Warwick and Oxford

Back in April I had 3 days off in a row... Because it happens so rarely we immediately decided to go on a weekend getaway to.... Warwick and Oxford daytrip too :)

At first we kind of freaked out that we have to change train stations, not just trains, in Birmingham! Get off at new street and walk 5-10 mins to Snow Hill station... It was supposed to be easy but as Mr. Special was dreading it we changed trains earlier to get us on one that takes us straight to Snow Hill. When we did get there we realised it just on the other side of the Bullring :D easy peasy lemon squeezy, on our way back we even grabbed lunch in the Handmade Burger co. :) Probs my fave place in Birmingham, and Bills really... don't think I've been anywhere else :D

Anyway Warwick seems such a lovely little town. Charming :) I could definitely live there. 

Since we got there quite late during the day + were starving for food we only had a short walk through the town, in the cathedral, where there was a band practising. When we exited the cathedral we realised we could've gone up to the tower but it closed literally 10 min ago :( We also narrowly missed the chance to visit the site of an old hospital, at first I wasn't that disappointed as we knew we most probably won't make it. No planning beforehand you see, only mindless wandering around... But when we got there and saw the amazing old building with the gate still open I got excited... only to be turned down at the gate saying they close in like 15 minutes or so and there is just no point for us to pay the entrance fee as we would see virtually nothing... :( reason to go back though

Second day was dedicated to Oxford which is just an hour away - although getting there was a hassle aswell as the early morning train was replaced by a bus, but where does the bus go from? No signs or anything... Sheeep... Tried phoning the train company but they had no idea other than yes there is a replacement bus but where... who knows, ask at the station... umm... it's closed... Finally a taxi driver told us that indeed we have to walk back on the main road where there are bus stops and that's where the train bus will be as it would never be able to manouvre up to the actual station. Got there just at the nick of time, bus was just pulling up. 

In Oxford we just wandered around seeing everything we could see, the countless colleges and you could walk in to some of the courtyards, pretty fancy place to study indeed. Oxford also has the Original Alice in Wonderland Shop which we couldn't miss. I love quirky little shops like this.

The only downfall of Oxford is the sheer amount of homeless people :(

Radcliffe Camera closed for visitors :(

Botanical Gardens were open though :) Quite dear to get into but who can resist pretty flowers :) Lol I haven't actually put any photos of them here but you can take my word for it :D Guess I'm not a big fan of taking photos of flowers, much rather admire them in real life.

These lemons were HUGE the size of my hand

And this was a tiny pineapple

And to top off our day we had a fancy pancake

I believe this is THE Oxford University? Maybe not though :D there were so many :D

On the last day we found a nice cafe in Warwick to have breakfast and they gave me this cool tea timer.

Then we made our way into Warwick Castle, which is a huge castle managed by the Merlin Entertainment group. For about £10 extra you could go to the Dungeons as well. OMG for the first time I was actually called out to take part... The last 2? times I've managed to fit into the crowd and not stand out to be called to demonstrate or sit somewhere or say anything which I'm totally happy with. 

The castle itself

There was also demonstration of birds of prey flying over our head and WOW they are BIG!!!!! Unfortunately it started raining half way through :( British weather eh?

And lastly we went into the Terrible Histories labyrinth, which was surprisingly amusing given it was designed for kids mainly :D

Ttyl ;)
Jazzz...

Eurovison

A bit too late but these were my favourite songs from Eurovision 2017:

1. Hungary I didn't actually like it the first time in the semi-finals mostly because of the rap part but then the refrain just really got stuck in my head and I now find that this song is brilliant! (still not a big fan of the rap but what can I do)

2. Armenia - Also found from the final - the camera movement in the first part is amazing and then the dancers! Loved them! The song is good too :D

3. UK - One of the best songs I think and did you notice she was singing ALONE! no backup singers! it was solely her voice which is ahmazingggg! Yes the faces were a bit funny but she put her heart and soul into it 

Honorable mentions are Moldova,  Azerbaijan and Cyprus

Ttyl ;)

Jazzz...

MLB Spring

Can you tell I haven't been too excited about these this time? Looking at photos (because my memory is shocking) I blame the last May box.

Starting with March which was really good!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                    

#nofilter

I freaking loved practically everything in it!

Best thing: the brush - which I actually use daily now! It's sooo soft :) how did I manage without it before? I did have a similar brush before but it broke :D and I just wasn't that keen about it...

Secondly the cosmetic bag! I've been looking for one that's cute and the perfect size for ever and voila here it is!

Other things in it:

• A little notepad (can't get enough of them)
• Phone ring - I do like it but have not yet used it because once you put it on can you take it off and put on again? It's really useful but I don't want it on the phone all the time...
• Baby pink nail polish
• Blemish free primer - good to take on trips
• Make up forever Ultra HD Microfinishing Loose Powder - supposed to give your skin a perfect radiant and smooth look

April

Not as good as the previous but still good :)

Best thing: Water bottle fruit infuser

Other things included:

• A full size body lotion
• Vitamin shot face scrub
• Early morning moisturizer
• monthly fruit and veg calendar 
• magnetic shopping list pad
• Bandana scarf
• Coconut bites

Not the best box but certainly not the worst

And then the May one which was just bad...

