Thames Festival

Well it has been a busier than expected weekend for me this weekend, unfortunately it did have to start with working on Saturday, but I thought I'd keep it a little more interesting than just work. Erin, a friend that I went to high school with back in Christchurch, invited me to come alone with her to the Thames Festival for the Saturday afternoon/evening. So I made the short 15 minute walk from work to Southbank on the Thames to start a wee adventure.

I remember the Thames Festival being on last year but never really knew how massive it was, so I never went. It basically starts by where the London Eye is and follows the Thames all the way up past Tate Modern, and goes all the way up to the area where the Gherkin is (London is too big for me to know all the areas and streets so I'm using famous building locations). Spread out alone the river is Market stalls, food stalls, arts and crafts, and there are 4 stages with live bands. This was most definitely a good late afternoon out.

It's a fabulous set up there, we walked all the way to the top and on the last bridge, there was a big set up of all these amazing looking food stalls then across the bridge they had a massive dinner table, complete with table cloth, old fashioned chairs and sunflower pot plants! Hanging along the side of the bridge was coloured fairy lights. We decided to stop, grab some food and sit here for dinner. Sitting in amongst this set up was so unreal, at one point I turned to Erin and said "this is amazing, you could never do anything like this at home, and I never thought you could do anything like his in London".



Dining table on the bridge

We stayed out until just after 9, we had to be up for an early start to Oxford the next day so we couldn't be out all night. We ended the evening by doing the Helter Skelter ride, which was a lot scarier than I thought it would be, and for a ride that has probably been around for 100 years, it was extremely fun and I will be doing that again. After the Helter Skelter we headed for the Jazz stage, drinking Pimms and having a bit of a dance seemed like a great way to end the evening. The Thames Festival had been a fab way to spend the Saturday afternoon/evening, and for those of you who will be around for it next year, I would definitely recommend it for a day or night out.

Helter Skelter

Why I love London

London is just full of so many amazing things, I think to see them all would take a very long amount of time, but what makes London so fabulous for me? I love that fact that there is just so much history here, you could walk down a street and stumble upon all sorts you never even knew existed. There is always something to do or something going on, I wouldn't know where to start with all that is to offer here, and if I tried to do it all and see it all, I would actually have no time to myself, but what made me think more about how brilliant London is? Well this right here...


The home of Beatrix Potter

A few weeks ago, Neil and I were on our way to meet some friends at a pub, I can no longer remember where we found this, but we were on our way to this pub from West Brompton station when I spotted it! The place where Beatrix Potter once lived! How cool is it to just be walking along without a care in the world when you spot something like this? I could have been looking at something over the other side of the road and completely missed it. Thank goodness I keep my camera on me 27/4 so I was able to go all touristy and take pictures. I remember when I was little I had the whole Beatrix Potter collection in a white box and Mum used to read them to me, never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I would be where she once lived.

London is a bit like this amazing mystical place to me, and though sometimes during the week while I'm in my regular work routine I do tend to forget where I am, though I try hard not to, it becomes so easy to just go along with the whole eat, work, sleep cycle, it's moments like this when I come back to reality and realise I am in London. And though I have my ups and downs with this city, at the end of the day it is simply amazing.

Cream Tea

I've always been very fond of tea and must admit since I've been living in England my tea intake has dramatically increased. Over a month ago, for the first time, while in Bath, I had proper cream tea and it was so lovely, I then followed this up a couple of weeks ago while in Brighton by going for for cream tea again, and I will admit, I love doing this. Some of you might think that cream tea is something their Grandmother drinks, and no i most certainly do not fall into that category, but it most definitely seems to be one of the old fashioned things that seems to be making it's way back into fashion.

So what have I started doing? Making my own homemade scones to have at home with my tea. I love doing this! I have made scones a couple of weekends now and it is so much fun! Bearing in mind that I love baking anyway, but I had never really made scones before, and they are so easy, I can have a batch of scones made in 20 minutes tops! That's thanks to my trusty Edmond's cook book, which I made sure was in my bag when I moved to London. So scones and tea is now my new thing, whether it be baking them or going out to a cafe and buying them, I most certainly enjoy the whole appeal.

But to my friends, watch this space as you will more than likely be receiving an invite for a weekend afternoon to come over and enjoy a nice hot cup of tea and some freshly baked scones made by yours truly x

Birthday in Brighton

Weekend before last was my birthday, so for a birthday getaway Neil and I went down to Brighton on Friday morning for a two night stay away. Brighton wasn't where we were originally thinking of going, but had a last minute change of heart and thought we'd head there, mainly due to every ones recommendation of the town and also being the last weekend of summer. So Friday morning we jumped on the train from Victoria Station and made the short fifty minute train journey down to Brighton.

Brighton has to be the funnest place to go for a weekend away! There is a lot to do there, and isn't what you except a beach side town to be like at all. Brighton pier has all these arcade places, small snack bars and sweet shops, there is even a roller coaster! On a pier! It's nothing like I imagined, and coming from Christchurch where we have New Brighton, our 'new' Brighton is nothing like the real English Brighton at all.

The first day we just spent getting to know our way around and general exploring. We went for a nice walk along the pier, then along all the back streets of Brighton to see some of the more unknown shops and cafes. We came across a lovely looking restaurant where we decided to come back for my birthday dinner. It was a wonderful way to be spending my birthday, just walking around seeing this new place, relaxing, not having a care in the world and not having to keep an eye on the time. This birthday was definitely the best thanks to Neil making it such a wonderful day.

