An Orphan Christmas - London- December 2012

Merry Christmas everyone! Festive spirit has hit London. Emily arrived a few days ago and is staying at my place in London which is super exciting. On Christmas Eve we went to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park which was fantastic.

For Christmas us Aussie girls in the house had our friends over for a big Christmas feast (all the other housemates are away). We spend the day cooking, eating, sharing presents, listening to christmas music and watching christmas movies. The feast was amazing...including a huge roast turkey! Way too much food for 5 girls but we stuffed ourselves and have plenty of leftovers. We all wore Christmas jumpers too.

I skyped my family in Aus which was really nice (its now my second christmas away from home) and was showered with lovely gifts from my friends back home (brought to England with Emily). So lovely and so grateful to have such amazing friends and family :)

Merry Christmas xx

Stockholm, Sweden - November 2012

The best part about living in London is the ability to jet off for a weekend to a completely different country! On the 23rd November, I met with 5 other girls at Gatwick Airport after a friday at work and we took a plane to Stockholm! We got an airport tranfer and arrived at our hostel at about 11pm.

The following day we headed out to check out the town, starting with a walking tour. The tour was ok, got taken around the new part of town, learned about heaps of things that come from Sweden, but ditched it halfway to go do our own exploring.

We went up to an outdoor park called
Skansen and spent most of the day there. It's like an outdoor museum/animal park with old homestead and Scandinavian animals including reindeers and wolves! Pretty cool. In the centre they had Christmas markets set up so was very festive.

After Skansen we took a ferry back to our hostel in old town and got ready for a nice dinner. We were staying in a big 12 bed dorm and make friends with a friendly Spanish guy who ended up joining us for dinner too.

We went to a restaurant called Pelikan- recommended to us for its traditional Swedish food. It was great. The local specialties are Elk and Herring, so tried them out, very nice.

After dinner a few of us went out for a few drinks at a local bar. It was here we realised just how full Sweden is of students! The bar was ok, bit sleazy, so headed back to the hostel shortly after.

On Sunday we went for a shop, watched the changing of the guards at the castle, had Fika (the best!), and checked out the Christmas markets in the Old Town Centre. Lovely.

We then got our airport transfer and caught our flight back to london, about a 2 hr flight. Great weekend trip! Sweden is very clean, very friendly and definitely worth a visit. Would like to see more of it if I get a chance to get back there :)

Iceland - November 2012

Sorry, haven't blogged in a while! Have been caught up with real life. But going to use my train commute time to catch up on my blogging in the next few days. So first of all....Iceland!

Hayley and I took a 4 day trip to Reykjavik from the 15-19 November. Iceland is an absolutely incredible country and I would recommend it to anyone...most beautiful scenery and so different to anything I have ever seen, ever.

We flew in on Thursday afternoon and got a transfer straight to our hotel. Because Iceland is so far North there isn't a lot of sunshine in November, so by the time we got to the hotel around 4:30pm it was already dark. We checked in, then decided to wander up to the city centre to check out shops and restaurants. For a capital city, Reykjavik is very small and quaint but there were a few places open and a few people out and about. Whilst we were walking along the main street an amazing thing happened...it started hailing...and then the hail turned into sleet, and after about 10 mins of that it turned into fluffy snow!! I was so happy :) My first real snow experience beside the Swiss Alps (where I walked out at the top of a mountain into a blizzard for about 10 seconds). We had a delicious dinner at a restaurant across from the hotel, fish and couscous.

On the Friday, we went to the Blue Lagoon. No words can describe how beautiful it was. The Blue Lagoon is a natural hot spa, heated by volcanic hot springs. Walking up to the lagoon it is surrounded by black volcanic rocks which were all covered in snow.

We walked into the changing area, hired some robes, threw on our bikinis (so weird wearing bathers when it was snowing!) and walked out to the lagoon. It was big, blue, icy, warm and all around amazing. There wasn't much time to stand and admire the view as our toes would have frozen off so we dropped the robes and quickly got into the lagoon. The temperature was just perfect. There are springs where the water comes out at 100 degrees so it was very well naturally heated.

The lagoon has a bar, sauna, water fall, and is lined by natural silica which you can use as a face mask. We spend half the day soaking up the goodness and enjoying the face masks and bar. We tried to book in some massages to treat ourselves too but they were all booked out.

