Perhaps another trip is needed: Paris

I'd never seriously thought about going to Paris but then living in London & only being 2 hours away on the train it seems silly not to venture over at some point. 

After being in Amsterdam the city felt huge & difficult to get my head around. We spent our time doing super touristy things this time 'round (The Eiffel Tower, Versailles, The Louvre, Notre Dame etc) and I'm glad we did. All good experiences but I don't know if I'd head back to them all again given the chance! Although I would definitely go to Versailles again. Next time I'd skip going into the main palace (oh-so-crowded) & spend all our time wandering around the amazing grounds and hopefully make it to the Petite Trianon which we didn't have time for, even though we spent a whole day there! 

I enjoyed being in Paris but I still feel fairly ambivalent about it.

It would be nice to go back one day, there's a lot left to see/do and I know lots of people that love it, maybe it's a slow burning kinda thing...Also, it was crazy hot the whole time we were in Paris so perhaps the heat wasn't helping!

Tuileries Garden: A lovely spot for lunch after the crazy hectic Louvre

Seriously crazy: The Louvre (guess what they're all not looking at properly!)

It's all in the detail for me

Versailles. It is incredible that the French Monarchy survived as long as it did... I'd be pissed too.

Do you love Paris? Am I missing something? Help me understand! 

Xx

I'm Sorry I Grumbled About You Amsterdam. You're Lovely.

I must admit, I didn't like Amsterdam very much at first. I have a tendency to dislike new places for no apparent reason, it is completely irrational & thankfully wears off pretty quickly! The city definitely grew on me... being able to walk everywhere, beautiful canals, interesting museums, good food - how could I have mumbled about not enjoying it for the first day & a half?! 

We rambled about the place & did a few touristy things (The Anne Frank House, Van Gough Museum) as well as spending time drinking in the sunshine along the canal, eating cheese, exploring markets, searching for delicious apple pie (which we definitely found!) missing out on eating pancakes (next time!) and frequenting good beer venues. I hope that we'll get a chance to go back to Amsterdam sometime soon so I can appreciate it without having the awful 'grumpy traveller' phase!

Of course

Much nicer than Regent's Canal!

Apple Pie at Winkel 43. Yum.

Managing to get a table outside next to the canal made our lazy Sunday afternoon totally blissful!

Some of my favourite places we visited in Amsterdam:

Koffie Salon - recommended by a friend & luckily just around the corner from our funny little hotel. Great coffee & a beautiful building - I can't believe I didn't take any photographs of this place! Must have been concentrating too intently on getting my morning coffee fix.

Winkel 43 - we stumbled upon this place late on a Sunday afternoon on the hunt for Apple Pie. I am so glad we did. Not only was the pie delicious (see above) & the setting lovely, we also had drinks accompanied by deep fried cheese sticks (don't judge us). We left feeling rather tipsy and full of goodly delicious Apple Pie. 

Noordermarkt - Strolling through this market in Jordaan was lovely (before the skies opened up & we had to run for cover in a nearby pub, what a shame!). I really enjoyed exploring Jordaan, interesting streets, cute shops, good food/drinks - a nice cruise-y way to spend some time in Amsterdam.

The Anne Frank House - Heavy going but excellently laid out - the museum was definitely worth a visit & the wait in line (we had failed to book online in advance, which I very much recommend doing!). The worst part of the day was being asked (while standing in the line, nay, having stood in the line in front of this person for 20 mins already) 'So, who was Anne Frank?' That was a frustratingly bizarre conversation. 

Van Gough Museum - It panned out that we only had time to visit one other museum on our trip & this was it. It was really well put together (as you would expect for a museum dedicated to one artist) and is worth a look even if you're not the biggest fan of his work. My advice to you is (as always) Go early! Obviously booking online ahead of time (for the more organised of you) is the best way to go but getting there early meant we managed to avoid the queue, which was massive when we left, and enjoy the museum without too many people about. 

There's a lot of Amsterdam left to explore & we are hoping to be back there in a month or so to do just that! If anyone has any favourite places let us know & we will put them on the to do list!

Xx

The tale of Grefriars Bobby makes me sob every time: Edinburgh (again)

Edinburgh was amazing (again) & the train trip from London provided some beautiful scenery, even without the copious amounts of daffodils that graced the hills on our last trip. 

Travelling with my family had a weird impact on the photographs I took while we were away - obviously with just the two of us usually there aren't many photographs involving people, so that was a bit different but having access to a smartphone (I have a crappy, but very reliable & never-needs-charging samsung flip phone, no camera, definitely no internet access!) changed the photographs I chose to take with my DSLR. Usually it's glued to my face the whole time we are travelling (with a proper amount of just 'taking-it-all-in' hopefully). Yes, I'm the embarrassing person that pulls out a giant camera no matter where we are. This time I noticed myself taking more photographs on the phone because it was just...easier. The quality is different but so are the photographs themselves - being able to quickly take a picture without hauling out a huge camera was definitely something I enjoyed. I don't think that having constant access to a smartphone would make me shelve the DSLR but it would definitely allow me to take quick snaps of nice everyday things. 

So, the next few blog posts from our trip will have some weirdly square phone pics thrown in (I now have an Instagram account, which for obvious reasons can't be updated very often - although Ben has a fancy phone I can get my hands on every now & then!)

