Some people go Pokemon hunting, I try to find the BFG Dream Jar's... Each there own, I guess?x)

Halloooo!!

Another weekly update! No spontaneous meet ups with old acquaintances, but a BFG Dream Jar trail to write home about!

The Dream Jars were placed all around London. Well, I say placed, they were probably mislayed by the BFG himself! The trail, and little marketing stunt, are here so celebrate Roald Dahl's 100th birthday and the release of the latest movie adaptation by Steven Spielberg. Various celebrities visualised their dreams and the jars were spread across London and beyond. During the month of July you could go around town and try to find them all. The trail ends 31st August. The jars will be auctioned to raise money for Save the Children. If you're interested in purchasing one of your own, or if you just want to contribute to the good cause, here's the link: BFG Dream Jars.

It is pretty much the same concept as they did for Paddington, when that movie was released back in December 2014. Paddington Trail and the Hunger Games: Mockingjay: part 1 premiere

Some of the Dream Jars had beautiful backgrounds...

So yeah, Saturday morning I had my hair cut in a salon near Clapham Junction. And no, you can't actually tell it's been cut and yet it has cost me too much money... It looks a bit healthier now, so I guess that is something... After I left the salon I sat in the park for a bit, contemplating life and how I was going to avoid the hot weather, I started forming a plan. "Take the bus to Westminster and start your Dream Jar hunt!

It turned out that it wasn't as hot as they predicted and I ended up finding a few jars ^^

Sunday morning I left the house for another trail hunt. This time it was in the London bridge/Tower bridge area. Mind you, I walked around for about 4 hours... I've found sooo many jars!!! And more film locations! One from the DaVinci Code and another from Bridget Jones' Diary :)

It was also on this morning, when I was walking on South Bank, looking at the Tower Bridge that it hit me again: I live in FREAKING LONDON! For nearly 2 years and half now! I love it that every once in a while it still hits me. I don't think I'll get tired of this city anytime soon. If ever *sigh*

The work week was the same as per usual so nothing exciting to mention there :)

I'll just leave the trailer for the BFG here and I'll leave you to it ;)

Thanks for reading!
xo - Sara

Crumbs and Dollies and 2nights in 1 week when I drink alcohol!?

Hallooooooooo!!!!

Come writing this blog post, I completely forgot what I did on Saturday, so I'll just start on Sunday.

A girl who I used to go to college with was in London for the Star Wars exhibition. We know each other, but it is not like we've hung out when we were still studying, let alone afterwards. She is a good friend of one of my good friends though. But yeah, we're more like acquaintances so I didn't know she was going to be in London that weekend. However, she posted a photo on Instagram of Carnaby Street, to which I replied: "You're in London!?" to which she responded: "Yeah, for the Star Wars convention. We can meet up for a coffee on Sunday if you like?". And so it happened that on Sunday afternoon I made my way to town centre. Something I had told myself to avoid, but sometimes you just have to make an exception.

We met up at Nike Town Oxford Circus. We hadn't seen each other in like two years and like I've said before, we are more acquaintances than friends. So I'm not going to lie, it was a tiny bit odd.... At the beginning. After walking on Regent Street to Piccadilly to go into the giant Boots and from their back up to Carnaby Street in search for a cute coffee shop, it was all talk talk and talk, awkwardsness long gone ^^

Whilst we were walking towards Kingly Court we passed this tiny cake shop "Crumbs and Dollies". I had seen the shop in one of Zoella's vlogs and actually wondered where that was. Now I know x) I'm not the biggest cupcake fan, in the sense that, I enjoy eating them, I'm just not really motivated to make them. And by coincidence, my friend had eaten a delicious cupcake two days prior which she highly recommended, so now that we were here: cupcake time!

And boy that was good! I had a mini peanut butter and jam cupcake and a cappucino. It was soooo good. And we sat on the bench outside, out of the sun ^^ I'd really like to do that again, like, real soon x)

Her boyfriend then joined us and we went looking for a late lunch, which we found in a Chinese restaurant on Kingly Court itself. I had never met her boyfriend before, only heard a lot of stories. But as we are all grown ups, we had good converstation :) Wouldn't recommend the restaurant though :s Anyway, after that late lunch, it was time to part ways. They needed to go to St Pancras to catch the Eurostar back to Belgium and I, well, I had time on my hands x) Off to Cath Kidston! But first a little snap of an auto free Regent Street.