After the lagoon we headed back to Reykjavik and went out for dinner. We chose a delicious restaurant that Hayley had researched (can't remember the name...something Grill). Enjoyed a marmalade cocktail first then when our table was ready had a delicious dinner. I had the lamb and it was perfect. All the meat in Iceland is produced locally, they don't import anything so it was all very fresh.

That night we hopped on a bus in the hope of seeing the Northern Lights. We drove for about an hour, sat in the middle of Iceland in the freezing (freezing freezing) cold at midnight, only to find it was too cloudy to see anything, so headed back to our hotel. It was a shame, but just means I will have to come back or go somewhere else to see them!

On Saturday we had our adventure day. We did an all day tour which took us to see the Gulfoss Waterfall, the Geysir water spouts, and to a glacier in the mountains for Snowmobiling! It was such a fantastic day. The guide took us to amazing places and told us so much history about Iceland. But definitely the best part was the snowmobiling.

We took a hardcore bus thing with huge wheels right to the top of a glacier, where everywhere you looked it was completing white and ice. It was so damn cold! We got suited up in these incredible space like suits, which blocked all the wind and most of the cold. Then headed out on the snowmobiles. It was 2 to a vehicle so Hayley drove first, then we swapped at the halfway point and I drove back. So much fun hooning across the ice! The sun was just setting during our ride so it was just beautiful riding across the white glacier at that time of day. Only problem was my phone died with the cold so I couldn't take any pics, and my hands almost froze off completely, other than that...incredible!

On Sunday we checked out early and went to look through Reykjavik some more. It was so so sleepy, no one was awake or about on the Sunday morning! We went and had hot chocs then wandered some more, finding ourselves at the church. We went up to the bell tower at the top which had a great view of the city, again really pretty as the sun was rising.

Overall, Iceland was an incredible holiday, even just the 4 days was full of some amazing experiences! Would definitely recommend it to anyone...just remember to rug up!

Guy Fawkes Weekend - London - November 2012

This weekend I ended up working on Saturday to get some more ££. Saturday work was actually really good and very productive :) I have 2 days off next week and I don't get paid for leave so working extra works well for me.

On Saturday night after getting home from work we headed to Battersea Park to go to the Guy Fawkes celebrations- they lit a huge bonfire in the middle of the park followed by an amazing firework show. The fireworks were awesome and all synchronized to music...very cool. There are fireworks all over England to celebrate Guy Fawkes.

After the park celebrations we headed out- 1 pub, 1 bar and 1 nightclub later...home by 4am. These aussie/England buddies sure know how to party!

Sunday was spent sleeping, chilling out and relaxing at home.

Ps. I won something! Well I won a subscription to a FREE magazine. Not really sure how that's winning considering a few pages later theres an ad saying anyone can subscribe to it for free but anywhoo...winner?

Halloween weekend - October 2012

Another amazing weekend. Yesterday we went to the TNT travel show to go check out the deals/get holiday ideas. There were some amazing deals there and I ended up booking in two more holidays for next year....a 9 day tour of Turkey, and a 16 day tour of Egypt & Jordan. Yippeeeeee! Can't wait :)

That night a few of us girls headed to the TNT Halloween Party. We all got dressed up and ready in our Halloween gear and had a few pre-drinks at our house before getting the bus/tube to the party. Snuck a few sneaky beverages on to the tube.

There were heaps of people dressed up in Halloween gear on the streets of London. The party was a lot of fun. Lots of dancing, partying and good times.

We left before 12 so we could catch the last tube then headed to a pub closer to home. After the pub, went to maccas, walked our friend back to her place, then walked home in the freezing cold, down to 1 degree eek.

Sunday I spent chilling at home. Overall a great Halloween weekend UK style x

Cambridge, England - October 2012

Hayley and I went to check out Cambridge on the weekend. We caught a direct train from London Kings Cross and it only took 45 minutes to get there. Cambridge is a beautiful town especially in Autumn as there are big parks and trees and the university grounds looked amazing with the falling leaves. We were told the best way to see Cambridge was to go 'punting'. I had no idea what this meant, but we headed to the river to check it out.

Turns out punting is like Gondola riding, a man stands on the end of the boat with a long pole and pushes you along the river. We hopped on a boat with about 6 other people and punted down the river- it was really beautiful going past the colleges and hearing the history of the universities from our guide. An interesting fact was that students dorm rooms are allocated according to their grades, so the smarter the student, the better their room!

