Life Update

When I came to the UK, I didn’t have a plan. I was hoping to get a job, spend time with my family and eventually travel a bit. I was lucky enough to get a job at Superdry just two weeks after moving here. And then I was lucky enough to be able to get three weeks off so I could travel around Europe with my best friend. Everything is falling into place, like a puzzle.

My contract with Superdry was only for 3 months, and I was only meant to be doing about 8 hours a week. I’ve now been with them just over 4 months, and i’ve been working an average of 20 hours a week. Definitely not complaining, I’ve met some amazing people there, some that I think I’ll stay in touch with. But like everything, all good things must come to an end. They asked me to stay on permanently, but as the job wasn’t full time, I turned it down as I would be unable to move out of home with a part time job. But it’s okay, I had a back up plan. I signed up to a nannying agency months ago, had an interview back in May (OMG stopping this blog right here because as I am writing this outside, a SQUIRREL just wandered straight past me and is sitting on the fence a couple of metres away from me! Wouldn’t get that in NZ!) Anyway back to my interview, there is 3 kids in the family, they live in Surrey, and are looking for a live in nanny. After hearing about all the details, meeting the Mum and youngest daughter, I was offered the job. I said yes, as I was needing something else to do and this would be a great opportunity. So in a months time, I am once again, making the move to somewhere where I know absolutely no one. I get my own separated area of the house, with a hallway, bedroom and bathroom. Best of all, I get a car. Cannot wait to stop having to catch a bus everywhere! I am so excited to start my new job, it can’t come soon enough! Before I head to Surrey, I have a few other things to look forward too. V Festival, where I will be reunited with some girls from back home in NZ, and then we will be seeing Justin Bieber, Sia, Halsey (just to name a few) all live. After that, i’ll be heading down to Devon to see some family who I have never met, and stay with them on their farm. Can’t wait to explore another part of the UK. As much fun as it’s been in Chelmsford, I am ready for a change.

 

 

Amsterdayuuuum

Please excuse my cliché blog title but that is definitely an accurate way to describe Amsterdam. One part of me was sad, because this was the last destination in my 3 week Europe tour, but I was excited to explore a new place. We were greeted at the airport by a relative of Jasmins, who she had never met and who we would be staying with for the next couple of nights. We took a train to her apartment, which lucky for us was very central. That night we went and had dinner at a nice pub, explored some of the streets and headed back to the apartment (Which was the cutest apartment, it had a big room at the front where Jas and I were staying, overlooking a park and canal, and was all white with a few plants here and there – Almost my dream apartment!)

The next day, we prepared ourselves for a day full of walking. We walked through the streets, alongside the canals. This place was amazing! After getting lost for an hour, we decided to stop off at a “coffee shop” (sorry Granny) So funny walking into a shop that sells weed, like it was the most normal thing ever! We were then back on track and found ourselves at the Red Light District. So strange walking through streets that have prostitutes standing in booths, beckoning for men to come in. There were sex shops, and sex theatres on every corner. Unfortunately this is where it started raining (Amster-dam it’s raining) We kept walking and eventually found ourselves in Dam Square. We ducked into H&M just to get out of the rain of course, and after it had stopped/we had finished shopping, we walked to the famous I AMSTERDAM sign, and even though it was packed full of tourists we managed to grab a few snaps. Both of us really wanted to go to the Anne Frank House, and even though the line was absolutely massive, we were willing to line up for what turned out to be an hour and a half. SO worth it though! Only 9 euros to experience some world famous history. After a long day of walking, we headed back to the apartment, but not before stopping for dinner and a drink on the way home.

The next day, we were going to a small town about 40 minutes out of Amsterdam to visit another one of Jasmin’s long lost relatives. We caught the train there, and literally spent the entire day walking around the town looking at nothing. I was relieved when they suggested dinner, although dinner was the weirdest meal i’ve had this whole holiday. The menu was in Dutch so we had to have it translated and I ordered bbq chicken with potato salad and corn. We caught the train back to the city and stopped on the way at a “coffee shop” then for a cocktail at a bar. Our last night before I headed back to the UK, leaving Jasmin in Amsterdam until she heads back to NZ.

