Seven Sisters

 

Ok. So I seriously underestimated just how much beauty the UK has to offer. Over the weekend, I visited Seven Sisters Country Park in East Sussex and it is honestly one of the most serene places I have seen.

Our journey began from Crawley (near Gatwick Airport) and after an hour and a half – most of which was spent in morning traffic and road diversions we reached our destination and once the car was parked, off we went. The walk to the cliff’s wasn’t as long as I’d imagined it would be (which I was very happy about) and thank god for that as my choice of footwear was totally and utterly stupid. I had a paid of black heeled boots on (I don’t even know why). For the most part, the walk was steep, uphill and covered in all kinds of animal poop because the grass fields were covered with goats, sheep and cows. It was so hard to try to avoid stepping on the poop but I’m glad to come away poop free. Reaching the top of the hill, I was instantly taken back by the incredible views as well as the strong wind that day. At this point, my camera came out and I took a few snaps of which the best ones are shown above. Selfies and personal pictures were obviously taken but they will make appearances on my Instagram. As expected, the cliffs were buzzing with tourists, families and hikers making the most of British sunshine. One couple got a bit too hands on if you catch my drift. The first few minutes, I found it cute, then it got a bit full on and I was a bit grossed out because it was right in front of my view of the cliffs and kind of hard to ignore, but eventually I did manage to ignore it (because they got up and left).

Around 3pm, we decided to leave considering it takes a while to walk back to the car. Reaching the end of the park, we spotted an ice cream van and I instantly wanted a 99p flake – which by the way is no longer 99p! But I still bought it. All in all, the sun was shining and it was a thoroughly enjoyable drive with breathtaking views once we arrived at the country park.

Holland Park: Kyoto Gardens

Following our brunch date at the 202 in Notting Hill (blog post in the food section), we walked to Holland Park, specifically in search of Kyoto Gardens. What I imagined to be a quick and casual walk to the park basically turned into an unexpected gym session. The weather last week Saturday was moody to say the least I left my house when it was raining which is why I didn’t take any camera gear with me  and ended up taking pictures on my phone instead (iPhone 6s). When we finished brunch, the sun randomly decided to show up. Bearing in mind that due to the unpredictability of British weather I was wearing a thick jacket, walking from the café to the park was not an easy ride, not to mention the steep hills and long walkway we had to walk through to reach our destination.

Finally, after walking along the endless but very pretty walkway we reached the park and straight away I regretted leaving my camera at home (although I blame British weather for that). The park was bustling with people and pets. Only a few minutes after entering the park, we say people setting up for a wedding which I assume was to take place later that evening, there were people going for a run, kids playing football, tourists and couples like ourselves out for a stroll. The one thing that I did take particular notice of was the sheer amount of Pokémon players out and about.

About 30 minutes after arriving at the park, we made it to Kyoto Gardens. I’d seen pictures of the gardens on Instagram and Google and really wanted to go because it looked so photogenic. The gardens are as beautiful in real life as they are depicted on social media. Because it was such a beautiful day, the garden was extremely busy. The one misconception of social media pictures is that the garden appears much bigger than it actually is – but that’s not a big deal. We walked from one end of the garden along the stone path to catch sight of a peacock that was the centre of attention with its blue and green feathers to the other which was a beautiful large fish pond with a waterfall where people were taking selfie after selfie and parents were making their kids pose for memorable summer photographs. I also wanted to picture on the walkway of the fish pond but found it was too crowded and people were impatient so decided against it. Crossing the small bridge to the other side of the garden, there was an empty bench and we seized the opportunity to rest for a while before continuing our walk. Whilst sitting on the bench, we saw another peacock approach and were happy to see two of them as the second one was literally within hands reach of me. What didn’t excite me was the number of Pokémon players out and about. I have nothing against the players or the game because the one advantage of the game is it does get people out and about. The only disadvantage of the game is that it doesn’t get people (from what I’ve noticed) to enjoy the views of the places they go to find the Pokémon. So many young children were just glued to their phones playing the game that they didn’t look up to see the birds in the park or garden, they didn’t even stop at the pond bridge to see the fishes or take a picture, rather they stopped to check if there were any Pokémon’s to catch there. Funnily enough, when we finally got up to leave the garden, there was a notice on the entrance of Kyoto Gardens specifically telling Pokémon players not to play the game in the gardens or step over boundaries laid out in parts of the gardens to catch Pokémon’s which I found hilarious.

