VLOG: Paris - DAY 1 and DAY 2

Ciao you guys! How are you all doing? I've been busy with university work so excuse me if I didn't updated the blog! 🙏🏽 But here finally the first part of my vlog in Paris.
I actually edited and uploaded this one quite a long time ago on my YOUTUBE CHANNEL. But I wanted all you guys here to watch it too. So here for you without further interruptions, PART ONE

Hope you'll like it as much as I do! :D

Updates

Ciao everyone! How are you all doing this weekend? :D
Mine is all about going out with a friend, relaxing and looking after myself by going to the gym and eating healthy (at least I'm trying my best!).


I'm writing this post to let you all know that I want to be more active on this blog. I know, I've said this a million times before on my old posts but this time I'm really working hard to improve who I am and what I do. 
I started this blog and my youtube channel age ago because I really loved the idea of sharing my adventures, the creativity that I have inside of me, the passion for technology, the things I do and the thoughts that my head is always full of. 
Even though I went trough same hard years that made me neglect many things, I never forgot this online space that I opened when I had the urge to scream to the Earth how beautiful actually this Life is.

So I'M BACK once again to scream because even though I shut myself, I never stoped collecting great memories with family and friends at home or around the world. 
So stay tune for my next posts because while I was absent here, I actually visited different countries here in Europe and eat way too much. You might have seen some glimpses on my instagram and if you didn't, make sure to follow me on it (INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/_melanihe_).  

Anyway thank you always for sticking with me and love you guys very much!

KIssxKiss
Melani 

♥ 

Much Needed Time Off

Ciao people! I know, first of all I want to start by apologizing for disappearing for such a long time. It was never my intention to be so not consistent into updating the blog page that I started ages ago with such a passion for it.
I won't lie, I did go through a very hard time once I started university some year ago and that had repercussions on the rest of my life till last year, when I finally reach out for help. 

If you are new to my page I would like to introduce myself once again. Hi! My name is Melani and I was born and raised in Italy even though both of my parents are from the beautiful Sri Lanka, ranked top county for travel in 2019 by Lonely Planet magazine!! 😁

Since I was a kid I always had this sense of wanting to get to know things. To explore and get to know everything that was around me, never just to ignore and go on. I've always been a curious girl with the passion of books and the outside world, curious of technology that during my childhood was having an actual boom; what was new one day, right the next one was old news. 
Some times even too mature for her age. 
A determined girl willing to show how powerful and capable she was, maybe because being born in a country where everyone is visibly different from you, we were often not very looked upon. For that reason I was never able to stepped on someone. My nature is more of a listener and a silent fighter for what I want to achieve and show! 
I always believed into having a good education, on studying and working hard in school thanks especially to my Mom. I always did great and the hard work always payed off. But on my last year of high school I was so tired that I though of having a gap year before starting university. Unfortunately, for many reasons that I don't want to explain now, I didn't get the chance and went straight into university after passing the exam for Biomedical Engineering. I always wanted to be a doctor (ahah very asian of me 😂) but after not passing the exam, I tried for my other big passion, engineering and as I said before I passed into a course that I thought was the perfect balance between my two big loves: medicine and computer science engineering. At the same time during that year I discovered how I loved photography and writing. That's the time I started this blog probably pushed by the need of freeing my mind on such a stressful time of my life...and that was is!  I was actually very happy at the time but life hits you and it hit me quite hard.

My first year of uni went by so quickly. Officially adulting far from home and far from my parent for the first time, I was not happy with my choices.
 But I didn't know how to tell someone. I was disappointed of myself for thinking such things and almost ashamed for wanting to change uni course after working so hard to get into it and always being such a clever kid. 

That's the biggest mistake that us humans do! We are too hard on us and that's not good at all. We are not perfect machines, so we are allowed to make mistakes! It's totally normal. At 18/19 years all we might have is an idea of what we want to be growing up or what we want to do in life. But it doesn't mean that if that target doesn't go as planed then you are done forever. You MUST keep calm and reach out for help if you feel like you lost yourself, because you are just 18/19 and till that age you were always helped somehow from your parents. So put aside your ego and get help because our parents will do anything, they always did till at that age. If you can't reach out for your parents then ask help from a friend, a counselor, a teacher...a adult!! 

