A Weekend in York

Last weekend, we went to York! We took the train up on the Saturday morning, and came back Sunday afternoon.

So many people had told me I should go to York before I leave, and I now have to pass on that advice. York is absolutely stunning! It’s a fantastic walled city with a beautiful Cathedral – my photo’s don’t do it justice. The walls are amazing – you can walk all the way around the city on elevated walks with places for archers to protect the city. It also has several very good pubs, and some very lovely cocktails at the Grand Hotel. In particular I can highly recommend the Strawberry Cheesecake Martini – cheesecake and alcohol, what more can a girl ask for?

It’s a very easy weekend excursion from London, without having to deal with airports and security. Have a look at my photos, but make sure to google it too – these aren’t as good as they might have been!

Dublin for Valentine’s Day (Aw)

The weekend of the 12th/13th/14th of Feb, R and I went to Dublin! Yes, I’m aware this makes two years in a row we’ve been away for Valentine’s Day – we were in Oxford last year – but it’s a coincidence, I swear!

Christmas in Scotland

cooTowards the end of October 2014 (a while ago now!), R and I starting dating. He had been planning to go home to New Zealand for Christmas, but the British Government still had his passport (to assess his indefinite leave to remain application) and he didn’t think the passport would be back in time to fly home for Christmas. My plans had recently fallen through as well, and so after roughly 6 weeks of dating we decided to head up to a little town called Dunblane for Christmas.

Paris – Summer 2014!

When I was planning to come to the UK in 2014, I didn’t really know what would happen. I had been told time and time again I needed to be prepared for failure, I needed to be prepared to give up and come home. Well, I wasn’t going to do that before I did two things, or more accurately, went to two sporting events: Wimbledon (which you can read about here), and Le Tour De France.

Wimbledon

My family has watched tennis for years, and if you watch tennis, there’s really only one place you need to go: The All English Lawn Tennis Association, also know as Wimbledon. We (being myself, mum, dad and brother) tried to take a tour of Wimbledon in 2009, but it was unfortunately closed in order to fit the retractable roof. So, being in the UK for the tournament itself, there was no way I could pass up going. I didn’t get a ticket through the Ballot, but there is quintessentially British way to obtain a ticket on the day: The Queue. Most days there are tickets for all centre courts as well as ground passes, and prices vary. Because I didn’t want to take time off work, I went on the last Saturday of the tournament. This was one of the cheapest days to get a grounds pass for – mostly because there are very few courts outside one to four that are hosting games so very little tennis to see.

You can, if you’re lucky, spot a finalist warming up or practicing, which is what I hoped for when I went. Spoiler alert: I was very, very lucky. I saw not one, but both Men’s finalists, which also happened to be my favourite players – Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer. I didn’t see that much tennis being played – although I also saw Sam Stosur warming up for her doubles final – but it truly didn’t matter. Having seen Djokovic and Federer so close, playing such suburb tennis, was a dream come true.

A Long Weekend in Copenhagen

Up front warning: Copenhagen is extremely photogenic, this is a fairly photo-heavy write up!

Post-Positano, there was talk about going away again soonish – in the new year. Initially we talked about Spain, or Greece, but it would still be not-warm (my visa is up early May, so really no where would have proper beach weather while I was still in the UK). At work one day I had a look at flights to colder areas in late January. I wanted to go in winter to give myself a better chance of seeing snow. I’ve only seen snow twice in my life – a light flurry in Prague last Easter, and during the great snow storm of 2011 in Wellington – where I still only saw light flurries, as the real snow happened up in the suburbs, which were inaccessible due to icy roads. So all my family got snow, but I was stuck in the city. I saw flights to Copenhagen for £37.50 return, messaged the others, and within two hours flights and leave were all booked.

Freezing In Early December – Berlin

In April, on our way home from Prague, R and I were talking about where else we’d like to go. R mentioned that he’d always wanted to go to Berlin – to the point where friends back home had actually assumed he was moving to Berlin, not London. Even though he’s now been in the UK 10 years (!) he had never got to Berlin. I decided taking him to Berlin would be the perfect birthday present – his birthday was a fair way away mind, this was April and our birthdays are early December (yes, we have very close birthdays, but I once dated a boy for 6 months who had the same birthday as me, so 6 days is perfectly reasonable).

My Summer in Italia

I went to Rome, Venice and Positano (which is on the Amalfi Coast, just south of Naples) in July 2015, when my parents were over from New Zealand. It was, honestly, the most amazing eleven days of my life. In all honestly this should probably be three posts, but I experienced all this in such a short time, I feel like it’s all connected.

Living in London

As I look towards my departure from London – my visa is up May 7th, and so I must go – I am also looking back on my time in this spectacular city.

Don’t get me wrong, London is hard. I’ve been through 4 jobs (including, total, about 2 months of unemployment), and moved several times. Yeah, that’s not something I’ll miss. I’ve also been to 6 countries other than London, 11 cities, and spent countless hours in London itself. I’ve meet the man I love – from my home on the other side of the world, here in London – made some fantastic people and am going home a stronger, healthier, more grounded person. That’s the whole point of travel, right? The highs have far outweighed the lows – although that may be the current high talking!

I’ll be posting some highlights (under NMKG Travel Diaries) over the next couple of weeks, but have a look at some of my favourite London photos below.

See if you can spot the three pictures with St Paul’s Cathedral – undoubtedly my favourite building in London. Feel free to ask me any questions about living in London!