Cambridge, a quick getaway

Hallooooo!!

If you're looking for a quick get away, a change of scenery or you simply have an itch to travel, then keep on reading.

As you all know (or if you don't, now you do) I usually plan my trips around movie locations or specific people who have a connection to the location. Trips like the Lake District, Bath and Oxford were mainly because of influencial people who used to live there. Whilst trips like the one to Scotland was based in the film locations. Often both reasons intertwine.

As for Cambridge, it was no difference. I saw the Imitation Game when it came out late 2014 and the Theory of Everything when it hit theaters early 2015. Both stories centre two of the most influencial guys in history: Alan Turing and Stephen Hawking. Both former students at Cambridge University. Can you hear the little wheels spinning in my head?

River Cam and Bridge of Sighs in the background

I'd heard from a few people that 'when you've seen Oxford, you've seen Cambridge. They're so alike'. (An Unexpected journey to Oxford) Anyone who's been to both can't deny the fact. Even some of the colleges names are identical: Trinity College, Pembroke college, etc. They are, after all, the two biggest rivals in the UK. Well, college wise. However, I'm so glad I didn't listen!

Friday morning (Good Friday), I got on the 8.14am train to Cambridge from London King's Cross, which left from platform 10. Probably the closest I'll ever get to platform 9 3/4... Ah well.

45min later I got off and realised that I was way way way too early. Luckily it's about a 30min walk from the train station to the Visitor's Centre, so that gave me an extra 30 min to kill the time. But when I arrived in town centre, the Visitor's Centre was closed and so were many other shops, restaurants, coffee shops, etc. Oh boy. What a great start of the day...

As I walked out of the Visitor's Centre, a guy walked towards me and started talking to me, showing me a board with prices and pictures. He was asking if I'd be interested in a punting tour on the river Cam, he mentioned a whole lot of colleges, how long the guided tour would take and the route the little boat would make. To be honest, I didn't caught half of what he was saying. It was 9.30am and I hadn't had a coffee yet. But he had me at 'punting'. One of my colleagues had recommended it and how can you not follow up on a good recommendation?

The guide who 'sold' me the punting tour was kind enough to walk me to the little shop where I could pay for my ticket. He was also kind enough to set me up with a walking tour with one of the alumni students. 15min after I walked out of the Visitor's centre, I had two tours scheduled and my day was filled until 3pm. Hurray!

Punting tour started at 10.30am, but first I had an English breakfast and a cappucino at the Copper Kettle across from King's College Chapel. Speaking of breakfast with a view ;)

The punting tour itself was so lovely. We were so lucky with the weather as well. Friday was the best day out of the 4 days Easter bank holiday weekend. Our guide, a lovely chap with a very soothing voice, told us a bit about every college and bridge that we passed. Floating on a little boat, with my face in the sun, listening to a soothing voice. That's the good life.

Between the punting tour and the walking tour, I had some time to kill. Not hungry enough to grab a bite, I just chilled on the Clare bridge, watching the comings and goings of the punting boats (or however they're called).

Then eventually 1pm came around and it was time to start the walking tour! Our guide, Elias (at least, that is what I made of it), just graduated last June. How freaking awesome is that. He walked us around town. Showed us Pembroke College, told us stories about Darwin, Hawking and Turing, explained how the stained glas windows in the King's College Chapel are still in tact and how the nicknames of Trinity college and Trinity Hall work. When you study at Trinity Hall, you're officially a Tit Hall student. Wauw.

Very sadly the 2 hour tour came to an end around 3pm and I was left to my own device. I really wanted to sit down somewhere and enjoy the first proper sun of the year. Jesus Green seemed like the perfect spot. For about an hour I could tolerate the aweful loud music of a group of guys sitting on the green as well. Yes, I'm a grumpy old woman in the body of an early 20 year old.

Around 4.15pm I made my way back to King's College Chapel. Too early for dinner, I sat on the little wall in front of the chapel, enjoying the last sunrays, people watching and did just a lot of thinking. I know I do a lot of thinking in general and it is not always a good thing. But every once in a while, thinking about life, your future, the present, the past and just the moment itself, can give you such an intense feeling of being relaxed.

Right before I went to find something for dinner, I snapped this beautiful pic of King's Cross Chapel in the evening sun.

I had dinner at the Copper Kettle and around 8pm I made my way to the youth hostel, close to the train station. Hup, another 30min walk x) And by 9pm I was a sleep. Yes, I do lead that kind of life.

Saturday morning started bright and early. By 7am I was awake and by 8am I was checked out and on my way to city centre. Since it was so early, I decided on a Costa for breakfast. I didn't really have an idea of what to do besides the Fitz William museum which didn't open until 10am. Whoops.

So by the time 10am rolled around I walked past King's College Chapel, wondering if you could actually visit it. Silly me, of course you can visit the chapel! Slight change of plans, I visited the Chapel and the ground before going to the museum.

These are actual student accommodations!

Ain't it puurdy?

After about an hour visiting the chapel and the grounds, I finally made my way to the Fitz William museum where I wandered around and sat around for a couple more hours. It's your everyday museum really. You've got some paintings, furniture, artifacts, etc. Going from ancient Rome to contemporary art. There is a bit for everyone!

