Barcelona: 3 Things You Have to Do

For the last few years, Barcelona has been on my bucket list of places to visit and I was lucky enough to visit it twice this year. Barcelona, a Gothic, modern and quirky seaside city, is rich with culture, amazing architecture and a great drinking and food scene.

Here are my 3 favourites in this wonderful city:

Wine & Dine

Brunch and Cake

 

Ok I am going to start with the most important thing: food and drink!! Barcelona is bursting with awesome cafes, restaurants and bars. The place has it all. You name it, they’ve got it; tapas, Italian, authentic Mexican, Asian cuisine, healthy spots, brunch spots, delicious bakeries and Michelin star restaurants.

Brunch: Brunch and Cake was full of colourful and healthy food. Hammock Juice Station is a hidden gem with healthy smoothies and your classic healthy treats.

Dine: Nino Viejo is a tasty authentic Mexican taco bar. It is a bit pricey for what you get. Attached next door is Michelin star, Hoja Santa.  I had the most delicious tapas at Paco Meralgo. It’s a cosy place and the food is made with the best fresh products.

Drinks: My fav place for cocktails was ArtTe. It’s a restaurant, cocktail bar, tea bar, art gallery and concert space.The decor is cool and chic and the cocktails are inspired by fruit and botanical ingredients.

Wander

My favourite activity to do in any new place is to get outdoors and wander the streets. You can stumble across amazing views and get a real feel for the culture. I always have Maps.me downloaded on my phone so if I get lost I can, hopefully, easily find my way back. There are also several free walking tours which you can join and learn about the history of the city. The places I recommend are:

The Gothic Quarter: This is a beautiful area, rich with history and narrow medieval streets. It is filled with quirky shops, restaurants and trendy bars. There are also several peaceful squares where you can relax and watch the world go by.

Tour of Gaudi’s Work: Gaudi’s unusual and eccentric building play an important role in Barcelona’s multifaceted character. Even if you aren’t into architecture you will for sure be able to spot some of Gaudi’s work. Gaudi took inspiration from nature and mixed colourful decorative elements with functionality in all this work. A few places to see are: Casa Mila, Casa Battlo, Sagrada Familia and Park Guell.

 

Magic Fountain

Located at Montjuïc, the magic fountain is a marvelous show of colour, light, music and water acrobatics. It is just so beautiful and if you time it right you can watch it as the sun is setting. This spectacular show is very popular, therefore, you should early to get a good viewing spot. The show times run differently throughout the season so just check the official website before you go.

 

I hope this has been helpful!!

Tyndall

xoxo

 

Hygge-ing in Copenhagen

This year my mum is the big 6 0! To celebrate, my mum and I took a mini break to Copenhagen! I love getting away with my mum and spending quality time with her.

Copenhagen, the cool kid of the Nordics and one of the happiest cities in the world. Those 2 reasons plus cheap flights were all we needed to convince us to go. The city is full of quaint cobbled streets, quirky architecture, cool bars and delicious food.

When we arrived in our hygge Airbnb in Vesterbro (Hipster land), we made like the locals and hired some bikes! This was probably the best thing we ever did as it took us no time to get around. The city is cycle friendly.

Here are 3 of my favs –

 

Papirøen (Paper Island) – Street Food Market

This place is a foodies dream! There is an abundance of street food vendors, from all corners of the world, selling delicious sustainable food.  They also cater for vegans, veggies and celiacs.

“Genuine, honest and aesthetic” is the motto of the street food market. As well as the food being sustainable and amazing, it is also fairly cheap!

You can opt to enjoy your food indoors in the raw halls or on deck chairs in the sun overlooking the waterfront.

It can get really busy so chose your time wisely!

FreeTown Christiana 

An eco-commune where cars are banned but the sale of marijuana is tolerated along ‘pushers street’. Be careful at taking photos in this area because the dealers don’t want to be caught.  It was established in 1971 when a group of hippies took over an abandoned military barracks. Christiana is a lovely collection of homemade houses, workshops, art galleries, cheap organic cafés, bars and it’s full of vibrant scenery. This place was so chilled and the food was amazing.

