T R A V E L - 48 Hours in Kyoto!

Hello again!

As previously stated, I'm currently making my ways through Japan and loving every second of it! I'm just getting to my last few hours in Kyoto and thought I would share just some of the highlights of our last 48 hours in this truly magical city! With Kyoto being the ancient capitol of Japan it's no surprise just how much tradition and cultural attractions are on offer.

Here are just a small number of things to see and do in Kyoto that won't break the bank! Happy planning!

1  | Fushimi - Inari Shrine

The shrine has over a thousand orange tori gates snaking around the Inari Mountain. Each tori gate has a different donator's name engraved into it's wood.  It's honestly a must see attraction. If you don't visit the Fushimi Inari Shrine have you even been to Kyoto?
If you would like to just visit the screen and see the tori path way it's a simple walk and easy to reach by bus or train. If you're feeling ambitious and you'd like to follow the path up the Inari mountain feel free too! It'll take around 2-3 hours for the round trip so make sure you'be packed your walking shoes.

2 | Golden Pavillion, Kinkaku-Ji Temple

This is the place you see in all the travel guides and posters for Kyoto, and we can see why. This stunning temple really is as good in real life as it looks in the photographs. It's perfectly clean and really stands out. I felt like I was watching a movie when I arrived at Kinkaku-ji Temple. The top two floors of the Zen Temple are covered in gold leaf that make the temple a must see in Kyoto. Set within the Mirror Pond and a lushes green garden it's heaven! #homegoals

3 | Kiyomizu - Dera Temple

The Kiyomizu-Dera Temple is an immense Buddist temple in kyoto. The Temple is location on a small hill with a huge terrace with offers a breathtaking view. If you walk on further through the temple you will reach the view point. Which gives an incredible view of much of Kyoto. 

4 | Ryozen Kannon 

The Ryozen Kannon is a war memorial for those who died in the Pacific War in Eastern Kyoto. Not just to the Japanese but all the unknown soliders who lost their lives during this horrible time. The Kannon statue is 80 ft high! (hard to miss) and is made of steel and concrete. The site has a number of small shrines, you can go into Kannon from the back and you might even see a monkey or two hanging around.

5 | Gion neighborhood

Head down to the Gion neighbourhood for your chance to see one of the fifty remaining geisha's in the town. Located betweek Yasaka Shrine and the Kamo River, the geisha district is filled with shops, resturants and Ochaya (tea houses) 

Now it is amazing to see Geisha's, but they are super busy! If you are able to see one be happy and take it in. Please don't stop them and ask for pictures, they're on their way to work.

If you have some money to spend, head to Geisha Corner where you can watch a tradition show :) 

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Are you heading to Japan soon? Have you recently come back? 

What's your favourite thing about Japan?

Lots of love,
Stephanie xo

T R A V E L - 72 HOURS IN COLOGNE, GERMANY

Hey guys!

I thought I'd share what I got up to during my 72 hour stay in Cologne, Germany. Once again, the other half won at Christmas with my 3 day break to Cologne, Germany. Including flights and a nice Air Bnb apartment for the weekend with I'll also share below.

Cologne (or Köln in German) is a very bustling city, it's the 4th biggest in Germany and you really need to add it to your 'to do' list of citys in visit in Europe.

We landed our Easyjet flight straight into the Cologne Bon airport - the tiny airport was a bit of a nightmare to get through security due to the small venue and a lot of planes landing, but it's worth the queue I promise. We were able to get the train straight from the airport, through central Cologne to Ehrenfeld - which was within a 15 minute walking distance from our Air BnB.

Where we stayed

Air BnB is a great alternative to hotels, We first used Air BnB on our trip to Portugal and we've never looked back. Michael picked an Entire Flat in Ehrenfeld. Named the coolest quarter in Cologne. It's a bright and vibrant area that is well worth discovering. Full of interesting boutiques, mouth watering restaurants and an easily accessible tram service that can take you anywhere around the city.

I loved having the comforts of home but in another city. Simple to follow instructions of how to get to the property and where we would find our keys. The apartment is located on a beautiful little side street with a little bar, launderettes and plenty of cafe's just around the corner.

The flat was based in a small apartment block on the ground floor, which over looked a beautiful backgarden (which we couldn't quite figure out how to get out to)  The room was small but it had everything we needed, and more! Even the bed was mechanically adjustable!