Games on Brighton Beach

Saturday morning Neil and I went to the Royal Pavilion, where King George spent his time in Brighton in the late 1700's early 1800's. This building looks like a typical English Kings far less glamorous version of the Taj Mahal on the outside, and on the inside it seems to have had a lot of Chinese influence, all in all though, this is a lovely place to walk around in and explore and even luckier the audio guide is free for use as well. After spending about an hour touring the Royal Pavilion we headed out to see some more of Brighton, and dodging the rain we went and had a look at all the talked about Lanes. The lanes are great, they have small nifty shops and cafes, market stalls are crammed into these little narrow lanes and there are people everywhere, but the atmosphere is fantastic and it was great to see a less commercial side of Brighton. After this we headed back to the sea front we're we spend some more time walking along the promenade and playing in the arcade on the Pier.

Royal Pavilion

Saturday night we headed out for a few drinks to check out some of Brighton's bars. First stop was a place called the Black Dove, a small cocktail bar with a '40's themed approach, it was a fantastic way to kick off our Saturday night out, and the cocktails at the Black Dove are amazing, anyone planning on going to Brighton this is definitely my recommendation for a pre-drink night out. We then started to make our way more into central Brighton, though we didn't get very far as we managed to stumble along the Mucky Duck, and it was karaoke night, so the rest of the night Neil and I spent singing along to karaoke.

Sunday, last day in Brighton, and though sad to be leaving we had seen what we wanted and had a great weekend away. So Sunday was a take it easy day before having to catch the afternoon train back to London, we went for one last walk around, which was so nice to just mill about. Still dodging the rain, when we had a sunny break we made a stop for cream tea (tea and scones). After we'd spent the best part of an hour or so drinking tea, eating scone, and talking about all sorts we thought we'd make our way back to Brighton Pier for one last walk around the pier and the beach. We also thought we'd try our luck one more time on one of those games were you use that claw thing to try and get out a soft toy. They had an Angry Birds one there, and we'd probably spent enough money over the course of the weekend to go out and just buy one of the birds, but I had 30p left in my purse and thought I'd give it one last go before heading back to London. So putting my 30p in the machine moving the claw over a bird to get it, the craw went in, gripped a hold of the bird and lifted it into the air. At this point this had happened enough to us already over the course of the weekend, but both of us froze to see what happened, I think we most likely stopped breathing. The claw started to move towards the drop point and dropped the bird in!! Neil and I both yelped with excitement! We'd finally one a toy from these machines!! So off we went for a walk along the beach with our new Angry Bird in hand.

On Brighton beach with our new Angry Bird.

After the fabulous birthday weekend away it was time to be packing up and heading towards Brighton station to head back to London.

Brighton is a wonderful place to get away for a weekend, or even for a day, and I would most definitely recommend it. By far this weekend trip away has been one of the best weekend getaways I’ve had and also the best birthday I’ve had x

I'm still here

I have been a bit blog anti-social lately and not writing as many blogs as I would like, London life is so busy and sometimes I wonder where all my time as gone. I don't want to be one of those people that seems to always have the "I'm to busy" excuse for everything, but sometimes when it comes to writing a new blog or going out and doing something around London, London will take priority.

I find myself reading other blogs and I do wonder where all these bloggers seem to get their time from! I am rather envious of this and would love to sometimes have a day that went on for a few more hours, or even just have a devoted couple of hours for me time at some stage during the week.

So my goal for the next two weeks, is to catch up on all my blogs I am yet to write, as well as still get out and keep exploring (I have a day trip to Oxford coming up with some girlfriend's this weekend and I am very excited). So note that I am still here, and watch this space for exciting new blogs.

xox

House and home

Before I started to travel, I was definitely a home body, I loved having a place that was something I could call home, and even though I don't own a home it’s always nice to have somewhere that you feel you can just be you and have everything how you want it. Moving half way around the world hasn't taken that out of me, though I have relaxed a lot more about the living situation, I still miss having that home feeling. I have been living in my current flat for 14 months, I think that's about the best approximate time frame and while I have been here 14 months I still feel like a stranger.

You know that feeling when you come home from work and it's nice to just relax and unwind after a long day, I don't really feel like I can do that here. It's hard coming up with a compromise about living conditions when you know you're travelling and as long as you've got a decent room that's the main thing. The room that I am renting at the moment I actually really like granted it's small, but that's OK for me, right now I have no need for anything big and spacious. The whole house is actually rather nice, and I do think it is somewhere that has great potential to be a lovely place.

Prior to finding the flat that I'm in now, I did feel like I was in dire straits trying to find somewhere to live in London. It can be hard when you're on your own; you need to find a room that seems comfortable, warm, welcoming and most of all in your price range. Goodness when I was on the lookout did I see some horrible places, and I did start to become extremely worried that I wouldn't find something that was in my price range that wasn't freezing cold, mouldy, grubby, or the size of a shoe box. So I think that's why as much as where I am doesn't have the most comfortable vibe, it's nice and I'd much rather be here than living in some grottsville.

