Travel Adventures- Amalfi Coast, Italy

As usual, sorry I haven't posted much recently! I want to try and finish off these travel posts from my summer holiday so that I can more onto other content, and especially some more Christmassy bits and pieces. 

So our next stop on the cruise was Napels, and we decided to rather drive all along down the Amalfi coast, which was absolutely stunning and one of my favourite places on this trip! Driving along the coast through narrow windy roads that are super high-up on the mountains, just a barrier away from the deep cliff down to the sea is just so beautiful and picturesque. The sea was so beautifully blue and endless, and you can see for miles ahead all the upcoming little fishing villages and towns. If you're looking for stunning views, this is definitely the place to be. 

The first place we stopped at was this really sweet little Italian town called Positano. The whole town is situated on a steep mountain side (as most of the towns in this area are), and so to get down to the beach, you walk down the one main road that winds and weaves its way all the way down to the pebbled beach. The bottom half of this road is mainly for pedestrians only, so you park right up near the top and walk down. All along the sides of the road there are cute little shops, restaurants and gelato stops and other touristy places. It was so lovely to just take our time walking down and explore some of these places. The region is also known for their lemons, so make sure to try so delicious lemon granita or limoncello! As for the beach itself, the shore is made of black pebbles, which despite being super pretty, isn't ideal in terms of comfort, and does get really hot on a hot day, but the water was absolutely beautiful! Its so cool to swim in the sea right there and look up the mountainside that this whole town is built on, looming above you. We didn't have too long in Positano, but I absolutey loved it, and it seemed like a really relaxing place to spend a while, and there looked like there were some lovely places to stay. 

We continued to drive further along the coast to our next stop, Sorento. Sorento is actually quite different from Positano but the coast is equally as wonderful! I really enjoyed wandering through the town here, and we also had some of the most delicious pizza, as only Italy can do! There is also one really long street (I seem to have forgotten the name of it) that is known to be packed with loads of shops and retail stores, some touristy, some a bit more authentic. The road is colourful and loud and really lovely to have a wander down. It's packed with shops of all types- clothing, leather, touristy trinkets, lemon products of all kinds and lots more, so thats also a lovely thing to do while there. 

Another thing that's quite cool to do if you're anywhere near Napels of the Amalfi Coast is to visit Pompeii, as it isn't too far away and is just so interesting. Pompeii's ancient ruins of a city that once was, is just so fascinating and really not like anything I'd experienced before. I think the best way to see and understand the place and its history is actually to get a tour guide or pamphlet of sorts, as without it we were a bit lost as to what to do first, and what meant what, but despite this, it was really so fascinating and a cool, interesting thing to do. 

The Amalfi coast just had this wonderful charm to it and really captured my heart. Italy is filled with vibrance and vitality, and I just really loved experiencing this part of it and these sweet little towns. 

Pompeii

Travel Adventures- Rome, Italy

Rome is a city that is pretty close to my heart, and one that I'd not only been to before, but know kind of well because I lived in the central city for a week whilst on exchange, and also visited about 3 other times on that same trip. But there is always so much to see, and it never gets old or uninteresting, so I was excited to go again. A really lovely thing to do whilst in Rome is catch one of the Hop On Hop Off buses because there's a lot to see, but it is all quite far apart and not everything is within walking distance from each other, so that's a nice easy way to see it all. Otherwise, the metro is pretty easy to understand and use, and the main attractions are indicated at the various stops where you need to get off, so that works as well (just watch and hold onto your bags). 

One of my favourite attractions in Rome is the Trevi Fountain. It was absolutely packed due to the usual summer tourists, but the sculpture work itself and beautiful blue water is really so pretty, and worth seeing. A lot of lovely shops and restaurants are located quite close to the fountain, especially in the back alleys/roads in and around that area. Also, a close-by 15 minute walk away is the Pantheon, which is a huge building with a large round hole in the centre of it's roof. I'm afraid I don't know too much about its' history, but it's pretty cool to go and see. Also, in one of the roads up from the Pantheon is a very well known ice-cream shop with some of the best gelato I've ever had and over 100 flavours!! 

Another lovely attraction to go and see is the Spanish Steps. The walk up is a little tiring but completely worth it to see the lovely view of the roof tops and skyline of Rome. In the main road across from the steps is the main road for all things expensive and high-fashion shopping with Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Givenchy and the works- great for window shopping, not so much for the budget! 

The Roman Forum and Colosseum are also a must-see if it's your first time in Rome. From my experience, the queues to get into the Colosseum are nightmarish, so go at a more quiet time, or early morning, but it's definitely worth a peek inside, and the history of the building is absolutely fascinating. The Roman Forum is a big region outside the Colosseum with ruins from ancient Rome, it is not ideal for a hot day as it is a lot of walking and standing around, but if you're a history-lover, it's definitely for you. 

