These photographs sum up my 2016, I started it hoping it was May to finish high school and then, when I ended my exams in June I wanted August to come to go to Malta. Then, I wanted September to come to start the first year of University. There, I met some amazing people and I changed the way I saw things. Because I know we all are waiting to be somewhere else or do something else but we also have to live in the moment, we need to appreciate every minute of our lives. We need to be happy in the present, not hoping to be happy in a future time. I came back home for Christmas and I realized how much I had missed my family and I am trying to enjoy my time here and then, enjoy my new life at the university.

Hiii!!! So I have just come back from Denmark and I wanted to post some of the pics that I took there. I was with my mom for 5 days and we visited all the city. In a few days I will post all the things we did and what you can do in Copenhagen. Hope you like them.

Amager Strandpark

Botanic Garden

Botanic Garden

Tivoli.

Christiania

The aquarium of Copenhagen.

I have always been a person who loves big cities full of people with a lot of things to visit and shops and to see how the people walk down the streets focused on their own businesses. I love the feeling of not being noticed.  I don't really enjoy the beach because I get bored when I'm there for more than two days so, when my parents told me that we were going to Malta, an island surrounded by the sea and which capital's population is close to 6000 hab, I wasn't so sure what to expect.

But I have to say that Malta made me enjoy the sea like never before. I don't not if it was because of the clear water that made me feel like I was in a huge pool or because all of the things you can do there. 



We stayed in an apartment in Mellieha, the north of Malta, and we were 50m away from the sea. The views were amazing. Now I will explain the little towns and cities we visited and what to visit there.


 So first of all the capital of the Island: LA VALLETTA. It is a really small city so the best way to get around is by foot. If you have rented a car try to find a parking in advance because the traffic is horrible and it is full of cars. The streets are very steep, they reminded me of San Francisco.









































We visited the Upper Barrakka Gardens and well the city itself if full on little churches and piazzas that you will discover if you walk around the city center. We ate in a really good restaurant called "Luciano", it was an italian and the pizzas were truly amazing, the bread was super thick and were so huge.

Upper Barrakka Gardens

The next city I will write about is MDNA, old capital of Malta, also called The Silent City. It is a walled city and really small so you can visit it just in an afternoon. If you have watched Game of Thrones you may recognize some scenarios from it because they recorded there!!!

We just walked around the walled streets and it was in completely silence, now we know why that name.  It was not really crowded,  so it was nice to just enjoy the silence, walk around and see the ancient part of the city, full of history.







Another city is ST JULIANS, well-known for being the city of party in Malta, it is full of young people and clubs so if you don't want like, go out and drink it might not be the better place to go. Nevertheless if you keep walking through the beach walk you will arrive to the town center that is less crowded. It is not that special.


GOZO, the island next to Malta, is worth visiting because of the landscape. We crossed with the ferry (15min) and we visited the most famous view of Malta that is the Azure Window. It was amazing. It is better if you go early in the moring because if not it gets really crowded.
We also went to Gozo's capital, Victoria and we visited the walled castle.

Azure Window

Another things we visited in Malta are:

-> Ħaġar Qim & Mnajdra temples   (go really early because of the heat) 



-> Blue Grotto (Boat trip 8€, go early) It is amazing. The own fishermen drive you around the caves in the sea and they explain the way they were formed and everything you need to know. 

One of the caves we visited.

Crystal clear water

-> SILEMA (best city in Malta to go shopping)

-> Another "must" is COMINO and the Blue Lagoon but we didn't plan it well so we lost the ferry.


We also did scuba diving and it was the best experience ever!!!!!! We did it in a place called Sea Shell in Mellieha and the staff was super kind. We went 4 people with 3 instructors. They taught us in the beach first and then, we went to dive with a boat deeper in the sea. We saw a lot of fishes, the water was so clean than it looked like we were in an aquarium. The more relaxed you get the better is the experience, seriously, that's the key to really enjoy diving. An experience I hope I repeat again!
http://www.seashell-divecove.com



So this is it.  you can also see a little summery of the trip on this video!!

HI!!!! It's been a while, I know, but I didn't have anything to post about. I started university and I didn't do anything special. Maybe I will write something about my experience of living in Madrid and all about the university. I'm also going in December to Denmark so there will be a post about that trip!!! Video too!! If there is someone really reading this, thank you! please comment below something. I hope you like it.

Today I'm going to post some photos that I had taken in The Bardenas Reales.

"The Bardenas Reales is a semi-desert natural region, or badlands, of some 42,000 hectares (100,000 acres) in southeast Navarre (Spain)."

Maybe you have never heard about this place but maybe you recognize it. They have filmed here

Game of Thrones and several car commercials and films. It is really cool.

This is the most typical structure of Bardenas. It is called Castil de Tierra.

This is in Gozo. Azure Window. Every time I go to a place I try to find ideas of photos I can take there. Not to copy but to see beautiful places that you would miss if it wasn't because you have read it somewhere.  So this summer, before going to Malta I tried to fin some pics but there wasn't many so I thought that I should put some of the pics I took there so that if someone does the same as I do, they can have an idea. Hope you like them

Mellieha.

These pics in the doors are in Mdina. There are a lot of colorful doors and balconies.

Crystal clear water.

it is always cool to have a photo walking in a beautiful landscape.

