What I liked about March

I think March has been my favourite month of the year so far- if we ignore the fact that we're now a quarter of the way through 2015, when did that happen? I thought I'd write a little about what's been making life good this month.

• Catching up with old friends in new restaurants; I think one of the best parts of March was that I managed to spend a bit more time with some of my closest friends. What makes it even better is that a lot of that time was spent trying out new places to eat- namely a lovely pizza place, Buca di Pizza, hidden away near Leeds train station and I finally got to try My Thai, which might be my new favourite place to eat in Leeds.

• This American Life: Since finishing Serial in December I'd been wanting to get into more podcasts but I didn't really know where to start with finding a good one. Amy, one of my best friends, told me I had to download the This American Life app immediately and I'm so glad I did. TAL are the group behind Serial and they have been putting out weekly podcasts for years. As the name suggests, they cover different topics of life each week- some more specifically American- and try to give different perspectives of each topic. Some are light-hearted, some more serious. I listen to them every day; on my way to and from work, on the train, getting ready in the morning..it sounds odd but it almost feels educational to me and I'd highly recommend anyone to download the app and get listening

• Baking; I've always loved baking; I have many memories of helping my mum bake butterfly buns as a kid, pretty much since I was old enough to hold a wooden spoon. However for the last few years I've rarely made time to bake so I've really tried to get back into it this past month. My first attempt, raspberry and white chocolate muffins, which I made for mothers day, looked pretty but weren'tmy best tasting work. Then I tried out a lemon drizzle loaf and I think it's fair to say I definitely redeemed myself. Finally, I made healthy avocado chocolate cookies, which turned out so much better than I thought they would- so good in fact that I even posted the recipe here. There's just something about a bake turning out well that makes me really happy.

• Travel bug; As you may know, this month I travelled to Lisbon to celebrate Amy's birthday and I had such a good time. I also briefly mentioned the fact that I've now booked my flight to go travelling; on the 27th of July I'll be heading off to Bogota, Colombia all by myself. At times it is a terrifying thought, but being in Lisbon just for a few days made me so excited for travelling and to have the opportunity to discover so many new places. 

• Blogilates; I realised the other day it's now been about a year since I started doing pilates regularly. I'm hardly a fitness goddess but my body has definitely changed for the better in that year and what seems unbelievable to me is that I still really enjoy pilates. I got a bit demotivated with keeping up being healthy around Christmas-time and continued into a bit of a lazy slump for the first few months of 2015, but for the last month I've been trying to push myself to be better. I still do it from the comfort and solitude of my bedroom with Cassey from Blogilates as my own personal instructor. I'm just really glad I've finally found a form of exercise that works for me, after years of being that girl in P.E. lessons who over-exaggerated her asthma..

So that's March done- April has some pretty big shoes to fill but I've got a few exciting things to look forward to over the next 30 days. As well as copious amounts of easter chocolate, of course.

How was March for you?

Healthy chocolate cookies

I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, a naturally healthy person. If I could I'd eat out for every meal of the day. When people struggle to finish a meal I find it bizarre- maybe my parents were just really strict with me finishing meals growing up, but even when I'm full I'll continue to eat. The other day I spent a good ten minutes contemplating what I'd do if I had to give up one of either cheese or chocolate, and I still didn't come to any resolution. You get the gist- I like food. For the past couple of years I've made very conscious efforts to improve my in-built bad eating habits and try to make better choices.
That's where these cookies come in; they don't contain any flour or butter, only have a tiny amount of sugar in, and are legitimately pretty healthy coming in at just over 100 calories each. Earlier today I realised we had an avocado which was about to get to the bad side of ripe but I wasn't in the mood for guacamole. Then I remembered I'd once seen a recipe for avocado cookies online so I went on a search to find it. My recipe is very heavily based on this one with minor adjustments. I'm a bit dubious about all these 'healthy' baking recipes doing the rounds at the moment- if you want a brownie surely you want it to taste like a brownie and not a sweet potato. But please, like me, give these cookies a second chance. The texture definitely isn't like a traditional cookie, more like a cross between a brownie and a cookie, but since when has that ever been a bad thing?

Ingredients:

• 1 ripe avocado
• 1 small-medium banana
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup caster sugar
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda/baking soda
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder; I used Bournville
• Chocolate chunks; I used about 70g of dark chocolate chunks
• A little sea salt

1.  Preheat your oven to gas mark 4/175 degrees celsius
2. Mash up your avocado flesh and banana in a bowl
3. Add your sugar and use a handheld electric whisk to mix it all up. In all honesty if you want to be extra virtuous you may not need this extra sugar but I wasn't sure if one banana would be enough to substitute what was meant to be half a cup of sugar.
4. Add the egg, give it another mix
5. Add the bicarb & cocoa powder and mix again
6. Using a wooden spoon, incorporate the chocolate chunks
7. Line a baking tray with baking paper, then spoon the mixture in blobs on to the tray- this recipe made 9 decent sized cookies. They hardly spread out at all so flatten them out a little with the spoon. 
8. Sprinkle a tiny bit of the salt over the tray- I like to do this with most cookies nowadays to make them a little less sickly
9. Bake for anywhere between 10 and 20 minutes. I set my timer for 10 minutes, at which point the cookies looked very shiny but weren't quite done. They'll never properly firm up as a traditional cookie would but keep checking them every couple of minutes until they hold their shape and you can lift it off the baking paper easily

That's it! If you can resist the temptation of a warm cookie with still-melted chocolate then you're a better person than I am, but even when cooled they have a very fudge-y lovely texture. Enjoy!

A postcard from Lisbon

Long time no see. Again. It's becoming a bit ridiculous how lazy I am with this blog, but the thing is that right now my life is in a particularly boring & uninspiring place. That's not to say I'm unhappy; I just don't have much to talk about. 

Luckily, my blog-draught is temporarily over. Last week I, along with 7 others, accompanied my best friend for a few days in Lisbon to celebrate her 22nd birthday. We stayed in a lovely air bnb which I really can't recommend enough- we all appreciated having a full flat to ourselves, especially when waking up feeling a little worse for wear. Until last Thursday I hadn't been out of the country since summer 2013 so you can imagine how excited I was to get to explore somewhere new; though I can't really complain since I've now booked my one-way flight to the other side of the world..but that deserves a post all of it's own! Anyway, I really liked Lisbon and I thought I'd share a few things about it as I don't think it's quite as well-known as some other European destinations.