At Cath Kidston I bought something my sister had asked me to buy for her and whilst I was at it, picked up a few Christmas presents. It's July, time to start thinking about Christmas! But that was my Sunday pretty much ^^

Monday evening I had a looong Skype call with my dearest friend Molly. I hadn't heard her in a very long time, but as soon as I picked up the call, we were chatting and ranting and giving advise like we've only seen each other yesterday^^

Tuesday evening I went to Regent's Park again after work with my friend. We have a little routine now: buy a bottle of rosé and a bag of crisps during lunch, let the rosé cool in the fridge, walk to Regent's park after work, select a bench, sit down and crack open that bottle. Another 3 hour chat. My friend was on holiday the week before and a little catch up was needed ;) Also, we saw the most beautiful sunset I've seen in a while.

Wednesday and Thursday were your regular 'go-straight-home-after-work-day" but Friday was a bit of a surprise. My friend from work had asked if wanted to see Now you see me 2. Sure, I'm always down for a movie. Because I wasn't too keen on going to town during the weekend, I suggested to go after work. Why not? So, that happend. 6pm screening. By the time we got out, it still wasn't dark and it was so lovely. Why go home? Hup, off to Covent Garden in search for a drink. It took us a while, but at last we found a little pop up and ordered two glasses of Lambrusco. I had no idea what to expect, but it was a nice surprise in a glass ;)

By 9.30pm we were 'kicked out' and then it was time to go home. Well, not exactly. On our way to the bus stop, we had a little late night "dinner" at Five Guys. I have to admit: not my brightest idea...:s But it was delicious non the less x) After that it was definitely time to go home ^^

And that is it for my week! Before I go, here is the trailer for Now you see me 2. In case you'd be interested. I'd recommend it ;)

Thanks for reading!
xo - Sara

Every day is Harry Potter day and Rabbie's one day tour from London

Halloooo!!

A mini holiday after my holiday. That is the only way I can describe it. Upon my return to London and first day back at the office I just knew that I had to arrange something for the weekend after or I would go mad. So, Tuesday during lunch time I went online and booked myself a nice one day trip to Stonehenge and Windsor Castle with Rabbie's for Saturday 9th July. Sunday afternoon was spent walking around town with a group of Harry Potter fans.

How? When? Why?
Saturday morning started bright and early at Victoria station where the mini bus would pick us up to drive us around all day to Windsor Castle and Stonehenge.  If you don't know Rabbie's, here the quick introduction: Rabbie's is a traveling agency who offer 1 day tours or multiple day tours around England, Ireland, Scotland and France in a mini bus with the maximum capacity of 16 people. So Saturday morning 9am, me, 14 other tourists and the driver set off.

One tip I'd like to say to everyone who is considering to go visit Windsor Castle or Stonehenge: do not visit on a Saturday in July. It was so crowded! I got lucky with the ticket line at Windsor Castle and because I am member of the National Trust I could skip the line at Stonehenge, but if you're not lucky or a member, you can wait for quite a while...

So yeah, Winsdor Castle is Lizzie's favourite castle out of all the castle that the Royal family owns. Unfortunately she wasn't around as she was still staying in Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh at the time. Entrance to the castle is quite expensive (£20 oO) but it includes an audioguide which garantuees to fill the next 2 hours AND you have the option to turn your entrance ticket into a 1-year-pass so anything within 12 month and you feel the urge to visit Windsor castle, you can at no additional cost!

Not going to lie, Windsor isn't one of my favourite castles. A bit too big for my tast. But, I did see the 'tomb' stone of king Henry VIII which was pretty cool x)

After Windsor Castle we headed to Stonehenge. On the way there I had a lovely little nap x) Right before we arrived at Stonehenge, the guide gave us some information about the how, why and when. The only question that he was able to answer, a bit, was the when, about 4000 years ago - ish. Give or take a few. But as to the how and why, it remains a complete mistery. Unfortunately I completely missed the audioguide point when I walked in (it's at the back of the ticket booth, who on earth would look there when they are walking towards the shuttle busses!?) so I had to satisfy with the explanation board surrounding the henge and the little map I was given upon entering.

The amount of people walking around the henge was baffling and completely takes away the mistery of the stones. Ah well, that is what happens when you're dealing with a tourist attraction in July I guess?

Instead of taking the shuttle bus back to the visitor centre I decided to walk, which meant I didn't have enough time to visit the museum as well. Slight downside towards the 'guided' tours is that you have a time limit. If I was there on my own I might have taken an hour or 3, walking around the area and visiting the others parts of the 'park' as well. We only had about an hour and 45 minutes...

Around 5pm we set of from Stonehenge towards London, about 2hours drive, and I ended up having a 2 hour chat with the driver. That is what happens when you're a tourist, but not really a tourist x)

It was a long day, but worth it. Stonehenge and Windsor Castle were still on my to do list and thanks to Rabbie's I just did it :) If anyone is interested, here's the link to the Rabbie's website: here.