(Photos are from the Air BnB page)

Check out the listing here - Oasis of peace in the middle of life.

USE MY CODE TO GET £25 OFF YOUR FIRST SAY WITH AIR BNB!

www.airbnb.co.uk/c/stephaniet11149

What to do

You can pick up plenty of To-Do guides for Cologne all over the city and find the standard tourist things to do around the city. These include the Cologne Cathedral - Which is amazing and you should definitely go visit!
But when you get deep into the city and explore you'll find a number of things that you won't find in tourist guides.

Here's a list of everything we managed to squeeze into a few days in this wonderful city!

The Dom Cathedral

I thought I'd start with the main attraction. The Dom Cathedral is a Roman Catholic cathedral.  Building started in 1248-1473, it was then complete destroyed during World War II, rebuilt in the 1950s up until present day. They were still doing renovation work to the spires while we visited. It's also currently the tallest twin-spired Church coming in at 157m (515ft) tall.

The stunning architecture taking influence from the German Catholicism and Gothic tradition. The view inside includes beautiful mosaic flooring which pictures the history of archdiocese showing the different names and coasts of arms of a number of Cologne's bishops and archbishops, The Christian world order and humankind, as well as the cosmos.
Along with stain glass windows that bounce their stunning colours across the cathedral walls, it's a must see.

In addition to this, the Cathedral also offers a unique panoramic for those brave (and fit) enough to walk the 533 steep stone steps of the spiral staircase to reach the viewing platform around 100m above the ground.  If you're not the fittest, don't worry; There are plenty of places you can stop, There's a floor half way up that houses eleven bells,  with Fat Peter (the worlds biggest bell!) in the middle. Pretty cool to see but also an excuse for a rest.
The stair case is also very narrow so you'll have plenty of resting time while waiting for those coming down too.

Visiting the inside of the cathedral is completely free, to climb the steps is 4 euro, half price if you have a student card though.

Papa Joe's Jazzlokal

By far our favorite place during the trip. Located in the town center, from the moment we walked through the door we were hocked! Papa Joe's has live jazz every night of the week from the traditional to the slightly more modern jazz there is something for everyone. It's packed regulary with a mix of ages. Beers are quite expensive and still in the tiny glasses we see around Cologne but still good fun. It's free to get in and also free peanuts all around the joint. There's nothing quite like it! 5/5 from me.

Click here for the Papa Joe's Website.

Schokoladen Museum Koln

Are you a chocolate lover? (silly question) Then you're in luck! Cologne is home to the Lindt Chocolate museum, it's like something out of willy wonder. The modern architecture is built to resemble a ship. You can't miss it, just follow the River Rhine on the right hand side. An adult ticker is 9 euros.  It even comes equipped with a working 3 meter tall chocolate fountain and plenty of free samples while you discover the story behind how chocolate has been created since the very beginnings and also how it's made today in the Lindt factories. You can even pay to have a bespoke chocolate made for yourself on the top level with all the things that you like.

Love Lock Bridge

Also know as the Hohenzollern bridge that goes over the Rhine river,  you'll find a 400 meters long wall of locks filled with names and pictures of couples who have declared their love in the city. There's no a centimeter free on the cathedral side of the bridge, some smaller gaps as you approach the end of the bridge. If there isn't any space - don't worry, the govenerment take the locks down every once in a while because it becomes too heavy and dangerous. Which means we can all start again!

Koln Triangle

For those of you that still want to see Cologne from above, but don't fancy the 533 step work out. You'd want to go to the Koln Triangle. Just walk over the Love Lock Bridge and it's to the right, you can't really miss it. It's 3 Euros per person. Not a single step in sight just take the elevator and you're done. Another stunning panoramic perspective of this beautiful city!

Cycle around the city

If you're looking for an inexpensive way to get around the city (Not that the tram line isn't cheap or effective) there are plenty of places to go and rent a bike for the day. We travelling to the main attractions via bike as Cologne has great cycle routes throughout the city. The day the River Rhine flooded we were able to cycle through the over flow along the path without a care in the world. Plenty of places to safely secure the bike while we had a drink or two and I promise you will love it!

Are you going to add Cologne to your list of places to see in Europe?

D I Y - MARBLE HEADBOARD

Hey guys!

Just a quick one from me today, but I'm going to share with you how I made my boring, basic Ikea headboard into a super #extra marble master piece!
It cost me just over £5, and took around half hour to complete. It makes my bed look super expensive and luxurious!

