Travel | Seeing Barcelona in an Afternoon

As my flight home from Spain left Barcelona, I thought I'd go to the city where I heard so many wonderful things a day early, and see as much as I can before heading home. 

I was welcomed so warmly at my hostel, I think this was one of the reasons why my (short) stay in Barcelona was so great. So I arrived, and I was sat down and asked what I would like to do with my time and was shown all of the best places to go. I only had 3 main things I wanted to see: Las Ramblas, the Sagrada Familia and the beach. (as someone who lives on the island of Great Britain, and never being more than an hour away from a beach, living in the actual centre of Europe is a little terrifying and claustrophobic being so land-locked.)

Right, so after I settled in, I headed out to the wind and rain. I was armed with my camera, and had my Nashville soundtrack to keep me company on my walk. I headed to the direction of the beach. I saw the sea, but didn't manage to get to the beach. (Mainly because I couldn't find it...) but hey, sea! check. 

Luckily, the little sea-place I was stood was directly at the end of Las Ramblas. Completely going against my morals of not looking like a tourist, I wandered up the street with all the other flaming tourists, with a map in one hand a camera in the other. I walked past the opera house, and some of the architecture of the buildings is phenomenal. As it was autumn, the trees that arch over the street were magnificent colours of orange and yellow. I also got the impression that it was not as busy as is probably is during the high peak seasons. So I walked all the way up, past the waiters calling you to eat some food, and past the tourist tat shops up to Placa de Catalunya. Las Ramblas? Check.

Opera house

Las Ramblas

From here, I decided not to get public transport, to put the map away, and to figure out a way to the Sagrada Familia. I knew the vague direction, so I picked a street and hoped for the best. While being super observant, I noticed a lot of signs for the Arc de Triomf. Obviously, I had the amusing thought of "well, I know I've been walking a while, but I didn't realise I'd made it to Paris." ha ha ha. I found it, and it's what I expected: a slightly less grand Arc de Triomphe. Oh, and it's red. 

Hello, this is me taking a self-timed tourist shot looking very uncomfortable.

Here, I figured that if I wanted to see the Sagrada Familia before nightfall, I should swallow my pride and look at the map. 40 minutes later, I arrived! It truly is an amazing piece of architecture. I didn't realise that it was still being built! I joined the end of the queue, and stood in line for 30 minutes behind a noisy French family and in front of a pushy Spanish matriarch-type woman who kept trying to get ahead of me. With my ISIC (International Student Identity Card) entry to the Basilica was a little over €12. I don't really agree to paying for entrance into a place of worship, but I figured that there must have been a reason.

To be completely honest, I was very very disappointed with the cathedral. Usually when I enter a place of worship with that amount of grandeur, I can feel...something. I don't know what, but I can feel that it is a sacred place. Not here. The atmosphere was ruined by all the tourists using their selfie sticks, and taking photos of literally everything. (WHY DO PEOPLE NEED PHOTOS OF A SIGN EXPLAINING WHATS ON THE STAINED WINDOWS? JUST READ THE SIGN!) I wandered around, didn't take many pictures, and had to leave. I felt quite uncomfortable in there with the lack of respect these people had for this amazing building that has been being built for almost 100 years. However, Sagrada - check.

When I came out of the cathedral, the sun was beginning to set, so I sat on a bench and watched the Sagrada Familia catch the colours of the sunset. That was pretty magical. 

By this time, it was time to head back to the hostel for dinner. All in all, I was walking for around 4 hours. 

I would like the chance to go back to Barcelona, simply because I know there is so much to see and do in a big, bustling city like that. However, I am proud of myself for exploring my first city solo, and not managing to get lost or resorting to using public transport. 

To be honest, visiting Spain for a few days did not calm my wanderlust. Every time I go somewhere new, my wanderlust is fed, but yet the more I feed it the stronger it gets.

Travels | A Weekend in Bratislava

So, I had heard so so so many different things about Bratislava.

I had heard it was beautiful. 
I had heard it was soul-less.
I had heard it was cultural.
I had heard it was concrete.

