Amsterdam

After spending a year in America, (I swear I will stop going on about it one day...) and doing a lot of travelling, going back to the realities of English university didn't exactly fill me with excitement. Therefore, my English study abroad friends and I decided to book a reunion getaway as soon as we broke up for the Christmas holidays. Our choice was the beautiful city of Amsterdam. Although it may have a reputation for being wild and sleazy, Amsterdam is actually a very pretty and peaceful place. I had already been once before with family but that didn't mean I was any less excited to go.

Day One

After a very short flight we arrived in Amsterdam and made our way to our fantastic apartment. It was located in the Canal Belt area of Centrum near an area called Rembrandtplein, basically a very central location with a great view of Amsterdam's famous canals. The apartment was huge with a beautiful living room and kitchen area upstairs and two spacious bedrooms downstairs. I could have lived there forever. After settling in we made our way to a cute little Italian restaurant. I ordered a four cheese pizza that was so delicious. Then we made our way to a cute little bar with an old style juke box and just one local sat peacefully for some beer and wine.

 Our Apartment

Quattro Formaggio Pizza from Pizzeria La Traviata

Day Two

The next day we made a quick stop for coffee then made our way to Museumplein, a square with Amsterdam's famous museums like the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh museum. This is also home to the IAMSTERDAM sign. After a few photos and a watch of the ice skaters we headed to Bagels and Beans for lunch. I ordered an everything bagel with pesto and sun-dried tomato cream cheese and proscuitto, parmesan and rocket. Then we went to the Vondelpark, or bike park, where we hired bikes and rode around like true Dutch people, though we avoided the real roads at all costs. We then made our way to an area called Leidseplein, then went home for a nap. At night we went to an Indian restaurant, Memories of India, which was so delicious.

Museumplein and the IAMSTERDAM sign

Bagel and Cream Cheese from Bagel and Beans

Views in the Vondelpark

Christmas Decorations in Leidseplein

Day Three

Our first stop on day three was the Anne Frank Huis. We had been told that queues were usually ridiculously long, but we only waited around half an hour to get in. Unfortunately, many people had selfie sticks, taking pictures of themselves outside, which I found quite disrespectful. The same people then spoke very loudly throughout the museum, not really taking in any of the museum. However, the experience was still very moving and seeing actual handwritten pages from Anne's real diary was really good to see. We then headed for toasties in a really cute lunch place called Toastable, where I had a Dutch meatball toastie. Afterwards we went to a cheese shop and passed the Royal Palace, and then later on we went for a quick apple tart and coffee stop at Winkels 43. Once darkness arrived we headed to the Red Light District, which was a very bizarre place. After our busy day we went back to the area our apartment was in and tried some famous dutch chips in a cone and picked up a waffle from a Christmas stall for dessert.

The Royal Palace

The Meatball Toastie from Toastable

Dutch Apple Tart from Winkels 43

Day Four

Our fourth day was our most relaxed day. After a late wake up and a long trip to Starbucks we wandered around the Bloemenmarkt, or flower market, and had a look in another cheese shop. We then went to a chain lunch spot in Amsterdam called La Place where they have a wide variety of cuisines all under one roof, which are then made in front of you with fresh ingredients. We went for soup and a sandwich with some lemonade. In the evening we went to a burger place called Burger Fabriek before going to the Amsterdam Ice Bar. We got a cocktail and two ice drinks included in our ticket which was pretty decent. It was a lot colder than I expected so we didn't spend too long in there. Afterwards, I had a raspberry beer at a craft beer bar with a large selection of beers from all over the world before going home.

Inside the Amsterdam Ice Bar

Lights over the Canals

Day Five

On our final day we did some souvenir and cheese shopping and then stopped for lunch at a cute café where I had a warm mozzarella and pesto baguette. We then went on a canal cruise all around Amsterdam where we got to see the city's sights from water level for around an hour. We then went to a bar and browsed a few shops before going to the airport to go home.

