Barbados 2

So we kicked off 2014 by learning how to surf... 

I stood up on the first go! however almost immediately got hit by a giant surfboard in my leg - surfing is pretty dangerous, even for me! I got back on though :) 

We went and saw some animals at the Barbados Wildlife Reserve, which was so nice as they were free to roam around a giant jungle with the benefit of being fed daily! 

ginormous tortoises!

then kicked off the boat trips... for some reason my dad decided to book two different catamaran trips! The first one was Cool Runnings - a really fun day where we swam with sea turtles, dove down to ship wrecks and watched a beautiful sunset. We ate some great food and ended with everybody dancing on the deck under the stars!

The second catamaran trip was with Calabaza (below). They were a little bit more informative and peaceful as there were less people to accommodate, and the catamaran was so luxurious! The people on the boat were really lovely and took lots of pictures (underwater too!) for us to (cry over) look at when we were back home. We did essentially the same things on this trip as the one before, but the whole experience was completely different! We were really lucky to be able to experience both! 

 

my brother feeding the fishes! 

 

Another day we went to Hunte's Gardens, down the road from our hotel. It was one of the most magical places I have ever been - built in 2 years, in a sink hole by a very eccentric man of about 70 who lives in a little hut overlooking the beauty. There was classical music playing and you could just sit and listen to the birds singing and the music, it was amazing. 

I took the opportunity to try and work out how to use the macro lens my boyfriend bought me for Christmas here - took a few goes but eventually worked out the (very) basics! 

And that concludes Barbados! Literally the best place I have ever been in my whole life, everybody was so lovely and caring and everything was so beautiful! The food and drink are all amazing - basically it is an unspoilt paradise, and I hope to go back there someday! 

Beach porn in Barbados

Happy New Year! Over the Christmas holidays I was lucky enough to be going on a family holiday to Barbados... aka PARADISE!

I used the opportunity to finally figure out how to use my Nikon D3200 so with over 2000 pictures, there may be a couple of posts!

We were staying on the East coast, in the most beautiful hotel I have ever been to, Atlantis Hotel! With only ten rooms, and a famous and well deserved reputation for food and views, it was incredible. My bedroom was a suite (they all were) and had a living room!!! I went to sleep and woke up listening to the ocean and took hundreds of pictures from the rooftop, mainly of rainbows that came and went.

On the first day we drove to the West coast and checked out their incredible beaches, with many pina coladas and flying fish sandwiches to hand...

a rope swing, trampoline and ice berg awaited us at the Boatyard

and I got to practice some cheerleading! 

Then we drove back over East through the jungle and found the most beautiful, deserted beach! There was hardly anyone on the acres of land except a couple of fishermen, with washed up coconuts lining the shore. Throw in a sunset over the mountains and some good company = paradise. 

Then it was back to the hotel for some incredible freshly caught seafood! The next day was an unusual one, my family and I spent the last day of 2013 on segways... 

moooooo-ve

insanely amazing views

We spent a lot of time exploring Barbados' beaches - there was one everywhere you looked! This was a giant lift on Crane Beach - the 6th best in the world :)

Miami Beach, more of a local than tourist haunt was also amazing, deserted and supplied with rum punch from a little van aptly named 'Mr Delicious'. 

This concludes the first couple of days in Barbados - next time there will be less beaches! 

Amsterdam

The final year of university seems like it is going too fast yet too slow at the same time. We celebrated the ending of the winter term with a trip to Amsterdam! It's so scary to think that this could be the last Christmas holiday we get! 

we were blessed with the most beautiful sunrise ever on the plane..

and immediately found ourselves devouring gigantic pancakes 

Amsterdam is literally the most beautiful, peaceful city to just stroll in, so we didn't get a single tram the whole time we were there. We walked for hours every day, just taking in the surroundings and discovering new places along the way. 

We did start a free walking tour which was very interesting... but got distracted by the sparkly offerings at the flea market (Waterlooplein) 

 

Definitely worth checking out, everything is so cheap and unusual! Something I did learn on our short tour was that Amsterdam have their own banksy of sorts, a guy who is creating giant statutes and dropping them in the river... only the government know who he is and have been sworn to secrecy . 