Mother’s Pizza

Possibly the best pizza in Copenhagen! If you are a massive pizza fan then you have try this place. Wood-fired sourdough pizzas mmm!! My mouth is watering just thinking about it. Mother’s Pizza website describes it as ‘an utterly Italian restaurant without all the nonsense’. It is located in the meat packing district area which is pretty cool with industrial buildings, a raw look and plenty of bars. I would advise booking a table as it gets busy.

 

To end, Copehagen is beautiful, cool, friendly, and the happiest place in the world!

 

Have a great day!

 

Tyndall

xoxo

My South East Asia Contiki Adventure



 

Do you ever get that feeling that when you blink a whole year passes by? Well that’s what just has happened with this trip, it felt like we were doing this trip for longer than a month but it passed by quicker than you can say good morning Vietnam.

I loved this trip and I wish I could have stayed longer but it’s a great excuse to come back   I really enjoyed my contiki family.

So I went on the big indochina adventure for 25 days. The trip was completely full on as we were constantly moving from one place to the next. It was great that we got to see so many places – we visited 4 different countries and serveral cities. There was only one other girl (that I’m great friends with now) that stayed with me until the end as the others were doing shorter tours which was mixed in with ours. The pro about this was that I got to make 32 new friends in Vietnam. Surprisly I did learn all their names by the end.

We had local tour guides in every single places and our tour manager was very knowledgeable. So we were clued up on the history and culture which was a great help.

We done so many exciting activities like a cooking class, kayaking, a boat trip, street food tour, bike ride, quad biking and we visited a lot of temples.

Contiki is great to meet new people and if you like a hassle free holiday as everything is planned for you. Your holiday is what you make of it and you have lots of free nights so you don’t always have to go out drinking with the group. One point to consider is be prepared to be moving around and always doing things.

I’m so grateful to have done this trip. I’ll make separate posts about what my faves were in each country.

Lots of love,

Emma xoxo

 

 

Toronto

Toronto, the world’s most multicultural city, where the streets are clean and safe, where the food scene gives any city on the planet a run for its money and where true Canadians will apologise for apologising too much. oh I love this city!

To me, Toronto is the New York of Canada. It has a gorgeous skyline  (To be fair I am a sucker for high rise buildings and skylines, mainly because my city is flat so it’s a treat when I visit these types of cities.), there’s an immense amount of different foods to eat (I tried Ethiopian food for the first time there), there’s a myriad of different things to see and do and the shops are like a fashionista’s dream.

This time last year, I was visited Toronto for the third time. Like every Tom, Dick and Harry, I have family there which I’m so grateful for as that’s my perfect excuse to visit the city.

I’m going to tell you about 3 places I loved in Toronto.

 

Kensington  Market

Kensington Market is hispter a neighbourhood of colourful buildings, unique shops and great food. If you’re a foodie and love thrift shopping then this is the place for you.

There is so much variety of food places here that no one will be left disappointed and hungry. Tip: You have to try the tacos.

Kensington Market oozes a laid back atmosphere, so it’s perfect for strolling around and people watching.

 

Thompson Hotel

The first picture in this post is from the bar at the Thompson Hotel. I’ll let you go back up to see how breathtakingly spectacular the view is.

I love a roof top bar and this didn’t disappoint. It’s a classy, modern and laid back establishment.

This bar was actually featured in an episode of Suits in season 2. I’m sorry if I just broke it to you that Suits isn’t filmed in New York City – Toronto is much cheaper to film in. I was gutted that they had literally just finished filming when I arrived in Toronto. If the bar is good enough for Harvey Specter then it is for you and I and definitely worth a visit.

 

Any beach

You may not associate beaches with this city but there are some. Canadians favourite weekend hobby is to go to a beach cottage – these are usually a few hours drive away. But you can experience some beach relaxation and swimming if you want in Toronto.

The photo above is of Sunnyside Beach. My cousin had her wedding there and it was amazing and beautiful despite is being the hottest day ever it felt like. My cousin was like this cool older sister. When we were growing up, she would write me letters about her adventures in school and working on a cruise ship which sailed around America.

As you can see there are also opportunities for beach sports like volleyball.  I left that to the pros however as I would be as useful as a chocolate oven.

The next time I visit, the first thing I’m going to do is take the ferry to one of the Islands. I heard great reviews about them and you get amazing views of the skyline.

 

Have a lovely day!

Tyndall