My train left at 6.15pm, so by the time I left the museum I still had a couple hours to entertain myself. No biggy! Pancake time! Well, I actually wanted crepes, but I ordered pancakes by mistake. When you literally translate pancakes from English to Flemish, you talk about the same thing as the food we call crepes in English or crêpes in French. Very confusing. Well, not really, but I got a bit lost in translation and ordered the 'wrong' thing by mistake. They still tasted very lovely though :) Nutella and banana!

At one point I got really tempted to buy a jumper with Cambridge University on. You know, to have a souvenir of a wonderful trip. But then I thought how silly it is to buy a jumper of a university I never even attended. So I went searching for one that just said 'Cambridge'. Luckily I didn't found one, as I have plenty of jumpers already x) Instead, I settled for a £0.50 postcard of King's College Chapel ;)

And before I knew it, it was time to board the train that would bring me back to London King's Cross station.

I'm not sure if I'd recommend doing longer than 2 days. Not without car at least. But no doubt I'll be going back, just like I did with Oxford ^^ Easter break: A Tolkien day at Oxford  It's such an easy distance from London.

That was it for my little getaway over Easter bank holiday ^^ Hope you enjoyed it! And that it may inspire you to do the same. Seriously, two days away from home is enough to reload your batteries.

Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer!

Thanks for reading!
xo - Sara

A birthday off -- Walking on Tower Bridge, visiting HMS Belfast and watching Spotlight

Hallooooo!

So, this blog post will mainly be about one specific day this week. Wednesday. My birthday!^^ We have this thing at the office were everyone is allowed to take the day off on their birthday. I'm very grateful for this as I know it is not customary in a lot of work places.

So Wednesday I was determined to make it a most blisful day. And that is what it was. I woke up bright an early to catch breakfast at the Breakfast Club near Liverpool street station. After breakfast I wandered a bit around Old Spitalfield market, but there wasn't a lot to see, so I made my way to Tower Bridge. I had a voucher to visit the HMS Belfast and I figured Wednesday was the perfect day to visit it.

Whilst I was crossing the Tower Bridge I saw that you can actually visit the Tower Bridge and that there is an exhibition aswell. You can actually walk on the two walkways that connect the North tower and the South Tower!! £9 and you have an amazing view over South Bank and City of London, Canary Warf in the distance and even a lovely view of the cars and pedestrians beneath your feet x)

Fun Fact: the two walkways connecting the two towers were closed in 1910 due to the prostitutes and pickpockets who were present on the walkways.

The entire tour took me a little over an hour. After that I wandered around South Bank for a little bit and to snap this side of the Tower Bridge, before heading over to the HMS Belfast.

The HMS Belfast is pretty spectacular. It is part of the Imperial War museum, just like the Churchil War Rooms. You get an audio guide that will lead to through the entire Royal Navy light cruiser. And I do mean the entire ship. You go as far as the freaking engine rooms!

After about 3hours on the ship (it was nearly 4pm already) I finally listened to the final stop on the audio guide, got off the ship and made my way to Oxford Circus. I wanted to do a little bit of shopping, but that turned into one giant flop x) So instead I decided to walk to Odeon Panton street, just behind Leicester square. I really wanted to see Spotlight. I got there 30min before the movie started and the staff at the cinema were so lovely! They gave me free bag of popcorn, a bottle of water and a hot chocolat for free because it was my birthday! Now that is good service :)

I highly recommend Spotlight by the way! The entire cast is sublime, the story is gripping and spine tingling and it is just so well done!

After the movie I made my way home, got into bed and had a lovely night sleep ^^

On Thursday we had cake at the office as per usual when it's someone's birthday so I did get to blow out some candles on a cake ;)

Friday after work I had to take the Eurostar back home :) Yep, that's right, I went home for the weekend. And as always, it's so lovely to see everyone again ^^ An old friend in particular. We hardly hear eachother, it's been nearly two years since I last saw him, but from the first minute we got together it was like we saw each other last week. Although we had a lot more to catch up on x) Same goes with Molly. I saw her and we immediately started talking like we just got together the day before. Those are the friends to hold on to :) And sincerely hope that everyone will have to people in their lives

But, that's it for this week. I'm not sure when I'll be able to upload the coming week's post. It'll be Easter and I'm going to Cambridge for a couple days! Very excited about that ^^

Anyway, so far my little weekly update. Dad, I hope you enjoyed this ;)

Thanks for reading!
xo - Sara

How to survive a dragging day. (Panic! At The Disco seems to be the answer ;))

Hallooooo!!

So this is going to be a slightly different blog post than my usual weekly update. Reason being: I didn't do a thing this week. Saturday and Sunday were spent watching Lost in Austen, Austenland and Pride and Prejudice (2005). You can say it was a pretty Jane Austen filled weekend ;)

During the week nothing exciting happend either. Hold on, I did meet up with an old friend from high school. I see him once a year and usually when he is in London on a school trip. It's really cool to have friends you can literally see every 12 months and yet nothing would have changed. No awkwardness, only catching up on the past 12 months :)

To cut a 'long' story 'short', blogging wise, I have little to show for week 10. But there is one thing I do like to talk about. Hurray! And this is: how to get through a day that just seems to keep on dragging on. Don't we have them all?