I think it just boils down to that situation when you just don't really seem to click with the people that you live with, and that's me right now. I just can't seem to click with my flat mates and it makes the living situation harder than it should be. Don't get me wrong I do get along with them, but it's always those small meaningless conversations, and though I do get along with some more than others (there are 4 other I live with) it still doesn't really seem to work. Though this is not all without effort and I have tried to be friendly and extra nice, I do like to think that I get along with a lot of people, it's just a little bit unfortunate that I've managed to find a bunch where I can't seem to break that sense of unease.

I do very much look forward to the day when I will have something that will be home to me again, and hopefully my own home. Though for now I still consider myself lucky, I have much better living conditions than a lot of people in the world and I am grateful for having a roof over my head, it's just a shame that I really can't enjoy this house like I should be able to and that I look forward to the day I move out of here and into something much more me.

Madame Tussauds

On Saturday a few girlfriends and I went to Madame Tussauds for a girly afternoon out. Zaira had managed to use some sort of magic to get us two for one vouchers, though unfortunately her magic didn't work in making the queue go any faster, note to self (and others) Madame Tussauds on a Saturday afternoon has a rather large line, and it will take you two hours to get in. The two hour line didn't really seem to affect us, I hadn't seen the girls for a while so two hours went by rather quickly with us all having a good catch up chat.

Once we were in, it was a great adventure... we got to meet celebrities! I don't like to count the fact that they are made of wax. So we had our photo with Bruce Willis, got up close and personal with Leonardo DiCaprio and took some hot snaps with Christina Aguilera. After the first room, we managed to somehow get on the X Factor, the Madame Tussauds version. So we all put on our sunnies (because that's how we roll), and sing and dance the Peyonce (that was our band name), version of Single Ladies, by Beyonce. Though we must have looked and sounded absolutely horrific the judges gave us great feedback, especially Cheryl Cole and Simon Cowel.

 After our X Factor experience, we headed on through to see more celebrities. We got to see Marilyn Monroe, James Dean and Audrey Hepburn. There was also a sport and world leaders section which was fun, especially when Jayne decided to comb Hitler’s beard! The musical influence section was a bit of a hoot; I had my picture taken with Michael Jackson, and gave Justin Timberlake a peck on the cheek. 
 

 After all this excitement, we headed towards the scary part of the tour, so scary that only Jayne and I were brave enough to do it. Now I don't want to give away too much and spoil what goes on for those who are yet to go to Madame Tussauds, but walking through dark rooms with horrible noises and people that could either be wax or real all around, it is a tad creepy, but definitely worth it!

We were nearly at the end of our journey for the day, and we got to finish it off with a little cab ride through some of the history of London then a 4D experience like none other I've been to!
Madame Tussauds is a great afternoon out, and I would recommend it to anyone young or old, there is plenty to do and see there and would be great to go on one of London's rainy days when there isn't much happening outside.

London and riots

This time a week ago London was not the place to be, what started out as a small protest in Tottenham, turned into 3 days of riots, looting and stealing. The usually bustling, lively city of London went very quiet and eerie by the time Monday afternoon came around, supermarkets closed, people were sent home from work, shops were boarded up and everyone was walking around with a sense of unease. I was finding it hard to believe what was going on around me, and though I never saw any trouble over the days or rioting, it was bizarre to try and get my head around the fact that something like this would happen somewhere like London.

Monday was a strange day, you didn't want to watch the news and see these terrors ripping apart this amazing city, but you couldn't not watch the news as you needed to know where all this was going on and every now and again throughout Monday evening you would've found Neil and I peering out of the bedroom window on lookout for when they would decide to come and steal, destroy and burn down shops in our area. Thankfully they never did come, though there are always those poor people who have now lost their homes, jobs, and places of sanctuary.

Everyone is still talking about it, all blaming one another for what happened and it's hard to know whose fault it is. The communities blame the police, but the police had no power to lay on brute force. Then there are the people that started this all, where do you even begin to solve that kind of a problem. The government, at what point did they fail for this to all occur. I'm not starting a debate about this, there is far too much of that happening right now on the news and Internet for everyone. 

For now though things seemed to have calmed down again in London, it is still a wakeup call though, that something like this can just spring up without any warning. Let's just hope that for now and a long while that London will remain riot free.

Bath & Stonehenge

A day trip to Bath and Stonehenge is a great way to spend a Saturday out of London to get away from all the chaos and rushing around, and also a great way to spend a mid-July summer’s day; it’s just a wee bit unfortunate that an English summer tends to consist of cold, grey, wet weather. The weather wasn’t going to dampen my spirits on this little trip out though. So on a rainy Saturday morning Neil and I were up early to make our way to Baker Street to be collected by our tour bus. The drive out to Stonehenge was nothing special, mainly due to the fact that the drive was along a big motorway.

I didn’t really have any expectations on what to expect from Stonehenge other than they were a ring of massive rocks that were made about 3000BC and no one knew how or why. And that’s pretty much all Stonehenge is, it wasn’t the nicest of days to be walking around taking a look as it was raining, but it was good to go and see and hear a little about the history behind Stonehenge.

After a short stop at Stonehenge, we were back in the bus and on our way to Bath via all the old back roads, which was lovely as it was really nice to see some country side and little towns for a change. Unfortunately once we’d made it to Bath we had a very limited amount of time to spend looking around due to the tour only being a day, fortunately I was lucky in that Bath is only a small town and you can get a good feel for what it’s like a have a good walk around in a few hours. So first stop was the Roman Baths, these were really nice though I did imagine them to be much more spectacular and much bigger, but I was still happy with what I saw. Once we’d seen the Roman Baths Neil and I decided to have a walk around grab some lunch and hope that the rain would stop.
After the rain had stopped and we were full on our lunch, we went for a walk through a lovely park and then along the river so I had a good chance to get all snap happy with my camera and take some lovely photos. To end the day in Bath we went to a little traditional English café for cream tea (tea and scones).