Every day is Harry Potter day
Sunday afternoon was intersting. I did a Harry Potter walking tour from Brits Movie Tours (link to website here). Besides the Harry Potter film location tours, they also organise film locations tours for James Bond, Rom Coms  in London, Downton Abbey, Pride and Prejudice, Docter Who, etc etc. The majority of the film locations where already familiar to me, but I did learn a new thing or two. Which I think is really cool. It keeps it interesting for the die hard Potter fans ;)

Because the weather was so nice for the first time this summer, it was more then natural for me to get my first bubble tea of the season! And what better place to sip that goodness away than on a bench on Trafalgar Square? ^^

During the week I had a 3 hour Skype call with one of my oldest friends from Belgium on Wednesday and then another call on Thursday with my parents. I also had to squeez in some shopping as it was time for me to replace some items in my wardrobe. I have reach the age where I think it is unacceptable to walk around in cloths with holes in them. That only took 24years x) Sorry mum.

And that is it for this very delayed weekly update!

Thanks for reading, as always ;)
xo - Sara

Back to reality...

Hallooooooo!!

Picking back up my weekly post that covers my week from Saturday to Friday, I realised that I have literally nothing to show for this week. It certainly was back to reality.

I returned back to London Saturday late afternoon and got home around 10pm. On Sunday I played with the idea of leaving the house, but that idea was soon abandoned as well. The only time I left the apartment was to do grocery shopping 'cause a gal gotta eat, right?

Monday back to work, which wasn't as bad I thought it be. Last year I really struggled. I guess the fact that I now live in an apartment that I actually like is a huge improvement :) Catching up on the emails is a different story. I don't know how some of my colleagues do it in like 2 days. 5days have passed and I'm still answering emails from 2weeks ago oO Anyway, the only thing I can do is my best.

Wednesday after work a colleague and I went to Regent's Park with a bottle of rosé and some crisps to have a catch up. I think we found a bench to sit on around 6.30pm. Next time I looked on my watch it was 9pm oO So yeah, that was a good chat x)

Thursday was the last class of Ludosport before summer break *snif*. It was a good class and I had a blast :) Unfortunately the subject of Brexit came up and some of my classmates voted Leave, so yeah, it caused some sort of devision. It's inevitably I guess. It'll die down, so I expect it to go once classes restart in September.

I haven't seen any news films that I can chat about. I haven't read any new books to recommend. I did start watching Made in Chelsea, but that is not something I'd recommend x) I've started the 2nd season, but I'm not sure if I'll continue watching...

So yeah, that was my very exciting week after my trip through the highlands.. NOT x) I think we're all familiar it. You just went on an amazing holiday and when you're back, you have to resettle a bit in the day to day routine of your life. That is what this week has been. Next week is going to be a good'un though! ^^

Anyway, that is it for this week!
Thanks for reading!
xo - Sara

Travel diary Scotland day 16, 2016: "Control your emotions" - Severus Snape, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

 **Disclaimer: I write and upload the same day, often after a long and exhausting day. I often don't have the focus to re read and take out the typos, grammatical and vocabulary errors. Beware!**

Halloooooo!!!

That last day is always bitter sweet. Well, not really sweet in my case. Mostly bitter.

Harry Potter's brith place
After I checked out of my guest house, I was waiting for the bus to take me to the station so I could drop off all my stuff at the left luggage area. By chance, Jen, the guide on the Dark Side tour that I did yesterday evening was waiting on the same bus stop.

Rather than make things awkward, we had a nice little chat about what I could do during my remaining hours in Edinburgh. I had already formed some sort of plan in my head, but surprisingly her suggestions came pretty close.

After she and two other strangers on the bus advised me which stop I could get off, I dropped off my bag so I had more freedom to walk around town.

When I left the train station, I realised how many people I recognised. People from the tours I did yesterday, the guides, people who were staying in the same guest house, etc etc. Even a guy I recognised from the Bella Italia I had dinner at last night. It is definitely a much smaller city than London.

Anyway, as for the morning, I decided to do the exact same thing I did last year: have a coffee and a piece of cake at the Elephant House. The place where J.K. Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter books. Last year's post: Travel diary Scotland day 9, 2015: Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer

I started listening to the audiobook of Harry Potter and the Philospher's Stone on my way from Alloway to Rosslyn Chapel and then Edinburgh. I didn't walk around all the time with my iPod in, but honestly, the moments I did were amazing. It made me experience the story in yet another way. Bu the time I arrived at the Elephant House I was already on book two.