Thursday 10th March 2016 was such an incredibly difficult day. Not to worry, nothing terrible has happened. Nobody died or got hurt. It had nothing to do with my job or colleagues. But you are all probably familiar with the days when you wake up and from the first minute you are like: 'nope, today is not going to happen'. Well, Thursday was such a day, multiplied by 10. I just felt incredibly blue. Sure, I have bad days. I have them more than I'd like to, but I can't remember feeling so under the weather as Thursday. Which led to zero concentration on my work And that is not okay. Something had to be done, ASAP.

And that is were Panic! At The Disco steps in. Every time I like to be as little distracted as possible, I pop in my iPod and listen to music. Usual it's a score of a movie or tv show. Or I listen to songs that are very popular on the radio or are very soothing and relaxing. But on Thursday I needed a proper 'pick me up' play list. Panic! At The Disco was that 'pick me up'. Although the group isn't what it once used to be (Brendon Urie is the last man standing), the music is so up beat. I felt better about life with every minute and therefore my concentration levels went up, up, up. It was amazing :)

Of course the classic 'I write sins, not tragedies' was included in the play list, but also some of the more recent songs.

Luckily this Panic! At The Disco emergency play list wasn't necessary on Friday :) But I did listen to it on my way to work and boy, it got me ready for work properly :) It's all about finding that morning routine that works for you, hein:)

This is different than to what I listen to nowadays, but it was a proper Throwback Thursday and a welcome one at that :)

Anyone else who has their backup to cheer up their day? :)

Anyway, this is it for me for this week.

Thanks for reading!
xo - Sara

"You, go to Brighton. I would not trust you so near it as Eastbourne!" - mr. Bennet, Pride and Prejudice

Halloooooo!

Yes, I did go so near to Brighton as Eastbourne x) I highly recommend it by the way.

Warning: this is a picture heavy post.

So, Sunday 28th February I went to Eastbourne with a friend. In January we went to Rye and in February we went to Eastbourne. Both locations are an hour, an hour and a half max, away from London. Next trip we're planning would be to Basildon Park, but that probably won't happen until April unfortunately. Anyway, it's something to look forward to :)

Then, Eastbourne. Not so small town on the South coast of England, immediately East of the hightest chalk sea cliff in Great Britain. We didn't visit much of town as we really wanted to make it to Beachy Head and back before we had to go back to London.

It was quite the hike, let me tell you that. But the views were stunning. Just look at this view over Eastbourne. Ain't it pretty?

On the other side of the hill, we met with this view: Belle Tout lighthouse in the distance. We walked all the way ofter there! Yes we did.

The Belle Tout lighthouse was in service between 1834 and 1902. They closed the lighthouse down due to two flaws: bad visibility in foggy weather and bad visibility when the ships were too close to the cliff.

So that is why they build Beachy Head Lighthouse in the sea. Pretty impressive to see it in real life. I mean, the cliffs are so high, you just feel tiny.

So we walked all the way to the Belle Tout lighthouse along the cliffs of South England. It kind of felt we were walking on the edge of the earth. In Belgium, we don't have cliffs like that. There is no major cut off between land and sea. The sea just rolls onto the beach and beach transitions into towns. Whilst here you have a clear cut off and a fall of god knows how many meters.

The wind was so intense we were nearly blown away by it. Quite literally.

It's not a bad picture of you, it's just the way you look. - Sis

It was a pretty impressive hike I have to admit. My feet and back were killing me and I couldn't wait to get on the train and sleep. As it was a Sunday, no time to catch up on some sleep the next because yay, Monday.

My week started with two police officers knocking on my door at 6.45 in the morning looking for a guy who was last seen at the house. Always a nice start to your week, but of course that does mean that your week only can get better. I've had a lovely Skype call with my parents and drinks after work on Friday with the colleagues. I even went to see Pride and Prejudice and Zombies again. I know I know! But I really like the movie! Can't wait for the movie to come out on DVD. It'll be like Cinderella, something I've immediately purchased when it was released home ent. Star Wars: the Force Awakens is going to be the same ;) 

If you don't know what to do on a Saturday or Sunday or even a day off and you fancy a hike, but not too physically demanding: I highly recommend to make a trip to Beachy Head. I complained about my feet and back, but that is simply because my hiking boots are rather old :)

I'll be writing these sort of posts more frequently. I believe the Jurassic Coast and Basildon Park (confirmed) are on the agenda for destinations within easy distance from London. Peak District and Hadrian's wall are also on the to do list, but those are obviously a bit (quite a bit) further from London, so less likely to be done in one day...

Anyway, if you enjoy these kind of posts, keep an eye on here ;) I do hope they give you some inspiration to do the same! Tourist in your own country. Places you'd normally never visit because it's too close by :) As you can see, the views can be quite stunning sometimes ;)

Thanks for reading!
xo - Sara