Santorinni- Greece

So my trip to Greece was interesting..  as i was trying to be as cheap as possible i flew into Athens first with a very early flight to Santorinni the next morning which meant a night at the Athens airport. I scouted around for a good sleeping spot, stole a few cushions from a restaurant and bunkered up for the night. 

I fly to Santo and arrive very early, get into a heated discussuion with a bus driver- which was hard as he barely spoke english , about how i cancelled my original trip with their company as my hostel offered free pick up and how he came and got me anyway… i didnt pay the 20 Euros in the end but arriving at 7 in the morning he dropped me on a random corner and of course they dont have street names in Greece so i had no clue where to go.. wandered around a hostel that wasnt mine looking for sign of life.. ended up having to call my hostel instead, they came and got me and i slept on their couch until the room was ready and then waited for the girls to arrive from Ios. 

The girls are hungover and sick. expected.  So we hang out by the pool for a few hours until we decided to head into town.

We book a hire car for the 2 days we are there and decide to pick it up on the way back out before we head it Oia for dinner.

Fira was very small.. winding streets and alleyways on a cliff side, hot, donkeys and tourists everywhere.

We take the cable car down to the bottom of the cliff much to the haste of Carlie- heights aint her thang and then eventually head back to get the car and get ready for dinner.

I heard about Oia and how its sunsets are something every person should do

but so did everyone else on the island. 

We drive out, sing-a-longs in the car, and start our crammed walk to the very tip of Oia for the sunset. We made good timing and i was amazing however i only got glimpes as i was too short! hoards of people- to be compeltely honest the sunset was almost the same as from Fira  but Oia was such a beautiful part of the Island, expensive and luxicious- another memory that brings a loving smile to my face.

We head to get food, jane repeatedly gets hit on my the waiter - give them an inch and they will go a mile/ expect a midnight rendevous after he is finished work.

We all get a god sleep for our day of exploring the following day.

We headed out to the very end of the island, ticking off recommended places as we go along, smoothies and fresh foods along the way.

We camped out at one beach for a few hours however didnt go swiming.. im not sure why now i think i about it, i wish i had though, had a great chat to Zoe about life and then ate an amazing food called Gyros.. bread with feta, onions, hoummos, tzaziki, lettuce and tomato.. i ate 3 more on my stay at Santo.. so good.

We headed back with a few hours left on the rental and decided to head off the tourist path and drove down the otherside of the island, found a beautiful little church, had a photo shoot, did some slut drops and raced the car back to drop off.

Showered, dressed to the Tee and ready for our night out we head to Argo, a resturant recommended by some friends who had been there earlier- we got slightly distracted by the sunset and made sure we took lots of photos before running to our booking.

Had a lovely dinner, went out for a few drinks- one at a aussie bar, standard and then to a club where we got free entry and half price drinks, then to another bar when we could have a bit of a dance off and where Jane promptly got asked to go dance on the stage and gave the people of Greece a taste of her 'sexy' dance.

The next day they head home and i have one more night.

i dont think i did anything significant, hung out by the pool, skyped Luke, watched the football to escape the searing heat and then headed back into town for one last wander, caught the sunset once more before i head home to bed.

Santorinni was one of the places on my bucket list. The beautiful white and blue houses draped along a cliffside, the heat,  the cruisy island life, the food and with my 3 good friends was something i will cherish. 

No Way- Norway, Bergen

For a very quick trip instead of Copenhagen i decide to go to Bergen.. for one reason really, Snow.

London really wasn't getting cold enough for snow and there was so way i was going to miss it this winter. 

I arrive and there isn't a flake to be seen. devastated, now don't get me wrong, Bergen is a very pretty city but i cant say that i was disappointed upon arriving.

i get to the very shitty hostel in a very prime location about midday, get in contact with Pernille- Carlie's Norwegian friend and let her know i am heading out to check the city and that ill be back in a few hours.

I head out and wander around the city, which did not take long, tried to get a tattoo but as one can assume it was all booked out and then kept wandering. up streets, around parks, trying to reassure myself that it was worth it- i know that sounds bad but as i said earlier.. slightly devo with the lack of snow.

I get back to the hostel to warm up and contact Pernille to see if she is around and subsequently meet up with her.

She took me up the *** and it gave a amazing view of the city below.

the sun was setting which set a beautiful light over the town.. we didn't stay long as it was freezing but well worth the trip.

Once back down the mountain we wander around the town before contacting her friend for info on the best fish soup in town.. i was sceptical, fish soup does not sound that appealing but when travelling you have to kind let the go of certain views for sure. 

We head into this very traditional Norwegian restaurant and eagerly await the meal.

i don't know if i have ever had a soup as amazing at that fish soup, served with rustic bread it was so delicious i cant still taste it now. 

