dining in lisbon

on friday night we decided to splurge on a nice dinner after sightseeing for the afternoon in belem. i chose a restaurant named feitoria, which has one michelin star and serves highly westernised, modern portuguese food. upon arrival we were slightly concerned to find only two other tables full, but thankfully those fears were unfounded... it was all incredible and not overly expensive!! unfortunately i have only a couple of photos, as we decided it really wouldn't be appropriate, so i'll try and describe everything i ate... 

to begin, we were served 4 amuse bouche: a salmon macaroon topped with salmon roe, a mini potato stack filled with mayonnaise and topped with a crispy cod-skin chip, a heavenly 'duck egg' of confit duck, and a rolled sardine with apple jelly and dehydrated sardine. as we didn't really know what to expect, we were all delighted by the amuse bouche and very happy with the accompanying champagne.

funnily enough the most visually impressive part of our meals was the bread, oil and butter. we were each served a focaccia, a large sesame wafer and given a choice of rolls (i chose carrot and herb). then arrived the piece de resistance... racks of oils in test tubes, butter in conical dishes and a little bowl of salt. they wouldn't have been out of pace in school science labs! they were so much fun though - eating goat butter, mild and strong oils, pretentious cow butter, and experimenting with flavours on our various breads. yum!

sarah and i chose to have the 3 course set menu, so for entreé we were served spinach and ricotta ravioli with oxtail. doesn't sound very exciting, but this was no ordinary ravioli. our bowls contained a single pillow of silky smooth ravioli with oxtail ragu and slivers of summer truffles, and when we cut into the ravioli an egg yolk spread through the dish. amazing! 

for main course, sarah and i had golden sea bream with cherry tomatoes and basil. whilst not as spectacular as our entreé, the fish was so delicate and delicious! 

in preparation for dessert, we were all served a hazelnut ice-cream. once again, a simple yet perfect mouthful... and then dessert arrived. sarah and i shared three and went to food heaven. cinnamon custard tart with lime, peach spheres with fresh peach and peach mousse, and stuffed churros with fairy floss and apple sorbet. utter utter bliss. 

we all but rolled out of the restaurant, a few bottles of wine and lots of food later. starred dining is definitely worth every cent! 

into the desert

i finally have something incredibly exciting to write about again... 6 nights in marrakech with 4 friends from paris!! it was awesome!!!

on thursday afternoon we flew into marrakech and were dropped off at the medina by a cab. big tactical error not being picked up by the hostel, making it to our riad in darkness, having wandered through narrow laneways and the famed djmma el fna completely disoriented for over an hour. but it was worth it, the little riad hostel was gorgeous, with lanterns strung from the ceilings and 3 terraces with views over the square and medina. 

i was quite upset to be told upon check-in that i'd booked the wrong sahara tour and badgered that we were staying in another riad upon our return, but they couldn't have been more wrong!! on the recommendations of the hostel manager, we made our way to stall 110 in djmma el fna for dinner. seemed that morocco specialises in all the vegetables i don't like... so vegetarianism went out the window for the trip and skewers were on the menu for night number one! wasn't the greatest, but the atmosphere of the square and the lovely waiters more than made up for it! djmma el fna was insane, filled with dried fruit stalls, roving dessert carts, snake charmers, smoky dinner stalls and a cacophony of sounds... we loved it, the touristy-ness didn't bother us in the slightest!! had a bit of a shop to ensure we had appropriate clothing for venturing into more conservative areas of morocco and then returned to our hostel and lazed on the terrace smoking shisha before heading to bed early, ready for the following day...

we were up at 6.30 to take turns in the shower and pack to hit the road. our private tour driver arrived whilst we were eating breakfast and informed us we had too much luggage, so hasty downsizing was in order before the 5 of us could pile into our prado and set off into the desert! the tour involved lots and lots of time in the car, with sporadic stops for photo opportunities overlooking gorgeous valleys and ancient towns. 