The next morning, we decided to kill some time and go to the zoo, as it is where her Aunty works and we were given free tickets. We walked around before it was time to go to the train station, and stopping for the famous Amsterdam Fries on the way. I was planning on going into London in a couple of days, to see Jasmin before she left so I didn’t have to say goodbye yet. And that was that, 3 weeks of travelling through Europe finished. Back to work in a couple of days, but as I was sitting alone in the airport (where I had to wait 4 HOURS for my flight) I knew it wouldn’t be long before I was back, this time discovering new places! Vaarwel!

 

Amazing Amalfi

The Amalfi Coast. Something I would call a hidden wonder of Italy. I had never heard of it until I was looking for a new destination to travel too, but travelling along a coast full of seaside towns with colourful buildings high on cliffs sounded like a nice way to spend the next 5 days.

After a 3 hour train ride, we arrived in Salerno. We had chosen this as our first spot in the Amalfi Coast, mainly because we didn’t want to travel anymore that day. This small seaside town was exactly that, small. We walked 5 minutes from the train station down the main street and were at our hotel. Dropping our bags in our room, we headed out in search of some lunch. We had passed a burger place on the walk and decided to go back there. Now i’ve had a lot of burgers in my lifetime, but these burgers were absolutely amazing. And not too badly priced either. In fact, after an afternoon of swimming at the beach and shopping, we decided to go back there for dinner to try out another burger. Two burgers in one day, with no regrets. The next day, we were heading to Maiori, a town 5 minutes away from Amalfi, where hotels were 10x cheaper than being in Amalfi itself. We caught a bus there, and met some New Zealanders at the bus stop. Three elderly ladies that were all from the Christchurch region. We got talking to them and it was surprisingly nice hearing the accent! The bus drive to Maiori was thrilling, we were driving along the cliffs, with the windy, narrow roads where the bus drivers had to beep the horn around every corner to let oncoming traffic know we were coming. As soon as we got to our destination, another one street kinda town, we spotted our hotel straight away. All along the beach, were lounging chairs which we later found out you have to pay to sit in! We once again, left our bags at the hotel, and headed out to do what we do best. Food. We had a look around the small town, then went back to the hotel so we could spend the afternoon at the beach (which was literally on the beach) That night for dinner, we found a restaurant and had-wait for it-PASTA. The next day, we prepared ourselves for a day trip to Amalfi. We purchased ferry tickets and waited. The trip was 15 minutes, and on the way we were treated to the nicest views of the Coast. Amalfi was absolutely packed with tourists. We wandered the streets, where I purchased some interesting looking pasta to send to my family. (Granny- they said they were going to hide it from you!) We found a nice spot for lunch before settling down on the beach to relax for the afternoon. We caught the ferry back, where it surprisingly started pouring down with rain on us. Pretty strange considering 10 minutes ago we had been lying on the beach in 30 degree heat! We walked back to the hotel absolutely drenched, had showers and decided to nap. This “nap” turned into a 4 hour sleep for Jasmin, where she woke up at 9:30pm. It was a late dinner for us!

We caught another bus the next day, this time to Amalfi where we had previously purchased ferry tickets to Positano. Our third and final stop in the Amalfi Coast. After making our ferry by literally seconds, we were on our way. Arriving in Positano was interesting. We had our massive suitcases, and wondered how on earth we could get them to our hotel when the whole place was on a cliff. Luckily , there was some guys that had quads with mini trailers on the  back, designed to take luggage to hotels, as there are no roads for cars at the entrance to Positano. We sent our luggage off, and decided to have lunch before looking for our hotel. We ate pizza, and soaked in the view. This was already the best place that we had visited on the Amalfi Coast. Our hotel had the BEST view, looking out onto the ocean on one side, and out to the buildings on the cliff on the other side. The only bad thing was the 700 steps it took to walk there, but after eating a whole pizza, it was probably a good thing. The next day we decided to hire kayaks and a paddle board which turned out to be probably the most fun activity we had done this whole holiday. The water was crystal clear, and the view was unreal. This is where I wished I had a GoPro to film it. We paddled around for an hour, with Jasmin falling off her paddle board atleast 5 times, and then headed back to swim. We literally spent our whole time in Positano on the beach, and drinking cocktails (which definitely did not compare to Mykonos cocktails but still good) After 2 nights here, it definitely turned from PositaNO to PositaYES 😉