I was supposed to have gone throughout my inter-railing trip with my Cariad, however due to unforeseen circumstances, we had to head to Budapest a day later, and we fell in love with Budapest so much that we decided not to visit Bratislava.

Anyway, seeing as Prague is so close* and its very easy to travel around Europe from here, a friend and I decided (with the additional help of a plentiful amount of beer, of course) to book the bus and go to Bratislava!

*By close I mean, 4 hours on a bus.

Before we knew it, the little trip for the two of us became a trip for six of us. It was super fun travelling with new friends and sharing this experience of heading to a brand new country and city!

So we travelled by coach with a company called Student Agency. I know what you're thinking.... "ew, who wants to travel by coach?!" Well, I'll give you lots of reasons why:

• Free tea, coffee and hot chocolate
• TV screens with films/series in Czech and English
• .....It's super cheap! (And 10% extra off if you have an ISIC card!)

Seriously, I'm definitely going to be taking advantage of this company. They're so great. 

So we arrived. And sure enough, the bus station was basically a concrete block plonked right in the middle of nowhere. As we were walking, it was full of concrete. There were no sign posts anywhere, so we wandered aimlessly, waiting for some sort of sign to show us the way to the centre.

After about 20 minutes, we found the historical centre. It was very very strange as it was as if somone had just placed an old historical Eastern European city centre in the middle of concrete blocks! 

We spent the first day mainly wandering and exploring. We found our way up to the castle, however we didn't go in because not everyone was interested. 

We wandered aimlessly around before stepping through a portal to World War II. Not really. But we did step through an arch to find a show of things from WWII, and people dressed up in costumes marching up and down. Very odd.

We headed out for dinner, and afterwards we decided to hit the pubs and clubs. One small issue, Bratislava isn't the best city for a night out. We had a good night, however it was expensive and there didn't seem to be much choice in where to go. 

The next day, we were all feeling a little worse for wear. We decided on having a relaxing morning looking through the marketplace and visiting the museum. If you find yourself in Bratislava, I can highly recommend going to visit the City Museum in the Old Town hall. I got an insight into the complicated history of the city and country. We climbed to the top of the clock tower and there were some pretty fantastic views up there. 

After a pancake lunch, it was almost time to catch our bus back to our home in Prague. So back we went to the concrete slab of a bus station, and basked in the sun before the 5 hour trip back home.

P.s. Sorry about the quality of some of the photos. Ironically, the ones with good quality were taken on my phone. I'm still figuring out how to use my FancyPants Camera. 

Travels | 24 Hours at Oktoberfest

About a month ago, the Erasmus Events people here in Prague organised a trip to Oktoberfest in Munich. It cost us 1200Kc, which is the equivalent to around £35 - BARGAIN.

However, there was a catch. We left Prague at 6 am, and left Munich at 3am. It would be 24 hours or drinking beer, partying and making new friends.

When we arrived in Munich, Oktoberfest was pretty hard to miss. You could see the streams of people dressed in traditional Bavarian costume and leiderhosen walking towards the park. The Oktoberfest area itself was massive. Probably around the same size as the centre of the city.

There were thousands and thousands of people. And they were all dressed up. We were the minority - as we were dressed in "normal" clothes. I'd never felt like that before.

You'd walk down the centre of the of the area and there'd be a massive beer tent (I say tent, I mean giant wooden building) every other door - ON BOTH SIDES! I can't put into words how many there were!!

We eventually picked one, We tried to find one without a massive queue (IMPOSSIBLE), We also somehow managed to get a a bench. It was amazing. Inside I'd never seen anything like it. There were so many people, and there was what I can only describe as an Oom-Pah band in the centre. (As a musician, I feel slightly disappointed for not having a proper word...!!) 

The beer was gorgeous. It just slipped right down. Very expensive, mind you. After getting used to the 30Kc (£1ish) for half a litre in Prague, spending €10 for a litre stein was painful. Worth it though. There's no point complaining about the price of beer when you're at the world's biggest beer festival. Am I right?

We each had 2 of these, joined in with the drinking Oom-Pah songs and made some new German friends.

"Would you like some beer with that foam?"

We left, and after spending AN HOUR queuing for the toilet, we headed out of the park to explore the city and find some food. I'm going to be completely honest with you now, after drinking 2 litres if beer, your head begins to get a little fuzzy.

