Croatia 2015

I went to the beautiful Croatia  at the end of June with my madre. Unfortunately she wasn't so keen on my plan to make a quick pit-stop at Hideout festival on the way (still my ultimate festival goal) but it was a great trip nonetheless.

We stayed on an island called Lopud, one of more than 1000 islands that line Croatia's coast. It makes up one of the three Elaphiti Islands and is accessible via boat from Dubrovnik. In fact, Lopud is so small that the hotel we stayed in is the only hotel on the island so it's great for those who love the quiet life. However, there were many activities still such as jet skiing, kayaking and a range of walking trails that allow you to explore the island in all its glory. We took a coastal path that brought you to the top of the cliffs and allowed you to see the beautiful crystal blue water of the Adriatic sea. We also hauled ourselves up a LOT  of steps to reach the castle ruins that stood at the top of the highest point of the island. The view was incredible, particularly as we went in the evening so the sun was beginning to set. When were climbing the last few steps we also came across a gang of goats (trust me, there a lot scarier than the goats of Vine), almost turning around for fear of being charged but I'm very glad we didn't. I found a huge hole in the ground at the ruins, barely just avoiding falling into it, which I can only imagine would have been some sort of dungeon back in the day. It was very creepy. There were also ruins of an old church and monastery dating way back to the ninth century.

On one of the last days we visited the ancient city of Dubrovnik, known as the "Pearl of the Adriatic".  The first thing I noticed was the cats of Dubrovnik, sauntering about and sitting wherever they pleased. They were clearly used to tourists stroking them as they didn't bat an eyelid at all the attention they received. For a reasonable price visitors are permitted to walk the 1.2 miles of the city walls that encircle the Old Town. It gives you a great panoramic view of the whole of the Old Town and the sea. When you visit Dubrovnik you can't miss the fact that it is the setting of King's Landing, the mythical land in Game of Thrones. It has become the biggest selling point for the city, attracting Game of Thrones fans the world over. Unfortunately, I'm still on season 2 so I wasn't too familiar with the specific scenes that were filmed there but I made sure to take my fair share of photos for future reference.

For something a little different, we also decided to check out the exhibition War Photo Limited that we overheard an Australian tour guide raving about to his group. It displays war and conflict photojournalism and was really insightful. I learned so much about the city's turbulent history, a history that is much more recent than I had expected; you can even find bullet holes in many of the city's buildings, over 50% of which had to be restored after the Yugoslav war. There was also a feature on the Ukraine riots at the time we visited and there is an upcoming exhibition on the violence in Congo in Autumn that I would love to check out. If you ever visit the city I would definitely advise you to go and visit the exhibition which permanently houses the feature on Dubrovnik and the Yugoslav war to learn about its past. Plus it provides some much needed air con.

So a big thumbs up to Croatia from me. Next time I will definitely be going for Hideout though.

Lille

I went to Lille with the French Society from university this weekend and it was quite fabulous. I was expecting it to be a rather traditional, old city but I was pleasantly surprised by the lively, vibrant life that was bustling about there.

We started the weekend off watching the rugby with a beer in a cosy pub. It was great to have us 'rosbifs' sat next to frenchies when our teams were competing against each other. We also grabbed a bite (I had a burger of course) to line our stomachs for the night ahead. After a drink at a different pub we commenced the night at La Plage, a really cool tiki bar that had such good dancehall-type music and even had sand covering the floors. The barmen were very lively (one of them a little too affectionate) and of course us Anglais were hanging around like barflys, living up to our reputation. The cocktails were too good to miss though. We then went on to club Smile which to me was typically European in the sense that a song would play for about 30 seconds then the remix would hit and it would change to an equally electro dance pop anthem. But it was a great time given that there were poles and platforms that we all took full advantage of.

The day after we spent time exploring the city, visiting the main square and Vieux Lille which I loved as there were so many winding roads complete with the beautiful architecture that you can only find in France. It was there that I also found the love of my life in a brasserie but I'm still not over him so I won't go on about that for too long...

