Croatia - Palmizana

We quickly discovered that whist surrounded by incredibly clear water, Hvar does not have the best beaches. Conveniently, there was several water taxis waiting to scoot us off to some deserted islands for the small price of £3 - about the same as a bus trip in London!


So we hopped on to our little speedboat and were whisked off to the island of Palmizana - pristine, beautiful and near empty, it was like our own little slice of paradise.


Jelly shoes are a good idea for Croatia - although the water is amazingly refreshing to swim in and the clearest I've ever seen, there is a lack of sand and quite a few sea urchins bobbing about inbetween the rocks, as I found out! (but they only live where the water is cleanest!)

There was a small sandy section on Palmizana though, and I recommend getting down there early to secure one of the sunbeds - or reserving ahead for Langini beach bar which looks incredible, but all the sunbeds were booked up a day in advance!


We soaked up the sun before retiring for my favourite lunch of the week, at Zori - one of the three restaurants on the island.






Cheap prices for incredible food, whilst overlooking your own (relatively) private island - what's not to love? A definite must stop if you go to Croatia.

Then it was back to Hvar for another night of dancing under the stars before jetting off to an even more amazing island tomorrow - more next time :)

Croatia - Hvar

It's not that often that you get to go away for a completely stress free holiday, with your best friend, where everything is really cheap yet amazing (yes I am talking about food) with (near) perfect weather. A couple of weeks ago me, Lisa, Chelsea and Nicole packed our bags and jetted off to one of the most beautiful places I've ever been - Croatia.

Our main base was the incredible Hvar island, reachable by a one hour, £12.50 catamaran from Split.


It is what I imagine St Tropez or Monaco would look like - a harbour dotted with independent restaurants and shops, unimaginably huge yachts, with lots of glamorous, good looking people milling about with their well behaved dogs.







It looked like something out of a story book.


We spent a lot of time at Hula Hula Bar, where the atmosphere was buzzing every night without fail as people gathered around to watch the sunset from the best spot on the island whilst sipping pina coladas and dancing the day away.



And of course visited Carpe Diem - the club which has it's own island, reachable only by water taxi (aka boat).



We may or may not have made friends with some lovely Mexican fellows who decided to buy us our own VIP table and not even harrass us at all... gracias!


Breakfasts were usually spent at Hello! bar, with sandwiches bigger than your face and fresh juice (like the rest of the island - food is ridiculously cheap and excellent)


Also... we found the most incredible bakery I have ever been to. EVER. In fact, we stopped there everyday for cake and their incredible cold chocolate drink, munching away greedily on the steps outside.


Chocolate mocha cake and triple choc cookie

This was also on top of the amazing gelato on sale in the harbour, a 'scoop' (as below) is the equivalent of about three gigantic scoops over here, and at 80p for the most incredible chocolate gelato ever it would be a crime not to eat it as often as possible.


We made friends with the local goat, Frederick..



And worked off all our indulgences by going on a huge hike up to the fort to watch the sunset, amazing!




Without a doubt one of the nicest places I've ever been, yet perfectly positioned for island hopping - more on that next time!

Duck and Waffle

Last week, after becoming an official Law graduate, me and my family zoomed up to Duck and Waffle for arguably the best meal of our lives. 

Shooting up in the glass elevator to the 40th floor, it felt like we were ascending to heaven. And we were.

We sat for a few unique cocktails in the bar because we were early - make sure you book - they had no available extra tables at 2pm on a Monday!
The views were incredible. 



^ me and my truffle cocktail... I love truffle a LOT but drinking it was quite odd!

Then we were shown into the restaurant where we went crazy ordering all of the abstract sounding food...

Ox Cheek doughnut - meaty and sugary in one, me and Dima loved it but my parents not so much.

Fois Gras Creme Brulee - a literal creme brulee with lobster chunks on brioche toast. A bit rich for non-fois gras lovers.

And the money shot..

The famous duck and waffle. We ordered three for six people, and it was more than enough - at £17 each it should be! It was the most amazing thing I have ever eaten - a perfect waffle topped with a tender ducks leg, duck egg (which interestingly holds your entire cholesterol limit for the day) and honey mustard sauce. Heaven.


We also got from the 'big plates' the potato gratin (above) which was lovely but we were all too full to find room for it, and the home made gnocchi which was fabulous. I didn't manage to capture a good picture of it though because everyone was too busy digging in!
We also had incredible oysters, and the special of the day which was home made bread with goats cheese and honey. The bread was one of the best things I ate - definitely a must have!

Phew! Are you sick of all that food porn? Now it's time for... dessert!

I had the macaroon sandwich  - huge pistachio macaroons holding a chubby chocolate mousse - wonderfully decadent.

My dad had the Baked Alaska (conjure images of Ben & Jerrys..) which was incredible.

Dima went for tiramisu, his favourite which was beautiful

We then rolled back into the elevator, three hours later stuffed to the brim with rich, wonderful food. An amazing experience but maybe a once-a-year type thing, for the bank account and waist line! We pottered around for a couple of hours then went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory musical which was absolutely amazing.

Graduation!

So this week I officially reached the end of my three year law degree and had my graduation! I can't believe that after all of the stressful 400 pages reading a week, ten hour revision days and still managing to have never fully read a case I managed to get a high 2.1 and finish it completely!


It was really odd seeing everyone for (probably) the last time, dressed up in their robes! And to be able to celebrate with my best friends :)

And parents..


And boyfriend..


Who had the job of photographer for the ceremony! The ceremony itself was very lavish and posh, with a few of our lecturers sitting on the stage watching as our names were called and we shook hands with the headmaster and head of law at Queen Mary University. I didn't fall!


It has truly been the best three years of my life at Uni, and I've learnt so much more than law. I've learnt how to balance things - modeling and law is not easy! - that I can't leave all my reading to the last month (first year drama), made the best friends I will ever have and had amazing experiences with those I was lucky enough to have met before uni as well! Living in London has been incredible, it was definitely the place for me to grow, and I'm so proud that I didn't get killed living in east London :)

I have no idea what the future holds other than modeling at the moment, but it's quite exciting not knowing what will happen! Goodbye my university years, hello real world!