When in Rome

As a child, I was obsessed with the Lizzie McGuire Movie. I owned it on video, had multiple Hilary Duff CDs and one year even had a picture of Hilary Duff on my birthday cake. So when we decided to go to Rome, I couldn’t wait to see all those places Lizzie had been too, and possibly fall in love with an Italian popstar and perform at the Italian Music Awards.

We arrived in Rome at 12 at night. We were absolutely shattered and couldn’t wait for a good nights sleep at our airport b&b. (So relieved we had booked a place by the hotel seeing as got there so late, instead of having to mish it into the city). The next day, we made our way to Central Rome, where our hotel was for the next few days. I had to admit, we were getting good at this navigating through a city business. After checking into our hotel, we began exploring. Haha after writing about how good we were at navigating through cities, I just remembered this is the part where we got lost. What should’ve been a 15 minute walk to Piazza del Popolo, turned into an hour and a half. We did stop for pasta on the way though, which was a bonus. Eventually we made it, and climbed some steps to a view overlooking Rome. We walked down the main street, stopping for a quick look in H&M, and of course GELATO. This food thing in Rome was really off to a good start. For dinner that night we found a nice restaurant close to our hotel, and had the only thing left on the Italian menu yet to try. PIZZA.

The next morning, we decided to go to the Vatican so we walked there only to discover we couldn’t get in because of the dress code, so we decided to go back later that afternoon with our shoulders covered. Instead we walked back to the square, this time without getting lost, and walked further down the main street ready to find all the tourist spots. First on the list, Trevi Fountain. This iconic fountain, is the spot where Lizzie McGuire throws a coin in, and then straight after bumps into a dreamy Paulo. It was smaller than I thought, but we were here. Pushing past all the tourists (Hey i had travelled a long way for this) we made our way to the front. We threw a coin in, took a couple of snaps and we were on our way. Without bumping into an Italian popstar, but I had hope. We kept walking and eventually found…Well I’m actually not too sure what it was. It was a big building that had steps leading up to it, with guards out the front. We took some pictures in front of this unnamed building and kept walking. Deciding to stop for lunch before heading to the Colosseum, we got surprise surprise, Pasta! (Little did I know, this would be all thats on my menu for the next 10 days in Italy) Walking up to the Colosseum was pretty cool, there were lots of old ruins to look at. We made it, and walked up to a lookout to get the full view. We decided not to go inside, as we wanted to go back to the Vatican that afternoon and wasn’t sure if we would have enough time to do both. On our way back we stopped at H&M once again, this was becoming a bit of a habit. And then we stopped for gelato. Wow this was becoming a bit of a habit. (I’ll just point out here we had walked almost 20km already today, and it was 34 degrees so we definitely deserved it!) We walked back to the Vatican, stopping by our hotel to ‘cover up’. We walked through the Vatican, museum and the church. I’m not a religious person, but this was the nicest church I had ever seen. Everywhere you looked, there was something amazing to see. Seeing as we were leaving Rome the next morning, for dinner that night we decided to splurge. We got starters of bruschetta, a pesto pizza and some pasta to share. By the end of it, we were so full we could barely walk. So worth it though, not very often we are in Italy! We were leaving Rome early the next morning so headed back to our hotel after a very long day of walking. Hey now, hey now, this is what dreams are made of…