on our first day our first big stop was at ait benhaddou, where we had lunch on a terrace overlooking the village and ate our first tagines - lemon and chicken with vegetables, absolute heaven!! then we ventured into air benhaddou proper - an ancient kasbah that has been featured in over 20 movies, most famously gladiator... so of course we had to have a mock battle where the arena was situated in the film - so much ridiculousness!!! 

following our stop at ait benhaddou we piled back into the car and headed off through the sparse landscape again. in the mid-afternoon we stopped at another ancient kasbah, skoura, where we spent half an hour wandering around fields eating pomegranate from the tree and dates picked fresh off palms. it was one of my favourite stops of the trip, made even better by the little boy who asked us for a pen as we were getting back into the car in exchange for a camel he had made out of palm leaves. 

in the evening as the sun was setting we wound our way through dades gorge, stopping to take photos at a place called monkey fingers, due to the otherworldly rock formations (to be honest i spent the whole trip feeling like i was on mars, the landscapes were just so dystopian!). we arrived at our accommodation for the evening after dark once again and were absolutely blown away, the rooms were huge and dinner was mouthwatering - goats cheese salad with honey vinaigrette, quail breast with beans and potato, and a brown sugar tart for dessert. yum! the following morning we were once up again early and back in the car. we drove further into dades gorge for a photo stop over the breathtaking view, before heading to todra gorge. yet another incredible sight, we wandered through the valley with sheer rock faces 300 metres high either side of us. i can't even begin to describe how beautiful and unique each of these places were, photos just cannot do them justice!

once again back in the car, we followed a school bus up a mountain and were enthralled by the reactions of the children, especially the girls, to the car of white tourists behind them - peeking at us only to hide their faces once they realised we were watching, only to peek once again a few seconds later. and then the bus just stopped to drop some of them off on the side of the mountain, and there were no houses in sight! following lunch, our guide took us to a 12th century kasbah that he normally doesn't take tourists too - despite skepticism over that statement, the locals looked at us like we were aliens, so we were inclined to believe it. i was really proud of the efforts we had gone to to be modest, as our head scarves and covered legs and shoulders allowed mohamed to take us to this incredible kasbah, and one of the local women even commented in french how happy she was with my scarf.

in the late afternoon we arrived at sahara garden to drop our bags before heading into the desert - i was so so so excited! we dumped our stuff, had a glass of mint tea and then we were off!! i was riding a camel named jimmy hendrix, but unsatisfied with that name i re-christened him mustafa. going absolutely hyperactive as we rode out into the desert, i jumped off mustafa and ran through the sand, before leading the line of camels and making ali, our bedoin guide, superfluous. it was so much fun but terribly windy! i even stood up on the saddle!

by the time we arrived at our campsite, it was pitch black and sand was whipping everywhere - so we hustled into the dining tent and huddled chatting with a lovely couple from new zealand for a couple of hours before dinner was served. we had a great time and lots of interesting conversations over dinner before russell and alvedia went to bed, they had food poisoning which would have been terrible on the camels! we had a bit of a dance while ali and mubarak played the drums, before cracking out the cards and having a brilliant time teaching the guides how to play go fish. the looks on their faces when they knew who had a card they needed were priceless! in return, they taught us an advanced version of naughts and crosses and to count to 5 in arabic. it was so much fun, but it wasn't bed time yet - they took us out into the sand dunes and built a fire to sit and sing around! was a bit of a shame the night was cloudy, but a brilliant end to the day nonetheless.

the following morning we were up at 7am and back on our camels to head out of the dunes. after a brief breakfast at sahara garden we got back in the car and set in for a long day of driving back to marrakech. man were we tired! we stopped for lunch and hardly spoke a word, and proceeded to sleep almost the entire way home. in the afternoon we made a quick stop at a women's cooperative to learn about argan oil production, and a few purchases later we were back on the road and revitalised by chocolate bars. finally back in marrakech after 10 hours in the car, we entered the haven that was our accommodation for 3 nights - riad kenzo, a gorgeous little riad complete with a plunge pool, hammam and roof terrace. the manager took us to a nearby restaurant for dinner, where i had a delicious chicken and almond pastilla, but we returned to our rooms pretty fast as we were all worn out!

