I’m happy to announce that my book is now available for pre-orders in iBooks store and on Amazon. The book is to be released on the 15th of May.
Home Life Around the World is about the relationship we have with that most private and intimate space – our home.
Step into personal homes of architects, designers, photographers and other creatives. Food and art lovers. People passionate about the environment. All with their own stories and destinies. The homes are located in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Cape Town, Buenos Aires, Uruguay, Mexico City and New York.
Richly illustrated with inspiring and honest photos of the home environment of these individuals, whose personality colour every image of the book. With personal and interesting texts based on interviews with the homeowners, who generously shared insightful thoughts and reflections about themselves and their homes, as well as their philosophy of life and their personal life stories.
Release date 15th May.
Home Life Around the World is available for pre-order.
iBooks store https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/book/home-life-around-the-world/id1337131913?mt=11
Kobo https://www.kobo.com/ww/en/ebook/home-life-around-the-world-1
Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Around-World-Anita-Martinez-Beijer-ebook/dp/B079VDPBVF/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1520413326&sr=8-3&keywords=home+life+around+the+world#customerReviews
Kindle ASIN B079VDPBVF
eBook ISBN 978-91-984455-1-0
Hardcover ISBN 978-91-984455-0-3
Strolling around town and enjoying the ambience. Palma has some awesome architecture.
Lunch at Duke. Heavenly salad.
Cool small interior shop in La Lonja, Viveca.
More of these cool tiles, here at Hotel Cort.
La Rosa is a wonderful place to have a few tapas before heading out for dinner.
Having one of the best dinners ever here at Canela. The food is amazing!
It’s the last night with this gang. Family, friends and a random guy.
I like that I only have to cross the square to buy fresh bread at the bakery in the morning. And also to have good restaurants on my very doorstep. But the best part here is that I have a sneak peak at village life from my vantage point on the balcony, without being noticed.
The restaurants are frequented by locals and occasional visitors, not the other way around. I’m happy to see that there is a very active local scene here, just like in Esporles, after my brief visit on the southeast cost where tourists seem to dominate the scene. Though I’m sure there are still some nice unspoilt places there too for me to discover later.
It’s Saturday evening and the square is full of people. Children of all sizes are playing. People are chatting and having dinner. There is music playing and then the dancing starts and it doesn’t take long until the villagers are in full swing.
Next day I’m not very keen to go on a hairpin drive again, so I head north to Alcudia to the beach there. Distances are very short here. But the sheer number of tourists that descend on Mallorca in summertime is staggering. Nobody sensible living here actually goes to the beach now. They wait till after August when everything is back to normal again. And absolutely nobody local goes on a Sunday. Well I didn’t think did I? So the 30 minutes or so that it normally takes, well we can say it took a bit longer…
My lovely landlady Silvia takes me to a house in the village that used to belong to her mother, to show me how she has done it up. It’s a huge old town house with high ceilings and beautiful old tiled floors. She has really done a great job of modernising it, but keeping old furniture and props, giving it a wonderful ambience.
Two days a week the fish van arrives, bringing fresh fish directly from the port of Palma. It’s a family business and they have been doing this for generations. And I do eat fresh fish most days on my trip, as it’s so delicious. I did wonder how they managed to get fresh fish here. Now I know.
Bye Alaró, I’m now in Llucmajor, which is one of the bigger towns on Mallorca. Here I’m staying in a town house, in a large family home. Not so big as the one I visited yesterday but big enough for me to feel a bit like I’m rattling around in it, staying as I am by myself. It has some nice features though.
Like these old hydraulic tiles on the floors. I especially adore this graphic one.
Llucmajor is a proper town, perhaps not as pretty or charming like the villages in the mountains, but it does have a very nice square, Plaza España, that is quite large. I like the tall old buildings that are found around the square.
The oldest cafe Café Colon, dating back to 1928, has wonderful architectural features.
I like Cafè Aràbic, a popular spot with the locals, where I have breakfast and lunch. Thanks Maria and Sinéad for the tip.
The square is even nicer in the evening, when it’s all lit up and the people are having dinner at the various restaurants. There is a very relaxed vibe here.
Arta is a small town in the far northeast corner that I have been looking forward to visit. Unfortunately something happened and the home I booked is suddenly not available for reasons unknown. I learnt this just two days prior my arrival. This tedious start makes the stay here not quite as I had imagined. Although the problem solve itself in the sense that I do get another place to sleep somewhere else, it’s a disappointment nevertheless, and I decide to cut my stay short. These dark clouds kind of sums up my emotions at the moment. This is the view from the restaurant on rooftop of Forn Nou where I have a really good dinner with excellent food.