Exploring Mykonos

Following our trip to Santorini, I didn’t think any other place could top it off. And I was right, it didn’t. But Mykonos was still pretty cool. That is, once we finally arrived there. Long story short, we travelled to Mykonos from Santorini via ferry. The trip was supposed to take almost 3 hours, and when we arrived 20 minutes early we didn’t think anything of it. We grabbed our suitcases and headed off the ship ready to explore a new island. Once we got to the end of the wharf, there were 20 or so people advertising their hotels. “Cheap room with a sunset view, girls?” We had already booked accommodation and the owner of our hotel was picking us up so we sat down to wait, thinking she just wasn’t there because we were early. One of the advertisers asked us where we were staying, and when we told them they hadn’t heard of it. We said it was right in Mykonos town and she laughed. “Mykonos? This isn’t Mykonos.” TURNS OUT WE WERE ON THE WRONG ISLAND. Little did we know, there was a stop at the island of Naxos before Mykonos. We found a ticket office, paid another 30 euros and grabbed some lunch during the 3 hour wait for our next ferry. And that is how we saw an extra Greek island.

Three hours later, we arrived in the actual Mykonos. Helen had kindly came back to pick us up, and we headed to our hotel. What a view! The building was blue and white, overlooking the ocean. Straight away we headed into the town to have a look around. There is no words to describe the streets of Mykonos. You don’t even feel like you are outside, the narrow alleyways are white and blue, with cute little stairways leading up to apartments above the local shops. We grabbed some food (gyros of course) and had a look around the shops. We had decided to head out on the town that night, so we found an alcohol store and went back to the hotel to get ready. I would love to say yeah, we had a great memorable night out clubbing in Mykonos however after not drinking any alcohol for almost 4 nights the night didn’t turn out too pretty and we were back in the hotel by 12:30pm. Tip: Only order Long Island Iced Teas in Mykonos if you are a pro alcohol as these things were LETHAL. We had to ask them to add some orange juice because neither of us could drink them! After sleeping off a killer headache, we knew we had to make the most of the day so we headed out to hire scooters. However, after being told that scooters are extremely dangerous especially as we hadn’t ridden them before, we went for a quad bike again. We decided to go to Paradise Beach, which was a 20 minute ride away and scope out the beach clubs for later that evening ( Yes we were willing to try again) The clubs were all lined up along the beach, and there were beach chairs lined up with people lying on them (Probably still out from the night before?) On the way back, we stopped at Paraga Beach which turns out was a nude beach. Back in Mykonos town, after getting ready for the evening, we went to our favourite place. Little Venice. The cocktails here are AMAZING! 14 Euros, but SO worth it. Plus you get a great view of the sunset. We caught a bus to Paradise Beach and the night began. More cocktails, dancing on tables, dancing with midgets and cheering when the dj called out ‘New Zealand.’

The rest of our time in Mykonos was pretty chilled, we ate more Gyros, wandered the streets and swam in the beach. As much as I liked Mykonos, I was ready to leave by 10pm the next night when we headed to the airport. Next stop: Roma! 

 

5 Things I learnt when moving across the world

It took me 27 hours to get to my new home. 27 HOURS. Thats 18,764 km. Or 11659.40 miles seeing as i’m living in the UK now. Obviously making a decision to move this far away cannot be done overnight, as it’s not like you can just jump on a plane and go back home whenever you feel like it. Still been one of the best decisions I’ve made though, and i’ve learnt a ton already in the first 4 months of being here.