the following morning we set out into the souks of marrakech, the riad's manager damian taking us to meet his friend yusef to show us around, ensuring we got good quality products at cheap prices. it was loads of fun and seriously overwhelming, the crowded stalls and makeshift roof exactly what i had hoped it to be, unlike the grand bazaar in istanbul.

our wallets significantly lighter, we went for a tour of the leather tanneries. armed with berber gasmasks - mint sprigs - we were led around the putrid pools of lime and pigeon poo, and shown the process of making camel leather - it was fascinating, but not something i'd race to do again!

following the tanneries we decided we needed a drink and some food, so yusef led us to the rooftop terrace at cafe arabe where we indulged in some western food and beer (shameful i know). running late, we raced back to the riad for our hammam and massage treatments. what an experience!! so unlike my hammam in turkey, i was naked and scrubbed raw, covered in 4 different types of gunk, before being washed off, wrapped in a robe and deposited onto a massage table. of course, i fell asleep and completely missed almost my entire massage, but man was i content at the end! when the 5 of us were finished we ate a delicious lamb tagine on the riad's terrace, followed by incredible orange blossom yoghurt. so so yum! in food comas, we all climbed into the boys bed to watch gladiator, but gave up in short order and stumbled back to our own beds.

our final full day in marrakech was spent once again back in our prado - our driver mohamed had invited us to lunch in his family's village in the south of morocco! we spent the morning buying a beautiful bowl, fruit and a selection of pens and notepads for his family to take as a gift, before being picked up by mohamed at 9am. on our way to his village we stopped at a market that berbers go to each week to shop and catch up. it was absolutely fantastic! we wandered around, i bought a beautiful necklace, and then mohamed took us to a teahouse and showed us how to make mint tea. we had no idea the process was so complex, but it was definitely the best mint tea we had in morocco!! mohamed also showed us the area where berbers parked there 4x4s... a massive field of donkeys! the market was definitely my favourite experience of our whole time in morocco, despite walking past rows and rows of freshly severed goat heads.

back in the car, we headed to mohamed's village, but stopped on the way to check out the incredible hotel sir richard branson owns in the mountains. we were shocked to be shown around the entire hotel, and were incredibly jealous we weren't staying there by the end of our tour! upon arrival at mohamed's village we left the car and started walking up a very steep hill. after a brief rest break at a gorgeous kasbah hotel we continued trekking and ended at a waterfall! it was beautiful, we decided we understood why mohamed was always so happy given that he lived in such an incredible place surrounded by breathtaking views and snowcapped mountains.

after the waterfall mohamed took as to his family home, where he has lived his entire life, and his sisters served us lunch. it was delicious, but we were all horrified by the amount of food they served us and were about to explode by the end! as we were finishing lunch a storm rolled in, so we thanked mohamed's sisters and had a great time running down the mountain back to the car. once again, we slept on the way home and returned to riad kenzo incredibly full and happy. the others all decided to go out to dinner regardless and then onto a bar, but i was happy to stay at the riad and finish gladiator and go to bed.

on wednesday we had a leisurely breakfast before flying to lisbon. it was utterly wonderful and we were all so sad to leave!

sarah's birthday dinner

yesterday was sarah's 22nd birthday, so of course we had to throw a party! lots of preparation and cooking once again went into putting on a domestic goddess event. and for a while it looked like we were going to have to cancel as sarah was sick, but thankfully she pulled through and the show went on! 

the menu: olive tapenade and roast tomato pintxos, prosciutto and melon, roast pumpkin and goats cheese pintxos, camembert and balsamic fig pinxos, patatas bravas pinxos, dips with pita chips, sausage rolls with chutney, and coconut chicken rice paper rolls with vietnamese dipping sauce. the food was amazing if i do say so myself!

and then of course dessert: rumballs, portuguese tarts, caramel slice, strawberries, apple tarts and mille feuille. so much yumminess!! 

had a fantastic night and sarah was over the moon, her first birthday party with friends in years! 

