Drift

15/04/2026

04/04/2026

We’re back! ✨

After some time away exploring and sourcing, Drift is back on Yarmouth High Street.
We’ve returned refreshed, excited, and ready to share some of the beautiful new finds with you.

And it’s a special year for us — Drift turns 20!

In these 20 years, we’ve travelled far and wide, met so many extraordinary people, and learned so much along the way.
Thank you for being part of our journey over the past 20 years — and here’s to celebrating the next 20 together. 🥂
Katia and John xx

19/03/2026

Well… our trip is nearly over and we’ll be back on the island this weekend!
After the Gems & Jewellery Show in Munich, we treated ourselves to a little break in Florence — a city that’s been on our bucket list forever. Taking the train through the Brenner Pass into Italy was inexpensive but felt very special … and Florence? We absolutely loved it ✨️
The Uffizi Gallery and Pitti Palace truly lived up to one’s expectations, and strolling across Ponte Vecchio — the famous “Bridge of Gold” — was somehow quite reassuring. Seeing all that history and craftsmanship made us feel even more confident that our own jewellery designs can hold their own.

We were completely blown away by Pietra Dura (also known as Commesso Fiorentino) — this stunning Florentine art form dating back to the 16th century. It’s all about creating intricate “paintings” using perfectly cut semi-precious stones like lapis lazuli, agate, and jasper. No seams, just pure artistry. The pieces we saw at Pitti Palace were absolutely breathtaking ✨️

Feeling totally inspired, we then made our way to another incredible city — Istanbul.
Here, we collected some pieces of our truly special treasures - Persian khatam — an ancient and exquisitely detailed marquetry technique using wood, bone, and metal to create delicate geometric patterns.
Luckily we had arranged, through our old source, for these to be brought out to Istanbul a couple of months ago ready for our visit. With recent terrible events in this part of world, khatam continues to become ever more rare, making these pieces even more meaningful and special.

This year’s trip has been fantastically interesting, rewarding and successful. We have met many wonderful people, and found many beautiful treasures and now can’t wait to get home and share all our stories and finds with you 💛
See you very soon!
Katia & John xx

26/02/2026

We’ve been busy at the Gems & Jewellery Show Munich and what a show it’s been! ✨ So many beautiful pieces are making their way back to Drift — we can’t wait to share them with you.

Every year we also hunt for that one extra-special treasure — something truly exceptional, gorgeous and completely unrepeatable. We don’t always strike gold… but this time? Oh yes, this time, we absolutely have. ✨
We’re coming back to the island with the most extraordinary boulder opals, set in solid 18ct gold with just a little sprinkle of diamonds.
These beauties have been sourced from a fourth generation family of opal miners, cutters and goldsmiths — real masters of their craft. The opals themselves have the most striking, intense play of colour and are, unusually, solid stones making them rare and valuable ( and more durable than the more commonly used opal slices.)

In short? They’re as good as it gets!

Here’s a little sneak peek of the opals… ✨
But honestly, please bear in mind they look so much more spectacular in real life! The colours dance and flash in a way that’s almost impossible to capture in a photo — they really have to be seen.
We can’t wait to have them on display in Drift

Katia & John xx

18/02/2026

Another weird and wonderful celebration in Vilnius! It’s called Uzgavenes — an ancient ritual to wake the earth from its long winter sleep and welcome the long-awaited spring.

The streets fill with people of all ages dressed in wonderfully weird (and sometimes slightly terrifying!) costumes to scare Winter away for good. There’s dancing everywhere, and of course — pancakes! Golden and round, they symbolise the sun, and they’re made and shared by Vilnius students.

A lively, marching parade takes over the main road, and the grand finale is always the burning of the Winter Witch — a fiery farewell to the cold season.

Such a fantastic atmosphere… we joined the parade, ate far too many pancakes, and felt completely jolly and warmly welcomed 💛
Tomorrow we are flying to the Gems and Jewellery Fair in Munich. Next few days are going to be very busy
Talk soon. Katia & John xx

16/02/2026

Im afraid we're not really finding anything for Drift here in Vilnius. There are some (phenomally expensive) glass pieces by local artists - gorgeous but the logistics and economics say "no" unfortunately.
On the up side, kind of, whilst we avoid haute cuisine, of course, there is fab wholesome peasant food that makes your soul warm. No processed junk but simple, and simply scrummy, meals that arent branded "authentic" but just feed one well. Todays dinner, with a beer and kvas (fermented bread drink) prepared us for joining the evening's celebration of Lithuanian Independence. As we leave, theres a bunch of babushkas singing folk songs - the spirits are good too!
A happy place.

