Europe!

Hello! 

I haven't updated this for a while, because things have been pretty busy! I am currently in Bled, Slovenia, and don't want to make this a hugely long post and hog the hostel's computer, but I do want to give a quick update as to my time in Europe so far.


Joe and I set out for our Interrail trip on the 19th of May from East Midlands airport. The Ryanair flight was an experience - they try to sell you things every ten seconds of flight time. We landed in Barcelona and set off finding our hostel! Barcelona was pretty good - we had three days there which was definitely enough time there, but we were sad to leave our hostel - HelloBCN was brilliant, central, cheap, clean, secure and friendly. Man, it was kind of bad to start off our trip with such a great hostel because in comparison everywhere else had a lot to live up to! In Barcelona we visited La Sagrada Familia -  a huge cathedral that's been under construction for like 200 years or something and isn't due to be finished until 2080, we ate chorizo, drank San Miguel, walked along the beach, and climbed up a huge hill to a fort.

Leaving Barcelona we had our first Interrail experience with our very first train trips. We stopped en route to the station to buy fartons - these delicious doughnut-y pastry things - and therefore missed our train to Montpellier. We were stuck with no more train times, and when we looked at later trains they were all booked up or we had to pay a huge reservation fee. After having a bit of a panic, we asked at the information desk and spoke to a very helpful man who even printed out the next train times for us and told us that we wouldn't need to pay a fee. We hung around the station, bought a huge bottle of water that we christened 'the whopper', and then got on our first interrail train!

Our hostel in Montpellier was pretty disappointing compared to HelloBCN. We stayed in the HI hostel, the only one in Montpellier, which meant I had to buy a HI card to be able to stay there. For only €11 it's worth it, because I've used it a couple of times since in places that you can only stay in if you have one. Despite booking a dorm room, we were given our own room with two beds in, which was brilliant because we could just dump all our stuff on the floor without worrying about being messy and getting in other people's way. We spent that afternoon/evening exploring Montpellier - the sun was glorious and the buildings there are beautiful. Unfortunately, the hostel only had a microwave so we were a bit stuck for food to do - ended up having lasagne that was horrible. 


We then moved onto Nimes, which we loved! The hostel we stayed in was another HI one, and we decided to camp, as they had a facility where they provided a tent and blankets etc and you could camp in the little wooded area by the hostel. It was a fair trek from the station/town to the hostel, and involved a lot of hills (I don't like hills, especially not with a big backpack), but it was  a lovely little place. I used my French with the hostel lady which was good, and we dumped our stuff and then explored Nimes. It's just so beautiful. We sat down on a quiet little street at a cafe and had drinks - the atmosphere was lovely. That night, however, was not. We were SO COLD. Literally freezing. Neither of us got very much sleep, and we kept falling down 'the abyss'  - the cold gap between our air beds.

There was no check out time for campers at the hostel, so we decided to make the most of that by visiting Pont du Gard that morning. We got on a bus there, and paid to get in, which wasn't too expensive. Unfrotunately we were both in pretty bad moods due to the horrible night before, and also only had just over an hour there before the bus back to Nimes. You didn't really need much longer there, it's not like there's tons to do. We got off the bus and then raced up the hills to our hostel, grabbed our bags and raced back down to the train station. The train we got was supposed to get us in at 11pm, which was pretty awful. Still, we had booked a night at Nice, so we knew we had somewhere to stay. Unfortunately, our train was held up while we were on it. We didn't arrive in Nice until about 1.30am, and then had to phone the hostel for directions. Joe tried, because I was in a terrible mood and had slept for most of the delayed part if the train journey, but the man only spoke French so I had a go. We eventually found our hostel and checked in - I managed to communicate fine with the man which was a good feeling to end the pants day! We crashed into bed at about 3am, and decided we'd just ask in the morning about booking an extra night or two so that we could actually see Nice/Monaco/Cannes. Why had we ever thought just one night there would be enough? In the morning though, things got even more pants. Our hostel (which seemed lovely, even at 3am) and all hostels in the surrounding area were completely booked up. Why? The Monaco Grand Prix, happening that weekend. Woops, we missed that one!

We were pretty fed up that we weren't going to get to see Nice at all, or Cannes or Monaco - which would have been even more awesome to see while the Grand Prix was on - but we regrouped and decided to leave France behind and go to Italy instead. The beauty of a flexible interrail pass, hey?! We booked for two nights at Pisa to recover and chill out for a little bit, also realising that we needed to slow down our pace a bit, and then we set off that day, having spent a grand total of just three nights in France.

Things we learnt:

1. Always have directions from the station to your hostel.
2. Use the Deutsche bahn website. It is all you will ever need.
3. Get the next train's times, just in case you miss yours.
4. Book hostels with kitchens - it's harder than it sounds to do without.
5. If you want a day somewhere, you need to book two nights there.

I will continue with our adventures in Italy in the next post!

Summer Bits and Pieces

Lots of things I've stuck together in this post - all happened over the (very busy) summer.

First, I went to see Lights! Joe got tickets to go to Birmingham, and asked me. I had never heard of her, and when thinking of most of Joe's music, I was pretty sure I was not going to like her. The song everyone seems to like most is Toes (which is good) but I prefer Banner, and also Lions. When you first listen, you're like OH WHAT IS THIS IT'S NOT GOOD AT ALL. But then slowly you become addicted. Seriously. Tried and tested, with a 100% success rate in both people I forced to listen. Anyway, I only started listening approx. two days before the gig, so knew not many words, but it was awesome! Tiny little gig, with a few crazies shouting "WE LOVE YOU LIGHTS!" Man.

