Jaclyn's visit

So about a month ago one of my dearest friends Jaclyn came over to the UK. She was booked on a Contiki tour for the month of June, but lucky for me had arranged a week to spend with me before the tour began. I can't even begin to explain how special it was to have her with me again after so long. She was the first close friend I'd seen in a year and a link back to my life at home. Not that we saw each other every day, but we were always in contact and saw each other whenever we could.

So we met up in Trafalgar Square in the morning and made our way to our hotel, via buckingham palace, as we simultaneously caught up on a year's worth of happenings. After dropping our bags off we made our way to the nearby Victoria and Albert Museum, which I hadn't been to yet and Jaclyn was keen to see. Once again I was blown away by the brilliance of the museum scene in London. This one was another beautifully put together collection of historical artifacts from various eras, all in a magnificent setting. Well worth a visit. Also the gift shop is soooooo nice and I ended up buying a really cute pair of earrings.

Inside the V&A museum - the classical era (my favourite)

After that we went to pret-a-manger for lunch and then went back to the hotel to check in to our room. We decided to go to a show that night, and upon learning that Kit Harington's play 'Dr Faustus' was showing that night, deciding what to see was fairly straightforward! Rather than booking online we decided to just show up and hope there would be tickets available. We were in luck! Managed to get great seats for less than we would have paid if we had booked online. Score!! So we sat back and prepared to see the famous actor in real life....

Strangest play ever. It was so, so weird and not far in to it Jaclyn and I exchanged a "what the heck" glance. Sure, it was great to see Kit Harington live (especially when he took his shirt off! haha HELLO abs), but we didn't know what what going on half the time. I think it was about the Doctor's inner turmoil between leading a selfish, sinful existence or leading a good, caring life, but I can't be sure. Half the time the actors were standing around sans pants (just undies), and some of the script was in old-english and some was modern. It was entertaining for sure, and laughable because it was just so bizarre. So we were glad we had been, but not sure we'd recommend it!

The stage, from our seats

The next day we went to Harrods in the morning and then went to the Hilton Hotel near Green Park for a spot of high tea. This was wonderful. All the treats were delectable and the tea was great. After that we went to see Big Ben and the houses of parliament and then went to the London Dungeon! This was something I hadn't done but had always been curious about. And it was really good. It's basically just a journey through London's past and significant events that happened, all told by actors in sets reflecting the era they're talking about. It was really enjoyable and there were even a couple of little rides included which were great fun. And at the end we got a free drink in the dungeon bar, so that was a bonus! After the dungeon we walked along the South Bank, saw the London Eye and then went on a Jack the Ripper tour we'd pre-booked. This tour was ok, the guide was very outgoing and funny and the history was interesting, but I'm not sure that I'd recommend it because you're shown all these random sights like houses and spots on the pavement, but there's nothing to see because, obviously, it all happened so long ago. By the end of that we were fairly knackered so went back to the hotel to sleep.

Taking a sip before diving into the delicacies

The Dungeon entrance

Next morning we were up bright and early for our flight to Dublin!! We arrived in the Emerald Isle early afternoon and after checking in to our hostel, went for a walk to orientate ourselves a bit. First impressions of Dublin were that it looked quite run down and didn't look all that nice at all, but the closer we got to the city centre the livelier and more enthralling it became. And AHHHH the Irish accent is sooo nice!!!! Anyways so we walked up O'Connell Street, crossed the River Liffey and made our way to Trinity College to see the library. When we got inside, my goodness, it was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. I love any library (because books) but this was just on another level.

Dublin's River Liffey

Trinity College library

After seeing such breathtaking beauty (lol) we walked through Temple Bar which is the tourist hub of Dublin and where there are loads of Irish pubs, restaurants, street performers, markets etc etc. After that we grabbed some dinner, made our own chocolate bars at this place where you could choose whatever you wanted in your bar and then we weren't quite sure what to do with our night so we ended up going to the movies and saw Bad Neighbours 2, which was a bit of a laugh.