National Museum of Scotland... Nah, rather Pride!
After my little (3hour) coffee break, I decided to head to the National Museum of Scotland. I wanted to visit it last year but couldn't unfortunately make it, so yeah, this year ;)

However, like most free musea, the place was massive and I was carrying my backpack with laptop, my beautiful Canon camera and some presents in a bag. The weather outside was agreable to my outfit, but inside it was too hot. With carrying all that stuff and the fact that I had to leave Scotland in less than 3 hours, made it impossible for me to actually enjoy the museum. So I left after about 45mins. The entrance hall is breathtaking though.

Because I left the museum a lot earlier than I had intended to, I had a lot of time on my hands all of the sudden. What better way to spend than sit on a stone on the Royal Mile? I had done it so often these past few days.

I knew the Pride was going to happen in the afternoon, I just wasn't sure at what time it would start. I arrived around 2pm on the High Street and it was clear that the party was in full swing. I made it but further down the Royal Mile so there were less people I could bump into with my backpack and I had the sun on my face. By the time I had found a nice spot to spectate, the Pride was moving down towards Holyrood Palace.

It was such a wonderful thing the behold. I had never seen a Pride, but the joy, love and message of 'it doesn't matter who you are, what you are, you're still a human being and you deserve to be loved' is a beautiful one. So much bad things are happening in the world, so it was really cool to actually see so much positivity gathered in one place.

After the Pride had passed I found myself a little seat on the Royal Mile and enjoyed the sun on my face (when the clouds weren't blocking it). The remaning 20minutes flew by and before I knew it, I had to drag myself towards the train station.

Bought some dinner at the M&S, picked up my bag and boarded the train immediately. The journey went very smooth, besides the fact that I had dificulties controlling my emotions. So that is why I saw two films, The Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Cinderella. I fell asleep during Narnia so the girl next to me had to wake me up when our tickets were checked x)

By 8pm I was back where it all began 2 weeks ealier: London King's Cross. Two busses later and I was back home.

I can't believe those two weeks are gone now. Time flew by when I needed it to slow down the most. It was another great experience and I have learned so much again. I'm already thinking about my next trip. Ireland? Iceland? Sweden? Who knows ;)

I hope you've enjoyed my travel diary through Scotland and that it may give you the urge to travel too! To Scotland or anywhere else in the world!

Thanks for reading!
xo - Sara

Travel diary Scotland day 15, 2016: Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts, teach us something please... Oh, wait...

 **Disclaimer: I write and upload the same day, often after a long and exhausting day. I often don't have the focus to re read and take out the typos, grammatical and vocabulary errors. Beware!**

Halloooooo!!

Ooh to end my trip in the city where Harry Potter was born. It's a good way to end a trip. So yesterday I've visited the Queen's Galary and walked up Arthur's seat, but I couldn't leave Edinburgh without fitting in a tour or two.

Privat New Town Tour
So Friday afternoon I bought a ticket for the New Town Tour. The tour guide, David, kindly explained to me that it was a very very new tour. And with very new, it is only 2 weeks old. I was confused. I was planning my trip weeks in advance and the New Town Tour was already mentioned on the Sandeman's Tour website. The tour had run a test periode, but apparently they never took the tour off the website in the meantime. But yeah, it is clear that they are still working on the New Town Tour. It was our guide's first time walking the tour as well, so it's literally in its baby shoes. Because it isn't well known, the group was very small. Only 3 other tourist, so including the guide, we were 5. You could call it a privat tour. Unfortunately the tour started in the pouring rain. I even had wet feet and you might not know it, but I hate have wet shoes. Well, after yesterday I have to correct myself on that. I don't hate having wet shoes after all. I hate having wet shoes whilst sitting at a desk inside, but having wet shoes whilst walking around didn't seem to bother me at all. Might sound very odd, but it is great news for me x)

The New Town Tour covers the North part of the city. It was certainly interesting and I did learn a thing or two, but it was also very confusing at times. By now, I do know quite a bit about Scotland in 18th Century and about the Great Fire of London in 1666, so I got really confused about dates and events that the tour guide mentioned at times. I tried to shut up as much as possible, as I can imagine nothing is more annoying than a tourist who thinks she knows better. But it was also quite obvious that I'm quite bias. Our guide was Australian and had a more broad view on what happened in 1745, whilst I'm currently leaning very heavily towards the standpoint of the Jacobites. Still have a lot to learn about the other sides of the story ;)

Luckily the weather cleared up towards the end of the tour and we had this lovely view on Edinburgh Castle at the end.