Apologies for the horrible wallpaper, it doesn't really fit the beautiful aesthetic of the DIY project. We're moving out so there isn't much point in me redecorating just yet.

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Here's what you need;

A head board (Duh... but you can do this with anything!)
Marble contact paper ; Here's the one I used (Marble Contact Paper)
Scissors
Hard Card/Sturdy Plastic
*Optional sticky tape*

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First thing you'll need to do is grab your headboard, this took me a while as it was screwed into the bed frame. Finally I managed to pull it off and placed it on my mattress to get started.

This is the contact paper I ordered from Amazon. The link is above. It's the perfect width for my headboard and 2 meters long so I have plenty left for future projects!

The contact paper is really simple to use. Once opened, there is a piece of sticky plastic holding the roll in place. I used this to secure the roll to one side of the paper to stop it rolling back up. Make sure you attach it to the back of the headboard around 2inchs in. As the back of the headboard won't be seen we don't need to cover the whole thing.

When securing the paper, you need to ensure that it is lined up with the bottom of the headboard. We don't need to over lap the bottom as we need to be able to put it back into place. Again, the bottom is not seen. Ensure to leave the top of the paper handing over the edge ready to stick down to the top of the headboard in the final steps.

If you need some extra help to ensure it stays straight when you're putting it down, use sticky tape to hold sections in place. Try and use one that wont leave a sticky residue. If it does leave a sticky mark though, don't worry; you should be able to wipe it down after the material is pretty durable.

Once you're all lined up, you are ready to go! It's super easy. Just peel back the backing. Ensure to do this inch by inch. I found it's the easiest way to minimize air bubbles. Now take your bit of plastic. Whatever you'd like to use, I used a Blackhead Peel Off Mask box at first, but it wasn't hard enough so I used my GAME rewards card in the end instead. 

 

Use the card to push towards the area where you are pulling away the sticky back plastic. This step helps to reduce the air bubbles and make the headboard look more authentic rather than cheap. Once the paper is down it's kinda hard to work with. So do try and go little bit, by little bit to get rid of those bubbles. Just to save yourself some hard work after.

 

Now, I missed a photo here but it's pretty straight forward. Now that the made base is down. You'll hopefully have left over contact paper at the top of the board. Before you think about it! Do not try and stick it like you'd wrap a Christmas present. You'll end up with creases visible at the top and we don't want that. Instead, use the scissors to cut a small line where the two corners meet. Fold the side stripe down, and then cover with the top area. This will mask the corner and give you a beautiful clean edge. 

And that's the end! Once you're happy with the result, attach it back to your bed and lounge in your new wonderful marble masterpiece!!
*adding your Stitch stuffed toy is optional*

Stephanie - xoxo 

 

B E A U T Y - PRIMARK GLITTER OBESSED EYE CREAM PALETTE

As you've all probably noticed from my previous posts in regards to festival and outfits of the days, I'm highly obsessed with anything to do with glitter. You will also notice that I'm not a huge fan of eye make up, but when I saw these bad boys in Primark I started to hyper ventilate a little  I needed them in my basket straight away!

I hadn't seen them before on any social media, or heard anything about them from anybody else. I just pop into store, saw them and had to buy them. Due to not seeing any reviews online, I didn't know if they would be a an absolute #extra steal, or some crappy kids first glitter make up kit. But it's £4, worth a shot!

For that teeny tiny £4, you can buy yourself 28 glitter eye creams, all in different colours. Even if they do seem a little similar in my photos, they are slightly different. Soft to the touch, and silky smooth with a Vaseline feel I thought I'd do a few swatches to share with you.

Here's what I found, each image is showcasing left to right of each line.

A little disappointed with product itself, a little too much Vaseline product not enough glitter causing the application to be very thin and sparse. I was really after a more pigmented look over all, the paler swatches need a second coat to resolve, but the brighter colours like the greens are killer! (and mermaid green is my fav so win win!)

The product itself needs to be dabbed on the skin rather than swiped, this way more glitter stays in place creating a more dramatic effect. If you're just after the subtle look then it's perfect. The product itself is beautiful on the skin. I used the same spot for all my swatches and just wiped away with a cheap make up wipe. I've got quite sensitive skin and it didn't irritate me at all which was a pleasant surprise. A little clumpy in places, but a nice flat brush should help out too. On another note. There isn't much product to go around. You'll see from the image below, just from these swatches I used quite a bit of product. So if you find your favorite shade, you'll only get around 5 maybe 6 uses out of it if you're lucky?