Such cool Irish bars in Temple Bar

The next morning we were up at 5am (so hard) to catch our coach for our day trip out to Galway and the Cliffs of Moher! This was a really awesome day, made even more so by the two most hilarious tour guides ever. The Irish sense of humour is great and the Irish people are the friendliest I've come across in my travels. So our trip took us across the entire width of Ireland, as Galway in on the West coast while Dublin is on the East Coast. We stopped in Galway for an hour-long walking tour and got to explore the city a little bit. And what a lovely city it is. Cobbled streets, bunting all over the place, street performers doing irish music, crisp sea air...it was so nice. I would love to go back and actually stay there at some point. After Galway we made the rest of the trip to the famed Cliffs of Moher which were really a sight to behold.

Around by the sea in Galway - this area reminded me of Ahuriri which made me miss home!

Cute streets of Galway

The Cliffs of Moher

Looking out over the Atlantic Ocean

The next morning we got up and went to Phoenix Park, which had a big war memorial garden. This was nice to walk around and, much to our surprise, there were deer roaming freely around the place! And they came right up to us. After that we walked over to Kilmainham Gaol which is a hugely significant site in Irish history. We did a tour of that which was just excellent, once again with a hilarious and lovely Irish guide. It was really interesting to learn a bit about the uprisings in Irish history and to learn about what the country has had to face - which has been a heck of a lot! After our tour we headed back to the hostel, got dolled up and went to the Arlington hotel for a 3-course meal and Irish folk show which was a great time. After that we went out to Temple Bar and danced the night away in a few Irish pubs, where we seemed to meet a lot of English people.

Deer frolicking freely in the park

The central hall at Kilmainham Gaol

Next morning we were up early to get our flight back to London. After arrival we went to our next hotel to drop our things off and then went to get some food for lunch. And it was then that we discovered the most delicious food I've ever had. Seriously, it rivals Cafe Anatolia for me, and that's saying something because those kebabs are my favourite food. It was a restaurant called 'The Real Greek' and we had this sharing thing that came out in two tiered stands. It had stuff like lamb kofte, hummus, falafel, haloumi skewers, spicy chickpeas....eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee and it was all so flavoursome and healthy and delicious and I need to go back. This was also the bankside restaurant (they are all over London) so we were sitting along the Thames, watching all the interesting people of London go by. It was fab! After that we went and saw Tower Bridge and then headed back to the hotel because we were pretty tired.

Taking photos of some of the MOST AMAZING FOOD 

Next day after a delicious breakfast at the hotel, we went to the Churchill War rooms. I wasn't quite sure whether I'd enjoy this but it turned out to be one of the best things I've done in London. Despite the epic wait to get inside (seriously, the line was crazy long), it was so worth it to see the underground bunkers which have been kept exactly as they were during WWII and to learn all about Winston Churchill. The whole time I was thinking 'man, Dad would LOVE this'. It took us about 2 hours to get around but it flew by because it was so fascinating. After a bite of lunch (Pret again, because YUM) we went to Madame Tussauds. This was both fun and creepy. It was fun taking pictures with our favourites, and there's a 5D movie at the end which is super cool. But we both found the wax figures creepy because they're so lifelike and look as though they'll move at any minute! After that we had to say our goodbyes as I had to head back to Lane End for work the next day :( It sucked saying goodbye after such a fun week together, but I'm so thankful that we got to have all these wonderful experiences together, and create all these memories.

Number 10, Downing Street from when Mr Churchill lived behind it

Joining the cast of Star Wars

Newest member of One Direction

According to Mr Bolt, this pose with make you run faster

Tea with Audrey

Kisses for Johnny

Next up: Belgium! For tomorrowland! Only 28 days to go...!

xx

Wales

The day after I got home from Budapest, I went on a roadtrip to Wales for the weekend with Nicole. I got the train in to London around midday and met Nicole at her Wimbledon flat when she'd finished work. We had Nandos for dinner, packed our bags (well, she did) and got a relatively early night in preparation for our roadie the next day.