thatlou scavenger hunt

on sunday i organised for a group of 10 sciences po students to do a scavenger hunt at the louvre. we did a hunt titled beauty + the beast(iary) featuring paintings and sculptures of fair maidens and fearsome monsters in all the various exhibitions and wings of the louvre. it was fantastic! we split into 3 teams and set off - no running, no phones, just a map and clues. so many silly photos were taken and everyone got super competitive, but it was loads of fun! time was almost up and we were half way across the louvre, so much stress getting back. 5 minutes late and sweaty messes, we managed to reach the finish point! 

after a few minutes to cool down, we made our way to a nearby cafe to tally scores... and no surprises, we won!!! wooo!!! but only by a few points, even tallying scores was competitive! 

it was such a great way to spend an afternoon in paris and bond as a group. whilst there isn't time to appreciate the incredible louvre, the hunt helps you determine the areas you want to go back to. would definitely recommend for anyone coming to paris!!

sorry, life's been in the way

so i realise i haven't posted in a long time and i've started to cop abuse... but i've been enjoying myself too much over here and i hope you prefer it like that! 

uni has been pretty hectic. i have at least one oral presentation every week, stacks of readings and now essays are beginning to creep up. despite this, i'm really loving sciences po, it's a fantastic uni and i would love to come back to do my masters over here! 

spent last weekend in london staying with crosby. it was freezing and rained constantly, but had an awesome time regardless of being woefully unprepared for the temperature difference across the channel! went out to cool bars, explored soho, ate at yummy restaurants, sat in on a lecture at the london school of economics and went to the tate modern. all in all a really fun and relaxing weekend - but i don't have any photos! my laptop decided to be my best friend the other day and corrupt it's hard drive, so i've lost all my europe photos save the 250 i put on facebook :(

this weekend is going to be lots of fun once again. we haven't really been going out all that much, instead we've been having dinners and drinking at each other's apartments. going out for dinner tonight, out out tomorrow night, market on sunday as usual and then a group of 15 of us are doing a scavenger hunt at the louvre!! going to be so so so much fun!!!

having another big family dinner on tuesday for sarah's birthday, we've got the domestic goddess thing down pat by now! and then off to marrakech and lisbon on thursday, so i'm sure i'll have plenty to tell you all about soon! 

in the land of beautiful people

didn't upload yesterday...

on tuesday i made the snap decision to come to copenhagen this weekend, staying with people from melbourne in the copenhagen business school dormitories. whilst its great and easy hanging out with everyone in the dorms, i am so happy to have my beautiful apartment in paris with a proper kitchen and enough space to hang out with friends!

spent my first afternoon in copenhagen at an awesome freah food market with bella and her friend nadia. the stalls served seriously yummy stuff - egg wraps, risotto, tapas and fish tacos, among so many other things! i was in foodie heaven! saturday night we went to the best pizza restaurant in the city, and it certainly lived up to reputation - best pizza i've had in europe so far! after dinner we attempted to go out, but midnight is far too early and all the clubs were still empty :(

sunday we decided exercise was in order... so we climbed the spiral tower to get a panorama view of the city, and man my calves are sore today! 

then we ventured to the christiana commune. technically it's own country, we left the european union for the afternoon to wander around the land of hippies and its permanent haze of marijuana smoke. the area was pretty filthy and abundant with wild dogs, and funnily they don't allow pictures - the residents force you to delete any photo they see you taking. anyhow, was a nice chill afternoon and then spent the evening watching movies. 

today i finally surrendered and went on my first hop on - hop off bus tour in europe. copenhagen is just too cold to go wandering for hours, especially as i haven't yet bought much in the way of winter clothing, but i still chose to sit on the open top deck by myself! went on both routes and to be perfectly honest it wasn't that thrilling... i saw the world famous tivoli gardens and amusement park (which closed yesterday for the winter) and saw the home of carlesburg beer. possibly the most exciting thing of the tour was finding out the correct pronunciation of georg jensen - sounds like yorg yenson -so there we go, no more incorrect pronunciation from ignorant aussies! 