1. Who your real friends are: I’m sure everyone who has moved across the world will agree with me on this one. It’s interesting who you hear from when your life completely changes. Not only did I move across the world, but I re-connected with my Dad who I hadn’t seen in 17 years. This is probably one of the biggest things that will ever happen to me in my life, and I still haven’y heard from people that I considered close friends. Yeah, everyone has stuff going on in there life, but it takes 2 minutes to send a quick message.
2. Everything takes time: At home I lived with friends, had a full time job, spent the weekends being social and had a car which meant freedom. Here, I am living with family, I knew absolutely no one apart from them which meant no social life with people my own age, and the closest town is a 15 minute bus ride away which costs £6.30 return (thats about $13nzd!) I wasn’t used to this and didn’t realise the effect it would have on me. After getting a job a couple of weeks after moving here, and finally meeting people my own age, I eventually started spending Friday nights socialising, instead of staying at home watching Netflix. It just took time.
3. Facetime will become your best friend: I don’t know where I would be without social media. Facebook, Snapchat and Facetime are all saviours when it comes to keeping in contact with your friends/family back home. Even if it’s a quick message to let them know you’re still alive, or an essay of gossip from the weekend it all adds up, and us travellers really appreciate it.
4. You will have on and off days: I think i’m lucky, because I haven’t been too homesick since being here. Yeah some days I wake up and miss home. I miss the people, I miss being able to run up the mount everyday, I miss being able to cross the road to go for a swim at the beach and I miss my old house. And then other days I wake up and just think “Wow I am in ENGLAND. I completely changed my life, whereas everyone at home is stuck in the same old boring job doing the same thing everyday. I have travelled around Europe, and seen places I used to only dream of seeing” Whenever I am in London, I sometimes just stop and look around and think how cool it is here, and that people back home would probably love to trade places.
5. Home is where the heart is: This one is pretty self explanatory. When I showed people from work a picture of Mount Maunganui, they were shocked that I chose to leave there, and live in Chelmsford instead. Quick side story: The other day at work, an old lady almost made me cry. She asked me if I was Australian (which i get asked atleast 5 times a day) She then asked if I had left all my family and friends behind, and when I said yes, she looked at me in awe, said that I am extremely brave and that she wishes she had done some travelling at my age, as she has not been anywhere. She then wished me luck with my future. I have had this conversation with other elderly people who always question my accent, and wonder why on earth I am in Chelmsford of all places. It always makes me feel proud of myself and is a small reminder that I made the right decision. Although Chelmsford (soon to be Surrey) is my temporary home, one day I’ll be back in Mount Maunganui.

 

Dreams do come true

Santorini had always been high on my list of places to visit. There’s just something about the blue and white buildings, high on a clifftop overlooking miles and miles of sea that make you want to smile. Dreams were free. Well now they weren’t just a dream, but a reality. And they sure as hell weren’t free, but I can tell you this. After spending a week in Greece, it was worth every cent.

Getting off the plane in Santorini, it was extremely windy. Wasn’t expecting that, but who was I to complain. I was in GREECE. We got picked up by our hotel owner, and taken to what I could call paradise. Our room was all white, had a view of the sea, and to the left was the pool with chairs around it that I could just picture lying on later with a cocktail in my hand. Yes pleeeeease. We headed on a short walk into the capital, Fira, and had a look around. The main square consisted of food and souvenir shops, which we spent an hour looking around. We found some dinner, and possibly the best gelato spot then headed back to our hotel. The next day, we decided to put our lives at risk and hire quad bikes. This is a definite recommendation for anyone who goes to Greece, and how most of the locals rely on transport. Our hotel owner pointed out all the good spots and we were off. We headed to Oia, another major tourist spot in Santorini. It took us about 25 minutes to get there, but being on the open road overlooking the sea and barely any other cars or quads around, it was a thrill. We parked up and walked around the corner. What a sight. This is what I had been waiting for. It was like a postcard. We walked along the path, stopping for a smoothie along the way and making sure we took loads of pictures and updated our snapchat stories so everyone back in NZ could see what paradise looks like. We spent the day in Oia, looking through shops and just walking around the amazing streets. The sunset in Oia is supposedly world famous so we definitely did not want to miss that. After having dinner on a rooftop, we headed for the lookout where hundreds of other keen tourists were already gathered. After watching the sun go down, we headed back to Fira on our quad bike, but not before stopping for donuts on the way home!