This was in their City Hall, it had just been found in the canal! 

The coffeeshops are very fun in Amsterdam - they are basically just regular coffee shops with the addition of space cakes and joints! It must be why everyone is so chilled out and happy in Amsterdam :) 

December is a great time to go because all of the Christmas markets are on, especially if you go over a weekend as the usual weekend ones are on too! 

This Christmas market we found was much more of a FOOD market but we certainly did ourselves proud and ate something from every stall. Above are basically deep fried brioche balls, 1 euro each but the lady liked me and gave me 5 for a euro. Not really realising how bad they were, I devoured all six. Then the next day, after a feeeew more I sort of realised they are deep fried doughnuts. SO GOOD. 

The food in Amsterdam is generally amazing. We went for this really amazing dinner in Spui one night, at a dutch restaurant which was advised to us by our hotel (ask for non touristy areas!) and we all overestimated the size of our stomachs. 

Have a wonderful Christmas! xxx

Birthday

The past week has been a very busy week, filled with friends, family and food because... I turned 21! Last year I was in Disneyland Paris for my birthday so I was not expecting this year to even compare...
best day ever

However this birthday was actually even better very good because it was spent with the people I love most. (and really excellent food and presents!)

On the night before my birthday my agency very luckily had a dinner party at Blake's Hotel, which does a-maaazing food! We ate tartare, steak and.. cake! Where they very nicely sang to me :)


Then very drunk on champagne, I went to Dima's who tucked me into bed. We woke up at 7am (I got quite excited) and he gave me the most beautiful camera ever, in the hope that I take proper pictures as opposed to snapping literally everything I see with my iphone. I have had to buy a 'dummy guide' to it, it is quite overwhelming but it takes wonderful pictures :')
My other friends bought me a polaroid camera this year, so I have understood the hint - I take a lot of pictures.


After a hearty breakfast of pancakes we headed out to the Natural History Museum (in the pouring rain, cheers London) for some ice skating with two of my bestest friends, Katherine and Nicola. Luckily the rain held off for the hour we were on the ice, and we managed to teach Nicola how to ice skate on a penguin - I later made all 3 of them follow me skating on penguins whilst singing happy birthday :D



We then went for a leisurely stroll around Harrods, followed by the BIGGEST AND BEST PIZZA I have ever eaten. I have had Homeslice pizza before in a slice form, so after to escape the rain we popped in for a quick bite. The whole pizzas are 20 inches, but I don't think any of us really understood the 'actual' size - Dima got one to himself and me and Nicola shared. For £20 it is really good value to share as it is quite impossible to finish one off alone. A large slice is £4.

 
We waddled home, meeting my family ready for our next food adventure. My dad very nicely took us for a family meal to Hawksmoor, which is my go-to for steak and their salted caramel and chocolate tart with popcorn ice cream. Dima also really loves their Sunday lunches, but I am more of a dessert girl.

We were still in the midst of a food coma from the pizza, but free food = ordering a whole lobster and forcing yourself to eat it. Followed by ordering the above tart (which was not in its normal form that evening but a souffle-type thing, which is good because I love souffle but bad because I really love the normal tart) and the salted caramel rolos to take home. Because it was my birthday and I GET TWO PUDDINGS IF I WANT. But I very nearly passed out on the table trying to eat all this food. (Also, do not go to Hawksmoor on a weekend evening because it is very loud indeed).


My dad bought me a BEAUTIFUL Michael Kors watch/wallet which I shall treasure forever and ever.


and on Sunday I had a sort of food-party with my bestest friends. We ate A LOT. Monday was naturally, at Mahiki where we were delighted with massive drinks in seashells. I went with Central list who are always brilliant <3



It was also a pyjama party.

 
And that is almost all. I dragged myself to the last food adventure of the week with Stephanie and Aji on Tuesday, to an overdue dinner at Medlar, Stephanie's favourite restaurant. This is saying a LOT for someone who eats out every single day without fail. She very nicely managed to coerce the waiters into putting candles on our desserts in honour of mine and Aji's birthday :)

The food was incredible.
 
That pretty much concludes my 21st birthday! It was really, really lovely and I feel so lucky to have such amazing people to celebrate it with :)))
xxxx