Brussels

On 10.10.10, I started 'officially' dating the most incredible person I have ever met. He is still my boyfriend four years later, and we have gone through so much in that time - finishing high school, getting into university & moving to London, getting through university and finally finishing university! Some major life changes right there, and I feel so lucky to have had him by my side for every moment of it. Now we are living together, and I couldn't be happier.

To celebrate our 4 year anniversary, we went to the land of chocolate, beer and chips - Belgium! We caught the 2 hour Eurostar and spent three days eating our way around the beautiful country and suffering regular sugar highs and lows together. We were staying in Martin's Brussels EU hotel which was really lovely and great value for money - comfortable beds, in the center and with a spa/gym (which we obviously didn't use)!

Brussels is beautiful, with amazing architecture, statues and gardens everywhere you look. 

We spent a lot of time trying to soak everything up by walking around aimlessly, and getting lost! 

Ok - as pretty as Brussels may be, there was one reason we had come and that was simply chocolate. Although I would say I am a pretty die hard chocolate fan, even I got sick of chocolate after three days in Belgium. I consumed SO MUCH chocolate from morning to night - warm, thick hot chocolates, delicately perfected pralines, slathered on waffles or speculoos biscuits, ganache macaroons. Brussels has a lot of chocolate shops - they are literally on every street, I saw far more of them than Starbucks or Mcdonalds which is saying something! 

Magical waffles from Maison Dandoy 

We bought 5 bags of speculoos-chocolates from Laurent Gerbaud 

Waffle stuffed with belgian chocolate & speculoos from The Waffle House 

Above - magical chocolates from Pierre Marcolini, renowned chocolatier - the best hot chocolate and macaroons ever. 

We also had in Bruges (coming in the next post) probably the best chocolate of the trip from a shop called The Chocolate Line - with bizarre concoctions like absinthe, iced coffee, maize and bacon chocolate we didn't expect it to be as mindblowingly incredible as it was. 

I was shocked at how international Brussels is, although I guess I shouldn't have been. Dima rejoiced as he found a kebab that was apparently better than those we ate growing up in Cyprus (after long nights out), so of course he ate three of them. He also indulged in the beer opportunities Brussel held, but as I hate beer I wasn't as impressed. 

I'm not sure if we just didn't find the right place, but the chips in Brussels were a little overrated (but chips are chips, and I don't discriminate) 

We also went to visit the Atomium, which was pretty impressive although very random. Great views though, and a bit of random atomic history along the way. 

And of course visited the famous statute of 'Mannekin Pis' - a little boy peeing who owns 365 outfits which are changed daily. We found these outfits in the museum we visited after.. I wish I had that many clothes!

Overall Brussels is a really lovely place to spend a weekend, but I think two days is just about the right amount of time to spend there. It is beautiful, but quite expensive and city-like, with quite random attractions - but great food! However, the town of Bruges (coming soon) is beautiful and I wish that we had had more time to spend there. 

W hotel

The W hotel is quickly becoming my favourite place to hang out. London Village Kids have started up a sort of model-hang out there, (so if you are modeling in London definitely sign up. straight away.) - they also do really great nights out in London for everyone so definitely worth checking them out, some really cool people. Back to the W. It is such a beautiful hotel and located bang in the middle of Leicester Square and Picadilly Circus. 

Hiding behind M&M's world - a gigantic W

Their theme seems to be... disco balls. But instead of one looming conspicuously over a big room, they sort of exploded them into every conceivable place, which looks awesome.  

We are lucky enough to use the gym, and I went to check it out the other day - amazing. Super high tec machines and relatively empty in comparison to my sweaty university gym! 

I don't think I have ever seen such a beautiful gym - running on a treadmill that overlooks London is a nice change to running on a treadmill that overlooks.. a wall. 

The best part, is obviously the sauna/steam room. 

The lounge in W is also amazing, a really chilled out and relaxed place to grab a drink or two and study/use their free wifi.

 

Their food is amazing, and they have two very cool sections which remind me of seasons - one 'wintery' section with blazing, swanky fires 

and one section with beautiful floor to ceiling windows, meaning it is a beautifully light place to go and sit. I watched enviously a couple of people having an afternoon tea in there, and it looked incredible! Definitely planning to go and elegantly devour some mini-cakes with Dima soon! 

They also have a club (whatttt!) and I've heard that on the weekends it gets pretty busy there, which must mean it is good! As well as a cinema - they should definitely install these in every hotel! If you are looking to stay in London it is literally perfect and very different from all the other hotels I've been to! Definitely worth checking out, even for a cheeky lunch :) (they have mini burgers - enough said.) 

xxx 

Brighton

Last weekend, Dima and I decided to leave the dusty, grey streets of London for a day at the seaside! I can't believe I have lived in London for three years now and never been down to Brighton, it is only an hours train ride away and we paid £10 for return tickets. It also basically exudes happiness, although that might have been the sunshine!



The pier was a short walk down from the station, and we spent a long time searching for shells and tasting the local delights 




I was SO happy to be back by the ocean, with people smiling at you and saying good morning unlike in London where you get shoved as people rush past you with stressed faces. Growing up in Cyprus I lived five minutes from the beach and it was amazing.

everyone in brighton seems to have a dog. that is probably why they are all so happy and smiley - this dog played football! 

We eventually found ourselves at the world famous pier, and we were not disappointed :)




another thing about Brighton is that everything is ridiculously cheap compared to London, even the rides (above) were half the price of fairs I have been to before. We ended up spending most of our money in the arcade..... like quite a lot...

we may have over-exerted ourselves and needed a lie down - conveniently the pier had laid out deckchairs for people needing a snooze in the midday sun!

For lunch we found a restaurant hidden deep in the streets- one thing I found so cute was that basically all of the roads in Brighton share their names with London ones - which served amazing fresh fish and mussels. We spent the rest of our time wandering around the tiny streets filled to the brim with vintage shops, eloquent bakeries and countless coffee shops.

We had such an amazing time in Brighton, it is definitely worth a trip down there, especially if you live in London which can get quite dreary after a while!
xxx