very excited for dinner tonight, cooking a curry for the girls... definitely my mother's daughter, the highlights of this trip to the danish capital have all been food! back to paris tomorrow, can't wait! 

domestic goddesses strike again!

since coming to paris, sarah and i have hosted five dinner parties - ranging from  4 to 20 people! last night we put on a dinner for jonathan's 20th birthday. we spent all day slaving in the kitchen, but the result was worth it...

in the spirit of being in france, we made moules frites - so cheap and so yummy!!

and followed them with our first ever attempt at a croquembouche, which sarah decided we absolutely "babed"!

it was a very successful night!! which made going to bed early to get up for an 8am class all the more difficult - glad i did though, as following my presentation i was questioned by my classmates for almost 45 minutes!!! and exchange was supposed to be easy :/

on a side note, despite being proud of my independence on monday... my replacement cash cards have yet to be delivered, highlighting that i'm possibly not quite as capable as i'd like to believe! 

such a slacker

i can't believe how long it's been since i last blogged, or for that matter how much time is flying over in paris. i've already been here a month and it feels like no time at all!!! seriously scary and already saddening at how soon i'll be leaving!

life is going great over here. no boys to be spoken of - that will keep you happy dad - quite unfortunate really, given i'm in the city of love. thankfully i have enough wonderful new friends that go on picnics, stroll along the seine eating berthillion, watch movies and make yummy dinners to enjoy with me. got a nice little routine  doing pilates, walking to uni, going to the market and have a fun friendship group to do it all with - 3 aussies, 2 brits, a kiwi, a canadian and an american (all very anglo, i know) plus lots of frenchies and a few others who've been coming to our bigger dinner parties. we cooked mussels in white wine the other night after going shopping at the market - so delicious... it's all just so much fun!! have hardly spent an evening alone, pretty perfect considering i'm living by myself for the first time in my life! 

the bummer at the moment is how intense uni actually is. going on exchange is, despite what you're supposed to say, all about partying and travel... but this week i have two oral presentations! a 10-15 minute one on hobbes, the prisoner's dilemma and environmental protection, and the other a 20 minute one on the relationship between oil and power. really interesting but annoying all the same - my timetable may be pretty damn good, but if this workload keeps up i really don't know how much travel i'm going to get in on the weekends... oh well, just gives me an excuse to come back to europe in the future!!

this thursday is the birthday of one of the boys in our group, so been working hard to finish my preparation for my presentations early... so that sarah and i can spend all day on thursday attempting to make a croquembouche!! so exciting and likely to be an utter disaster given i'm involved, but sure to be an enjoyable experience trying! haven't managed to starve just yet though... probably because i've been eating a whole baguette every day! oops! trying my best to improve...

yesterday also taught me just how far i've come since beginning my trip 3 months ago... my secondary travel money card got swallowed by another atm! i must be super lucky!! anyway, unlike last time, i didn't cry, kept my cool and within an hour had arranged for two new cards to be couriered to me in paris... so proud of myself! 

still haven't done much of the touristy stuff in paris, waiting until the end of september for the queues to die down before heading to versailles or the notre dame. but super excited, alisa found the best activity for me to do while in paris... we're getting a group together to do a private scavenger hunt of the louvre, going to be awesome!!! 

first day of sciences po

that's right, today is a wednesday and it was my first day of uni for the week! after all the stress caused by my timetable, i am happy to report that i only have classes two days per week - giving me 4 day weekends!! however, classes here finish as late as 9.15pm, and i was lucky enough to get those classes every day :/ oh well! gives me ample time to travel!!

had two classes today, as my first tutorial is not until next week. going to be seriously out of my depth with political philosophy, but we'll see how we go. everything is made better by the fact that it's occurring in paris - still cannot get over how lucky i am to be living here!!!

i've been attempting to be responsible and take packed lunches every day... but it's been negated somewhat by all the evening cocktails we've been having... this trip has turned me into an alcoholic!!

going shopping at bastille market again tomorrow in preparation for our next dinner party... sarah is having 25 people! going to be so much fun!!! 

o-week in paris

this last 10 days has been incredible! i feel so lucky to be living in this amazing city for the next 4 months! to backtrack though my week...