We had some food, and then found a cool looking bar. I even met a chap who was on holiday from Pembrokeshire and we chatted in Welsh for a bit. See, us Welshies can always find each other!

The Erasmus organisers had also managed to book a club for us to party the night away, which we happily did. Although compared to Prague, and the UK, the drinks were so expensive. €6.40 for a rum and coke!! Absolute joke.

Anyway, we danced the night away and we had a great time. We left Munich at around 3am, and I arrived back in Prague at 9:30am on Sunday. It was a brilliant and well spend 24 hours!

Travels | Home - Stonehenge - Bonn - Leipzig - Prague

We had a mental 4 days of travelling to Prague. It was somehow decided that we would have a family roadtrip. After days and weeks of planning, a route was formed.

However, it had been discovered during a family conversation around the dinner table that I had never been to Stonehenge. My parents were shocked that I'd never been and were surprised that I hadn't had a school trip there or anything. So it was decided that we'd stop there on the way.

I'm not going to lie, the place seems like a massive tourist trap. I mean, I am fascinated with how they got there and why were they built, but so many people seemed to go just to say that they had been, get me? I think it would be a really magical place if there weren't coaches and coaches of tourists. There was a really big visitors centre there, it looked like it had been built there fairly recently. I couldn't help but to wonder, if they hadn't made a big hoo-ha out of the place by building this fancy visitors centre, then would there be a big hoo-ha about the stones?

My parents said that when they went (about 20 years ago, mind) there was only a little shack there and it was free to go in and you could just happily wander around the stones and then return to the car that you parked in a field.

obviously I had to have my own tourist photo though.

Next stop was Bonn, Germany. We stayed over in Gatwick before having an early morning chunnel train to Calais. This was the day that we drove in 5 countries in one day. It was a spectacular performance. UK, France (for half an hour), Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany. It took about 5 hours, I believe.

We stayed in a little hotel between Cologne and Bonn, so we umm-ed and aah-ed for a while about where to go have a meal, and we decided Bonn, as that was the birthplace of one of my favourite ever composers (excellent grammar there, truly great) Beethoven. The museum had closed by the time we arrived, which was disappointing but ah well, I have stood outside the great composer's first home!

Another tourist photo: Beethoven's birthplace!!

Our third and final stop before arriving in Prague was Leipzig. Yes there is another musical connection here too (can you spot a theme yet??) Bach's grave. We drove through Germany for another 5 hours and we arrived at our hotel which was so lovely! We headed into the centre in the hope that we would be able to see the grave, but as it is in St Thomas Church right in the centre of the city, and we arrived in the evening....it was closed. Which was a shame, but I am hoping to head back to Leipzig for a weekend, maybe, and try to see it. I've visited this city twice now and not seen the grave so hopefully, third time lucky?

Luckily there's a massive statue outside the church for my tourist photo!! Ha

The next day we arrived in Prague and moved into the flat. I live on the third floor, and there's no lift, so I felt that I had done probably about a weeks worth of exercise just moving into the flat!!

Leave in the comments if you've been to any of these places and what you thought :)

xxx

Daily Diaries | Sun, Sea and Injuries

I began this week by doing an 8 mile hike from Tenby to Manorbier along the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path. Mother and I are attempting to walk all 812 miles of the Wales coastline.

Tenby

Monday-Thursday was spent on holiday in Malta with my bestest and oldest friend. I'm not going to write too much about this, because it was our holiday and we went to escape the real world, so if you guys don't mind, I'll keep it that way for now. 

However, Valletta is absolutely gorgeous. If you ever find yourself on the little island of Malta, take a day just to wander the picturesque streets of the medieval capital city.

We took the ferry to Gozo for a beach day. It was so windy we basically in the midsts of a sandstorm on the stunning Ramla Bay.

We watched the beautiful sunset from a bus stop at the ferry port. (Not exactly what we had in mind, which made it more memorable!!!)

