Amsterdam Photo Diary

Just before Christmas David and I took ourselves off for a wee city break to Amsterdam, I honestly think that its the best city break I've been on. I didn't over plan the whole holiday, just had a vague idea of what I wanted us to see, rather than knowing where we would be at what time and what day like in previous holidays. We also ate so much amazing food - a post featuring all the foody bits will come soon too! 
Amsterdam is an amazing city, its so laid back and chilled you could easily spend two days here and see it all or spread it out over a week and just wander about. I want to go back, and hopefully 2018 will see me back there. 

London In Photos

Recently I came back from my first visit to the Capital, and I can say for sure I'll definitely be returning again this year! London was brilliant, and I think visiting somewhere where everyones first language was English made it so much easier. Don't get me wrong, I love travelling to places further a field - but not being able to speak much of any language (English sometimes included) makes it a little more difficult. London was just so effortless and I walked everywhere, its such an easily walked city, next time I'll use the Tube so I can spend full days exploring areas in and around London, but that for another time. Lets get onto the pictures of what I saw whilst in London! 
When we arrived to our hotel - the Premier Inn near the London Eye - we were too early for check in, so we dumped our bags and went exploring! We saw Big Ben and Parliament for the first time, and then we walked down the Thames towards the Tower of London. We made a detour and passed into see St Pauls Cathedral, but unfortunately couldn't get into visit as it closed to visitors at 11? 

We still spent time in the area though, undeterred, and walked through the gardens before heading on wards! Walking further down the river we found another little cathedral - this one was open and decided may as well go in for a bit. It was right next to the Borough Market, lucky for my tummy! I'd seen these crazy good looking doughnuts on instagram and when I found the stall I couldn't help myself. I got a hazelnut stuffed one and oh lordy was it good!

The stall sold so many delicious looking breads and if we'd had a little flat to stay in I'd have definitely got us some for dinner! 

We then got to the Tower of London, I love me some history and walking around and being able to read all about the Tower way back when really appealed to me. The Crown Jewels were so impressive, but I honestly think they're missing out on a real opportunity. I mean how many of you would pay to wear a mock version of the crown? Cause I know I would! To have a picture with a crown on, ah every girls dream. Does anyone know why the Queens Guard is wearing grey? Is it to do with the seasons, just thought they always wore red. 

Since we had yet to check in we decided at this point to head back, not before stopping off though at Shakespeare's Globe for a picture, it would have been so cool to see a play here but Othello didn't start till February and that's the one Gemma and I read together in school! 
After checking in, we decided to just chill out for a couple hours before getting ready to find dinner and to make our way to the Apollo Victoria to see Wicked!!!!!!!! 

Wicked was absolutely amazing, Gemma has seen it twice now. Once in London and once in New York and she plans to see it again in Edinburgh when it tours. I'd gladly pay to see it again, I near enough cried while watching it and I had goosebumps all over me. It gave me chills! The cast were amazing, and just thinking of it makes me smile. 
On the walk home after the show ended we took a slight detour and wandered around Buckingham Palace and then towards Leicester Square and Trafalgar Square. 
After a well needed sleep, we started the new day with sushi. Living the life guys. We followed up our sushi brunch with dessert. Instagram had been a haven for me finding all sorts of amazing looking foods, Yolkin had relocated to somewhere that was kind of on our way that morning so we popped in and both got one of their yummy macaron icecreams! 

They have different flavours every week, the one I tried was Apple Crumble, and boy oh boy was it good! It was absolutely freezing in London, but that didn't stop us wolfing down our ice creams! 
The rest of the day was spent walking from place to place, as we didn't have much time to see everything we'd planned. 

First stop was a little time spent in the British Museum, as lovely as it was, I feel bad saying that its not my favourite museum I've ever been to and I definitely think the Kelvingrove Art Galleries is better. 

The British Museum was followed by a magical trip to Kingscross where we picked out house and snapped a few pictures, I decided to buy the ones we got, and honestly it was definitely for the £20 for 3 prints and digital copies. 

Moving on we found ourselves in Camden and strolled around the Markets for a good while. Gemma bought some bits from the stalls inside and I bought myself yet more food. The Halloumi fries from Oli Baba's were heavenly, I love halloumi cheese, and turning them into fries was the best idea ever. 
We then found ourselves in Chin Chin getting ourselves one of their insanely rich hot chocolates with the torched mallow on top. The mallow tasted like I died and went to heaven, and the hot chocolate was so rich, it was the perfect size and at around £4 I think the value was pretty good too! 
We tried to get into Madame Toussands but unfortunately they weren't open to the public for some reason. Since it was after dinner time we decided to call it quits and walked home via Oxford Street for some shopping. I went a wee bit mad in Selfridges - but I was still v v v restraint. Theres going to be a haul post up soon though from that, so keep an eye out if your interested in what I got! 
When we got back to the hotel, we decided to order pizza to our room. We just chilled out and ate our very yummy pizza whilst watching TV, and then packed our bags as the following day was home time. Boo. 