monday we began o-week proper. in france it's nothing like australian o-week - we had 16 hours of classes for the week and had to give a 10 minute oral presentation in pairs! homework for no reason, gahh!! anyhow, we were divided into small groups for methodology classes for the 5 days. there were some awesome people in my group, so the classes were pretty enjoyable, despite having to learn the ridiculous french method of writing essays - you can't have an argument until the conclusion, what is that?!!! 

monday evening we had a walking tour of the area surrounding notre dame, wasn't too exciting but the gorgeous guide gave us pretty good tips about bars and cafes! following that we headed off to the first bar of the week. it was so much fun!! the bar was totally overwhelmed by the number of students that came and the surrounding residents weren't too happy about the noise on the street - we had a wonderful time dodging water being flung from windows by irate parisians! met more really fun people from all around the world, so exciting!!

tuesday was more of the same during the day. went for a lovely lunch with a boy from my class and then in the evening we all had a wine and cheese reception. holy cow!! the way the french eat cheese is insane, massive chunks on tiny bread rolls. yum! following the reception we all headed off to the nights bar - which was even smaller than the previous one! it was impossible to get a drink and we were all once again on the street, but happily met a big group of french sciences po students who we spent the night hanging out with!

wednesday again we had classes during the day, but in the evening we had a scavenger hunt!!! gahhh so much fun, we got super competitive. our team of 8 managed to get every single bonus challenge completed as well as being the first team back to the start having been to each location... so we won! yayyy!!! this of course led to a very messy night drinking out of our victory mugs in a cool underground bar! 

thursday was pretty tame comparatively, classes all morning, hanging out in the afternoon and then bar at night. 

friday was possibly my favourite day in paris so far. after our final classes, sarah and i wandered home along the seine. on our way i stopped to buy myself a gardenia pot plant and then we stopped on ile-saint-louis for a cheeky cocktail and crême brulée. just felt so carefree and amazing! grabbed a bertillon ice-cream on our way home and arrived back at my apartment to find shane and macrow had arrived.

dragged the boys to the supermarket with me and then had a wonderful time chatting to them while i became a domestic goddess... that's right, i cooked for and hosted a dinner party of 12 people on friday. it was so so so much fun! trying to squeeze everyone into my little apartment was interesting, but we managed! 

following dinner we headed to a nightclub on a boat on the seine. it was awesome fun, and once again we spent a lot of time hanging out with french students as well as some awesome british girls! 

saturday understandably no one did very much, but in the evening we all boarded a massive boat to go for a ride along the seine. spent the entire time chattering away and having an absolutely ball with some of the people we'd met during the week. it was really lovely to see all the gorgeous parisian buildings at night, and to see the eiffel tower sparkle for the first time! 

yesterday was the final day of o-week. sarah and i went shopping at bastille market for all our groceries for the week - absolute heaven - before rushing to get to the afternoon picnic. it was really great just spending a lazy afternoon with everyone in the park, and had so much fun when limbo and dancing started! headed once again for cheeky cocktails afterwards with maeve and sarah, a great way to end the week!

classes start today... and right now i don't know if i have any on mondays or not, oops! 

settling in

sorry about the lack of posts recently, it's been rather hectic since i arrived in paris!

shopping for homewares, groceries and a few items of clothing has been lots of fun. i've tried to explore a little bit more of paris each day i've been here - walking about 10km per day! it is such a beautiful place, i still can't believe i'm lucky enough to be living here for the next 4 months! 

orientation for university has begun, the information gets a tad overwhelming, but i've met some really lovely people. there's just so much to do - have to get my residency permit, bicycle pass, metro pass, new mobile number, bank account, meet my agency representative, and arrange to get my belongings delivered! plus i find anywhere to learn french at times that would suit me, so going to have to utilise audio lessons i think, oops! oh well, the joys of being here! once i'm sorted out i know i'm going to have an amazing time here. so excited for everything to come!

welcome to paris!