After our punting session we headed to The Eagle...which is the pub where DNA was discovered. We had lunch there then went for a little browse through the shops and I came across the bag I've had my eye on for a while from the Cambridge Satchel Company. I bought one in navy blue.

https://www.cambridgesatchel.com

Saturday night in Soho - London - October 2012

Last night (Saturday) I caught up with an old friend Brooke who I used to work with at Borders back in Perth. She left to travel 3 years ago and has been living in France, Scotland and now England. It is amazing to hear all the places she has been to in her 3 years away.

We met up at Leicester Square Tube Station then headed to a Bombay Restaurant called 'Dishoom'. There was a queue for tables so we got a buzzer and headed downstairs to the bar for a few drinks before getting called to our table.

The food was delicious- we ordered some crackers called Far Far, soft shell crab curry, lamb boti kebabs, rice and garlic naan- what a feast! The lamb was a tad too spicy for us both though. The restaurant was nicely set up and quite modern but with an old Indian feel.

www.dishoom.com

We decided to then move on to Soho to check out the night life. There are heaps of bars around Soho all pumping on a Saturday night- we chose one called Bar Soho. Had a few cocktails then hit the dance floor, fun times.

After Bar Soho we decided to check out another Bar that Brooke has been to before called Salvador and Amanda. It cost £7 to get in, which is expected in most places in Soho. The bar is quite big (it's a tapas restaurant) and had a DJ and dance floor at the back so we had a good dance there too. Had a delicious Midori Sour cocktail.

Overall a great night out in Soho and a fantastic catch up, we've booked in for a brunch date next week too :)

Forever young - London - October 2012

25 and still alive weeeeeee! I celebrated my bday on Monday. Very happy to be in London for it -nobody here questions what you're life plans are when you turn 25! Though for the first time since being here I did feel a bit homesick and missing all my family and friends a LOT!

At work everyone sang happy birthday to me and I got a gift voucher for a shop called 'new look' which was quite lovely of them.

I left work early and headed to the city for a night of fine dining and theatre with Hayley and Kirstyn. For dinner we went to a restaurant called Bocco Di Lupo - an Italian tapa style set up. The restaurant was fancy, food was nice, but we were a little bit rushed. Besides that it was a nice dining experience and good catch up with the girls especially Kirstyn who entertained us with stories of her London explorations.

This is the restaurant we went to:
http://www.boccadilupo.com/

Les Miserables was amazing! I absolutely love the West End and going to a show and I plan to go to many, many more. Les Miserables is the longest running musical in the world- and is in its 27th year. It was just fantastic, good story line and great singing and acting :) Amazing.

Overall it was a nice way to celebrate and thank you to all the lovelies back home for the bday wishes!

A familiar face, Madame Toussards, Bunga Bunga and Shopping - London- 2012

Another great weekend in London town. My old family friend from Perth, Kirstyn, is in London this weekend, which is very exciting as she is the first friend that has come over from Perth since I left. Very refreshing to see a familiar face!

I caught up with her for dinner on Friday night at London Bridge. We had a good chat and catch up over dinner along the river. On Saturday, we caught up again as I met with her and another friend Simmone to see Madame Toussards Wax Museum. Madame Toussards was better than I expected it to be. We spent about 3 hours in there looking around at the wax models and going through the other attractions that are inside (there's the history of the wax museum, a scary adventure bit, a ride, and a theatre to see).

On Saturday night we headed out to Bunga Bunga - a nightclub in Battersea that's well known for its cocktails and for the fact that Prince Harry was caught out partying there (yes we were secretly wishing we'd run into some Royals). The cocktails were good, the music was fun, and it was good to finally go out for a night of dancing :) The club is about a 2 min bus ride down the road- very convenient.

On Sunday, Kirstyn and I went to Jamie Oliver's cafe 'Recipease' for breakfast (my new fav local cafe- I somehow end up there every weekend). She then headed off to explore London more and I caught up with my housemate Hayley for shopping. We went on a mission to buy new boots as winter is fast approaching and we need some good quality boots to keep us warm and dry.

We headed to a shoe shop called Duo in Covent Garden that does custom fitted leather boots...love! So we waited in the queue for about half an hour before being shown around and trying on various styles. They measure your foot size and calf size so you get just the right fit for a perfect pair of boots. I ordered these, and they should arrive delivered to my home in a week. For any Aussie readers looking for custom fit shoes or boots, you can order online and they do free delivery worldwide!

http://www.duoboots.com/ladies-boots/black-leather/beaumont/d/

I also put these shoes on my wish list for another day
http://www.duoboots.com/ladies-shoes/black-suede-and-leather-mix/swanson/d/

After shopping I took my love for Jamie Oliver restaurants too far, as Hayley and I found Jamie's Italian Kitchen next to the shoe store, and headed there for dinner! The food was amazing. So my whole diet for today has consisted of Jamie Oliver food- living the life.