All in all, the day trip to Bath and Stonehenge was a great day out (rain aside), the highlight was just the small pleasure of walking around Bath and seeing the town the Abbey, Roman Baths and the lovely gardens. I would recommend Bath it is a lovely place to see for a day trip out of town.
Now I need to work on where the next stop will be…

Malta, the beach and the sun!

I have to confess that I'd actually never heard of the country Malta until about a year ago, I'm going to put that little bit of dumbness down to being from a small country at the bottom of the world, so that’s my excuse for being unaware of amazing places. I'd had a bit of annual leave left over at work and was a little unsure of where I was going to go with all this time off, I wanted to have an overseas escape with Neil so we put forward some ideas of where to spend an extra long weekend and Malta made the cut, mainly due to the fact that when you type in 'Malta' on a Google image search the pictures that come up are so pretty!

We embarked on our trip away at some ungodly hour of the morning, after about an hour and a half of sleep. As you can imagine after such little sleep we were extremely tired, though I think the excitement of a long weekend away in a warm, sunny place kept us going through the 1.20am start. We arrived in Malta just after 10am, collected our luggage and then made our way from the airport to our hotel. This journey took much longer than expected, not only due to the fact that the bus route was through every little side street in Malta, but we did also seem to be on the bus of death. The buses don't have air conditioning, so to help cool the bus down they drive around with the door open, and also the bus drivers are the craziest I’ve ever come across, I did start to have questions as to whether any driver in Malta actually held a drivers licence!

Once we'd made it to our hotel (safe and sound), it's was time for a bit of freshening up then off to explore the surrounding area. The sun was perfect, and it was so nice to go for a walk around the most amazingly blue water I've ever seen. So after having a lovely stroll and doing a small amount of exploring, we stopped off for a drink and a nice dinner at a beach front restaurant. On the menu and also what Neil ordered was the traditional Maltese meal, rabbit! Yes in Malta the national dish is rabbit, so naturally I ate Thumper and I have to admit he was rather tasty. After we had eaten Thumper we slowly made our way back to the hotel making a couple of stops via some pubs.

The plan for day two was to head out to the little island of Comino and soak up some sun. So after what was another early rise with togs and beach towels in hand we were collected from our hotel and taken to the boat which we would leave the main island on and make our way out for a little day tour. The boat took us out to Comino, were Neil and I decided to get on a smaller jet boat and go for a bit of a tour around some of the caves around the little island, as well as a bit of a high speed thrilling boat ride. Once we had our exciting jet boat ride, we made our way towards the Blue Lagoon, and blue it most certainly is! I couldn’t stop taking photos and even when I look at the photos now all I want to do is jump in. I have never seen such clear crystal blue water; it’s like something from a postcard. I was most happy that we got to spend the best part of 4 hours here, because it was perfect, this is what holidays should be all about, exploring small islands, swimming in crystal blue lagoons, and soaking up some amazing Mediterranean sun. This certainly turned out to be the highlight of the trip.

After making our way back to our hotel on mainland Malta, we were back out and heading towards St Julians where this is meant to be packed with restaurants, nightlife, and music. By this point I was starting to feel rather sunburnt and was turning red rather quickly, so much for ‘amazing’ Mediterranean sun. We stopped off for a lovely meal then headed towards the clubs and bars for a few drinks and a bit of a boogie, or does dance sound better? A few drinks and a couple of not so nice, cheap pina colada’s later we managed to talk a taxi driver into giving us a not so expensive cab ride back home. At some point during this taxi ride I’m sure my life flashed before my eyes and I do remember thinking on multiple occasions “thank Christ I have travel insurance”, the drivers in Malta I tell you, they are one of a kind and that kind is insane!

Day three I woke up in a world of hurt, no I wasn’t hungover if that’s what you’re thinking, I was sunburnt, burnt to a crisp would be more of an appropriate term to use, so the plan for the day was to stay out of the sun at all costs, which doesn’t work too successfully when you are on an Island that guarantee’s all day sunshine. This was our last day in Malta, so we thought we’d end it just strolling around seeing the last lot of sights in Valetta, Malta’s capital. Valetta is lovely and it was nice to have a walk around and see some cute side streets, old churches and stop at little gardens and café’s. Getting lost is very hard, even though this is a capital city, you really can’t compare it to a city as it’s so small, but that made it nice for just looking around and was what we both wanted to do on our last day. After spending a few hours in Valetta, we headed back to Qawra (the area that we were staying in) to go out for a nice dinner before making our way to a village feast. Now the nice dinner consisted of snails, yes that is right, snails! I ate two and they are different, definitely one of those foods that your imagination gets the better of you.