Another must-see in Rome is The Vatican. Specifically St. Peter's Basilica, which is free to the public and is honestly one of the most overwhelming and stunning buildings I have ever been into. Make sure to wear clothing that covers your shoulders, midriff and knees though. The basilica is huge and has the most stunning sculptures, mosaics and embellishments I've ever seen. It is also completely stunning to walk up the 1000s of steps to the top of the basilica's dome to see the completely-worth-it view over the whole city of Rome. Also in The Vatican is the Sistine chapel, which is also absolutely stunning- the painting on the roof is completely awesome and definitely something worth seeing despite the hours of queues. In this area, there are also a lot of touristy shops if you need to do some gift shopping and some lovely restaurants with delicious authentic Italian pizza, pasta and bruschetta, just to name a few (oh my goodness, I love Italian food). 

Rome is quite overwhelming in it's size and expanse, and also how much history it has and the loads of tourist attractions there are to see, but they definitely are all worth it. Everytime I have been there it has been absolutely sweltering, as that's what you get when you combine European summer with a huge city, so be prepared for a lot of walking and sweating, and also an absolutely wonderful city with loads to do and see. 

Pics of the Pantheon and Trevi Fountain: 

Pics of The Vatican 

St. Peter's Basillica

View from the top of the dome of St. Peter's

Pics of the Colosseum and Roman Forum

Travel Adventures: Cassis, France

Hey guys :) 
I really am sorry for the lack of posting on here, I don't have any specific excuse other than that time is just flying by and life has been quite hectic. But I wanted to continue with my travel posts from Europe this summer, if for nothing else than having something to come and look back on every now and then. 

So the second place our cruise stopped was Toulon in the South of France, although we actually didn't spend much time there, as we caught a train to the near-by little beach-side town of Cassis. The town is quaint, pretty and very cute. We wondered around the streets and in and out of the various little shops, picking up some delicious French bread and ice-cream for lunch. The town basically sits on the sea, and so we spent some time on the beach, soaking up the sun and having a dip in the sea, which was actually rather cold considering it's the Med. I really liked that Cassis was much less touristy than some of the bigger cities in Europe in mid-summer, and it never felt too crowded or commercialised. The beach front is packed with beautifully different coloured tall houses all along the shore, and a pretty promenade dotted with lots of shops and restaurants, it felt very authentically French. 

We spent most of our day on a boat, going out to see the calanques, which are narrow, deep-walled inlets of water that have developed in the rock along the coast, and they are filled with calm, crystal clear water and some lovely beaches. We did a boat tour of the various calanques, which was a lot of fun because the water was quite rough and wavy, and so we were bouncing about on the boat, and then when we went into the calanques, which were surrounded by calm, turquoise waters and beach-goers all along the shores. The whole landscape of this rocky coast is absolutely beautiful and really quite awesome- the rocks are huge and tower over you, beautifully dotted with vegetation and cool changes in the rock from a history of water erosion and the works. I would highly recommend you go on one of these tours if you're ever in Cassis or the south of France, we literally just walked up to the port ticket office and asked for the soonest tour leaving, cause I think they are popular and happen quite frequently. 

I had never been to France before, and whilst this was just a little snippet of the culture, I really enjoyed my time in Cassis, and was really taken by this sweet little town. It was quite quiet felt like a lovely place to relax and enjoy the stunning views, delicious food, and authentically french culture this lovely region has to offer. 

Arriving at Toulon...

Calanques

Travel Adventures: Barcelona, Spain

Barcelona, Spain was the starting city of our cruise and was a place I was really excited to visit because I had heard amazing things about this city and had never been to Spain. Barcelona is a fury of colour, beauty and activity. I think the thing that initially caught my attention the most is that it is very green and filled with nature despite being such a built-up metropolis. Everywhere you go, there are beautiful pavements and promenades lined with stunning green trees, flower beds around every corner, and parks and greenery everywhere you look, making the city absolutely stunning! As we only had one day in Barcelona, we hired a personal tour guide to drive us around to see as much of the city as possible and get a real feel for it. 

One of my favourite places we visited was Park Güell, which is this big park system type thing composed of beautiful gardens, stunning architecture, sculptures and designs. The architectural aspects of the park were designed by a famous architect of the time called Antoni Gaudí. The buildings and spaces are all strange and bizarre and a whole new, different approach to architecture, especially for that time. It was honestly one of the most interesting and beautiful attractions I've been to. I would highly recommend visiting this place, it is just so different and so beautiful, filled with the most amazing colourful mosaics, different designs and arches, and lovely views over the rest of the city. When you walk in there are buildings that look like gingerbread houses dipped in a white frosting of mosaics, and in between the attractions, the park itself is beautiful and filled with blooming flowers. One of my favourite parts was this huge open courtyard/gravel area right at the top, which looks out over Barcelona, and all around the edge/railings of the space is this a mosaic wall/bench that you can sit on, filled with the most beautiful and colourful mosaics all around the huge perimeter. 

Gaudí actually has a lot of other stunning architecture in Barcelona, and that's what we headed to go see next. Sagrada Família is this enormous beautiful church in the middle of Barcelona. Gaudí died in the midst of its consturction and so it is actually still incomplete. But despite this, it is honestly one of the most breath-taking buildings I have ever seen. It's actually quite overwhelming and spans the whole stretch of one block. Gaudí's whole philosophy on architecture was to do stuff differently and introduce shapes and curves into his work, opposing the traditional box-like architecture of most buildings. The basilica is huge and mostly monochrome with occasional bits of colour and shapes. It really isn't very easy to describe, but is undoubtedly worth seeing if you ever get the chance! 