Our visit to Holland Park and Kyoto Gardens was thoroughly enjoyable; we laughed and talked about the silliest of things, we enjoyed seeing peacocks and fish and taking a few selfies (not by the pond). Definitely recommend that whilst the sun is out in London, Holland Park makes for a fun day out for anyone and there are lots of places to eat only a short walk away – particularly in Notting Hill.

 

Amsterdam

*Above pictures were taken on my old Samsung S5

Amsterdam is notoriously famous for one very obvious thing. And honestly, that’s the reason I didn’t want to visit the city, I gave in to its stereotypical image that in my mind wasn’t that great. However, I was happily surprised when I finally decided to take a leap of faith to finally visit Amsterdam.

From the day I landed to the day I left, the city constantly broke the image that it had built-in my head. I stayed opposite the Princess Canal and it couldn’t have got more scenic than that. Walking down to get groceries and trying not to bump into cyclists was harder than it might sound because I was constantly in awe of the characteristic streets and buildings the city displayed. Over the next few days, I visited ‘Dam Square’, the Heineken Factory and the Van Gogh Museum grounds. Going inside the museum was too pricy but timing was perfect as there was a sunflower maze on display outside the museum and I was able to get some very posey pictures of myself taken. For about 16 euros, I enjoyed an entire tour of the Heineken factory, a beer tasting class (half a pint free), a beer pouring class with a certificate and using 1 of the 2 tokens given to me on entry into the factory a pint of beer free. On the way out, I was about to buy a personalised Heineken bottle with my name printed on it and drink yet another pint of beer. At the exit door, I found out that the wrist band given to me with the tokens attached could also be used for a canal ride. Upon my return the next day, due to unfortunate weather canal rides were cancelled and that was my last day in Amsterdam. I guess I’ll have to go back to tick that off my bucket list. The one treat that was by far the icing on the cake was eating dutch pancakes in a small café at the tulip markets in the city. The small, fluffy pancakes melted in my mouth when accompanied by hot chocolate sauce.

During my visit, I decided to test out more of my camera functions and try my hand at HDR photography. Here’s my first try at a new style and I hope to keep practicing the get better:

Spain

*All the above pictures were taken from my old Samsung S5

Last July was my first time going away on a travel adventure without my parents. All grown up now, I travelled to Costa del Sol, Spain with 2 of my closest friends and my boyfriend after graduating from university. We stayed in a self catered apartment in Fuengirola where we cooked breakfast and dinner together, lunch either consisted of pre-packed snacks or café meals overlooking the scenic landscapes of Spain.

We landed during the night and after picking up our hire car, drove to the resort and checked into the hotel. The following morning was a fresh start to the week’s adventure and what better way to start it than be relaxing at the beach that way a mere 5 minute walk away from the apartment. After a very salty morning dip in the ocean and a quick shower, we headed for dinner. The next day’s adventure was a short drive to  Nerja where we  paid a visit to the caves and enjoyed the beautiful cliff views in Frigiliania whilst sipping on some cool sangria. To say the views at Frigiliana were scenic would be an understatement crisp white houses covered with bright pink flowers scattered over the cliffs, classic cars zoomed over the mountainous roads and tourists flocked in and out of the quant shops looking for trinkets to take back home for loved ones.

Ronda was another small, characters town we visited – funny thing was we wanted to see the famous Puente Neuvo bridge and it took us the best part of an hour to see that we were driving over the bridge the entire time we were looking for it. As well as taking endless selfies and walking around the small town to discover small hidden gems, I managed to pick up a beautiful small canvas painting that now hangs in my entrance way.