• Lisbon is incredibly hilly. It's very strange because a lot of the buildings are really tall meaning you can't see what's coming round the corner- the difference between whether you'll be puffing and panting your way up a steep incline or tip-toeing down one. But at least it meant that my thighs didn't suffer too much from being in holiday mode (ie. eating & drinking everything).

• Speaking of indulgence, if you're a lover of pastry you really needn't look any further for your next holiday. 'Pastel de nata' are possibly the best gift that Portugal has given to the world- they're basically egg custard tarts but maybe 20 times better than anything matching that description that I've had on home turf. You'll find them pretty much everywhere in Lisbon, displayed in windows tempting in poor tourists, which is why I averaged 2 a day while I was there. Top tip- the best I tried was from Aloma, part of the Time Out Mercado da Ribeira food hall. Just don't buy them from the airport so you can bring the joy home to your loved ones- from personal experience I can tell you, you'll just be sad with how bad they are.

• The nightlife is varied and starts late. We didn't get a chance to go to any proper clubs and we didn't go to that many bars but those we did go to were all very different. On our first night we wandered towards the Bairro Alto area, which is the main spot for bar-hopping, and found a great little bar full of weird and wonderful things. Then on the second day we spent a lot of time in a bar called Sol e Pesca (translation: Sun & Fish) drinking far too much 'Super Bock' beer. This place is possibly the most fish-themed place I've ever seen; even the menus were displayed on fishing rods. Then, later on that night we ended up watching a drag queen show in a strange club. It seems that in Lisbon the possibilites are endless. Just head out late- locals don't even leave the house until 1am. 

• Linked with the above, if you visit Lisbon you'll likely end up drinking more than you intended to due to the ridiculously low prices. In the first bar I mentioned above, 6 beers and 2 glasses of (actually drinkable) white wine came to a grand total of €7.50. The conversion rate for pound to euro is particularly strong at the moment, but it seemed like most places were similarly priced. 

• As with most places I've visited in Europe, crossing the road is a pretty terrifying experience. Trams and cars share the same road space and pedestrian crossings don't really seem to mean much. That combined with, as I mentioned, never really being able to see round corners means you just have to trust your gut. Oh, and walk fast. 

So maybe we didn't do that much in the way of specific sight-seeing and I'm sure there's plenty more we would've got round to seeing had we had more time, but I think my biggest tip for Lisbon would be to just wander and see what you find. It's a lovely place to walk around, the people really do seem friendly and you never know what you might find hidden at the top of a hill!

January

I've decided enough is enough; it's definitely too late to post my 2014 round-up. Long story short- I killed myself revising for finals, graduated with a 2.1, my sister got married, I bought a (very old) car & got a job and started learning to cope with post-student life. So that's that. On to a new year!

I'm pretty glad that January is almost over. While I didn't particularly get much of a Christmas break (working as a waitress/bartender will do that to you), it's still a bit depressing when your house stops resembling Santa's grotto, the horrible snowy weather isn't accompanied by Dean Martin songs and you realise that eating nothing but cheese and chocolate for the last month may have affected your waistline a little..

A few things from this month:

• I had a hair cut. While hardly anyone else noticed, it was actually pretty big for me as I had quite a lot of length cut off- plus this is only my second hair cut in about four years. I may have had an inital 'oh my god I have short hair' moment of madness but I've gotten used to it now and I think I'm a fan!

• Hardly news-worthy, but this month I've eaten a lot of pancakes; healthy banana pancakes, chocolate chip pancakes, pancakes with bacon in... I imagine this will only continue through February as one of my favourite days rolls around- and no I absolutely do not mean Valentines Day.

• One of my favourite parts of January was visiting Birmingham for the weekend to celebrate one of my old housemates' birthdays. I love getting back together with my uni friends as we all still get on so well and it's something I'm determined to keep doing over the years. 

• Not pictured: I've also been doing a fair bit of planning this month. I've booked a trip to Lisbon for one of my best friends' birthdays, redeemed my Harry Potter studio tour gift voucher (I'll be going when the new Hogwarts Express bit has been added!) and have started figuring out a route for my South American travels. I have a feeling 2015 could be a pretty great year!

I won't make myself any promises but I'm aiming to do one of these at the end of every month so that when I inevitably forget to post a 2015 round-up, it won't really matter. How was January for you?

Places in Leeds: Cabana

Last night I met up with two of my closest friends for a new years catch-up. We'd all been really busy over the festive period so had barely seen each other leaving us with lots to discuss; perhaps the best bit of gossip I can share with you is that Gaby, one of my oldest friends, spent her New Years Eve dancing in a show in the Maldives in front of the likes of David Beckham & co. The difference between our lives amazes me sometimes.

Anyway, we wanted to try somewhere new in Leeds to host our little reunion. I suggested Cabana, a fairly new addition to the Trinity centre. Cabana is a Brazilian restaurant- I know what you're probably thinking, what exactly does that mean? Judging by the menu it means street food, meat skewers and a whole load of caipirinhas. We decided to give it a try and I'm glad we did- even if just solely for the sake of the dessert alone, but I'll get to that later..

First of all: drinks. Caipirinhas are one of my favourite cocktails and Cabana's offering were definitely up to scratch. They had the classic lime option, which I went for, as well as kiwi, strawberry, pineapple & mint (which Gaby chose) and passionfruit (Lizzie's choice). As you can see, Lizzie was a big fan of hers.

Next up: the food. We decided to bypass the starters and go straight for mains. Lizzie & I both went for the spicy malagueta chicken skewer; malagueta is Cabana's signature sauce and you can buy a bottle of it to take home with you. Gaby plumped for the lime and garlic chicken skewer, and we all decided on the feijoada fries, which are sweet potato fries with a pork, beef and black bean stew on top. When your food is ready, each person's skewer is brought to the table separately and is transferred onto your plate. This is a bit of a gimmick I suppose but it all adds to the experience that Cabana is trying to give, which overall was a pretty good one. We all really enjoyed our food; the only thing I might say is that next time I visit it might be a good idea to share some different sides for a little more variety, as essentially what you have on your plate is just your meat. This isn't a complaint as such, because the meat is pretty damn good. Just a thought!

