Copenhagen 🇩🇰

Another month, another country and wow has it been amazing. I had no previous expectations of Denmark and it truly ‘wowed’ me. I went for 4 days, and spent a lot more money than I expected, Copenhagen is the most expensive city I have ever visited. £400 in about 3 days.

We arrived, the three of us, on the 10th October and landed in the morning. We did a lot on day one, including Guinness world of records, a boat trip and Christiansborg palace. Guinness world of records is everything you expect and was impressive. But what really impressed me was Christiansborg palace, the outside was beautiful and you could go up to the top to see all of Copenhagen for free, which was by lift. The boat trip was really good, it took us all around with a speaker to tell us where we were and a history of the place. On the boat trip, I saw the little mermaid statue which was underwhelming so decided to not make the walk to see it. At around 5pm we went to check in to Cabinn Copenhagen hotel which was in a great location, but the room was TINY. But it did have everything you needed for your stay. That evening we went to Hard Rock Cafe and then went to a few bars, coming back around 2am.

On day 2, we decided to visit the sea life centre which was AMAZING. I would compare it to the Deep in hull, it was soo good. There was the most beautiful scenery of the beach just outside too, which made for some lovely photos. It cost about £15 each. On the same day we went back to central Copenhagen and visited ripleys believe it or not which was similar to Guinness world records, but still worth it. That evening we booked a bar crawl which was £15 but you got a shot in each bar and a long drink in the ending club, which was okay. The end club wasn’t our cup of tea (Latino music) so we had our drink and found elsewhere.

On the Saturday we decided to visit Sweden, which I’ll make a different post about, but only cost £20 on the train. When we arrived back from Sweden we went to the round tower, which cost about £4. You have to walk all the way up, so wouldn’t recommend this one for people with disabilities. As you walk up there are a couple of stops, with info about space and the tower. At the top you can see all of Copenhagen, similar to the Christiansborg palace. I would also recommend this tower. That evening, we went to tavoli gardens, which cost £17 to get in without any rides. We paid about £5 for the carousel and the haunted hospital. Tavoli gardens is a MUST. It’s absolutely beautiful and most definitely worth the visit (as seen on the photos).

Although being expensive, I would highly recommend Copenhagen for both the activities in the day and the night life.

Berlin day 3

On the night of day 2 going into day 3 we had a fire alarm drill at 2am where we stayed outside for over an hour. So we only had a few hours sleep going into this day but we didn’t want that to stop us.

With both of us being big into history and learning about World War Two we decided to head off to the Memorial and Museum Sachsenhausen concentration camp. To get there got a train from the centre and then a bus which took just over an hour in total. But we got all day passes for all public transport every day which cost 7 euro ish, so it wasn’t a bad journey at all.

The concentration camp is free to enter and we paid 3 euro for an audio device which told you loads of info about each part of the camp. I wouldn’t exactly recommend this however as each clip is about 10 minutes long and there are nearly 40 in total. We found it better just to read the informational sign posts.

The concentration camp is definitely worth a visit. It’s eye opening to what the victims went through and they’ve preserved it and created an amazingly informative memorial / museum for people to visit.

I don’t want to say too much about what’s at the camp as I think it is pretty self explanatory and the photos or any explanation wouldn’t do it justice, it’s worth going to see for yourself.

We then travelled back to the centre to visit the Berlin dungeons. I’m a massive fan of the dungeons, having gone to the London, York, and Amsterdam dungeons I couldn’t miss this opportunity to visit another. It was a really good hour and although very similar to the other dungeons I have visited, with very similar jokes and set ups, i still really enjoyed it.

With this being our last full day we decided after this we would wander around the tourist shops to get a couple of souvenirs and then went for a few drinks.

The following day we travelled back to the airport (which is a really straight forward trip) and headed back off home. With a 2 hour delay from Ryanair.

I would definitely recommend Berlin to anyone. Especially in the summer, there’s plenty to do without being too expensive. However if you go mid week a lot of bars etc shut down at 11, which is expected.