We caught a tram and made it to the car hire place by the time it opened at 8am and were introduced to our little VW. It was a cute little red 4-door that was perfect for the two of us. So, with Nicole behind the wheel and me in the passenger seat with the route mapped out on google maps on her iPad in front of me, we set off. Aaaaaaaaand got lost after 3 turns. HAHAHA. But seriously though, getting out of London is a MISSION, especially for two girls who are used to the easy, quiet Palmerston North/Hobart roads. Once we got on to the M4 it was a breeze though, and we could actually relax a bit. English motorways are excellent. There were about 5 lanes going in each direction the entire way, so no one can really hold up proceedings too much. There is also lovely countryside around you as you're driving, which is nice, and it's all really well signposted. This part of the trip was really fun - we had snacks, we had a great playlist full of singalongs and we had great chats. 

Being foreigners, there were a couple of things that we were confused about during our road trip. Firstly, the motorway has a "variable speed limit". Neither of us knew about this and were therefore unsure what this went up to and when it stopped again. In addition, in NZ there are speed signs all the time, but on the roads in England they are VERY rare, so half the time we were just guessing what speed we were supposed to be doing. But there were always cars whizzing past us in the right-hand lane, so we figured we must be ok. 

Another odd thing that happened was when we were cruising along, a scooter hooned past us really fast. We both stared at it because it was going crazy fast, but when it got in front of us the person driving it was wearing a vest that said "BLOOD" in big, bold letters on the back. Because it was never-before-seen for the both of us, and totally unexpected, we then looked at each other with a similar look of confusion and then cracked up so much that we ended up in tears. It was one of those moments. Afterwards we figured maybe it was someone delivering fresh, emergency blood to someone or something like that. 

Another really entertaining thing about the drive was the increasingly strange place names as we neared Wales. The vowels became fewer and fewer and the names stranger and stranger. We sniggered at Hoarwithy, LOL'd at Muchdewchurch and challenged each other to pronounce Cwmyoy. It was great.

There were a few routes we could have taken to Hay-on-Wye, but we decided to take the route through the Cotswolds, via Gloucester. Because Gloucester Cathedral. Because Hogwarts. We stopped here around 11am and went straight to the cathedral. My oh my it's magnificent!! It's glorious from the outside, but even more fantastic on the inside. And then you go through a little door and into the halls of Hogwarts!!!! It was so cool to be in the place where the films were filmed, especially for absolute potterheads like Nicole and me. It was very cold inside though, which was the only downside. Oh and we had a long chat to a priest about where we were from and what we were doing in England blah blah and the whole conversation I was wondering "How on earth can you be wearing sandals?!" because it was so freezing and his feet were out. After that we went to a nice cafe for lunch (I had soup, because I needed warming up) and then continued on to our destination.

 Gloucester Cathedral 

I'm at Hogwarts!!

Nicole and I chose Hay-on-Wye because it's a town for book lovers, which she and I most certainly are. It's a quaint, tiny little village that oozes with charm. A town with about 4 streets, a population of just over 1000 and 30 bookshops. 30!!! How awesome is that?! We arrived around 3.30pm and were immediately smitten with the place. But we were on a mission: visit as many bookshops as possibe before they closed at 5.30pm. We probably made it to 10 which was disappointing (we were leaving early the next day before the shops opened), but probably a good thing for our wallets and luggage situation. Nicole bought around 8 books and I was very good and only bought 4. If I hadn't had to carry them back from London to Wycombe with me on the train and then bus, I probably would have bought 20. I didn't buy as many as I thought I would have either because I found the bookshops so overwhelming. They were all multi-storied, multi-roomed, beautiful and HUGE. Like Massey University Library huge. They had sections for every subject matter under the sun, new and used, and I just couldn't pick!! So we were book shopping till closing time, then we went to our little hotel, dumped our stuff and went to the pub for dinner. It was a nice little pub called the "Three Tuns" and it was cozy. After a lovely meal, we went back to the hotel, showered and jumped in to bed with a hot drink (tea for me, hot choc for Nicole) and our books. We had another laugh-till-we-cry moment when we realised we were sitting in our bed drinking tea, reading our books at 10pm on a Saturday night. What wild girls we are! (also laughed when we saw that my book was called 'Die Again' and hers 'Death Song').