Now for the best bit: dessert. This is a bit of a tale- we paid after mains and went off into Trinity kitchen in search of one of their monthly stands called You Doughnut. Alas, when we got to the stand nobody was there serving. Determined to get some dessert we went through our options and decided to go back to Cabana as I'd heard great things about their nutella donuts. So off we went back inside the restaurant, much to the surprise of the waiter. Lizzie & I got the doughnuts while Gaby had a peanut butter and oreo sundae. Okay. I don't even know how to describe these donuts other than to say if you live in or near Leeds, you must go try them. Tiny donuts stuffed with nutella..served with more nutella for dipping. Apparently I hadn't read the menu properly as I didn't realise they actually had nutella inside them too, so you can imagine my delight when I had my first bite. Lizzie let Gaby try a few of hers in return for a bite of sundae- I'm almost glad I have a nut allergy therefore couldn't partake in this swap as these were far too good to share. It's probably time I stopped talking about donuts now. I'll just leave you with the photo instead.

Something else that I liked about Cabana is that although it is one of a chain of restaurants, the owners wanted to keep some authenticity. For example I've read that the different baskets they put your bill in were all bought from a young boy on a beach in Rio. The seats are made from recycled jeans selected from a small charity in Sao Paulo. They give out colourful ribbons with the bill which are popular in Bahia and are known as wish ribbons. According to Brazilian tradition, you're supposed to wear them until they fall off for your wishes to come true. So I'm not holding out any hope for my fancy New York apartment dream to come true, but it's a nice little touch all the same.

All in all we had a lovely few hours in Cabana and I'd reccommend it to anyone looking for tasty food in Leeds city centre.

Have you ever been to Cabana?

Tis the season...

...to eat all the cheese and chocolate because calories don't count for the last week of the year. Except now it's the 2nd of January and my jeans are feeling a little tighter than usual. Oh well.

I apologise, dear people of the internet; I kind of forgot this blog existed for a while if I'm honest. I will be writing an update, run-down of 2014 and hello to 2015 style post soon (ie. tomorrow, not in 3 weeks I promise) but for now I thought I'd go down the materialistic route and show you what I got for Christmas this year.

Christmas was a little different for my family this year- my sister got married in summer so instead of her travelling up to us as usual, my parents & I made the journey down to her house. Sitting in a car for three hours on Christmas morning wasn't ideal but we had a lovely day once we got there (being welcomed with a 1.5 litre bottle of prosecco didn't hurt).

Here are some of my favourite things (shown above);

• Jo Malone Wood Sage & Sea Salt perfume: I fell in love with this after my friend invited me to the Leeds launch of it in September and I'm so happy that I finally own it. I don't think it particularly smells of wood, sage or sea salt but whatever it does smell like is amazing

• Collins easy learning spanish CDs: as you may know I'm planning on travelling to South America this year. I've been meaning to start learning spanish for a while- I know it isn't the only language spoken in S.A. but I think it's a good base to start with- but I've been putting it off. Now I can have these CDs in my car and learn while I'm driving to and from work. I know I won't become fluent from it but it'll certainly give me a good starting point.

• Charlotte Tilbury matte revolution lipstick in Love Liberty: I've wanted to try one of these for so long and I'm so glad to now own one. It really is the most moisturising matte lipstick I've tried and I'm very tempted to go buy more from Ms. Tilbury's collection now- though I'm sure my bank balance would prefer if I didn't

• 'Thunder only happens when it's raining' print from Lloyd Loves: I saw Kate post a few prints from this seller on instagram and loved them. I also love Fleetwood Mac so this print makes a lovely addition to my bedroom.

• South America on a shoestring: I really need to start planning my afore-mentioned travels so this should be pretty helpful. I know guidebooks can get outdated quickly but even if not for specific recommendations this book should be useful for a general insight into each country

• Origins Drink Up 10 minute mask: I don't have dry skin generally but I definitely notice my skin feeling tight and dehydrated in the winter. I'm sure we haven't experience the worst weather of this season yet so I'm hoping this can help my skin out for now

• Gift voucher for the making of Harry Potter studio tour: I am one of those people who will judge you if you're from my generation and haven't read the Harry Potter series. Seriously, if that is you, what on earth did your childhood revolve around?! Anyway, I didn't love some of the films as much as the books, but I don't think I'll be able to contain my excitement when I finally get to go on this tour. It's probably not okay to be 22 and be so giddy over Harry Potter.

• Read this if you want to take great photographs book: Despite my best intentions I still haven't really got to grips with my DSLR camera- I spend most of my life at work where I don't feel particularly inspired to take photos so I rarely practice. I really want to learn how to take better photos and this book has a lot of advice from many different types of photographer, plus easy to understand explanations of the different camera settings so I'm looking forward to reading it

• Fox head from Fiona Walker: Perhaps one of my oddest presents but I really love this felt fox head. My parents & I went into York a few weeks ago and went into a little independent shop that had these heads on the walls- there were foxes, rabbits and deer amongst others- but then I forgot about them. I rarely get surprise presents anymore but this really was one. My fox now hangs proudly in the corner of my room but I'm looking forward to when I have my own place and can display this (hopefully) above a fireplace.

Not pictured, I also was lucky enough to receive the Urban Decay Naked basics 2 palette, a lovely little globe charm from Links of London and of course a good selection of chocolates. As you can see Santa was really good to me this year and I'm very appreciative of all my presents.

What did you get for Christmas? 

Places in Leeds: Cielo Blanco

I'm starting a new series on this here blog called, imaginatively, 'Places in Leeds'. Simple and to the point. I have an ever-growing list of restaurants and bars I want to try in my (pretty much) home city and now that I'm back from uni for good I've decided to start working my way through it. Leeds has really improved over the past few years and I love living so close to it. Until recently I was pretty adamant that I'd have to move to London somehow to experience city living but I'm starting to think I'd be quite happy to stay in Leeds; it has an abundance of great bars, pretty much any shop I could want to go to and more & more restaurants are choosing to open their only northern branches here- you can't imagine how excited I was when I first heard that Meat Liquor was moving on up (who has this in their head now? sorry). I sing Leeds' praises to any naive people who will listen so I thought it'd be a good idea to write about places, new and old to me, here.

Today I'd like to tell you about a mexican restaurant called Cielo Blanco. It's in the Trinity centre so has been open a while now but I've only just got round to trying it- something I'm pretty sad about. My friend Gaby and I chose it as our catch-up location and we were both thoroughly impressed. CB is committed to being authentically mexican, particularly in their emphasis on street food. 