Weekends- London- September 2012

Hello, havent blogged in a while. The last few weeks have been good. I've been keeping very busy at work and each week just seems to be flying by.

I've joined a gym and signed up for personal training once a week which has been great- feel super sore after each session so far! Hopefully after a few weeks my body will get used to it.

The weather has been quite lovely the past two weekends. Ive stayed in London and been exploring locally a bit more. Last weekend a few of us went to Richmond and had a few drinks in the sunshine along the river before heading to a restaurant for dinner. Quite a pleasant day.

This weekend I moved into my new house :) Yaaay. The house is good, housemates are friendly, and its just so nice to have my own place. Whilst the student accommodation I was in was ok and had everything I need, I wasnt really meeting anyone there and during the week i'd basically just go to and from work and just sleep in between with no social interaction. At least now that I've moved i'll have more of a social life and be able to meet more people which i'm looking forward to! My housemates consist of 2 Aussie girls, an Italian girl, a British guy and a french guy will be moving in 2 weeks time.

Today, inspired by our new fitness goals, Hayley and I walked from where we are living in Clapham into the city. It took about 2 hours but was a nice walk along the river. We had brunch at Covent Garden before making our way back to Clapham. Another nice day out, trying to make the most of outdoor weather before the rains hits!

Brighton, England - September 2012

Hayley and I headed out to Brighton today. It's a seaside town about an hour south of London by train. We walked from the train station towards the beach, making our way through some of the gardens, museum and cute streets.

We made our first food stop at Choccywoccydoodah Cafe. Oh my word! This place was amazing but a total chocolate overload. I had a delicious hot chocolate and then Hayley and I shared 2 cakes which came with ice-cream and more chocolate (see photo). Pretty much put ourselves into diabetic comas.

We managed to move on from there and headed down to the seaside. Yay beach! We went to the Brighton Pier and walked along to the end of it. It's a cool pier with cute stands & stalls along the way and rides at the end. Reminded me of Santa Monica Pier in LA.

We quickly realized that something was happening in Brighton this weekend because as soon as we got of the train there was quite a large amount of people dressed in bright clothing, especially men dressed as women and rainbow flags...and that's how we came across the Brighton Pride Parade! When we got off the pier the parade was going by so we stopped and joined in with everyone partying, dancing and having a good time.

Once the parade had passed we were able to cross the street and head to the sealife aquarium. We had a 50% off voucher we found in a tourist guide. The aquarium in brighton is the oldest in the world...it opened in the 1800's. Patted a starfish.

We then headed for lunch at a delicious Thai tapas restaurant called The Giggling Squid. So good.

Wandered around a bit more then headed back to the train at around 3pm to get back to London. Such a good day trip location, be sure to check it out if you have time from London.

12 weeks

Today marks 12 weeks since I left Australia. It has been an amazing 3 months and I have travelled to more places in this time than I have in my lifetime.

Europe was amazing and the UK has been very exciting. I feel I've managed to settle into London well, its had its ups and downs but it hasn't been as difficult as I was told it would be...but then again, winter hasn't hit yet!

I miss my friends and family but they don't feel too far away as I can talk to them on the phone or internet whenever I want. Plus I'm keeping really busy now with work, gym and weekend adventures theres not much time to stop and think.

I'm really enjoying meeting new people and getting outside of my comfort zone. So many more adventures to look forward to.

❤❤❤

Notting Hill Carnival - London- August 2012

Went to the Notting Hill Carnival today. It's a Bank Holiday so everyone has the day off yay! The carnival is basically a huge street festival in Notting Hill with a parade that goes around all day full of drummers and dancers. The vibe was heaps of fun with everyone partying on the streets.

We wandered around the carnival checking out the food stalls and the parade and random DJ's set up along the street. We found a good DJ and had a dance for a while on the street before moving on to find some lunch. They say around 1/2 a million people were expected at the carnival today! In London you can drink on the street- which means things get messy! By the time we left the crowd was getting pretty rowdy, but still was a pretty cool party.

Alton Towers Theme Park - England - August 2012

Hayley and I went out to Alton Towers theme park on Saturday. It was an early morning departure, caught the train from Euston Station at 6:55....I got there at 6:54 and basically ran onto the train just in time!

