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

New Years Eve + Day

Happy 2016!!

I cannot believe its a new year already, and that I've been halfway across the world for over half a year now. And that means I've used up 1/4 of my visa already! Gawsh. Anyway, I was lucky to get NYE and New Years Day off work which meant I could make the most of my first New Year's celebrations over here. Nicole and I booked tickets a while ago to this awesome sounding ball in Battersea Park (right next to the Thames) so I got the train in to London on NYE and ventured out to Wimbledon to meet up with Nicole to spend the day getting ready, catching up and then eventually heading out to this ball.

Getting ready in Nicole's room was fun - it's nice to get all made up sometimes!

Getting ready was heaps of fun and we got an Uber (my first uber experience) to Battersea at 7.30pm. When we got inside we were amazed by the decorations. The Ball had a 'New York New York' theme and was decorated accordingly, with yellow cabs, brick paving and graffiti (sounds kinda trashy, but it definitely wasn't). There was an acrobat performing when we got there, which was cool and then at 6pm the doors to the main room opened and the dining room (157 tables!!) was revealed. It was all done very well with table centerpieces and all that jazz and the room itself was stunning, with fairylights running the length of the ceiling and a huge stage at the front decorated with a NYC skyline backdrop. Nicole and I were seated at a table with two Russian girls, an English couple, an American couple and an Australian couple (ew, couples) who were all friendy enough (though the American and Australian guys were kinda annoying). 

This was one of the bars inside the venue (there were about 4 dotted around the place)

Pretty fairylights all over the ceiling :)

This pic gives you an idea of the dining room. There were 2000 people so it was pretty packed!

Before our meals were served there was entertainment on stage which was really good. It was just dancing and singing but it was all very well choreographed. The best part was when the song 'New York New York' played and women in showgirl outfits with big headpieces came out and did the exact dancing you imagine goes along with that song. Dinner was then served and it was exceptional! Our entree was a salmon and vege dish with beautiful presentation. Our main meal was a hunk of beef with a potato cake thing, baby carrots and very flavourful gravy and for dessert we got cheesecake with poached pear. After that we had a massive cheese platter delivered to the table. Oh and each table had a selection of wine, beer and waters. And a bread basket!

Entree

Main

Dessert

Once the formal part of the evening was over the band came on stage and started playing songs that we could dance to. Nicole and I went and danced for ages and stayed up front for the countdown. They had a big screen with a live-stream of the epic London fireworks which started at 12, so that was cool to see. It was such a cool event because everyone was in such high spirits and everyone was dancing. Such a cool buzz! Nicole and I stayed till 2am and then got a taxi home, so it wasn't a super late night for us. Once our heads hit the pillow we were out.

The next day we went to the Nutcracker on Ice at the Royal Albert Hall. This was simply spectacular. The actors/athletes were phenomenal, I was marvelling at their athleticism the whole time (and wondering if any of them were Olympic athletes cause their jumps, lifts and turns were amazing). It was a silent show, but easy enough to follow. It was more of a showcase of the skating than a performance of the Nutcracker, but it was very well done. I had this cute old Russian (I think?) lady sitting next to me who was chatting to me during the intermission telling me how she was having a nice day out with her daughter. What an old darl. After that Nicole and I got lunch in Kensington and then parted ways at the underground station as we went in different directions to get home. It was a busy 24 hours in London, full to the brim with spectacle. Every time I go in to London I love it even more - I can't wait to move in! So it was a great start to 2016 for me, I hope the rest of the year follows suit.

The Royal Albert Hall,

The ceiling in the Royal Albert Hall - what a venue! It's a circular shaped concert hall and it's sooooo pretty inside with all the arches and elegant decor.

The rink - we had a great view from our seats.

Tired girls watching the show.

xx

Christmas

Well this post is long overdue! Apologies for that. The build-up to Christmas at the Grouse & Ale was absolutely manic. We had Christmas parties, which require much more set up and later finishes, on the daily. It's been very tiring, but I've still managed to have a great time and make more special memories over here.

At the start of January my friend Aaron came to London for a night to visit me. He came from Ireland, where he'd been visiting his girlfriend who was doing a university exchange in Limerick. Not long before he came to Europe he'd returned from a 7 month deployment in Iraq with the NZ Army, so it was really nice to see him and hear about what Iraq life had been like (incredibly hot and boring, by the sounds of things!). I met him at Gatwick Airport and we got the train from there to Victoria station, then walked to Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square and on to Leicester Square where we stopped for a spot of lunch. We went to Jamie's Diner, the american style diner owned by Jamie Oliver. I had the pulled pork with cornbread and coleslaw and Aaron had a basket of roast chicken with chips and coleslaw. Very tasty!!

My lunch at Jamie's Diner, Leicester Square.