It took me quite a while before I understood that. So last year I was helped from my parents once I put aside my fear of telling them on how I was feeling and what was going on with me. I left Biomedical Engineering and tried another test for Computer Science Engineering and I did pass for it!! So now I'm on my second year ☺️

It's not easy at all to start all over again. Trust me, it's not at all so if you are in a same situation as mine don't give up but keep pushing it, because hard work is always paid off at the end!
 Just remember to be sincere to yourself. If you feel something, listen to it and don't be scared to talk with anyone. We didn't come on this world alone, so we are not alone once we are here 💐

Let's look after each other. Mental health is important. I am important, you are important, we all are important!  If I did it, you all can do it too.

Much love from a very happy Melani. Thank you to all of those who have helped me to get back on track and work on being always the better version of myself! 
LOVE YOU MAMMA AND PAPA' and thank you all for sticking around even when I was absent. Stay tune for my journey...the journey of life!

Cheers for this blog and the future blog post I'm already working on! 
CIAOOO! 

♥

je t'aime PARIS ● DAY 1

Good evening people! How is everyone doing? 

Today I'll show you a special place I visited last month for the first time ever! 

You might already know by now which place I'm talking about from the title of this post and, yes it's PARIIIIIIIS in FRANCE!!! 

Wow I still can't believe I went there. It still fells like I went there in my dreams! 

Last month I was able to visit this lovely city after my friend found and organized basically everything. 

I always wanted to go one day in the future but my friend, on the other side has been dying to go there since high school!

I think if you want to go or do something you should seriously sit down and just go for it! If you just keep on telling by words that you want or want to do or go somewhere, those words will remain just words you said to the air! So take your PC and start looking for flights and hotels or pick up your phone and call your trustworthy travel agency and look for good occasions!! Like Shia LaBeouf says: " JUST.DO.IT! " aahaha! :D

So after I said him that and a few days passed by when he called me and told me that he found everything and if I wanted to join him... well I immediately accepted!! 

I mean Paris is Paris and when the flight is cheap as well as the hotel - even a very good hotel close to the center - well! No one can refuse such a tempting offer!! 

On the 12th of November (2016) we woke up around 3a.m. because the flight was very early in the morning from Bergamo-Orio al Serio Airport. 

The flight was very calm and from where we live here in Italy it takes less than 2 hours to go to Paris. 
As we arrived we were immediately welcomed from a gorgeous and super orange sunrise (as you can see in the pic above). From the small Beauvais-Tillé Airport in Paris we took a bus to the center and from the center, we managed to find an underground line that brought us right a few meters away from our hotel. 

We were staying at the lovelyCarlton's Hotel in Montmartre neighborhood.
Here is the website of the hotel: http://www.hotelcarltons.fr and the map down below, if you are interested as well for a place to stay while in Paris :)

After we checked-in our hotel, we officially started our advanceeer in Pariiis!! 

So, here fo you guys the pics of our FIRST DAY in PARIS! 

Stay tune because I'm going to show you day 2, day 3 and our final day 4! Thank you as always and ENJOYYYY!! 

Who knew Paris was so cold in November? I definitely didn't know that. For some strange reason I always thought France's weather was like Italy's but NO! Now I know and I should have know that even before because if you think about it, France is much up on the north unlike Italy! [I feel so dumb thinking about how ignorant I am sometimes!]

We were even unlucky during our staying there. We didn't have a single day without rain or a cloudy sky :( but, or well, we can't have everything from the life so let's just appreciate what we get and have got! :D

ahah!I was trying so hard and then my friend showed me the ultimate result...

Our first Croque Monsieur

Macarooooooons!!! 

♥

Happy 80TH ♥

Hello Hello everyone! Even though half of January is already passed...Happy New Year! How has been 2017 so far for you guys? 

Mine so far has been good and bad at the same time. 
Good because finally this past Friday 20th January, for the first time ever one of my dearest cousins came to visit us here in Italy. She is here in Europe for a volunteering work in Hungary and because tickets to travel to Italy are much cheaper here than in Sri Lanka, she finally saw where we live after hearing us talking about it for 21 years (that's our age and yes she is my same age, just a month older than me!).
Second good thing is that today I bought my first ticket for this year and I'm officially visiting this cousin in Budapest!! WOW I can't wait because it will be my first time ever in Hungryyyyy!!! Kyaaaaaaa!!

And now sad because [haaaa] I won't go to Sri Lanka this year. We can't have everything from life, I know that, but it's heartbreaking for me because today, Monday 23rd of January is my BEAUTIFUL GRANDMA'S 80TH BIRTHDAY!! 

We celebrate 80 years only once in our lives so I really wanted to see her this time! Maybe you'll be tired of me for repeating this but I love both my grandparents a lot. They are the main reason why I love Sri Lanka and the girl I'm today! I can't believe how lucky I am to call them my grandpa and grandma and I will never stop telling it! 