Obviously, it's from Primark, somethings are killer - some things are not. We learn from this. But I would still recommend the product. If you want excellent make up, you're going to have to pay for it. You'd still be able to create some great looks from this little beauty for a fraction of the price of other glitter palettes.


What do you think of this little beauty?

Stephanie xoxo

F A S H I O N - / / G L I T T E R - - J U G S

Evening pretty people!

I've been away a while and just thought I'd do a quick little update and tell you what's going on right now.

I started a new job a few months ago in the car insurance field, and it's bloody good! I'm learning something new every day and it just keeps changing. Plus; we're super spoilt with presents and quizzes (Everybody was given an Easter egg yesterday... there's around 300 on our floor alone!)

So that's reason one to why I've been away so long.. Reason two, is because it's WEDDING SEASON!
I love wedding season, but photographing every weekend and then editing after finishing the late shifts at 8pm doesn't go too well together. Although it's almost over - and it's helped me book a few trips away :)

I'm jetting off to Paris on the 28th for a nice weekend away with the other half. Then again in May to a location I can't disclose yet due to it being Michael's 23rd birthday present, But it's going to be good! My wardrobe is about to burst though due to all the extra 'Holiday' clothes I've picked up over the last month. (or two..maybe three)

In other news, Festival season is almost upon us again guys! Signed up for Glastonbury today, even though my pictures been declined twice now.. just waiting for the third time lucky!
But I've had a look around at a few other little gems and I'm super excited.

So excited, I've bought my outfits before I've even booked a festival - Eeekkk.
But it's money well spent so who cares!

Here's my first outfit ready for the summer.

A stunning black/green sequin jumpsuit from Pretty Little Thing. RRP:£60.

Probably the most expensive item of clothing I own - apart from the odd ball gown - But I did manage to get a 25% off code from one of the ladies in work so I only actually paid £45. Thanks to all the other little treats I've been buying myself - I also sorted out unlimited free next day delivery for the whole year with PLT. It's my best investment so far this year!

I cannot wait to show it off in the sun!

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Are you heading to any festivals yet this year? 

What are you packing?

F A S H I O N - / / D A Y T W O - G R E E C E

Aloha!

Day two here in Kefalonia!

We went down to Agosoli yesterday and seen some turtles swimming around the fishing boats waiting for some free dinner. We also headed to a few of the beaches close to our villa - I'll share a bigger post after full of names and places too. 

Another bargain outfit post, this outfit cost less than £10.
The black Croptop/Bralet I grabbed from Primark as something quick and easy for me to wear at Bestival. I paid £3 for it, and bought the same in pink also.
It's super soft and can work with anything!

The shorts, I bought as part of a two piece set off Ebay - The top's super cute, but the sizing is completely off. These shorts were a size large, I assumed that because they were from China, it meant large in China - which is bit smaller the than UK. But these shorts were huge on me, so had to be brought in with a stitch. Yet, the crop top was tiny and gave me a super unflattering side boob so sadly I can't wear it :(

I'm sure I used the sandals for every outfit I brought with me on holiday, because Thomas Cook only give a 6k weight useage! 6k! redic!

But oh well. It works ;)

F A S H I O N - / / O U T F I T - G R E E C E

Aloha guys!

Just a little photo to show you my favourite little outfit from my trip to Kefalonia.

It's so simple and so so so cheap!

I had a lovely evening out for food with my boyfriend and his family down at a local restaurant. It's a weird feeling being out with for dinner as a complete family for me. My parents separated when I was five, and we don't often sit down as a family now. It was super nice though to have all their family, plus partners together enjoying an evening, like we did every evening while away!

I did some last minute holiday shopping after work the evening before we went away, Skint as ever because September is my busiest month! Lots of birthdays (because all the best people are born in September) Bestival, Anniversary and a Holiday within a month took my bank balance right down.

So when I found this playsuit in Primark for just £4.50 I fell in love! I tried it on and it fit perfectly, even though it was a size bigger than I normally buy. I couldn't figure out why it was so cheap, turns out when I took it off I noticed a massive stain down the back, looked like the froff off a latte to me, so chanced it in hope it'd wash off, and it did! #winning 

I paired it with my white strappy sandals, that I also bought from Primark just before I headed off to Croatia back in April.