The next day, we had decided to book a sailboat tour. To get to the port, you have to take a gondola to the bottom, which was fun. You could get a whole view of the cliffs of Fira. We found our boat and headed off. We were going to some hot springs, and a volcano. I absolutely love being on boats, in the middle of the ocean with a slight breeze. We got to the hot springs, and got to jump off the boat to swim over to them. They weren’t exactly hot, but it was nice being in the ocean in 30 degree heat. After that, we headed to the volcano. It took about 20 minutes to walk to the top, and once we were there I was definitely ready for a swim again. After arriving back to Fira, we decided instead of taking the gondola to the top, we would take a typical Greek way. Donkeys! It was 5 euros to get up there, but so worth it. I felt like Lena off Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants. We then went straight back to our hotel and jumped in the pool for a nice swim. For anyone who has been to Greece, or is planning a trip you must have Gyros! Your choice of meat, some red onion, chips and sauces all wrapped up into a pita for 2.30 euros. Perfect for a cheap and yummy dinner! However we decided for our last night in Santorini, we would choose somewhere classy. A restaurant on the clifftops with a glass of wine and a bowl of pasta. This was the life. Out of everywhere I have seen in the world (which isn’t many places) Santorini is my favourite. I would’ve happily spent longer than 3 days there, but knowing I was going to another Greek island (which ended up being 2 islands, but thats a story for another day) tomorrow was exciting. And plus, I know that eventually I’ll end up back here!

C’est la vie

Whenever I used to see pictures of people in exotic places, I would always get jealous. “Wow did you see that Anna is in Italy? She’s so lucky!” I never thought I would be in one of those places. But now I can say, I’ve been to a few. I didn’t want this blog to be specifically a Travel Blog but after spending a month around Europe, and having the time of my life, I may actually have something interesting to write about.

Catching an 8 hour bus to Paris may seem like a nightmare to some people. However for me, its a dream come true. ME, going to PARIS. The 4:30am wake up call didn’t phase me because at the end of the day, I would be eating snails under the Eiffel Tower. The bus ride wasn’t bad. I had a window seat, and the seat next to me was empty. I was glad to finally get there though. I caught a taxi to our hotel, where Jasmin was waiting for me. After months of booking this holiday, it was finally here! I was with my best friend, in PARIS. BONJOUR. That night we went and got dinner close to our hotel, after stopping in one place but the language barrier being an issue, we finally found somewhere with an English menu. If you are thinking this is where the wild night in Paris begins, you’re wrong. We had an early night that night, as we were both tired and wanted to make the most of the following day. The next day we caught the metro into the City Centre. Jasmin had been here a few days already so lucky we knew where to get off. As we walked out of the station, we were greeted by the Arc Di Triomph. We began walking down the main street of Paris, stopping for a cliche breakfast of croissants and coffee. We kept walking, through parks and eventually found the Louvre. I took another typical tourist snap here. I have to admit, Paris wasn’t exactly what I thought it would be at this point. I had heard so many stories, and maybe I had set my expectations too high. We kept walking and finally could see the Eiffel Tower in the near distance, almost covered by clouds on this grey day. And then there we were. Right underneath her. We walked down the grass patch, hoping to get a full shot of her, but there was fences up for maintenance. This wasn’t what I had pictured. Aren’t I supposed to be eating croissants underneath this stunning structure with a big smile on my face? Everyone always raved about Paris being the city of romance, why was I not loving it?

The next day, there was blue sky. This automatically put a smile on my face. The temperature was set to the high 20s and I knew that today would be a better day for exploring. And I was right. We went back to the Eiffel Tower, this time walking along the river, and eventually getting a full view of it. We found a cafe, right next to the tower, and had crepes for lunch. Finally my visions were becoming a reality! Seeing as the weather was nicer today, I decided I would climb the tower. I climbed the 700 steps in what turned out to be 30 degree heat, but the view was definitely worth it! I could see for miles. I walked around the outside so I could see the view from each angle and it did not disappoint. After my daily fitness, we walked along the main streets, stopped in a park to ‘people watch’ which is apparently what French people love to do (even in cafes, all the seats are positioned facing the street) We did some shopping, and finally I could see why everyone raved about this place. Even though my first impression wasn’t the best, by the end of our 3 day visit my mind had been changed. Next stop, Santorini! 