The next morning we got up, checked out and left the lovely Hay-on-Wye. It was such a shame we were there for so brief a time. I would like a week there. (Also, fun fact, Hay on Wye is twinned with Timbuktu!) Anyway, our next destination was Ross-on-Wye (Wye is the river) where there was a big mediaeval castle Nicole wanted to check out. It was called Goodrich Castle and wasn't like other castles I've been to in the UK. This one was more ruinous, but it was still pretty cool. I could imagine Lords and Ladies, knights and squires living in the castle, a kinda Game-of-Thrones type scenario. After the castle we left Ross-on-Wye and made for our next destination: Cardiff. It was a lovely drive, made more so by the fact that part of it was through Brecon Beacons National Park, which was beautiful hilly scenery. One and a half hours later we reached the Welsh capital. We found a car park, grabbed a coffee and went to Cardiff Castle.

Goodrich Castle

Dale in Wale(s) 

Cardiff is really nice because, like Windsor, there's a massive castle smack-bang in the middle of everything. It was also really thriving for a Sunday morning! It's a nice place, with cobbled streets and nice shops and lots of rugby stuff all over the place (not to mention Millenium Stadium is right in the middle of town). I think Wales is like NZ in a lot of ways: lots of sheep, lots of greenery, lots of hills, rugby mad. Anyho....Before we went around the castle itself, they showed us this little movie, which was the weirdest thing we'd ever seen. It was strange because it showed these actors going through time but it didn't tell us anything about the castle's history, which we found quite odd. It was just a general, going-through-the-ages film, nothing at all to do with the castle we were visiting. Many confused looks were exchanged. The castle wasn't as big as we thought it would be, and didn't take very long to get around. It did offer great city views from the lookout points, the apartments were very luxurious and you could go inside the wall that surrounded the castle, which had a whole lot of war history detailing what the castle was used for during wartime. The castle also had an interesting museum where you could play dress-up, which Nicole and I had a great time doing.

The walls surrounding Cardiff Castle - right in the heart of the city

Inside the Castle walls

Lovely interiors inside the Castle apartments

My favourite - the library (also inside the apartments)

Views of Cardiff from the Castle wall. It was such beautiful weather too!

Playing dress-up

Sergeant McTye and Private Wicken

(also, notice the Welsh on the sign behind Nicole? It's the strangest language!)

After our time at the castle we left Cardiff and started our journey back towards England. We did stop in at the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum in Sussex, which was a collection of old-style farm buildings that you just walk around and look in to. There was a cute little farmers market on, and a fair with a merry-go-round and a couple of sideshow games as well. It wasn't that interesting of a place, if I'm honest, but it was something to do. After that we got in the VW again, stopped in at a Tesco for trip snacks and hit the road. We took a different route back, which took us near places like Bath and Bristol. The traffic was quite heavy on the road heading back to London, so we didn't want to make any other stops. We did cross a very cool bridge on the way, and went past a toll booth! First time I'd ever seen a toll booth before! 

The cool bridge

It was such a good weekend away with Nicole. Lots of laughs, lots of interesting sights and culture. While I do like solo travel, doing a trip with her was awesome. I'm soooo blessed to have found a friend that is so similar to me in terms of sense of humour and interests. What are the chances that the first person I interacted with on this side of the world would become such a treasured friend?! No, it wasn't 'chance'. It was someone watching over me.

xx

Budapest

So I went to Budapest quite some time ago now and I'm only just getting around to writing up my review of the place! Most of you who will read this already know how I LOVED the city but this post will just go into more detail about what I did and saw while I was there.