Village Feasts are something that go on all through the summer in Malta and is basically a big event, with food, stalls, bands, rides, and fireworks which are made by the locals of the village. The feasts are what the villages use to outdo each other and show each other that they are the best village in Malta, they are really fun, very busy, and most definitely a must see. We managed to score an open top bus tour on our way to and from the feast, which was great as we got to have a bit of a history lesson and understanding behind the whole shebang. When we arrived we just walked around, looking at all the different things going on. Managed to get an ice cream that came to 7 euros, we were the unknowing tourists that got picked on by the locals, so word of warning go to a feast and do not buy an ice cream! After watching the band play, we got in a good position ready to watch some fireworks. These fireworks I’ve never seen anything like them before, they are right in front of you and on these massive moving contraptions that turn into all different shapes. I couldn’t think of a better way to end our short but very sweet holiday.

Half Way Through

Well it's official, I have now gone past the half way mark for my stay here in the UK. On Saturday I had a wee celebration with Zaira and Ben who also have roughly around the same arrival date as myself; my stepping off the plane date being the 11th May 2010. Today (25th is my visa stamp date) I have exactly 11 months remaining of my 24 month adventure. It's a rather surreal feeling when it comes to thinking about everything I have achieved since I've been here and that I will soon have to prepare myself for the homeward bound journey.

I find it really hard thinking about heading home and having to leave behind everything here, but I have to tell myself that at the end of the day I came over here to see the world and travel as much as I can and that I did in fact come over knowing that I would have to make my way back home, thinking this makes it slightly better, though don't get me wrong the thought of leaving it all behind is extremely sad.

On a brighter note I am really feeling like I'm starting to get some decent travelling in now and really getting to explore the UK and Europe. Apart from the going home in 11 months I am happier now than ever! I'm living in an amazing place that I never want to get sick off, and I still get excited when I walk down a street that is on a monopoly board, I am so close to Europe and have such easy access to some amazingly beautiful places. I have the greatest friends here and would be completely lost without them. I am having the time of my life.

So for the next few months I'll be living it up here as much as possible and will try and get on with my UK life as if I've just got off the plane (which does feel like yesterday), though I know time will fly and before I know it I will need to get my A into G and get planning on the heading back home (providing the earthquakes actually stop by then), to Christchurch or wherever...

All in all I'm extremely happy being here and also extremely sad that I am now on the downhill slide towards the end of my Northern Hemisphere Experience.

Myself, Ben and Zaira at our 1 Year in London Party.

Russia Part 2: Moscow

After an almost sleepless night, thanks to the not so comfortable overnight sleeper train, I'd arrived in Moscow around 6.30am, so I was in for an extremely long as day. Our new tour guide met us at the train station and helped us find our way out in one piece, though our first impression of her wasn't as good as Natasha in St Petersburg, I can pretty much say for all of us on the tour that we were all happy to be off the train. We all piled into our van and headed off on our Moscow adventure. Olga was our new tour guide so she would be helping us out and showing us around for the next few days. The first stop for the morning was Red Square, though before we turned into real tourists we stopped for breakfast at McDonald's, which turns out to be very hard to order when you're in Russia especially when the menu is all in Russian, which is not the alphabet you and I know. So we all had to resort to one of those picture menus which they keep behind the counter and point to what we wanted for breakfast. So after the ordering Maccas ordeal we went through what the plan of attack would be for the next couple of days then headed off to see the sights of Moscow.

Red Square is lovely there is the National Museum there, the walls of the Kremlin, and of course St Basil's Cathedral (another ice cream topped church). I went a tad snap happy here and took far too many photos, but that's what digital camera's are for right? It was a quick stop here as we would be coming back, and had plenty of other sites to see. So off we went to view all the sites of Moscow. Unfortunately due to the fact that I pretty much had no sleep the night before, and the warm comforts of the van we were in, I did sleep through a bit of the information that Olga told us, so I found myself getting out of the van and looking at some rather pretty things and having no clue what I was actually looking at! Though I did see the lake that inspired the music behind Swan Lake, so that was rather exciting. The rest of the afternoon wasn't too eventful, mainly due to the fact that myself and everyone else on the tour was ready to pass out due to sleep deprivation, so we got checked into our hotel, freshened up a bit and grabbed some lunch. I was really tired, but wanted to make the most of the day... how often are you in Moscow? So myself and a few others managed to drag ourselves out and get back into the city centre where we went for a bit of a walk around and grabbed a much needed coffee. The rest of the evening was rather relaxed with just finding a restaurant somewhere, and getting back to the hotel for an early night.

St Basil's Cathedral

Moscow day two was far more exciting, a solid sleep did help very much. So Olga collected us from the hotel lobby and we were far more enthusiastic about today's sight seeing. The first stop was the Kremlin. So we had a good look around here, I got to see the building where the Prime Minister works, the worlds largest canon which has never been fired along with the worlds largest bell which has never been rung. I also saw the Cathedral where all the Tsars attend, which was lovely inside, though no mosaics like the Church of Spilt Blood, it was covered in the most colourful of paintings. After seeing what we needed to see it was off to Red Square to visit Lenin, who has been preserved so you can see him lying there in a glass... I'm not sure whether to say tomb, coffin, case.... but you can see him and it's kinda strange. And for those who don't know Lenin started the Soviet Union in Russia, so he's a big part of Russian history (note why they preserved him). After Lenin we were all dropped back to the hotel, so we had free rein on what we wanted to do for the afternoon. So a small bunch of us, including myself went out to explore the Russian underground, as we'd heard that it is meant to be amazing, which it was. The underground is very spectacular, with sculptures, paintings, carvings, mosaics and chandeliers in most of the stops. It certainly gives the London underground with all its commercial advertising a run for its money.