So today this blog post is dedicated to them both, Paul Wickraamarachchi (83) and especially the birthday girl Vivian Hathurusinghe (80 today) my sweet Grandparents.

My baby Mother and my beautiful Grandma

83 years old vs. 20 years old

80 years old vs. 20 years old

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY ACHCHI! ♥

Here for you guys the video I created in their honor with the clips I filmed when I went to Sri Lanka last year. Hope you all will enjoy it us much as I had filming them like a stalker,

If you didn't know yes! I've got a youtube channel where I uploaded the video at the beginning of this blog post. I hope you check it out and let me know what you think of it I would love to read it! :D So I'll leave the link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoHdNPBX6vQ and the video itself above! 

ENJOYYY and BYE BYE!

♥

VLOG: My Sri Lanka

Ciao you guys! How are you all doing? 

I'm back - I know - I'm back after like a million years  >.<' but I'm back...and that's what counts the most [Right??]! 

I'm really sorry I can't dedicate as much time as I would really like to spend on this blog. I started this blog because I wanted to write about the things I happen to do and experiences I happen to live, what I think and want to do in the future...basically I started all this to share my life with awesome people out there: a online diary that anyone could read and enjoy reading! 
For all these reasons I'm so mortified by the fact that in all these 3 years since I started this blog, I probably wrote about not even one eighth of the things I've done :(

Ah ok! Let's not think about that now [BUT sorryyy again you guys] and let's enjoy a little thingy I posted on my YOUTUBE CHANNEL.

If you didn't know yes! I've got a youtube channel too where I uploaded a little vlog of my last trip to Sri Lanka! I really really love it and I hope you check it out and let me know what you think of it I would love to read it! :D So I'll leave the link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fkvv34dF0FI and below the video itself! ENJOYYY and BYE BYE!

♥

Iconic Galle Face Green, Sri Lanka!

Long time no see! Hi everyone! How is everybody doing? :)
Today I'm going to show you one of the most iconic place of Colombo city: Galle Face Green!

The iconic Galle Face Green is a five hectare ocean-side ribbon strip of land, which stretches for a half kilometre along the coast between Galle Road and the Indian Ocean, in the heart of the financial and business district of Colombo. 

It's not a beach in the traditional sense where you bath - not possible due to possibly poisonous marine life - this beach, which is now the largest open space in Colombo, is only for viewing.

It's a really lovely place where children, students, tourists, lovers, friends and families gather here to spend their leisure time by enjoying the traditional Srilankan food (sold by many little street-food vendors that you can find along the walking path), playing cricket or football, very popular is flying kites or even in the evening by taking pictures of the amazing sunsets...if the weather allows you!
 
Condition that for my luck :( DIDN'T HAPPEN that only evening! 
I got to know while scrolling on Instagram that everyday at 6 p.m. (18:00) there's a Srilankan Flag Removal Ceremony held by the navy and it's quite a pretty thing to watch (at least once in your lifetime) and something even better, around that time you can clearly see the sun disappear in the waves of the Indian Ocean. ALWAYS if the weather allows it!

For the fact that I've never seen all that (or at least I can't remember it anymore) and I've got a huge passion for photography, you can clearly understand at this point why I wanted to go there!
You can definitely see from the first pic of this post that on that day the weather was as usual: very humid and sunny. So when we decided to go and see the Ocean we didn't imagine that in a split of seconds after we got to Colombo, everything would have change so drastically!

As you can see from the pics, the weather was terrible!
We arrived around a quarter to 6 p.m and we couldn't see any pole with a flag on waving to the wind (nooo)!
So we asked to two policemen on duty and they told us that usually when the navy (or the military) see that the weather is not looking good, they anticipate the ceremony to half an hour before but wait next to the pole (at any weather conditions) till is 6 p.m. and then march away!

See!!! No flag when we arrived  :((

I was heartbroken for how unlucky I was for the whole situation but I was with my baby boy cousin (not baby anymore...he will be 20 next year! haa) and with my mum, so we laughed, talked and got to eat some yummy street food for the entire evening! 

This is the beauty of this place: it gets people together and whatever you'll do, it will surely be a pleasant time!

So get out of your house or hotel or wherever you are and visit GALLE FACE GREEN in Colombo city...and maybe before going check out the weather broadcast!!!

That's all for today and I want to say sorry for being absent for quite a long time. I hope I won't take a long time again till I'll next post something but till then BYE BYEEE and THANK YOU! 

♥