From London Stanstead to Budapest is an easy 2 hour flight. I arrived mid-afternoon and took a bus then the metro to my hostel. When on the bus from the airport to the city centre, I wasn't too impressed by what I saw. The outskirts of Budapest are pretty run-down, there's lots of ugly grafitti and it's just not nice to look at in general. This had me thinking that this wasn't going to be such a nice place to visit after all. However, when I got out of the metro station and walked into the middle of Budapest, my view changed. One of the first things I saw was the most gorgeous Jewish synagogue, the Dohany Street Synagogue, which was quite a sight to behold! I didn't get round to going inside, but next time I'm in Budapest (cause I'm definitely going back) I will make sure to pay it a visit. Anyhow, from there I found my hostel and checked in to my room. There were two girls in my room when I got there, a very quiet French girl and a younger, friendly Australian girl called Slade. We had a bit of a chat about things to do in Budapest, which was cool. She'd been there for about 4 days already so was able to give me tips on where to go and what to see. By this point it was dark outside and I was tired from the day of early awakening and travel so Slade and I went out to get food. She took me to this awesome sandwich joint where I had a killer chicken and green curry sauce baguette thing. It. was. amazing. The place was run by two ex-top chefs who decided to throw in their aprons, quit their jobs in top restaurants and open a sandwich joint that sold great sandwiches. Not only that, but everything was Star Wars themed - from the names of the sandwiches to the decorations inside the place. It was really unique and quirky, and the guys running it were so cool. What was even better was this place was literally 50m from the hostel. Win! After our lovely meal Slade and I chilled out in the hostel kitchen with tea and our smartphones and maps, making plans for the days ahead.

Cool street art is all over the place in Budapest

On day two I got up early, had a shower and walked in to town to join in a free walking tour that was recommended by the hostel, and by Slade. Our guide was a super good looking, friendly dude with bright blue eyes and a bushy beard and a sweet hungarian accent. He was very endearing and cute. From our starting point at St Stephen's Basilica we walked through town to the edge of the Danube and crossed the famous Chain Bridge that links Buda to Pest. We then walked up to a lookout called Castle Hill, which gave beautiful views of the city. From there we went to the Matthias Church, another amazing building, and up to Fisherman's Bastion. That's where the tour ended, but my day of exploring had only just begun! heheh. By this point I was really hungry so I found this nice little restaurant and ordered myself some Goulash. I'd wanted to try traditional Goulash on my trip, and luckily it's EVERYWHERE, so not hard to find at all! It is also simply delicious! It's basically a tomato-y soup with bits of beef and vege and lots of herbs and spices. Very tasty. And filling!

St Stephen's Basilica

Our awesome tour guide - apparently if you rub the tummy of this statue it brings good luck, hence why his tummy has been rubbed so often it's become shiny!

On the Chain Bridge

Matthias Church - such a cool tiled roof!

Fisherman's Bastion

After this I decided to walk along the Danube to the Hungarian Parliament building, which is potentially the most beautiful European building I've seen thus far. What looked like a quick walk actually turned out to be quite a long trek so I was pretty tired by the time I got to the actual building back on the Buda side. Got to cross another cool bridge though so allgood! On my way back towards town I also stopped to see the 'Shoes on the Danube' art installation, which represents the Jews who were shot into the Danube during WWII. After visiting Auschwitz and learning how many Hungarians were killed made me really want to see this. On my walk back along the other side of the Danube it was quite weird because footpaths randomly just stop and then if you're not on the right one to go where you want to, you have to back-track until you find a crossing or where the paths converge. So it was kinda annoying trying to get to where I wanted to go! Also our tour guide had told us that Hungarian officials are very strict on people crossing in places that aren't crossings, and give fines out on the spot fairly regularly, so I was paranoid about that as well. So, as a result, it took me a while to get to the market up the other side of the river, which was my next destination. But, strolling along the bank of the Danube in the sunlight (it was fantastic weather, albeit a little chilly) with the beautiful Hungarian architecture around me dulled my annoyance down a lot.