Red Square

For our last evening in Russia we had booked to see the Circus, and it was safe to say we were all very excited about it. I'm pretty sure I've been to a circus before, though I must have been really young because I don't remember much about what it was like, so I was feeling like a bit of a kid again. We turned up and as you can imagine there were children everywhere, there was lots to see before you even headed into the main arena, you could have your photo taken with rabbits or snakes or a fox among many other animals. We found our seats and got comfortable and waited for the show to begin. During the wait we did read in the Russia Lonely Planet that "Russia doesn't have a western side to when it comes to animal training and some people may find the circus upsetting", good to see this right before the show started, not!
The circus wasn't as bad as I had thought, though we couldn't understand a word that was said as everything was in Russian. They did have monkeys, dogs and a seal which were great to see, the seal was the best one, though I do think he should be out in the ocean and not performing every night, but what can you do. The only 'upsetting' part was the seven lions that they had at the end, now there are animals that you can train and there are animals that you should just leave be, lions should not be trained, and it was very obvious that these lions were very unhappy with their life. So unfortunately I left this circus with a rather negative view, though the kids around us seemed to be happy with the show.

The lake that inspired Swan Lake

Russia was coming to an end, and we all spend the remainder of the last evening in a bar at the hotel over a much needed drink or a hot chocolate on my part.... nana I know!
The next morning we said our goodbyes and then I slowly made my way to the airport with two others from the tour, before catching my flight back to London.
Russia as a whole was great, I'm so pleased I managed to get there and really see what it was like, I definitely preferred St Petersburg to Moscow, however Moscow was still lovely with amazing sights and things to do. So now I can tick off the country that's at the top of the 'Places To Get To List'.

Group shot



Russia Part 1: St Petersburg

I don't know what started my fascination with Russia, but for some reason I'd always wanted to go there, perhaps I've seen too many movies based around Russia or maybe read and watched Dr Zhivago one too many times. So when I moved to the UK at the top of my list of countries to get to was Russia and Egypt, one of those I can now tick off the list. I left for Heathrow airport on Saturday morning, at some crazy early hour of the morning; it should be illegal to be awake that early. The flight was about three and a half hours long, not including the short stop over I had in Germany, so I arrived at St Petersburg around 3.30pm with the tour guide ready and waiting at the airport. Myself and two others that were also on the tour were collected from the airport and taken to our hotel in St Petersburg. One of the first things I noticed about St Petersburg was how flat it is, there are no hills or mountains, I didn't quite imagine it to be so flat then again Russia is a big place and I guess all the mountains are out in the middle of the country where no one actually lives. 

The evening was spent meeting the others that were on the tour with me, there was eight of us including myself and we were all Kiwi's, which made for a rather big change and all of us were really buzzed out by how we ended up on a tour with just Kiwi's as there aren't many of us and it's not often we end up together like that. So over a few beers and a vodka shot we spent the night at a pub just down from the hotel all getting to know each other.

The next morning we all meet in the lobby at 9am and our tour guide Natasha briefed us on the plan for our first day in St Petersburg. We only had half a day of driving around exploring the city, so we were shown all the main sites and taken to the Hermitage to finish it off. The Hermitage it so big and has so many items in it that if you looked at each item for 30 seconds it would take you five and a half years to see everything, so as you can imagine, Natasha just showed us all the main exhibits. After our morning tour we had some free time, so myself and a couple of others headed for some lunch and then a wee bit of exploring. The first stop was the Church of Spilt Blood; one of those crazy Russian buildings that looks like it has colourful ice cream cones on the top, now this church is already amazing when you see it from the outside, but when you go in it's a whole different level of amazing! The entire inside is covered in the most beautiful mosaics, it's so colourful, all the walls and the ceilings every inch of it, nothing like any other church I've seen in Europe. So after being wowed by the Church of Spilt Blood, it was off for a bit more walking around until it felt like my feet would drop off, then back to the hotel to freshen up and head out for dinner with the gang.

Last day in St Petersburg and it was another action packed day, to start it off we all made our way outside of St Petersburg to see the Summer Palace, were the Catherine the Great among other Tsar's spent their summer. So it was a bit of walking around this great big massive palace and some of the grounds. It did make me wish that I lived in a Palace and could have everything done for me so that I could just put my feet up and enjoy living in a spectacular house, made the got to go back to work after this holiday feeling be even more dreadful. Then back in St Petersburg after the Summer Palace we went to the Peter and Paul Cathedral, this is where all the Tsar's are buried, so we got to see all the tombs of the Tsar's from Peter the Great onwards.

After we'd done the whole touristy looking around we moved on to the whole touristy shopping, so we were dropped off and given time to look around all the souvenir shops and pick up what we needed before heading to our farewell Russian dinner with everyone on tour and our guide Natasha. Dinner was fantastic; we had traditional Beef Stroganoff and a glass of champagne to celebrate our amazing time in St Petersburg. Then it was off to board the overnight sleeper train to Moscow, where my Russian adventure would continue.