First off we decided on drinks- this took longer than deciding on the food. I went for a west house mexicana- I couldn't tell you what was in it other than tequila, but I liked it- and Gaby had a pink grapefruit and pineapple margarita which she seemed pretty happy with. Foodwise, we decided to go for their 'street food experience' where you pick 6 of their dishes for £11.95 each- pretty good when you consider that each dish separately is £4-7. We went for stuffed jalapenos, pork tacos, rump steak quesadilla, chipotle mushroom and cheese flautas (we had no idea what this was upon ordering), mexican chicken dumplings and crispy squid tostadas- although these were just for Gaby as seafood and myself don't mix well. We also got some sweet potato fries with aioli to share because, well, just because. They also bring you some free tortilla chips with three different salsas after you've ordered which I think is a nice little touch.

As you can see it all looked, and luckily tasted, pretty great. Gaby couldn't quite deal with the heat of the stuffed jalapenos but I loved them, so was secretly happy to have them all to myself. I obviously didn't try her crispy squid but she munched her way through it all quite happily, so I'll deem that a success too! The tacos were probably my favourite thing but I'd definitely recommend the dumplings which were a surprising hit for both of us.

After we'd polished the lot off Gaby enquired about their desserts. The selection is so small that they don't actually have a menu- either churros or a chocolate sundae. I wasn't going to have a dessert actually, but as soon as Gaby ordered her churros I knew I'd have crippling food envy if I didn't have some too. And I'm glad I did...

Who can really resist anything in the doughnut family paired with chocolate sauce and ice cream? A better person than myself, I'll tell you that. 

I can't quite remember how much it all came to but I believe we paid about £25 each including a tip, which, although a little pricier than I'd sometimes be able to afford, I'm happy to pay every so often for a good meal and drink. All in all we both really enjoyed the experience of Cielo Blanco; the mixture of interesting drinks, lovely food and a chilled atmosphere means that I'll definitely be returning when I next have a mexican craving. 

In an octopus's garden...

In order to counteract the heaviness of last nights post I thought I'd show you a few photos I took at Yorkshire Sculpture Park today. If you aren't from Yorkshire, it's basically a huge bit of land with sculptures dotted around- some of them are permanent and some are just exhibitions. I don't go very often but when I do I love wandering around to see what's new- and today I was especially happy to as I got to practice playing around with my new camera! If you live in the area I'd definitely recommend a visit.

Thoughts: feminism

Tonight I'd like to diverge from my usual light-hearted posts and write a little about feminism, which has essentially become the buzzword of the last few days thanks to a particularly inspiring speech that Emma Watson made to the UN to launch the 'He for She' campaign. I apologise if my words get tangled somewhat; I should probably have made a plan but hey ho, life's too short and all that jazz.

I wholeheartedly identify as a feminist. In my mind there could be no other way. Feminism, as Ms Watson states, is the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities. Simple and to the point. Nothing there about man-hating. So why on earth has feminism become a dirty word? Why do I have friends on facebook posting the afore-mentioned speech yet pre-facing it with the words "I would NEVER call myself a feminist, but..."? Why, every single time I mention the word around any male friend, do I get moans and groans and told to just "lighten up"? The other day a work friend of mine actually said "but it's 2014, of course men and women are equal now". I actually laughed in his face a little and here are some reasons why:

• I can't remember the last time I walked through Leeds city centre without being wolf-whistled, cat-called or just plain leered at. Any man who says "oh I'd love it if women shouted nice things at me in the street" needs a reality check if they think there's any enjoyment to be found in an old man saying "nice arse" as you walk past them in a dark street. 
• The fact that some people still think a woman is 'asking' to be raped if she wears a short skirt or gets drunk. How about we start educating men to simply not rape women instead of women having to take precautions in order to not be raped? I can't begin to imagine having to deal with being raped, let alone then be told that it was my fault because I shouldn't have been 'tempting' men. My twitter timeline recently exploded over news of a nail polish that can detect the date-rape drug. Whilst I agree that it may be useful in medical terms in order to help victims, I find it heart-sinkingly sad that something like this had to be invented.
• Women are STILL being paid less than men for doing the exact same work. It makes no sense.
• I don't think any of my female friends could honestly say they have never been groped by a stranger, whether that be in a club or in public. It has happened to me a few times and I can't imagine I'm alone in reacting in silent shock and simply moving away, trying to ignore it. This is not okay.
• Since making her UN speech, Emma Watson has been threatened with being the next victim in a recent onslaught of leaked celebrity nudes. I find it disgusting that an intelligent young woman has seemingly made herself vulnerable to this type of abuse simply by trying to use her influence to help spread an important message. Everything to do with the current trend of leaked nudes is vile; the general public's consensus that it's the person's fault for taking the photos in the first place is basically the equivalent of the above-mentioned 'don't get drunk if you don't want to be raped' argument. Call me crazy but I don't understand what pleasure there is to be gained from viewing photos of a woman in a compromised situation that they obviously would not want you to see them in and are likely completely humiliated that you can.
• Every male who still thinks it's funny to make jokes about women 'getting back in the kitchen'. Yes it's the 21st century yet somehow this joke is STILL making the rounds- please, please, please get some new bloody material. You look like an utter moron. 

I think I could go on all night if I let myself; if you really need more reasons just go check out the Everyday Sexism twitter account-I warn you that you'll probably get pretty angry in the process of doing so. 

There is no doubt that feminism and the changes it hopes to induce are facing an up-hill struggle. It is so important that this issue continues to be openly discussed and I hope, in doing so, that one day men and women will be unfalteringly proud to call themselves feminists. 

I don't know about you...

...but I'm feeling 22! Okay I'm sorry Swift-haters but I couldn't resist that one seeing as I'm going to tell you a little about my 22nd birthday earlier this week.

I didn't have much planned for my actual birthday- if I'm being honest I felt a bit 'meh' (for lack of a better word) about the whole thing, but I ended up having a lovely, if rather chilled, day in the end. I actually opened my cards and presents the night before, as if not my parents would've tried to wake me at the crack of dawn before they went to work the next day and if my 22 years on this earth have taught me anything, it is that I am not a morning person. I was lucky enough to receive a couple more of my beloved silver knuckle rings, Foals' 'Holy Fire' on vinyl, a lovely new leather purse and a MAC lipstick- nothing extravagant but it doesn't take much to make me happy.

I'd arranged to meet one of my best friends, Gaby, in Leeds to take advantage of Pizza Express' annual free bottle of birthday prosecco. She just came back from working in Marbella all summer so a pizza and prosecco was exactly what we needed- I went for the rustichella which is basically a Caesar salad on a pizza, need I say more?

Once we'd finished our food we met up with another of my friends, Susie, to head to Belgrave Music Hall's roof terrace, which I think it's now fair to call my favourite place to go in Leeds. We had a lovely leisurely afternoon drinking Amstel (just a little less sophisticated that prosecco) in the sun, only popping back inside to take advantage of resident Dough Boys' half price slices; because apparently one pizza wasn't already enough..

