will end. London is coming up soon and we’re scouting some more places for later this year/early next year. Until then, I have a whole lot of blogs coming your way about all the places mentioned above!

The Lovely Luggage blog

As a girl with compulsive tendencies I usually plan my trips way ahead and try to make sure I only visit the best, most fun and/or most beautiful places. I left this task to my boyfriend once for our visit to Tokyo. Never again. We ended up trying to visit permanently closed bars, got lost in a very boring district and didn’t really see or do anything we wanted to. Of course, we found some cool places by accident (which I will surely share with you guys later), but I prefer to plan ahead. Maybe a bit too much. (My boyfriend is skilled in other areas. He’s a great cook for instance. And the perfect Netflix-binge-watch-partner. Planning trips is just not his thing).

I  invest so much time and energy in finding all these places, and then happen to stumble upon many more awesome places, that I might as well share them with the rest of the world.

About me: a nerd on heels

I’m a 30-year-old Dutch copywriter/creative who wears high heels (preferably Louboutins) and Chanel. At the same time, I also love Star Trek, Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. And Disney, how I LOVE Disney. I like to read, watch movies and series (during college I worked in a video store) and I also love video games (such as Final Fantasy, Super Mario, Crash Bandicoot, Rayman and Tombraider). I have a sincere passion for great food, quality drinks and fashion. I like animals better than most people and I have princess-tendencies. Placing the latter in one phrase makes me think of Disney movies, where the animals would start singing right about now. Would really appreciate some mice sewing me a ballgown.

Beautiful places with a hint of glamour

I live in a town called Den Bosch. It’s known for it’s population of young urban professionals who love life as bon-vivants. “Bourgondiër”, they call it in Dutch. We love tasty food and nice drinks and don’t shy away for a Michelin Star Restaurant. If we have the choice, we rather stay at a luxury hotel, but we could also stay at a pictoresque B&B with a nice garden and a sweet grandma baking us pancakes. We love our champagne, but we’re willing to put on our boots and help some farmers pick grapes. I think you could say we like comfortable living and comfortable travel.

So, to summarize: Lovely Luggage is all about traveling to beautiful places, visiting the best restaurants, the best bars and best attractions. Traveling comfortably, with the right amount of luxury (and the occasional well considered splurge). Always on the lookout for the best value for money. With a hint of glamour.

Hope you’ll enjoy my blogs!

xoxo Jaimie

Jaimie

I’m Jaimie, a nerdy but girly marketeer/content creator from Holland who loves stylish travel. Madly in love with all things sweet, pretty and delicious. Into comfort&luxury, combined with the right amount of activities (I just really like soft beds, hot showers and the occasional cocktail). Always on the lookout for beautiful travel destinations and wonderful experiences.