It did arrive quite late as well so I had the "pleasure" of reading comments on their FB page that said the box sucks :(

The theme looks promising but the insides....

Coasters - not even cute ones...

A bow for a bra??????? What even is that? Why?

A big gold triangular hair pin - might be handy

Kohl eye pencil

Nail polish

Cocktail recipes

Body cream (again)

If anyone wants to try body creams I have loads :D 

Ttyl ;)

Jazzz...

Salty Churros

My final, long-awaited post about just random things that I want to note down about our trip to Barcelona in April :D

Firstly, I'd forgotten that we had a pool in the hotel! And not just a pool but one on a freaking sun deck. Could anything be cooler than that - no! And when my companion wanted to go to the sun-deck  on the first two nights I wasn't too keen - wot the point? I can just chill in bed :D Then on the third day she finally piped up and said there's a pool there!!!!!!!!!!! OMG if I'd known we could've spent the hours that we had on the first day between Sagrada and Parc Güell in that freaking pool instead of wasting time by torturing ourselves in the heat with nothing apparent to do!

The second night we made a snap decision of going to see a Flamenco show. Luckily for us there was one quite near us as well that started late enough for us to make it. Unknown to us though we had chosen a very emotional show (there were three types at different times during the day). The dancer were very into their dance and pulled some quite funny faces at times. It was quite an experience. There was 3 women and 3 men, mostly solo dances with a few group dance. There were also musicians there so the music was live, which I wasn't really expecting to be honest.

Our last day was mainly plan free. Wandering through the little narrow streets of the Barri Gotic (I could've spent the whole day there). There was a pianist playing beautiful music on the main square, later we stumbled upon some sort of demonstration where loud bangs could be heard.

Next we made our to way to La Rambla - desperately holding onto our bags, as it is supposed to be a hotspot for pickpockets. And then she's extra polite and holds a conversation with the "Hey pretty girl, where are you from" guys -.- !!!!!!!

 The beach was full of people offering you something. Practically every minute either a massage, mojito, big scarves to lie on, henna? tattoos and god knows what else... Not the most relaxing of experiences.

 And finally after days of finding the right moment it presented itself - we had churros at a cafe and they were ... absolutely horrible :D Why oh why are they salty? Why have I never heard that their salty before? Obvs I ate it all but... they're salty man!!! What?

Ttyl ;)

Jazzz...

Girona and Montserrat

On the second day of our holiday we hopped on a train to Girona to see the historic centre where Game of Thrones was filmed!!! Ok I'm not that big of a fan but it did look a bit familiar to me :D Once you get to the little narrow cobblestone streets.

The Eiffel Bridge 

First off we headed to one of the cathedrals in town but decided not to go in as it was 16euros! (combined ticket for both cathedrals)... Why so expensive? We did have a sneaky peek inside and compared to Sagrada (can you compare anything to it?) it was meh...

Next we headed to the Arab baths. Followed the signs until it disappeared. Where did it go? Why aren't there any more signs for it?!?!?! Then we turned around and voila it was directly behind us and only 2 euros to get in :) Mind you it is quite small but the main room makes it all worth wile.

Look at this!

Watahhhhhh

Right next to the Arab baths is a stairway to the city wall which is looooooooong and with multiple tower viewpoints. Be careful in the narrow winding steel stairs that actually tremble when you're climbing them... Scary but the views are fantastic.

Second more impressive cathedral that was featured in Game of Thrones.

Third day took us to Montserrat - a monastery up in the hills. We actually took a cable car to get to it! 

We did do a little booboo and bought the wrong tickets: we wanted to get the ones that have the 2 funiculars included as well but ended up having to pay for one instead (we didn't have enough time for all of it).

First tip: arrive early! If you want go hiking in various mountain trails. Unfortunately we only had time for one path on the top of the mountain. Half due to the fact we didn't buy lunch to go as we had planned (someone got up too late) so we had to join the enormous queue at the diner and pay an extortionate price for the food there... There was supposed to be a shop in that tiny village but it was closed, probably only open during high season.

Inside the monastery

Then for some reason my travel companion decided to wear summer shoes to go hiking :D and the path marked easy wasn't that easy after all and surely half way her shoe broke... She trooped on to the next viewpoint and the top of the mountain was just there so I conquered that alone. Fell :D and scraped my arm and back thigh. Basically got a beating from a bush :D But I made it. 

Making our way back to the funicular station a couple of Americans told us to take the easier way back. At first we were happy, then it looked like we are going to the wrong direction, then it wasn't as easy as they had made it seem. The path we came was really hard for only a short amount of time but this seemed to be harder for longer + going the wrong way :S it was getting late, we couldn't go back and finally we got to a proper path that twisted back to the right direction and gave us views down to the town. Basically we circled that peak.

View from the top of the mountain

Ttyl ;)

Jazzz...