after a night spent at a really terrible hostel, i have finally checked into my apartment for the next 4 months! it's really nice and certainly big enough for one person to live in, just need to go on a big shop for essential supplies like chux, toilet paper, teabags, etc.

will post a proper update once i'm properly settled in and have had a better chance to explore paris. 

here i come paris!

well, after 8 weeks of europe i'm finally on the very last travel leg before i reach paris. it's been a tumultuous experience, filled with incredible places, people and shenanigans! 

the final stop on my journey was not really a touristy stop, i came here simply to hang out with issy. after a relaxing 4 days of movies and shopping - with the exception of 5am wake ups - i'm ready and raring to hit the ground running in the most romantic city in the world! (don't worry dad, that was completely unrelated to boys). thank you issy and titus for a really nice ending to my adventures.

this trip has most definitely been one of the most challenging experiences of my life. i spent 5 weeks in total travelling alone, a seriously daunting prospect when i set off. now i'm very happy that i braved it, as over this time i have constantly been thrust far beyond my comfort zone. never before would i have invited random people to eat dinner with me (let alone been comfortable eating at a restaurant solo), approached strangers for directions, navigated my way through cities without a map, and most of all, i would never have planned my trip as i went. my initial idea to follow croatia with italy and spain went out the window, and i'm glad it did! instead i have been to places in eastern europe i never would have gone alone and met some absolutely incredible people at each stop along the way. i'm so glad i've had such an incredible opportunity!

in the mother country to visit the queen

yesterday i flew from brussels to london to stay with issy for a few nights. she met me at heathrow and then we went home for a great evening catching up in her grandfather's very impressive house in kew gardens. 

today we took the tube into london proper to go shopping in oxford street. so surreal! red buses everywhere, black cabs, historic buildings and thousands of people! 

don't worry, i didn't even buy much! off to a house party tonight and then tomorrow i'm seeing sarah and david!

sorry for the delay in posts... i'm in belgium!

so after my wonderful travels through eastern europe, i have finally hit the west. the cheapest flight out of montenegro was to brussels, so here i am! 

after arriving at brussels charleroi airport i caught a shuttle bus into the city proper - hate it how they trap you into paying a fortune for airport transportation, in this case 17€ for an hour bus! the bus dropped us at the central station, from which i had a 25 minute walk to my hostel. the first kilometre or so i wandered through a giant fair, it was incredible, so many more rides and stalls than anything we have back home! immediately beyond the fair was a seedier patch of town, which i was incredibly uncomfortable walking through at 9pm with men jeering constantly at me. anyhow, thankfully made it to my hostel alive - and it was unlike anything i've stayed in before! the hostel has 700 beds!!! 

yesterday i booked myself onto an old people tour of ghent and bruges. the tour was conducted in 4 languages - english, spanish, german and french - suffice to say when the elderly gentleman beside me suggested ditching the group at each stop i eagerly agreed!

armed with alan's guidebook and its mapped routes of each city, we had a wonderful time exploring flanders. could most definitely have spent the whole day in bruges, or possibly more, but we packed our time and managed to see all the main sites in each city. just for you mum - had an amazing lunch, the most delicate scallops i've ever had with tomato salsa, serrano ham and mozzarella, accompanied by a bottle of french white wine - yum!!

last night there were two lovely new people staying in my dorm room, sam and her boyfriend chris from toronto. after chris stole my bed (totally the hostel's mistake, but caused a lot of confusion) we buddied up and went out to a famous beer chain, delirium. tried the best beer in the world, a cherry beer, a cactus beer and lots of others. we also went across the road to do shots of absinthe, so much fun!!

the whole evening sam and i were on the hunt for a signature pink elephant glass, which we finally found and smuggled out of the bar! a highly amusing way to end our night! 

this morning i once again met up with alan to explore brussels.

saw all of the main attractions including the underwhelming mannekin pis, the gorgeous town hall and went on a tour of the royal palace. one thing i'd forgotten about the elderly is their love for museums and art galleries - we spent the most tedious hour and a half admiring religious paintings from the 14th-17th centuries. kill me!!