I find a nice place to have lunch, here in the shade in the yard of Sa Gripia. I do have a soft spot for these courtyards in Mallorca.
The last town I visit is Felanitx. It’s the fourth largest town on the island. It couldn’t be a more different experience than Arta. Here I get a warm reception from the homeowners Carolyn and Klaus, like I’m an old friend. In their home I have a nice room and private rooftop terrace just like in Esporles. Couldn’t be happier.
But I also get the most sumptuous breakfast ever that is included in my stay. Look at this generous spread! We also have the most interesting talks late in the evening till way into early morning and when I leave we part like old friends. This is what staying in homes is all about! Thank you Carolyn and Klaus!
I didn’t have very high expectations for the town itself but it turns out it has some unexpected highlights. This is the most genuine town in the sense of it being totally unpretentious and still a bit rough around the edges. I spot quite a few houses that are ripe for a total renovation. No fancy or trendy restaurants as such. It’s also a town with quite a large Arabic population that I haven’t come across anywhere else. It does have a beautiful old church and I do know that there are some hidden gems here.
And I have one of the best dinners on my trip here at Ca´s Solleric, owned by a local chef that has returned to his hometown. It’s up there with some the best I had in Palma! This is the exquisite starter and it’s absolutely delicious!
I find a really nice shop called Mart Gallery, which has a mix of art objects and lovely clothes. It’s owned by Cat and we had a really good and long chat. She too has come back to her hometown after been living abroad for a number of years in Ireland and in New York. Couldn’t help going away without a purchase or two. After all one cannot have too may dresses right? So summing it up perhaps Felanitx is a town to keep an eye on…
Close to Felanitx is Porto Colom and I’m here to have swim in the sea. The last on my trip! I really like this place. Don’t have time to explore the village, but I’ll do it the next time I’m back.
I’m having lunch at a beach bar here called Blue Bar. Love it when there is a small restaurant next to a beach. It’s so much nicer sitting at a table then having a packed lunchbox on the beach. And it gets you into the much needed shade for an hour or two. Nice!
My first stop is in Esporles, a small but beautiful old village with honey coloured houses nestled in the Tramuntana mountains. Here I have my own room at the top of an old town house and I have a private roof terrace with this amazing view.
In the morning the locals meet and chat outside the local shop. This shop hasn’t got any signs or displays outside, so arriving the previous evening there was no trace whatsoever that there is a shop here. It looked like an ordinary house like all the others. No garish signs are in your face when you enter either. Just nice food on display. Plain and simple. I find this very refreshing.
Esporles has a shady square where you find most of the restaurants and cafes.
Esporles by night. Same square in the evening illuminated and full of diners. Looks very inviting doesn’t it? Es Brollador is my tip here.
Walking back home past the church with only the moon to accompany me. Magical.
It’s July and it’s hot in the daytime. Time to go to the beach! Living in the mountains means that you have to go all the way down them to get to the sea. MANY hairpin bends later down a very narrow road with much hooting at each curve I found this gem of a beach. The upside of this very scary descent is that there are few other people here. Bliss!
Day two I visit Valldemossa, a pretty village known mostly for a monastery where Frédéric Chopin stayed with his beloved George Sand in the winter of 1838. At the time Chopin was ill with tuberculosis and the mountain air was considered good for his lungs. But it rained for most of the time and the dampness in the monastery made things worse, and was the beginning of the decline of his heath. He managed to compose the Raindrop prelude here so some good came of it. Still it’s hard to envision this as a cold, damp and dreary place on this hot summer day.
Nowadays the place is swamped with tourists, but it’s still a very sweet town when you manage to get away from the crowds so you can see it properly.
Taking a short break at a cafe people watching the people watchers.
Well the next day I did it again, even though I swore I would never go down terrifying narrow hairpin roads ever again. But the road leading down to Port de Valldemossa is at least wider if only marginally but I successfully descended the mountain and enjoy another late afternoon at the beach. Getting nicely into vacay mode.
To get to the next stop on my road trip I have to whizz to the southeast side of Mallorca. Here in this quiet part of Cala Ferrera, I’m staying in small but nice modern apartment close to the sea. This apartment block is like a little oasis in the otherwise busy holiday resort. One of many on this stretch of coast. There are beautiful calas or coves on the rocky coastline with small beaches and the pines grow close by. This is the lovely view I have from my balcony. The late afternoon sun shines on the pine trees and makes them look like sculptures.
I’m also very pleased to be able to walk just a few steps down to the cliffs and jump into the sea. No car rides or hairpin roads required here! The water is blissfully and wonderfully warm.