On the final evening, I managed to injure my foot. I hobbled my way to the airport to go home, when we landed I limped my way onto a train all the way home. I went to the doctors, was sent to the hospital for an X-ray, but luckily nothing is broken. So I'm just limping around the place in a lot of pain. But hey, at least I have something to remember my little break away, right!?

What did you guys do this week? :)

Travels | Belfast and Northern Ireland

1 week before my recital, I jetted off for a well-needed break to Belfast. I didn't realise I needed a break, but I feel so much happier and calmer than I did a week ago. Anyway, there was a reason, Mother was doing her first public speech on the mistakes on property.

I was meant to be meeting my parents out there, so when my plane landed at 12:30, I grabbed my backpack and hopped on a bus. The first thing I noticed was that the people of Northern Ireland are so friendly! While I was waiting for the bus, a girl around my age just said hello to me, which is something that barely happens in Britain. And then while I was wandering around the centre, someone passed me and said "there's a penny on the floor over there, go pick it up and you'll have a lucky day". How nice is that?! I think more people should go out of their way to make a stranger's day a little bit brighter.

Anyway, I digress. While I waited for my parents, I found this adorable little cupcake shop where I ordered a delicious bowl of chickpea, lentil and bacon soup, a great big hot chocolate and a lemon and white chocolate cupcake for lunch. It was delicious, and a proper locals place. A little out of the proper centre (I would no way have found it if I hadn't of gone right instead of left out of the bus station - away from the centre....), it was so lovely. It was called The Little Cupcake Cafe if anyone is interested. I would highly recommend it. The food and cupcakes were all homemade, and cost me around £5.70!

Anyway, I then wasted about 2 and a half hours wandering around the city, and getting a feel of it (all with my backpack on my back), before eventually my parents' plane had landed and they'd picked up the car. I found my way up to a viewing gallery of the city, and although I'm a little wobbly when it comes to heights, all the steps and the collywobbles were worth the view.

When my parents arrived we didn't have that much time to relax and settle into the hotel, before we had to rush back out to the meeting.

The next day, we got up, had breakfast in another really adorable cafe, and the breakfast was delicious - I had a bacon and mushroom omelette, and it was cooked to perfection! After breakfast we headed out for a roadtrip to the Giant's Causeway. We drove along the coastal road, and the views were spectacular! Some pictures are below.

I then had a plane to catch at 8:30am the next morning, so after we got back, we had a spot of dinner at TGI Friday's (YUM), and hit the sack.

It was a great few days, and it was the first time I'd ever flown by myself. I hoped that it would have calmed my constant wanderlust (at least for a little), but it did the opposite. As soon as I landed back in Manchester, I wanted to jump on another plane and travel somewhere else. Maybe in the next few weeks.....

The Magical World of Harry Potter

On Christmas morning, I was told to open a certain present last. It was envelope shaped, and inside was possibly the best Christmas present any Harry Potter fan could ask for - two tickets for the Harry Potter Studio Tour. I immediately texted Flatty B, knowing she was a massive HP fan too and that she hadn't been before. She said yes, and I promptly booked it.

That day, was yesterday! I was practically crying with excitement all the way down from Manchester to the studios. It was a dream come true. The shuttle bus was possibly the finest decorated bus I'd ever seen, and I believe I actually squealed with excitement when it approached the bus station in Watford Junction.

One of the first things you see when you get in is three of the original giant chess pieces from the first film. I squealed again (there was a lot of squealing going on today, well done to Flatty B for coping), and I went over to have a photo. So many photos were taken, I'm sure my facebook friends thoroughly appreciated the 196 photos I uploaded this morning. 

We arrived a little early, so we went into the shop and had a look around. Memorabilia galore! So many trinkets, hoodies, glasses, mugs, scarves, books and wands! So many wands!

Voldemort's wand!

Anyways, we began to queue, and while you passed the cupboard under the stairs complete with glasses and the little horse toys that Harry plays with at the beginning of the first film. Again, much more squealing. We were taken into a waiting room, then into a cinema. They showed a brief introduction to the tour by Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson. This gave way to the main doors to the Great Hall. The magical words were said "Welcome to Hogwarts". We were both so excited and bounced into the Great Hall. The amount of detail was absolutely astonishing, and they even had the actual costumes that the actual actors wore! 