The two longer trips we made were to Granada and Seville. Granada had been on my bucket list since I was 17. Having studied Spanish history and learnt about the architecture of Granada, I was keen to see the magnificently carved buildings with my own eyes. Unfortunately, we reached a little too late to see Al hambra but we did manage to tour the grounds and the Generalise and take an evening pit stop at the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range for sunset. Seville was a 3 hour drive from our apartment as well as the hottest location we visited during the entire week – reaching well over 30 degrees celsius. There we saw the Plaza de Ešpana – huge in size and equally as elegant in character it’s a sight not to be missed when visiting Seville. Our last day in Spain was a poolside chill day that turned out to be exactly what we needed after a busy week of travelling and before returning back to not so sunny England.

This trip was what got me hooked to having a detailed bucket list of locations and places I want to visit around the world. It inspired me to take more photographs and to live every moment to its max. It was my first ever trip without my family and with friends and my first time planning a holiday from start to finish and I’d do it all over again if I could.

Australia

Back in January, I travelled to Western Australia with my dad to visit the land of kangaroos and koalas. The main purpose of the trip being to visit family who I hadn’t seen in over 10 years. After a 23 hour flight, we finally landed in sunny Perth, Western Australia, where we stayed at my uncle’s house.

No sooner had we landed that my uncle scooped us off to the beach and I have to say that being welcomed by the clear waters and soft, sandy beach meant that the trip was off to a good start. Visiting beaches was never boring for me considering the fact that as a Londoner, I don’t get to relax by the ocean much. The second day, my entire family down under had organised a trip to King’s Park to enjoy Australia Day fireworks. The display was by far one of the best I’d ever seen and the atmosphere was buzzing with kids running around playing hide and seek, young adults enjoying a couple drinks (well more than a couple) and families enjoying a wonderful evening out. The next couple weeks were filled with various family dinners, trips to local national parks where I was finally able to see the two nationally treasured animals – kangaroos and koala bears (Yanchep National Park) and a trip to the beautiful boat harbour town of Fremantle where my father and I went for a characteristic stroll along the vintage streets of the town centre. We also went on a crystal cave tour at Yanchep National Park and later that evening, after my uncle finished work we paid an evening’s visit to the newly built Elizabeth Quay in Perth City. My father and I took a tour of a beer factory, ‘Little Creatures’ where the tour guide was far from boring – his energy level turned a tour that could’ve been like sitting in a bad class in school into an interactive and highly entertaining tour. Cruising along the Swan River was by far one of the best experiences I had on the trip – although not the fanciest cruise one can go on, it was by far one of the most entertaining. The wife of the captain was an allrounder: she sold the tickets and handed out the snacks; the captain, her husband on the other hand was an incredibly witty, sarcastic “mate” – the couple made the cruise worth every Aussie dollar. At the end of the tour, we enjoyed 12 tasters of the different types of alcohol produced at the factory. Visiting a Casino in Perth at the Crown Plaza was another first for me on this trip and what a first it was; indulging in delicious Mexican food with family and watching young and old escape their daily lives to enter an unknown world of risk and luck made for an exciting evening. Towards the end of the first two weeks, my family and I visited the town of Busselton. Over the weekend we visited two wineries where we laughed after some intense sessions of wine tasting in the afternoon heat, visited yet more beaches and I was still awestruck by every sunset and saw nature at work when visiting Canal Rocks.

Towards the end of my trip, I was able to pay a weekend’s visit to my cousin down in Southern Australia – Adelaide; a place filled with character and beauty. On Valentine’s Day, I went for a beach walk where yet again, I was able to witness a wonderfully calming Australian sunset whilst dipping my feet in refreshingly cool water.

The entire month was filled with adventure, relaxing in the sun and walks along the beach and boy would I love to go down under again.