View from the Canal Cruise

The bikes that have been retrieved from canals

I'll miss you Amsterdam!

My Summer Through Snapshots

Long time no speak! It's been a while, in fact it has been a long while; 397 days to be precise since I last wrote and published a post. Sophie explained the slight hiatus (ok, gargantuan hiatus) in this post linked here. But now I'm back and a little less busy, I'm here to stay for the foreseeable future.

I have so many post ideas but I wasn't sure what to 'make a comeback' with, I didn't really want to write a beauty or fashion piece as my first so I settled on making a post with a few of my favourite pictures from the last couple of months. After I finished work in July, this is what I was up to instead of sitting behind my computer writing...

June
June wasn't that eventful to be honest as I was still busy working, but we had the best weather of the year and found an excuse to celebrate it with Pimms and a BBQ. 

July

July began with a last bit of hard graft at work before I said my emotionally goodbyes and left, the rest of July was spent celebrating mine and Sophie's 21st birthday, spending the day at RHS Flower Show, having a few days in London visiting my sister and then ending the month with a fabulous trip to NYC. 

August

August was mostly spent on the beautiful island of Koh Samui, Thailand. After an horrendously long flight we were welcomed with gorgeous white beaches and stunning blue skies, I spent a lot of time lying on my sunbed toasting myself to a lovely shade of brown as well as having experiences I'll never forget. 

Now I've done my first post, its time I got brainstorming, planning and writing some exciting content for over the next couple of months.

Travel Review: Santorini, Greece

 200km southeast of mainland Greece lies the beautiful volcanic island of Santorini, its capital Thira hosts some of the most idyllic hotels in the world and is often a hotspot for the rich and famous (the Kardashians visited Santorini earlier this year as part of their annual family holiday).  This summer I was lucky enough to visit the picturesque island and here is my review.

To give you a little bit of a background and to cut a long story short, the island was formed by many large volcanos 1000s of years ago. It consists of three small islands arranged in a circle around the flooded caldera and one of its main unique characteristics are the magnificent rock faces around the island with towns and villages built into the sharp slopes. 

The town of Thira at dusk built into the cliffs overlooking the caldera.

I visited the island at the end of July 2013 for one week with my family, the flight time was a very bearable 3 ½ hours with wonderful views of the Aegean sea and Greek islands on the descent down into Santorini. Quite often on these tiny islands the airports are small, unorganised and busy and Santorini was no exception – a lot of patience is required! The weather was brilliant- around 25⁰C to 30⁰C- and mostly sunny. We stayed in a town called Kamari which is situated on the opposite side of the island to Thira and was only a ten minute transfer from the airport. Our hotel was built into the cliff overlooking the town and sea, it was a small, family run and reasonably priced 4 star hotel. The rooms were basic but comfortable, big and very clean; ours also had a small kitchen and dining area. My only criticism about the hotel would be that the location meant it was quite exposed to strong winds and could sometimes make it a little chilly around the pool area.

We had quite an active week and tried to fit as much into the 7 days as we could. If I explained everything we did this post would be far too long so I will choose my highlights. Probably my favourite day of the holiday was when we took a boat trip across the caldera and went onto the active volcano, we walked around the volcano and learnt the whole history of the island. You could see the smoke from the volcano and feel the heat coming up from the ground; the views were also quite amazing. 

Picture taken from the volcano overlooking the caldera, towards mainland Santorini.

Another highlight was when we went to the far end of Thira as we were told you can see the most beautiful sunset every night. We went to a lovely wine bar high up in the cliffs hanging over the sea and watched the most stunning sunset I have ever seen. We then waked back down into Thira and ate dinner at a very pleasant Greek tavern.

Sunset fromThira

The sunset from Thira with a cheeky glass of vino.

My final highlight was our last night, which also happened to be my birthday. We spent the day relaxing on the beach then in the evening we got dressed up and went out for a few cocktails then ate at a really nice restaurant called Elia. The food was delicious and the atmosphere was perfect.