Like I said, it was nothing too exciting and most of my friends were either back at uni or working, but it was a good day with a few good friends nonetheless. Really I just wanted to post a few higher-quality photos on here as I remembered to take my DSLR camera out for the day- seeing how much better these photos look than iphone snaps makes me really keen to do more lifestyle-y restaurant-y posts. Watch this space!

Birthday wishlist: edition 22

My 22nd birthday is just around the corner and between settling in at my new job and various preparations for my older sisters wedding (in 10 days!) I'd almost completely forgotten about it. I've accepted that I'm heading into legitimate 20's territory now and I'm okay with it- plus I have an excuse to sing Taylor Swift for a whole 24 hours. There isn't much I'm coveting this year but I thought I'd show you the few things I have on my wishlist.

1. I haven't bought a new lipstick in what feels like forever and I look at this one (Russian Red) pretty much every time I'm near a MAC stand. I think it's about time I actually owned it.

2. My current purse is a Cath Kidston number and while it is still perfectly functional it has gotten rather grubby and, while I still appreciate that it is loved by many, I feel I've outgrown the twee patterns somewhat. The above purse is from & Other Stories and is exactly the kind of thing I'm after- black, simple and leather.

3. I've had this moon ring from Shop Dixi bookmarked for ages and I'm always on the hunt for more simple silver rings to add to my collection.

4. Now, I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before but I don't like tea. At all. I don't understand the point of it. You may wonder then why I'm after this mug from Anthropologie; actually, I have quite a penchant for eating cereal out of mugs. It just tastes nicer than out of a bowl. Plus ever since my first trip into an Anthropologie shop earlier this year I'm dreaming of being able to buy the whole dining collection- this would be a nice beginning to that.

5. This Bumble & Bumble Surf Spray is something else I've had on various wishlists for years but always wondered if it was worth the money. A few weeks ago I had my hair cut for the first time in 3 years and while everyone else insists it's still long, I'm finding it quite hard to style. After reading Kate's recent post, I've been convinced that a good salt spray will be helpful in my constant attempt at creating waves a la Olsen twins.

So there we have it- nothing too ground-breaking but I think as you get older it's less about having tons of presents to open and more about receiving a few little things that you'll really get use out of. I haven't really thought about what I'll do on the day but I'm sure a night out in Leeds will be on the cards!

What do you think of my picks?

Thoughts: best documentaries

Recently I've really gotten in to watching documentaries. I've always liked to keep up with Louis Theroux's latest films, but I rarely looked elsewhere for thought-provoking material; enter Netflix,with it's countless films to choose from- please tell me I'm not the only person who probably spends more time choosing films rather than watching them? Anyway, with that in mind I thought I'd write about a few of my favourites so far in case you happen to be looking for inspiration:

The Lady in Number 6 - I first heard of this film when I was watching the Oscars and saw that it had been nominated for (and then went on to win) the award for best short documentary. I searched around the internet with no luck, then one day up it popped on Netflix. It tells the story of Alice Herz-Sommer, a holocaust survivor who spends hours every day playing the piano- much to the joy of her neighbours who love to hear her play. Alice says that music, without a doubt, helped her to survive her horrific ordeal and is what helps to keep her going, even now at the age of 109 years old. You can't help but feel inspired to be more positive, as Alice says "I have no space nor time for pessimism and hate". I urge anybody to watch this film, which now stands as a well-deserved tribute to Alice's wonderful soul. 

The Woman Who Wasn't There - Unfortunately my next pick is less inspiring. This film re-lives the unsettling story of Tania Head, a woman who claimed to be a 9/11 survivor- but who, in reality, had never set foot in the twin towers. Perhaps I'm a little biased in my thinking, being a bit of a psychology-nerd, but it was fascinating to see how far a person will go in order to find acceptance and meaning for themselves.

Aileen: The Life and Death of a Serial Killer - Again I may be biased in my interest towards this one but this film explores the life of Aileen Wuornos, a former prostitute and now death-row inmate convicted of killing 7 men. The director, Nick Broomfield, interviews Aileen a number of times in the build-up to her execution which allows us to see the unravelling of her mental state over time. The last interview, the day before her execution, is particularly hard to watch and, although I'm firmly against the death penalty anyway, really makes you think about the obvious questionable ethics of killing a clearly unstable person.

The Bridge - My apologies- apart from my first choice on this list these really aren't getting any more cheerful. This film is the result of the Golden Gate bridge being filmed for one year; as the bridge is the second most 'popular' suicide location in the world, the cameras capture some disturbing footage which may be a bit too hard-hitting for some people to watch. The families & friends of some of the jumpers are also interviewed, allowing us to gain an insight in to the possible reasons behind their final moments. Some may find the film unethical, but a quick google tells me that the filmmakers raised the alarm to save lives whenever they suspected a potential jumper. Alas as the film shows, the majority looked completely casual beforehand which made it impossible to intervene- although the case of Gene, who is followed throughout the film, is a bizarre and almost theatrical example of the opposite. I'm not really sure why I found this film so interesting- perhaps sheer morbid fascination- but I would recommend it.

I wish I had another less depressing pick to finish this off nicely (I did cry at 'Being Elmo', after-all) but it seems that I'm all about exploring the darker side of the world. This is why I love documentaries so much though, as they can really help to educate a wide audience about so many different issues that more mainstream media would rather avoid.

Do you have any good documentary recommendations? Have you seen any of the above? 

The Graduate

Yesterday I graduated from university with an upper second class degree in psychology. It was a lovely day celebrating with my closest course friends and family- yes the clapping for every single person graduating got a little tedious, but the promise of a bottle of Moët afterwards made it a little easier. It was the best way to end my three years at uni however it's left me with very mixed emotions; I'm proud of my friends & I for achieving what we wanted and I'm relieved to never have to sit an exam again, yet it has finally started to sink in that it's all over now and with that, the realisation that all the people I've spent the last three years with will never all be together again (bar the inevitable wedding season I predict will begin in 4-5 years). I don't want to get too sentimental (said in-between sobs) but my conflicting emotions have left me wanting to write a little about my experiences, so here are my pearls of wisdom for current or future university-goers.

1. Make the best of a potentially bad situation - I was so worried when I moved into halls because I was moving into a flat of 18 people; the thought of living with so many new people had me in a panic as soon as I found out my halls allocation. I considered trying to request moving to another before I arrived but now I'm really glad I didn't- I ended up being lucky and making friends with 5 other girls in my flat and we've all lived together ever since.