Okay. That's enough ranting about phones/cameras - here are a few pictures from our foggy/rainy/perfectly Scottish week in Edinburgh...

Greyfriars Kirkyard

Coffee at Brew Lab every day

The little flat we stayed in - I do love Airbnb!

We spent our time generally wandering through the city & went to a few of my favourite Edinburgh places, including another trip to Craigmillar Castle where we were greeted with perfect sunshine for the only part of our stay!

Xx

⟶ Berlin (Part I)

Recently we did a bit of travelling about the place - Berlin being our first stop. We spent four days exploring the city with the help of a good friend. The city itself is like no other place I have encountered. Our first day was spent trawling through the Mauerpark Flea Market, relaxing in the sunshine & wandering to different points of interest. Our entire time away ended up being less touristy & more about finding donuts, coffee & good things in different neighbourhoods. We covered the main 'must see' things pretty much every place we went but the best times were the unexpected ones. Mauerpark was amazing. I furnished imaginary houses a thousand times over & watched people find treasures amongst it all. Surprisingly we didn't buy anything except beer, pastries & tofu burgers. This is definitely a place I would like to visit again & again.  

Waiting for Karaoke to begin

Sunshine, food, music, all the good things... no wonder the park was so crowded.

Beautiful furniture, plates, cutlery, glasses...anything & everything.

I have trawled through the photographs from our trip & will try to keep it brief but expect to see a fair bit more from Berlin soon. Then onto Copenhagen, Edinburgh & The Broch. It's lovely to be back home in London, although future travels are already on the horizon.

Happy Monday everyone!

Xx  

We are actually finally going & oh my gosh I can't believe it

25 days until...

Picture via River Cottage

I don't want it to get colder but bring on Autumn & a week living in a cottage on a working dairy farm interspersed with a River Cottage fair, course & general out-of-london exploration. 

Gah!

Xx

Scotland and squares.

Some light reading for our big move... We are moving to Scotland, gah! I've got a backpack and am already getting ready to trek around Europe (let's not worry too much about the whole living in Scotland, freezing to death thing - just a small issue!) Living in Perth has not prepared me for this. 

Ben makes the move earlier than me and so in order to make sure that he keeps warm over there I am furiously crocheting a blanket for him to take....

Cosy warmth... Lucky there was a yarn sale at Spotlight! Hopefully it will all be done, I have about 5 weeks to finish it in so fingers crossed I can stitch up a storm before then.

These blue squares were made ages ago from some yarn I got from our neighbour who was moving and selling everything super cheap, they clearly never became a blanket so you can see why I'm worried about getting the new one done in time!

Many crafty things to do before we pack up all of our stuff... Material for skirts is hanging around and waiting to be sewn, I also have to get rid of my yarn stash, pictured below. What to make...

I feel some crochet related injuries looming on the horizon. As long as we get some warmth out of it, that's fine with me! Scotland - WTF. 

The Great Slurpie Hunt of 2010

I don't want to alienate anyone with the name, I call it a Slurpie you may prefer 'Slushie', 'Squishie' or the slightly less fun 'Frozen Coke.' Whatever the name, I am sure that you can recall the brain freeze that comes with drinking one of these delicious sugary beverages, the straw with a spoon on the end so you can scoop up the icy morsels and the unnatural colour they make your tongue turn.

It was a hot Saturday morning and our thoughts turned to these wonderous service station novelties. The more we talked about them the better the idea seemed - sure, they're full of sugar and goodness knows what else - but it was HOT so we off to the service station we went. 

Alas! The familiar hum of the Slurpie machine was missing from the first service station. What has the world come to? Disappointed but not discouraged we continued on our journey - visiting service stations and hunting for convenience stores far and wide. As I sat in the car at yet another service station, muttering about the heat, I came to realise that I had been waiting for longer than usual - could it be?

Hell yes! As an added bonus we got free Chomps to go with our icy friends!

One pink and one mixed

I remember walking to the service station on weekends or during the school holidays for these, some places had heaps of different colours and it was so much fun to be able to make your own layered Slurpie. We used to get them when we went to the cinema as well, they were in big paper cups back then and sometimes we would dip pieces of popcorn in them.

These did not disappoint! Sugar overload, bright pink tongue and brain freeze to top it all off!

Before the Great Slurpie Hunt of 2010 began we managed to drag ourselves out of bed and head over to the Subiaco Farmer's Market with nanna cart in tow to do some veggie shopping. They're lovely markets to wander around and it also helps that they are home to some delicious pastries (most of which are sold out by the time we get there unfortunately!)

Plain croissants

Ben contemplates his croissant: "I consider myself to have eaten a lot of pastries in my time, and I'm telling you that this is the BEST croissant I have ever had." (I nearly fell off the bench with laughter - he was very serious)

They also have savoury croissants, I had a pumpkin and fetta one - so good! To reward ourselves for getting up so early (okay so it wasn't really early at all...) we also got some awesome pita bread with spinach and fetta in it, it was tasty good! next time we are going to get a breakfast calzone - they looked yummy. Lucky we bought so many vegetables to make up for all of the baked goods and sugary drinks we consumed that day!

We love the markets :-)

On a crafty note:  We spent some time picking upholstery fabrics the other day and I am going to make a new cushion cover for the papa-san. At the moment it looks as though it walked out of a 1980's motel. Pictures to follow!