Final day was an early start and a walk to Buckingham Palace. We saw the changing of the Guard which was cool, went to 10 Downing Street and then took some v touristy pictures with my Instax. As we had to get the bus around 4, we went back to the hotel got a drink and some food. We had an absolute disaster with National Express, our bus came but the driver was so rude and left without us, leaving us in a panic and having to get an Uber. We got to the airport with like 10 mins to spare. V V V stressful. All in all though, London was amazing! I'd go back in a heartbeat - although next time I'll just get the train from the airport. 
I've already got itchy feet and I wanna get my next getaway booked! Who knows where I'll end up going next... 

Travel Plans for 2017

2016 was my first proper year of travel, I'd only ever been abroad once before and that was to Bulgaria in 2015 - going there just fuelled my want, nay need for travel. 2016 was a good year for travelling, but I'm hoping for even greater things for 2017! 
So far this year I've already visited London, and I'll definitely be returning again soon! My plans for travel are so far looking to be amazing! I've nothing planned with the boyfriend yet but I've at least two solid-ish looking holidays with my friends coming into place. So onto the travel plans! 

In May I'm hoping to meet up with my lovely friend Aileen, and even if it only ends up us exploring London and Brighton then it'll still be a great time! We have however spoke about going to Barcelona and I'm really really hoping this falls into place because it would be so cool to go exploring with her. 

Another idea for travel that has been thrown around is New York, I'd adore to go to New York so so much, and if we can get a good deal then, Gemma (who has already been to the big apple and went to London with me) and I will be hoping over the pond late May/ early June. 

Late June/ Mid July would most likely be when Connor and I go on holiday, we've looked at a couple of places but just waiting on funds and what not before we book. 
Gemma has also suggested going somewhere at the end of summer, somewhere sunny, so far Lisbon and Santorini have been thrown around. It would be cool if we got to go all the places we planned on going, we'll have to wait and see if they pan out though. 

I definitely want to go somewhere for a long weekend just before I go back to university for fourth year. I'm hoping for Venice, just gotta try convince Connor to go and be all romantic with me. When we went to Rome, I adored every second of it and I'd love to visit Venice this year too, everything about Venice just seems perfect. 

I loved Disneyland Paris when I visited last year, and I desperately want to go back for Christmas this year! I just think it would be like 1000x more magical when everything's lit up for Christmas. If Disneyland turned out to be way too expensive for me to afford, I'd still like to go somewhere for the Christmas markets. 

Looking at how many places I've talked about this is all now seeming a bit impossible! But travel is one of the things I love the most, if I was able to do all of these then I'd legit be the happiest little bunny.  
Do you have any travel plans for this year? Have you been to any of the places I've mentioned before, what did you like about them?

The Paris Diaries | Part 4 Sainte Chapelle, Sacre Coeur & Arc De Triomphe

This day was the day we walked the most. Our own fault, we easily could have taken the metro but since it was a nice day and we are cray we walked it. Tiring, sore and sweaty bodies were the result of us walking everywhere this day. 
We did get the metro at the start of the day but it still involved a 10 minute walk to Sainte Chapelle. We missed out on seeing Sainte Chapelle the day before when we went to Norte Dame, but it was nice to come earlier in the day feeling fresh and not feeling rushed. 

Sainte Chapelle was beautiful inside, the newly renovated sainted glass windows were stunning and the way they light up the room was something else entirely. Pictures don't even do it justice. We then went next door and wandered around Conciergerie, both these places were free for Connor and I because of us being from a EU member country and being under 24 years old. Its basically a french castle turned prison, and my oh my it was grand inside. Both places were definitely worth a visit, and both beautiful in their own right. 
Next up on the agenda was a rather long hot walk to Sacré-Cœur, we walked for well over an hour more or less entirely up hill in the blistering heat. The plus side to this was getting to explore the area of Montmartre, which out of all the areas we went through to me seemed to be most authentic, and I'd definitely come stay in that area when we come back. There was just so many patisseries, boulangeries, butchers and cheese stores in the area - much more than I had noticed in other areas - especially in the area we stayed in. We passed by a cute little Patisserie on the way up, after a quick google search I found out it was called Maison Dupuy on Rue Cadet. They had so many pretty desserts, I opted for a lovely raspberry macaron and Connor got a strawberry tart, each cake cost around 3 Euros which I was more than happy to pay. 