Valletta. This is in the main street of the capital of Malta.

Valleta.

There is something in this picture that makes me love it. (La Valletta)

instagram: @helenrueda8

Hey, hey, hey! I know it's been ages since my last post but I was with my final exams and I didn't have anything to talk about.
But today, here I am, I'm back!!!!!



As I said, I had my final exams that would decide where I would study next year and luckly, I did really good so I got admitted in the University I wanted. So when I finished my exams I knew it was time for a change and I decided to cut my hair but not just a little, at least 20cm because I wanted to donate it.

I did a little bit of research before taking the decision  and I found a Spanish association called "Mechones solidarios" that make wigs for women and girls with cancer. They don't sell them, they give them for free to the little girls and for the women, they do a special price when they reach a maximum of earnings (they pay just a 20% of the real price that variates between 600€-1500€) I tell you this because there are others associations that sell the wigs just cheaper and they don't give them for free not even in some special cases.

So this association has solidary hairdresses' which are the ones in charge of sending the hair to the wigs factory and I found that they had one in a little village near mine so I decided to go the same day I did my last exam.


And this was the process:

1. So this is exactly minutes before cutting my hair.  I had really long hair and I had just had my hair cut the  week before like 5cm just to have the ends healthy.

2. Once there, they measured my hair and make me decidehow much I wanted to donate. The  minimum was 20 so I said: "okay, cut me more" and she did.

3. I remember her telling me: "are you sure? there is  not coming back" I was really anxious because my  long hair had been with me since I don't remember.  It was going to be weird.

4. Yep, that's my hair. 30cm gone. I felt like something was missing haha. But I felt great. The hairdresser kept  it and explained me what they do next.

5. And this is it. The big change.  #donateyourhair

How did I feel or why did I do it? 

Hiiii everybody!
I've been a little bit off because i didn't know what to post and I was so busy with school that i did't have time to think. As I have just come back from Italy I will post some photos and explain some fun stuff I did there. I went to see my Italian friend that I met this last summer in Los Angeles, it's crazy, isn't it?

DAY 1: TURIN

We took a bus to Turin because they had cancelled our train. We had some difficulties in our journey but we arrived safe and sound. Once we were in the city we went to eat and we ate a kono-pizza. And Omg, it was amazing, I had never heard nothing about it until I saw it but I loved it.


The second photo is in the main square and after finishing our lunch we went to Turin Eye that is balloon that goes 150m high. It was great to see the amazing view but I was frozen because of the wind up there. Besides we stayed there just a couple of minutes and for us the price was a little bit too much. (15€ for 5 minutes) But I liked it.


  Then, we went to the Cinema Museum and this was the part I loved the most. It was so much fun, it had a lot of things to try and see and crazy stuff such as a huge fridge and a room full of toilets to watch a video and more. We bought the lift's ticket too that goes to the top of the Turin's tower and the view was really beautiful.
This day which was Saturday, we had a bday party of my friend's best friend so we had to run to his house to get changed and my friend lost the phone during the run but it was just too late to turn back. 

It was a crazy day but we had a lot of fun and we did a lot of things.

DAY 2: NORMAL DAY

We stayed at home and we went out for dinner with 
some friends and we ate a delicious Italian pizza.

DAY 3: FUN DAY

We went to do the Fly Experience and we flied together but with the instructors too. The way that you feel when you fly so high it is amazing, it was like I was weightless. We flied with a helmet, glasses the special suit and a ponytail and because of the potence you face changed its shape and omg, the photos were so funny. I have to say that it is absolutely expensive but it is something that you do once and you really have to try someday if you have the chance. After it we went to a mall and did some shopping.    

DAY 4: ORANGE BATTLE

You can imagine my face when my friend told me that we were going to an orange battle... But let me explain it. So the thing is that in Ivrea, they celebrate Carnival doing an orange battle. They have like 9 teams on the floor who fight against nine teams on trucks and each team on the floor is signed with a part of the town so the trucks move around and you have to throw oranges to them. They do a parade too with people riding horses and it is really beautiful and I was so scared of being hit with an orange but I had a lot of fun. My friend let me some clothes because each team has an uniform which they pay for. So yeah, I was in an ORANGE battle and I survived. (They hit me once and oh god, they hurt! haha)

DAY 5: MILAN 

Okay, the day started by us taking a train to Milan and it took us two hours to arrive. Once there we met my friend's brother, who is studying in Milan. He showed us the main streets such us Via de la Spiga which has shops such as D&G, Chanel, Valentino with pretty windows.


We went to eat to a Sicilian Restaurant close to Piazza Duomo and I ate the most strange dish of pasta but it was amazing, a mix of flavors. After eating we went to the square to see the Cathedral and I have to say that it impressed me a lot. It is huge and the sun reflects and it is so bright. I loved it. We took tons of pictures and then we went to the Galleria (Idk if you know what it is but it has a lot of expensive shops and it has the roof made of crystal. It is in one of the pics but the light was really bad.)

So after taking pictures we went to do some shoppings and we walked around Milan's streets.














We went to have dinner to a McDonald's that was in the main square and we went to the station to take a train to go back home and I had to say goodbye to my friend's BFF who I met in LA too, the bday boy.

DAY 5: PACKING DAY

 DAY 6: BACK HOME :(