A Day In Bruges

What do I love about living in London? Having Europe so close, there are all these amazing places right at your fingertips. On Sunday I'd booked onto a day trip through Brit Bound headed for Bruges, with Zaira and her friend Arpen. So we met up early Sunday morning and got on our little minibus bound for Belgium. I was a wee bit shocked to find out for once I wasn't on a bus full of Australians, but mostly full off Kiwi's and there was even a guy next to me from Ashburton (a small town about an hour south of Christchurch). We departed central London at 8.30am with a three hour drive ahead of us, along with the crazy experience of crossing the English Channel via the Euro Tunnel. Going through is tunnel is very strange, you drive into this container thing, which is on a train, which goes through a tube like tunnel under the ocean, one of those things you have to do to see how bizarre it actually is.

The other side of the tunnel is France, so from France there was a small drive before we crossed the border and were in Belgium. I crossed a land boarder, for the first time in my life; I did something that I thought would be awesome, but turned out to be the biggest anti climax ever. I didn't get a stamp in my passport, nor was there any security or police or anything, it was just driving down a motorway and passing a sign that said Belgium. Woo! Thrilling stuff. It was an hour and a half drive between getting out of the tunnel and arriving in Bruges and though a short drive, by the time we'd arrived we were itching to get exploring. Our driver had given us maps and his own little write up of where was good to see, eat and of course where to find good chocolate.

Maps in hand Zaira, Apren and I headed off for a bit of a look around, we soon realised that Bruges is in fact extremely small after walking about half of the map in 10mins. We'd walked past countless chocolate shops and cafes/restaurants, found a few canals which were lovely with the cutest wee ducklings. We found the sculpture of Michelangelo's Madonna and Child in a lovely church then decided it was time to stop for some lunch and plan the day out a bit more.
For lunch we got French Hamburgers which was basically a baguette filled with chips, meat and sauce, there seemed to be nothing French about it at all apart from maybe the baguette. Since we were in Belgium I thought I'd try some of the beers, so I had a bottle of Kriek, a cherry flavoured beer. I do love most things cherry including cherry coke, I thought I'd really enjoy a cherry beer, turns out it was one of the most disgusting drinks I've possibly ever tried.

After lunch we set off on our afternoon adventure, we had a few hours to go, but that was plenty of time for us to get through Bruges and see the sights. The first stop was the Belfrey Tower, we figured since we possibly just ate the world's fattiest burger we'd may as well walk up the 366 steps of the tower to get to the top. I didn't get too tired from doing this, mainly because the fear of falling down the tiny steps had taken over my mind. It was worth the climb though the view from the top was great, you could see all of Bruges and I'm sure half of Belgium (well it felt like you could). We made the scary decent back down the narrow stairs again trying our hardest not to fall, and hoping that there wasn't too much oncoming traffic. After the tower we did more walking around Bruges, hoping to see the Chocolate Museum amongst other things, but being late Sunday afternoon everything had closed for the day. Though on our travels we did come across what seemed like was going to be a great windmill, turned out to pretty much be a fancy looking box, though it was my first European windmill so I can't compare it to those in the likes of Holland. We made a stop at The Chocolate Line, which I must say is the most amazing chocolate shop ever! They had everything chocolate, even chocolate dog poo and also chocolate massage oil (that's eatable), though I'm not sure who would want a massage with chocolate?

There was only an hour left of the trip, and since we'd bought all the chocolate we needed we thought we'd find somewhere nice to eat and have a beer, so we found a cosy little restaurant right by where the bus would collected us from. Waffles were what we ordered; of course we were in Belgium after all, so how could we leave without having waffles? I'd ordered myself an apple flavoured beer, which unlike the cherry, was extremely tasty and I could go back to Belgium just to drink this beer again. Zaira and I also ordered a waffle each, these came out covered in cream, ice cream and chocolate sauce, I was starting to wonder if after I'd finished it whether I should go climb the Belfrey Tower again. The beer and the waffle didn't exactly go together too well, but they were both very yum.

We did a lot in the day, I think we pretty much had Bruges covered by the end of it, though I'd love to maybe go back for a weekend and do it on a more relaxed pace and really have the chance to sit down and enjoy a peaceful weekend, though it was a great way to spend a sunny Sunday out of London.

Dublin, Kilkenny and The Worlds

The Paddywagon tour was over, but there were still many days ahead for Ireland and I. After arriving back from the tour, it was off to Sam's house, just outside of Dublin for an early night in.
So this would be the week were I would get in some Dublin adventures, and what is in Dublin? Well the Guinness Factory of course. So the next morning I was up early and off to the train station to head into Dublin and meet up with some of the guys from Paddywagon before starting our day at the Guinness Factory. Finding the actual factory was no problem, but trying to find the part/entrance to the main tour part that's open to the public was a whole different story. We did spend a good while walking around trying to work out where we were meant to be, we then gave up and asked for directions only to find out that the Guinness Factory is spread out over a few blocks and we were walking around the wrong one. Eventually making it there we did a bit of a sneaky and got in as students by using the automatic machines to purchase the tickets instead of going through the tills, every little bit counts when you're travelling! So with our student tickets and hoping like hell we wouldn't be asked for student I.D's we were in and the looking around would begin. Now I can't speak for everyone but there is only so much you can find out about how they make Guinness before your attention span seems to become extremely short, so I was definitely looking forward to the 'pour your own pint' challenge. So we lined up and were given instructions on how to pour the perfect pint of Guinness then one at a time we all went up and poured our pints. I was rather thrilled with mine, I personally think I did an excellent job considering I thought I would be absolute rubbish and somehow end up with Guinness everywhere but no, my pint looked rather tasty! Guinness isn't exactly my favourite beverage around, but I was at the Guinness factory and just poured my own pint, so I thought I may as well sit down and try to enjoy it. Well let's just say a pint of Guinness on an empty stomach for me who never drinks the stuff after about half way through my pint I did start to get the giggles a wee bit. So we finished our drinks headed up to the top of the factory where you can look over Dublin, then it was off to grab some lunch in Temple Bar. A relaxing afternoon was in store after lunch, so we headed to St Stephens Green for a bit of a stroll around then went and did a bit of touristy shopping. That evening we wanted to go out for somewhat of a shindig, so we all met up again in Temple Bar and got a few drinks and listened to some live Irish music, it was a good night out. It was Good Friday the next day so everything was closing up at midnight, so I was home in bed within a reasonable hour.