E V E N T S - / / B E S T I V A L 2 0 1 6

The Bestival Long Weekender 

Let's just get straight down to it, Bestival 2016 was something completely new to me. Thanks to the guys at Get-Involved, I was lucky enough to attend three of this years BESTIVAL events, - Common People, Camp Bestival, and Bestival itself. I don't know what I was really expecting but there were loads of things going on the whole time we were there.

In this post I'll go through a shit tonne of stuff, but I'll mainly focus on the things I find most appealing from my experience at this years event - including Fashion outfits/Camping/Music/Food an the overall experience. 

In previous festival posts I've stated out what I got up to day by day at the event, kinda like a little festival diary. Well, Bestial was a whole 4 days of lots of travelling, lots of walking around, lots of booze, a lack of sleep and just none stop giggles so all my days molded into one - but it was bloody good!

Now, word of warning, this post will be a long one, but it'll be filled with funny pictures and just stuff I (probably more than likely not everyone) found interesting and just cool little things for people to know about. 

Now that the little introduction-ish is over, let's just straight in! 

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My boyfriend and I were kindly given two press tickets to come down to experience The Future at this years Bestival. Michael's a Bestival veteran, this being his third/maybe fourth year. I was a complete Bestival virgin and I didn't know what was coming/had completely the wrong idea but we'll talk about that as we go along. 

We headed down super early Thursday morning, we were going to get up at like 5.15am, but over slept and managed to get up, dress, fed and out the door by around 15/20 minutes I think? Our friend Chris joined up for the journey - We like Chris!

We had a long journey ahead of us, We had to get a train from Cardiff, that took us to Portmouth Harbour - with one change on the way. Taking around four hours. We we're all pretty happy as we got on the train, but after an hour or so, tiredness kicks in and it was bedtime for a few hours.

The first leg was pretty each though, we just had to sit there - no messing around, trains weren't over crowded, no delays, plenty of room for our stuff and we loved having the table to sleep on - every little helps! 4 hours later, our train was done! 

Once we'd arrived at Portmouth Harbour, the queue for the ferry was just as you stepped off the train. The queue wasn't very long at all from what we could see, but we didn't realise that it went inside the building and around the corner - It was pretty busy, and we had to keep moving closer together to make sure the trains that arrived after us didn't clog up the station. The line moved a lot faster than we thought, I'd say we must have been on the third ferry after we'd arrived? Again, it was very straight forward, we dumped our gear on the floor downstairs and headed up to the deck to see the sea. 

A little windy, but helped to wake me up a bit. Not a bad little 30 minute boat ride really.

The boys had perked up a little bit, Michael doing the Brock squint again....

Now to the dreaded bit. The long as wait for the bus that takes you to the actual festival site. The queue went on for what seemed like forever. Honestly, you couldn't see where it finished for a good hour or so. We stood waiting for our bus for around 2 hours before we managed to get on one. The nearest toilets were at the cafe by the pier, so we couldn't jump out of the line to use them.. If you know me at all, this was heart breaking for my bladder. I hadn't drank anything, not even water since the night before. This was the worst bit of the journey by far - but then I can compensate because I couldn't suggest any way of making it any easier, it's just a busy place to be!

Our bus trip made up for it though, we went whizzing around the island in an open top bus, Isle of Wight is so beautiful! It'd be great for a little getaway in the future. I didn't see any chains, everything looked to be independent/family ran businesses  including pubs/farms/boutiques. It was like something out of a movie. I spotted some signs for town names that were familiar from when I visited the island at the age of 8, which was a nice little memory rejogger for me.

The bus took around half hour to reach the site, simple directions to the entrance, a short walk across a little field and then just line up in another massive queue. At this point I felt absolutely gutted, another few hours of standing around... Thankfully! We were able to grab our press bands from the Box Office and walk straight through! (Sorry Chris) The staff were super friendly, told us exactly what to do and where to go - top guys once again!

So, now we're finally in, 9 hours after leaving Cardiff - but we're here!