Berlin day 2

On the second day of being in Berlin, we had quite a few different things planned. We woke up about 7am and got ready to go out. We had breakfast and were well on our way in 30 degrees heat to the TV Tower. We booked in advance for this as we were expecting queues but for the 10am time, we did not really need to as it wasn’t that busy. The TV tower was good, but I am unsure if it was worth the £21 it cost. We went up a lift which lasts a few seconds which takes you to the top of the tower, and you do get to see a lot of Berlin which was lovely. We stayed up there for around 25 minutes (got lots of photos in) and then headed back down.

Once we had been to the TV tower we walked back to the centre of Berlin in hunt of a boat trip around all the key areas of the beautiful city which we found for 10 euro. The boat trip was great, especially in the hot weather, and there was a short explanation when passing each landmark. This was through a radio in both English and German.

While in Berlin we found that the restaurants and shops either weren’t keen on taking card or didn’t accept it at all which shocked us as we did not take many euros as we had our cards, so we had to use the ATMs at a fee. We got caught out by it a couple of times, so would suggest to take enough Euro’s out with you.

We then went on to see the memorial to the Jews and Homosexuals who were murdered during ww2. This was spectacular and a real honour and respectful area for the victims of world war 2. There was also a free museum underneath the memorial which was excellent and told the story from the victims perspective.

We headed back to the Reichstag and the Brandeburg gates on day 2 to see them in the daylight and stopped off at checkpoint Charlie which was a little underwhelming to say the least! There is a Mcdonalds right next to it, which I thought spoilt the landmark and took away the attention from it.

That night we had quite a few cocktails, continued to wander around the city and museum quarter before heading off to bed as most things winded down about 11pm.

Berlin day 1

I love to travel and Germany has always been somewhere I have wanted to go. Me and my friend booked to visit, for three nights in August. Luckily the weather was over thirty degrees every day ☀️.

We traveled from Manchester airport and booked in at all in hostel Berlin. I have never stayed in a hostel before but this one was nice. We stayed in a room just for two, and it had an en suite. It was clean and had everything you would have expected from a hotel room. We did get woken up at 1am by a broken fire alarm, where we all got evacuated and the emergency services were on scene within 5 minutes.

We arrived at 4pm and on the first day, we did quite a lot. We visited the Berlin wall:

This part of the Berlin Wall wasn’t well signposted anywhere. We just happened to come across it near our hostel which was great. It was next to the river and we came back on the last night when the sun was setting which was lovely.

We then went into the city on the train to find other tourist locations such as the Reichstag and the Brandenburg gates.

As we were walking around we also find a large statue with an angel on top. Which we later found out was a victory Column.

The rest of the evening was filled with cocktails and walking. It was such a great first day.

Travelling Europe ✈️

Featured

Hi, I haven’t posted in a long while and this is because life has got in the way. I enjoy writing and since uni I haven’t really done it as much. I got a new job and I’m focusing on that but it has taken over a little and I need something to distract me from the stress of my work life and this is my perfect outlet.

To get back into I thought I would share some of the photos of the places I have visited over the last year. I’m a keen traveller and have just booked another three holidays (soon to be four) as I just love visiting new places and learning about their culture. By the end of this year I will have been to Amsterdam, Fuerterventura (family holiday which was a perfect relaxing break), Berlin this month, Brussels in October hopefully, Poland, Krakow in November and Rome next year in April.

But for this blog I thought I’d share some of my favourite moments and photos from the last few years around Europe.

First off… Budapest

Budapest quickly became one of my FAVOURITE cities I have EVER visited. It’s beautiful. I went with a group of five friends, while we experienced the beautiful City in the day, we partied hard at night and I think that’s the perfect combination.

We did a bike tour around the Buda and Pest, visited the hotel in the rocks (defo worth a visit if you’re into your history), the thermal baths, a peddlo for fun and many other things. If you’re into your drinking and night life the ruined bar tour is brilliant.

There’s the pretty photos, now here’s a few group photos!