2. Get involved & put yourself out there - this is probably the most generic piece of advice that can be offered to soon-to-be students but it's important to remember and something that I wish I'd realised earlier. There are so many different things to get involved in at university- typically there'll be a society from your course to join, as well as one for pretty much any hobby you can think of. Outside of societies there'll be various media outlets- my housemate had her own radio show for part of this last year-, volunteering opportunities and general events to attend. I think my only regret about my university life was not joining a society other than psychology society- which unfortunately wasn't particularly active. However, I did take part in the escape & evade event that our charity rag group organises; I consider getting to Zagreb in Croatia in 60 hours purely by hitch-hiking to be one of my greatest achievements. Be brave- even just by starting a nervous conversation with someone else on your course when you've no idea what's going on. Doing just that led to me meeting my group of close course friends.

3. Take full advantage of being a fresher - freshers is the only time in your life where it's okay to go out most nights of the week and sleep until at least midday every day. Also because first year doesn't count towards anything for most courses (sorry medics), skipping your 9am, or any lecture for that matter, really doesn't matter that much. I may have used that excuse far too liberally but I'm sure lecturers would rather people just not attend than fall asleep in their lectures on the reg.

4. Eat well - when I first started uni I think I went a little power-crazy over food. Suddenly you're in control of the food you buy, what you eat and when you eat it. Unfortunately I have bad news for you; a giant bowl of coco pops for breakfast and a two person serving of pasta for tea day-in day-out takes its toll. Yes, I fell victim to the 'fresher 15'. The silly thing was that I'm not actually clueless when it comes to cooking and I enjoy doing it, but I was just being lazy and boredom eating- when you only have 8 contact hours a week you need something to fill the time, what better than endless toast? I eat so much better nowadays and I feel better for it. Familiarise yourself with good old fruit and vegetables and learn to cook more than just instant noodles- trust me, it'll be worth it in the long run...both literally and figuratively.

5. Just enjoy it - I won't pretend that every day of my uni life was great; I've definitely had periods of feeling down and disillusioned but all I can think of now that it's over is what a brilliant three years I've had. Get ready for one of the biggest clichés in the book- I really feel like I've grown a lot and learnt a lot about myself over the last few years. When you're thrown into a completely new environment with a bunch of people you've never met before, it makes you think about how you want to represent yourself. I've been lucky enough to meet people who I hope will be in my life a long time, managed to gain a degree that I'm very happy with and had a lot of fun along the way. I appreciate that not everybody is lucky enough to have such a smooth-sailing experience, but I think either way it's an important few years to teach you a lot about yourself.

I think that's it for my sort-of-but-not-really-advice/excuse to reminisce. My apologies; this post has definitely turned out to be sappier than I originally intended- in future I'll try not to write when I'm feeling overly nostalgic...

Excuses & updates

For those who may be worried about my absence since my last, rather stressed-out, mid-exams post- my deepest apologies. I did in fact survive the exam period and a few weeks ago I found out that I will be graduating from university with a high 2.1 degree- I even managed to get a first in my dissertation somehow! The last 6 weeks or so have been pretty crazy; after exams was a blur of nights out and enjoying the last few weeks living in my student bubble with all my friends, including a pretty great grad ball- though fancy dresses, alcohol and fairground rides are definitely a questionable combination. I moved back home a couple of weeks ago and thus began the hunt for a job, which I'm relieved to report was so much easier than expected- I now have a job at a bar on Call Lane in Leeds. So far being back at home hasn't been bad, though I don't think it's quite sunk in that I won't be going back to uni in September and I can't really see past the next few months for now. I'm just trying to focus on my next goal which is that in a year I hope to be either starting (or getting close to) travelling around South America. It's a pretty scary goal seeing as it's seeming ever-more likely that I'll be doing it alone, but also really exciting.

My housemates & I ready for grad ball; my lovely uni campus; ball outfit close-up in my heavenly garden/prison yard

Given the excessive gap in posts I thought it'd be good to include a few current things I'm liking at the moment:

• TV show- After endless recommendations I have finally started watching Breaking Bad. I'm glad I waited until I had no uni commitments because I've watched 12 episodes in the last 48 hours..so I suppose you could say that's a current favourite. 
• Book- I'm still working on my reading resolution but I (again, finally) finished reading The Fault in our Stars as I wanted to make sure I'd read it before seeing the film. Despite the six months gap in reading sessions, I still had a good cry at the end and I definitely enjoyed it. Now I just need to keep working on the rest of my pile of poor abandoned books.
• Song- I'm about a year late on this but I've recently been listening the Foals' latest album 'Holy Fire'. It's all pretty good but I seem to have latched onto one song 'Milk & Black Spiders' and have been playing it on repeat this past week.
• My new camera- I was very lucky to receive a graduation present off my parents in the form of a canon 700D DSLR camera. I've always thought I'd like to have a proper camera and have been interested in photography generally- I love taking my old film camera and instax out and about- and I'm determined to get to grips with all the features. I'm hoping that I can use my camera to improve my blog too; I'm thinking of starting a series of showing a few of my favourite places in Leeds, so now I can have good quality photos instead of my sneaky iPhone snaps!

I'm still not quite sure what I want this blog to be. I think of it as more of a diary than anything else, but if you'd like to stick around for my sporadic life updates please do and I promise I won't be absent for 6 weeks this time. What have you been enjoying recently?

Don't you forget about me

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm firmly in exam period (10 days to go until my degree is over!) and I think I'm starting to go a little mad with the lack of regular human contact. Naturally, in the midst of this existential crisis, I thought what better time than now to let those kind souls who read my blog know a bit more about me. So here you are, a few (pointless) facts about yours truly:

1. When I was a child I had a pet guinea-pig that I named Harvey; his namesake was, of course, the character from Sabrina the teenage witch.
2. I have never been blessed with musical talent. Apart from my ability to play the eastenders theme tune on the recorder.
3. I'm pretty skilled at hula-hooping.
4. I'm allergic to walnuts; despite this I made my dad his favourite coffee and walnut cake when I got my nose pierced so he couldn't stay mad at me and managed to make my face swell up in the process.
5. I have double-jointed elbows.
6. I've never dyed my hair- for all the little things I'd like to change about myself, I actually really like my hair colour, which after countless conversations over it has now been categorised firmly as the definition of strawberry blonde.
7. I'm a virgo. I sort of believe in the whole star signs thing- though not the standard 'wear pink on the 13th of the month and you'll meet the love of your life' magazine type- but I am pretty close to the typical virgo description in that I like to be organised and can be pretty critical, but I like to think I'm loyal too.
8. I used to have a pretty bad fear of hotel beds. I know, it's bizarre, but to me the fact that they're so perfectly made makes them feel somehow..unclean. I'm sort of over it now, as in I can actually get into them (I used to sleep on top of the covers) but they still make me feel a bit weird.
9. I have a bit of a 'shot glasses from around the world' collection including Paris, New York, Amsterdam, Munich and Dublin. 
10. My phone case has 'The Kiss' by Gustav Klimt on it and I also have a poster of that print in my room. I first saw it in an art gallery in Munich with my two best friends from home and it just makes me happy. 