The World Irish Dancing Championships were running all week from the 17th to the 23rd April, but Good Friday was the day that I would go along to watch. So Sam and I drove out to City West Hotel where they were being held, I was super excited, I had never been to the worlds before and I was looking forward to really seeing what they were like and also watching all the dancing. My friend Lucy was competing in today's competition and I also wanted to be there to see her dance and luckily for me we walked in and sat down just before she came on for her Set Dance. We watched some more dancing, including some of the teams, but because we'd arrived in the mid afternoon it was mainly set dances that were on. I managed to track down Lucy, so I had a bit of a catch up with her and her Mum, both who I haven't seen since I left Nelson in 2007. Results time rolled around fast and I was sitting there with my programme in hand ready to see who was who and get down all the places. Lucy's set dance was really good and I was dying to see how she would place, if you get in the top 15 of your age group you automatically qualify for the Worlds next year, so we all had our fingers crossed tightly. Lucy was placed at 13th which is so great! Everyone was so happy and I was so happy for Lucy, it was a well deserved placed, especially after I was told how much hard work and effort went into her dancing over the year. So congratulations Lucy! The worlds where absolutely great and I'd love to go to another worlds and watch them again.

After a great day at the worlds, Sam and I were back home and I needed to work out what I would do for the next day, Sam was working and I still felt like I had more of Ireland to see, I was also still on a high from the day and also the Paddywagon tour earlier in the week. So I thought to myself that since I'd enjoyed my Payywagon so much, why not do another one? So I booked a one day tour on another Paddywagon.

Another early morning rise to get ready for my second Paddywagon for this Ireland trip and again I was super excited. There was a completely different group of people on this bus though, mainly a lot older and in bigger groups, so at the start I was pretty sure I was the only person travelling by myself on this trip, however I was wrong, a middle aged man sat next to me, mainly cos I had the best seats on the bus, at the front. Turns out he was from Australia (is anyone not from Aussie? Seriously), anyway he was good fun, on a wee holiday between jobs, and Ireland was his 49th country he'd been to, he was aiming for 50 countries by the end of 50, after Ireland he was headed for Iceland, which would make 50 countries! So you can imagine he was great fun to talk to, lots of stories. The first stop on the trip was Glendalough a beautiful place with amazing ruins and history as well as very peaceful lake and also the home to the some of the sets of PS I Love You and Braveheart. Now every time I watch PS I Love You, I have right right to yell out "oh look I've been there!". We had a good hour or so to look around here, and then we were back in the bus and on our way to Kilkenny. Now an Irish dancer will get this, but every time I hear Kilkenny, I automatically think oh the Kilkenny Races (for those who don't Irish dance, this is the name of a set dance, I won't explain, it'll be a long story), so yip I was in Kilkenny and all I could think about was the set dance. It's a lovely wee town though, the main road is extremely narrow and I did have concerns about the bus getting down there without causing any scratches. So to start off in the town I went and had a pint of Kilkenny, so now I can say I've had a pint of Kilkenny in Kilkenny. I'm not big fan of ale, but it was actually rather nice and I could easily have one again. Then it was off for a bit of a walk around and a cheap picnic lunch on the grounds of Kilkenny Castle. There is so much history in Kilkenny and I could ramble on for hours with all the stories about the place, but I'll let you all do a tour through Ireland and find out for yourselves. So after a good couple of hours walking around Kilkenny we were back on the bus and headed for Brownhill Dolmen, an ancient pre-Celtic burial edifice. The history here is amazing and to think that this tomb was build between 3000 and 4000BC and has not been excavated for fear of damage. This was the last stop for the day and now I was headed back to Dublin for the last two days of my trip.

My last two days in Ireland would be relaxing ones. There wasn't anything that Sam and I had planned to do apart from go out on the Sunday night, Sam's brother was having a leaving party as he was moving to Australia to live for a year. So Sunday we had a bit of a sleep in then spend the day relaxing in the sun, before getting ready and heading out for a nice meal and then a few, well more than a few drinks. It was good to get out for the night and have a bit of a laugh and meet new people. The next day wasn't as much of a write off I thought it would be, though we did stay in bed until about midday, before venturing out to get some McDonalds.
Sadly though it was time for me to pack up my bags, and make my way to the airport. I'd had so much fun in Ireland I was sad to leave, but at the same time pleased to be heading home. I'd love to go back again one day for another trip, especially to get to see some of the north and Northern Ireland, but we'll see. For now though Ireland most definitely stands at one of my favourite countries. And thanks to my new Paddywagon friend I have a new challenge for myself, 30 countries by 30! We'll see how that goes....