Even though it was still quite early, i head back to the hostel- im exhausted as i got up at 4am to make sure i got to the airport on time unlike my trip to Scotland…

I was stupid enough to also forget my charger for my laptop so i went into the lounge and started to watch Norwegian tv and reading my next chapter of Mindfullness.

i end up watching a really cool doco on base jumping and these crazy guys who jumped a cave in China which noone had ever jumped before- being completely distracted by this i hadn't noticed it was snowing outside.

just as i was heading to bed i saw a massive snow storm brewing outside and i could not hold in my excitement. amazing. 

i run to the room, grab my camera and head outside to take photos.. i don't know how long it is going to last so i need proof.

oh god, i was so happy!

i eventually head back to my bed hopping the snow will continue through the night.

it did not. However it  was extrodinarilly cold, and you know, fair enough right but not only was it cold, i couldnt warm myself up every now and again by heading into a shop with heating as all of Bergen was closed.. being a small town i should have known this but i didnt so i went for a wander to the other side of town and took some more photos, the sun was out today so it was much more picturesque.

With a pretty good amount of money to spend i figure ill head back up the mountain i was at yesterday and get some daylight on the view instead of the sunset.. now this turned out to be the best part of the trip. There wasnt any snow on the ground from the night before so for some reason i thought it had been raining out.. little did i know that on top of that mountain it was a winter wonderland.

Kids with sleds and toboggans running around and a huge blanket of snow. it was beautiful. it was perfect, exactly what i wanted to see. 

There was nothing to do at the top but i probably spent 2 hours up there just taking it all in not knowing the time i would see snow. 

This memory still makes me happy. 

Absolutely breathtaking. 

i head back down and walk towards the fish market for some fish cakes as recommended by Carlie and Pernille and while it was expensive it was pretty amazing too. 

That about sums up Bergen for me, i left with a beautiful sunset and sights of snow capped mountains.. it definitely made me think someone made it snow just for me. 

It also made me want to come back and explore the fjords in the summer time,the language isnt much of a barrier either so even though it was costly i will definitely make a trip back to Norway.

New life?

So many days since my last post! 
what a waste, all those memories are passing me by and i haven't recorded any of them. i am so silly. I used to love doing it too.

I feel i have a new spark to my life, like i am about to start a whole new section of it or i am preparing for it at least, putting my cafe back on track now i know what i am doing next year, no more not knowing.

I'm making a plan and its exciting and i cant wait to put it into action and gather everything that i need. 

While things could change and no doubt something will change and come into play. I feel i finally have some drive to my life.

I cant believe how long it has been since I have written. I literally have no time anymore and while that is so nice it kind of sucks as well but I really want to try and soak all of this in.

Its July and I havent even written about France!

My misson this week is to get this sorted out. Biggest Mission ever.

ireland

If i could say one thing about Ireland is that its green.. eternally green. i have never seen so much grass in my entire life. it is simply beautiful. 

The weather could have been more favourable but we did manage to get one lovely day going up the coast and that would be the one day out of all of them that i would want the weather to be nice.

It almost felt like i wasn't in Ireland, i could have easily been on the coast of Australia or California.

The farms went all the way to the beach line for 80% of the way and Ireland has most of their roads, back street roads that is lined with old stone walls which have been left unkept and growing with wild flowers making it one of the most picturesque coast drives i have been on. 

Having that time with my parents was essential.. sure i was still frustrated with some of the things they did but at the end of the day they are still my parents and thats the way its always going to be.

To see them on the very beginning of their journey makes me confident that this trip will do them wonders, will make them stronger.

Dublin- we didn't really see much of Dublin but i cant say i am too bothered, i should probably make my way back there some day but for this trip it didn't bother me at all that we didn't see it.

Kilkenny- Our trip in Kilkenny was also short but we actually had a wonder a round the town, the weather was miserable so it always hinders the things you want to do to an extent. We did wander around the Kilkenny Castle for a while but upon the discovery there wasn't much else to do we continued on our way to Cork.

This was a place that i had heard much about so i was pretty excited to get there.. when we arrived, because we hadn't planned anything it was a matter of us trying to get to the outskirts of town to find a camping ground for the night.

Failure to find said camping ground landed us in the beautiful sea side town called Cobh- Gaelic for Cove where we stayed in my first B&B. The Place was fine, i found the owners a tad annoying or talkative is probably a better way to describe them but i suppose that is the way they need to be in that industry. 

anyway, Cobh was a pretty amazing town, it was the last port of call for the Titanic! which i thought was pretty cool but besides that it was just  a very beautiful town.. as were most if the coastal towns.

The photos will really speak for themselves. Nothing crazy happened or exciting really. it was just a lovely weekend away with my parents who i haven't properly seen in over a year.it's nice to be able to cross Ireland off my list for the time being!