Blundering through Belgium and kissing frogs

Day 5 - Wednesday 29th April

Wednesday morning Amy and I packed up our bags again and said 'doei' (bye in Dutch) to Amsterdam. Well after we'd had some more pancakes from All Stars anyway.

The three hour train journey to Brussels flew by as I spent most of it reading 'The Miniaturist', which is set in 17th century Amsterdam, ' on my Kindle.

We managed to find our hostel without too much hastle and were surprised at how big our room was. The hostel itself looks like an old school.

We do not sleep on King's Day

Day 2 - Sunday 26th April

We started off our second day with a search for some pancakes that ended at All Stars restaurant and bar. We ordered pancakes with chocolate sauce and a glass of orange juice each. The pancakes that arrived were massive and very delicious.

Next we had a walk around and headed to the Anne Frank house. We queued for two hours in the cold rain and wind to get in, but it was worth it. It was really interesting to learn about Anne, her family and friends, and her situation. The house just looks like a museum so it was hard to see what it would have been like living there but I'd still recommend it to anyone visiting Amsterdam. Afterwards we had some hot chocolate in the cafe there to warm us up.

We ate a late lunch/ early tea by the Prinsengracht canal and took some pictures of the area before heading back towards the centre.

Every year people in The Netherlands celebrate King's (or Queens) Day, which is a national holiday in honour of the King's birthday. This year was the first King's Day for the current monarch and was held on Monday 27th April. The festivities start the night before on what is known as King's Night. It's common for people to dress up in orange so me and Amy brought orange 'me in Amsterdam' tops and crown head boppers to wear.

Arriving in Amsterdam

Day 1 - Saturday 25th April

Early Saturday morning Amy (you can find her blog here) and I finally set off on our European adventure! By half eight in the morning we'd arrived safely in Amsterdam after a short flight from Bristol Airport. After some breakfast at the airport, we found some brightly dressed dancers with the letters 'SPRING' near the exit and they we handing out daffodils to everyone. It was a lovely start to our adventure. Once we were outside, we saw one of the famous 'Iamsterdam' signs so of course we had to take some pictures and a selfie or two!

The airport is also a train station so we got our tickets to Amsterdam Central and hopped on a train. After picking up some leaflets from the information centre we started to have a wander around. It was quite a workout considering we had six weeks of stuff on our backs. We had some yummy food at and Argentinian restaurant called Cau, then attempted to find our hotel. We got a bit confused but eventually we found it.

Tiger is having some adventures too, here he is next to the wheel in Dam Square. Behind the wheel you can see the palace, and Madame Tussauds is to the left.

Raahh - Tiger found a big scary friend to hang out with.

J :)

Planning my European adventure

A week today I'll be setting off on an adventure around Europe for about six and a half weeks!

Me and my sister Amy have had this trip in mind for the last year, however we've only started making plans recently, we don't even know the exact date we're coming home yet. We plan to fly out to Amsterdam and fly home from Italy, possibly Sicily. Whist we're there, we'll get around by train using our Interrail passes and other public transport. There's still a lot we've got to figure out over the next week, but here's what we've got planned so far.

Initial Itinerary

Saturday 25th April - Arrive in Amsterdam, The Netherlands (this also happens to be our parents anniversary)

Sunday 26th April - Visit Anne Frank's house

Monday 27th April - Celebrate Kings day - this is a national holiday in the Netherlands that celebrates the Kings birthday and everyone dresses in orange.

Tuesday 28th April - Visit Utrecht for the day

Fields of green - Style haul #2

When I was a kid, about 90% of the clothes I wore were green, because that's my favourite colour and my parents always let wear whatever I wanted. So in most of the family pictures I'm dressed head to toe in green! Below you can see a few examples.

Left: green flowery dress with pink Barbie arm-pads that match the (out of shot) Barbie roller blades. Right: emerald green cardigan.

Now that I'm an adult (how did that happen?) I like to wear a whole range of colours. However I've noticed that the items I've bought recently are all green. I also painted my bedroom mint green a few months ago, which my younger self would approve of.

2014 round-up

A lot has happened since my last post: I graduated from Coventry University with a first in Business Maths, got a job in retail and turned 23!

Here are my highlights from 2014:

I submitted my dissertation, saw McBusted live (picture source), finished university, went to Download festival, did the Cotswold Care Flying Colours Run, redecorated my bedroom, got a retail job, officially graduated and turned 23!

J :)

A weekend to remember

It's that time of year again, festival season!! I started off with Slam Dunk Festival in May (check out my blog post here) and then a few weeks ago I went to Download Festival.

I do feel like I cheated slightly, seeing as I didn't camp there. Instead, I stayed at my sister's place in Derby, with the comfort of a proper bed and a decent shower, then got the shuttle bus over. Although she did keep kicking me so maybe I would have been better off sleeping in a tent haha!

I went to my first Download two years ago and I was dying to go again this year, especially when I saw the line-up. So many of the bands I wanted to see live were playing, and amazingly there weren't really any clashes.

Early Saturday morning, me and my best friend headed out towards Derby train station to catch the shuttle bus. It seemed like ages since we went in 2012, but as soon as we walked into the main arena, it was like we'd never left. Soon enough we were singing along to the likes of Bowling For Soup and Fall Out Boy. Then in the evening, the headliner was Linkin Park, the band (along with Three Days Grace) that I listened to religiously on the way to and from school, all those years ago. It was actually quite surreal to hear some of their songs live.

When I woke up Sunday it was time to do it all again, however this time I was going solo, as my friend had to be back in time for work. First I saw Skillet, who I absolutely love, then I ended up queuing for two hours, to get my CD cover signed by The Pretty Reckless. It was totally worth it and I even got a great big smile from Jamie and a nice 'Thank you' from Mark. Black Stone Cherry played a not so secret gig and Steel Panther put on a hilarious performance before The Pretty Reckless came along playing some of my favourite songs. Finally Aerosmith ended the weekend with plenty of hits and a spectacular explosion of confetti that made it look like it was snowing!

All in all it was a great weekend. Thank you Download, maybe I'll see you again next year?

J :)