So if you’re looking for somewhere beautiful to visit with a bit of everything then Budapest is the place to go. It wasn’t too expensive to fly there, drink prices were average and there’s plenty to do. If you would like a more in depth review of Budapest let me know, as I could rave about this city for much longer haha.

Next up… Rhodes

I have never visited Greece before and it was lovely. However, I went with my now ex and although we went to Rhodes the only time I actually saw Rhodes was in the bus back to the airport as he was too concerned about spoiling the fact we were all inclusive and didn’t wanna leave the hotel! But it was still a good 2 weeks and I would like to visit again. plus it was only 5 days after I came back from Budapest, so bonusssss.

Dublin

I have done a whole post of its own on here regarding Dublin, so if you would like more info please see that blog. However, I will put it on here as I really loved Ireland and soooo want to go back. It’s cheap to get there but prices are quite high in the centre, which you expect for such a tourist hotspot now. If you walk out of the city a little the prices are much more reasonable plus you don’t mind as much when you’re on holiday!

Amsterdam

I’m not sure whether I should be calling it the Netherlands or Holland but honestly Amsterdam was fabbbb. Although we didn’t get the best weather while there it was still a great place to go. What I do suggest though is if you’re going for Anne franks house book about 5 months in advance as it sells out fast and we didn’t get to visit due to it being sold out (an excuse to go visit again). Other things that sold out were the ice bar which I didn’t really mind about as I had already been to one in Budapest (cheaper in Pest too 😏). We went to the Sex Museum (obviously) although it was a lot lot smaller than I expected to be! We were round it in about 10 minutes. We also visited the Amsterdam dungeons which was really great, I have visited many around the UK and it didn’t disappoint, the staff were amazing, really got into character and they’re fluent in so many languages that it became impressive. We also went to the Heineken museum and a river cruise which were both good experiences and worth doing, with neither being over priced in my opinion.

Fuerteventura

Although this isn’t on the same foot as the other countries I am going to add it as I said that I was going to talk about the countries over the last year and this is one of them. It was the first time ever we had Been away as a whole family so this included my mum, dad, sister (and partner), brother, other brother (partner and two kids). Which was a different kind of week but I thoroughly enjoyed it. We stayed in Corralejo which wasn’t the best choice for people who wanted to go out at night and have a few bevvies (should have gone Tenerife) but it was still a nice place to visit and would recommend to anyone who wanted a quiet week away.

So that’s my holidays so far, I have also visited a lot of new cities in England recently so if you would like a review on those please comment. Also comment if you have any questions to ask about these cities! I will be back to update you on my tip to Berlin in a couple of weeks. I also need to find a job that pays better to fund these trips 😂.

Travel! Before you run out of time! Xox

Day / Night out in Birmingham

Last week I visited Birmingham for the night! I have never been so I thought with it not being too far away it would be nice to go.

Me, my mum and my sister went on the coach from Nottingham (which was very cheap!)

We booked to go to the Hilton Hotel, where we dropped our bags off and walked to the Jewellery Quarter where we visited the Jewellery Museum which wasn’t to my taste but my Mum thoroughly enjoyed it!!!!

We then had a walk around and visited a few different places before the rain set in.

Once we had looked around we got changed and went out drinking cocktails! We had some of the besttttttt food and cocktails I’d ever had a Rev de Cuba and it was all well priced.

The next day we visited the Bull Ring shopping centre. With my mum being disabled and needing a wheelchair a lot of the time now we thought we best hire one there. We didn’t bring hers with us due to believing that if / when we needed it we could just hire one. Anyway, if you have a disability and are wanting a wheelchair for the day, Bullring shopping centre is awful! I repeat, awful! We had to treck right down to the car park on some kind of wild goose chase before finally finding a shop mobility (we had left my Mum on a bench by this point as it was far far too far for anyone who would need this service) and pay £10 to hire it and £10 deposit. None of the staff knew where the shop was and everyone told us differently, it was a very long way, on the opposite side of the carpark.