Chloe and Ali Harris had an amazing birthday party that I went to with a few other friends. It was at the River School, and it was so lovely.

Me, Becca, and Chloe at the party

The next big thing to happen was 'Dom's Fortnight'. For those who have never witnessed a 'Dom's House', you're seriously missing out. When Dom's parents go away, he has a free house, resulting in an awesome night in with drinks, cards, and films. This time, however, they were going away for a whole FORTNIGHT. Yes, this meant Dom's Fortnight. I was at the Olympics working for the first week, but stayed over a couple of times in the second, when I was back. Connor outdid everyone though - he packed a suitcase, stayed for the first week, went back home to work at the weekend, then re-packed and returned for the second week. Now that's commitment.

After Soul Survivor (coming in the next post), I went to visit Joe for the weekend in Cheltenham, where he was doing work experience. It was really lovely, we shopped around, went to Starbucks, and he cooked sausage, mash and beans, which is obviously on the top 10 best meals list.

The meal in question - accompanied with Rose, for class.

Next was George's surprise 18th birthday party. George generally doesn't like surprises, so we were all curious to see how it would go down, but he seemed to have a great time!

Lydia's party was amazing. She had a party in a castle. Yes, an ACTUAL CASTLE. Everyone looked gorgeous - incredibly dressed up. Emma and I got slightly lost on the way, and had to stop at a pub for directions, but the party was worth the drive up and down the same bit of road. Four times. 

Ali & Chloe at the Castle Partay

Possibly the best part was the bear. Yeah, you heard me. A huge, fake bear, taller than the tallest person I know, was guarding the stairs. I wanted to hug that bear so bad. And by the end of the night (and after a couple of glasses of wine) I was living the dream - I got my bear hug.

Josh and I travelled down to visit my Grandparents, in Farnham. It was our first big train journey alone, and although by this point of the summer I was pretty used to lugging suitcases around by myself and getting myself from point A to point B by train, it was still strange to be responsible for Josh! It was so much fun, and we went on a proper adventure to find Old Man's Hill, a place we'd discovered before. It became clear that it was like Narnia at the back of the wardrobe, though, where you could only find it on certain days. We gave up, but had an awesome day out trekking through the countryside anyway. Some of the roads there are not fun, though, where there are no paths, and cars come hurtling round tight corners, only spotting you at the last minute. I thought I was going to get us killed.

Scott had a bbq for his 18th (he's the youngest of us, a 31st of August kid) at his house. It was brilliant to see everyone again, and Scott's family are hilarious. There's this cat that doesn't leave their garden alone, and his mum gets frustrated and sprays the little mist thing from the iron at it. It'll come back straight away; it's like a never-ending battle where neither of them will give in.

Head Bands game

I took Josh to the Thinktank in Birmingham - it was so awesome! My favourite part was the brain, an actual human brain that had been donated to the Science Museum. They had displayed the letter from the man who donated it, and somehow that was what made it more real - that this was an actual person. It was fascinating - Josh got fed up with how long I stayed and just stared at it. It's just amazing, how a small, squishy pinky-grey blob holds all your memories, your favourite colour, if you are a morning person or not. Just... wow.

Square wheels and round wheels..

Pulleys and weights

Solar panel, wind turbine, rowing pedals and wind-up generator

They also had an outdoor garden, which was so cool! It was all to do with energy, and there was loads of stuff you could actually try out.

Finally, we went out for a meal altogether, to the classic Monsoon. It was lovely, and I can't remember why we went, unless it was just a leaving thing, but it was on my list of things to talk about, and now I have.

Apologies if you've actually read the whole of this post - it's been very bitty, but I had to put in all the little bits and bobs that happened over the summer somewhere, and now they're done and out of the way! 

Next post: Soul Survivor! (Much more exciting :D )

Brixham 20-26th June

The beautiful blue sea

Mine and Josh's hands

Graffiti on a wall

We went on a proper summer family holiday this year (usually we just go to Tenby in October), which was awesome! We must have got the nicest and hottest week of the whole summer. I had a great time, and (as usual) swam in the sea loads, although there were so many jellyfish! Also as usual, I managed to cut my feet to pieces and spent most of the holiday hobbling around and bleeding at random moments. I'd just look down and I was leaving a trail of red pebbles behind me. It was strange being back in Brixham; we went on so many holidays there but I felt like I'd forgotten so much of it! Our last evening (I think it was) was awesome, cus mum and dad were going to see Chicago, so me and Josh had a bus pass each that let us go round the whole of Torbay. We started off in Torquay, had a go in some of the arcades and looked in a few shops, then got the bus round to Paignton where we went along the pier. Josh got obsessed with these horse-racing things, and I just played on the 2p machines :D Haha. we bought some fish and chips and sat by the seafront in the dark, it was so nice. After a walk around we caught a bus back to Brixham and walked home! The whole holiday was great, and it was nice to be with the family too :) Before the holiday, I had thought I would be leaving two nights earlier than everyone else as I had to be at Eton Dorney on the Thursday, but realised that it was actually the Friday! Of course, I could have gone straight there from Brixham, but I don't think it would have put me in the best of moods! So, I left Brixham the afternoon of the 26th, whereas Mum, Dad and Josh came home on the morning of the 27th. I didn't miss out on much, which was nice :) It was so odd getting the train back by myself (and with a suitcase!) although after this summer of train-ing around everywhere, I'm a pro ;) I got back pretty late, and Joe stayed over; was nice to see him although we didn't get to finish watching our film because we were both so tired! The next morning, he had to go off to do his work experience, and I had to grab my (rapidly repacked) suitcase and catch the train to Windsor & Eton station!

Josh on a wall

Whack the moles!