We were in here for about 15-20 minutes, before being herded into the back room to make way for the next tour. This room was so very magnificent. It had everything from information on all the directors, to make up, to the gates of Hogwarts, to Dumbledore's office, to troll's armour! 

Educational Decrees!

The Chamber of Secrets has been opened

Flatty B having a cheeky pose

In a little room off of this massive room was the opportunity to have a ride of a broomstick, which of course we jumped to the end of the line. Well, I flew a broomstick, Flatty B didn't want to. She played Mam for the day and held all my stuff. Thank you! But in order to have a go on a broomstick, you got to put on some robes. I was Gryffindor (of course....).

After this, we looked around the rest of the room. We saw the great big statue that was placed in the Ministry of Magic in the later films. You know, the one with the oppression of muggles! Oh, we saw some Death Eater's masks and costumes as well as the original Marauder's Map!! 

After about an hour in this room, it was time to go outside for a lovely refreshing drink of.....Butterbeer! It was very nice, very sweet though. Not what I expected it to taste like. It was like cream soda, caramel and something else that I couldn't put finger on. It was here that you could see the Knight Bus, Privet drive, Godric's Hollow and some more chess pieces. 

The next room we went into was one which was all about the CGI effects and make up. For example, the making of Robbie Coltrane into Hagrid, and we saw dead Dobby in a class case (always a sad moment....), and a werewolf, and the basilisk's head, and Aragog. He was hanging from the ceiling and I hadn't noticed him until Flatty B turned and said "oooh that's not very nice", I jumped and screamed. I don't like spiders at the best of times, let a giant one hanging from the ceiling. Needless to say, I scurried on quickly after that. Into Diagon Alley. The most magical street in the UK. The home of Gringotts Bank, Flourish and Blotts, Olivanders, Madam Malkin's Dress Shop, and of course, the Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes. This, up to this point, was my favourite place and I really did not want to leave at all. The window displays were so detailed which all these strange gadgets that I really wish were real so I could go in and have a play with them. Amazing. 

The penultimate room we went into was my favourite room of the whole day, it found it quite emotional for some reason. I was so happy and excited that I couldn't contain it. Emotional music was being played, and the tears welled up in my eyes. It was real, standing in front of me, a giant model of Hogwarts. It was so much bigger than I expected, as people had said that it was quite small. As if, they must have seen a different model or something....? 

Apologies for bad quality and lighting, I had to use my ipad as my phone was running out of battery and the lights switched between night and day.

We then went into a room full of wand boxes, and I suddenly remembered something I had read ages ago, that each of the names on the wand boxes were the names of each member of the cast and crew. I told this to Flatty B and one of the workers overheard me, and seemed quite impressed that I knew. (Spot the nerd...).

This lead out into the shop, where I got excited and sad, because I didn't want to have to leave! I bought a big book on how they made the books into the films, and have been flicking through that this morning. There's so much information to take in, I can only read it in little chunks! I also bought a chocolate frog that I munched on the train home. I got the Helga Hufflepuff card! My most exciting purchase was the hardback edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. I've never seen it in hardback, and as it's my favourite book, I couldn't resist. It now has pride of place on my bookshelf with all my other copies of the books. I cannot wait to read it.

This day was amazing. As a Harry Potter fan from a really young age, stepping into the world really made it come to life for me. I would happily go down again next week and the week after and the week after that. In the summer I am hopefully going to drag my parents to come with me and see it again. Such an amazing day, and I went to bed with a great big smile on my face. A massive thank you to Flatty B for coming with me, and for coping with my excitement all day, and a super-massive thank you to Mother and Father for giving me this wonderful experience for Christmas.

Travels | Bergen

View from Mount Floyen

Mother and I went to Bergen last week for a wee bit of a weekend getaway. I've applied to study at the Music College, so we popped over to get a feel of the city and to see how much more expensive everything really is.

I'm not going to lie, I had my reservations about the prices as everyone kept saying that it was really expensive. I didn't really believe them until I arrived. For example,  less than half a pint of the local beer was the equivalent of £7. Gobsmacking. I know.