yep, my head covers the famous penis

anyhow, now off to buy some famous belgian chocolate to give issy's grandpa as a thanks for letting me stay - so excited, i'm going to london tomorrow to spend 4 nights with issy before i start uni in paris. cannot wait!!!

obese men can do handsprings!

as the title of this post would suggest, my source of amazement for the day was witnessing a man with an extremely large belly casually handspring off the dock into the ocean. a totally unexpected and surprisingly graceful event to end my trip to st. nicolo island.

spent a wonderful day sunbaking, swimming and people watching at this gorgeous island. arrived at 11am after being adopted by the ferrymen who insisted i didn't pay after tge failure of yesterday. so instead when i got to the island i paid an exorbitant price for a lounge (they were all 10€) but thankfully managed to snare one in the best spot on the island for the day! 

      my spot was the leftmost lounge

so of course had to stay until at least 4 to get my money's worth and my tan has definitely been revitalised as a result! so after a really nice and relaxing day i have no idea what's on for the night and don't really care!

just a little rain!

this afternoon's summer storm had a rather spectacular resurgence at 4pm. within 15 minutes the streets were ankle deep with water as the biggest raindrops i've ever seen bucketed down - it was awesome!!!

had a great time trying to get home with three guys from the uk, all of us struggling to keep our valuables dry over the 3km walk. so much fun sprinting between every tree and leaky umbrella! suffice to say, the tophill superclub is closed tonight as the open-air arena is flooded. fingers crossed it will be open tomorrow night for a sticky beak, but for now a quiet night is in order for me! 

the new monaco

budva is definitely my sort of place! beautiful beaches, lots of restaurants, great people watching, parties and plenty of shops! despite being incredibly touristy it has a really nice atmosphere and there is plenty to do.

yesterday as soon as i arrived i befriended an american girl, laura, who i then spent the day with. she definitely knew more about this place than me, so was more than happy for her to take the lead. so we caught a bus to trsteno beach, frequented predominantly by locals and boasting the best sand in the budva riviera. it was awesome and totally not what we expected!

the beach itself was only 100m long, so to accommodate more people massive pontoon platforms had been built on either side of the bay. the water was crystal clear, not a single person spoke english and music pumped all afternoon. managed to order fries and fruit salad for lunch... well fries and whipped cream with some fruit. still yum though! 

the big shock of the day came when one of the cocktail bars turned into a foam party - the amount of foam spilling into the water was insane!!

from the beach we came back to the hostel and went to a seafood place for dinner recommended by the guy on reception. was kinda average, but expected in such a touristy place when paying minimal prices. didn't go out last night as had a big day planned for today...

this morning laura and i were on our way to sveti stefan at 9am. an island resort frequented by the rich and famous, we were unable to cross to sveti stefan itself. instead we took photos and contented ourselves lying on the beach next to the exclusive hotel sun lounges. it was pretty gorgeous and i was so excited to have seen it! 

this afternoon we planned to go to st. nicola island, but unfortunately the weather was against us! we had just boarded our boat when a thunderstorm rolled in, so instead we made a round trip to the island huddled next to the captain and i'm going to go back tomorrow free of charge!

laura is leaving tonight, but have already promised some irish guys in my room to go to the famed tophill nightclub with them tonight... we'll see how it goes!!! 

dubrovnik's unkempt little sister

i don't know whether it was the nostalgia of passing through dubrovnik yesterday, but kotor in montenegro seems pretty similar.

it's gorgeous but really badly maintained, despite being a unesco world heritage site. the difference can probably be attributed to less tourist money coming in, but in a way the absence of dubrovnik's crushing crowds makes kotor the nicer of the two medieval towns. plus it's free to walk the towering walls here! had a really nice time exploring for the afternoon. on a side note - i've been really shocked by the number of abandoned and derelict buildings here, it was expected in bosnia but i thought montenegro had broken away from yugoslavia relatively easily. odd. 

was staying in such a cool hostel too, and everyone in my dorm was really lovely. it looked like something out of harry potter - complete with broomsticks! 

nonetheless onto budva today, the party destination of montenegro!