I think that's enough unnecessary facts for one day; now it's time for me to get back to learning some very necessary facts...

April fool

My sincere apologies for the gap since my last post. I know not too many people are hanging on my every word here but I like to keep things consistent. However I feel my excuse is fairly legitimate; it's that time of year again where I forget how to dress properly and a weekly trip to sainsburys is the only time I see daylight- yes, the exam period is upon us. Specifically, the final ever exam period I will ever have the pleasure of experiencing.

April flew by in a haze of fluorescent highlighter and multi-coloured spider diagrams, chained to my desk. I don't know about you but I have no idea how people find the library to be a good place to revise. Personally I find the best way is to recite what you're trying to learn out loud in different voices. Granted I must sound a little insane to my housemates but I'm sure they've got used to my incoherent rambling by now. I intended to make this post my (slightly belated) end of the month catch up, but honestly I don't have much to say about the last month. I also realised I never did a March catch up either (please don't hurt me) so I'll just give you a quick run-down of the things that are keeping me sane.

TV programme: When I'm revising I need something easy to watch in my breaks. This time I've chosen Sabrina the teenage witch. The whole thing is on youtube and I have no shame in saying I'm loving my choice, despite how ridiculously fake looking Salem is.

Exercise: I'm trying out the whole 'healthy body, healthy mind' idea at the moment and I never thought I'd say this but I'm starting to enjoy a bit of exercise. Now that I'm back at uni I've suspended my running habit as everyone else here seems to be able to run 5k and barely break a sweat; however I have started doing blogilates videos every other morning and I actually feel quite good for it, although it's a good job I'm spending the majority of my life sat down as most days my stomach muscles ache where I didn't know it was possible for them to.

Online shopping: The combination of student loan and exam period is not a good one. Unfortunately I can't justify a day in town, but I'm pretty sure the big dogs at ASOS must have caught on to it being exam time as they've been rolling out the discount offers every few days. So far in the last few weeks I've bought a blouse, two dresses, a pilates mat and a re-usable water bottle. There's just something about anticipating a parcel in the post that makes being chained to your desk all day er'day slightly less soul-destroying.

I think I should just end this post here as I feel like if it continues I might just end up smashing my hands on the keyboard in the hopes of something legible appearing. Don't worry, in three weeks time I'll be back to being able to use my full brain capacity to write about the happier things (read: food) in life. Pray for me that I make it that far without my brain imploding/making myself bankrupt...

Run Hannah, run!

Something very strange has happened recently. If anybody who knows me in real life is reading this I would advise you to take a seat now.

I have taken up running. For those of you who don't know much about me, let me paint you a little picture. I have given up on every form of exercise I've ever tried, and I've tried quite a few over the years; gymnastics, tennis, swimming, horse-riding, trampolining... I was 'that' person in P.E. lessons who faked asthma attacks or refused to even begin to run when we were supposed to do 1500m. Since starting uni, I've made a few attempts at Jillian Michael's 30 day shred. My most recent try over last summer actually went pretty well but then I went back to uni and fell off the bandwagon as I didn't want my bouncing around to be the sole reason my (rather worringly) cracked-walled house fell down. Also it's a bit depressing when the girls in the background are smiling away having the time of their lives while you're sweating away thinking you might be about to take your last breath.

During last term something changed; I decided that it was time for me to do something about my pathetic level of fitness. The idea of going to the gym genuinely makes me feel ill, regardless of how expensive it can be, so I ruled that out. I always found it difficult to motivate myself to do the shred at home. Then somehow I stumbled across the idea of running. My older sister is pretty similar to me in that she's also never been one for much exercise but she starting running last year and now runs over 5k three times a week. Sibling rivalry kicked in and I thought if she can do it, surely I can too.

I've only been doing this a couple of weeks so by no means am I anything more than a complete beginner at this point, but I have to say I actually don't hate running. I've been using the NHS couch to 5k app which I've found very helpful; there are 9 weeks of the programme and 3 runs each week. The first week is very basic (I imagine laughably so to those of you who have been running for a while) as you run for 60 seconds then walk for 90 seconds then repeat that 8 times. Each week gets a bit harder- I've just done the second run of week 2 which involves repetitions of 90 seconds of running and 2 minutes of walking. Whilst I have no future intention of going all 'Forrest Gump' and running for 3 years non-stop (the thought of 15 minutes non-stop worries me to be perfectly honest), I feel pretty happy to have picked up a new habit and fairly confident that I can keep it up.

I might add a little update as to how I'm getting on with running every so often- perhaps I can inspire someone else to give it a go. Who knows, maybe next year I'll be running the London marathon! Now, where's that easter egg got to...

Do you run? Any words of encouragement for beginners?

Belgrave Street Feast

Last Saturday I had another food heaven experience. I know, I keep writing about food at the moment but unfortunately while I'm revising it's one of few joys for me. This one took place at Belgrave Music Hall and Canteen; a fairly new but very popular addition to Leeds' ever-growing bar scene.

I'd heard about Belgrave's street feast and been very intrigued but I'd always still been at uni in Birmingham when they were held, so when I saw that it is now a monthly event I made it my mission to go while I was home for easter. I rounded up a group of friends and headed to Leeds' northern quarter to see what delights were on offer.

The event was held on all three floors, including the lovely roof terrace which I'll definitely be visiting again when the weather is feeling a bit more agreeable. We had a wander round first to see what we fancied. I'd heard good things about Fu Schnickens so I started off with one of their crispy panko chilli chicken Guo Bao. It wasn't like anything I'd ever tried before but it was delicious and a small enough size that I felt okay about sampling a few other things. I didn't get to take many photos which is a bit of a pain when you're describing food, but you'll just have to trust me on this. Fu Schnickens are currently calling Belgrave their home so I think I'll be popping in again for more.