Once we had got over this annoyance we began shopping! I didn’t really need anything but enjoyed looking around. There was a quite a variety of shops which we spent all day looking around. I bought a mini Mac lipstick in Whirl (after loving Velvet Teddy) the Nyx angel Veil primer (more make up I didn’t need) and a skirt from Forever 21.

I enjoyed Birmingham, but the fact of the access for disabled people to gain a wheelchair for hire was appalling and sort of put a downer on the weekend. But barring that, it was a lovely couple of days spent with my mum and sister catching up.

The following photos shows a few photos from the trip and also what I bought.

Thanks for reading!!!

London 🇬🇧💂🏻‍♀️🎭

To celebrate the end of my three years at university and eighteen years in education I have decided to book a few trips to experience the world a little both in England and outside of England which you will be seeing more of within my blogs over the next few months, I am sure. While I have the spare time and flexibility of a student job still (I am looking for a grown-up job, honest) I have decided to use my leftover student loan to enjoy myself before I am stuck in a 9-5 where you can’t just get cover for those day trips with my mates and those nights out (and hungover mornings) which you regret.

Anyway, the first place I booked to go with my friends was London. National Express coaches from Nottingham are dirt cheap and although it’s a 3 and a half hour journey of trying to figure out why the bus WiFi won’t work and wondering what the stain is that is in direct eye line on the seat in front of you, it really isn’t that bad for about £10 return.

For the two night stay I actually slept at my friends house near Victoria station which was handy and free. Although I did have to stay on the floor, and due to stubbornness to not bring anything like a blanket or pillow with me, I got barely any sleep, I was freezing and my hips were digging into the actual floor like daggers. I was given a small blanket and a cheap pillow in which I folded in half but honestly I couldn’t complain too much as accommodation in London is expensive and all I wanted was a safe place to put my things and sleep and it did the job.

We arrived at around 4pm on Sunday, along with the two friends I travelled with, we were greeted at the coach station by another friend and headed to the house to drop off our stuff.

We were very lucky and all the days we spent in London it was over 20 degrees and dry so we got really lucky. We also got lucky in the fact that the royal wedding was happening the week after, so the city was in preparation with decorations.

Once we dropped off our stuff we headed off to the Westfields shopping centre and got a bite to eat. When I say a bite to eat, I mean we actually spent about an hour considering each restaurant and ended up in Zizzis where we got 40% student discount (result). Honestly, the pizza I had was lovely and set me up to get some alcohol inside me at Spoons (can’t go anywhere without visiting spoons!!!). Where on the tables it said something along the lines of watch your bags, they may get stolen. Which I thought was a lovely touch (not).

The next day was the busiest day, where we walked over 10 miles to do everything we could. We got up bright and early and headed to Harrods for 9:50, in which we waited 10 minutes for it to open! Once in there we got completely confused to where we were heading and ended up feeling totally out of place in our Primark summer tops and Topshop skirts against the £££££ dresses in which we found ourselves playing a game of who could find the most expensive attire, which was costing far more than our cars put together.

We did eventually find what we were looking for, which was the Harrods gift section and Toy Store to satisfy the 10 year olds inside of us.

We then went to visit the imperial war museum which was honestly, amazing. It was so insightful and also free. It really informs you on WW1 and WW2 and especially on the top floor which tells the story of the Holocaust. As a history buff myself I truly enjoyed the three hours spent in there and it opened my eyes further to the info I already knew studying it at A Level and far far more.

A trip to London is never complete unless you visit Buckingham Palace and take 200 photos of it, to probably never look at again. This trip was no different, especially knowing that Harry and Meghan would be marrying there a week later.

After visiting the home of the Queen we walked around Saint James Park Lake to Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square, China town, M&M World and Lego store (obviously).

We decided to eat at Planet Hollywood before making our way to the Dominion Theatre in the West End to see the Bat outta Hell. Due to my cousin being part of the cast we got AMAZING seats on row F, right near the stage making us very lucky. The show was superb and really topped an already amazing day of being tourists.

