Thursday 30 July 2015

Munich, Germany ǀ 2015

I thought I would have more to say about Munich than France (click HERE) because I enjoyed it more however, when I was trying to compose this in my head I couldn't think of a lot that I wanted to say. Munich is such a nice place just to meander around; there is a market, shops and impressive buildings to see but, I just can't decide what aspect of the visit I want to focus on. Again, we only stayed for an afternoon but, we spent marginally longer here than in France. I think this was good because we could wander around and just take in everything there; it was a really interesting stop. One of my favourite parts was getting a smoothie.

I hope you can get the gist of what it was like from the photos because my description here is appalling.




Wednesday 29 July 2015

Metz, France ǀ 2015

Somehow I suspect this post will be very breif although not as brief as some of my future summer posts are bound to be. Our stay here was only one night and we only strayed out of the hotel when in search of pizza (which we found by the way) so, you could argue that I did not see enough of the place to give you a decent opinion. We didn't really stray that far. Due to the rain it felt a little bit miserable but I was able to see the general style of the place. It was pretty in bad weather and may be beautiful on a nice day but, despite that, I think that there are so many other beautiful places in France that I would prefer to explore. I'm not yet convinced that I'll return here although I did quite like it and admired the design of the area. 


Saturday 25 July 2015

London and Miss Saigon

This post is bound to be rushed because after arriving back from London today, I am starting to travel to Croatia tomorrow. It always seems like I am doing something until late the night before I leave England. This was not something I would ever have missed though, regardless of where I am going the next morning. That isn't an exaggeration; I still haven't packed for this six week holiday yet...

Me and my friends: Clare and Imogen took the train at quarter past seven, arrived in Euston for around nine and, then went shopping in the Covert Gardens/Regent Street/Oxford Street area (with the occasional break for food and cupcakes) and nipping unashamedly into Hamley's for a disproportionate amount of time. I thought this was fun despite only spending seven pounds in all of that time, excluding a new pair of school shoes. It was nice just to walk around and have a good catch up before going to the theatre.

Miss Saigon may have been the best bit of the day but I'm not sure because all of it was so good. Unlike Matilda or Billy Elliot which I have blogged about seeing, this show was a lot more adult and that was evident right from the start. Although I found it interesting, it is not like the others where I will be downloading all of the catchy songs and playing them repeatedly. Don't get me wrong: they were still amazing and heartfelt and brilliant but, the majority were more storytelling songs than individual meaningful ones; they all blended together to create a masterpiece instead.

For the first half, before the interval, it was more like a build up. It felt like I was just waiting for something to happen but afterwards I was far from disappointed. It was incredible. I left sobbing at the very sudden and dramatic ending. When they took the bows and tried to lighten the mood a bit, I just couldn't flick back to just being okay. It took me a good while (and a meal in a cafe on China Town where we had a great time accidentally using chopsticks as catapults) to get over it. It was definitely an experience to have.


Thursday 23 July 2015

Road Trips // Blogs for August

I think that I need to explain in advance the things that I will most likely be uploading next month. For most of August me and my family will be driving to and back from Croatia, which will be the final destination. Along the way we'll stop off at different places but this is usually very spontaneous; we have the general route and direction in mind but where stay, or in which country, isn't always determined until the last minuet. In short: I don't really know for definite the countries I'll write about but I can guarantee at least one from Croatia. I have the vague outline of where we will be going but I don't know where we stay; one post may be 'Breakfast in Germany' or it could be 'An afternoon in France'. I really don't know. I'm not even sure if we will stay in many places this time. It is entirely unpredictable. 

I haven't been posting a lot here anyway recently and I'll try and make up for that over the next few weeks. For some entries it might just be photos with minimal explanation because I didn't stay long but, I will try my best to do a post for every country. The holiday still needs to be a holiday though; it does take quite a bit of effort to pull all of this together so, if feels like it is becoming a big task then I will stop. I want to blog whilst enjoying myself and although I have managed to do those things simultaneously and easily so far, I don't want to be stopping for photos everywhere I go. I love this holiday a lot and  I just think it is so amazing how me and my sisters and Sadie dog can all get to so many places. I wouldn't write about this time if I didn't consider it so special.




Friday 17 July 2015

Llandudno, Snowdonia & Trefriw, Wales ǀ 2015

My first regret of this little adventure is not bringing my camera with me. I thought it would be too difficult to haul around with me on this trip but once I'd arrived and been on a walk I realised that it would probably have been worth it. This is just a little scrapbook instead, of photos I took on my phone or on my tiny underwater camera and, a few that I've sourced from the friends that came with me.

I really enjoyed this trip. There were only seven people that signed up for it so we had a nice little group and we were really close by the end of the holiday. We were supposed to leave at ten thirty on Monday but the bus was about two hours late so I got my sleeping bag out and lay on the floor to wait for it. When we eventually arrived we went straight out for a walk and it was at this stage that I started to regret not taking my camera with me. It was so pretty. The route was through a forest and down a pretty much vertical rocky slope to a lake. Everything was so green and rays of sunlight shone through the trees, I think the fact that there was no one else there made it feel even better (even though I did get stuck in a tree). The photos don't do it justice. 

The next day we did rock climbing which was so hard because I am not a heights person. I have done it before though on rock walls so I could already belay and knew how the harness worked etc., it was just the actual climbing I had an issue with. Afterwards we did a gorge walk which was basically all of us scaling waterfalls which was so much fun because I think we all fell in at some point. We didn't see anyone else trying to navigate it; again it was pretty deserted.

On Wednesday we climbed Snowdon and went to Llandudno before packing and travelling back on Thursday. I think on a bad day I wouldn't have liked going up Snowdon because it took a lot of effort and a long time but, I was feeling really happy all day so I was able to keep going and appreciate the views. Aside from the gorge walk, I think Llandudno had to be my favourite part. Straight after spending six hours slipping on rocks and stumbling up and tumbling down the mountain, we went to Llandudno and had chips. We also attempted a game of volley ball but as few of us could actually throw/catch our record was only seven touches. We also played football and drew with five goals each (although there is still an ongoing debate/argument about that). I scored about three but I don't really know what I was doing for the rest of the time. The final thing we did was get Ice cream and then returned to the house.

On the whole I think this was amazing; we never had a spare moment and we all got on really well, it just seemed like a week full of funny moments.

Me and my pet periscope.
I had to snap the branch off to get it out of my hair