However, it is a beautiful city. Strange, as it seems to have its own climate as a result of being surrounded by seven mountains. We took the funicular rail to the top of Mount Floyen, the view was spectacular. We only saw a small part of the city - but the feel we got was that it was like a large harbour village (which it once used to be). Fishing used to be the main form of income and as a result there is now a World Heritage Centre on the medieval street of Bryggen, with all its old wooden warehouses. There are a couple of museums on the harbour, which are worth a visit. There also a fish market right opposite here. It wasn't what I expected at all. When I read about it, I thought it was going to be a bit like a farmers produce market - but for fish. We stepped in for a wonder around and it could not have been more different to what I was expecting. It consisted of three main counters, I suppose I could call them, each with its own restaurant attached. You could also select your fish or lobster from tanks right beside the counter. So surreal, but so amazing at the whole time.

Bryggen

The city is known as the "City of Rain", and guess what? It rained. The whole time. At the beginning of the weekend, the rain came in short bursts. By Sunday, it was absolutely pouring down and we got drenched. It was cold too. I managed to lose one of my gloves on the train to the airport, so I ended up buying a pair of gorgeous hand-knitted woollen mittens. I am so glad that I did, otherwise I'm pretty sure my hands would have frozen into little icicles by the end of the weekend.

I would have loved to take the time to go to Grieg's house, but it would have involved a half hour's walk, and trudging in the rain for 30 minutes is no one's idea of fun. But hey! I have a reason to go back.

I would definitely go back, and I would also love to take the time to travel around Norway, maybe I will if I get accepted.

What If?

Do you ever stop and think "how did my life lead me here?" I do. 

I wonder what my life would be like if my Parents hadn't of moved me to Wales at the age of 4. I definitely wouldn't be speaking Welsh. Would I still be doing music? Who knows. I might have stuck with doing languages, but would I be any good with them even though I didn't speak Welsh?

What if I hadn't of fallen off the beam when I was 7? Would I have carried on doing gymnastics? I could have been training for the Olympics. I certainly started young enough. Then I may not have done music at all as I would have been too busy swinging off the bar or jumping off the vault.

What if I had never picked up the oboe? Would I still be attempting (badly) the violin because I didn't know that there was another instrument calling to me. I probably would have studied something different in university. I may be reading a serious subject like history, or studying to be a medic. Who knows.

What if my Parents hadn't of moved me to France at the age of 10? Would I still have the itchy feet that want to lead me onto an adventure? Would I have just stayed being a homebody, simply because the seed of different cultures hadn't been planted?

What if I had gone to a girls school at the age of 12, like I had originally planned. I would never have become such good friends with the people in my music service. I would never have had the relationships I did, but would I have branched out from the girls school bubble? Who knows.

What if I had decided to stay in my comprehensive school for sixth form? Would I have made it to music college? Probably not. I would be a completely different person. I probably wouldn't have got the grades I wanted to get into university as I wouldn't have worked as hard as I did. I may have gone travelling the world, or stayed at home and started a business. 

What if I had decided to go to a different Music College? I would be surrounded by different people, living in a different city, and have a different teacher. Would I have thrived or would I have hated it so much I quit?

What about the smaller stuff? Would my life have taken a slightly different course if I had decided to have an apple instead of a banana with my lunch yesterday? 

Let's look bigger now, look at the most successful people who have ever lived. What if Steve Jobs had never started Apple? What if Walt Disney hadn't of been rejected from a magazine for "laimagination"? Imagine a world without Apple or Disney. I wouldn't be sat in College writing this on my ipad because it wouldn't exist, and what film would I have watched last night if Tangled had never been written?

Thinking of all the 'What Ifs' in your life can make someone go mad. I'm beginning to go a bit doolally thinking about it all. However, every single one of these paths were determined by choices. Nothing about your life is out of your control, and every tiny choice you make has an effect on the way you live. So maybe next time you're faced with a difficult decision, plan the different lives that your choices can take you. If you begin to feel that you'd constantly be thinking "What If", then do it. Why not? The most important thing is that you don't live life with any regrets, so that when you're old you can look back fondly the path your choices have taken you. So you don't look back at a junction in life that you wish you'd taken left instead of right.