Due to departing at 10am the next day, we didn’t do much else and honestly, I was ready to get back to a real bed.

But it was one of the best trips in England I have done and it was super cheap which makes it even better!!

Dublin for my 21st

On the 10th February 2018 I turned 21 and for my birthday my boyfriend paid for us to visit Dublin to go early on April the 2nd and come back late at night on the April the 4th.

We left from Luton Airport at around 5am on Monday and arrived at a very wet and rainy Dublin. Once we got to Ireland we got an Airport bus which was all paid for through a Leap Card which was very handy! We stayed in a hotel outside of the centre and got the train in.

On the first day there we explored the City which was aaaamazing, but would have been a bit better if it wasn’t raining! So to cover from the rain a little we visited the wax museum which although was good, I think it was more for younger children (which we didn’t realise!). We also visited the Jervis shopping centre which was nice too.

Dublin Train Station

Near Temple Bar

Henry Street Core

View from the Ha’Penny Bridge

Shown from a few of the photos from day 1 in Dublin, you can see we had a really good day being tourists.

Day 2, which was my favourite day, visiting the Kilmainham Gaol Prison which has to be up there in my top favourite history places to visit as a bit of a History Geek myself. If you visit Dublin you have to visit this old prison, it tells the history of Dublin’s Convicts and it is definitely worth your money.

Kilmainham Gaol opened in 1796 as the new County Gaol for Dublin. It closed its doors in 1924.

Today the building symbolises the tradition of militant and constitutional nationalism from the rebellion of 1798 to the Irish Civil War of 1922-23. Leaders of the rebellions of 1798, 1803, 1848,1867 and 1916 were detained and in some cases executed here. Many members of the Irish Republican movement during the Anglo-Irish War (1919-21) were also detained in Kilmainham Gaol, guarded by British troops.

After visiting the Prison we made our way to the Dublin Zoo which was lovely, especially as the sun came out for us. I have to say though, I don’t think I have ever done so many steps in a few days as we decided to walk most places to really see the city, meaning I was doing around 25,000 steps a day according to my Fitbit!

The outside of the Prison

The ‘Panopticon’

Monkeys at the Zoo!

That night we went out for some food and also crossed the bridges again to see all the lights which were very pretty.

Day 3 was our last day and the perfect day to visit the Guinness factory as you can’t visit Dublin and not go there, right?! Although I haven’t really tasted Guinness before I really enjoyed the experience and it turned out that I quite enjoyed it.

The view from the sky bar

Showing how it has been advertised over the years

Tasting Guiness!

What time is it?

All in all, Dublin was an amazing experience and I would recommend visiting it to anybody! So Thank you Ireland for having us!!!!

Nottingham’s Caves

Historical, interesting and cheap!

Seeing as I am from Nottingham, and have either lived in the county or in the actual city studying for Uni, I thought it would be wrong of me to write anything other than a post promoting my city!

Nottingham is a city full of history, owning some of the oldest pubs such as Trip to Jerusalem from around 1189, Nottingham’s famous Goose fair dating back to the 13th Century, Nottingham’s castle from the 17th Century and Notts County football clubs which is recognised as the oldest association football team in the world, now playing at a professional level.

There are also many caves under Nottingham which are mostly man-made and extremely interesting.

A few week’s back now I visited Nottingham’s caves, steeped with great history, I thought it would be a great place to take my friend who was visiting from China! Although I have already been to the City Caves when I was younger, I was excited to visit them again now, with far more appreciation than at 12!

The caves present a story of their use to Nottingham and its residents throughout the years, showing how they were used for secret meetings to bomb shelters during World War Two, saving many Nottingham City Residents and much much more!

Not only are the caves cheap but they are also extremely interesting and if you’re ever around the Nottinghamshire are they are a definite must!

You can visit the caves guided by a physical tour guide or through an electronic device provided, both ways are a great way to learn and interact with the displays, however, there are many stairs and uneven ground so do bare this in mind if visiting.