That evening we had a giant group meal (there were about sixty of us) at La Chicorée, a lovely restaurant situated in the main square. I, of course, had another burger (which even had a hash brown in!) and was hardly surprised by the look on the waiter's face when I stated that I wanted it très bien cuit. You know how they like it to be practically alive on the plate. To wind down afterwards a few of us then went to watch The Kingsman in a cinema right by where we were staying. I thought it would have been dubbed in French but I read along with the subtitles instead to learn some new words. The film is bloody brilliant by the way and I would highly recommend giving it a watch. Oh and the French accent is way sexier when someone is whispering it in the cinema. I was having a good listen to the conversation of the people behind me.

To finish off our trip on the Monday we went out in style by paying a visit to a lovely crêperie called La Regalade. Leaving Lille and knowing we had to face a ten hour coach journey back to Manchester was a little disheartening but I knew a service station McDonalds was on the horizon. We were also treated to a gorgeous sunset on the ferry so that helped a lot.

If anyone else has been to Lille before I would love to know what you got up to!

Austria

At the end of July my mother and I went to Austria for a week. We had previously been five years ago and stayed on a lake, so we stuck to what we knew and did the same again but this time at Fuschlsee, a crystal blue aqua coloured dream near to the city of Salzburg. 

Fuschlsee (first three images) • My long lost tan • Selfie? • The cable cars that take you to the top of the Zwolferhorn • Me twatting out on top of a mountain • Paragliders preparing for lift off • Salzburg • The motherland: Mozart's House • I repeat, the tan • Pretty lamplights in the town

Being fresh (or rather the complete opposite) off the plane from Zakynthos, I was a little taken aback by the tranquillity of the area. Nonetheless, it didn't take long for me to appreciate the scenery. The lake has a trail all the way around its perimeter so the picturesque view is never far. Every so often we would come across a little alcoved 'beach' that that the locals had already found. And let me tell you, Austrians love a good lake when the sun shines. Situated just on the outskirts of the Alps, I was also able to take in the view from a higher vantage point on top of a mountain; specifically the Zwolferhorn that overlooks Wolfgangsee (a lake named after Mozart). There are five lakes all within close proximity so a short bus ride will take you from one to the other in no time. However, this journey can be easily complicated with the addition of two Brits trying to speak German with no knowledge of the language whatsoever: enter me and my mum. Like the well cultured people that we are, we used good ol' Google Translate to ask for our tickets. We were practically locals. Now, learning phrases is all well and good until the bus driver turns to you and asks "Kind oder ein Erwachsener?". Yeah, I had no idea either.

Measuring 1522m high, we took a cable car to the top of the Zwolfer, after successfully making it on the bus. It slowly ascended out of the trees and you could see the lake open up in front of you. At the top, there are various trails that we walked along to get a view from all directions. The most fascinating thing in my opinion was the paragliders. The sunny, docile conditions were perfect so it was hardly surprising the amount of daredevils that were taking off from the top. I have to say, aside from the perennial fear of falling to your death, it did look pretty peaceful to be swirling around up there.

We also visited Salzburg. The city's architecture displays such a majestic history, it reminded me a lot of the Piazza dei Signori in Verona. I was really excited to see Mozart's birthplace; it's very location in the city has inspired a burgeoning music student population. Whilst the history of the city was fascinating, there was something else that had captured my mind: GIANT CHOCOLATE PRETZELS. There was a bustling food market that sold all sorts of wonders. Every so often you'd walk past someone with brown chocolate smears over their face and you just knew what they had been up to.

All in all it was a lovely trip. On our final post-food bonanza stroll in Fuschl, we were treated to a youth orchestra from England playing in one of the squares. It reminded me of when I used to play, even though I never went on tour. Furthermore, we were lucky to only have two days when the weather turned stormy. I remember one early evening sitting on a lounger by the lake reading and slowly the grey clouds rolled in. You could see everyone preparing by putting on their clothes one by one. As soon as the first drop of rain hit, everyone darted. It was pretty comical actually. When it wasn't raining, however, the sunset over the water was unreal.

At The Dividing Line Between The East Of My Youth And The West Of My Future

I am sure I'm not alone in having a monumental debate surrounding the question of "Is university the right choice for me?". Just when I thought I had decided what I wanted to study, I am faced with the decision of "Is university what I really want?". I always thought higher education would be good for me as I have no set career path to hurl myself down but I am increasingly aware of my desire to travel and explore the world, the light of which will begin to fade as the tunnel of postgraduate jobs sucks me in.