The train took about 1.5 hours to Stoke-on-Trent, then we caught a taxi to the theme park. It was incredible. It's a huge area of land and has a big castle in the centre...surrounded by gardens and crazy rides.

We ended up going on a heap of rollercoasters and rides until we finally felt sick and couldn't ride anymore. The rides we went on were the Oblivion- a vertical drop into a hole in the ground (scariest!), Thirteen - awesome rollercoaster that stops halfway, does a free fall drop into darkness and goes backward down a dark tunnel; Air- a rollercoaster where you are face down to the ground so it's like you're flying, and Nemesis- a super fast rollercoaster (this is the or that made us sick!).

The theme park is awesome. I'd definitely recommend it. Such a massive park with some crazy, exhilarating rides. I was so scared.

Here are some of our ride photos...hilarious!

 

 

Hampton Court Palace - England - August 2012

On Sunday we headed out to Hampton Court Palace. No royalty lives there any more so it's mainly used for tourism. The Palace was really nice inside, lots of medieval history. We had an audio guided tour to listen to but it wasn't great- too slow and too much talking, so we gave up on that and just walked around in our own time.

The best thing about this palace is the 60 acres of gardens. They are amazing. Very well kept and manicured. There was also a big hedge maze which was fun and pretty easy to get through.

House Hunting - London - August 2012

I've been house hunting for the past month with no success. It's really hard to find anything decent in London and rent is very pricey! I'm looking with my friend Hayley (who I randomly met at another house viewing)- we've both moved over from Aus on our own recently and have found jobs but no homes so decided we'll stick together in our search.

We've been trying to find something in Clapham Junction close to the station as we both can catch the train to work from there. So far what we've seen has been pretty crappy for the price we want to pay. London rent is very expensive! We found out we cant go through real estate agents as they charge you for reference checks, and asking around, we basically will both fail checks as we have no credit or rental history in the UK! So private rental it is.

Yesterday we headed off to look at a house share that has a few rooms becoming available. It is a big Victorian house, 3 stories, 6 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, big garden! Its the nicest place we've seen so far and in a good location. There were about 20 other people going through to look and all seemed keen to apply, but we were lucky enough to get the landladies interest and secured two of the rooms while we were there. She said we looked like nice girls, haha. I think we got lucky and had more of an advantage because we were looking together.

So woooo I have a home! No more student accommodation (which is getting rowdy now cos all the students are coming back from summer break soon).

I don't move in until mid-september but am looking forward to it. We met some of the housemates at the viewing and they seemed pretty cool too. It's going to be an experience living in a 6 bedroom house but hopefully it will work out well and it won't get too crowded! The house is huge so think it will be good. I'm just glad I'll finally have an address I can call home :)

A Royal Saturday - London - August 2012

I had a fantastic day out yesterday. Started off by meeting my new friend Hayley at Harrods for breakfast. We went to a fancy tea room there and promised ourselves we would get a group of girls together and come back for a day of shopping and high tea at some point in the future. Harrods is great- so huge! I've been there twice now and have got lost both times.

We went on to Buckingham Palace for our 11:30am appointment. They open the State Rooms to the public over summer, so we pre-booked some tickets to go have a look. It was amazing! I have never seen such elegant, decorated, hugely impressive rooms in my life. It was absolutely beautiful inside the palace. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos so it's just something you have to see for yourself. Well worth the £18 we paid to go in.

The tour lasted for about 90 minutes and we had an audio guide which explained what each room was used for and it's history. We were also shown the Queens jewellery including the crown and necklace she wore at her recent Diamond Jubilee.

The tour ended up at the back of Buckingham Palace, where the Queens Garden Parties are held. It was stunning. There was a gift store at the end and I was very tempted to buy a royal teacup set, however it was way too pricey! The good thing is we got our tickets stamped to come back for free, so I can make my way back again when another friend wants to check it out.

It just so happened that the Olympic walking race was on that day too, and the course went right past the front of the Palace. Hayley and I went for lunch and then headed back there in the afternoon to watch the Women's Walk. Go Olympics! I met with Nicole and Simone there too, and we cheered so hard that we even got a wave from one of the Aussie athletes as she powered on by.

After the race, 3 of us went to find our friend Ally (from topdeck tour) who has just moved to London! She's working in a pub in Holborn so we headed over there, found the pub and caught up with her for some drinks as she worked.  A great day out.