One of the few excursions I go on is to nearby Portopetro. It’s a nice little fishing village with a very relaxed atmosphere. The restaurants look out onto the small port with the fishing boats and all of them have fresh fish on the menu.
Here I have a humble salad with grilled sardines at Restaurante Portopetro. The perfect lunch!
After a brief lunch I flee to the nearby little village of Ses Salines. The quietness and slow pace here is somewhat a relief.
It’s fun snooping around small quirky shops like this one I found.
These green doors and windows seam to be a prominent feature on the island.
After a stroll around the village I have a tea and cake in a cool place, Cassai Gran Café & Restaurant. These Mallorquin court yards are so lovely and it’s nice to sit here for a bit in i the shade.
I’m down in the subway in no time. I discover, since it’s Sunday, that this isn’t the best of days to travel by subway, because a lot of maintenance are made on weekends and therefore some of the lines are closed. Which leads to a general confusion, not only for me, on finding the best way to get to one’s destination. And the journey back home takes forever. Oh well, all the more time to people watch then.
Oh and who was it that sneaked up and took a photo of the photographer in full action? Thanks Johnny and Franklin for a wonderful day in your amazing home! It was lovely meeting you!
My work takes me to different parts of the city. Behind the door of this graffiti painted house is a cool home with very interesting thoughts and ideas behind it, that I’m also going to feature in my book.
Another photo shoot takes me to a part of Williamsburg where a large population of Hasidic Jews live.
Having a late lunch at Marlow & Sons nearby a home I visit. It has a cool vibe and is the perfect neighbourhood restaurant. A place where you can pop in for breakfast, have lunch (oysters are on the menu for the brave) or chill out with friends till late night. Pity I have such a short time here…
I’m staying in Brooklyn because I’ve always wanted to live in a Brownstone house. Love the architecture.
New York is all about the lovely people I have been fortunate to meet here. One evening I head out to Saraghina, an Italian restaurant a few blocks away that is famed for it’s food and nice ambience. As I’m on my own I sit at the bar. When the evening is over I have become friends with Pascale, Theresa and Paul, a group of work mates and now friends that sit down next to me. So great to meet you guys!
My lovely landlady Loli invites me to a friend’s birthday party. The man who’s birthday it is, always have these huge parties where lots of musicians usually jam together the whole night. As the party also is held at his penthouse apartment in Manhattan I’m not slow to accept. And what a great experience this is! Happy Birthday!
This is Frank and his bird Red. I meet him on my way to the grocers, a block from where I stay. Frank is from Trinidad Tobago. He has had birds since he was a boy. Every day he hangs his many bird cages on the street outside his house. Sometimes he takes them for walks around the block and even to his church. The birds are constantly singing, which reminds him of home…
Even though my time here is short I get to see snippets of the city. Here is Manhattan Bridge seen from a taxi on my way to a photo session. Iconic.
The ice rink beside of Rockefeller Center is an also a well-known sight from countless movies. I pass it on my way to up to the Top of the Rock to get a view, the only really touristy thing I do on my one free day. But hey, the view is quite something up here and I do like great vistas!
This small restaurant seats only thirteen and only two of them are guests who are non Asian. Always a good sign.
The food here is delicious! And beautiful too. Thanks Elissa for the tip!
Street snooping. I found this very authentic barber shop next door.
Ground Zero. The icy wind and relentless rain whipping down doesn’t do anything to lighten the mood of this very grim place where the Twin Towers once stood. And the memorial site with two giant holes lined with the names of everyone who died here affect me. There is an eerie stillness here despite the bustling building work of the new transportation hub just beside it.
Santiago Calatrava’s Oculus has recently opened. If it’s a giant bird in flight or eyelashes with an eye gazing upward, is free for interpretation. Heavily criticised for being massively over budget and many years delayed, it’s still an amazing piece of architecture I think. Inside this massive transportation hub is designed like a cathedral. The thought behind it is to inspire people passing here every day on their way to and fro work and home.
No it isn’t an emergency nor a action film set, when the police cars suddenly stop and block the street outside the cafe on Bleecker Street where I am. It’s because they are going to hold a memorial service for a police officer.
Even at the colourful entrance to La Casa Azul I feel exited. Coming here is something I have been looking forward to a long time. And I’m not disappointed. I like this museum because there are rooms still decorated the way they were at the time when Frida lived and worked here, so you get a sense of her life.