I recently stumbled upon the instagram profile of a former student at my school filled with magnificent images of her travels across South America including Brazil, Bolivia and Peru. As I continued to scroll down, my travel senses were burning with the desire to do the exact same thing. Considering I want to study languages (and possibly international development) I see no better way to enhance my prospects than visiting and immersing myself in the countries in which they are spoken as opposed to a four-walled classroom.

Suppressing my appetite for exploration when the time for ucas application came along, I told myself that I could get an education and then visit all these wonderful places during the holidays or after my studies. However, after screwing a realistic head on, I am almost certain that this is highly unlikely; I'll be dealing with the burden of financial woes during and outside of term time and then once I'm out in the big bad world I will most likely be trying to carve out some sort of 'career' and mercilessly trying to avoid falling into part-time work and spending my life at a fast food chain.

But maybe I'm just thinking way too much.

Tergiverser

I've been doing a lot of pre-university preparation recently and have turned to dreaming about my year abroad (hopefully in Paris) to prevent myself from getting hella stressed. I imagine myself sitting outside a restaurant on the side of a busy street, a moped helmet perched on the table that belongs to the my french guy who has just gone to buy a newspaper...hahaha anyway. Allons-y.

If you're feeling frenchy have a look at this allthingseurope because it is wonderful. Oh this also opens up the opportunity to reminisce on Mr Bean's fabulously funny French fail. This is basically what I hope to avoid:

STRASBOURG 2013

View from our window · Pretty night · La Cathédrale Notre-Dame · Walking bright and early · Tram stop · European Parliament · Morning introduction in the Chamber · Selfie at the EU · View from where I was sat in the afternoon · Feeling a little closer to home at an Irish pub · A DOUBLE DECKER TRAIN DUDE

I returned from a school French trip to Strasbourg on Saturday and it was rather schnazzy. We left in the ungodly hours of Thursday morning and arrived in the evening after two trains and a Eurostar...how awesome are double decker trains by the way?! It blew my mind. On our first evening we went for a walk around the city (covering about eight miles in the process) and just explored for a few hours, leading us to discover the magnificent cathedral. We even got asked whether we knew where a restaurant was by an actual real life French person so we clearly resembled des véritables Alsaciens.

On Friday, our second day, we went to the European Parliament along with 500 other students from all over Europe to be in the shoes of the members of parliament. Everyone sat at a seat in the Chamber, each equipped with an electronic voting system, microphone and headphones for the translation. I was so intrigued by the translators skill; just one woman was doing Italian, German and French translations. We started the day by listening to the presentations from each school in which they introduced themselves and their country. Everyone was taken by a young Greek guy who was the best motivational speaker the world has ever known. Although he was only supposed to be talking about his school and country, somehow he had managed to state "we have travelled over land and sea without food to be here today...Europe is a flower that needs to blossom!" into the speech. It was superb.

That evening, after exchanging a few funny words with some French people staying in our corridor ("you sleep here tonight, yes?"), we decided to relax in an Irish pub and have a few beers seen as we'd walked so much the previous evening. It was quite nice just to sit and absorb the atmosphere of the city. We were also provided with entertainment in the form a race that started just up the road. One guy flew past on a skateboard, holding a camera and all of a sudden the street filled with hundreds of people dressed in pink that were taking part in the event. Some of the men were wearing tutus with wigs and all sorts so that was fun. Although I did have the loudest hiccups after that...I think it must have been all the air I had inhaled from laughing so much.

Our final morning in Strasbourg was spent meeting some students from a nearby school for a 'fun' treasure hunt. As there was only four of us and eight of them we were each put with two French students. Myself, Quentin and Julien got off to a good start (they sang me a song, I shouted "où est le McDo?!" so we were practically besties) but it was extremely cold so we ended up getting on a tram and going to the centre for a bit of shopping, café-ing and fromagerie-ing with everyone else. Oh, their accents were fabulous by the way.

Other than the fact that our last train was delayed by 90 minutes and we ended up getting back in the first minutes of Sunday, I would say the trip was a success. I wanted to stay for a while longer to explore other areas of the city and maybe have more time to talk to the French students, as it was good to just hear casual French banter as opposed to hearing debates about immigration and the criminal justice system, but the short time we did have there was grand. I'd definitely love to go at Christmas - Kevin said it was alive at that time of year.