Experience Tokyo with Mai Shiratori

Tokyo

All eyes on Tokyo. Around 5000 to 6000 athletes from more than 200 nations were to join the parade in Tokyo today as the official kick off of the Olympic Games. Tokyo is everything you can ask of a city to be; it’s a place where you can experience past and future coexisting next to each other. You will find centuries-old forms of performing arts still play on stages, yet just a few corners away public artworks picturing anime robots. Its traditional culture and passion for new is nothing but unique in its own right. On the occasion of the upcoming games we’ve asked Mai Shiratori writer and trend researcher to take us around in Tokyo after the pandemic. The guide includes tranquil cafés and tea houses, hidden restaurants and stores filled with artisanal craft goods. Discover Tokyo with Mai!

The Local's Lore Berlin Guide (to eat out)

Berlin

Ever since ITB and Berlin Travel Festival got cancelled in March 2019 due to the pandemic, we wished to get those flight tickets again stating; Destination: Berlin Brandenburg Airport - which by the way just opened recently. Berlin is the city that always have something new to offer, a city where communities are strong and you'll most likely make friends just by sitting next to someone at a long communal table of a newly found hip brunch spot. It's the city where everybody's got a friend to visit, a city that is forever young due to its openness to different cultures, diversity and people from all over the globe, hence a hotspot for small (international) businesses. The restaurant and coffee scene is again, or rather is still blooming and the cultural opportunities are close to endless. It's a city to eat out, to cycle, to lay in a park with a good book, to discover exhibitions in hidden streets while just passing by. We've discovered and rediscovered what Berlin has to offer yet again and visited some old and new favourites to eat out such as SOFI, the newest project of Danish chef and restaurant owner. Also guilty as charged but dined in Mugrabi twice thanks to its fantastic Israeli delicacies. Since our return to the Local's Lore HQ, we've found another at least five places for next time, but your recommendations are always welcome - we love making bucket lists and above all; MAPS.

The revival of the countryside: Szegzárd – the lodge

Szekszárd

When was the last time you had a good read in a hammock surrounded by vineyards and orchards? Do you remember the crisp sheets in your favourite hotels and apartments to jump out of with the first rays of sunshine to take a dip in the pool before breakfast? We invite you to a journey to the Hungarian countryside’s freshest design lodges, Szegzárd – the lodge; a true nest to modern-day seekers.

The “New Role” Award this year goes to our homes and cars

These times when staying at home is the new coming home, ones’ home has never meant such a secure place. The lockdown allowed us to grow and flourish despite the locational boundaries, but also to revaluate the importance of supporting locals (and each other), that friends and family is everything, that (online) communities are worthy, but also taught us that home is not only a physical destination but a state-of-mind. Not being able to travel in the past year our homes have either remained or have become our happy places in the world, where we — globetrotters, felt so comfortable commuting in. We can’t wait to discover more but couldn’t be more thrilled finding home for once and forever.  BUT it’s not only our homes but cars that got a new role during the pandemic.

Travel Photographer Muse: Interview with Lavinia Cernau

Do you have the feeling that some photographers can capture the deepest desires of the soul? We have this thing with Lavinia's imagery. They make us feel like we are standing right in the sunset light by the sea, wild and free. In her photography, she is embracing the essence of summer; the sun-drenched streets, the saltiness of our naked skin, the eternal lightness of holidays by the beach. While scrolling her Instagram feed, the one thing you wish for is being her muse; the "sunset seeker" in her perfectly composed photographs. Lavinia Cernau is a travel, fashion and lifestyle photographer based out of Transylvania, Romania, with an unquenchable thirst for the Mediterranean. Lavinia’s visual perspective seamlessly brings together color, light and narrative. Her work is invariably imbued with a sense of nostalgic freedom and summer sensuality in candid scenes where her subjects feel honest and at ease. Read on for hear thoughts on traveling and literally heart-warming visual imagery.