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Camping

Camping was split into a number of areas at this years Bestival - Orange/Black/Quiet/Boutique/VIP/Artists

We headed to Black camping first because we heard through the grape vine that it was the place to be, and by god it was! The place was ram packed! Ideally, we needed a space for my tent, Chris's tent and 3 more spaces for his friend. This was unrealistic, we couldn't even find find a decent space for our tent - the first gap we found.. we were told they were 'waiting' for a friend - so we moved over a bit on the path and were about to set up... when some bloke asked up 'Do you do ket?'.. exactly what I thought the festival was going to be - full of bloody loonies, I'm not going to be able to move without someone breathing drugs in my direction.. I'm all for people to do whatever they want as long as it doesn't effect others. but this bloke bugged me from the get go.

I replied no and he told me 'not to camp there then.' What a wankerrrrrrr. So we moved because If we stayed I would of killed him by the end of the weekend haha.

I asked one of the guys from the Festaxi where the best place to camp was, or ANYWHERE with room that wasn't full of bellends! He sent us to Quiet Camp - which was yellow camp last year I think? I loved our camp! but I think it's because it was quiet haha, I can party until dawn, but when it's bed time, it's bed time - I'm a party pooper soz! #sorrynotsorry. 

We managed to bag a good circular area until Chris joined us, we had plenty of room for our tents, and our new friends when they arrived. 

We made some new friends who also joined our little circle, Callum and Jon were also part of the press covering the event and fit into our little family straight away! 

It was quite a walk from the stages, but simple to find. I think most of the official campsites were a while away from the event, but it made sleeping nice and easy... but if you wanted to, you could hear from the tent, I was so tired one night I was falling asleep waiting for one of the girls outside the toilets but I wanted to hear Katy B again - Luckily I could hear her from our tent. BEST OF BOTH WORLDS!

Apparently, the campsite was a lot smaller this year, with the Prepitched tents taking up a large area at near the entrance. This should be looked into for next year - because Black camp was stupidly busy, ,and there was nowhere else to go apart from quiet camp, which is fine- again, I LOVED QUIET CAMP!

Noone bugged me, noone broke or stole anything, noone was super loud and everyone was really welcoming around us. 4.9/5 - 0.1 taken away for the distance away from the stages - but then it wouldn't be so quiet so I'm just being picky.

#TEAMYELLOW

(Super dark Polaroid taken by the super heroes behind us.)

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Food

Now here's another important bit, food! Now I'm not a fussy eater, but I also am. I don't eat meat - but don't mind products that include meat (so I'll have gravy/gelatin ect)

So far, at CP and CB I'm been more than fine with the choices, and once again I was not let down!

We had all the classics from every festival - Such as the Flaming Cactus (My favs!) and I <3 Sausage, but also tried out a few little gems that were hidden.

Thankfully, On the first night I was invited the The Mix Kitchen - Unpredictable Summer run by Co-Op. These guys were life savers, we were so tired from the journey down - we wouldn't of grabbed anything else. Co - Op upped the game! The chefs came out with a list of stuff they could make for us, but we could pretty much ask for anything and they'd sort it out.

I had the most amazing dish ever, I couldn't tell you exactly what it was called, but it had couscous, shredded carrots, beetroot, lentils, salad leaves, cheese, potatoe, peppers and some sort of wizards sauce that bonded everything together! It was truely amazing, and my bowl was filled! It took forever to get through.

Free champagne and water was also a bonus! Winner winner!

As you can see, Michael is a bit happier now he's been fed and watered. Michael has a specially made chicken and noodles bowl, He was best pleased! haha.

Lease flattering photo of either of us, but we also caught up with another Chris we met at Camp Bestival! We chatted for a VERY long time. 

We had a lot of snacks in our tent, I'm a sugar freak so packed sweeties for breakfast every day - Not the most nutritional sorry but gets me up in the morning!

For lunch on Friday I had a sweet chili and halloumi cheese wrap, and Mike bought some sort of chicken wrap. I waited a long time for it, at least 15 minutes. I was absolutely starving to so it felt like forever!  I guess the cheese just wouldn't cook. I was super excited to tuck in, but when I did, a volcano of sweet chili sauce erupted into my mouth. I'm only a sensitive little flower anyways, but this was something else! I spent the next 10 minutes starving my little butt off just starring into my food, wanting to eat it but soo scared to in case I die (not being over dramatic at all) The wrap itself was great though, the bread was oven cooked so nice and crisp with a herby layer to add texture.

BUT! Praise the lord, The Flaming Cactus sorted me out once again! Even though I didn't buy my wrap from their store, they covered it in smooth cucumber yogurt and fixed my wrap! It was gone within a second. Thanks again for saving the day!