After the tour, we all went to get a drink at the nearby Starbucks with an amazing view on the castle. Honestly, I'd never know that Starbucks was there if the guide hadn't shown it. Breathtaking.

The Dark Side Tour 2.0
As for the evening, I wasn't quite sure what to do. I had considered to do the Sandeman's Pub Crawl, but after reading a bit more about it, they advertised it as: "meet other people who like to party as well with a visit to 5 pubs, get 5 shots and have free access to a club at the end of the night." Yeah, not really for me so it seems. Am not really the party animal. Don't get me wrong, I do like to go to the pub every once in a while, have a nice chat, even do a bit of dancing twice or thrice a year, but not more than that.

But I didn't want to do nothing either. So I decided to join the Dark Side tour again. I had done it last year as well. Travel diary Scotland day 8, 2015: Harry Potter's birthplace and Game of Thrones Red Wedding That turned out with a night to the pub and then another bar. Was really cool to hang out with 2 women from New York, a Scotman and a Frenchmen. Who knew what this tour would bring?

More rain, is what the tour brought. But also a very animated tour guide called Jen. It was interesting to compare the two tours. It was obvious that they had to cover certain areas and stories, but they also had some freedom to cover the stories they were interested in. Jen is a fan of Mary, Queen of Scots, like I am, and she had some very interesting stories to tell about her which I didn't know!

Unlike last year, the tour didn't end with a trip to the pub, but I had a delicious pizza at the closest Bella Italia. I might have gone to a pub after dinner to have a gin and tonic anyway. I might have. Just because. To be honest, gin and tonic is growing on me x) Around 11pm it was time for me to return to the guest house and get some sleep.

That was my final complete day in Edinburgh. Tomorrow afternoon I'll be heading back to London. Can't belief it has gone by so fast. *sigh*

Anyway, thanks for reading!
xo - Sara

Travel diary Scotland day 14, 2016: A day not going to plan. Edinburgh though.

**Disclaimer: I write and upload the same day, often after a long and exhausting day. I often don't have the focus to re read and take out the typos, grammatical and vocabulary errors. Beware!** 

Halloooooo!!

The end is near. The day after tomorrow I'll be heading back to London. But before that, I do get to spent some quality time in a beautiful city called Edinburgh.

Planning not going to plan
Just like the other days of my trip I had a planning. Things that I certainly wanted to do and see in a way that would be most effective to lose as little time as possible. But it all came to nothing and it all started with the fact that the dining room of the guest house I'm staying at is way too little. Only 5 tables when there are 8 rooms and breakfast is served between 8 and 9. At 8.15 I stood downstairs, but no seats were available so I had to head back up to wait for a
**Disclaimer: I write and upload the same day, often after a long and exhausting day. I often don't have the focus to re read and take out the typos, grammatical and vocabulary errors. Beware!**
table to free up. I lost already half an hour of my planning. Eventually by 9.30am I headed out towards city centre. Unfortunately it was drizzling/raining on my way, so my idea of walking up Arthur's Seat in the morning didn't seem to happen. I've had my fair share of walking/hiking in rain this holiday ;) So I needed another plan, which turned my day upside down. It turned out to be quite productive in the end, but regrettably I can't go in to deep on here too much. What I can tell is that I roamed countless shops in search for a bookmarker that I had seen on my trip last year. Of course, without success. I also sat on the Royal Mile for quite a while, just enjoying the sun that had come out by then and thriving in the fact that I was back in Edinburgh.

Arthur's Seat
After a tea and piece of chocolate cake in a little cafe on the Grassmarket with view on Edinburgh Castle, I headed towards Holyrood road and Holyrood Palace as they are featured in the second book in the Outlander series Dragonfly in Amber. But when I arrived at the palace I found out that it is closed between 27th June and 10 July. Reason? Her Majesty the Queen, Lizzy, is currently staying or is about to stay, in the palace. So I had to settle for a visit to the Queen's Galary only, which turned out the be the exact same exibition as the one in the Queen's Galary back in January. Ah well, it was about the Dutch artists in the time of Vermeer (1600-1700 ish) which is one of my favorite periods in art. By the time I walked out it was 5pm and as I was so near the Arthur's Seat, I figured I might as well go up. And oh my, happy I did that! Windy as hell up there, but the view was worth it.

Legend has it that once a dragon roamed these skies and terrorised the area, eating life stock. One day he ate so much, he went to sleep and never woke up. This is just one of the many stories. No one really knows how the hill got its name. What is known, is that it once was a volcano. Pretty cool hein?

By the time I arrived back at the foot of the hill, it was time for dinner and then head back to the guest house.

That is it for the day before last! Thanks for reading!
xo - Sara