We then drove up past La Vila Olímpica del Poblenou, which is in the Sant Martídistrict of the city. This is the olympic village built for the Summer Olympic Games held there in 1992. Up near this region, we stopped at the most beautiful park and view point, which looked out over the whole city, across the sea, and down at the port. This is also the point of where the cable car system running above Barcelona peaks, and even though we unfortunately didn't get to catch a cable care, I can only imagine how incredible the views would be, and is definitely a must on my list for next time!

Another thing I loved doing in Barcelona was just wondering through the streets, especially La Ramba which is a touristy pedestrian street close to the promenade. The street was bustling with activity, festive music and loads of cute, quirky little shops. All the streets surrounding this area are dotted with touristy shops, galleries and museums, and of course tons of places to grab some cheeky churros whilst wandering around. The Pablo Picasso museum is also quite close to La Ramba, and an enjoyable walk. The promenade was so beautiful and quite modern. It was filled with abstract art sculptures and constructions, and was a lovely place to walk along and get a real feel for central Barcelona. 

Sagrada Familía

I really was so taken by this city, and really hope I can one day return to fully get to know the ins and outs and more about the culture. It feels very young, fun and lively, and was a really wonderful place to begin our adventure. 

Travel Adventures: Budapest, Hungary

I realise it's now taken me months to finish this series of posts accounting my trip to Europe this year, but I promise this is the last of them, as Budapest was our last, and one of my absolute favourite destinations. So yeah, I hope these travel posts haven't been too personal and bored you all to death, but I wanted this blog to be a place that I can come back to one day and read about some of the cool things I got up to, but I have also tried to make these posts 'tourist friendly' so if any of you are planning trips to these places or wondering if they're worth going to, you can get more personal insight into the various cities.

So Budapest was absolutely lovely, I loved that it is kind of this bizarre mixture of what is simultaneously a historical gem filled with rich history and infrastructure, mixed also with a much more modern, stylish and hip side of town as well. One of the things we did whilst there was a walking tour of pretty much the whole city. While I will admit that this was a LOT of walking (you literally span the whole city from Pest to Buda- the city is divided by the Danube river into these two sides), it was 100% worth it.

Let me describe the city by talking about Pest and Buda separately as they really are quite different but both so worth seeing in their own right. Okay so Pest is the side of town that we were staying, we stayed in a really lovely student hostel called Mavericks that, as student hostels go, was pretty well rigged out and facilitated, so I really enjoyed that as a nice place to stay always makes a difference. Whilst I don't know much about the differentiation between Buda and Pest, my impression is that Pest feels a lot more young and modern. At night, in among the streets between our hostel and St Stephens Basilica, the streets were bustling with lively, lit restaurants and entertainment, the works, and in among this side of town there are the ruin bars and night clubs pumping out loud music.  On this side of town is St Stephens Basilica, which is huge, absolutely stunning and surrounded by a big square, it is the tallest building in Budapest and if you look over at Pest from the other side of town, you can just see its dome peaking up above the rest of the city. Also on this side of town are the Parliament buildings and close by to those is a sculpture called Shoes on the Danube Bank. This is a WW2 memorial sculpture that I was so sad not to be able to see personally. Our tour guide told us about it and explained the back story, but we didn't manage to venture there in our own time, so if any of you are ever there, don't miss it like I did, as it is supposedly very much worth seeing. Pest just feels really relaxed and social and this side of the city really captured my heart and I kind of fell in love with it literally from the second we arrived. It is dotted with beautiful parks with pretty trees and the Budapest ferris wheel, warm baths, quaint little shops and other attractions such as Heroes Square, not to mention all the amazing shopping we managed to get done there, and actually spent a lot of time doing, which suited me perfectly. 

So then, on the other side of town, right across the Danube over the Chain Bridge, is Buda. Buda feels a lot more like the very traditional, historical European post-war city, filled with old buildings, castles and cathedrals, but also, similarly to Pest, lots of greenery, trees and flower beds everywhere you look. My favourite thing on the Buda side was right up the hill, which is a bit of a trek (although I think there is a cable car system type thing too), Matthias Church, which (with no exaggeration at all) is honestly the most stunning building I have ever seen. I am not usually one who oohs and aaahs and gushes over architecture but this building is beyond stunning- describing it would not do it justice so rather just Google it (check out its roof tiling) and see for yourself. Up by the church there were also some beautiful sculptures and other lovely little cafes along tree-lined streets. In fact, this whole area and Castle District up on the hill is so lovely to explore, it was a bit quieter than Pest and has beautiful views looking down on the whole city, the river and across into Pest.

So yeah, as you can probably tell, I was really endeared and pleasantly surprised with Budapest and definitely hope to go back as there was so much I didn't get to do, and it was just a place I felt really happy and calm. 

Matthias Church

St Stephen's Basilica

The Chain Bridge

The view looking across at Pest from Buda

And then that was it, after almost a month in Europe we backed up our massive backpacks again and came home- it was an amazing adventure!