For dinner, I spotted a Risotto stand, I love Risotto - it's so easy to make, soaks up all flavors and I've never been anywhere that doesn't have a vegetarian equivalent. I bought the large mushroom risotto from Risotto2Go. The portion was huge!  It was super creamy, soft and fluffy. With three different types of mushrooms, herbs and some beautiful cheese thrown in I couldn't think of anything better.

 It fed Me, Michael and everyone else tried a bite too. 

I had four of these while at Bestival - pretty bad because I didn't check out many other places, but once you like something, you like it! 

(MORE RISOTTO! and Mikes Burger from the place next door on Sunday)

Saturday the heavens opened and it was the biggest, muddiest mess I'd ever seen in my life, but we made the long trek purely just to fill our bellies at Flaming Cactus - We ordered exactly the same as we did at Camp Bestival, and my Burrito obsession has stuck. To good to wait, luckily someone snapped a photo of us because we completely forgot while we tucked into our foodporn. We ate two of these, one for dinner and one for tea. Only fair seeing they saved my food the day before. LOVE YOU GUYS!

Sunday was our 'day of rest' not really... we stayed until the early hours - but food wise our bodies were so tired and full of booze and burrito that we took it pretty easy.

Here Michael had a pulled pork burger (back to his normal Camp Bestival routine) from The Burger Co - While I didn't take a photo, but had chips with plenty of ketchup. And then we shared another round of Risotto for dinner - with a box of nachos to see the night through.

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WHATS ABOUT?

I was so grateful to be invited to the press viewing of Samsung's Hypercube - Now it does look like something out of the sci-fi movie Cube, but inside is The Future (ah see what I did there?)

Samsung had teamed up with the Rock band Biffy Clyro to create a new Virtual Reality experience for everyone to enjoy. This is the next state of technology and it was executed so well!

Once inside, the dark cube was light up by lines of blue tablets and headsets, it kinda reminded me of Tron? 

 

We had to follow the instructions on the tablet, and then put the VR headset and headphones on and just enjoy the ride.

The VR experience was a Biffy Clyro music video, but with a 360o perspective. if I were to look straight forward I'd see the area Biffy were performing in, but If i turned my head I could see everything that was inside the room they had recorded it in? I don't even know how to explain, but I could see everything that the band could see, and probably a bit more! If I turned 180o from where I started I had fireworks firing at me at one point!

I loved it! It wasn't what I was expecting at all but I'm super excited for this technology to become every day! It's amazing and if you get the chance to experience any VR soon, please do it! You won't regret it!

Magically Woods

We found the woods while drunkenly walking back from the Space port one night and decided we were in no right state to explore it so would come back the next day. I'm so glad we did! It was full of lots of things to do, such as listening to inspiring talks at the Bestival University, chilling in hammocks, playing in the park and hitting some cool bars with live music. Here's my favourite parts. 

The forest had loads of little things hidden around it, sculptures in the trees, sensory areas and little statues just laying about.

My favourite book growing us was Tin Tin - Even managed to rack up a £60 fine from the Library because I wouldn't return it haha.

This pretty cool bridge looked beautiful all day and night, I wanted to take a shower in the stream but noone would join me.

The bridge was decorated with spot lights and these pieces of fabric hanging down - I don't know why, but it looked super pretty!

Over this little oriental bridge was a little quiet bar, which had live acoustic music playing all day by indie artists.

Again, no idea what this area actually was, but it had a load of artsy features throughout the path, This one matched my outfit so I stuck a pose.

and we found a play ground! I had way too much fun in here, and Michael got a bit carried away and managed to swing me into the elephant - #gameover

We also found a cool little jazz spot! You walked through a shipping crate into a giant teepee which had jazz music playing all day. When we arrived there was someone playing the piano with a few couples dancing in the middle. It first caught my eye because it's called The Blind Tiger - which is one of my favourite clubs in Newport, Wales. I thought it might had been a chain, but it was even better!

On our way back to camp after spending a little time in Blind Tiger, we spotted some giant bubbles floating around and a few kids following them, so we thought we'd follow suit because, you know, bubbles!?

Michael got a little close to the action as you can see here;

 

Some of the bubbles were bigger than us, it was nice to see something aimed mainly towards kids, but fun for all.

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