Frida Kahlo became bedridden after a terrible traffic accident when she was young and she was seriously injured by it. She broke her spine and pelvis and had eleven fractures in her right leg and her right foot was crushed. As if that wasn’t enough, a handrail in iron pierced though her abdomen and uterus. It’s heartbreaking to see her the harnesses, corsets and prostheses, items that she had to wear because of the accident. They look like instruments of torture. And these are only some of them…
”To wait with hidden anguish, my spine broken and my gaze broad. Unable to walk on the great pathway. Moving through life fenced in by steel.” ”Esperar con la augusta guarded, la column rota y la immense mirada. Sin andar en el vast sender, moviendo mi vida, coerced de acero.” Her art portrays this well.
They put a narrow bed in a hallway that have doors that can open up, so that she could lie in it and look out on the garden and listen to the fountain gently splashing outside. There is a shelf with books above the bed within easy reach for her. Even so, for a young woman in so much pain, the days must have seemed infinitely long.
Her desk in the studio of this beautiful home with the famous blue walls, that reflect back refreshingly cool light indoors.
Here she painted her many self portraits.
This is the bedroom she shared in her married life with Diego Rivera. I think that it’s their love story that touches me the most. “Never in life I will forget your presence. You found me, turned apart and you took me back full and complete.” “Jamás en todo la vida, olvidáre tu precencia. Me acogiste destrozada y me devolviste integra entera.”
The painter and architect Juan O’Gorman was a personal friend of Diego and designed these buildings, one of the first examples of functionalist architecture here. One building is red representing Diego and the other one is blue representing Frida. A narrow bridge connect these two buildings on rooftop level and this bridge represents the bond of love between the two of them. It’s a fascinating mix between the fundamental ideas of Le Corbusier on the machinery of living and typical Mexican features such as the bold, strong colours.
The areas of San Ángel and Coyoacán have old cobbled streets and colourful old houses behind walls that easily transports you back to the time when they were mere villages. Now they are a part of Mexico City.
I have opted to stay in a hotel for the duration of my stay, instead of changing locations for every photo shoot. For this I’m grateful. Not only because I thoroughly enjoy staying in the Boutique Hotel Nuevo Leon with it’s cool design and super friendly staff. Thanks especially to Christian and Alfredo. But also because I have nearly a photo shoot in a different location every day so it’s good to have one base. Love the details here especially the flooring!
I enjoy being in the buzz of a city again, after my near monastic existence in San Marcos. From my grand bathroom in this smart Art Deco building I have a near 180 degree view, of all that’s going on the street outside the curved windows. A bath with a view!
I adore that I only have to walk across the street to what is to become my favourite place to eat, the combined bookstore and cafe & restaurant El Pendulo. I love having lot’s of people around me. Who could guess that I was such an urban creature after all?
And then again some come to me by fortune. Like the fabulous artist Taquitojocoque. She has a home that so totally captures herself. Small and colourful and so full of life and vitality. I can’t wait to show you them all in my forthcoming book about homes around the world.
Between photo sessions I discover my neighbourhood, Hippodrome Condesa. The oval shaped and leafy street, Avenida Amsterdam, was actually a former racetrack for horses. Therefore the name of the area, Hipódromo Condesa. In the centre of the oval is the Parque Mexico.
This area has a lot of cool Art Deco buildings, small clothes or crafts shops from independent designers and cool restaurants and cafes. It reminds me a bit of Palermo in Buenos Aires.
And they do love their dogs here too so they are catered for as well when eating out, like Charlie here in this pet friendly cafe.
Street scene in Hippodrome.
On weekends there are many vendors on the surrounding streets, here on Amsterdam.
Tori Tori is a high end Japanese restaurant in one of the small roundabouts on Amsterdam. When I go there I have hardly eaten anything and have been working hard the whole day so I’m ravenous. I have Udon soup, Tempura vegetables and shrimps. The food is excellent. The only unnerving thing is that the whole staff, apparently have a habit to greet everyone that enters the restaurant by shouting something very short but very loud and that makes me jump every time.
El Ocho by the Parque Mexico has a fun concept. It’s a cafe with a lot of board games to lend, so the place is always full of families or friends eating and playing and seeming to be having a good time. I love the lighting feature on the facade.
My all time favourite dish is a Mexican chicken soup that usually is served with chilli, red onion, avocado, lime, cheese and taco bread. Here I’m in Bonito on Nuevo Leon, where they serve their soup with a zucchini flower.
To find my favourite cafe I have to go a little further afar to Delirio on Monterrey/ Alvaro Obregon in the area Roma. It has a lovely feel to it and I discover that they also have a lovely chocolate cake here. Something I have missed since Palermo. Delirio was founded by one of the first female chefs in Mexico, Monica Patiño. Thanks Alfredo for this tip!