Exploring

It didn’t hit me that I had MOVED to the UK until a couple of weeks ago. That may sound silly but in weeks leading up to my departure I would say “I’m heading overseas” when in reality, I was in fact moving. It wasn’t until I was staying in London with my best friend and someone asked where we were from. “I’ve come over from New Zealand but Kelsey lives here” Oh yeah, I still considered it a holiday but I guess seeing as I had a job and no plans to go home anytime soon, I did live here and I was going to be here for as long as my heart desired, well as long as my work visa allowed me too.

So how was my new life in Chelmsford turning out? I was lucky enough to get a job at a clothes shop called Superdry a couple of weeks after being here. First interview I had and I nailed it. I quickly learnt the public transport in the area and felt myself becoming independent, and not having to rely on anyone, which I loved. I discovered all the nice food places in the area to get my lunch from, and was finally making some friends. Things couldn’t of gone more perfectly. I started to spend the occasional Friday evening at local bars with my workmates, it was a nice change from Astro, the local at home.

I live 30 minutes away from London, and have been there multiple times since moving here. The most recent time was when my friend flew over from NZ, I met her at Heathrow and we stayed 3 nights at a hostel in London. I had never stayed at a hostel before, but we booked quite last minute and this one was cheap and had a great location. On the first night of her arrival, we went to Leicester Square for dinner, walked to the Embankment then back to the hostel for an early night. Day two involved A LOT of walking. We walked to Trafalgar Square, which so far is my favourite place in London. It’s always so busy, with interesting buskers to watch and great views. From there we went to Buckingham Palace and watched the changing of the guards. We walked past Big Ben, and made our way to the London Eye, stopping for lunch at a restaurant/bar that was on a boat overlooking London Eye. After lunch, we went to Oxford Street. I’ve been here once before, and both times I felt extremely overwhelmed. If you are a slow shopper and like to take your time walking around looking at things, Oxford Street is not for you. On Day 3 we decided to book a bus tour. Finally I would be that typical tourist who sits on a double decker bus with her selfie stick. We purchased our ticket which allowed us to hop on, and hop off any of the tour buses so we could choose which routes we wanted to go. We got a bus to Hyde Park, which is now another one of my favourite places in London. With a massive lake in the centre, multiple cafes surrounding it, paddle boats for hire and horse riding on the green, it was a stunning place. At the end of it, is Kensington Palace where Princess Diana once lived. We planned on going there, after stopping mid way for me to have a job interview. I had found a potential Au Pair job, and was going to meet them while I was here. After the interview (which went extremely well, and I start the job in September) we went to catch a bus to Kensington Palace. Until Jasmin realised she didn’t have her ticket. (Sidenote; You cannot get on any bus without a ticket, so I said to Jasmin before we left “Do you want me to look after your ticket so you don’t lose it? – just in case but she said no.”) We tried to prove to the driver that she had lost her ticket but he didn’t want to listen. The walk back to our hostel would’ve taken over two hours (bear in mind we had walked about 25km the day before) and just when we were both on the verge of tears, a man selling bus tickets said he would talk to the driver of the next bus. So luckily, we were able to get a bus back to Central London, unfortunately missing out on Kensington Palace but luckily not having to walk! That night we went and saw the London Eye and Big Ben at night – which was so worth it! The pictures just didn’t do it justice.

I caught the train home the next day, and was back at work the day after, whilst Jasmin was off to explore Europe. I had seen so much more of London in this trip than any others. Now it’s just 3 more days until I meet up with Jasmin again – this time in Paris! Watch this space.