Beautiful Budapest <3

The Hungarian Parliament Building along the Danube

Shoes on the river Danube art installation

My next stop was the central market hall, a HUGE triple story covered marketplace that had foodstuffs on the ground floor, clothes, gifts and souvenirs on the middle floor and fish and other smelly things in the basement level. Walking around here was really quite an experience. I wanted to buy so many things! I ended up buying a wee bracelet and a lovely hand-sewn traditional Hungarian style top. When I left the market it was getting dark so I grabbed some food from the supermarket and made my way back to the hostel for the night.

Marketplace

Next morning I got up, showered, checked out of my room and left my luggage in the luggage room for the morning. My next stop was Heroes' Square, which is north Budapest. This is a large square dedicated to important national leaders, and is quite a sight to behold. From here it's also a short walk to the largest of Budapest's thermal baths (which are all over the city - outdoor thermal bathing is a big thing there!), which I wanted to check out. Unfortunately I hadn't packed togs so I didn't bathe myself, but I was curious and wanted to see them anyway. And gosh it was stunning! It was called Szechenyi Bath and the building was bright yellow! Vajdahunyad Castle was right nearby as well, so I wandered around that too. I then made my way back to the hostel to pick up my bag and make my way back to the airport.

Heroes' Square

Heroes' Square again

Szechenyi thermal Bath

Part of Vajdahunyad Castle

Walking round Budapest is a treat and experience in itself. It's such a funky, unique place. There is street art all over the place, so many coffee shops and eateries, street food, talented buskers, these awesome ruin bars all over the place (they look run-down from the outside but take a peak inside and they're colourful, vibrant, busy, eclectic places). I would describe it as Wellington's older brother. It's got that funk, that artsy uniqueness about it that Wellington has. It's seriously a cool vibe.

Lovely sunset from the plane on the way home

Definitely a place I want to go back to. It takes the place as European favourite so far.

xx

Just English things

When I moved to England there were a few things I found strange, as is the case whenever you get to a new country! Each country has it's own way of doing things, and it turns out that while England and New Zealand are super similar in a lot of ways, there were a few things that stood out to me when I first arrived on this side of the globe.

1) Traffic lights - In NZ the lights change from green to orange to red, orange meaning it's time to slow down cause they're gonna be red soon! Over here it's the other way round. Lights go orange after red, just before they go green again, to signal to drivers that they can get ready to go again.

2) Street signs - This one confused the heck out of me! When I arrived at Kings Cross Station after 30 hours of travel and knew I had to find Kings Cross Road a few blocks over, I immediately looked for street signs on poles. But lo and behold they were nowhere to be seen! I was slightly freaking out at this point because I had no internet on my phone to use google maps, and I couldn't see a street sign anywhere. I ended up asking a woman at a market stall nearby, who pointed me in the right direction. Then as I was walking towards the hostel I spotted one! The street signs are stuck on the side of the buildings! No white poles with blue street signs on them like in NZ. Since then, I've discovered that this is customary across Europe.

3) E-cigarettes - I don't think I saw a single e-cigarette in NZ. In England they're everywhere, especially in London. I saw hundreds as soon as I got out of the train station. Some people call them 'vapes' because they're 'vaporizers' and people use them for vaping.

4) Greetings - One of the most common greetings here in England is 'Are you alright?' or 'You alright?' which I found odd at first. In NZ you'd only ask a person if they were alright if they looked upset or if they'd injured themselves or something! So the first few times I was greeted in this way over here I was like 'yeah...I'm fine...why?' and was wondering if I had an upset look on my face or something! Fully used to it now though and when I eventually return to NZ I'll probably find myself using it, and getting a strange look in reply! Haha.

There are lots of other things, but these are all I could think of at the moment. I need to write them down when I think of them. So this will probably be a post I'll add to in future. And here are some more pictures of my time being a tourist in London...

Weird floaty Yoda wanting our money in Trafalgar Square. 

Me outside Buckingham Palace.

Squirrels are everywhere! I got excited when I saw my first squirrel.

The changing of the guards outside St James' Palace.

That's all for now. Be back soon! xx