While some of my friends were at the Manjit's Kitchen stall (by the way, they also described their food as amazing) I bought a pint of Symonds cider then went to ogle the delights of the Noisette Bakehouse stall. I opted for a sea-salt caramel brownie to have later as I'd heard great things about them and feared that they'd run out; I can confirm that it was indeed a very good brownie. I'd been eyeing up the Arepa!Arepa!Arepa! stall nearby and decided to check it out. An arepa is a fried maize bread-sort-of-thing. Descriptions are apparently not my strong suit. Anyway, I had one filled with spicy, beer-y beef and it was pretty darn good.

I thought this was where my food for the day would come to a halt alas I couldn't resist trying a slice of the resident Dough Boys' pizza on my way out. From 12-7 every day pizza slices are half price, meaning you get pretty much a quarter of a pizza for £1.30. Basically if you live in Leeds you have no excuse not to grab yourself a slice too.

Long story short- I'd definitely recommend the street feast and I've already convinced my parents that they need to go to the next one. I, sadly, will not be able to attend the next few due to the slightly pressing matter of my final ever exams (when did I get this old?) but I'm already looking forward to returning to Belgrave in the summer for drinks on the roof terrace and perhaps a Guo Bao or two.

Have you been to Belgrave yet?

Breakfast, burgers and Lionel Richie

Last week I went to visit my best friend Kerrie. She lives just outside London so we had a few trips into the capital and I think it's fair to say we were in food heaven for those few days. While my limited photography options (i.e. my iphone) mean that I'm unable to take any impressive photos, I thought that it's only fair to share the places where I ate food which I've genuinely been daydreaming about ever since.

First up is a lovely café/bar near Kings Cross called Drink, Shop, Do. The premise behind the 'shop' part of the name is that you can buy anything that you see there; the tables, chairs, wall decorations, you name it. This means that all the furniture is mismatched and vintage, with old milk bottles holding flowers in the middle of the table. Oh and they sell really good cake. There were plenty of options to choose from but in the end I went for a simple Victoria sponge alongside a fresh lemonade. I don't have a photo of my cake but I can offer you a peek at the décor. I'm hoping to be able to come back here on an evening to try out one of their many bizarre entertainment offerings; my favourite that I read about was 'Lionel Rich-tea' where everyone has a go at piping Lionel's face onto a biscuit and the best one wins a prize. Can you think of something better to do with your night? Personally I can't. 

Next up is Honest Burger. Two of my friends go to UCL therefore have sampled many a London burger, but they have named this amongst the best. After a long day of window shopping, we headed back to Kings Cross to the branch nearby. We both went for the namesake honest burger with a cider and we certainly were not disappointed. The burger was juicy but not too messy (something which was a slight problem for us with Psychic Burger's offering) and the chips were incredible. I'm not even a big chip fan, but these were something else. They had rosemary salt on them and my mouth is watering just thinking about them. I think the photo below speaks for itself. 

The final stop on our culinary tour came the next morning before I had to head off home. We'd both heard about The Breakfast Club many times and decided that it was time to try it out so we headed to the original Soho branch. Despite the fact it was 11.30 on a Thursday morning we still had to queue for 20 minutes but it wasn't much of an issue as we'd both spent at least an hour the night before pouring over the menu online deciding what to order. I went for bacon and banana french toast with maple syrup. I know what you're thinking, very strange combination, but I can safely say it was the best breakfast I've ever had. Kerrie agreed with her avocado and bacon on toast with a poached egg, which also looked heavenly. We both had apple juice, of which I wasn't expecting much until it arrived and was a glowing green colour. Miles better than what you get from a carton. Essentially, The Breakfast Club has ruined any future breakfasts for us both...until we can go back again. 

This photo is actually my phone background now. I know, I need to get a grip. 

Have you ever been to any of these places? Do you also dream of french toast? Please tell me I'm not alone.

Thoughts: my travels so far

I am one stressed out student at the moment. I've just handed in my dissertation and have two more deadlines at the end of this week- the end of university feels so close yet it's never seemed more out of reach. Luckily, I am an expert in procrastination and my current method is reminiscing over past travels and wishing I could go back to a few places in particular. I thought it would be interesting to share some of my favourite places that I've been lucky enough to visit.

1. New York, USA

I visited New York nearly five years ago with my family and it has to come in high as one of my favourite places. We did the typical tourist attractions; the empire state building, Rockefeller centre (which in my opinion has a better view than the former), times square, central park, the statue of liberty...and we also tracked down the building they use as the exterior of the apartment block in Friends, which I was probably far too excited about. I'd love to go back now and explore more of the 'off the beaten track' New York, this time being of legal age to enjoy a cocktail or five. 

2. Berlin, Germany

Berlin is the kind of place I could see myself living in. Kerrie and I started our interrailing trip there last year and I'm dying to go back. I know there are plenty of people who think Berlin has been ruined by hipsters and gentrification, but I really loved it there. There just seems to be so much going on and, although I've never been one to enjoy a history lesson, learning about Berlin's past was so interesting. Also, they have bars called 'weinereis' which are like sitting in somebody's living room where you drink as much wine as you want then pay what you'd like. What's not to love?

3. Budapest, Hungary

Another place that I'd consider calling home; I've been to Budapest twice now on two different interrailing trips.I'll admit the first time I went to Budapest I felt a little intimidated; it was the first place we'd been where the currency was not in euros and the language looked and sounded like nothing we'd heard before. But after settling in Budapest just feels like a fun, young place to be. Lots of the bars here are known as 'ruin pubs', which are basically old warehouses and buildings which have been turned into bars and they tend to have an abundance of unusual chairs- think bath tubs and hollowed out cars. The exchange rate is also insane- it does feel odd to press a button to get 10,000 forint out of the cash machine, but then you realise it's equivalent to £27 and it all feels okay again.

4. Lake Bled, Slovenia

Does this picture need much more explanation? This was our final stop last year and it was the perfect place to relax. This must be the most picturesque place I've ever been to (if you ignore the fact we stayed in a George Best themed hostel). You can row out to that church in the middle, which we did. Yes, we were embarrassingly slow in comparison to the other people flying across the water, but we managed it in the end. You can lounge on the board walk around the lake and have a quick dip if you get too hot. Just watch out for the swans and ducks swimming around. 

I'm hoping to do a lot more travelling next year after I graduate but for now these are my top dreaming-of-going-back destinations. Where's the best place you've visited?