Another tip I get is the Asian restaurant Mog on Frontera in the area Roma. I really liked both the food and the relaxed ambience. Thanks Lesley, with whom I spent they day at a photo shoot around the corner.
With packed market stalls and people milling about it’s a veritable feast for the eyes and all of the senses.
There are stalls selling wooden carvings, textiles, pottery, spices, flowers and food to mention a few.
A religious procession passes by.
I just love the colours and the patterns here! It’s a total colour explosion.
The 400 year old church of Santo Tomás. Each of the 18 steps that lead up to the church represent the months in a Mayan calendar year.
Night in San Marcos. San Petro is on the opposite side. Apart from the stars in the sky the only other visible sights are the lights from the villages around the lake. And the only sounds I hear are the night sounds from the forest around me, and a drumming session down in the village. I’m sitting on the porch outside the kitchen having just finished my dinner. Time to lock up and take the flash light and walk back to my little house.
That is when the villagers don’t use the loud speaker system they do seemed to love, especially at 7 o’clock on Sunday mornings, playing music or talking like mad. I never did get the hang of what this is all about.
I love writing and occasionally pausing to look out over the volcano and the lake, where the fishermen are out on their shallow boats at the crack on dawn every day.
I find a really nice restaurant that becomes my main supplier for lunches and take away dinners, the restaurant Fé. Here is one of my favourite dishes, chicken with plum and ginger sauce.
This is my kitchen, housed in a small hut at the other end of the garden. I share this area with the guardians. As there is a little bedroom beside the kitchen, they take turns to stay here at night to guard the property. In daytime they tend to the garden, so the property is never left unattended. I feel secure that they are here and I enjoy practising my non existent Spanish chatting with them as well. As the kitchen is very basic my cooking is reduced to warming up take away dishes and making breakfast and simple food such as soups for lunch. Towards the end I only have one cooked meal per day apart from breakfast. This and the exercise of walking to the village and climbing up the steps make me fit.
A traditional Guatemalan stone kitchen sink, that normally doubles up as a place where the women do their laundry as well. It must weigh a ton and I dare not think about how it came up here.
Nevertheless I settle in and a soon have routine of writing, working and going down for provisions. I enjoy taking in a bit of the local village life. In the mornings the women sell their produce of vegetables and fish that their fishermen husbands have caught.
Watching the local boys swimming by the jetty.
Once in a while I take the boat and go to San Pedro on the opposite side. It’s a bigger village with more amenities.
This is the steep road above the pier. Intriguing piece of electricity work…
A street scene in San Pedro.
An old woman at the market. Love her beautiful clothes. And her calm presence.
At lake Atitlán, the transports are made by small vessels darting to and fro between the small pueblos that are situated on the shores of this vast lake. It takes about forty-five minutes for my small boat to arrive to my destination San Marcos.
Next stop San Marcos. It’s nice to arrive by boat to a new place. This boat ride reminds me a bit of the archipelago of Stockholm in my own country.
The inhabitants of this small village consists of a Mayan population and of westerners, a lot of them spiritual seekers, who believe that there is a special spiritual energy here. The billboards are full of activities on offer such as meditation, yoga classes, Reiki, massage and chakra healing, to mention a few.
There even is a Tai Chi Tao temple on a hillside.
This is the main path from the jetty to the junction where the tuc tuc usually are parked.
Transportation on land is usually made with these red tuc tuc. Otherwise it’s mostly on foot on dirt roads or by narrow footpaths. There are no street names or street lighting to talk about, so walking about at night requires a flashlight and a general knowledge of where you are going.
Julia in whose house I’m staying has sent a tuc tuc to pick me up. When we round a corner I’m stunned when the driver points out the house high up on a hillside. I knew it was situated on a mountain but had perhaps not grasped just high up! What I do get to know is that to reach the house one has to climb up a couple of hundred very steep and very narrow steps without any hand-rails as there isn’t any road leading up here. This is the last stretch. Perhaps a quarter of the entire climb left to go…
Eventually after stopping a lot to catch my breath I finally arrived to the top. The unfortunate tuc tuc driver who had the ungrateful task of lugging my mega heavy suitcase on his back, looked like he was going to pass out for a moment there poor guy. But the amazing view of the lake and the surrounding volcanoes and mountains is more than rewarding. As is the beautiful house is all mine for a whole month!
The houses that Julia has built are the same design as the traditional huts only blown up in size. They have a round base make of stone, a vaulted round thatched roof and big windows to take in the stunning views.
Snapshot of the interior of my new home.
The house I’m staying in has a spectacular corridor between the combined living and sleeping room and the bathroom.
The scenery is breathtakingly beautiful! I settle in and make myself at home.
Bohemialife 