It was definitely well worth the money as the macaron was delicious. Definitely the best thing I've ever tasted. Connor loved his tart too but I think mine was by far better. 

Sacré-Cœur was amazing to get up to, only ruined a little by the scam artists that were out in their masses - one man even grabbed Connors wrist to try attach a bit of string to him. After walking through the basilica we decided to pay to go up the Dome, I think it cost around 6 euros each. The views from up the top were amazing and well worth paying extra to go up. Everywhere in Paris that you can go up offers different perspectives making each thing worth going up. 

 After the Sacré-Cœur we took a walk down the Champs Elysees. With my new found love of macarons I was in search of the Laduree store. I bought a coffrete of 6 and an individual larger one. They were amazing and worth every penny spent. They went a bit off before we got back to the apartment but it was only the way they looked, they tasted just as good even if they looked a wee bit off. We then sat at the end of the street looking at the Arc De Triomphe and took some photos before heading off to go up it. 

  Watching the sun go down from on top of the Arc De Triomphe was so lovely, seeing the city go dark and the Eiffel Tower light up was brilliant. It was a great end to the day, and I'd highly recommend doing this too! 

Ending the day with this was definitely the perfect way to end it, I can't think of a better way to have spent the night than this. One last instalment of Paris posts before they conclude.  

The Paris Diaries | Day 3 Pantheon, Norte Dame & Louvre

After some what of a long lie, we started our day with the metro heading towards the Pantheon. 

The Pantheon was an interesting bit of history, we opted to get an audio guide so we could learn a bit more, many a famous person had been buried here; Victor Hugo, Marie Currie and her husband. Next we walked towards Notre Dame, we got some pastries on our way and had a little stop off in the Luxembourg Gardens.

The Luxembourg gardens were so pretty, like if Glasgow parks were taken care of just that little bit more they could be just as pretty, but alas. After a little rest we continued on our way to Notre Dame. 

Notre Dame was beautiful both inside and out. It was very grand and regal, and I don't think we waited much more than 15 minutes to get into the cathedral itself.   The windows inside as well were crazy beautiful. The purples and blues were stunning.

 We also decided to go up the towers - of which were also free for us (18-24 yrs and a EU member country perks). My lord the stairs! If you have difficulty getting up or down stairs or struggle to walk after long periods of time then I'd highly advise you against this. I struggled so much to get up the stairs, it was hot and my whole body hurt. The views at the top were well worth it though. The architecture all the way up was really cool too and seeing the gargoyles up close was really cool! 

 After going up the towers we sat in the square outside Norte Dame for a bit, rest our poor wee legs a bit... After our wee rest we looked up how to get to the Louvre from where we were and off we went. We stopped at some of the market stall type things that lined the river Seine. Connor liked the look of all the prints they had, so we bought a few: one for me; one for Connors mum; and one for my gran. Hopefully I'll get mine framed so it looks good on the wall. I also got my gran a little decorative plate from one of the stalls, when I gave her it the other day she was so happy with it, adding it to her little collection on the mantle place.
We sat outside the pyramids for a little while, chilling out and taking in the views before we went inside - there was legit no queue to get in which was great! Connor tried taking one of the classic holding the pyramid pictures, it didn't go 100% as planned but it doesn't look horrendous. 

It was such a warm day that people were literally walking in the fountains and others were just dipping their feet in. Connor was close to putting his toes in but decided against it when he decided he couldn't dry his feet off.  

The inside of the Louvre was spectacular. Napoleon's apartments were so grand, I love places like this. Old fashioned styled houses, English castles and houses I could genuinely spend hours walking around and here was no different. 

While wandering around the Louvre, I legit grabbed Connor and squealed with excitement when I saw there was an Angelina's. We stopped here for a little while and had the best hot chocolate I've ever tried! It was amazingly thick and so so so good. I drool when I think about it, no joke. It wasn't cheap but it was completely worth it! We then went in search of the Mona Lisa, the famous painting that everyone knows about. 

We honestly came across the Mona Lisa by complete accident, you'd have never known the painting was there because there was not a huge crowd around it like we both thought there would be. Mona Lisa isn't a huge painting, but the wall she is on is huuuuge, maybe that makes the painting itself look smaller? Both Connor and I thought it was nothing special and that there were much more visually stunning paintings on display in the Louvre. 

Our day ended here, and we just headed home after this. We did go into a nearby supermarket to get something for dinner before getting the metro but nothing exciting. The next Paris post will be the second last of my Paris Diaries!