16/02/2026

Today Lithuania celebrated Restoration of the State Day commemorating their Independence in 1918 and, despite the temperatures, the whole country came out to enjoy it.
Festivities started with flag raising and speeches with many national museums opening their doors for free. Even public transport was free today

The highlight happened right in the heart of Vilnius at 6:00 PM with 16 symbolic bonfires lit along the main avenue surrounded by live music, folk dancing and impromptu singing; such a warm, joyful, inclusive atmosphere everywhere we went.
We feel so lucky to have been part of this beautiful celebration ✨️

13/02/2026

We’ve fallen in love with Riga
This city has the most gorgeous architecture. There are around 800 original Art Nouveau buildings here, and the whole city feels like one giant painting. The longer you look, the more you notice… balconies, faces, patterns — it’s impossible to stop as your eyes move from one intriguing detail to the next. We also loved the fact that all of these beautiful buildings are residential – apartments, shops and restaurants.
We took so many photographs and couldn’t resist sharing a few.

Riga has such an easy- going vibe too. It’s wonderfully multilingual — people switch between languages so effortlessly depending on who they’re talking to. The city feels incredibly multicultural as well, with people from all over — Ukrainians, Belarusians, Russians, Georgians, Uzbeks, Brits, Asians, Arabs.... the list just keeps going.

And the food? Amazing. The markets are fantastic, and the quality is incredible everywhere. You could dine in a Michelin-star restaurant one day and grab something at a local market the next — and both meals would be equally delicious.
We’ve only been here a few days and haven’t managed to explore beyond the city yet — the extreme cold and snow convinced us to stay put — but we can absolutely recommend visiting this under-the-radar gem.

Tomorrow morning we’re hopping on the train to Vilnius, Lithuania… next adventure begins✨

09/02/2026

We’ve officially landed in a winter wonderland!
Riga welcomed us with a crisp –18°C ( real feel –25°C ! ), so our very first mission?
Find thermal clothes. ASAP.
Wish us luck! ❄️
Katia & John xx

06/02/2026

We absolutely loved Gdańsk’s lovely, relaxed vibe and its colourful architecture, so heavily influenced by its maritime past. Even though Gdańsk gets its share of tourists, it somehow manages to keep its charm, friendliness and authenticity.

Kraków, on the other hand, was Poland’s former capital, a grand city with a stunning medieval core and a mix of Renaissance, Gothic and Baroque styles of buildings.
But it also has to cope with huge tourist numbers, made worse by being a stag-party destination. Compared to Gdańsk, Kraków felt like it was trying to please too many tourists and probably because of this, somehow lost some of its atmosphere.
This is just our personal impression, of course and influenced by the type of travel we do for our business. That said, we did have a couple of real highlights in Kraków and wanted to share them with you.
One was a visit to the Wieliczka Salt Mine (more on that in a separate post), and the other was a little gem for anyone who loves proper Italian food. Yes — we somehow discovered an authentic southern Italian restaurant in Kraków, and this is its story…

Two months ago, Sabina, Danilo (and their three-year-old son) packed up their lives and left Ischia (the island in the Bay of Naples) to open a restaurant in Kraków. Talk about adventure!
They found a rundown, slightly derelict space on the edge of the Old Town and transformed it themselves — fuelled, apparently, by quite a lot of wine 🍷
They named it "La Cantina: makaron i wino" with one simple aim: to cook real Italian food.

Danilo is the chef, and Sabina is the boss, the waitress, the storyteller — basically everything else. Every morning, at 6am, they head to local markets to source fresh seafood, meat, vegetables and fruit, while wines and other traditional ingredients are brought over from Italy.

The menu is small, but Sabina’s enthusiastic explanations of each dish were so infectious that we ended up ordering far too many courses… and honestly, it was one of the best Italian meals we’ve ever had. Charming, friendly and genuinely welcoming, La Cantina is an absolute must if you’re ever in Kraków.

We’re wishing Sabina and Danilo the very best of luck with their exciting new venture.
And we’re already hoping to make it back to their lovely, welcoming restaurant again one day ❤️
Katia and John ###

05/02/2026

The confused look on housekeepers face was a clue. But there hadnt been any mention of "TEST" in Polish (currently in Krakow) or English, just the repeating alarm blaring and shouting "Evacuate", recent news of drones in Polish airspace, and the memory of our last hotel evacuation (Taiwan, last year, actual earthquake). And who the hell has alarm drills at 12:10 on a Thursday?
Worryingly, after descending (by the stairs) any exit from the stairwell at groundlevel was locked. So down to the basement and up by lift.... whereupon the bemused receptionist pointed out the memo in said lift (attached...would you notice it?)
And, no, we werent the only ones.
Still, she balmed our embarrassment with vouchers for several beers.