While we were there our other friend Ricky, who lives in Bracknell (Ricky is also ex-army so knows Aaron as well) met up with us. It was cool to see how stoked they were to see each other. Once we left the diner we went to the Ripley's Believe it or not museum just across the road. This place was awesome - heaps of weird and wacky displays and you're allowed to touch everything too. There's also a mirror maze, spinning vortex thing to walk through and a lazer maze at the end which was a lot of fun. 

This model of Tower Bridge is made out of TOOTH PICKS! Amazing huh?!

Taking selfies in the mirror maze

Buddies

After that, we all went back to the hostel we were staying at, had showers and then ventured out to Hyde Park for the Winter Wonderland Carnival. I'd been to this the week prior during the day with Ricky, and we'd both said we'd have to come again at night. And I'm so glad we did because it's 1000000x better at night when all the lights are on, everyone is in high spirits, the smell of fresh waffles, bratwurst, and crepes is all around, there's live music playing and all the rides are in full swing (quite literally for some haha). Winter Wonderland has been one of the best things I've seen/done in London so far. It was so much fun. The boys loved it too, and were having a great time playing all the fairground games. An Australian girl I met in Edinburgh, Amelia, was also in London that night so came to join us too. It was nice having a little crew of friends to experience it with. 

The carousel bar - yep that's a bar in a rotating merry-go-round.

Pretty lights, great markets, good times!

The best part of Winter Wonderland, in my opinion, was the Bavarian Village. It's a section that's been done up like a wooden German village. It looked so awesome! Beers are served in steins and at night, as we discovered, a huge hall is erected to replicate the tents at Oktoberfest. There was a stage with live music at the front, then just long lines of tables that everyone was sitting at, and all the drink and food stalls around the rim (but still inside the tent). The four of us went in here and had a few drinks and were just blown away by how busy it was and how awesome the atmosphere was. It was a Wednesday night yet it was packed to capacity. So many people were in Christmas jumpers (which is a BIG thing over here) and it was just such a cool buzz. 

This quick (terrible quality, sorry) video gives you an idea of what it was like inside the Bavarian village hall. 

Aaron gave me this teddy he won in a fairgound game, and this is it on the train back to High Wycombe with me. It was such a pain to carry on the train that I took it into a charity shop in Wycombe so I didn't have to cart it on the bus back to Lane End. I haven't told Aaron yet, hopefully he doesn't mind! I'm sure a little kid would love it more than me anyway, so hopefully it made a nice xmas present for a little one :)

The next day we checked out, went to the train station, had breakfast and then Aaron had to leave to head back to Gatwick for his flight back to Ireland. It was a quick visit but it was so much fun! Cannot wait for more visits from friends and family next year!

I was dreading Christmas day a bit this year because I had to work and I knew it was going to be insanely busy and hard and tiring and all that. But it actually wasn't too bad! We had plenty of staff on and I got to do the bar with Ron which was a nice change. It was stupidly busy but we coped. Apparently we did 150 people. Afterwards, 7 of us stayed on for a Christmas meal. There was Kevin (head chef), Ewan (sous chef who lives-in), Alison (waitress), Carlos Posse (used to work at the G&A and came back to help for the day), Kas (our Lithuanian floor manager), Costin (Romanian dessert chef who lives-in) and myself. Usually the owners Carlos and Joy work on Christmas day and sit down with the staff but this year they were with family because Carlos's brother is very sick with cancer. The meal was delicious! We had carrots, brussel sprouts, roast potatoes, mini bread loaves, stuffed turkey wrapped in bacon, red cabbage, braised beef, pork belly and all the relevant sauces and trimings. It was GREAT. And for dessert we had chocolate mousse in brandy baskets, christmas pudding with brandy sauce, panacotta and cheese. Lovely company as well.

Our dinner spread - not the best lighting but the food was excellent, trust me!

My kiwi friend Biana came in to the pub on Christmas eve and gave me this kiwiana cracker! (Sorry I don't know how to rotate the picture on here). I also got a christmas gift from Costin, Linda and Tamsin and cards from Ian, Sue, Tamsin, Ron, Linda, Jaclyn, Carlos&Joy and Mum &Dad. Mum and Dad also sent me a lovely Christmas present which arrived on Christmas Eve! 

I also had to work boxing day, but only from 11-5pm which wasn't so bad. It was quite busy though! Going to the pub is such a big thing over here, regardless of whether it's Christmas or not. Even on Christmas day we had all the regulars popping in for pints. Not staying as long as usual, but still popping in. Boxing day night Costin and I went round to Linda's home for another Christmas dinner. It was really yummy, we had roast turkey and lamb, parsnips, potatoes, carrots, peas, yorkshires and all the trimmings. Then chocolate cake and cheesecake for dessert! Linda has a beautiful family and their hospitality was so nice. We played UNO and Trivial Pursuit afterwards which was fun.

Even though I've been away from my friends and family this Christmas, and I miss them terribly, it's still been great. I'm so thankful for the friends I've made over here. They're some of the warmest people I've ever met and I feel really blessed to have them in my life. CHEESY I know, but very true.

xx